MODELING SPATIAL STRUCTURES THROUGH EQUILIBRIUM STATES FOR TRANSITION MATRICES*

ABSTRACT. In this paper we present a model for spatial interaction within a network of towns. This interaction is modeled through equilibrium states for certain Markov chains where, in particular, explicit formulas for these states are given. Our model exploits and intertwines ideas from gravity models, the competing destinations model and the intervening opportunities model. The central idea in the paper is to capture the effect of spatial structure in a framework where interaction is determined by the global network configuration.     

Book reviews

N. C. van Setten van der Meer. Sawah cultivation in ancient Java: aspects of development during the Indo‐Javanese period, 5th to 15th century. Canberra: Australian National University. Faculty of Asian Studies in association with Australian National University Press, 1979. xx, 168 pp. (Oriental Monograph Series, 22.)

C. R. Boxer. Jan Compagnie in war and peace 1602–1799: a short history of the Dutch East‐India Company. Hong Kong, etc: Heinemann Asia, 1979. 115 pp. £3.25.

Bernd Nothofer. Dialektgeographische Untersuohungen in West‐Java und im westlichen Zentral‐Java. Teil 1: Text. — Teil 2: Karten. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980. xi, 264 pp; xiii pp., XXVIII, 169 maps. DM 68.

Harry Aveling (ed.). The development of Indonesian society. From the coming of Islam to the present day. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1979. xxi, 242 pp.

Werner Müller. Bibliographie deutschsprachiger Literatuv über Indonesien. 2. verbesserte und ergänzte Auflage. Hamburg: Dokumentations‐Leitstelle Asien, 1979. 201 pp.     

Elite transformation in central and eastern Europe

Changing configurations of national elites are shaping the prospects for democracy in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. There are three broad possibilities: (1) increasingly unchecked and violent power struggles between elites, with regimes oscillating between democratic and authoritarian forms; (2) restrained elite competitions in accordance with democratic game rules and tacit accommodations, with regimes gradually becoming stable democracies; (3) takeovers by ultra‐nationalist elites through coups or plebiscitary victories, with regimes becoming state‐corporatist in form and quasi‐fascist in operation. Crucial questions are the extent and nature of elite unity and differentiation. This article identifies elite configurations and the most likely regime outcomes in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.     

A NARRATIVE TURN: HUMAN AGENCY IN ROCK CARVINGS AT NÄMFORSEN,NORTHERN SWEDEN

The idea to create pictorial narratives seems to have occurred long after humans learned to produce iconic images, that is, depictions based on visual similarity to external objects. In Scandinavia, e.g. in Gärde, Sweden or Stykket and Bøla, Norway, early Mesolithic images (e.g. rock carvings from before c.5000 BCE) often feature animals that are solitary or without suggestion of causal or narrative relations to other figures, although they sometimes are grouped by proximity or are superimposed on each other. Notable is also the almost complete absence of human figures. However, in subsequent Neolithic configurations (after c.5000 BCE), there are renderings of human agents involved in various forms of interaction with each other or with animals, often within distinguishable ‘scenes’ or compositions. In this paper we outline the emergence of pictorial narratives in Scandinavian rock carvings. In particular, we focus on some of the first depictions of human agency as displayed in Nämforsen, Sweden (c.5000–1800 BCE). Further, we present an analysis of occurring human-animal relationships, interpretable as early attempts to create narrativizing images.