Mapping cultural policy in Portugal: From incentives to crisis

Abstract

Taking into account the course of cultural policy in democratic Portugal, and against the backdrop of the international crisis of 2008 and the sovereign debt crisis of 2011, this article seeks to interpret recent changes in the cultural sector in Portugal. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods it focuses on three main aspects: institutionalisation of democratic cultural policy; government funding; cultural organizations and facilities. The 2008 crisis put an end to a period in which investment tended to grow. We place Portugal in the broader European context, concluding that the Portuguese cultural scene may once again diverge from that of other European countries.     

Zwischenstadt as a travelling concept: towards a critical discussion of mobile ideas in transnational planning discourses on urban sprawl

This article contributes to the advancement of the critical analysis of transnational flows of planning ideas with a particular focus on debates around urban sprawl. It emphasizes that travelling concepts tend to lose their critical content en route, and explores how they could be revived. Our argument starts by identifying the drawbacks of comparative studies in planning, and suggests an exploration of Edward Said’s notion of travelling theories to avoid these dangers. Chronicling the import of the German concept of Zwischenstadt – which literally translated means ‘(in)between city’ – into the Swedish planning research discourse on urban sprawl, we examine how travelling concepts tend to become institutionalized during their journey. We then explore ways to revive the critical content of Zwischenstadt by first considering translations of the context of travelling concepts and then deliberations on their literal translation, which emphasizes the fruitfulness of a landscape perspective as a critical lens on urbanization processes.     

Governing the Italian economy: a comparative perspective

Abstract

The paper revolves around the figure of Enrico Cuccia, the patron of Mediobanca for half a century, whose activities represented for bad and good how the Italian economic system was organized before the privatizations of the 1990s. It was Cuccia who ‘substituted’ an absentee State in strengthening the Italian big business sector.     

Good guys or bad? Middle class blacks and the black community

William Alan Muraskin. Middle Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975. 318 pp. $14.95.     

Paleoenvironmental reconstruction at Canyon del Muerto,Arizona, based on principal-component analysis

A multivariate statistical technique, principal-component analysis, is used to interpret pollen assemblages from archaeological context in terms of paleoenvironmental information. The pollen samples originate from an archaeological site in northeastern Arizona (Canyon del Muerto) covering the period between AD 700 and AD 1300. Through the use of principal-component analysis the percentage constraint in the pollen counts is removed and the data set effectively reduced to groups of co-varying taxa. Once these groups are ecologically defined as to the environment they represent, their changes of dominance through time can be analysed. This study has shown a correlation between a population expansion in Canyon del Muerto (AD 1050–1150) and the dominance of upland forest types suggesting slightly cooler and/or wetter conditions. The pollen data compare well with the tree-ring indices for this region. Local disturbance is reflected in the record during the period of greatest population. A shift to a shrubland vegetation during the peak construction phase indicates the clearing of cottonwood, fir, spruce and pine (all found within the site) by local inhabitants. Thus, the palynological evidence suggests both cultural and climatic factors are involved in the explanation of pollen deposition.     

On the Dialectics of Differencing: Disabled women,the state and housing issues

In this article, I discuss how neoliberal state policies and practices and processes of negative differencing have contributed to growing economic and housing insecurity for citizens in need, in particular disabled women in need of provincial income assistance in Ontario, Canada. I argue that their increasingly insecure relationships to housing and home can be explained as outcomes of dialectical processes of differencing through neoliberal regimes of state rule. A key advantage of this approach is that it emphasises how growing economic and housing security for more affluent citizens is linked causally to increasing insecurity and misery for others. I begin by discussing how diverse relations to housing and home can be conceptualised as outcomes of dialectical processes of differencing in advanced capitalist societies. Next, I illustrate this approach by discussing how changes in state regulation of housing and income assistance programmes in the province of Ontario have worked to advantage more affluent citizens at the expense of disabled and other citizens in need. This is followed by a detailed analysis of regulatory processes shaping how women receiving provincial income assistance are negatively differenced and situated in relation to housing and home. Here I draw on interviews with women receiving provincial income support through the ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Programme).

Las dialécticas de hacer diferencia: Mujeres discapacitados, el estados y asuntos de vivienda

En éste artículo, discuto como los procesos, practicas y políticas neoliberalistas estatales de la producción negativa de diferencia han contribuido al crecimiento de inseguridad económica y de vivienda para ciudadanos marginalizados, especialmente mujeres discapacitados que requieren asistencia económica provincial in Ontario, Canadá. Argumento que las relaciones cada vez más inseguro a vivienda y hogar para éstas mujeres se pueden explicar como consecuencias de procesos dialécticos de hacer diferencia a través de regimenes neoliberalistas del estado. Una ventaja de ésta enfoque es que enfatiza como la aumentación de seguridad económica y de la vivienda para ciudadanos afluentes está entrelazado con indiferencia al crecimiento de inseguridad y desesperación para otra gente. Empiezo discutiendo como las diversas relaciones a viviendas y hogares se pueden conceptualizar como consecuencias de procesos de hacer diferencia en sociedades capitalistas avanzadas. Luego discuto, ilustrando ésta enfoque, como los cambios de reglas estatales de viviendas y programas de asistencia económica in la provincia de Ontario han ayudado más los ciudadanos afluentes a costa de los ciudadanos discapacitados y en necesidad de ayuda. Ésta discusión se sigue por un análisis detallado de los procesos que determinan como las mujeres que reciben asistencia económica se hacen diferente negativamente y se sitúan in relación a vivienda y hogar. Aquí utilizo entrevistas con mujeres que reciban asistencia provincial económica por el ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program, Programa de Asistencia para Discapacitados de Ontario).