Coalition cascades: The politics of tipping points in clean energy transitions

Policy change often involves multiple policy subsystems, as in the case of clean energy transitions. We argue that trans-subsystem policy feedback is a central dynamic in policy change across subsystems. Policy in one subsystem creates benefits/costs and/or learning effects that mobilize actors for policy change in another subsystem, resulting in “coalition cascades” across interdependent subsystems. If coalition cascades lead to the resolution of coordination problems across subsystems, the system reaches a tipping point in policy change. Coalition cascades are thus the transmission belts of trans-subsystem policy feedback. We illustrate our argument in the case of California's clean energy transition. We show how early renewable energy policy spilled over into the subsystems on grid policy—leading to energy storage policy—and on transport policy—resulting in electric vehicle charging policy. The article advances our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning trans-subsystem policy change, offering a model of the politics of tipping points.     

Changing Discourses of Marital Violence in Sweden from the Age of Reformation to the Late Nineteenth Century

This article analyses how public attention to marital violence in Sweden changed from a question of maintaining good order and ambitions to discipline self‐indulgent house tyrants into responsible masters of households in the seventeenth century, to the vanishing of the house tyrant as a cultural stereotype in favour of the female shrew in the eighteenth century, following the formal abolition of the husband's legal right to chastise his wife and an equalisation of liabilities and responsibilities. It also traces the beginnings of the social marginalisation and silencing of marital violence in the nineteenth century as a phenomenon associated with the lower classes and regulated by the law as a case for private action only when committed within the household circle.     

SOCIALIST COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES AND THE SPRING OF 1917

The Russian Revolution of 1917 presented Swedish Social Democrats with a dilemma: how could they use the transnational revolutionary momentum to further universal suffrage, without supporting actions possibly leading to violence? In striking this balance, the use of communications was central. This article uses the concept of the media system to analyse the communicative practices and strategies developed by the Party in the early 20th century, and how these were employed between 1915 and 1917, in relation to the hunger marches and revolutionary pressures. The study shows that the Party had established conscious agitation strategies and an elaborate national communication structure, which enabled coordinated opinion activities. As early as 1915, the Party began using these tools to initiate a national opinion movement concerning the food situation. In 1917, faced with the combination of events in Russia and erupting hunger marches, the Party leadership chose to emphasize security and stability, focusing on events the Party could control, such as the 1 May demonstrations. The resulting development of revolutionary opinion in Sweden during the spring of 1917 and the ensuing political changes reflected conscious media management strategies by the Left, who used the media system to navigate and shape a transnational revolutionary moment.     

Political economy and global repercussions: reflections on past and present in global historical archaeology

SUMMARY: The seven articles of this special issue of Post-Medieval Archaeology provide a background to this paper. Their various interpretations and operationalizations have provided a plethora of perspectives and localities concerning past political economies. This paper aims to further the discussion of political economy and its relevance in historical archaeology. The very many connections between economy, identity, culture, production, mentality and perception are the foundations of this special issue and also of this article. The paper starts by looking back at how Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx used the concept of political economy and what it might mean in an archaeological context today. The examination then follows three brief cases of individuals in the early modern period and how they related to, and interacted with, the political economy of their time and space. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of putting material culture and spatial studies into the discussion in order to trace entanglements and connections of political economies of past societies.     

Excavations of ironware of the third–fifth century from Marvele necropolis (Lithuania)

This study presents the overview of ironware excavations of the third–fifth century demolished tombs from Marvele necropolis. Three axes, four spearheads, two knives and a clasp were excavated in 2006. Afterwards, a metallographic and chemical analysis as well as mechanical properties of artefacts, also metallurgical slag, clinkers and iron concretions found in the surroundings of tombs were tested and presented in this article. General tests were executed in order to compare results with other archaeological and scientific researches. Metallographic analysis and hardness tests’ results revealed that axes were forged from two separate billets of iron, whilst spearheads and knives from one. The results of chemical analysis have affirmed earlier results of other Lithuanian archaeological sites. Although some differences in chemical composition were observed, this fact shows possible not local origin of some ironware.