The Italian welfare state after the financial crisis

The essential characteristics of the Italian welfare state as it developed after the Second World War generated social cleavages and inequities that affected the Italian economy and provided grist for future reforms. At the same time, the welfare state provided political actors with incentives and resources that constrained attempts at reform. With the financial crisis beginning in 2008, serious reform was no longer optional. But austerity politics have generated pressures for changes to the welfare state which are unlikely to moderate most of the underlying inequities generated by the post-war system. Going forward, Italian policymakers must chart a path that is informed by efforts to overcome the pathologies of the past without further undermining the social and economic health of the country.     

Reviews

The Bulkies: Police and Crime in Belfast, 1800–1865 Brian Griffin, 1997 Dublin, Irish Academic Press pp. xi + 166, ISBN 0.7165.2670.0, £29.50 (hb)

The Hungry Stream: Essays on Emigration and Famine E. Margaret Crawford (ed.), 1997 Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University pp.215, ISBN 1.85589.677.1, £25 (hb); ISBN 0.85389.674.7, £9.50 (pb)

The Feminization of Famine Margaret Kelleher, 1997 Cork University Press pp.258, ISBN 1.85918.077.9, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85918.078.7, £16.95 (pb)

The Two Irelands, 1912–1939 David Fitzpatrick, 1998 Oxford, Oxford University Press pp. xviii + 301, ISBN 0.19.289240.1, £8.99 (pb)

The I.R.A. and its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916–23 Peter Hart, 1998 Oxford, Oxford University Press pp. xvi + 350, ISBN 0.19.820537.6, £40.00 (hb)

The Politics of Illusion: a Political History of the IRA Henry Patterson, 1997 London, Serif pp.320, ISBN 1.897959.31.1, £14.99 (pb)

Peace or War? Understanding the Peace Process in Northern Ireland Chris GILligan & Jon Tonge (eds), 1997 Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing pp. 167, ISBN 1.85972.519.8, £35.00 (hb)

The Irish RMs: The Resident Magistrates in the British Administration of Ireland Penny Bonsall, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp.224, ISBN 1.85182.331.X, £30.00 (hb)

The Geopolitics of Anglo‐Irish Relations in the Twentieth Century G. R.Sloan, 1997 London, Leicester University Press pp.320, ISBN 0.718.51356.8, £45.00 (hb)

Hope Deferred: Experiences of an Irish Unionist Basil Mcivor, 1998 Dundonald, Blackstaff Press pp. 163, ISBN 0.85640.620.1, £12.99 (pb)

Who Are ‘The People'? Unionism, Protestantism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland Peter Shirlow & Mark Mcgovern (eds), 1997 London, Pluto Press pp. 192, ISBN 0.7453.1213.6, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7453.1208.X, £13.99 (pb)

Crisis and Decline: the Fate of the Southern Unionists R. B. Mcdowell, 1997 Dublin, Lilliput Press pp. x + 227, ISBN 1.8746.7592.9, £16.99 (hb)

Crime in Ireland 1945–95: Here be Dragons John Brewer, Bill Lockhart & Paula Rodgers, 1997 Oxford, Clarendon Press pp. 268, ISBN C.19.826570.0, £40.00 (hb)

Explorations in Law and History W. N. Osborough (ed.), 1995 Dublin, Irish Academic Press pp. 193, ISBN 0.7165.2451.0, £24.95 (hb)

Decadence and Danger: Writing, History and the fin de siècle Tracey Hill (ed.), 1997 Bath, Sulis Press pp.228, ISBN 0.9526.856.1.2, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.9526.856.2.0, £13.95 (pb)

Deeds Not Words: The Life and Work of Muriel Gahan Geraldine Mitchell, 1997 Dublin, Town House pp.224, ISBN 1.860589.046.2, £9.99 (pb)

In Search of Ireland: A Cultural Geography Brian Graham (ed.), 1997 London, Routledge pp. xiv + 240, ISBN 0.415.15007.8, £47.50 (hb); ISBN 0.415.15008.6, £15.99 (pb)

Space and Place: The Geographies of Literature Glenda Norquay & Gerry Smyth (eds), 1997 Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University Press pp.414, ISBN 0.9527.97802, £15.00 (pb)

Women Divided: Gender, Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland Rosemary Sales, 1997 London, Routledge pp.256, ISBN 0.415.13766.7, £14.99 (pb)

Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland Anthony Bradley & Marianna Gialanella Vauuus (eds), 1997 Amherst, University of Massachusetts pp.336, ISBN 1.55849.130.9, US$50.00 (hb); ISBN 1.55849.131.7, US$16.95 (pb)

Irish Women in England: An Annotated Bibliography Clare Barrington, 1997 Dublin, Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre, University College Dublin pp.72, ISBN 1.898473.80.3, £5.00 (pb)

Edmund Spenser's Irish Experience: Wilde Fruit and Salvage Soyl Andrew Hadfield, 1997 Oxford, Clarendon Press pp.240, ISBN 0.10.818345.3, £35.00 (hb)

Salvaging Spenser: Colonialism, Culture and Identity Willy Maley, 1997 Basingstoke, Macmillan pp.260, ISBN 0.3336.2942.6, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 0.3336.2943.4, £12.99 (pb)

Between Nations: Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell, and the Question of Britain David J. Baker, 1997 Stanford, Stanford University Press, and Cambridge, Cambridge University Press pp.221, ISBN 0.8047.2997.2, US839.50, £30.00 (hb)

Locating Swift: Essays from Dublin on the 250th Anniversary of the Death of Jonathan Swift 1667–1745 Aileen Douglas, Patrick Kelly & Ian Campbell Ross (eds), 1998 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp.208, ISBN 1.85182.317.4, £35.00, US$45.00 (hb)

Maria Edgeworth's Irish Writing: Language, History, Politics Brian Hollingworth, 1997 Basingstoke, Macmillan pp.256, ISBN 0.333.681.66.5, £40.00 (hb)

Verse in English from Eighteenth‐Century Ireland Andrew Carpenter, 1998 Cork, Cork University Press pp.640, ISBN 1.85912.103.1, £40.00, US$60.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85912.104.X, £15.95, US829.95 (pb)

Mrs S. C. Hall: A Literary Biography Maureen Keane, 1997 Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe pp. 260, ISBN 0.86140.394.0, £33.00 (hb)

Yeats's Political Identities: Selected Essays Jonathan Allison (ed.), 1996 Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press pp.352, ISBN 0.472.10445.4, US849.50 (hb)

Yeats and the Drama of Sacred Space Nicholas Meihuizen, 1998 Amsterdam, Costerus New Series 116, Rodopi pp. 190, ISBN 90.420.0388.X, £19.50, US$34.00 (pb)

High and Low Moderns: Literature and Culture, 1889–1939 Maria Dibattista & Lucy Mcdiarmid (eds), 1996 New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press pp.259, ISBN 0.19.508266.4, £37.50 (hb)

Louis MacNeice and his Influence Kathleen Devine & Alan J. Peacock (eds), 1998 Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe pp. 184, ISBN 0.86140.391.6, £27.50 (hb)

Samuel Beckett and Music Mary Bryden (ed.), 1998 Oxford, Clarendon Press pp.267, ISBN 0.19.818427.1, £40.00 (hb)

Talking of Joyce Umberto Eco & Liberato Santoro‐Brienza, 1998 Dublin, University College Dublin Press pp.86, ISBN 1.900621.13.4, £5.95 (pb)

The Boy in the Moon Kate O'riordan, 1997 London, Flamingo pp. 278, ISBN 0.00.225555.3, £12.99 (hb)

A Glassful of Letters Evelyn Conlon, 1998 Belfast, Blackstaff pp. 208, ISBN 0.85640.618.X, £7.99 (pb)

The Parchment Boat Moya Cannon, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.45, ISBN 1.85235.202.7, £11.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85235.201.9, £5.95 (pb)

Thirst David Wheatley, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.77, ISBN 1.85235.208.6, £12.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85235.207.8, £6.95 (pb)

Selected Poems Medbh Mcguckian, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.94, ISBN 1.85235.204.3, £13.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85235.203.5, £7.95 (pb)

The Yellow Book Derek Mahon, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.57, ISBN 1.85253.206.X, £12.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85253.205.1, £6.95 (pb)     

Domesticating the church: the reuse of urban churches as loft living in the post-secular city

In recent years, numerous mainline Christian denominations throughout Canada have sold their places of worship in the real estate market in response to declines in religious membership and participation. At the same time, a growing demand for creative residential spaces by a group of the new middle class encourages the redevelopment of churches into upscale lofts, a practice connected to but divergent from the post-industrial loft living made popular in cities like New York. In this paper, I explore how the production and consumption of churches as lofts represents a novel terrain of private urban redevelopment. Church lofts are an emergent form of housing and the latest frontier in the remaking of material, cultural and religious landscapes in the post-secular city – a context where novel forms of secularity take shape alongside new expressions of religion. With an empirical focus on Toronto, I investigate how ‘redundant’ worship spaces are appropriated and transformed into private domestic spaces of commodified religion and heritage. Rebuilt as unique but exclusive places to live, church lofts are part of a secular upscaling of the central city, a process that increasingly remakes the city as a place of capital reinvestment, middle-class colonization and socio-secular upgrading.     

Gaming on the edge: Mobile labour and global talent in Atlantic Canada's video game industry

Diminishing returns and advances in telecommunications have prompted large video game firms to seek new locations, outsource production, and develop niche studios, including on Canada's East Coast. In this paper, we examine emerging occupational cultures and trace the origins and evolution of video game production in Canada's Atlantic provinces—a critical yet peripheral space economy in the gaming sector. Our findings are drawn from 30 interviews with gameworkers, studio managers, government officials, and other industry experts. We find this industry to be driven by the confluence of three major factors: (i) provincial governments have supported video game development as a strategic industry via financial incentives; (ii) firms are benefiting from a return migration effect and are repatriating Atlantic Canadian talent from media hubs by selling “home,” work‐life balance, and an alternative to the punishing gamework culture associated with Silicon Valley; and (iii) post‐secondary institutions in the region have improved their talent pipelines through computer science, digital media, and video game development programs.     

Separatist states and post–Soviet conflicts

This article examines why the conflicts in Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan in the former Soviet Union have not been resolved in the last ten years, whereas a peace agreement has been reached in Tajikistan. The analysis centres on the role of the self–declared separatist states that have emerged in the midst of the post–Soviet states: the Pridnestrovyan Moldovan Republic inside Moldovan borders, the Republic of South Ossetia and the republic of Abkhazia within Georgian borders, and the Nagorno–Karabakh Republic of Azerbaijan. The argument is divided into four parts, starting first with a brief discussion of the reasons that allowed a fragile peace to arise in Tajikistan. The article then defines the concept of a de facto state, that is, a state without international recognition but with empirical existence. The main part of the article examines the range of forces, internal to the de facto states as well as external to them, that weave together to sustain the current status quo of non–resolution.