New books received for review

Abstract

Geological information was first printed in colour on a map in 1820 but serious efforts to print geological maps in multiple colours began in Europe only in the 1840s. Increased geological mapping activity created the need to print more maps by cheaper methods, while general advances in lithographic colour printing provided the means. Better colour registration, transparency, range, permanence and distinctiveness were attained in the 1840s and 1850s by technical innovations and also by new design strategies. Consequently, as printed colour replaced hand colour as the norm, it also influenced the look of the geological map.     

Dracula's castle in Transylvania: Conflicting heritage marketing strategies

Abstract

Transylvania, situated beneath the Carpathian mountains, is one of the travel frontiers of Europe and the most romantic province of Romania. To most of its visitors, Transylvania is associated with haunted castles and vampires, thanks to the literary character Dracula. Even though Bran Castle appears to form the perfect home for a vampire count, this heritage destination is surrounded by debate because of the conflicting marketing strategies adopted by various organisations for the specific purpose of increasing the profits made from tourism. This paper explores issues of marketing, policies for interpretation and the understanding of heritage sites within a formerly socialist society in transition to a market economy. It analyses potential promotional, advertising and interpretive strategies which could be applied to Bran Castle, and offers solutions to produce a better understanding of the role of heritage tourism in a transitional economy.     

Paying for water: water pricing and equity in England and Wales

Over the past three decades, the business of water supply in England and Wales has been gradually transforming from the supply of a service to citizens, to the sale of a commodity to customers. The paper provides a genealogy of concepts of efficiency and equity in water regulation over the past thirty years, prior to evaluating the implications for water consumers of one aspect of this process – the shift away from policies prioritizing inter- and intra-regional equalization (implying a principle of social equity) towards policies prioritizing economic efficiency (implying a principle of economic equity) in water charging. In closing, alternatives to the current arrangements for domestic consumers are proposed.     

Transdisciplinary Archaeology and the Future of Archaeological Practice: Citizen Science,Portable Science,Ethical Science

This paper presents a vision and a pathway for the future of archaeological practice, in which several fields that are currently considered distinct, including community-based collaborative archaeology, indigenous archaeology, and applied archaeology, could become the norm. Inspired by personal encounters with some exceptionally open and collaborative archaeology projects, as well as by recent advances in archaeological science, which are starting to make it more portable, this paper sets out an agenda for a more open approach to archaeological practice. It advocates a method of producing knowledge about the past that does not privilege one investigator over another, but gives everyone who is interested and wants to participate an opportunity to do. Specific methodological challenges that are discussed include the need to ‘flip’ the public outreach element of research designs, to embed open participation from the outset by nurturing relationships of mutual respect and trust, and to take advantage of, and improve, the portability of archaeological science, so that it can be done in and by local communities. It is argued here that the opening of archaeological research, including the archaeological sciences, to a wider range of participants, is the most ethical approach to archaeological practice in a pan-disciplinary research environment.