Phenol Formaldehyde Revisited—Novolac Resins for the Treatment of Degraded Archaeological Wood

Archaeological wood is usually severely degraded. The Norwegian Viking Age Oseberg find exemplifies problems arising due to past conservation treatments and the need for new types of preservatives. Phenol formaldehyde (PF) has been investigated as a consolidant for alum‐treated wood. X‐ray tomography has revealed that it is possible to obtain a porous structure inside the wood, ensuring ethical acceptability by allowing re‐treatment. In order to understand the curing mechanics, the kinetics of the initial condensation reaction were elucidated at room temperature. It was found that a second‐order reaction using both phenol and formaldehyde concentrations is the most probable mechanism.     

Book reviews

Fumio Itoh (ed.), China in the Twenty‐First Century: Politics, Economy, and Society. New York: United Nations University Press, 1997. xiv + 287 pp. $31.15.

David Lee and Christopher Waters (eds), Evatt to Evans: The Labor Tradition in Australian Foreign Policy. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, in association with the Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1997. ix + 257 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Richard Haass, The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1997. 148 pp. US$24.95 (cloth).

Mark McGillivray and Gary Smith (eds), Australia and Asia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997. vii + 248 pp. No price given.

Geoffrey Edwards and Alfred Pijpers (eds), The Politics of European Treaty Reform, The 1996 Intergovernmental Conference and Beyond. London and Washington: Pinter, 1997. viii + 353 pp. No price given (paper).

John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. x + 425 pp. $75.00 (cloth).

Melvyn P. LeMer, A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992. xvii + 689 pp. US$25.00 (cloth).

Donatella Delia Porta and Yves Meny (eds), Democracy and Corruption in Europe. London: Pinter, 1997. viii + 208 pp. £45.00 (cloth), £13.99 (paper).

Rodney Gouttman, Bondi in the Sinai: Australia, the MFO and the Politics of Participation. Maryland: University of America, 1996. xiii + 202pp. US$29.50 (cloth).

James Cotton and John Ravenhill (eds), Seeking Asian Engagement: Australia in World Affairs, 1991–95. Melbourne: Oxford University Press with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1997. xiv + 362 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Godfrey Linge and Doug Porter (eds), No Place for Borders: The HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Development in Asia and the Pacific. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1997. xxii+ 191 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Aharon Levran, Israeli Strategy After Desert Storm: Lessons of the Second Gulf War. London: Frank Cass, 1997. ix+ 169 pp. £35.00 (cloth), £17.50 (paper).

Daniel Fineman, A Special Friendship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand, 1947–1958. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. viii + 357 pp. $70.00 (cloth).

The United Nations and Rwanda, 1993–1996. United Nations Blue Book Series, Volume X. New York: Department of Public Information, United Nations, 1996. 750 pp. US$29.95 (paper).

Edmond Keller and Donald Rothchild (eds), Africa in the New International Order: Rethinking State Sovereignty and Regional Security. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1996. ix + 253 pp. US$49.95 (cloth), US$19.95 (paper).     

Striated agency and smooth regulation: kindergarten mealtime as an ambiguous space for the construction of child and adult relations

Deploying an everyday life approach, this article focuses on the kindergarten meal, defined as a space in which humans, materials and discursive elements interact. The article identifies and discusses two co-existing perspectives on the everyday meals that emphasise children as future beings and here-and-now beings. Through the concepts of smoothing and striation the paper discusses how these perspectives produce different mechanisms of regulation and agency, and position the eaters differently. The paper emphasises kindergarten mealtime as an ambiguous space that does not offer simple discussions about good and bad meal situations. The paper thereby adds to the existing literature within children’s geographies which emphasise interactional, relational and material aspects of children’s lives. It does so by revisiting some concepts, striation and smoothing, that has been used to explore children’s spaces and child–adult relations, but argue that these concepts describe ambivalent and complex processes in children’s and adult’s everyday lives.     

Local labour markets and socio-economic change: evidence from Danish towns, 2008–2013

The recent financial and economic crisis had substantial but spatially differentiated impacts on growth. However, there is still a lot left to be understood about the local aspects of the crisis. One of these aspects is its socio-economic consequences. This paper investigates local socio-economic change to Danish towns from 2008 to 2013, with a focus on the impact of local labour market (LLM) structures on change. Socio-economic change in towns is measured both directly as mean income and employment growth, and indirectly as population and human capital growth. The paper relies on micro-data and uses robust regression to generate results. Several findings are presented, but the two main conclusions are: first, the LLM structures of towns still influence local socio-economic development; and, second, towns experience better socio-economic development if they are in close proximity to a larger labour market and/or have a large ratio of commuters in the working population.