Chemical durability of lead-bearing glazes in sulphuric acid solutions — Laboratory experiments performed on Zsolnay architectural ceramics from Budapest (Hungary)

This study aims to simulate the long-term deterioration of architectural glazes exposed to open air in a highly polluted urban environment. A laboratory experiment—a 14-day long accelerated weathering test—on glazed roof tiles has been performed to reveal the damaging influence of contacting acid solutions originating from dissolved gaseous pollutants, mainly SO₂. The studied tiles are made by the Hungarian Zsolnay factory and applied on two buildings in Budapest in the 19th and 20th century. The ceramics were covered mainly by lead glazes in the construction and lead-bearing alkali glazes in the renovation periods.

The solution of pH2 induced a greater dissolution, especially of alkali and alkaline earth metals (up to 2886 ppm), but less lead (up to 21 ppm) from the lead glazes of the construction periods. Newly formed lead sulphate (anglesite) on the corroded glaze parts precipitated on some lead-bearing alkali glazes, with moderate dissolution of alkali and alkaline earth metals (up to 396 ppm) accompanied by higher amount of lead (28–39 ppm). Based on the results, the main determining factor in the durability of glazes is mostly their chemical composition and less their preliminary degradation state.     

Disequilibrium in Development Finance: The Contested Politics of Institutional Accountability and Transparency at the World Bank Inspection Panel

This article examines the dynamic nature with which independent accountability mechanisms operate. Focusing on the World Bank, the authors argue that its Inspection Panel evolves according to internal and external pressures. In seeking to achieve equilibrium, and protect its authority and independence, the Panel has gone through several distinct phases: negotiation, emergence, protracted resistance, assertion of independence and authority, renewed tension, and contestation. The core novelty of the article is its application of concepts from outside the field of development studies — notably institutional accountability from the governance literature, and judicialization from the legal studies literature — to the topic of the Inspection Panel. Examining the Panel in this way demonstrates that accountability mechanisms represent a hybrid of transnational governance influenced by a range of actors including project‐affected peoples, national governments, managers and development donors. Accountability in development finance is about competing interests as well as competing conceptions and expectations of accountability. In such a complex and multi‐scalar system, the Panel is not only concerned with delivering well‐researched investigation reports; it is also an entity seeking to ensure its own survival, as well as an arbiter of its own brand of legitimacy and accountability.     

Day centres for homeless people: spaces of care or fear?

It is now widely argued that the contemporary city is becoming an increasingly hostile environment for homeless people. As basic street survival strategies are criminalized and public space ‘purified’ of those whose ‘spoiled’ identities threaten to ‘taint’ fellow members of the public, city authorities seem to have turned from a position of ‘malign neglect’ to more obviously punitive measures designed to contain and control homeless people. Less widely acknowledged but equally prevalent, however, is a parallel rise in the ‘urge to care’; evident in the growing number of night shelters, hostels and day centres emerging in recent years to provide shelter and sustenance to homeless people. This paper contributes to a small but growing body of work examining the development of the ‘spaces of care’ springing up in the interstices of a ‘revanchist’ city, by examining the development and internal dynamics of day centres for homeless people in the UK. Drawing upon a national survey of service providers, and a series of interviews and participant observations with day centre staff and users, the paper argues that day centres act as important sources of material resource and refuge for a highly stigmatized group. However, it warns against the romantic tendencies implicit in the notion of ‘spaces of care’, emphasizing that what for one person may operate as a ‘space of care’ might, for another, be experienced as a space of fear. The paper concludes by noting the ambiguity and fragility of such spaces within the wider ‘revanchist’ city.

Les centres d'hébergement temporaire pour itinérants: espaces de soins ou de peur?

On affirme couramment que la ville contemporaine est en train de devenir un milieu de plus en plus hostile pour les itinérants. Pendant que les stratégies ordinaires de survie dans la rue sont érigées en crime et l'espace public est «purifié» de ceux dont les identités «souillées» risquent d' «entacher» les autres membres du public, les autorités de la ville sont moins disposées à appuyer une position de «négligence pernicieuse» que des mesures nettement plus punitives conçues pour contenir et contrôler les itinérants. Ce qui est moins reconnu mais aussi courant est la progression simultanée du «désir de donner des soins» que permet de témoigner la croissance depuis quelques années de foyers d'hébergement, de gîtes, et de centre d'hébergement temporaire qui offre un toit et des moyens de subsistance aux itinérants. Cet article contribue à enrichir le corpus d'une ampleur limitée mais grandissante sur l'émergence d' «espaces de soins» dans les interstices de la ville «revancharde» par l'examen du développement et les dynamiques internes de centres d'hébergement temporaire pour itinérants au Royaume-Uni. Cet article a recours à un sondage national sur les fournisseurs de services et à un éventail d'entrevues et d'observations participatives auprès d'employés et d'usagers des centres d'hébergement temporaire. Il y est proposé que ces centres servent de lieu de distribution de ressources matérielles et de refuge pour un ensemble de personnes très défavorisées. L'article prend toutefois ses distances par rapport au penchant romantique implicite dans l'idée d' «espaces de soins», et souligne que les processus à l'?uvre peuvent être le reflet d'un «espace de soins» pour une personne ou celui d'une expérience d'un «espace de peur» pour une autre. Cet article termine par le constat qu'à l'échelle de la grande ville «revancharde», ces espaces demeurent ambigus et fragiles.

Centros diurnos para la gente sin techo: ¿lugares de asistencia o de miedo?

Hoy en día se reconoce que la ciudad contemporánea representa un lugar cada vez más hostil para la gente sin techo. A la vez que se criminalizan las estrategias básicas de sobrevivencia en la calle y se ‘purifican’ los espacios públicos, sacando a personas cuyas identidades ‘arruinadas’ amenazan con ‘contaminar’ a otros miembros del público, las autoridades cívicas parecen haber dejado su postura de ‘negligencia maligna’ a favor de medidas más punitivas, concebidas para contener y controlar a la gente sin techo. Menos reconocido, pero no menos corriente, es el aumento paralelo del ‘impulso a asistir’, evidente en el número cada vez mayor de refugios nocturnos, hogares y centros diurnos que han surgido en recientes años donde les dan alojamiento y alimento a los sin techo. Este papel contribuye a un conjunto de trabajo que examina el desarrollo de ‘espacios de asistencia’ que surgen en los intersticios de una ciudad ‘revanchista’, por medio de un estudio del desarrollo y la dinámica interna de los centros diurnos para los sin techo en el Reino Unido. Haciendo uso de un estudio nacional de las organizaciones que proporcionan servicios para los sin techo, y de una serie de entrevistas con funcionarios y usuarios de los centros diurnos, el papel sugiere que los centros diurnos sirven como fuentes importantes de recursos materiales y de refugio para un grupo muy estigmatizado. Sin embargo, argumenta en contra de las tendencias románticas que son implícitas en la noción de ‘espacios de asistencia’ y enfatiza que lo que puede servir como un ‘espacio de asistencia’ para una persona puede ser experimentado como una espacio de miedo por otra persona. El papel concluye por notar la naturaleza ambigua y frágil de estos espacios dentro de la ciudad ‘revanchista’ más amplia.     

Policy Coherence and Policy Domains

Policy scholars generally agree that greater coherence of policies is desirable, but the concept is under-theorized and has received little empirical examination. This research examines the policy coherence of 18 policy domains and considers institutional factors that affect variation among them. There is considerable variation in coherence among substantive, regional, and identity-based policy domains. Greater degrees of policy coherence exist for policy domains that have dominant congressional committees or have more involvement of lead federal agencies. These findings extend what policy scholars know about policy subsystems in American policymaking to consideration of the coherence of policy domains.     

Book reviews

Glen St J. Barclay. A Very Small Insurance Policy. The Politics of Australian Involvement in Vietnam. 1954–1967. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1988. 199pp. No price given.

Robert J. Cooksey. Review of Australia's Defence Exports and Defence Industry. Report to the Minister for Defence. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1986. x + 569pp. No price given.

Ernest McNamara, Robin Ward, Desmond Ball, J. O. Langtry and Richard Q. Agnew. Australia's Defence Resources: a compendium of data. Sydney. Pergamon Press Australia, 1986. 186pp. $ 16.

Jacob Bercovitch. Social Conflicts and Third Parties: Strategies of Conflict Resolution. Boulder. Westview Press, 1984. xv + 163pp. $US23.50.

Norman P. Barry. The New Right. London, New York and Sydney. Croom Helm, 1987. 205pp. $87.95.

Douglas E. Ashford. The Emergence of the Welfare States. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986. x+352pp. $87.50.

J.B. Ghartey. Crisis Accountability and Development in the Third World. The Case of Africa. Aldershot: Avebury, 1987. x + 170pp. $34.50.

Jan‐Erik Lane and Svante O. Ersonn. Politics and Society in Western Europe. London: Sage Publications, 1987. x + 370pp. £20.00 (cloth), £7.50 (paper).

John Toye. Dilemmas of Development: Reflections on the Counter‐Revolution in Development Theory and Policy. Oxford: Basil Black‐well, 1987. ix+ 177pp. $29.95.

Eva Kolinsky. Opposition in Western Europe. London and Sydney: Croom and Helm, 1987. 400pp. £29.95.

Allen Lynch. The Soviet Study of International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. xii+ 197pp. $90.00.

Uri Ra'anan, Francis Fukuyama, Mark Falcoff, Sam C. Sarkesian and Richard H. Shultz, Jr.. Third World Marxist‐Leninist Regimes: Strengths, Vulnerabilities, and U.S. Policy. Washington, D.C: Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Inc., Pergamon‐Brassey's, 1985. xv + 130pp. No price given.

Helene Carrere d'Encausse. Big Brother: The Soviet Union and Soviet Europe. Translated by George Holoch. New York and London: Holmes and Meier, 1987. xii+332pp. $39.50 (cloth), $US24.50 (paper).

Ferenc Feher, Agnes Heller and Gyorgy Markus. Dictatorship Over Needs: An Analysis of Soviet Societies. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984. xii+312pp. $62.00 (cloth), $ 18.95 (paper).

Bruno Rizzi. The Bureaucratization of the World. The USSR: Bureaucratic Collectivism. London and New York: Tavistock Publications, 1985. viii +111 pp. No price given.

Stephen Fortescue. The Communist Party and Soviet Science. London: Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham/Macmillan, 1986. x+ 234pp. $77.00.

Colin Mackerras and Nick Knight (eds). Marxism In Asia. London & Sydney. Croom Helm, 1985. 297pp. £22.50.

Harry Harding. China's Second Revolution: Reform After Mao, Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1987. xx + 369pp. $US32.95 (cloth), $US12.95 (paper).

Jim Masselos (ed.). Struggling and Ruling: The Indian National Congress 1885–1985. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1987. 224pp. Rs. 150.00.

Lawrence B. Krause, Koh Ai Tee and Lee (Tsao) Yuan. The Singapore Economy Reconsidered. Singapore: The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1987. 230pp. $S38.50 (cloth) $19.90 (paper).

Raj Vasil. Governing Singapore: Interviews with the new leaders. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur: Times Books International, 1980 (Revised Edition 1988). 247pp. $S28.50.

Martin Stuart‐Fox. Laos: Politics, Economics and Society. London: Francis Pinter, Boulder. Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc., 1986. xxiv +220pp. £22.50 (cloth), £7.95 (paper).

United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations. Transnational Corporations and the Electronics Industries oj ASEAN Economics. New York: ESCAP/UNCTC Joint Unit on Transnational Corporations, 1987. v+49pp. $7.50.

Stewart Firth. Nuclear Playground. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987. xii +176pp. $14.95.

Lars Schoultz. National Security and United States Policy towards Latin America. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987. 337pp. $US42.50 (cloth), $US12.95 (paper).

Rose J. Spalding (ed.). The Political Economy of Revolutionary Nicaragua. Sydney. Allen and Unwin, 1987. 255pp. $87.50 (cloth), $34.95 (paper).

Abby L. Bloom (ed.). Primary Health Care. Australian Council for Overseas Aid, Development Dossier No. 20. Canberra: ACFOA, 1987.iv+80pp.$5.00.