External Ties and the Reduction of Knowledge Asymmetries among Clusters within Global Value Chains: The Case of the Ceramic Tile District of Castellon

Classical industrial districts' literature is not focused on the role played by external ties but gives more importance to the local districts' endogenous development. Global value chains connect clusters to other external agents through external linkages and constitute a framework to analyse the complex inter-linkages between clusters and other external agents. In the field of the external ties and the global value chain approach Academia is primarily focused on the ties which link clusters in developing nations to global markets, although global value chains also consider connections between clusters in similar activities and even when both are located in developed nations. Thus, external linkages are mainly performed by multinational enterprise (MNE) affiliates which play fundamental role of knowledge diffusers and absorbers in the process of knowledge exchange throughout global value chains. The work examines the process of knowledge exchange between clusters through external ties using the global value chain approach. For this purpose, empirical work is conducted with 22 face-to-face interviews to provide a case study about a leading cluster in the global ceramic tile industry. Results show that the basic knowledge to successfully compete is locally originated, although it can be complemented with global knowledge learnt or generated in other territories. MNE affiliates bridge structural holes through external ties and reduce knowledge asymmetries within global value chains. External ties on network-based governance chains exist, matter and affect clusters allowing upgrading even between developed nations.     

Rethinking Twentieth‐Century Guadalajara

This paper discusses the impact of the conference ‘Las Olvidadas: Gender and Women's History in Post‐Revolutionary Mexico’ that took place at Yale University in May 2001, into my own work on women's political mobilisations. It points out from where I departed and how it changed my perspective from women's history to gender history by focusing on women workers in the tortilla industry, a union cacicazgo (political bossism), civic culture, narratives, cultural memory and female political trajectories after the granting of women's suffrage in 1953 in Jalisco.     

农村现代化道路的理论探源——对马克思、恩格斯关于农民理论的重新审视

中国农村的现代化实践是一场以马克思主义为指导的探索活动。本文力求将马克思主义关于农民问题的相关理论和实证分析结合起来,论述了马克思等关于农民理论的立足点及其发展,分析了农业集体化道路及其挫折,通过对经典理论的重新审视,进而得出对社会主义农业现代化道路的启示.     

网络时代与现代酒店整体运作的E模式

本以“信息”作为创新资源予以整合,诠释了现代酒店的信息管理(E)模式在网络时代的全新运作及其对传统酒店经营管理带来的新理念、新思考。     

吴伟业集外诗文拾遗

李学颖先生整理的《吴梅村全集》,是迄今为止收录吴伟业作品最完备的读本,然仍略有疏漏。笔从现存献中辑得吴氏集外二篇、词一首,或可补《全集》之不足。     

Big Game and Small Prey: Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic Economy from Valencia (Spain)

This study analyzes the faunal assemblages corresponding to the Middle and Upper Paleolithic and the Early Epipaleolithic for the central Spanish Mediterranean Region dated from between 135,000 and 9,000 B.P. To interpret these data, we employ a zooarchaeological and paleoeconomic perspective. Human large and small game hunting systems are analyzed through the identification of the origins of faunal assemblages, bone breackage patterns, and prey selection patterns. Our study shows that hunting systems changed significantly through time, which may be related to the characteristics of the Mediterranean ecosystem and, above all, to cultural changes.     

Book reviews

Native Resistance and the Pax Colonial in New Spain edited by Susan Schroeder. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Pp. xxvi + 2000, maps. $45.00/£42.75 (hardback); $19.95/£18.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8032–4266–2; 0–8032–9249‐X.

European and Native American Warfare, 1675–1815 by Armstrong Starkey. London: UCL Press, 1998. Pp. viii + 208. £40.00 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 1–85728–554–9; 1–85728–555–7.

Frontier Profit and Loss: The British Army and the Fur Traders, 1760–1764 by Walter S. Dunn, Jr. Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 1998. Pp.xi + 196, map. £47.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–313–30605–2.

British Identities before Nationalism: Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600–1800 by Colin Kidd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.viii + 302. £35.00. ISBN 0–521–62403–7.

Protestantism and National Identity: Britain and Ireland, c. 1650‐ c. 1850 edited by Tony Claydon and Ian McBride. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xii + 317. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–62077–5.

Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: The Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735–1748 by Anthony W. Parker. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1997. Pp.xiii +182. £31.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–8203–1915–5.

In Irons: Britain's Naval Supremacy and the American Revolutionary Economy by Richard Buel, Jr. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp.xi + 397. £25.00/$35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–300–07388–7.

Science and Exploration in the Pacific: European Voyages to the Southern Oceans in the Eighteenth Century edited by Margarette Lincoln. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press in association with the National Maritime Museum, 1998. Pp.xix + 228, illus. £35.00/$63.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–85115–721–1.

Imperial Benevolence: Making British Authority in the Pacific Islands by Jane Samson. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998. Pp.xiii + 240, maps. $35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–8248–1927–6.

The Maratha War Papers of Arthur Wellesley, January to December 1803 edited by Anthony S. Bennell. Stroud, Glos.: Sutton Publishing for the Army Records Society, 1998. Pp.xi + 458. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7509–2069–6.

Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India by Lata Mani. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998. Pp.xiv + 246, illustrations. $47.00/£37.50 (hardback); $18.00/£13.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–520–21407–2 (paperback).

’Christen und Gewürze’: Konfrontation und Interaktion kolonialer und indigener Christentumsvarianten edited by Klaus Koschorke. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998. Pp.298. DM 98 (paperback). ISBN 3–525–55960–7.

Religion in Victorian Britain, Volume V: Culture and Empire edited by John Wolffe. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997. Pp.viii + 359, illustrations. £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–5184–3.

Imperialism and Colonialism: Essays on the History of European Expansion by H.L. Wesseling. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1997. Pp.x + 212. £47.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–313–30431–9.

The Foundations of Naval History: John Knox Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession by Andrew Lambert. London: Chatham, 1998. Pp.256, illustrations. £30.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–86176–086–8.

Sturm über dem Nil. Der Mahdi‐Aufstand: Aus den Anfängen des islamischen Fundamentalismus by Wilfried Westphal. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1998. Pp.419, 23 pictures, three maps. DM 48.00 (hardback). ISBN 3–7995–0092–8.

The Journal of John Wodehouse First Earl of Kimberley for 1862–1902 edited by Angus Hawkins and John Powell. Camden Fifth Series Volume 9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Historical Society, 1997. Pp.xxii + 530. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0521–62328–6.

Lord Methuen and the British Army: Failure and Redemption in South Africa by Stephen M. Miller. London, and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1999. Pp.viii + 279, maps. £39.50/$57.50 (hardback), £17.50/$26.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–7146–4904‐X; 0–7146–4460–9.

Francophone Sub‐Saharan Africa 1880–1995 by Patrick Manning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.xii + 247, maps. £40.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–64255–8; 0–521–64519–0.

Mau Mau From Below by Greet Kershaw. Oxford: James Currey, 1997. Pp.xxx + 354. £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85255–731–0.

Mau Man and Kenya by Wunyabari O. Maloba. Oxford: James Currey, 1998. Pp.x + 228. £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85255–745–0.

History of Central Africa: The Contemporary Years Since 1960 edited by David Birmingham and Phyllis M. Martin. London: Longman, 1998. Pp.vii + 314. £17.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–27607–1.

Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power by Cyrus Ghani, London: I.B. Tauris, 1998. Pp.xiv + 434. £29.50 (hardback). ISBN 1–86064–258–6.

A History of Laos by Martin Stuart‐Fox. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Pp.xv + 253, maps. £35.00 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–59235–6; 0–521–59746–3.

Britain in China: Community, Culture and Colonialism 1900–1949 by Robert Bickers. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999. Pp.xii + 276, tables, illustrations. £45.00 (hardback); £15.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–4697–1; 0–7190–5697–7.

Between Two Oceans: A Military History of Singapore From First Settlement to Final British Withdrawal by Malcolm H. Murfett, John N. Miksic, Brian P. Farrell, and Chiang Ming Shun. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp.xviii + 398. £35.00 (paperback). ISBN 0–19–588482–5.     

Use of robust methods to determine quadratic surfaces: application to heritage

3D surveys of archaeological elements and the construction of virtual models enable us to reconstruct historical sites. They provide useful data to select specific building processes.Photogrammetry and Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) are the most common techniques to obtain synthetically heritage models. These techniques provide massive data which can only be managed by replacing them by primitive shapes, thereby obtaining more simple models and the explicit geometry of the element. Statistical and robust methods are used for this substitution, thereby avoiding the common errors due to measuring. Of these methods, the most widely used are the least-median-of-squares (LMedS) and the RANSAC method.Another computation method consists in recursive processes based on evolutive-type algorithms to adjust the model to the data captured.This paper describes two surface computation methodologies to determine the modelling of a column shaft located in temple G of the archaeological park of Selinunte (Sicily).