The First ‘Urnfields’ in the Plains of the Danube and the Po

Journal of World Prehistory - Archaeological research is currently redefining how large-scale changes occurred in prehistoric times. In addition to the long-standing theoretical dichotomy between...     

Containing containment: rethinking Italy's experience during the Cold War

This article examines the impact of the Cold War on the Italian political system. It compares the relations of the two main Italian parties - the DC and the PCI - with their external interlocutors and allies - the USA and the USSR - during the first decade of the Cold War. By doing so, the article rejects traditional interpretations of how post-Second World War international constraints limited Italy's sovereignty. It argues instead that the main Italian pro-western party, the Christian Democrats, deliberately opted for a policy of containment of American pressures. Such a policy was functional to the twin objectives of consolidating DC hegemony, and safeguarding Italy's new republican constitution.     

Le classement des villes dans l'économie du savoir : une analyse intégrée des régions urbaines canadiennes et américaines

Des comparaisons entre villes canadiennes et américaines doivent se faire avec prudence. L'obstacle principal reste la comparabilité des séries statistiques. Nous proposons une analyse intégrée de l'ensemble des 90 régions métropolitaines nord-américaines de 500 000 habitants et plus, dont neuf canadiennes. Suite à une revue de divers classements, nous situons les 90 régions urbaines sur sept indicateurs, dont des variables portant sur le capital humain et le secteur tertiaire intensif en savoir, suivi d'une analyse de corrélation mettant en relation les indicateurs pour trois univers de villes (sans et avec des villes canadiennes). Nos résultats confirment le bon positionnement sur plusieurs indicateurs de métropoles américaines comme San Francisco-Silicon Valley et Boston, mais aussi de villes comme Raleigh (research triangle) et Austin, connues pour leurs activités de recherche. Les villes canadiennes se classent plutôt bien, notamment les cinq plus grandes. Cependant, c'est moins vrai pour des villes comme Winnipeg ou Hamilton. L'analyse de corrélation fait ressortir la relation positive entre dotation en capital humain et poids du tertiaire intensif en savoir, mais ne révèle aucune relation significative avec l'indicateur de qualité de vie.     

Iron IIA slag-tempered pottery in the Negev Highlands,Israel

The article presents results of a petrographic investigation of pottery from Iron IIA settlements in the Negev Highlands in southern Israel. It focuses on a group of almost exclusively handmade wares that are tempered with crushed slag. The polarizing and electron microscopes explicitly identify these inclusions as copper smelting slag. Based on the slag as well as certain rock inclusions, the slag-tempered wares can be sourced to the copper districts in the Wadi Arabah, and hence for the first time provide a link between the Negev Highlands and the Arabah copper production centers in the period under review. More specifically, they demonstrate direct involvement of at least part of the pastoral-nomadic Negev Highlands population in the copper extraction system.     

Reviews

R.H. CAMPBELL and ANDREW SKINNER, eds. The Origins and Nature of the Scottish Enlightenment. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd., 1982. Pp. vii, 244.£15; JOHN DWYER, ROGER A. MASON, and ALEXANDER MURDOCH, eds. New Perspectives on the Politics and Culture of Early Modern Scotland. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd., 1982. Pp. vii, 329. $31.50 (US). Reviewed by J.M. Bumsted

FRANCISCO BALDERRAMA. In Defense of La Roza: The Los Angeles Mexican Consulate and the Mexican Community, 1929–1936. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1982. Pp. xii, 137. $14.95 (US). Reviewed by Mario T. Garcia

ANTHONY BREWER. Marxist Theories of Imperialism: a Critical Survey. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980. Pp. 308. $16.95 (Can). Reviewed by Barrie M. Ratcliffe

TOBIAS R. PHLLBIN. Admiral von Hipper: The Inconvenient Hero. Amsterdam: B.R. Grüner Publishing Co. Distributed in the US by Humanities Press, 1982. Pp. xiii, 231. $27.75 (US). Reviewed by John Mcdermott

STEPHEN MAXWELL, ed. Scotland, Multinationals and the Third World. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing in conjunction with Scottish Education and Action for Development, 1982. Pp. 158. $13.75 (US). Reviewed by David S. Macmillan     

Does EU cohesion policy work? Theory and evidence

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of European Cohesion Policy in the regions of 12 EU countries in the period 1991–2008, on the basis of a spatial growth model, which allows for the identification of both direct and indirect effects of EU funds on GDP per worker growth. We find that “Objective 1” funds are characterized by strong spatial externalities and a positive and concave effect on the growth of GDP per worker, which reaches a peak at the ratio funds/GDP of approximately 3 percent and becomes non‐significant after 4 percent. “Objective 2” and “Cohesion” funds have nonsignificant effects, while all the other funds exert a positive and significant effect, but their size is very limited. EU Cohesion Policy, moreover, appears to have increased its effectiveness over time. In the period 2000–2006 Objective 1 funds are estimated to have a median multiplier equal to 1.52, and to have added 0.37 percent to the GDP per worker growth. Overall, in the period 1991–2008, funds are estimated to have added 1.4 percent to the median annual growth, and to have reduced regional disparities of 8 basis points in terms of the Gini index.