One Size Fits All? Applying the Creative Class Thesis onto a Nordic Context

The creative class thesis put forward by Florida [(2002a) The Rise of the Creative Class and How it's transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (New York: Basic Books)] has in recent years been subject to vivid debate and criticism. This article applies the creative class thesis onto a Nordic context in order to examine whether Florida's theory proves fruitful in a context different from the US. Based on qualitative data, the paper analyses the role of people climate and business climate for the location of the creative class and firms in three different kinds of regions in four Nordic countries. The analyses demonstrate that the people climate tends to be of secondary importance to the business climate in explaining the location of the Nordic creative class. This should be seen as a result of the urban hierarchy within the Nordic countries as well as a strong welfare policy, which ensures an equal distribution of public provision and supports dual career households. Together, these factors diminish the role of people climate for location choices. The study also finds that the notion of people climate has different meanings in various places, and what attracts or repels the creative class depends on the life phases of the members of the creative class. The study raises concerns about the potential for applying the creative class approach beyond large city regions, which limits its usability in regional planning.     

Latvia’s Vanished National Heroes

The nineteenth century saw the invention of the national hero. His main function was to serve as an ideal for the nation. Latvia, however, is an exception to this general rule: after it regained independence in 1990, the national hero simply disappeared and no heroic image emerged. On the contrary, it was now the victim that became the emblem of Latvia’s regained independence. The country, of course, did not lack “heroes,” for there were in fact many candidates for the creation of a national hero, yet the hero as such no longer seemed to fit the new state. While the path Latvia had chosen of rejecting or refusing national heroes had an impact on its integration into Europe, it also contributed to ongoing frictions among its own ethnic communities.     

A comprehensive numerical chronology for the pre-Columbian cultures of the Palpa valleys,south coast of Peru

Before the arrival of the Spaniards in Peru in 1532, many different societies flourished in the coastal desert of southern Peru. Of these, one of the best known is the Nasca culture (living in the area between about 260 cal BC and 640 cal BC.), which created the famous geoglyphs on the desert floor. In this paper we present a numerical chronology for the cultural development in the valleys of Palpa, in the northern part of the Nazca region, which spans the time from the Archaic Period (starting there around 3760 cal BC) to the Late Intermediate Period (terminating with the arrival of the Spaniards in 1532 AD). The chronology is based on more than 150 ¹⁴C samples collected by our project from well-documented archaeological excavations of 17 different sites in and around Palpa. Thanks to the advanced AMS-¹⁴C dating technique, demanding only few milligrams of organic material, we could focus on samples of plants, like beans, corn, or reed, representing single years of growth or use, and also on delicate materials like straw from clay bricks (adobe) and textiles. All single ¹⁴C dates were combined to cultural phases using a Bayesian statistical model, implementing the a priori information of the archaeological contexts, and adopting the relative ceramic chronologies available for this area.     

Regionalmarketing als Instrument zur Entwicklung von Nationalparkregionen Ergebnisse einer Untersuchung in der Müritz-Region

Die Integration von Nationalparken in die Regionalentwicklung ist von großer Bedeutung, um die Akzeptanz dieser Schutzgebiete in derlokalen Bevölkerung zu verbessern und um den Auftrag zur Verbesserung der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur zu erfüllen, der in vielen Nationalparkgesetzen und -verordnungen enthalten ist. In dieser Arbeit wird Regionalmarketing als ein möglicher Ansatz der Regionalentwicklung zugrunde gelegt. Es wird ein literaturgestütztes Modell des Marketing von Nationalparkregionen vorgestellt, das aus einer Prozeß- und Akteursebene und einer funktionalen Ebene besteht. In der Müritz-Region wurde mit einem ähnlichen Konzept gearbeitet. Dabei wurde eine Reihe nationalparkbezogener Projekte realisiert, zu denen das Müritz-Nationalperk-Ticket und ein Netz von Nationalpark-Eingangsbereichen als prominenteste Beispiele gehören. Aus der Fallstudie kann die Schlußfolgerung gezogen werden, daß eine Nationalpark-Verwaltung zwar maßgebliche Beiträge zum Regionalmarketing leistenkann, sich aber als Trägerinstitution weniger eignet. Nationalpark-Verwaltung und regionale Akteure sollten ein System der wechselseitigen Entscheidungsbeteiligung praktizieren, um die Entwicklung eines kohärenten touristischen Gesamtangebots in der Region zu gewährleisten.