Grassroot responses to the Tohoku earthquake of 11 March 2011: Overcoming the dichotomy between victim and helper (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This article examines the response of a large Buddhist organization, Soka Gakkai, to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. While this response was significant, it has not been reported in Japanese national news. An important question that is emerging for development agencies and academics as they look back over the response to the crisis, is how people possibly survived for the first few days and months, given that government aid did not reach some people for up to two months. This article highlights one significant early response and points to the problem of how to overcome the victim/helper dualism which is rooted in much failing NGO aid and development projects.     

Defending the Concept of Time in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

Due to the scarcity of reflection on time as an independent subject in the Hebrew Bible, there has been a scholarly tendency to consider biblical time conception more limited than our own_perhaps even nonexistent. This article confronts the scholarly skepticism regarding the ability of the biblical authors to think about time, defending the presence of time conceptualization in the Hebrew Bible. In the article I discuss central research contributions to the subject of biblical time, in particular Sacha Stern’s thesis that the concept of time is entirely absent from the Hebrew Bible and from ancient Judaism more widely. I explore linguistic and anthropological assumptions which underpin large parts of the discussion on time within biblical studies, arguing that one cannot assume on the basis of either that the biblical authors lacked a concept of time. Finally, I suggest that the ability of the biblical writers to coordinate unrelated processes according to a temporal axis is a strong argument in favour of their awareness of time.     

GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY OF DANISH DUAL‐EARNER COUPLES—THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHANGE OF JOB AND CHANGE OF RESIDENCE*

ABSTRACT We analyze the relationship between geographical residence and job mobility for Danish dual‐earner couples. We estimate the probability of moving residence and changing job, taking the interdependence between the events into account. The results point to the importance of addressing the interrelationship between residence and jobs. Furthermore, the change of residence matter more than change of job and women respond relatively more to changes in their husbands’ job region. The findings imply that mobility promoting initiatives must focus on families rather than individuals and recognize that for most families the choice of residence location dominates the choice of job location.     

Mineralogical and geochemical characterization of high-medieval lead–silver smelting slags from Wiesloch near Heidelberg (Germany)—an approach to process reconstruction

Here, we present detailed electron microprobe analyses and age data of high-medieval lead–silver smelting slags. The mineral composition data provide a database of all silicate and oxide phases in the slag. Bulk chemistry as well as mineral composition is used to reconstruct liquidus, solidus, and viscosity of the slag melt. By calculating the mass balance of the smelting process, a mass ratio of the various compounds used in the smelting process is determined. Through this we were able to discriminate qualitatively between non-ferrous metal smelting slags and bloomery slags. We also report a new type and process of silver production in which argentiferous galmei (zinc carbonate) was used as a main silver ore together with galena. The results indicate a sophisticated high-medieval smelting technology, in which a slag with a low liquidus and a low viscosity was created.     

Quality turns in Nordic food: a comparative analysis of specialty food in Denmark,Norway and Sweden

ABSTRACT

This article compares the development of specialty food in Denmark, Norway and Sweden using a number of quantitative indicators as well as a qualitative analysis of government policy. The analysis shows that specialty food has increased in importance in all three countries over the last twenty years, but there are important differences in the kind of specialty food that has developed and the nature of government intervention and governance structures. Overall, Sweden appears to have the largest production of specialty food and drink and is particularly strong in organic production and consumption, farm processing and farm shops. Norway has a large number of products with protected origin and also leads in the number of farmers’ markets. Denmark lags behind the other countries on most indicators, but has witnessed the fastest growth in microbreweries over the last five years. Theoretically, the article challenges the ‘negative’ definition of specialty food as ‘non-industrial’ or ‘alternative’, and suggests a more nuanced approach. Empirically, it points towards the possible existence of a ‘Scandinavian model’ of specialty food governance with extensive interaction between central government, local government and private firms to stimulate the growth of specialty food.     

Identity and social solidarity: an ignored connection. A historical perspective on the state of Europe and its nations

The article comments on the ongoing de‐Europeanisation and re‐nationalisation of Europe from a historical perspective. The article argues that the building of national community from the 1870s onwards focused on the problem of social integration where the development of emotional feelings of belonging and solidarity was linked to the building of institutions for social politics in mutually reinforcing dynamics. The social question emerged in the wake of the spread of industrial capitalism. Its role is underexplored in the study of the building of national and European communities. The social question draws attention to the institutional capacity of nation states rather than nations based on emotions. Nationalism did not only mean the building of friend‐ enemy distinctions through ethnicity but also national socialism as a conservative reform strategy against class struggle socialism. This contention between two approaches to the problem of social integration moulded together national communities through emotions and institutions without deploying the concept of identity. The article outlines this development, culminating in the (West) European welfare states as nation– states in the strong sense of the merger of these two terms, and how it came to an end in the 1970s when a reverse development began towards social disintegration at the end accompanied by accelerating nationalism and xenophobia. The identity concept was mobilised in 1973 as a tool in the European integration project to compensate for the erosion of social institutions by means of emotions. It was taken over and politicised from having been a technical term in mathematics and psychoanalysis. The politicisation of the identity concept was an indication of a deep identity crisis in Europe and its nations. The identity therapy failed, and the identity crisis remains, accompanied by an ever louder nationalistic and xenophobic vocabulary. Emotions replace institutions. The methodological focus of the article is on the semantics around key concepts such as social politics, solidarity and identity in their historical context as forward‐looking and action‐oriented concepts in the construction of community. This approach with a focus on past futures is an alternative to the application of the retrospective analytical concepts of ethnic and civic nationalism outlining present pasts.