Carlisle: Function and Change between the First and Seventh Centuries AD

Archaeological excavations combined with antiquarian observations shed considerable light on the evolution of Roman Carlisle. From being a fort in the northern advance under Cerialis and Agricola, Carlisle developed as a nodal hub supported by a number of activity ‘zones’. By the early third century most had become absorbed into the newly created civitas capital. The Roman town declined and stone buildings became ruinous, a process that probably commenced before the fourth century and continued until the land was taken over by the kings of Northumbria and the church in the seventh century. Scanty archaeological records for the sub- and post-Roman periods are supplemented by implications for socio-political structures drawn from texts.     

Sunshine and the Open Shop: Ford and Darwin in 1920s Los Angeles

By 1910, Los Angeles was already notorious as national capital of the open shop. During World War I, the Chamber of Commerce launched an ambitious campaign to attract eastern investment to new manufacturing districts southeast of downtown. With the arrival of hundreds of branch plants in the 1920s, Los Angeles' business leaders—quoting Ford and vulgarizing Darwin—embraced a sweeping vision of Urban Eugenics based on scientific factory planning, proprietary industrial suburbs, mass-produced bungalows, and a racially selected workforce. Even Mother Nature was a scab.     

Dublin's temple bar—a case study of culture‐led regeneration

The Temple Bar project in Dublin has been widely viewed as a model of culture‐led regeneration. However, the outcomes of the project show that many of its original aims, such as the maintenance and enhancement of a diverse range of uses to cater for both the needs of the local population and those of investors, have not been achieved. This would seem to be in part the result of the high priority given to image enhancement at the expense of social objectives.     

LOS ANGELES AFTER THE STORM: THE DIALECTIC OF ORDINARY DISASTER

This article weighs recent scientific evidence that the urbanization of Southern California has taken place during one of the most unusual episodes of climatic and seismic benignity in the last 3500 years. Official disaster and resource planning, moreover, has been based on record-keeping shorter than the temporal wavelengths of the most important landscape processes. Indeed, the “biblical” flood, fire, and earthquake disasters of the last three years may only be a prelude to seismic and climatic events of far greater magnitude. What will be the future of the Los Angeles area if Congress refuses to continue federal disaster subsidies?     

The Scottish Parliament,Regulation and Land Use Planning

Constitutional reforms are taking place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These offer the opportunity to bring about a more effective policy framework for a range of policy areas including land use planning. In Scotland, the introduction of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 could allow the improvement of spatial planning policy and practice in a variety of ways, including bringing a more strategic approach at regional level, introducing a national plan and ensuring greater links with innovative community planning exercises. Such improvements could ensure a more sustainable environment as well as a more inclusive society and could offer lessons for similar practice in other contexts.     

The Changing Regime: Forest Property and Reformasi in Indonesia

This article explores the dominant explanations of the failure of forest management in Indonesia within the public discourse of the late New Order period. Drawing on a review of salient literature and relevant case studies, the major part of the article discusses the underlying historical, institutional and political causes of the failure of the state property regime. By taking a narrow view of the issues, public discourse during the New Order (1966–98) avoided discussion of the structure of property relations and the power relations that supported them. However, the forest fires of 1997–8 and the ensuing ecological crisis have revealed that the forest policy that allocated property rights over vast areas of the nation’s forests to well-connected conglomerates and politico-business families was inequitable and lacked legitimacy. While new legislative initiatives open up possibilities for co-management, the reforms so far barely engage with the underlying structure of property rights. These issues will need to be more thoroughly addressed if Indonesia is to tackle the bitter legacy of the Suharto period.