The existence of open areas during the Mesolithic: evidence from aeolian sediments in the Elbe–Jeetzel area,northern Germany

Traditionally Mesolithic hunter–gatherer cultures are supposed to have lived in a primeval forest environment with a closed vegetation cover during the Early and Mid-Holocene. It is not until the onset of subsequent Neolithic agricultural societies that the development of more expansive open areas is assumed. Therefore our perception of the Mesolithic economy in the European lowlands is highly affected by the idaea of adaptation to dense forest environments and a very stable system of resource exploitation. However, recent palaeoenvironmental studies provide evidence that areas of open landscapes must have existed at least temporarily during the Mesolithic and evoke the question whether human impact may be accountable for this.     

The legacy of Atatürk: the limits of conditionality in Turkish European Union membership negotiations

There exists a significant and sustained difference between the ability of the European Union to successfully socialise those member states who have joined since the fall of Communism, and its apparent inability to similarly socialise Turkey. Despite some impressive legal and constitutional reforms since 2001, a key shortcoming remains, the unwillingness of many in the Turkish judiciary to implement those revised standards in a consistent way. Existing explanatory accounts of this inability would focus on the credibility of the Union offer of membership, the duration of negotiations or the importance of Turkish domestic standards. None of these, however, are able to account for why Turkey seems to occupy a half way position, exhibiting reformed laws but unreformed legal practice. To address this shortcoming this article shall combine existing scholarship on the importance of domestic normative contestation within Turkey with an appraisal of the shortcomings of the Union's conditionality policy itself that emerge from the conceptual studies of conditionality.     

L'histoire des sciences et l'enseignement scientifique

In the second half of the xix^th century, Victor Duruy introduces a remarkable innovation by founding a composition on method and history of science in the three scientificagrégations (mathematics, physical sciences, natural sciences). Subjects have been collected and place allowed to history, after the suppression of this test, is analyzed. At the beginning of the xx^th century, the history of science has disappeared fromagrégation, but training teachers in history of science still appears as a necessity and requests are made to include the discipline in their curriculum. Introduction of the history of science might contribute to abolish drastic partitions between different topics and the history of scientific education would give masters distance towards matter they teach.     

Framed for Compromise? The Role of Bill Framing in State Legislative Behavior on Natural Gas Policy

State legislative decision making on natural gas policy has become a balancing act, as legislators are forced to grapple with tensions between economically beneficial policies and environmental impacts. Despite increased public attention to the benefits and costs related to hydraulic fracturing, there has been little scholarly attention paid to how policy framing affects legislator behavior on this issue. We analyze recorded votes on bills relating to natural gas policy in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico between 1999 and 2008; a time period spanning the recent boom. Using a novel database of bill frames, we create a ratio measure that accounts for the proportion of environmental to economic arguments within each piece of legislation. We find status quo–challenging, anti‐development policies can receive bipartisan support, as long as economic frames balance or are greater than environmental frames. Framing natural gas as a win‐win scenario where economic benefit and environmental protection can be achieved simultaneously is an effective legislative strategy. Using the case of natural gas policy, this study demonstrates bill framing substantively affects state legislator vote choice and implies bipartisan compromise is possible given the right balance of frames.     

Finding a middle ground: Conservation challenges among stakeholders in coastal Tanzania (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

Recently, evictions associated with climate change mitigation in the Rufiji Delta of Tanzania sparked intense debate about the ethics of coastal conservation between academics, NGOs (non‐governmental organizations) and government officials working in the region. Some actors argue that environmental change is a myth used to wrest control of natural resources from local communities, while others point to the urgency of environmental protection and action on climate change. Insights gleaned from interviews with multiple government officials, NGO employees, academics, and coastal village residents in Pangani, however, reveal a more complex and perhaps less contentious situation in coastal Tanzania. Although they often proffered different solutions, different stakeholder groups articulated the same key challenges in nuanced ways that shed a more hopeful light on currently heated conservation and development issues.