From born to made: technology, biology and space

This paper is concerned with forging new links between geography and biology and technology by delivering a set of shocks to the meaning of accepted categories like 'nature' and 'technology'. To achieve these dual aims, the paper will double click on the icon 'intelligence'. 'Intelligence' prioritizes the active shaping of environments . It thereby allows space for the spaces of the world to themselves become a part of intelligibility and intellect as elements of distributed cognition and , as will become clear, pre-cognition. The paper argues that such a conception of sentience can provide a series of new perspectives, as well as a pressing ethical challenge.     

Book reviews

Katrien Polman. The central Moluccas: an annotated bibliography. XXVI, 324 pp. Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1983. (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land en Volkenkunde. Bibliographical Series, 12.)

S. W. R. Mulyadi (ed.). Hikayat Indraputra: a Malay romance, vii, 315 pp., 6 plates. Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1983. (Koninklijk Ihstituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Biblotheca Indonesica, 23.) Guilders 30.     

Success,swing and gender: The performance off women candidates for parliament in New Zealand, 1946–87

New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote, and it has a higher proportion of women as Members of Parliament than any of the other Anglo‐American first‐past‐the‐post democracies. An examination of the vote‐pulling powers of women candidates for Parliament in all the general elections in New Zealand since the end of the Second World War finds that female candidates for the Labour Party have done statistically significantly better than their male counterparts, but for National Party candidates the reverse is the case — men perform better than women. Various reasons for these findings are canvassed, including the possibilities that Labour in New Zealand is benefitting from its initiatives with respect to women's affairs, and from the female equivalent of an ‘old boys’ network.     

Russia and the IMF

Russia's economic crisis in the summer of 1998 has renewed debate as to whether the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has helped, hindered or been irrelevant to economic transition in the core of the former Soviet Union. The authors examine the relationship between the Fund and Russia over the past ten years, highlighting a mixed record of successes, failures and the limits of the Fund's role. They argue that the institution may well have also inadvertently facilitated the rise of political forces which are today opposed to the second phase of reforms which Russia so desperately needs. In conclusion, the authors question whether the IMF ought to continue to lead Western attempts to foster stability and growth in Russia.     

EUROPEAN BRIEFING: The Transition to Environmental Agriculture in Europe: Learning Processes and Knowledge Networks

Environmental policies in agriculture have now been fully incorporated into policy throughout Europe both within and outside of the European Union. One of the cornerstones to the successful implementation of these policies is both the willingness and ability of farmers to implement them. Many actors influence both the formulation and implementation of such policies, from governments, through pressure groups and the agricultural knowledge networks (AKNs) in various countries, to farmers themselves. In assessing the principal objectives of all of these actors, it can be seen that none has environmental goals as their principal objective, and the development of policies is thus both difficult and a residual priority. This situation is likely to be ameliorated not through a focus on more effective policy instruments for agri-environmental polices, but through adjustments of administrative structures for both their development and in carrying them out.