Resurrection in slow motion: the delayed restoration of the cinema exhibition industry in post-war Rotterdam (1940–65)

Abstract

Investigating a cultural industry such as the cinema exhibition sector allows insights in the dynamic intersections between economic, social and cultural history. One of the central questions in the debates about the history of movie-going in the Netherlands centres on why the size and number of cinemas and cinema visits per capita has been significantly lower than the average in Western Europe throughout most of the twentieth century. This article monitors the restoration and repositioning of the Rotterdam cinema exhibition sector in the new city centre arising after the devastation of the bombardment of 1940. An analysis of the trade press and the archives of the influential business association ‘NBB’ suggests how effective local exhibitors were in fending off outsider entrepreneurs and regulating internal competition. Alternative networks of socio-cultural or religious or organizations were successfully prevented from setting up a viable operation exhibiting films.     

The left hand of the Enlightenment: truth,error, and integrity in Bayle and Kant*

Taking its cue from Hannah Arendt’s comment that ‘truth gets lost in the Enlightenment’ and Lessing’s parable of God’s ‘left hand’, this paper traces a historical shift in moral and religious thought: roughly from truth to sincerity. From traditional conceptions of conscience as conditional on the objective truth of its content, the paper moves on, via the Reformation and seventeenth-century Augustinian turn, to early modern debates on toleration and the ‘erring conscience’. It is argued that Pierre Bayle’s Commentaire Philosophique of 1686 can be read as a crucial catalogue for understanding the substitution of truth with sincerity (and error): so that not truth but truthfulness is considered to be essential for moral and religious justification. Moving from Bayle to Immanuel Kant, the paper then shows how many of the same questions rise in Kant’s late essay on theodicy, which is also an essay on sincerity or integrity, via the Book of Job. Through these two thinkers, various themes are connected: from conscience and sincerity to the problem of the conscientious persecutor. Finally, these themes of truth, error and integrity are linked to the modern debate on authenticity, and a framework is proposed for conceptualising these various shifts.     

Cost-benefit appraisal of the industrial areas programme in Greece: Findings and implications

This is the second paper reporting on research which has attempted an evaluation of the performance of the Industrial Areas Programme in Greece. The programme itself has the objective of promoting industrial development in selected regions of Greece mainly through the provision of land and industrial infrastructure. It began in 1968. This research is about the cost-effectiveness of this policy and the methodologies used are those based on cost-benefit analysis. These were discussed in the first paper. This paper reports on the results of several different types of analysis. Although the research findings illustrate a wide variety in the levels of performance across the industrial areas selected for study, it is difficult not to conclude that the initiative in general has provided the state with good value for money.     

Book reviews

THE FRAGILE BLOSSOM: CRISIS AND CHANGE IN JAPAN. Zbigniew Brzezinski. New York, Harper and Row, 1972. 06–010468–6. xii, 153 pp. $US5.95.

THE SOUTHERN EXPANSION OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE: ‘SOUTHERN FIELDS AND SOUTHERN OCEAN’. C. P. FitzGerald. Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972. 07081–0220–4. xxi, 230 pp. $7.50.

IN SEARCH OF SOUTHEAST ASIA. David Joel Steinberg (ed.). Praeger, New York, 1971. 522 pp. $820 paper.

SUPER POWERS AND WORLD ORDER. Carsten Holbraad (ed.). Australian National University Press, 1971. 0–7081–0264–6. ix, 161 pp. $6.95.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY: REFLECTIONS ON SURVIVAL AND STABILITY. Kenneth J. Twitchett (ed.). Oxford University Press, London, 1971. 148 pp. $3.40 paper.

THE MASS MEDIA IN AUSTRALIA: USE AND EVALUATION. J S. Western and Colin A. Hughes. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 1971. 0–7022–0720–9. 178 pp. $6.50.

WE TOOK THEIR ORDERS AND ARE DEAD. Shirley Cass, Ros Cheney, David Malouf and Michael Wilding (eds.). Ure Smith, Sydney, 1971. 0–7254–0070–6. 256 pp. $1.75.

AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: THE DIARIES OF R. G. CASEY 1951–60. T. B. Millar (ed.). Collins, Sydney, 1972. 0–00–211001–6. 352 pp. $7.95.

AUSTRALIA AND THE UNITED STATES. Norman Harper (ed.). Nelson, Sydney, 1971. 17–004929–9. 274 pp. $5.95 hard cover, $3.25 paper.

PACIFIC POLITIES. I F. Nicholson and Colin A. Hughes (eds.). Pitman Pacific Books, Carlton, 1972. 0–85896–072–9. 286 pp. $8 hard cover, $4.50 paper.

SIR WILLIAM MACGREGOR. Roger Joyce. Oxford University Press. Melbourne, 1971. pp. XVI, 484. $15.00.

COLONIAL ISSUES IN BRITISH POLITICS 1945–61. David Goldsworthy. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971. 425 pp. $14.00.

ECONOMIC REGULATION OF THE WORLD'S AIRLINES: A POLITICAL ANALYSIS. William E. O'Connor. Praeger, New York, 1971. xii, 189 pp. $US 15.00.

TOWARD FULL EMPLOYMENT: A PROGRAMME FOR COLOMBIA. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1970. 471 pp. US$4.00, 16 SwFr, $1.60 paper.     

A Dynamic Household Model for the Housing Market of Amsterdam

This paper addresses the issue of incorporating household dynamics into operational dynamic urban models. Dynamic model approaches that can be used to model urban change are introduced and discussed. We conclude that these different approaches are best combined in an accounting framework. An example of an accounting framework for a dynamic model of Amsterdam is presented. The household submodel is discussed in detail and some preliminary results are given.