Royal slaves in the Danish-Norwegian West Indies 1792–1848: Living in autonomy

A group of slaves owned by the King of Denmark-Norway, termed Royal Slaves, performed essential and specific functions in the urban colonial society of the Danish-Norwegian West Indies. This article traces the development of this group of slaves and examines their standard of living and level of skills compared to plantation slaves in the Danish-Norwegian West Indies. The article argues that the Royal Slaves, through their access to provision grounds, had opportunities for a better life and developed a particular group identity, and that particular Royal Slaves possessed skills which led them to have positions of substantial social status in the social hierarchy of colonial society. Lastly, the article compares the conditions of living of the Danish-Norwegian Royal Slaves to Royal Slaves in other contemporary slave communities in order to further assess how, and if, the Danish-Norwegian Royal Slaves lived and worked under considerably different conditions than other Royal Slaves across the Caribbean.     

Secession of municipalities and economies of scale: Evidence from Brazil

In the 1990s, there was a growing process of administrative decentralization that culminated in the creation of 1,016 new municipalities in Brazil. The aim of this paper is to verify the impact of the municipal secessions on the public expenditures and its association with economies of scale. Based on a Differences‐in‐Differences methodology, the obtained set of evidence indicates that those municipalities that underwent a secession process increased their per capita capital expenditures by 14.7 percent. In addition, we show evidence that strongly suggests that this increase in expenses can be explained by a reduction in economies of scale and rent‐seeking behavior.     

“It is loved and it is defended”: Critical Solidarity Across Race and Place

Since 2010, the Wixárika (Huichol) indigenous people of western Mexico have struggled against transnational mining activity in their sacred pilgrimage site of Wirikuta in the semi‐desertic plateaus of San Luis Potosí. This struggle has been accompanied by a multitude of non‐indigenous and largely urban actors who have joined the Wixárika, bringing with them their own cultural, political and geographic registers for understanding and mobilising against mining in the region. Taking Wirikuta as a contemporary demonstration of interracial and cross‐geographic alliance building, I analyse how social movements that express solidarity and affective ties with the territories and cultures of indigenous peoples struggle to unsettle entrenched racial and spatial relations.     

Mapping cultural policy in Portugal: From incentives to crisis

Abstract

Taking into account the course of cultural policy in democratic Portugal, and against the backdrop of the international crisis of 2008 and the sovereign debt crisis of 2011, this article seeks to interpret recent changes in the cultural sector in Portugal. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods it focuses on three main aspects: institutionalisation of democratic cultural policy; government funding; cultural organizations and facilities. The 2008 crisis put an end to a period in which investment tended to grow. We place Portugal in the broader European context, concluding that the Portuguese cultural scene may once again diverge from that of other European countries.     

Understanding the divergent development of the ministerial office in Australia and the UK

Large, politicised and separate ministerial offices are a feature of Australian government, while the UK ministerial office remains a hybrid unit which is part of the civil service. Using an historical institutionalist lens, and focusing on institutional factors, the article analyses why the separate partisan model evolved in Australia. It argues the Australian innovation was an historical compromise made in an unsuccessful attempt to move towards US-style political-administrative institutions. By contrast, the UK ministerial office has remained unified and hybrid, and, despite experimentation, resilient to structural and ideational change. There is ongoing pressure for more committed support for British ministers but strong forces have prevented moves towards larger offices, seen in the collapse of Extended Ministerial Offices. The article argues explanations for these divergent paths can be found in concepts such as critical junctures, path dependency and institutional resistance. The article contributes to an emerging comparative literature on advisory institutions.     

Moroccan Jewish first-places: contraction,fabrication, dissipation

Abstract

The idea of first places is inevitably linked with diasporas. At the heart of this idea and since the very start, there has always been the Jewish case. The diaspora of the Jews of Morocco, in the periphery, was presented by some authors, as a good case with which to relativize the theoretical pertinence and conceptual inspiration of the Jewish model. Focusing on Jewish history, heritage, and travelling in Morocco, I will continue to question the paradigm of social studies based on the bi-polar center-diaspora model. I will testify to the emergence and fabrication of new Jewish ‘first-places’, a process attending the aging and departure of the last Jews of Morocco and with the support of the Kingdom, while following current, and disruptive trends of contraction, commutation and dissipation of ‘first-places’ in different Jewish practices and narratives. The individualization of religious practice in post-secular societies allows and includes – and often merges – secular, ethnic and political approaches of what once was purely designated as religious identity. Heritage Moroccan landscape (and landscaping) allows different approaches and thus probably why one can think of it as an emerging ‘first-place’ for some.     

In-Situ Destructive Testing of Ancient Strengthened Masonry Vaults

ABSTRCT

Developing suitable tools to assess the actual structural performance and designing and executing interventions to improve that performance is a key issue in the field of conservation and enhancement of architectural heritage. This article presents the results of five full-scale destructive tests performed on the Castello di San Pietro in Verona (North-East Italy), a building set on a hill above the city and going back to the 19th century under the Habsburg Empire. It evaluates the behavior of the barrel vaults of 5.6 m span, 1.1 m rise, and 27 cm thickness in the original building. Although experimental work is common in the relevant literature, the testing program described here was not performed on reconstructed vaults but on original elements, which can reveal their real behavior more clearly. Four strengthening solutions were also evaluated, in which organic and inorganic fibers were applied to both types of matrix.     

Irrigator relations with water in the Sunraysia region,northwestern Victoria

Irrigated agriculture faces significant challenges under climate change, and may not be feasible in parts of the Murray‐Darling Basin beyond 2050. Recent research into the cultural politics of water has paid limited attention to the water cultures and relations of irrigators in Minority World countries. We analyse the water relations of grape farm irrigators in the Sunraysia region of Victoria using interviews and farm tours undertaken between 2014 and 2016. Findings are summarised under five themes: (1) the sociality of irrigation water, (2) temporal and spatial relations, (3) the risk of rain, (4) the micro‐scale of water knowledge, and (5) environment as actor. These themes shed light on the diverse relations that constitute both environmental and irrigation water. Irrigators are embedded in these relations at multiple scales, local and distant, mediated by technology and infrastructure. The scale of our focus makes visible water and other forms of environmental knowledge that often go unnoticed in broader debates over irrigation. The concept of “the environment”, understood as an embodied actor in policy discourse and by irrigators, is an emergent trend that warrants ongoing research attention.     

Non-destructive in situ analysis of polychromy on ancient Cypriot sculptures

The study focuses on the characterization of polychromy on limestone sculptures from Cyprus, attributed to the Cypro-Archaic—end of the Hellenistic periods. Polychromy components were identified by integrating digital microscopy, imaging under ultraviolet (UV) light, visible-induced luminescence (VIL), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and fibre optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS). Data acquisition was performed directly in exhibition rooms at the Cyprus Museum (Nicosia) and the Paphos District Archaeological Museum (Paphos). Among the identified materials, there are iron-containing (red, yellow, green) and copper-containing (green and blue) pigments. The precision of pigment identification by non-destructive techniques is discussed, and specific pigment names are proposed: red iron oxide, yellow iron oxide-hydroxide, green earth and Egyptian blue. Interesting results were obtained by VIL, which allowed identifying traces of Egyptian blue otherwise undetectable with the naked eye. Complementary, this study discusses advantages and problems of combined and separate use of portable XRF and FORS, raising the question of their complementarity and interchangeability for the purposes of pigment identification.