Paul Valéry on Photography: A Poetic Writing of Light and Time

This article studies Paul Valéry's personal reflection on photography, as it appears in his essay “Le Discours du Centenaire de la Photographie,” based on a speech given at the Sorbonne in 1939 to members of the French Academy. It stresses the relationship between this essay and the French poet's writings on painting and aesthetics, in particular his work on Corot. Moreover, it analyzes the synthetic character of Valéry's critical approach, which attempts to bring together the language of poetry, philosophy and science when dealing with this utterly modern visual language. Photography is celebrated here as a unique art form that can at the same time imitate and reproduce nature perfectly, while allowing mankind to create a cosmological vision of life and the universe. In other words, the poet underlines in this text the utmost modernity of photography, at a time when many in France were still reluctant to acknowledge its artistic identity.     

ON THE IMPACT OF COMPETITION ON TRADE AND FIRM LOCATION

We study how the level of trade costs and the intensity of competition interact to explain the nature and intensity of trade within a given industry and the location of firms across countries. As trade costs decrease from very high to very low values, the global economy moves from autarky to two‐way trade, through one‐way trade from the larger to the smaller region. By exploring the intensive and extensive margins of exports, we investigate how the intensity of trade reacts to the degree of competitiveness. Furthermore, when firms are free to change location, they flow from the small to the large country, and the larger country is always a net exported on the manufactured good. Firms located in the big country have a bigger size than those located in the small one. Under one‐way trade, the relocation of firms changes their attitude toward export.     

The Spatial Distribution of French Agricultural Cooperatives: An Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis

Abstract

This paper studies the spatial dynamics of French agricultural cooperatives using the recently developed exploratory spatial data analysis tool. Analysis at the level of French districts in 1995 and 2005 shows strong evidence for global and local spatial autocorrelations in the geographical distribution of agricultural cooperatives. The presence of spatial disparities between French districts is confirmed by the detection of such specific spatial patterns as district clusters, a group of neighbouring districts with the same high or low level of agricultural cooperative activities. A typology of all the different Regions is developed to examine the specific spatial patterns of the agricultural cooperative activities. The results indicate that major organizational changes in cooperatives do not significantly modify the initial dynamics concerning the location of activities.     

Multicultural democracy: can it work?

After differentiating multicultural democracy (MD) from other types of democracy (liberal, consociational, ethnic and Herrenvolk), this article explores both the conditions favouring MD and the problems it faces. The main obstacle to MD is the model of the ‘nation–state’, which has been the basis of legitimacy in most liberal democracies since the French Revolution. Multiculturalism has existed in many non–democratic states (such as colonial and traditional empires) and in city–states. A distinction is made between minimal MD (the simple tolerance and legal protection of cultural diversity) and maximal MD (the celebration, encouragement and official support thereof). The article concludes that minimal MD is the more feasible of the two, and that political and social conditions for it are the most favourable in urban environments, especially in city–states.     

Quasi in domo propria sub securitate sanaretur: a peace agreement between King Swein Forkbeard and Duke Richard II of Normandy

In his Gesta Normannorum Ducum, William of Jumièges related that the Danish king Swein Forkbeard, at the outset of his conquest of England, came to Rouen and met Richard II. Both leaders negotiated a peace agreement that authorized the Danes to sell their booty in Normandy and provided them with assistance and security. This article examines the circumstances and the clauses of the agreement and its place in the narrative of the Gesta. The author linked the circumstances of the agreement to the St Brice’s Day massacre, which provided him with the opportunity to present a very negative portrait of King Æthelred II. While one should be very careful about the author's claims and chronology, a comparison with other similar agreements renders the terms of the treaty, as related by William, plausible.