Australian Cenozoic Bryozoa, 2: Free-living Cheilostomata of the Eocene St. Vincent Basin,S.A., including Bonellina gen. nov

Schmidt, R., March 2007. Australian Cenozoic Bryozoa, 2: Free-living Cheilostomata of the Eocene St. Vincent Basin, S.A., including Bonellina gen. nov. Alcheringa 31, 67-84. ISSN 0311-5518.

Free-living bryozoans are diverse in the Eocene sediments of the St. Vincent Basin, South Australia. They include Bonellina pentagonalis gen. et sp. nov., Otionellina sp. cf. O. exigua (Tenison Woods), Otionellina sp. cf. O. cupola (Tenison Woods), Tubiporella magna (Tenison Woods), Celleporaria nummularia (Tenison Woods), and an indeterminate species only found as moulds. This diversity and abundance is highest in the sediments representing the initial transgressive marine facies, where they occur in ‘sand fauna’ bryozoan assemblages (e.g. with Melicerita and Siphonicytara). Free-living bryozoans decrease up-section and are absent from latest Eocene sediments, indicating a significant environmental shift.

Rolf Schmidt [rschmid@museum.vic.gov.au], Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Vic 3001, Australia; received 18.3.2005, revised 14.12.2005.     

R&D Cooperation in Innovation Systems—Some Lessons from the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS)

Our paper summarizes some of the main results of the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS) as far as they are discussed in this special issue of European Planning Studies . The overall target of the ERIS project is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of determinants crucial for the innovation potential of any region, i.e. innovative and non-innovative manufacturing firms, business services and research institutions, as well as the innovative linkages and networks between these actors. Empirical research is based upon almost 8600 questionnaires collected in 11 European regions. Results confirm some of the common hypotheses on the relationship between space and innovation networks but others are contrary to existing scientific knowledge. Obviously the impact of national innovation systems on the innovation activities of manufacturing firms in a given European region is-at least-as strong as the impact of the respective regional innovation system. The spatial range of innovative linkages significantly depends on the size, the type of the cooperation partner, the R&D intensity and the industry of the analysed manufacturing firm. For example, the higher the technology intensity of the industry, the greater is the need of each firm to use intraregional knowledge via innovation linkages. It is therefore an important task in regional innovation policy to promote network-building among firms and other actors of a regional innovation system and to interlink these intraregional networks with national and international knowledge sources.     

Will Historical Archaeology Escape Its Western Prejudices to Become Relevant to Africa?

A major problem facing North American approaches to historical archaeology is the exclusionary manner in which the discipline is defined. By confining historical archaeology to the era of capitalism and colonialism, we declare that the indigenous histories of many areas of the globe are of no interest to such an intellectual agenda. If we practice an historical archaeology that only valorizes the colonial experience, then what happens to history making that engaged cultures in the pre-capitalist and pre-modern era? Such approaches separate the histories of people in Africa from those of the West, and, is in effect, academic apartheid. To remedy this disjuncture, we interrogate how historical archaeology may escape the bounds of implicit racism in its denial of historicity before literacy. We suggest that breaking the chains of exclusion is the only way to realize an inclusive archaeology sensitive to all history making projects.