Women,Property and Urban Space in Tenth‐Century Milan

This paper deals with Milan, north‐west Italy, in the tenth century CE. It investigates the nature of property ownership and transfer, within the intramural circuit, in the suburbs and further afield. Its particular focus is on the property in which women dealt, both as members of religious communities and as wives and widows. The main conclusion is that women of all sorts and in many different sorts of situations owned far less property than men. The reasons for this pattern, which is common across western Europe in this period, remain obscure. It certainly has something to do with perceptions of female passivity prevalent in contemporary texts but it does not necessarily mean that some women could not have agency in other ways, notably as nuns with spiritual power.     

Political parties at critical junctures: explaining the decisions to offer referendums on constitutional change in the United Kingdom

This article investigates the Labour and Conservative parties’ decisions to offer referendums on constitutional change. We focus on Labour’s Scottish devolution referendum and the Conservatives’ EU referendum. Rather than responding to public demand, we argue each party offered referendums based on short-term electoral calculations. Both parties believed their commitments would resolve intra-party dissension, neutralise emergent electoral threats and expand their electorate. While each party won the subsequent election, the referendums produced long-term unintended outcomes counter to their initial objectives: an invigorated Scottish National Party and an impending EU exit. Ultimately, the consequences of both may lead to Scottish independence.     

Sub‐state national identities among minority groups in Britain: a comparative analysis of 2011 census data

Using data from a new question in the 2011 UK census, national identities across minority ethno‐religious groups in England, Wales and Scotland are compared. The findings not only substantiate earlier work showing high levels of British identification among minority groups but also demonstrate that this does not extend to sub‐state national identities. The extent of sub‐state national identification varies between different minorities, but the nature of this variation also depends on the specific (sub‐state) national context. The findings may be understood in relation to key biographical ‘markers’ of national identity. These markers help explain variations in sub‐state national identities to a much greater extent than British identity, but their effect also varies across the different nations. The analysis demonstrates the importance of examining sub‐state as well as state (British) identities and heeding differences in the ways in which these identities might be conceived and asserted across national borders within the same state.     

An accidental Bangkok theme park

ABSTRACT

Bangkok's Nana precinct began as an Indian real estate venture in the 1920s and 1930s, then emerged as an R&R destination for American servicemen in the Vietnam War era. In the present time, it has become the main focus for Middle-Eastern tourism to Bangkok. It continues as an Indian commercial community in the remnants of an American recall, catering to an un-(anti-)American Middle-Eastern clientele in a milieu of frantic consumption, bright-light spectacle, un-Islamic music and surreptitious, forbidden pleasures. This extraordinary intersection of the incongruous is approached here through four perspectives which, it is suggested, are extendible to accidental urban theme parks generally: (1) as spectacle; (2) as cultural destabilization when spectacle is interrogated in a framework of multi-cultural, multi-voiced cacophony; then (3) when interrogated in a political economy context, as deconstructive of held assumptions attaching to both consumer society and global geopolitics; thence (4) at least potentially as globally transformative – the tourist as metamorphic agent in a dialectic of assemblage and ecosystem.     

May Games and Noble Savages: The Native American in Early Celebrations of the Tammany Society

This paper discusses the May Day celebrations of the “Sons of Saint Tammany,” an American holiday fraternity under the patronage of an historical Lenape (Delaware) Indian chieftain, which incorporated many Native American performative elements. Beginning in Philadelphia in the colonial period and quickly becoming a vehicle for republican sentiments, the Tammany idea spread to many other east coast cities. The May Day revels of the Society reached their heyday in the early years of the new nation (Federalist period). Two trends in the use of Native materials are identified, the “vaudevillian” and the more serious ethnographic. The latter led to incidents of what can be called “carnivalesque diplomacy,” with native American delegations to the U.S. capital. Dr Samuel Mitchill's elaborate mythopoetic oration for the New York chapter in 1795 is taken as an end point for the creative appropriation of Native American elements. New York's Tammany Society would eventually evolve into the famous political machine of the Democratic Party, leaving behind the original May Day idyll and Indian masquerade.     

Caught between Realities: The American Revolution,the Continental Congress and Political Turmoil in the Bahama Islands

The American Revolution had a profound political, economic and social influence on the periphery colonies of the British Atlantic world, particularly in the Bahama Islands. The Continental Congress's imposition of a trade embargo against the British Empire drove island colonies, such as Bermuda and the Bahamas, to the point of starvation. Consequently, Bermudians and Bahamians petitioned the Congress for relief, offering military supplies in exchange for provisions, which led Congress to exempt both colonies from the embargo and form a general trade policy towards them. The American naval invasion of Nassau in March 1776, coupled with the ongoing trade between the islanders and the rebels, fuelled Governor Montfort Browne's fears of an internal conspiracy to bring the colony into the rebellion. These fears increased tensions between the governor, the Bahamian government and the inhabitants. Ultimately, the breakdown of the colonial government facilitated a planned coup d’état by the council to overthrow Governor Browne, a short-lived dictatorship by the governor and the end of the Congress's trade policy towards the islands. The effects of the American Revolution on the Bahamas demonstrate that the imperial conflict influenced the periphery colonies of the British Atlantic.     

Audiovisual laws and legal intervention in South American cinematic culture

In South America, various state organizations have an investment in producing some kind of ‘national’ cinema. Although different countries around the world have varied levels of government involvement, the four countries I would like to examine – Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru – can be drawn upon for their similarities and the shared regional context in which their policies operate. Particularly important is the fact that an increase in government involvement and support has been taking place in the twenty‐first century against predictions that enhanced global capital would weaken the function of the state. Furthermore, it is frequently the case that policy, in the form of government regulation and funding, provides the only means for cinema’s continued existence, visibility and access to the public and thus cannot be underestimated. Complicating these factors is the fact that while legislation is in place, government bodies often struggle to implement the policies in a practical manner. This article examines these issues and suggests the effect they are having on the cinematic culture of the region.