Electricity Transformed: Neoliberalism and Local Energy in the United States

Abstract: The concept of neoliberalism is explored with respect to the history of the electricity industry and policy in the USA. Rather than view “neoliberalism” as an all‐encompassing form of governmentality or a hegemonic regime, it is instead situated in a political field of competing ideologies, policies, practices, and agents that includes social liberalism, socialism, and cooperativism, with hegemonic and redistributive forms of both social liberalism and neoliberalism distinguished. The field approach enables a dynamic interpretation of the history of the electricity industry in the USA that tracks the relative role of government intervention in the economy, scale shifts in the level of government intervention, and the extent to which the policies favor elite accumulation or redistribution to less favored economic categories. The field approach also enables an analysis of local responses to market restructuring that suggest some examples of redistributive politics, even local socialism, that have emerged as a consequence of marketplace restructuring.     

Coping with Peripheralization: Governance Response in Two German Small Cities

Urban governance processes and strategies in small cities in times of an integrated global economy have received little attention in urban research. However, in Germany as elsewhere they form the backbone of the urban system. On the basis of research in two small German cities—Pirmasens and Völklingen—this paper discusses local governance approaches in reaction to peripheralization. Peripheralization here is defined as a process of out-migration, dis-connection, dependency and stigmatization. The two case studies show quite different patterns of political governance. Pirmasens demonstrates a collective local project on how to deal with structural change, while Völklingen shows a more fragmented approach to overcoming peripheralization. These different political reactions are analysed and related to aspects of specific local settings. It is to be hoped that in future cohesion policy at the European level, but also on the respective national levels, more active policies will be targeted towards nurturing place-based opportunities for small cities.     

Commemorating ‘Struggle Heroes’: Constructing a Genealogy for the New South Africa

This article focuses on new commemorative monuments, memorials and statues in post‐apartheid South Africa. The identification, preservation, celebration and display (not least for tourists) of heritage, especially the heritage of those previously marginalised, are flourishing throughout the country. This article examines how new monuments contribute to constructing new identities in the post‐apartheid context. It will first discuss the perceived need for monuments generally, and the identification and public commemoration of ‘heroes’ in particular. It then explores how selected heroes are linked to processes of identity formation. It will be suggested that by identifying and celebrating new heroes, we, as communities and as a nation, create a genealogy, a chosen ancestry—not in biological but in ideological terms—which serves as a foundation for the construction of our preferred identity.     

Strathern's Melanesian ‘dividual’ and the Christian ‘individual’: a Perspective from Vanua Lava,Vanuatu

What happens to people's concept of the person when their ‘dividuality’ engages with the Christian concept of the ‘individual’? According to Vanua Lava kastom, when people die they go to sere timiat, the place of the dead. But do they still go there when the person had been a Christian during their life time? Where is the Christian heaven and hell? Is there a separate Christian ‘soul’? Will the dead be eternally separated from each other and their ancestors? Can kastom and Christian concepts be reconciled? Depending on denomination and degree of conversion (devout, nominal, or ‘back‐slider’) people have found multiple answers that help them conceptualise their final resting place. Their answers are of relevance for theoretical debates in anthropology about dividuality, individuality and engagement with modernity.     

Testing heterogeneity in faunal assemblages from archaeological sites. Tumbling and trampling experiments at the early-Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (Israel)

The current paper reports an experimental case study to test the heterogeneity of faunal assemblages from the Early-Middle Pleistocene Layers V-5 and V-6 of the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov Acheulian site (Israel). Tumbling and trampling experiments were initiated to gain qualitative insight into processes of bone modification and to assess the timing of the biostratonomic chronology, as it was assumed that both mechanisms were responsible for the formation of striations documented on the bone surfaces from the site. The tumbling experiments mimicked sediment movement in a calm lacustrine shoreline environment whereas the trampling experiments investigate the role of animal/hominin activities in dry, muddy and wet environments. Models for the internal operational sequence of an abrasional process due to uni- and multidirectional water movement and of a trampling scenario are presented. These models are used for the interpretation of the fauna from Gesher Benot Ya’aqov.     

The Virtues of Persistence

Book reviewed in this article:
Mark A. Stoler, Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, The Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II     

Characterisation of the raw metal sources used for the production of copper and copper-based objects with copper isotopes

Copper isotopes can be successfully used to determine the origin of copper or bronze artefacts from either primary or supergene sulphide or hydrocarbonate ores. In conjunction with lead isotopes, they provide information on the origin and type of the metal ore. We demonstrate this in this paper from the combination of literature and own data on metal ores and artefacts (coins and ingots). Low-temperature hydrocarbonates (esp. malachite and azurite) do not fractionate the copper isotopes amongst each other and have identical lead isotopes. Substantial fractionation of copper isotopes, however, occurs between copper sulphides and hydrocarbonates (malachite, azurite) such that the ⁶⁵Cu isotope is always enriched in the oxidised relative to the sulphide phase with a clear distinction between the two ore types. Expressed in the δ⁶⁵Cu notation, we assigned supergene sulphides to values less than −0.4‰ down to negative values of −2‰ and more, primary sulphides to a range between −0.4 and +0.3‰ and hydrocarbonates to positive values higher than +0.3‰. We have applied these boundaries to copper coins and ingots from the time of the Roman emperors with known ages from Augustus up to 250 AD. The deposit fields of the metal used for the production of the coins were previously identified from the lead isotope ratios to lie in the Southwest and the Central South of Spain. From the combination of the lead and copper isotopes and the exact time constrains, we could develop a picture of the change in mining activities in Spain involving continued mining sulphide ore deposits and, indicated by positive δ⁶⁵Cu values as proxies for malachite and azurite, the opening of new mines in various time slots. This first application shows that copper isotopes will become the most important tool in archaeometallurgy to distinguish between the exploitation of deeper-seated primary and supergene sulphide ores and shallower, secondary hydrocarbonate ores. This will become especially relevant for archaeometric questions regarding the distinction between occasional and intentionally produced alloys.     

Book Reviews

Guilain P. Denoeux, The United States and the Challenge of Democratization in the Arab World. Washington, DC: Occasional Paper, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, 1996. 38 pp. npg.

Walid Khalidi, Islam, the West and Jerusalem. Washington, DC: Occasional Paper, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and Center for Muslim‐Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, 1996. 24 pp. npg.

Rick Fawn and Jeremy Larkins (eds), International Society after the Cold War: Anarchy and Order Reconsidered. London: Macmillan, 1996. 302 pp. $39.95 (paper).

Mark Turner and David Hume, Governance, Administration and Development: Making the State Work. London: Macmillan, 1997. xv + 272 pp. $34.95 (cloth).

Michael Pugh (ed.), The UN, Peace and Force. London: Frank Cass, 1997. 209 pp. £29.50 (cloth), £15.00 (paper).

Kent E. Calder, Asia's Deadly Triangle: How Arms, Energy and Growth Threaten to Destabilize Asia Pacific. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1996. xi + 253 pp. npg.

Joseph M. Siracusa and Yeong‐Han Cheong, America's Australia, Australia's America: A Guide to Issues and References. Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1997. 160 pp. US21.95 (cloth), US$12.95 (paper).

Phillip Darby (ed.), At the Edge of International Relations: Postcolonialism, Gender and Dependency. London: Pinter, 1997. £45.00 (cloth).

Peter Stirk, A History of European Integration Since 1914. London: Pinter, 1996. vii + 308 pp. £42.50 (cloth), £16.99 (paper).

Philip J. Eldridge, Non‐Government Organizations and Democratic Participation in Indonesia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. $55.00 (cloth).

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Indonesia's Strategic Culture: Ketahanan Nasional. Wawasan Nusantara and Hankamrata. Griffith University: Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australia‐Asia Papers No. 75, May 1996. x + 49 pp. $10.00 (paper).

Garry Rodan, Kevin Hewison and Richard Robison (eds), The Political Economy of South‐East Asia: An Introduction. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997. xiv + 299 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Curtis Andressen and Keichi Kumagai, Escape from Affluence: Japanese Students in Australia. Griffith University: Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australia‐Asia Papers no. 79, December 1996. vi + 116 pp. $16.00 (paper).

Kim Richard Nossal and Carolynn Vivian, A Brief Madness: Australia and the Resumption of French Nuclear Testing. Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 121, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, 1997. $15.00 (paper).

William H. Lewis and Stuart E. Johnson, Weapons of Mass Destruction: New Perspectives on Counter Proliferation. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1995. npg.

Hendro Subroto, Eyewitness to Integration of East Timor. Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 1997. 279 pp. 29,000 Rupiah.     

Messen und Zählen. Die Herstellung des normalen Menschen als Maß der Gesundheit

The emergence of a ‘norm of normalcy’ in 19th century laboratories and hospitals was in no way simply a byproduct of the scientific search for knowledge. It was instead closely associated with expectations of social egalitarianism which merged with the moral economy of a new scientific objectivity. The establishment of normal people as a valid measure for a population socially divided and segregated in estates was thus an essential element of the processes of social formation which created our modern society.