Protestantism,nation and diaspora in Imperial Germany

This article examines the close connection between Protestantism and nationalism in Imperial Germany within a transnational context. In the years before 1914, the Prussian State Church in particular strengthened the legal and organisational framework for an increasing number of diaspora congregations to become attached. These acted as an important vehicle to embed the nationalist rhetoric produced within the Reich into emigrants' notions of belonging. Whilst previous scholarship has noted this connection in general, the article sheds more detailed light on the mechanics and structure, but also on the limits, of this process. Feedback processes from periphery to centre, in turn, had an impact on German national identity construction as that of a nation that was not confined to state borders. Applying a constructionist theoretical framework, the contested question of whether the heterogeneity of Germans abroad allows for the application of the diaspora concept is answered affirmatively.     

Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar

Abstract: This article calls for the recognition of a subsector of the informal economy, which is conceptualized as the “survival sector”. Based on empirical evidence from Antananarivo, Madagascar it is suggested that beggars, street children and other marginalized people constitute a separate, non‐productive subsector of the economy, which is also distinguishable from formal and informal economies because of other aspects, such as the character of its social and economic networks, survival strategies, patterns of social and physical mobility, and the social and public spaces occupied. Given the vast number of marginalized people in the world, it seems useful to consider a survival sector of its own that is, despite interlinkages, fundamentally different from other components of the informal economy.     

Third Carthage: Struggles and Contestations Over Archaeological Space

This paper investigates how the archaeological site of modern Carthage was (re)produced and (re)appropriated by various interest groups from the early 19th century to the present. It traces the struggle of archaeologists and conservationists to protect Carthage’s ancient ruins within a changing urban environment invariably dominated by Tunisia’s most powerful and influential elites. The paper highlights some controversial issues that have affected the unity of an envisaged archaeological park in the area. In doing so, it brings to the fore the ongoing conflict between the different statuses of Carthage: symbolic capital of Tunisia, historic site, living city and tourist destination.     

Book reviews

Ian McLean, White Aborigines. Identity Politics in Australian Art, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. x + 204 pp., 9 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–521–58416–7. £40.00.

Ákos Moravánszky, Competing Visions. Aesthetic Invention and Social Imagination in Central European Architecture, 1867–1918, Cambridge, Mass. & London: MIT Press, 1998. xvi + 508 pp., 32 col. and 312 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–262–13334–2. £29.95.

Andrew Piersenné, Explaining Our World, London and New York: E. & F. N. Spon, 1999. xii + 252 pp., 50 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–419–21940–4. £45–00.

Simone Abram, Jacqueline Waldren and Donald V. L. Macleod (eds.), Tourists and Tourism: Identifying with People and Places, Oxford and New York: Berg, 1997. xii + 245 pp., 4 figs. ISBN 1–85973–905–9. £14.99.

Martin Cooper (ed.), Laser Cleaning in Conservation: An Introduction, Oxford: Butterworth‐Heinemann, 1998. xii + 98 pp, 43 col. and 11 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–7506–3117–1. £40.00.

Jon Lang, Madhavi Desai and Miki Desai, Architecture and Independence. The Search for Identity—India 1880 to 1980, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997. xxii + 347 pp., c. 750 b. & w. illus. and figs. ISBN 0–19–563900–6. £20.00.     

The rise and fall of ‘critical’ historiography? Some reflections on the historiographical agenda of the left in Britain,France and Germany at the end of the twentieth century

This article compares the rise and fall of ‘critical’, that is to say oppositional and emancipatory, historiography in Britain, France and Germany since 1945. It argues that the prolonged crisis of the old ‘critical’ paradigm from the late 1970s onwards had much to do with political disillusionment and methodological weaknesses. It concludes by suggesting that any new ‘critical’ historiography will have to explore the opportunities inherent in the multitude of radical histories which developed in the 1980s and 1990s (most notably history‐from‐below, cultural, feminist and post‐modernist histories), without attempting to homogenise and synthesise these diverse and separate forms of historical writing into some new super‐paradigm, which would only produce new closures and erasures.     

Herbert Morrison's London Labour Party in the Interwar Years and the SPD: Problems of Transferring German Socialist Practices to Britain

Herbert Morrison's rebuilding of the London Labour Party (LLP) in the interwar years was consciously modelled on the organizational success of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which Morrison knew and admired from several visits before and after the First World War. The article discusses what aspects of the SPD's organization Morrison tried to transfer to the British capital and why his considerable success in transforming the LLP German-style had its limits. Morrison not only aimed to build an efficient electoral machine, but he also wanted to copy the SPD's vast cultural and educational associations, which catered for Social Democrats ‘from cradle to grave’. However, as the article suggests, differences in political culture between Britain and Germany impacted significantly on Morrison's efforts. A more developed and more vibrant mass culture as well as the greater gulf between labour movement culture and working-class culture in Britain undermined the successful transfer of German party-political models. Other factors, such as the different organization of party funding, the different organization of civil society in Britain and Germany and the lack of a federal tradition in Britain also help to explain the limited success of this instance of political transfer.

Re´sume´:?La reconstruction par Herbert Morrison du London Labour Party (LLP) durant l'entre-deux-guerres se modela sur le succès du parti social démocrate allemand (SPD), que Morrison connaissait et admirait depuis ses visites avant et après la première guerre mondiale. Cet article se penche sur ce que Morrison voulut transférer du SPD et sur les limites de ce transfert pourtant plutôt réussi dans la transformation du LLP à l'allemande. Morrison souhaitait créer une machine électorale puissante mais il voulait aussi copier les organisations culturelles du SPD qui entouraient les démocrates sociaux du berceau à la tombe. Cependant, comme l'article le suggère les différences dans la culture politique impactèrent sur les efforts de Morrison. Une culture populaire plus développée ainsi qu'un plus grand écart entre la culture populaire et le parti travailliste en Grande Bretagne s'opposaient au transfert des modèles allemands. De plus une organisation différente du financement du parti ainsi que l'organisation différente de la culture civique et l'absence de culture fédérale jouèrent pour limiter cet exemple de transfert politique.     

Entwicklungspolitik als globale Struktur- und Friedenspolitik

Globale Probleme gewinnen an Bedeutung. Die Risiken der Globalisierung müssen eingedämmt, ihre Chancen für die Bewältigung der globalen sozialen und ökologischen Zukunftsaufgaben genutzt werden. In den letzten Jahren wurden vor allem mit der Millenniumserklärung und dem sogenannte Monterrey-Konsens Fortschritte hin zu einem internationalen Konsens über Entwicklungsfragen gemacht, der Weg hin zu einer globalen Partnerschaft steht somit offen. Die Ereignisse des 11. September 2001 haben die Entschlossenheit gestärkt, Armut zu bekämpfen und der Ausgrenzung großer Teile der Weltbevölkerung von den Chancen der Globalisierung entgegenzuwirken. Die deutsche Entwicklungspolitik als globale Struktur- und Friedenspolitik hat dabei wachsende Bedeutung erfahren. Sie agiert auf drei Ebenen: Auf der internationalen Ebene sucht sie globale entwicklungsförderliche Rahmenbedingungen zu setzen; auf der Ebene der einzelnen Kooperationsländer geht es um die bilaterale, europäische und multilaterale Zusammenarbeit vor Ort. Auf deutscher Ebene schließlich nimmt sie beispielsweise politische Querschnittsaufgaben in den Bereichen Außen-, Handels-, Finanz-, Umwelt- und Agrarpolitik wahr. Das vielschichtige Einwirken und Stärken von Reformkräften wird am Beispiel der Unterstützung der neuen politischen Dynamik in Afrika verdeutlicht. Hinsichtlich multilateraler Kooperation reichen die bewährten Dialog- und Konsultationssysteme nicht aus, die weltweit anstehenden Umwelt- und Entwicklungsprobleme zu bewältigen. Neue, netzwerkartige Governance-Formen, die die traditionellen Systeme und Verfahren flankieren und ergänzen sollen, werden zurzeit erprobt und liefern ermutigende Resultate.