On reductionism and emergence in geomorphology

Much geomorphological enquiry has been devoted to the understanding of landscapes via the construction of models based on the relationships between process and form. This paper examines the philosophical, theoretical and practical problems involved in bridging the gap between studies of geomorphological processes and explanations of landscape development. It argues that process geomorphology is essentially reductionist and discusses the practical and logical limitations of such an approach to science. It suggests that landscapes are emergent phenomena and, by drawing from the philosophical and practical lessons derived from the physics of non-linear systems, demonstrates that they are not amenable to reductionist explanations.     

The Truro Halfway House,Cape Cod,Massachusetts

Historical Archaeology -     

The Relevance of Cassirer and the Rewriting of Intellectual History

Summary

This essay aims to discuss the historiographical implications and premises of Peter Gordon's masterly book Continental Divide, in which he re-evaluates the Davos meeting between Ernst Cassirer and Martin Heidegger. This impressive reminder of the prospects of intellectual history deserves to be paid serious attention, particularly in European philosophy departments. Gordon's book exemplifies how problems of systematic philosophy can be clarified by a detour through history.

I want to highlight three aspects of Gordon's book that fundamentally transform and deepen our understanding of intellectual history in general and the Davos meeting in particular. First, I highlight one of the main merits of Gordon's study: his emphasis on the plurality behind the term ‘continental philosophy’. This opens up a whole new perspective on a seemingly well-known event within the history of twentieth-century philosophy. Second, I address Gordon's methodological premises, which challenge and fundamentally transform our understanding of intellectual history. Third, I attempt to summarise, from an intellectual history perspective, Gordon's argument about Cassirer's relevance. Here we are faced with the task of realigning and legitimising philosophy in a radically historicised world. To adumbrate the core of my comment I should say that I am thrilled by Gordon's book. I agree with nearly everything he says apart from his conclusions. In a closing remark I will try to explain the reasons for this surprising divergence.     

COLLINGWOOD'S WHALE,CHAKRABARTY'S CONUNDRUM,AND BRAUDEL'S BORROWED TIME

As R. G. Collingwood noted toward the end of his life, the physiologically limited “time-phase” of human observational capacity cannot but deliver a fundamentally anthropocentric and temporally myopic conception of the world as eventful, destructive, and devoid of larger, perhaps cyclical, regularities. Developing at around the same time, Fernand Braudel's project of a history of the longue durée of human interactions with the environment aimed to subvert the short time-phase of a history accessible to immediate human experience. Although Collingwood and Braudel aimed at a conceptual merger of natural history and human history, neither of them could have foreseen what Dipesh Chakrabarty has described as their collapse into each other, which was effected by humanity's transformation into a geophysical force that produced massive, likely irreversible, and certainly long-lasting climate change. Looking at two very different examples of a rapidly growing body of literature on an extractivist orientation as a key factor in anthropogenic ecological transformations on both local and planetary scales, this review essay suggests that an “intra-active” (in Karen Barad's sense) view of human-environmental relationality might help us conceptualize forms of temporality that are capable of superseding Collingwood's anthropocentric “time-phase.”     

Bois Laiterie revisited: functional,morphological and technological analysis of a Late Glacial hunting camp in north-western Europe

Previous exhaustive analysis of the remains at Bois Laiterie Cave resulted in the classification of this site as a Magdalenian hunting camp. However, during recent analysis of usewear-traces on selected artefacts, one of the authors [KS] noticed in the collection numerous backed points which are rather untypical for the classical Magdalenian. In light of this, a typological and technological reinvestigation of the Bois Laiterie assemblage was undertaken. Here, we present the results of this investigation and the traceological analysis. Further, implications of these results for the interpretation of the chronological, archaeo-cultural and functional position of the Bois Laiterie site within the context of the north-western European Late Glacial are discussed.     

Towards an archaeology and geography of Second World War German munitions storage sites in north-west Europe

This paper reviews the signature characteristics of extant Second World War German army munitions storage landscapes in forested areas of north-west Europe with particular reference to sites in north-west France and the Netherlands. Archaeological survey, aerial photographs and documentary archives show the geography of munitions sites exhibit a regulated pattern of bunker disposition and spacing that is adapted to local road configurations and terrain. Non-hardened bunkers form the predominant feature in munitions depots and conform to a five-/six-fold typology defined by non-invasive survey and excavated examples from the Netherlands. The typology reflects an evolution of storage protocols towards all-round protection from the effects of weather and blast, but also reveals variation in size, structural characteristics and function that poses questions for further study. It is anticipated that these results will be of diagnostic value in future Second World War conflict archaeological survey of German military support structures in formerly occupied territories.     

LAND BANK 2.0: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION

In 2009, Cuyahoga County, Ohio (Cleveland and 58 suburbs), established a land bank to acquire low‐value properties, mitigate blighted housing, and slow the decline of property values. This empirical study evaluates the effectiveness of the land bank by estimating spatially corrected hedonic price models using sales near the land‐bank homes. The land bank reduces the negative externalities of the properties it acquires. Its largest impact is the preservation of equity in unsold homes. We also estimate the recovered value for homes sold during the study period and the property tax revenue that may have been forgone, absent the land bank.