Binding in the Pacific: Between Loops and Knots

The paper argues that the prevailing use of the term ‘template’ in the investigation of the reproductive and generative capacity of artworks in Oceania is profoundly misleading and in need of replacing. Tracing a similar dilemma in New Genetics and Biology, the paper argues that the contemporary fascination with the knot as a model of non-linear, topological systems enables us to look at the importance of binding in the creation of the figural in Oceanic art from a new perspective. This paper intends to open up the investigation of binding as technique and as patterned design in its distinct articulation in artifactual form across the Pacific by raising questions about the relation between the figural and the social. The material provoking the rethinking of the difference created by material articulation of the mundane, personal, and yet also profoundly mathematical technique of binding in society and culture is that of malanggan figurative art.     

Mittlerin im Dienste der Umwelt—die Europ?ische Umweltagentur in Kopenhagen

Immer größer wird der Einfluß der EU auf alle Lebensbereiche. Kaum ein Gesetz kann verabschiedet werden, ohne zuvor mit den Richtlinien europäischer Politik abgestimmt zu werden. In großem Maße betrifft dies auch den Umweltbereich. Als Mittler zwischen den Mitgliedsländern und der Kommission setzt die EU verstärkt auf thematisch spezialisierte Agenturen. UTE C. BAUER sprach mit DIPL.-GEOGRAPH STEFAN JENSEN , der seit zwei Jahren als Projektmanager bei der Europäischen Umweltagentur in Kopenhagen tätig ist.     

SOVIET REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND THE 10th FIVE-YEAR PLAN

The Guidelines for the 10th Five-Year Plan (1976–80) are assessed in terms of their suggestions and probable implications for Soviet regional development policy. The new plan is examined both for evidence of regional concerns in specific economic and social programs as well as for more general indications of regional development philosophy and strategy. The current plan is then compared with previous plans for evidence of shifts in regional development policy. Finally the regional dimensions of Soviet development are considered in light of more general ideas of regional development and modernization.     

The attraction of the rural: Characteristics of rural migrants in Sweden

This paper investigates the characteristics of rural migrants in Sweden divided into periurban and remote countryside using register data at the individual level. The results show that during the two years of investigation, 1987 and 1993, there was a concentration of the population in general but the periurban countryside gained migrants from the cities. In addition, the migration pattern had an aging effect on the population in rural areas. It is also shown that migration selectivity is relatively stable during the study period. The countryside is less attractive than urban areas to those with high income and high education but when the two types of countrysides are compared to each other the periurban is more attractive. Despite the renewed interest in rural living which has been reported in other studies, remote rural areas are less attractive to migrants than periurban areas in Sweden.     

The Tranquebarian Society

The Danish-Norwegian colony of Tranquebar in south-east India is a little explored case of science and ‘patriotic enlightenment’ in the colonial world of the 18th and early 19th centuries. In the period 1768–1813, Tranquebar emerged as a local south Indian hub of science and improvement. The symbol of this development was the establishment of the Tranquebarian Society, the third learned society east of the Cape of Good Hope. The article examines the unique assemblage of scientific networks, people, instruments, institutions, and ideas of local and global origin that converged in Tranquebar, and it investigates the fusion of local problems and radical ideas of enlightenment, education, and improvement that united government, mission, and merchants in Tranquebar in the quest for ‘useful knowledge’.