Coping with deviance: Swiss nationhood in the long nineteenth century

ABSTRACT. This article highlights two processes that shaped Swiss nationhood in the long nineteenth century. The first concerns the competition between different nation‐states and the nationalist visions these contests engendered. In a Europe dominated by the norm of the culturally and ethnically homogenous nation, the Swiss authorities, public intellectuals and various political representatives were desperate to display an image of national authenticity to the outside world. The result was a nationalism that combined voluntaristic and organic elements. In the second and main part of this article, the focus turns on citizenship; it is conceived not only as a social and legal institution, but also as a cognitive prism through which people defined their membership in the national community. Remarkably, the authority in granting national citizenship to foreign nationals remained firmly in the hands of the cantons and, above all, the Swiss municipalities. In practical terms, this meant that the Gemeinde provided the institutional and cognitive frame through which nationhood was primarily experienced, imagined and defined. While Switzerland represents a particularly strong case of a communalist polity, it should not be treated as unique. Instead, it should alert us to a potentially fertile yet little‐explored area of research: what might be called the communal embededdness of the national(ist) imagination.     

Is promoting war trauma such a good idea?

A well-known medical journal, The Lancet, recently published an important systematic review and meta-analysis of mental disorder estimates in conflict settings, advocating for the scaling up of mental health interventions in such contexts. However, there is an assumption that the introduction of such treatments has no significant impact, except from a therapeutic one, in the settings they have been imported to. The authors' research in post-conflict northern Uganda analyzed the social impact of mental health interventions addressing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and showed that promoting trauma has had considerable socio-economic ramifications on the wider society. The introduction of trauma narratives has created a market where some are able to thrive, but many deeply troubled individuals remain invisible. The authors found no social benefits from promoting trauma, and few positive effects for individuals. Arguments for urgently upscaling mental health interventions of the kinds highlighted by the review in The Lancet, and which the authors have observed on the ground, should be treated with caution.     

A vector of high‐temperature paleo‐fluid flow deduced from mass transfer across permeability barriers (quartz veins)

Quartz veins acted as impermeable barriers to regional fluid flow and not as fluid‐flow conduits in Mesoproterozoic rocks of the Mt Painter Block, South Australia. Systematically distributed asymmetric alteration selvedges consisting of a muscovite‐rich zone paired with a biotite‐rich zone are centered on quartz veins in quartz–muscovite–biotite schist. Geometric analysis of the orientation and facing of 126 veins at Nooldoonooldoona Waterhole reveals a single direction along which a maximum of all veins have a muscovite‐rich side, irrespective of their specific individual orientation. This direction represents a Mesoproterozoic fluid‐flow vector and the veins represent permeability barriers to the flow. The pale muscovite‐rich zones formed on the downstream side of the vein and the dark biotite‐rich zones mark the upstream side. The alteration couplets formed from mica schist at constant Zr, Ga, Sc, and involved increases in Si, Na, Al and decreases in K, Fe, Mg for pale alteration zones, and inverse alteration within dark zones. The asymmetry of the alteration couplets is best explained by the pressure dependence of mineral–fluid equilibria. These equilibria, in combination with a Darcian flow model for coupled advection and diffusion, and with permeability barriers imposed by the quartz veins, simulate the pattern of both fluid flow and differential, asymmetric metasomatism. The determined vector of fluid flow lies along the regional foliation and is consistent with the known distribution of regional alteration products. The presence of asymmetric alteration zones in rock containing abundant pre‐alteration veins suggests that vein‐rich material may have generally retarded regional fluid flow.     

Shared sovereignty and the politics of peace: evaluating the EU's 'catalytic' framework in the eastern Mediterranean

There has been a consistent failure on the part of international actors over the past four decades to resolve the Cyprus problem. The EU framework, heralded as a catalyst, has failed so far to bring the two sides together, despite the significant advantages it possesses in linking resolution of the Cyprus problem with the Turkish ambition to join the EU. Cyprus has always been a testing ground for experimental approaches to dealing with conflict, and what may well emerge after the failure of the Annan Plan in 2004 is a form of 'shared sovereignty' where important governance functions that remain contested are undertaken by the UN and EU Commission. Furthermore, the EU framework has led to the Cyprus problem becoming a catalyst for Turkish accession. While very controversial, these avenues offer the opportunity for the international community to accept the political and interventionary nature of the 'peace' they prescribe.     

Domestic timber auctions and flexibly specialized forestry in Japan

In Japan, a well-established, widespread system of local timber market auctions, featuring the exchange of privately owned logs, is increasingly threatened by imports organized according to mass production principles. This article assesses the evolution, rationale, and functions of Japan's timber auctions that were primarily created in post-war Japan to provide key roles linking small-scale (private) forest owners to flexibly specialized value chains that are consummated in Japanese homes. The conceptual point of departure for the analysis is flexible specialization theory's interpretation of industrialization as a contest between mass production and small-scale production. We extend this discussion by giving analytical priority to markets as an institution distinct from firms and by interpreting markets from the perspectives of transaction costs and embeddedness, concepts normally deemed antagonistic to one another. Empirically, four case studies of timber auctions located in central and southern Japan are analyzed based on personal interviews with auction managers and participants within the context of broader trends in forestry. Three auctions feature 'silent' bidding and one involves open bidding. While the auctions exhibit varying characteristics, they continue to be the fulcrum of localized forestry systems, even as they are threatened by declining prices driven by imported wood and by restructurings within the Japanese solid wood sector. The continued resiliency of the flexible specialization model, and the auctions that are at its core, has important implications for forestry throughout Japan.     

Images of homelessness in Ottawa: implications for local politics

The empirical foci of this paper are a content and discourse analysis of four years (1994 to 1997) of media reporting on ‘homelessness’ in The Ottawa Citizen, the premier, English language daily newspaper in the region. Examining these reports in juxtaposition with governmental and community‐based reports from the same period has provided useful insights into how public opinion might be influenced to regard antihomeless laws as more or less legitimate. This paper's approach was influenced by certain regulation theorists who argue that an examination of key discourses has the potential to enhance understanding about how economic, political and social restructuring is taking place, as well to shed light on how to intervene effectively at a variety of geographic scales in shaping its key elements. The results of the media analysis suggest that very particular messages are emphasized vis‐à‐vis “the homeless”: the ‘stubborn’ unchanging nature of the problem, and the difficulties that housed citizens have in helping these passive, isolated, overwhelmingly white, male, substance abusers and contained (in the downtown) ‘others’. They generally neglect or dismiss stories that might expose the demographic and geographic diversity of those who currently are homeless, and their complex and difficult past histories. When hints of such complexities are mentioned, they come with subtle messages about the deserving individuals who might be redeemed, in contrast to the hapless majority. Cette recherche présente une analyse du contenu des articles sur les personnes sans‐abri, publiés entre 1994 et 1997 dans le quotidien anglais le plus important dans la région d'Ottawa le “Ottawa Citizen”. L‘étude de ces articles ainsi que les rapports gouvernementaux et communautaires durant la même période soulèvent des idées intéressantes autour de l'impact que le discours public peut avoir sur l'acceptation de lois discriminatoires contre les personnes qui sont sans‐abri. Le présent travail est influencé par certains théoriciens de la régulation qui proclament que l'analyse des discours clés dans la société peut potentiellement améliorer notre compréhension de la restructuration économique, politique et sociale et clarifier la manière d'intervenir efficacement pour l'influencer. Les résultats de l'analyse des articles médiatiques suggèrent que des messages particuliers sont communiqués au sujet des personnes qui sont sansabri: c.‐à‐d. la nature invariable du problème et les difficultés vécues par les citoyens logés, à savoir comment aider cette population qui est présentée comme passive, isolée, à prédominance blanche, qui souffre de toxicomanie et qui réside dans le centre‐ville. Généralement, les médias négligent l'information qui expose la grande diversité démographique et géographique des gens qui sont sans‐abri ainsi que leurs histoires de vie personnelles difficiles et complexes. Quand ils mentionnent ces complexités, elles sont accompagnées de messages subtiles suggérant que seulement une minorité de l'ensemble des personnes sans abri méritent notre aide.     

轻羽间的诱惑之舞

他鞠了一躬。 黑色天鹅绒般的羽毛斗篷扬起来,露出他苍白的侧腹,却不减那深深一躬的庄严。头顶高耸的松软线羽轻敲地面：一、二,一、二。这位表演家的舞台是一小片林中空地,由他自己清理了杂物,又衔来一嘴草根洒在上面,就像新娘礼径上的花瓣。他的观众呢？一群雌鸟在头顶的树枝上一字排开,叽叽喳喳,满脸狐疑。她们的注意力转瞬即逝,所以他急忙耍起了表演套路,踮起足尖,迈开两条瘦伶伶的细腿向前踱去,宛如芭蕾舞者脚尖点地。他摆了个骤然停顿的姿势来制造戏剧效果,随后就跳起了丛林摇摆舞：脖子一缩,脑袋一点,头顶的线羽随着节拍起伏跃动。他又是蹦跳又是摇晃,双翅忽而拍打忽而敛藏,下巴上的胡须呼啦乱颤。 这家伙的表演收到了期待的成效。靠得最近的那只雌鸟轻抖娇躯以示邀请,舞男鼻中长啸一声,腾身向她扑去。乱羽纷飞挡住了观众视线,这番欢爱是否大功告成我们不得而知。但没关系：下一场表演很快就开始了。     

From revolutionary heroism to cultural heritage: museums,memory and representation in Laos

ABSTRACT. Museum exhibitions in Laos represent two main strands of Lao national identity discourse. First, they glorify the ‘liberation struggle’ of the so‐called ‘Lao multiethnic people’ under the leadership of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, and therefore serve as important ideological tools for the current regime's self‐legitimisation. Second, they display the history and cultural heritage of the Lao nation, providing the postcolonial state with a narrative of historical continuity and civilisation that is focused mostly on the dominant ethnic Lao culture. This article explores the contradictions within official images of the Lao nation‐state and how these opposing strands of national identity compete or interact. Museums as key arenas of ideological tensions constitute illuminating fields of research on discourses of national identity in Laos.     

To be or not to be in Europe: is that the question? Britain's European question and an in/out referendum

The idea of holding an in/out referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union has increasingly become a norm of British politics, an act seen as a necessary step for the country to answer what David Cameron described as the ‘European question in British politics’. A referendum, it is hoped, will cleanse British politics of a poisonous debate about Europe and democratically sanction a new stable UK–EU relationship, whether the UK stays in or leaves. Such hopes expect more of a referendum than it can provide. The European question is a multifaceted one and whatever the result of a referendum it is unlikely to address underlying questions that will continue to cause problems for UK–EU relations and Britain's European debate. A referendum can be a step forward in better managing the relationship and debate, but it is only that: a single step, after which further steps will be needed. Coming to terms with the European question and bringing stability to Britain's relations with the EU—whether in or outside the EU—will require comprehensive, longer‐term changes which a referendum can help trigger but in no way guarantee.