Artists in rural locales: market access, landscape appeal and economic exigency

The period 1971 to 1991 saw a significant increase in the proportion of Canadians employed in the 'arts'. While still concentrated to a large extent in urban Canada, artists do seek out rural locations to pursue their craft. This paper identifies, interprets and classifies communities in rural Canada that specialize in the production of visual, performing and literary art. Location quotients are calculated from a custom-tabulated run of 1991 census data on employment in the arts in all Canadian census subdivisions. We propose several factors that may account for high concentrations of artists in some rural places. Cluster analysis is used to develop a classification of Canadian rural arts communities. We identify 371 small arts centres in Canada, ranging from Cape Dorset in the Northwest Territories to Elora in southwestern Ontario. Market access, landscape appeal and economic exigency are among the location determinants isolated. Further analysis reveals that five types of arts communities exist in rural Canada. Future research on a localized scale is now necessary to uncover specific factors responsible for the prevalence of artists in the rural ecumene.     

The creative destruction of Niagara-on-the-Lake

Heritage shopping villages are becoming increasingly commonplace in rural North America. Their creation reflects the demands of post-modern consumers to purchase symbolic capital in the form of unique products and experiences reflecting a bygone era. Entrepreneurs have responded to this by commodifying heritage and tradition; a process that leads to the creation of new landscapes and a perceived destruction of the old. This transformation has been described in the model of creative destruction (Mitchell 1998). In this paper the model is applied to Old Niagara-on-the-Lake, a heritage shopping village located in southern Ontario, Canada. Data on functional change, visitor numbers and residents' attitudes are analysed for the period 1950–1998. It is concluded that historic Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the early stages of 'advanced destruction'; one characterized by major investment, large numbers of visitors and partial destruction of the rural idyll. Results of this analysis confirm that while the basic premise of the model is sound, modifications are required to accommodate some of the study's findings.     

Canadian economic geography at the millennium

Over the last quarter of a century the Canadian economy experienced a series of profound changes which have affected every level of society. They include new forms of flexible production, fundamental changes in regulation at all spatial scales, structural shifts away from manufacturing towards service sector activities, the rise of information technology (IT) and computerization at the workplace, the feminization of the labour market, and, what has become the leitmotif of the age, globalization. Such changes are intimately connected with geography. By that we mean not merely that they take on a geographical form, but that geography is pan of their very constitution. In this sense Canadian economic geographers are exactly in the right time and the right place to make use of their skills. Indeed, over the last five years there has been an explosion of literature by Canadian economic geographers on precisely these kinds of changes that are simultaneously both economic and geographical. In reviewing that literature the paper begins by situating Canada within its wider global setting, which we then follow by surveying the diverse writing around the three broad sectors that make‐up the Canadian economy: the resource sector, the manufacturing sector, and the service sector. We conclude by highlighting two particular research themes within Canadian economic geography that have become especially germane over the late 1990s. The first is on new labour markets and forms of work both of which have been transformed during the last decade; and the second is on new forms of industrial innovation, which are clearly pivotal to the future well‐being of the country for the next millennium. Au cours des vingt‐cinq dernières années, l'économie canadienne a connu une série, de changements profonds qui ont affecté toutes les couches de la société. Ces changements comprennent les nouvelles formes de production flexible, les changements fondamentaux dans la réglementation à toutes les échelles spatiales, la mutation structurelle du secteur industriel au secteur tertiaire, la montée de la technologie de l'information (Tl) et l'informatisation sur le lieu de travail, la présence plus importante des femmes sur le marché du travail, et, ce qui est devenu le leitmotiv de notre époque, la mondialisation. De tels changements sont intimement liés à la geographie. Par la, nous ne disons pas simplement qu'ils prennent une forme géographique, mais que la géographie fait partie intégrante de leur constitution. Dans ce sens, les géographes‐économistes canadiens arrivent, si l'on peut dire, au bon endroit au bon moment pour mettre leurs connaissances à profit. En effet, on assiste depuis les cinq dernières années à une recrudescence impressionnante des travaux de géographes‐économistes canadiens portant, précisément, sur ces types de changements qui sont à la fois économiques et géographiques. En faisant le compte‐rendu de cette littérature scientifique, cet article situe d'abord le Canada dans son contexte mondial plus large, passe ensuite en revue ce qui a étéécrit au sujet des trois grands secteurs qui forment l'économie canadienne: les secteurs primaire, secondaire et tertiaire. Nous concluons en mettant en relief deux thèmes de recherches de la géographie économique canadienne qui sont devenus particulièrement pertinents depuis la fin des années 1990. Le premier traite des nouveaux marchés du travail et des nouvelles formes de travail, qui ont tous deux subi des transformations au cours de la dernière décennie. Le second traite des nouvelles formes d'innovation industrielle, qui sont cruciales pour le bien‐être futur du pays à l'aube du nouveau millénaire.     

Sir John Coxe Hippisley: That ‘Busy Man’ in the Cause of Catholic Emancipation

The late 18th and early 19th centuries represent a critical time for the emergence of modernity in western political life. Of particular interest is the confluence at that time of increased religious toleration with political reform. Research for an earlier study, Parliamentary Politics of a County and its Town: General Elections in Suffolk and Ipswich in the Eighteenth Century (Westport, 2002), led to an examination of Sir John Coxe Hippisley, MP (1747–1825). In many ways, his political career is an exemplar of the broader conflicts of contemporary English political life writ small. Set between 1790 and 1818, Hippisley's parliamentary career is fascinating, for while he was an active and precocious supporter of catholic emancipation, he represented Sudbury in Suffolk, a borough with a high proportion of protestant dissenters. His constituents found Hippisley's enthusiasm for catholic emancipation repugnant, but not so much so that they could not be convinced to continue to vote for him if the price was right. Consequently a constant and expensive wooing of his constituents marked his parliamentary career. On a national level, Hippisley's constant and public pursuit of catholic emancipation, coupled with his equally avid quest for preferment, led to a series of quixotic contradictions in his political behaviour. Hippisley and his political adventures thus represent a crucial development stage in the movement for religious freedom in England and the west, as well as providing an illuminating case study on the dynamics of local politics in the time leading up to the first great age of reform.     

Germany and the European Union: from ‘tamed power’ to normalized power?

Germany has traditionally played a key role in promoting European Union solutions to domestic policy problems. In doing so it gained a reputation as a ‘tamed power’ (Katzenstein). This article reviews Germany's diplomacy two decades after unification. It explores the ‘tamed power’ hypothesis with reference to three policy areas: constitutional reform in the EU; Justice and Home Affairs policy; and an issue that has made German European policy very salient of late, the management of the Eurozone. The article argues that Germany has become a much less inclusive actor in European policy, pursuing policy solutions through ‘pioneer groups’ where these offer greater promise than the EU itself and becoming increasingly attentive to domestic political constraints. The article argues that Germany has become a normalized power, with significant implications for the EU.     

In praise of folly: international administration and the corruption of humanity

Advocates of international administration tend to embrace conduct and utterance that proposes to vindicate fundamental human rights and freedoms by suspending an important part of its content: the principle that human beings should not be subject to coercion except where they have given their consent. This article begins by arguing that the character of this dilemma is obscured by a vocabulary of technique that divests the category 'international administration' of its normative coherence. In fact, international administration discloses two distinct modes of association—contract and trust—which presuppose different values, different obligations, and different expectations. The article proceeds in arguing that a trust instituted among equals is susceptible to objection in so far as trustee and beneficiary are necessarily joined in a coercive relationship that rules out the possibility of consent. The article concludes by arguing that recent attempts at reconciling this sort of relation with the demands of human rights entails a kind of corruption that is intelligible in making ordinary language correspond with the ideal, so that what was once described as the denial of human dignity—subjection to alien rule—is now described as the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights.     

Reassessing the special relationship

The resignation of Tony Blair as British Prime Minister and the transition from Bush to Obama in the US mark the end of the second revival of the US–UK special relationship. The classic era of the special relationship began under the Labour government in the 1940s, though it was Winston Churchill who inspired the concept. It ended with the resignation of Harold Macmillan in 1963. Margaret Thatcher revived close personal relations with the US President as a guiding principle of UK foreign policy and Tony Blair successfully revived them again, even though the end of the Cold War had transformed the framework of transatlantic relations. Over the past 60 years US–UK relations have embedded specific security arrangements which have persisted, largely unquestioned, through the ups and downs of political relations at the top: close links between the two countries' armed forces; access to defence technology and procurement; intelligence ties through the UKUSA Agreement; a semi-independent nuclear deterrent and provision of military bases in the UK and its overseas territories. Public debate on the costs and benefits of these links has been limited; successive governments have discouraged a wider debate. The Obama administration enters office with few of the personal ties to Britain and to English culture, which have underpinned the special relationship. Earlier US administrations have approached relations with the UK from the perspective of US interests, while many British political leaders have felt—and have hoped to find in Washington—a sentimental attachment to Anglo–American partnership. British foreign policy would benefit from a reassessment of the structures of US–UK relations in terms of British interests, costs and benefits.     

International reactions to the Scottish referendum

The referendum on whether Scotland should become an independent country will be held on 18 September 2014. This article reflects on the evolution of foreign governments' attitudes towards the referendum since its confirmation in October 2012, and on their expectations should a ‘yes’ vote result. With few exceptions, they have adopted a policy of non‐intervention, treating the referendum as the UK's domestic affair. President Obama's expression on 5 June 2014 of his desire for the UK to remain ‘a strong, robust, united and effective partner’ may, however, be seen as a sign of increasing apprehension abroad. Concerns of foreign governments aroused by the referendum include the diminution of the UK's power and role in international affairs, the possible encouragement of other secessionist movements, and disturbance to international organizations and alliances. It is commonly assumed that Scotland would become a reasonably prosperous and reliable small state. But how would the rest of the UK (rUK), a much more powerful and populous country, respond to ‘the loss of Scotland’? How would it affect the UK's already unsettled relations with the EU, including the prospect of a referendum on EU membership? Despite many uncertainties and a febrile political atmosphere, it is widely expected abroad that Scotland and rUK would settle into a cooperative relationship after a difficult transitional period, and that an independent Scotland would be accepted into the EU and NATO if it displayed flexibility on important issues.