Beyond the commodity economy: the persistence of informal economic activity in rural England

A widely held view in economic geography is that the commodity economy — in which goods and services are produced by capitalist firms for a profit under market conditions — has permeated, albeit slowly and unevenly, ever more areas of daily life. Until now, however, little evidence has been provided of the extent and unevenness of its penetration. This is the intention of this paper. First, secondary data are used to evaluate the penetration of commodification in the advanced economies. Rather than find its permeation into every crevice of daily life, a non-commodified sphere as large as the commodified sphere is identified. Reporting case study evidence on the commodification of household services in rural England, explanations are then sought for the persistence of these non-commodified spaces and the uneven penetration of commodification. This reveals that despite household services being more commodified in higher income rural areas, commodification and its uneven contours cannot be explained simply in terms of economic determinants. Although economic forces prevent the advance of commodification, especially in lower income rural areas, strong 'cultures of resistance' to the edicts of commodification also impede its deeper penetration. The paper thus concludes by outlining the roles played by both economic and cultural forces in shaping commodification and its uneven contours, as well as the need for economic geography to broaden its scope beyond the commodity economy.     

Simulating archaeologists? Using agent-based modelling to improve battlefield excavations

The study of material culture generated by military engagements has created an emergent sub-discipline of archaeological studies centred on battlefields. This approach has developed a particular and sophisticated methodology that is able to deal with the fact that archaeologists will often not find either structures or a useful stratigraphical record on the site, as the material remains of the battle will basically be metallic objects carried by combatants. It is therefore rather complicated not only to test hypotheses about battle events based on archaeological data, but also to validate the methodology used. Here we propose the use of agent-based models to explore these issues in the case of eighteenth-century battlefield archaeology. The simulation is divided into four different steps. Firstly, a battle is simulated in order to generate realistic virtual archaeological remains left by an engagement between two armies of this era. We then simulate the loss of information that the passing of time produces in the battlefield. The third step involves simulating the archaeological survey, enabling us to explore different survey strategies and the impact on the interpretation of the event itself. Finally, we design a confidence index in order to compare the results of the different virtual excavations using spatial analysis and statistics. The results show that the methodology is fully functional in terms of understanding a battle, and it allows us to suggest new strategies to improve fieldwork and to develop new ways of exploring these particular archaeological sites. It is concluded that the described approach illustrates how simulation can be used to explore methodological issues of archaeological science.     

Les représentations de l'Allemagne dans la presse sportive française: l'exemple des rencontres de football France-Allemagne dans les années trente

ARP (la Société Civile des Auteurs, Réalisateurs et Producteurs) is one of the most significant cinema lobby groups in France today. Among its most important manifestations are the annual Rencontres de Beaune, a series of debates that attract some of the most influential figures in both the cultural and political domains internationally. This article aims to document the political successes and impact of ARP through a presentation and analysis of the 2000–2004 Rencontres Cinématographiques de Beaune.     

Modernity versus postmodernity: The philosophy of Jean‐François Lyotard

Benjamin, A., ed., Judging Lyotard (Routledge, 1992), 211pp., £10.99., Warwick Studies in Philosophy and Literature, ISBN 0 415 5257 1

Norris, C., The Truth about Postmodernism (Blackwell, 1993), 333pp., £12.99., ISBN 0 631 18718 9     

Statistical Characterization of Structural Demand under Earthquake Loading. Part 1: Robust Estimation of the Central Value of the Data

This article is the first of two companion articles addressing the statistical characterization of seismic demand. Performance-based earthquake engineering methodologies often require the characterization of central value estimates of structural demand. Since outliers can occur in the data, central value estimates should be determined by robust estimation methods. The performance of 50 robust central value estimators is evaluated, for different sample sizes, using the chord rotation, curvature, shear force, and inter-story drift demands obtained after analyzing five reinforced concrete structures under real earthquake records scaled to several intensities. Based on the results, seven estimators are proposed for different sample sizes.     

Commodification of indigenous crafts and reconfiguration of gender identities among the Emberá of eastern Panama

This article examines the recent involvement of Emberá indigenous women from eastern Panama in the production and commercialization of handicrafts for national and international markets, using life stories collected in two Emberá communities. Emberá women's increased participation in market economies provides a critical medium through which dominant norms of gender roles are partly reworked and new subjectivities are forged, providing them temporary spaces of authority from within to negotiate relationships with men in domestic spaces. The study does not look for obvious shifts of power inside the household. Instead, it conceptualizes handicraft activities and the conflicts they spark as discursive sites, thus focusing on how women (through their work and purchases) understand themselves and their roles, and how power operates through competing discursive constructions of ‘women’, ‘men’, or ‘work’ in everyday practices. This approach produces a nuanced understanding of the complex reconfiguration of gender relations, and the particular shapes that changing social interactions and meanings of femininity/masculinity take, and it challenges dominant representations of indigenous societies as static and inexorably harmed by capitalist transformation. Findings demonstrate that indigenous women's experiences and realities are multifaceted and dynamic, and that the outcomes of market economies in indigenous communities are complex and ambiguous, rather than uniform and necessarily oppressive.     

Towards an Archaeology of Early Islamic Ports on the Western Red Sea Coast

Against a background of developing research on Red Sea ports, a hypothetical model of the morphology of port towns during the early Islamic period is presented here. These places went through constant cycles of change as economic and political frameworks fluctuated. While their physical shape and form was strongly influenced by architectural features of the Islamic world their functionality was more aligned to commercial interaction. These were dynamic spaces where the daily life of their inhabitants was guided by trade, religion, weather and politics. The ports were intrinsically tied to the trade networks that connected Africa with Arabia and the broader Indian Ocean world.