Performing national identities in everyday life: Popular motivations and national indifference in 19th-century Amsterdam

This article demonstrates how and when the nation—whether in the shape of concrete national symbols or as an abstract frame of reference—became relevant to ordinary people. It focuses on the experiences and activities of Amsterdam citizens in the second half of the 19th century. Central to the analysis is the apparent contradiction between ‘banal’ or ‘everyday nationalism’, in which nationalist symbols and rhetoric appeared to successfully reach their audience because of their omnipresence in daily life, and ‘national indifference’, as referring to the absence of national identification among the masses. It argues that in order to overcome the dichotomies between elites and masses and national and non-national performances, we should focus on the popular incentives for national identification, rather than on the ideological content and the (physical or symbolic) borders of the national community.     

Gender and geography in the Netherlands: from separation to integration

Abstract

This article reports on the development of feminist geography in the Netherlands in the past forty years. In response to critical feminist students, feminist geography originally developed in a strategy of separation with the appointment of university lecturers specialized in ‘women’s studies’, the introduction of elective courses and research projects, and the creation of national networks. Gender is currently more and more integrated in core geography teaching and mainstream geographical research and separate networks are dissolved. Although feminist geographers in the Netherlands are successful in teaching, publishing and acquisition of research funding, gender issues and perspectives are still not firmly rooted in geography curricula and research programs. Integration is highly dependent on the feminist commitment of individual lecturers and researchers and gender perspectives are at risk of marginalisation or disappearance. Feminist geographers in the Netherlands must still be vigilant to preserve the achievements of forty years of Dutch feminist geography.     

The return of cities: the trajectory of Swiss cities from demographic loss to reurbanization

ABSTRACT

Reurbanization refers to the new demographic growth of cities that previously lost population. How can we explain such a trend reversal? This paper discusses theoretically both phases of urban decline and reurbanization. It examines the trajectory of Swiss cities that have moved from a period of decline (1970–2000) to a new growth (since 2000). It analyses the components behind the population evolution, discusses the socio-cultural, economic and political trends triggering or enabling reurbanization, and identifies three main results. First, reurbanization is due to several population groups: the growing international mobility of the labour force, the increasing number of non-family households (in the context of the second demographic transition) and the growing attractiveness of cities for young adults (extension of youth as a life stage). Second, reurbanization is not only housing-led (construction of dwellings due to planning strategies and real estate activities). It is also population-led: A generation replacement induces a rejuvanation of the age structure and an increase in the density of occupancy of dwellings. Third, reurbanization can be broadly interpreted as a return of cities in terms of residential aspirations, political agenda and real estate activities. As a conclusion, I outline a research agenda on reurbanization.     

Impacts of urban living labs on sustainability transitions: mechanisms and strategies for systemic change through experimentation

ABSTRACT

Urban Living Labs (ULL) are considered spaces to facilitate experimentation about sustainability solutions. ULL represent sites that allow different urban actors to design, test and learn from socio-technical innovations. However, despite their recent proliferation in the European policy sphere, the underlying processes through which ULL might be able to generate and diffuse new socio-technical configurations beyond their immediate boundaries have been largely disregarded and it remains to be examined how they contribute to urban sustainability transitions. With this study, we contribute to a better understanding of the diffusion mechanisms and strategies through which ULL (seek to) create a wider impact using the conceptual lens of transition studies. The mechanisms of diffusion are investigated in four distinct ULL in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Malmö, Sweden. The empirical results indicate six specific strategies that aim to support the diffusion of innovations and know-how developed within ULL to a broader context: transformative place-making, activating network partners, replication of lab structure, education and training, stimulating entrepreneurial growth and narratives of impact.     

Physics-based Simulation and High-fidelity Visualization of Fire Following Earthquake Considering Building Seismic Damage

This work proposes a framework for the physics-based simulation and high-fidelity visualization of fire following earthquake (FFE) considering building seismic damage. The seismic damage of regional buildings is simulated using multiple degree-of-freedom building models in conjunction with nonlinear time-history analysis. In parallel, a high-fidelity visualization is presented to simulate fire spread and smoke effects. A case study of downtown Taiyuan with 44,152 buildings is performed. The results show that the influence of different ground motions and building seismic resistances on fire ignition and fire spread can be taken into account and that the FFE scene can be displayed realistically.     

Difficult heritage and digital media: ‘selfie culture’ and emotional practices at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

ABSTRACT

This article sheds light on the entanglements of difficult heritage and digital media through an ethnographic analysis of digital photography and social media practices at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. After a discussion of the project ‘Yolocaust’, through which an artist publicly shamed the ‘selfie culture’ at the memorial, the article argues that the sweeping condemnation of digital self-representations in the context of Holocaust remembrance remains simplistic. Instead, many visitors explore and enact potential emotional relationships to the pasts that sites of difficult heritage represent through digital self-representations. This observation raises critical questions about the role of digital media in current transformations of touristic memory cultures.     

郑州商城宫殿区商代板瓦发掘简报

1986年以来在郑州商城宫殿区三个地点的考古发掘中曾多次发现弧形板状陶器残片,本文对此进行了报道,认为这类遗物极有可能就是早期的建筑材料——板瓦。不仅从层位上推定了板瓦的确切年代,从制作工艺上也进行了相对准确的定位,同时对板瓦的用途也做了大胆推测。这些板瓦从出土位置和形制看,与两周时期发现的板瓦有许多相似之处,但也有较原始的特点。     

Negative heritage: the material-cultural politics of the American haunted history tour

ABSTRACT

This article assesses the defining features and cultural significance of the haunted history tour as it has come to be practiced in American urban spaces. A distinctive cultural form that has risen to prominence in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and other places, haunted history taps into public fascinations with “dark” history and ghosts, but does so to engage unresolved and troubling elements of local history and memory. Practitioners engage creatively with problematic histories that otherwise might be forgotten or suppressed, attending especially to their material-folkloric traces. Drawing on participatory and analytical research in several U.S. cities, in particular St. Louis, New York, and Savannah, the article moves from a characterization of the defining modes and interpretative conventions of haunted history, which are drawn from mainstream tourism and others from more-activist public history, to an analysis of its preoccupation with haunting “remainders” of the past, which, I contend, form an unacknowledged narrative and epistemological core of an experimental memory project whose primary quarry is the domain of “negative heritage”.