Great expectations: changing social,spatial and emotional understandings of the companion animal–human relationship

This paper examines the changing social, legal, spatial and emotional understandings of the companion animal–human relationship in Britain during the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, based upon in-depth interviews with pet owners and professionals involved in the pet industry. This period has seen rapid change in attitudes and practices towards companion animals, bringing benefits for both animal health and welfare, but also increasing social, emotional and financial expectations. Animals have become increasingly integrated into the human home and family, whilst simultaneously subject to increasing control of their behaviour and movements in public space. Such changes have brought a culture of ‘responsible’ pet ownership in which both animals and humans are subject to constant surveillance of their own and others pet-keeping practices. Such expectations are constantly changing and contested, with notions of human identity and status increasingly defined through human–animal relationships. These processes are ongoing and new forms of responsibility are continually evolving, providing new means for caretakers to express their love and care for their animal companions.     

Multi-Isotope Investigations for Scientific Characterisation and Provenance Implication of Banded Travertines from Tripolis Antique City (Denizli–Turkey)

The coloured stones used in buildings and monuments were an indicator of power and wealth during the ancient times. In this study, Tripolis city samples have been compared with Tripolis quarry samples in order to recognise the provenance of the banded travertine blocks in the ancient city. The banded travertine samples have similar mineral compositions and mainly consist of calcite with minor amounts of dolomite, aragonite, clay and iron oxide minerals. These results are also supported by CRS studies. Calcite is in the form of needle-shaped crystals ranging between 0.163–1.418?mm (in city) and 0.303–1.270?mm (in quarry). Tripolis banded travertine samples show the similar compositional spread in terms of major oxide, trace elements. δ¹³C_V-PDB values of banded travertines range from 1.93 to 5.25‰ (in city) and 2.99 to 3.99‰ (in quarry), δ¹⁸O_V-PDB values change between (?16.93)–(?10.08) ‰ and (?15.93)–(?13.01)‰, respectively. The U–Th radiometric ages are determined between ～267 and 9?ka in Tripolis city samples and ～350 and 2?ka in Tripolis quarry samples. The minero-petrographic, geochemical, C–O and U–Th isotope results fairly matched with each other. It seems highly probable that the banded travertines in Tripolis city were extracted from the Tripolis quarry, which is located at the northeast of the antique city with a distance of 3?km.     

Squeezed between external trade barriers and internal economic problems: Bulgaria’s trade with Denmark in the 1970s

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates Bulgaria’s trade strategy towards the European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1970s: a decade of intensified economic exchange between East and West thanks to détente and, simultaneously, of growing trade barriers due to the consolidation of the EEC’s Common Market. The successes and failures of Bulgaria’s endeavours are discussed through a study of economic cooperation with Denmark before and after its accession to the EEC in 1973. The main argument is that while Bulgarian economic policy focused on the rising regulatory impediments to trade with EEC members, it neglected the structural deficiencies of Bulgarian export production. Thereby, Bulgarian state officials strove to resolve foreign trade problems through diplomatic negotiations over customs regulations instead of advancing domestic economic reforms . This argument is supported by analysis of intergovernmental economic negotiations and trade deals between Bulgaria and Denmark during the 1970s. It highlights the different ways in which Bulgarian trade envoys in Copenhagen and top officials at home evaluated recurrent problems in accessing the Danish market and formulated solutions for these problems. Thus, instead of tackling internal structural problems, the blueprints for Bulgaria’s foreign trade focused on external foes, namely trade discrimination against socialist countries.     

Military dominance in Pakistan and China–Pakistan relations

ABSTRACT

The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been touted as the centrepiece of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the key to its strategic partnership with Pakistan. Notwithstanding claims about the CPEC’s economic potential, however, Islamabad’s economy continues to be dire. This article attempts to better understand the ramifications of Pakistan’s economic viability and its consequences for China. It does so by examining China–Pakistan relations from the lens of Pakistan’s civil–military relations, paying attention in particular to what the Pakistan Armed Forces (PMA)’s domestic dominance means for China’s interests, including economic interests, in Pakistan. We suggest that PMA preponderance and its attendant influence on the country’s economic performance bring another dimension to interpreting Sino-Pakistani relations. As Beijing’s most trusted political partner in Pakistan, the PMA’s local dominance has considerable benefits for China, particularly in the security and political aspects of its interests. However, this dominance also entails a number of complications for Chinese economic interests, a factor that has implications for the future of China’s CPEC investments and their financial sustainability.     

Canada’s Trade Policy: In Search of a Roadmap

This article examines Canada’s trade policy in light of efforts by the Harper government to respond to increasing global competition through the Global Markets Action Plan (2013). Through an analysis of three initiatives, the Canada–Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA), the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), and the Trans–Pacific Partnership (TPP), it becomes clear that Canada’s current strategy has only gone part of the way to enact policies that will be most beneficial to its economy. This article shows that Canada’s Global Markets Action Plan, though ambitious, does not correctly prioritize Canada’s interests: it gives too little attention to improving Canada’s strongest trading relationship with its immediate neighbors in North America; it does not comprehensively address the changing nature of trade (which is now focused on trade in value-added products); and finally, its almost singular focus on market access and increasing exports directs attention away from the type of liberalization that would be most beneficial to Canadians, which is opening up the market for imports and dismantling Canada’s supply management system.     

Participatory work with young children: the trouble and transformation of age-based hierarchies

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the ways that participatory work with young children was actually lived in practice, in one early childhood setting. Drawing on an ethnographic study, the paper argues that disruption of age-based hierarchy was key for making space and time for young children’s meaningful participation. Practitioners held a strong, nuanced view of young children’s ‘richness’, rather than defining young children in terms of what they lack. The finished state of adulthood was troubled, with adults seen as fellow ‘emergent becomings’, in the process of learning alongside children. However, despite conscious efforts to deconstruct age-based hierarchy, age and life experience remained troublesome concepts at the nursery. The paper examines tensions and limitations in how far adults were willing to cede control to young children, focusing on the example of care routines. The paper contends that participatory work with children must itself be maintained as a space for inquiry and reflection.     

Sovereignty and territoriality in the city–state: A case study from the Amuq Valley,Turkey

This article investigates the relationship of state authority and territory in the city–state, using the Iron Age Syro-Anatolian culture of the ancient Near East as a case-study. Although more sophisticated spatial modeling of political authority has appeared in the past decade, archaeologists are still prone to assume that territoriality in ancient city–states operated according to a “container model” principle in which, like the modern state, political power is evenly distributed across the landscape within clear boundary divisions. The present work examines both the historical record from the Iron Age on the one hand, and regional settlement pattern data on the other, to evaluate the appropriateness of this conception of territory and power in the Syro-Anatolian city–state of Patina, located in southern Turkey. Textual accounts and gravity modeling of settlement distributions point toward a pattern of territoriality in which power was present inconsistently across the geographical extent of the city–state, and in which borderlines as conventionally drawn did not apply. I refer to this flexible relationship of authority and space as malleable territoriality.     

Geographic earnings inequality by race, 1960–2016

Geographic inequality and racial disharmony are considered major factors in America's political divergence. This paper calculates geographic earnings inequality from 1960 to 2016 separately by race. From 2000 to 2016, White geographic inequality was significantly higher, and Hispanic geographic inequality was significantly lower, than Black and Asian geographic inequality. White geographic inequality rose from 1980 to 2008. Black and Hispanic geographic inequality fell from 1960 to 1980. Rural controls explain substantial shares of White geographic inequality in all years. Region and rural controls account for large shares of Black geographic inequality, especially from 1960 to 1990. Post-1990, geographic inequality changes are largely explained by changes in overall earnings inequality, but 1960–1990 changes are not. Between-race differences in geographic inequality translate into high-income metropolitan statistical areas having had, since 1980, significantly smaller shares of Whites among their low-income residents.     

GIs and “Jeep girls”: sex and American soldiers in wartime China

ABSTRACT

This article examines how sex affected the larger politics of the Sino–US alliance during World War II. By early 1945, Chinese from across the social spectrum resented the US military presence, but just one issue sparked a violent backlash: sexual relations between American soldiers (GIs) and Chinese women. Two interrelated, patriarchal narratives about sex emerged that spring. Starting in March, government-backed newspapers began criticizing “Jeep girls,” an epithet coined to describe the Chinese women who consorted with American servicemen. Rumors also circulated that GIs were using Jeeps to kidnap “respectable” women and rape them. Each narrative portrayed women’s bodies as territory to be recovered and inextricable from national sovereignty. These narratives resonated widely, turning Jeep girls into the catalyst through which all variables causing resentment against the US military presence intersected and converged. With Japan on the ropes, China’s allied friends now stood in the way of irreversibly consigning foreign imperialism to the past. Sexual relations were not the Sino–US alliance’s seedy underside, but the core site of its tensions.     

America and the Canadian Presence: As the United States Faces Global Challenges,How Does Canada Fit In? 1

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Center for Canadian–American Studies at Western Washington University, the author considers the trends that will shape US–Canadian relations over the next 40 years. Specifically the author considers the deepening of continental economic integration; the consequences of reaching the limits of current governance of integration and the coming need to negotiate new arrangements and institutions to manage the shared economy; the importance of an anticipated drive for greater public sector productivity in both countries at the federal and state/provincial levels; and the implications of a generational transition in the management of the relationship from the Baby Boomers to a younger generation with an attendant need to maintain the best traditions of amicable bilateral relations while evolving and adapting the management of the relationship in keeping with changing times and new challenges. For each of these changes, it is to be hoped that education in Canadian studies will be available for future leaders in the public and private sectors.