Geographies of temporary markets: an anatomy of the Canton Fair

While recent research on temporary clusters and temporary markets has emphasized the knowledge generation processes associated with trade fairs, little is known about the knowledge exchanges that are embedded in market relations at these events. This paper uses the case of the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, the largest trade fair in China, to illustrate that such events do not operate as a single market, but that they generate multiple dynamic market configurations, which entail different flows of knowledge, goods and people. In a typical case study, four types of market configurations are identified that simultaneously develop at this event. The findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of market relations, knowledge and transactions in temporary spatial settings.     

The Hopi,the katsinam,and the French courts: looking outside the law in the repatriation of Indigenous cultural heritage

Katsinam (plural of katsina) are effigies central to the religion of the Hopi people of northern Arizona in the United States. Since 2013 the Hopi have sought the return of katsinam being sold in French auction houses. The Hopi have employed a series of legal actions to stop the auctions. All such actions, however, have been consistently denied by French courts. This paper uses social science analysis to understand why the legal actions of the Hopi failed. This paper treats the case of the katsinam as a cautionary lesson in cultural heritage studies, with the goal of drawing insights that can inform other situations involving the repatriation of Indigenous cultural heritage.     

Show solidarity,live solitarily: the Nazi ‘New Europe’ as a ‘family of peoples’

Abstract

This chapter first investigates how the German Nazis used the term ‘European solidarity’ and demonstrates that the term meant political loyalty between European ‘peoples’ (Völker) in National Socialist discourses. Second, assuming that the Nazis’ objective in showing solidarity with or demanding loyalty from other nations was to increase strength in what they believed to be a conflict with ‘international Jewry’, it examines the logic of the Nazis behind including other European countries into their own camp in that conflict. It will be argued that the Nazis developed a sense of belonging with non-German Europeans based on three ideas: (1) the racist myth that all Europeans belonged to the ‘Aryan race’; (2) a Europe-wide consensus of the extreme Right on anti-Communism, antisemitism, and anti-democratic and ultra-nationalist worldviews; and (3) the existence of cross-border relations within Europe which led to shared experiences. The article draws on primary sources as well as on secondary literature about National Socialist concepts of Europe and about transnational academic, cultural and social relations in the National Socialist sphere of influence.     

Recalibrating intercultural governance in Australian Indigenous organisations: the case of Aboriginal community controlled health

Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) have a strong track record of delivering comprehensive primary health care in Australia, but the sector also suffers from governance challenges. This article argues that a combination of settler-state dominance of governance arrangements and inadequate conceptualisation of governance in the sector have led to the risk of ‘controlled communities’ – either quasi-government control of organisations or the control of individual ACCHSs by a small cohort of members. In response, we deploy a political rather than technical approach to governance to consider the contested and intercultural nature of ACCHSs governance alongside recent governance initiatives in Southeast Queensland that signal the value of disaggregating and delineating different forms of governance in the sector. Key conceptual steps and a matrix for recalibrating intercultural governance are presented to support further research, to clarify lines of jurisdiction, and inform governance reform in and around ACCHSs.     

An Enlightened path towards conservatism: critical junctures and changing elite perceptions in early nineteenth-century Russia

This article explores the historical roots of Russian conservatism by analyzing the evolution of Russia’s Westernized, Enlightenment-minded nobility to a conservative segment of Russian society in the early nineteenth century. The events of 1789 and 1812 were critical junctures that made the Russian nobility painfully aware of their own deep level of Westernization. The article first describes the reverberations of the French Revolution among the Russian elite. It also discusses the internal and external scrutiny of Russia’s relations with France under Napoleon, which made Russian conservatism a contingency. It then describes the evolution between 1789 and 1812 of a corpus of conservative ideas ranging from traditionalism to ardent patriotism and xenophobia. Napoleon’s 1812 campaign against Russia overshadowed the generational gap and diverging political and literary preferences among the elite. The reaction to it illustrates the intrinsic duality of the Russian elite: culturally Westernized, yet politically conservative. Yet the influence of several Western defenders of the ancien régime on Russia’s conservatives shows that the essentially conservative Russian identity as propagated by Putin these days originally might have been more pan-European than purely Russian.     

Emergence of a region. Exploring the role of spatial planning in the emergence of high-tech region ELAt using assemblage and actor-network theory

ABSTRACT

Regions or regional development have not only gained importance in spatial planning, but also got fuzzy meanings. Originally regions refer to a specific geographical demarcated area, often with an inductive historic or cultural meaning. In the meantime, in our networked world, the concept also refers to transport regions based on models of daily urban systems, or functional regions based on distinctive urban or social functions. Within the post-industrial era, the concept also gained importance as economic regions. In this paper, we will explore how regional concepts emerge out of specific economic interest concerning technological innovation. We will focus on a cross-border municipal case, for example, the triangle Eindhoven–Leuven–Aachen. With the help of the assemblage and actor-network theory, we will show how the identity of regions is translated by evolving actor-networks, and how these actor-networks are influenced and adapted by those alternating regional identities themselves. From these insights, we will come up with some ideas and propositions how regional planning could play an important role within these co-evolving processes.     

How proactive? How pacifist? Charting Japan’s evolving defence posture

After 60 years maintaining Self-Defense Forces rather than a normal military, Japan is moving towards exercising collective self-defence, long restricted by interpretations of its 1945 Peace Constitution. The merits of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo's ‘proactive pacifism’ are intensely debated by those welcoming greater international contributions from Japan and others suspicious of Japanese ‘remilitarisation’. A nation’s defence posture can theoretically be hijacked by aggressive nationalists, shift to pacifist isolationism, or rely on non-military internationalism or multilateral security cooperation. This article assesses competing explanations about the post-war trajectory of Japan’s defence posture by charting variation in military doctrine and capabilities. The analysis finds that Tokyo has made incremental policy adjustments under domestic and international constraints, and is not aggressively remilitarising.     

The ‘Sleepiness’ of George Sarawia: The Impact of Disease on the Melanesian Mission at Mota,c. 1870–1900

George Sarawia, ordained in 1873 as the Melanesian Mission’s first Indigenous priest, was a pioneering figure in the mission’s plans for an Indigenous-led Anglican Church in the region. Sarawia founded Kohimarama, a mission station on Mota in the Banks Islands, Vanuatu, where he taught Mota Islanders and hosted visiting teachers and clergy. By the 1890s, some of the European missionaries had become critical of Sarawia and his flock on Mota, underlining their ‘natural, sleepy condition’ and recommending more intensive European supervision. This article will explore the role of epidemic and endemic disease, as well as the shortage of water on Mota, in creating substantial challenges for Sarawia and his mission. As he grew more incapacitated in later life, these challenges were insufficiently acknowledged by Sarawia’s critics.     

The Herme-Neutics of Χοιροκομεῖον in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata

The following paper discusses the meaning of the word χοιροκομε?ον and its function in a passage in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata 1073. Although its semantics became obscure as early as the time of Pollux, it almost certainly originally referred to a wicker-work pigpen. The fact that in the Aristophanic passage under discussion the Spartan delegates are said to be wearing it around their thighs suggests that the author meant it to be an obscene joke based on a stereotype according to which, unlike the Athenians, the Spartans were very likely to become sexual objects for other males. Within the reconstruction proposed below they wore χοιροκομε?α in order to protect themselves from penetration. This element, combined with the other aspects of the visual characteristics of the Spartan delegates, namely erect phalli and long beards, made them similar to the herms of Hermes.     

Inhabiting Remote Tropical Seashores at 1500–1100 b.c.: Water,Practicalities, and Rituals in the Mariana Islands

When people first inhabited the Remote Oceanic region of the world at 1500 b.c., they generated archaeological sites attesting to their practical coastal adaptations in tandem with their ceremonial traditions, wherein water figured vitally in daily living and ritual performance. Of eight known first-settlement sites in the Mariana Islands, Ritidian in Guam uniquely incorporates one residential habitation plus two caves related to water collection, pictographs, consumption of unusual foods, and use of exceptionally decorative objects. The inter-connected findings clarify what was “special” about the special-use caves, in total articulating a fuller sense of cultural life and landscape than otherwise could be possible.