Death as the border: Managing missing migrants and unidentified bodies at the EU's Mediterranean frontier

The paper explores how the management of migrant bodies by national and EU authorities reflects particular understandings of contemporary borders and how the failure to address such bodies has implications far from the frontier. The study of the management both of the dead and of the data that can serve to identify missing migrants, can benefit our understanding of the contemporary border, and has to date received only limited scholarly attention. To address this gap we draw on field research carried out on the Greek island of Lesbos, one of the key migrant entry points to the EU, that has seen repeated incidents of deadly shipwrecks. Based on interviews with families of migrants and local stakeholders the paper explores how death at the border introduces novel – and often invisible – borders and categories of inclusion and exclusion. By shedding light on the experiences of the families of the dead we aspire to introduce a critical set of actors who have been marginalized from the study of the border. In exploring the remote effects of deaths on such families in migrant countries of origin, the paper shows that bordering practices have transnational impacts at the human level, thereby broadening our conceptualization of the border.     

Inscribing the border: Schizophrenia and the aesthetics of Aztla´n

Late modernity is replete with new borders that defy traditional geographic notions of scale. The irruption of such transverse borders is seen by some as signalling a threatening loss of the link between place and identity. Yet others have viewed this as a productive decentring. The Chicano movement and the aesthetic production that arises from it illustrates this productivity. Chicano national identity is actively produced through the revisioning of space that both draws from and defies geopolitical borders. This challenges geographers and other border-based scholars to rethink the ways that borders manage late modern power.     

Wirtschaftswunder in Pretzfeld,upper Franconia: Interactions between science,technology, and corporate strategies in Siemens semiconductor rectifier research & development, 1945–1956

Abstract

Immediately after World War II, when emergency production of non‐electrotechnical products such as stoves, pots, etc. at Siemens amounted to more than 50% and the return to normal production and old standards was the primary company goal, one man, Eberhard Spenke, thought far ahead. Power semiconductor rectifiers were to be designed and manufactured on a scientific basis rather than as a result of trial and error methods. The theory of rectification in semiconductor‐metal contacts that had been found by the Siemens theoretical physicist Walter H. Schottky was to serve as a starting point. First, apartments for researchers had to be built in a former stable at Pretzfeld Castle, Upper Franconia; lab equipment was then procured. On September 1, 1947, research work began, and the first selenium rectifiers were made on three old kitchen tables. In 1956, Spenke proudly presented the world's first reproducible silicon power rectifier elements (for a reverse voltage of 1000 V and a maximum forward current of 300 A when forced‐air‐cooled) at the international semiconductor conference in Garmisch‐Partenkirchen, Bavaria. Siemens had thus become a world leader in power electronics.

The example of Eberhard Spenke and his team can give valuable guidelines for organizing Research & Development efficiently within a big corporation. It shows that the amount of money spent on R&D is not necessarily the determining factor of success. At least equally important are such elements as personal leadership in small research groups rather than bureaucratic administration of research, the ability to foresee technological and market developments, direct contacts between the leading researchers and the top management, open‐mindedness of the top management to new ideas and approaches, and the motivation of employees.     

Lithostratigraphy of Border Cave, KwaZulu, South Africa: a Middle Stone Age sequence beginning c. 195,000 b.p.

Border Cave is well-known for its Middle Stone Age (MSA) sequence and associated hominids, as well as for the earliest demonstrable Later Stone Age (LSA) (c. 38,000 b.p.) strata in southern Africa. Detailed lithostratigraphic and sedimentological study permits identification of 8 Pleistocene sedimentary cycles, including 6 major cold phases and 2 intervening weathering horizons. The 2 youngest cold phases are associated with the LSA and have 8 ¹⁴C dates 38,600-13,300 b.p. By gauging sedimentation rates in finer and coarser sediments, duration of sedimentary breaks, and allowing for differential compaction, the excellent radiocarbon framework provided by 28 available ¹⁴C dates can be extrapolated to the 6 cold intervals and 2 palaeosols that are older than 50,000 b.p. These clearly span oxygenisotope stages 4, 5 and 6, placing the base of the MSA deposits at c. 195,000 b.p., Homo sapiens sapiens at c. 90,000–115,000 b.p. and the sophisticated, microlithic “Howieson's Poort” industry at 95,000 b.p. These results require radical reassessment of the age and nature of the MSA complex and of the earliest evolution of anatomically-modern people.     

'Nothing Can Ever Be the Case of 'Us' and 'Them' Again': Exploring the politics of difference through border pedagogy and student journal writing

Linda McDowell (1994) has called for styles of teaching which put into practice arguments about the 'politics of difference', which has become an increasingly central part of human geographical research. This paper draws on a number of years' experience of teaching an undergraduate course on multicultural historical geography, in which this was attempted. Here students were encouraged to get more involved in these debates, to take them more personally, and to develop 'situated knowledges' about the UK as a multicultural society. The approach to teaching, learning and assessment which made this possible was based on the principles of 'border pedagogy' and on students writing journals throughout the course which charted the development of their understandings of the materials they encountered.     

陕甘宁边区的离婚法实践

陕甘宁边区的离婚法令体现了对婚姻自由、男女平等的追求,但由于落后的社会现实而在实施中遭遇了困境。对此,边区政府在立法、司法、宣传等方面采取了多种补救措施。在离婚问题上,边区还面临着革命需求与个人权利之间的价值冲突,并在实践中对前者有所偏向。考察边区的离婚法令及其实践,可为今日的法制建设提供借鉴。     

“一带一路”倡议下中国与克罗地亚贸易投资合作研究

克罗地亚是马可·波罗的故乡,作为中东欧地区的重要国家、古丝绸之路的重要一站,对推动“一带一路”倡议的有效实施具有重要作用。本文基于2013—2020年中国与克罗地亚贸易投资合作数据,对“一带一路”背景下两国的贸易投资合作进展及其贸易投资中的互补性和竞争性进行分析。结论发现：中国在中国与克罗地亚的贸易投资合作中处于相对核心位置;中国与克罗地亚的贸易投资合作更具互补性,竞争性较弱,存在较大合作潜力。目前,中国与克罗地亚的贸易投资稳步发展,今后可进一步扩大中国与克罗地亚的贸易投资合作领域和范围,加强两国在优势产业、基础设施、旅游和服务外包项目等方面的合作。     

Community-based Heritage Management: a case study and agenda for research

Heritage sites regarded as important are safely managed by the state, voluntary or private sectors but the majority of sites, despite statutory protection, remain unrecognised and without a role in their host communities. New schemes such as the Local Heritage Initiative in the UK aim to encourage communities to recognise their heritage assets and in managing them effectively to contribute to their preservation. With reference to the case of Nether Poppleton near York (UK), the present study explores the factors and conditions for effective community management displayed in one locality by groups who are successfully conserving and managing a diverse set of local heritage sites. Interviews and joint tasks enabled an analysis of the complex range of factors and conditions that can lead to a successful community-based initiative. Future research will determine the extent to which these factors, if applied to other sites, might produce the same results. The importance of this agenda is underscored by the increasing reliance on community-based heritage management in the UK and elsewhere.     

美国对1962年中印边界冲突的反应

美国对1962年中印边界冲突反应与它的南亚政策息息相关。从印巴分治直到中美和解前夕,美国的南亚政策始终有服务于全球冷战的两个目标：力促印巴和解以防止共产主义集团乘机介入;以一切可能的手段使印度放弃中立政策并加入到西方集团。中印边界冲突在美国政府的南亚政策渐入困境时发生,给了美国决策者以莫大的期望,他们企图以其所谓的天赐良机达至以上主要针对中国的冷战目标。然而,中国正确政策及出神入化的实践大大强化了美国在南亚地区既有的结构性困境,使肯尼迪政府利用中印冲突的图谋以失败而告终。     

地理认知与边界划定:清末滇缅边界变迁研究

清末滇缅划界谈判是近代中缅边界变迁和发展的一个重要阶段。本文借助外交档案和条约舆图等资料,对中英谈判涉及的滇缅边界划定和变迁过程作细致复原。光绪年间《中英续议滇缅界务商务条约》和《中缅条约附款及专条》的签订基本划定了滇缅中段的边界线。中英对“分水岭”地理认知上的矛盾,对尖高山以北段未定界的交涉产生重要影响,结果使中国事实上丧失了对尖高山以北、扒拉大山—高良共山以西小江流域的领土主权。在南段未定界,双方对边界会勘依据有诸多分歧,难以取得共识。清末中英关于滇缅边界问题的谈判结果,基本塑造了当今中缅边界的走向,对其后民国时期与20世纪60年代中缅两国的边界谈判和最终划定产生了重要影响。