The emergence of Baltic Moorkultur: visions of scientific-technological mastery of peatlands in the age of great social change, 1850–1914

ABSTRACT

This article looks at the imaginaries of progress through technology and new activities by tracing the emergence of Baltic Moorkultur in Estonia and Livonia from the 1850s to the early 1910s. Baltic Moorkultur, a set of modern drainage and peat extraction techniques, has been viewed as part of a modernisation process and evolving visions of future, which touched the identity of Baltic German landowners, scientists and entrepreneurs. General reasons for an impetus for the large-scale reclamation of peatlands were the growth of population, economic liberalisation, growing demand for fuels and the fact that the basis of manorial economy gradually crumbled and led to increasing urge to modernise its source of livelihood. Baltic Moorkultur can be thought as a high-tech response of that time to the exploitation of peatlands. This article explains why it became adopted and how it altered the appraisal of environments that had been perceived as suboptimal.     

Management skills for artists: ‘learning by doing’?

Although artists must usually be self‐reliant when managing their business, an artist’s education typically concentrates on artistic skills rather than managerial knowledge. This paper analyses the current curricula of 154 art institutions (public and private), focussing on the so‐called DACH countries (Austria, Germany and Switzerland). The results show a deficit in the implementation of economic and, especially, business‐related topics in the education of artists at art universities and institutions. A glimpse at Anglo‐American countries shows that, unlike in Europe, art schools are more open‐minded about implementing economic content into their curricula.     

‘Sharing the white man's burden’ Nazi colonial revisionism and Australia's New‐Guinea mandate

ABSTRACT

The September 2014 general elections in Fiji resulted in a decisive victory for Prime Minister Bainimarama and his FijiFirst Party. It indicated a desire for stability on the part of the electorate as well as the popularity of measures such as ‘free’ education and the removal of affirmative action programmes for Indigenous Fijians. The Social Democratic Liberal Party garnered a significant portion of the Indigenous vote through appeals to ethnic identity, but will need to broaden its base in future to have any chance of forming a government. The high voter enrolment and participation reflects a hope for more accountability as well as transparency, in contrast to the arbitrariness of the previous eight years. New oversight institutions and a more expansive bill of rights in the constitution offer some ground for cautious optimism in the face of cynicism about the gap between the government's rhetoric and its actions.