马家窑文化人物形象分区分期及同时期区域对比研究

马家窑文化包含丰富的不同工艺、纹饰人物形象,本研究在人物形象分类的基础上,首先对马家窑文化人物形象进行了考古学分期、以及人物形象区域分布研究,其后选取东部、中亚地区同时期的人物形象作了对比研究。研究发现:马家窑文化人物形象可分为两期,一期以动物拟人纹与人物形体纹为主,其中,鲵人纹与舞蹈纹是此期特色,器口人面塑中出现了哭泣、惊讶的面部表情。二期出现蛙人纹,大量其他彩绘人物形体消失,继承一期以器口作人面的技法,对面部的五官塑造更加细致,表情更加多样,出现了精致又寓意非凡的裸体人像彩陶壶。马家窑文化人物形象可分为三区,从东往西传播与发展;与东部、中亚同时期人物形象对比,马家窑文化人形象种类和技法更具本地源流,且与其他地区异中有同。本研究为研究马家窑文化的来龙去脉、以及不同文化间相互交流提供参考和依据,对后续分析文化人物形象内涵等均有重要意义。     

多尺度视角下中国城市创新网络格局及邻近性机理分析

借助2016年国家知识产权局的专利合作数据,利用复杂网络和空间分析方法对国家、区际和省内三个尺度的城市创新网络结构进行刻画,并利用负二项回归法对创新合作的邻近性机理进行了剖析。研究表明:(1)全国城市创新网络的整体联系较弱,网络极化现象明显,空间结构呈现出以北京为核心的放射型网络形态。区际城市创新网络的跨区域网络联系强于区内网络联系,东中西形成以区域中心城市为核心的异质性空间结构。省内城市创新网络的本地结网不足,内部联系强度低,空间形态普遍呈现出以省会城市为中心的核心—边缘结构。(2)回归结果证实了社会邻近、技术邻近对城市创新结网具有显著的促进作用,地理邻近则呈现出不显著的正向影响。其中,技术邻近的促进作用显著高于社会邻近,而地理邻近则需要通过社会邻近的调节效应对创新结网产生影响。     

Impact of European Union development subsidies on Hungarian regions

Since the collapse of the communist system, regional inequalities have increased in Central European Countries. This paper describes an assessment of the impacts of regional development programmes on the development of Hungarian regions at a highly disaggregated level between 2002 and 2008. We construct a multi-dimensional composite indicator to estimate the overall development of rural regions and capture social, economic and environmental dimensions. The impacts of rural development programmes were investigated through counterfactual analysis in combination with Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Differences approaches. There has been considerable variation with increasing concentration in the level of subsidies distributed during the analysed period. From a policy perspective, the results are disappointing. Irrespective of the subsidy measures or methodology employed, the impact of the former is very close to zero or non-significant. Our findings cast serious doubt on the effectiveness of development policy and the long-run convergence of European regions.     

Agency and resilience in the time of regional economic crisis

Using a comparative case study on the closure of the research and development facilities of a pharmaceutical company in two regions in Sweden, this paper investigates the emergence of regional economic resilience from an agency perspective. Findings include a networked region engendering agency from non-state actors whilst substantial state intervention is needed to facilitate agency from a less networked region. The paper finds broad confirmation that interactions of actors are due to how a region is organized and the contingencies of its institutional context. Collective agency depends on the ability of actors to align interests and coalesce agendas which, as shown by the two cases, can be based on shared regional affinity as in the case of Södertälje or innovation strategies as in the case of Lund. Regional economic crises bring forth conditions and impetus for temporary modes of cooperation that mobilize resources to launch adaptive resilience strategies. Conflicts in resource distributions or operational complexity make developing agency-based resilience challenging. Emergent regional outcomes from agency-based resilience from these two cases exhibit adaptation with the potential for adaptability in Lund, and adaptability with degrees of adaptation in Södertälje.     

New tech spaces for old tech places? Exploring the network of research and technology organizations across North Italian Regions

This paper explores the industrial affiliation and linkages of research and technology organizations (RTOs) in nine North Italian regions highly specialized in advanced manufacturing and introduces a methodology to assess the potential for a cross-regional technology platform. RTOs are supposed to operate in the development and application phases of innovation and are expected to provide access to key enabling technologies and R&D infrastructures. An original survey panel of 55 Italian RTOs is used and Social network analysis is introduced to assess the potential of RTOs to operate as a single cross-regional platform across key industrial and technology domains. Centrality measures are used to build an empirical model on the factors that drive the higher centrality of RTOs. Centrality is increased by convergence on few key technology priorities and is positively correlated with collaborative ventures, the number of contracts with firms and the presence of distinctive R&D infrastructures. Such a platform rests on specialized regional hubs, it operates with no gatekeepers and it only partially exploits geographical and technological proximity within the network. Future research avenues are discussed to improve the function of technology diffusion of RTOs in a cross-regional perspective.     

Geographic information system‐based evaluation of spatial accessibility to maternal health facilities in Siaya County,Kenya

Maternal mortality is a major problem in middle‐income and low‐income countries, and the availability and accessibility of healthcare facilities offering safe delivery is important in averting maternal deaths. Siaya County, in Kenya, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country—far more than the national average. This study aimed to evaluate geographic access to health facilities offering delivery services in Siaya County. A mixed‐methods approach incorporating geographic information system analysis and individual data from semi‐structured interviews was used to derive travel time maps to facilities using different travel scenarios: AccessMod5 and ArcGIS were used for these tasks. The derived maps were then linked to georeferenced household survey data in a multilevel logistic regression model in R to predict the probability of expectant women delivering in a health facility. Based on the derived travel times, 26 per cent (13,140) and 67 per cent (32,074) of the estimated 46,332 pregnant women could reach any facility within one and two hours, respectively, while walking with the percentage falling to seven per cent (3,415) and 20 per cent (8,845) when considering referral facilities. Motorised transport significantly increased coverage. The findings revealed that the predicted probability of a pregnant woman delivering in a health facility ranged between 0.14 and 0.86. Significant differences existed in access levels with transportation‐based interventions significantly increasing coverage. The derived maps can help health policy planners identify underserved areas and monitor future reductions in inequalities. This work has theoretical implications for conceptualising healthcare accessibility besides advancing the literature on mixed methodologies.     

Non-destructive Provenancing of Ground-Edged Mafic Artifacts: A Holocene Case Study from the Sydney Basin,Australia

Ground-edged artifacts were an important part of the Australian Aboriginal toolkit. They had practical day-to-day uses, but some had symbolic and social values that led to their movement across great distances. Australian provenance studies document long-distance Aboriginal exchange systems extending over hundreds of kilometers. The size and complexity of exchange systems and social networks were contingent upon resources and the productivity of a region's environment. Along the fertile, well-watered lands east of the Great Dividing Range, movement of objects may have been geographically more circumscribed than in drier areas to the west. One hundred and twenty-one mafic, ground-edged artifacts from the New South Wales (NSW) Central Coast and 368 geological specimens from potential sources were non-destructively analyzed by portable X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry. Results indicate the existence of a well-used basalt source within the region at Peats Ridge-Popran Creek as well as multiple local and non-local sources up to 430?km from Mangrove Mountain on the NSW Central Coast.     

The technodiplomacy of Iberian transnational railways in the second half of the nineteenth century

In the second half of the nineteenth century Portugal undertook an ambitious public works programme in order to develop the kingdom. In that programme, railways took a leading role, especially those routes that linked the main ports of the shoreline to Spain (and thence to France). To do so, a strenuous effort of diplomacy – or more specifically technodiplomacy – was required to convince Spain to accept cross-border links that served the goals of Portugal. In this paper I will analyse this technodiplomatic process and how two countries with different technological perceptions of railways managed to settle their differences and build five transnational links across their borders over the course of 40 years. I aim to add to the debate about the Iberian cross-border links from the point of view of the history of technology, in particular, and to the discussion about transnational technological systems, in general.     

Small nation,big ships winter navigation and technological nationalism in a peripheral country, 1878–1978

Finland is the only country in the world where all ports freeze over during a typical winter. Over the century 1878–1978, Finland developed a winter-seafaring system that broke the winter isolation and eliminated seasonal variation in shipping. By using diverse archival sources, we deconstruct the dominant narrative of Finnish winter seafaring through which national as well as technological development is often presented as natural, inevitable and straightforward. We reinterpret the Finnish winter navigation system as a tangible, historical experience and show that technological solutions in this domain cannot be understood outside the context of a decades-long process of nation-building. Finally, we argue that winter navigation became a central imaginary for Finland as a western, industrial and modern nation. As such, the Finnish winter-seafaring system presents a case of technological nationalism in which a small, peripheral country sought to integrate itself into a modern international order.     

Sustainability transformations in the balance: exploring Swedish initiatives challenging the corporate food regime

ABSTRACT

This paper explores to what extent organic initiatives that go beyond mainstream organic (so-called Organic 3.0) can challenge the corporate food regime and how they can push the food system towards sustainability transformations. We depart from the assumption that individual initiatives may differ in their potential to influence the corporate food regime and that this potential can be assessed by examining traits linked to reformist, progressive or radical food regime/food movement trends that they may possess. Rather than establishing a dichotomy between niche and food regime or categorizing Organic 3.0 initiatives within one of these trends, we explore the nuances in niche–regime relationships within the food system from a multi-level perspective, using the cases of two Organic 3.0 initiatives in Sweden. The results show that relations between these initiatives and the food regime share key characteristics, but also differ in important respects. While a reformist strategy facilitates niche growth, progressive and radical approaches are more likely to challenge the regime. The choice of approach in both cases involves trade-offs between growth and organic values. We conclude that one of the primary roles of Organic 3.0 initiatives may be to illustrate the viability of alternative models.