The statistical politics of exceptional territories

The so-called Rotterdam Act enables municipal governments in the Netherlands to bar poor households with no or limited residential history in the metropolitan area from moving into certain neighborhoods. Although evidently at odds with principles of equality enshrined in law, the Act has emerged as a standard part of the policy tool kit. This article seeks to explain how the Rotterdam Act came to pass. Asking this question sets us on the path of reconstructing how specific urban areas suffering from extraordinary problems were identified and how using exceptional measures to exclude specific groups were instituted. In a word, we are interested in the construction of exceptionality. We show that the construction of exceptional territories is based on the interplay of discretionary power and statistical calculation. We discuss the wider relevance of our analysis to the emerging field of critical data studies and for understanding the links between sovereignty, territory and statistics in constitutional democracies.     

Affective atmospheres,urban geopolitics and conflict (de)escalation in Beirut

The article joins literature on urban geopolitics and on affective atmospheres to trace the intensities of feeling that propagate during escalation and de-escalation of urban conflict in Beirut. Based on two months of fieldwork in 2010 in the Lebanese capital, it considers the deadly clashes of May 2008 between government- and opposition-affiliated militias. Political decisions and deliberate interventions involving the urban built environment before and after the clashes, contributed to propagating affective atmospheres of (de)escalation, which in turn impacted on the residents’ practical and emotional responses to violence. The paper proposes an atmospheric urban geopolitics that moves away from techno-centric, disembodied approaches to urban conflict, and that instead takes seriously the lived experiences of urban (de)escalation.     

“Urban Ecology Under Fire”: Water Supply in Madrid During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

This paper investigates the critical role of workers to enhance the resilience of water supply services in cities at war through analyzing the case of Madrid and the Madrid water company Canales del Lozoya during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). We argue that securing the protection of vital urban flows mediated through infrastructures is a key objective of cities under attack. In doing so we contend that examining how those affected by the interruption of these flows cope with the situation represents a valuable but largely neglected form of water management. We illustrate how quotidian knowledge about the urban geography of water flows may have important repercussions for the war effort itself. In a nutshell, the case of Madrid offers an early account of the critical role of water workers in sustaining “urban ecologies under fire” securing the complex urban metabolism while also contributing to the struggle against invading forces.     

华侨华人与《反分裂国家法》的酝酿、立法和颁行

在《反分裂国家法》酝酿、立法、颁行的过程中,华侨华人做出了突出的贡献,如华侨华人早就有以立法遏制"台独"的倡议,并向温家宝总理提议,成为酝酿《反分裂国家法》的重要来源;《反分裂国家法》立法程序启动后,华侨华人统一认识,积极献言献策,力正视听,并见证了此法通过的历史时刻;《反分裂国家法》颁行后,华侨华人广泛拥护,对"台独"等各种分裂分子的行径进行了抨击,对华社①的不同意见进行交流,促进了国际社会和华社对此法的认同。     

La métropolisation à l’aune de la ‘loi’ taille/rang : Le cas Canadien, 1971–2001

Metropolization and the rank/size ’law‘: the Canadian case, 1971–2001 There is currently considerable interest in the process of metropolization. One of the consequences of this process, observed by numerous researchers, is the slower growth and even decline of small and medium cities. From a theoretical point of view, this process is compatible with endogenous growth theory: metropolitan areas offer economic actors certain key factors (access to information, to global networks, etc.) that smaller cities cannot. Concurrently, however, there is a resurgence of interest in Zipf's law and, more generally, in the stability of urban hierarchies. These two bodies of work appear to be in contradiction. However, using Canadian data from 1971 to 2001, we show that whilst metropolization is indeed occurring, this is not necessarily incompatible with a regular urban hierarchy. Indeed, if it is assumed that Zipf's rank‐size rule applies to urban systems in stable socio‐economic contexts, and that this regularity can be disrupted by fundamental social and economic changes, then the current wave of metropolization can be interpreted as a re‐ordering of cities in the face of the major social and economic changes of the 1980s and 1990s, which may eventually lead to a new equilibrium compatible with Zipf's law.     

Concentrations of copper,zinc and lead as indicators of hearth usage at the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester,Hampshire, UK)

Although prima facie evidence for non-ferrous metal-working in the form of slag, crucibles, moulds, etc is present at the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum at Silchester Hampshire, UK it has not yet been stratigraphically associated with in situ hearths; this can make the location of metal-working difficult to determine. This in turn raises the further question of the range of function of hearths in this urban context. The present study uses a combination of archaeological and analytical methods to attempt to determine the use of several hearth and hearth-related contexts within the on-going excavation at Insula IX. Using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) we were able to distinguish between probable industrial and domestic hearths based on elemental concentrations; for example locally elevated metal concentrations, in particular of copper, show evidence for the probable working of copper alloys at Silchester. Metals were found to accumulate in the silty layers associated with hearth platforms indicating that the tiles themselves do not appear to absorb metal spatter.     

Geochemical and mineralogical analysis of stone anchors from west coast of India: provenance study using thin sections,XRF and SEM-EDS

Stone anchors have been recovered along the Indian coast as a part of the maritime archaeological studies at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa. Study of stone anchors provides clues to understand the ancient maritime trade contacts of India with other countries. These anchors resemble those found in the Mediterranean Sea, Persian Gulf and Red Sea Coast. Underwater explorations at Bet Dwarka, Dwarka, Goa, Visawada and Somnath have yielded stone anchors of widely varying shapes, sizes and weights ranging between 16 and 410 kg. Sixteen (10 Indo-Arabian, 4 Ringstone and 2 Single hole type) of the total of 269 stone anchors have been studied to determine provenance of rock through petrographic analysis using thin section studies, X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), and Scanning Electron Microscope – Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (SEM-EDS).     

Landscapes without the car: a counterfactual historical geography of twentieth-century Britain

Despite increased concern about environmental damage and resource depletion, the private motor car, and associated automobility, are taken-for-granted aspects of twenty-first-century life. This paper makes the counterfactual assumption that private ownership of cars was severely restricted at the start of the twentieth century, and uses a range of historical data to examine the ways in which such a scenario might have impacted on transport infrastructure, personal mobility and urban life. It is argued that, even without the wholesale adoption of the motor car as a means of personal transport, patterns of everyday mobility would not have differed significantly from today so long as other forms of transport had remained or expanded to cope with this demand. However, such a scenario would probably have required journeys to be planned in different ways, may have been qualitatively different from travel today, and could have disadvantaged particular groups of the population, including some women. A landscape without cars would probably also have altered the form of cities, with services provided closer to where people live, and levels of air pollution substantially lower. The counterfactual historical analysis is used to argue that, although there is little likelihood of cars being banned in Britain, greater restrictions on private motor vehicles would not necessarily lead to the fundamental changes in everyday mobility that some might predict.     

20世纪八九十年代西部农村的庙会文化——以陕北地区为个案

改革开放以来,陕北乡村发生了巨大的变化,由单一的农业经济向多元经济转变,城镇化速度加快,农村社会阶层出现分化,社会大环境的变化使重新兴盛的庙会既继承了传统庙会的功能,同时又表现出以庙会活动为中心形成社区文化共同体、从传统神灵信仰转换为社会需求的表达、在维护乡村秩序中扮演了重要角色、开始在社区公共事务中发挥作用以及促成民间庙会与地方政府的互动等新的特点。对其作出全面、客观的评估,对推动西部大开发,促进农村社会的稳定和发展,将会起到积极作用。     

从二分到跨文化比较——西方的中西历史及史学比较述论

西方的中西历史及史学比较研究起源较早,是从宏观的历史文化比较发展来的。20世纪六七十年代以前,主要以宏观比较为主,并形成一般的理论模式。六七十年代,以个体的微观研究为主要特征,形成一个高潮。90年代至今是第二个高潮,以大的群体或项目为中心,出现了系统的比较,提出了新的比较理论,史学越来越成为比较的重点。西方的中西历史及史学比较理论,经历了从以近代西方为中心的东西二分法,到注重多元化的文明形态比较,再到不同文化的跨文化比较的几个发展阶段。这些变化是与学术和历史的变化密切相关的。