“GREEN FIX” AS CRISIS MANAGEMENT. OR,IN WHICH WORLD IS MALMÖ THE WORLD'S GREENEST CITY?

As economic and ecological crises evolve in combination, some policy strategies might aim at killing the two birds with one stone. One recent example can be found in Malmö, Sweden, where crisis management has operated, we propose, as a green fix. The district of Västra hamnen (Western Harbour) is at the centre of the reinvention of the city: once the home of a world‐leading shipyard, it is now a no less prominent neighbourhood of ecological virtues. Through outlining the history of Malmö in general and the Western Harbour in particular, we identify how the municipality and local capital in concert increasingly used “green” strategies in the urban policies that started as crisis management in the 1990s. Today Malmö is reckoned to be among the world's greenest cities, and we reflect on the importance of this international recognition for the city. Finally, we develop a critique of the green fix as concealing crucial factors of scale, and hence running the risk of myopia.     

Identity,place and culture: Patrick McCarthy's columns in the Bologna pages of La Repubblica

Abstract

For six years between 1994 and 2000, Patrick McCarthy contributed occasional articles to the Bologna section of La Repubblica. These writings were intensely personal interventions on various themes that reflected their author's lifelong interest in literature, culture, politics and sport. Many of them addressed issues of civic life in a city that had once enjoyed a reputation as a showcase of Communist local administration in Italy, but which in 1999 elected a right-wing mayor. In contrast to an impersonal urban modernization that he saw as destructive, McCarthy championed a humane ideal of community that was not ‘traditional’, but rather open and flexible.     

Imported machines in the garden: the kyŏngun’gi (power tiller) and agricultural mechanization in South Korea

The power tiller was central to the modernization of agricultural practices in East Asia during the latter part of the twentieth century. The small-scale, two-wheeled, walking-type power tiller was adapted from the European garden tractors by Japanese farmer-inventors in the 1920s, and then imported to South Korea in the early 1960s. This article traces the global technology circuit for power tillers, as well as their troublesome entry into the South Korean socioeconomic landscape in the 1960s and 1970s. Once the South Korean manufacturing industry for power tillers established itself, the agricultural machine was embroiled in a controversial political debate over landownership structures, which had profound implications for the very place of agriculture in modern South Korea. In the process of this extended debate, the social meaning of the power tiller itself went through significant change.     

China’s new Eurasian ambitions: the environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt

China is moving ahead with the Silk Road Economic Belt, an ambitious infrastructure development agenda with the distinct promise of regional and sub-regional economic development. However, the initiative will create new environmental risks across the entire Eurasian continent, especially in countries with predominately poor records of environmental governance, including the former Soviet republics and Russia. Concurrently, on the domestic front, the Chinese Government has launched a new policy paradigm, “ecological civilization,” to dramatically improve environmental regulations, reduce pollution, and transform industries by adopting new green technologies and higher environmental standards. But does China’s intention to go through a “green shift” domestically resonate with these new transborder infrastructure development mega-projects? This paper will attempt to answer this question by juxtaposing China’s new domestic policy paradigm with environmental standards currently proposed in its global outreach projects focusing on China-northern Eurasia and China-Russia, including trade exchanges in natural resources.     

Dualities in the transformation of the urban realm: Smyrna and Salonica 1840–1900

Starting from 1840s, the Ottoman State underwent a series of institutional changes which was reflected in the transformation of major cities like Smyrna and Salonica, two prominent ports of the Mediterranean. This paper aims to present a critical and comparative evaluation of the urban transformation in Smyrna and Salonica between 1840 and 1900. Through case studies, such as the regulation of roads and the re-organization of burnt-out neighbourhoods according to the new building codes, and the construction of large-scale infrastructure projects – railroads and quays – the dichotomous nature of urban transformation is revealed. Despite all the zealous efforts of local authorities and implementation of urban regulations, only certain sections in both cities were actually modernized, these being the new investment areas and the burnt-out zones. The Ottoman State and the European investors worked together for creating profitable investment zones, which dramatically changed the appearance of these cities in a short period of time. Except for these areas, the traditional urban fabric still prevailed in Smyrna and Salonica at the end of the nineteenth century.     

Proximity and modes of innovation – evidence from two agricultural engineering industries in north-west Germany

Recently, policymakers realized the important role of traditional industries for regional development. However, traditional policies of the last decades mainly focussed on science-intensive high-tech industries. Therefore, it is important to understand, how traditional industries innovate and renew themselves. One of the most notable recent strands of literature distinguishing between the characteristics of high- and low-tech industries is the one on modes of innovation. However, another very important approach related to innovation and regional development, the proximity literature, has only partly discussed in relation to innovation modes. This paper seeks to contribute to this issue by focussing on two traditional agricultural engineering industries from north-western Germany that experienced processes of renewal in the first years of the twenty-first century. It is shown that these industries followed very different developments and utilized different forms of proximities in this process in very specific ways.