Finance,Home Building,and Urban Residential Structuring

Abstract: The aim of this article is to improve our understanding of finance in home building by introducing an actor perspective in structure‐oriented theories of capital circulation. David Harvey's three‐circuit theory, with fixity‐motion processes and (de‐/re)‐territorialisation, is taken as the starting point. The analysis is based on a case study of Norwegian home‐building finance, outlining the emerging structure of housing and finance under the Norwegian version of neoliberalism; comprising deregulation and re‐regulation phases. The article delineates today's home‐building finance, and identifies large banks, small banks, large investment funds and small investment funds as structural actors operating within actual fixity and motion processes, causing a distinct territorialisation of urban landscapes, as exemplified by gentrification.     

试析1949～1952年政务院体制的构建与运行

1949～1954年是中央人民政府建立与发展的重要历史时期,此时期新中国建立并实行了中央政府下辖政务院的二级政府体制,1949～1952年是该体制初步建立与运行阶段。新中国成立伊始,依据《共同纲领》和《中央人民政府组织法》确定的原则和框架,政务院迅速组建完毕,在机构设置、人员配备、编制管理与法制建设等方面开展了卓有成效的活动,作为国家最高行政机关,统一管理国家内政外交各项事务,发挥了重要的历史作用。     

Money talks: banknote iconography and symbolic constructions of Scotland

ABSTRACT. It has become common for scholars of nations and nationalism to use banknotes, coins and postage stamps as passing examples of everyday objects expressive of nationalism. Until recently, however, it has been less common for these objects to form the focus of empirical enquiries that substantiate their contribution to the creation and transmission of national symbolism. This article addresses this lacuna through an empirical investigation of over 300 years of Scottish banknote iconography. In their symbolic content, banknotes are shown to be amenable to the service of both national and non‐national political agendas. To explain this phenomenon, we advance three interrelated arguments. First, we contend that variations in banknote iconography reflect the different political contexts in which notes were produced and the distinctive loyalties and customer constituencies of the banks that issue them. Second, we argue that changes in banknote imagery reflect changes in the scale of their circulation. Third, we argue that Scottish banknotes have always included iconography that constructs the image of the bank and advertises its reliability, often through association with national images. The article concludes by addressing Scotland's place in wider understandings of the iconographic power of banknotes.     

The politics of recognition: symbols,nation building and rival nationalisms

ABSTRACT. Ceremonial initiatives linked to nation‐building projects are highly visible in multiethnic states, where governments seem to have adopted a Durkheimian approach in which ceremonies contribute to the strengthening of communities. However, national ceremonies are not invented or exported to other nations easily, as seen when outlining the pattern of a successful national day. A unifying narrative (sometimes the historical genesis) is significant in the establishment of successful national days, as is the nature of the national day design. The celebrations of the constitution in Norway – and the 77 year struggle to get the Norwegian flag officially recognised – became part of resisting the enforced union with Sweden (1814–1905). Therefore, the growth of Norwegian nationalism must be understood in the context of rival nationalisms in Scandinavia. However, Constitution Day (17 May) has remained a powerful component of Norwegian nationalism long since the constitution ceased to be threatened because of its incorporation in primary and secondary school curricula and, more recently, within the debate on multiculturalism.     

Events,Social Memories,and Community in a Final Bronze Age Building’s Biography at Sant’Aniceto,Calabria, Italy

Archaeologists investigating Middle Bronze to Early Iron Age periods (1600–900 b.c.) in southern Italy often explore linkages between emerging inequality and foreign trade connections, establishing a coupled trope of “change emerges from external forces” and “waiting for civilization to arrive”. Based on excavations at the Recent/Final Bronze and Early Iron Ages (RFBA/IA, 1200–900 b.c.) site of Sant’Aniceto in Calabria, we offer an alternative narrative in which hierarchy and institutionalized inequality held little sway in this community. By employing a building biography approach, we examine the variety of ways people sustain their communities through the creation and value of difference (e.g., age, knowledge, or skill) that characterize daily life, even when political hierarchy is absent. Our research at Sant’Aniceto centers on understanding the locally-grounded experiences and lives of people by approaching social difference through the lens of the materialities of everyday life.     

Control Over Government: Institutional Isomorphism and Governance Dynamics in German Public Administration

The era of public management change is said to challenge traditional "command and control" modes of governance, encouraging a move toward either more informal forms of (co-) governance or market-type incentives and competition. Regardless of whether these claims are made by reform advocates or by more sceptical observers within the wider governance debate, less attention has been paid by either side on the mechanisms that are supposed to facilitate the spread of new forms of control. This article seeks to advance this state of affairs in two ways. First, it utilizes the notion of institutional isomorphism to explore the nature of change of modes of control. In particular, it assesses the mechanisms for change, whether control mechanisms are changing due to coercive, mimetic, or professional mechanisms. Second, it explores the impact of these mechanisms in the federal context of Germany in two policy domains, prison and local government supervision (in the field of building administration). Finally, this article suggests that cultural theory offers considerable insights for the study of institutional isomorphism by emphasizing conflicting worldviews and the diversity of related policy ideas as driving forces of change in modes of governance.     

中国古代砖砌体力学性能研究综述

古代砖砌体建筑由于材料劣化、环境影响,材料特性及力学性能均受到不同程度的影响和损伤,为了保护历史文化的载体,结合古建筑材料获取原始且必要的数据,系统总结了古砖、传统灰浆的制备工艺和材料性能,简要归纳了古砖、传统灰浆和古砖砌体基本力学性能及其测试方法,对比分析了单砖和砌体抗压强度的差异以及古建筑砌体材料力学性能研究现状。并对今后古砌体如弹性模量等力学性能、古砌体材料及结构的损伤机理等的研究提出了展望或建议,可为砖石古建筑的修缮保护提供参考依据。     

Identity, threat and defiance: interpreting the “bulwark”, a 12th century lake building on Gotland, Sweden

“Bulverket” in Gotland has been one of Sweden’s longest standing archaeological mysteries since its purpose was first pondered by Oscar Montelius in 1868. For some, the enormous timber construction in the middle of the lake at Tingstäde was obviously military, but other suggestions spanned the entire social spectrum: a market place, a religious centre, a crusader barracks, a pirate base or even a prison. Whatever its function and meanings, the enterprise demanded a prodigious investment of labour and must represent someone or some group with considerable power and motivation. Yet soon after its construction it seems to have played out its role and been abandoned. The reasons are of course implicated in the fascinating structure itself but they also have to be sought in the wider context of contemporary Gotlandic society.     

Citizenship,property rights and dispossession in postwar Poland (1918 and 1945)

After both the First and Second World Wars, the Polish state used nationality law as a tool for ethnic de-integration and dispossession, albeit in varying measure and with differing impact. After 1918, legislation and implementation focused less on economic interests than on those of the nation-state. Through the liquidation of private property against compensation, the German population, especially in Western Prussia, Poznań and Pomerelia, were to be persuaded to leave Poland voluntarily. These measures were within the legal framework set by the Versailles Treaties and the national tradition of civil law.