Following the plot of Bengt Pohjanen's Meänmaa: narrativization as a process of creating regional identity

This paper discusses the artistic and cultural work of one minority author and regional activist, Bengt Pohjanen, and how it constitutes a means for mediating regional identity narratives, constructing Meänmaa, the region straddling the border between Sweden and Finland in the Tornio River Valley. We will approach narrativization as a creative social action, focusing on the performative, social and political aspects of regional stories, and by this means impugning the division between territorial, bounded, and networked, unbounded, conceptualizations of regions. We will follow the narrative plot of Bengt Pohjanen's Meänmaa, pointing out how an artistic and cultural region becomes part of our social reality and how regional consciousness and identity become established and constantly renegotiated within and across national borders.     

Narrative claims on regions: prospecting for spatial identities among social movements in Finland

Regions have been regarded as processes, artefacts and discourses, and recently as ‘brands’ that various stakeholders use in marketing. Discourses on institutional regions are typically promoted by media, governmental bodies and planning organizations that draw on reputed collective regional identities—the expressions of past and current social discourses and cultural practices. However, such institutional regional discourses are often incongruous to spatial imaginaries of everyday life. This article scrutinizes the meanings of spatial attachment to citizens and explores to what extent regional identities are meaningful in everyday life. To avoid biased assumptions, focus-group interviews were carried out within four Finnish provinces among the members of four social movements. The results show that provincial spaces are not actively thought-and-practiced. Spatial identities are rather structured around personal experiences that typically accumulate in several locales, since personal histories are increasingly characterized by mobility. This article also recognizes that the everyday meanings of a socially constructed region are often generationally read and combine different historical narratives.     

Stromatolite recognition in ancient rocks: an appraisal of irregularly laminated structures in an Early Archaean chert-barite unit from North Pole,Western Australia

The word ‘stromatolite’ should only be applied to organosedimentary structures predominantly accreted by sediment trapping, binding and/or in situ precipitation as a result of the growth and metabolic activities of benthic, principally prokaryotic, micro-organisms. Structures of uncertain origin that resemble stromatolites should be called ‘stromatoloids’. This cautious approach would eliminate the currently common assumption that structures with mesoscopic morphological similarities to microbially accreted sedimentary structures must be biogenic, a misconception that hampers investigations into the antiquity of life.

A hierarchical series of meso- and microstructural attributes of stromatolites can be used to assign gradually increasing probabilities of biogenicity to stromatoloids. This method is particularly useful for interpreting ancient noncolumnar stromatoloids with poor microstructural preservation. In a range of Early Archaean pseudocolumnar, nodular and stratiform stromatoloids from North Pole studied using this method, none could be proved to be stromatolites and only a few are probable or possible stromatolites. As these stromatoloids closely resemble previously reported structures from North Pole interpreted as stromatolites, we consider that the evidence for the existence of life c. 3500 my ago at North Pole is less definitive than previously supposed.     

Australia and the challenges of order-building in the Indian Ocean region

This article considers the regional order-building challenges that Australia presently confronts in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). The author argues that while regional stability within the IOR constitutes an increasingly important Australian security interest, policy makers will struggle to translate the order-building strategies they have previously pursued in East Asia into an Indian Ocean context. In East Asia, Australia has historically pursued a ‘dual track’ order-building strategy centred on its participation in a US-dominated ‘hub and spokes’ alliance system alongside multilateral regional engagement. The absence of an equivalent alliance system or an established tradition of multilateral security diplomacy conversely precludes an extension of this strategy into the IOR. Growing tensions between the USA and China and between China and India, meanwhile, further complicate IOR security dynamics, while underscoring the urgent need for a more coherent approach to regional order-building. With these challenges in mind, the author concludes by proposing a range of bilateral, minilateral and multilateral initiatives that Australia should pursue to stimulate the emergence of a more cooperative IOR security environment.     

泛珠三角中心城市互动的动力、模式及合作领域分析

中心城市之间的互动,可以有力促进泛珠三角区域合作与发展,符合城市发展的内在需求和区域合作与发展的潮流,同时也符合中心城市与区域合作的发展历程。泛珠三角中心城市互动的重要动力是政府推动、市场机制、资源共享以及区域发展的差异性、互补性。有效的互动模式包括政府和企业双主体互动、产业对接、城市圈互动、友城战略等。泛珠三角中心城市互动可以在规划、加工制造业的分工与合作、口岸合作和大通关平台建设、社会资源等重点领域展开。     

淮海经济区城市空间影响范围与城市经济区划分

运用因子分析法求取淮海经济区20个地级市的综合实力指数及等级划分。根据城市综合实力指数和等级划分,选取4个一级城市作为中心城市,然后运用断裂点公式计算中心城市与邻近城市的空间影响距离。再根据空间影响距离划分各中心城市经济影响区范围。最后以城市经济影响区为基础,综合考虑各城市的区域特征、发展潜力、现有经济规划、历史习惯和人文特征,确定城市经济区界限。研究淮海经济区城市经济区形成和划分的目的是指明各城市在整个区域内劳动地域分工中的地位,了解城市经济发展现状和主要特点。     

Social Dynamics and Pottery Distribution in the Faro Department, Northern Cameroon

Ethnoarchaeological studies have constantly emphasized the complexity of pottery distribution and its close ties with other aspects of social life. It is argued here that, among the Dowayo of northern Cameroon, pottery exchange is not regulated by preferential economic relationships between producers and consumers but rather by mechanisms such as fashion or the reputation of the artisans.De récentes études ethnoarchéologiques ont constamment mis en avant la complexité des processus de distribution de la poterie et les liens étroits que ceux-ci entretiennent avec les autres aspects de la vie sociale. Il est démontré dans cet article que, chez les Dowayo du Nord-Cameroun, les échanges de poterie sont structurés par une absence de lien privilégié entre producteurs et consommateurs et sont dès lors régulés par des mécanismes tels que la mode ou la réputation des artisans.     

且末古城地望考

本对以往学术界在且末古城地望问题上的考察和研究进行了全面总结,指出了失败的原因,进而认为且末古城位于车尔臣古河床的东岸,距今来利勒克古城3日路程的地方;如果以此为圆心,以3日路程为半径,由南向北划圆,在与车尔臣古河床交会处找到且末古城的可能性较大。     

冷战后亚太地缘政治格局与中国安全利益

冷战后,亚太地区地缘政治格局发生重大变化,中国的主导作用和地位进一步加强,中国在亚太的安全利益向纵深发展。同时,随亚太格局变化产生的国际矛盾斗争,对中国的安全利益构成严峻挑战。政治安全利益、军事安全利益、经济安全利益是中国在亚太地区安全利益的核心成分。政治安全利益内容广泛,包括国家统一、民族关系稳定、反对宗教势力渗透、维护政治稳定等;军事安全利益着重表现为捍卫祖国统一、维护领土完整、防范军事威胁以及军控和防止核扩散;经济安全利益涵盖金融安全、稳定的资金来源和良好的投资环境、资源安全特别是能源安全、市场安全、运输线安全、海外投资安全等。     

西海固地区的环境重建与可持续发展

西海固地区位于黄土高原西北边缘的生态脆弱带,人口超载,是全国最贫困的少数民族地区之一,水土流失等环境问题极其严重。陷入了贫困、人口和环境之间互为因果关系的"PPE怪圈",实现可持续发展必须从打破"PPE怪圈"的关键环节入手。建立在协调人地关系基础之上的全面综合的环境重建是打破怪圈,实现可持续发展的基础,也是今后一段时期内可持续发展战略重点之一,环境重建是一项综合性系统工程、应与经济发展、社会进步相结合,并融入西部大开发之中。