BOOK REVIEW

This article examines the transition from cultural industries to creative industries policies in the English regions between 1980 and 2010. It argues that audio-visual policy in this period is best understood as a trajectory: the gradual, differentiated, contested, but overall coherent development of a policy discourse and corresponding institutional structure. This trajectory can be mapped onto the wider political economy of the period: the transition from social-democratic reformism to neo-liberalism at the end of the 1970s and up to the present. This process has resulted in audio-visual policy being determined to a large degree by the perceived needs of commercial interests, up to the point where regional cultural policy is virtually indistinguishable from economic policy. The transition from cultural to creative industries reflects the development of the neo-liberal state in which cultural policy has been instrumentalised within the larger project of the privatisation of public assets and the shift of relative power from labour to capital.     

BIRTH ATTENDANT UTILIZATION IN THE INDONESIAN MEGA-URBAN REGIONS OF JABODETABEK,BANDUNG AND SURABAYA

Indonesia's rapidly growing mega-urban regions of Jabodetabek (Jakarta Extended Metropolitan Region), Bandung and Surabaya each have a large and socio-economically heterogeneous population. The 2000 Census presents evidence that substantial spatial and socio-economic inequalities in under-five mortality risk exist in these mega-urban regions. Differences in patterns of birth attendant utilization likely contribute to these inequalities. Multilevel multinomial logistic regression of data primarily from the National Socio-economic Survey (SUSENAS) reveals that use of a skilled birth attendant is highly associated with mother's education. Highly skilled assistance is more related to the enabling factor of household expenditure quintile. The findings provide evidence for efforts to help reduce inequalities in early age mortality risk through improved access to trained birth assistance, in addition to other interventions.     

Neoliberalism in (Regional) Theory and Practice: the Stronger Communities Action Fund in New Zealand

Neoliberalism is a term most often used by those working in the field of political economy, including human geographers, to refer to the new political preference for market mechanisms as a way of ensuring social and economic wellbeing. To date, however, analysts of neoliberalism have focused on the decline of the national economy, and on the erosion of universalist conceptions of social welfarism. Much less attention has been paid to the complex and contested processes through which new spaces, socialities and subjectivities are being constituted. Through a case study of the Stronger Communities Action Fund, this paper examines these new spaces, socialities and subjectivities of social policy, including the shift towards heterogeneous conceptions of community, the rise of community based expertise, and the centring of ‘etho‐politics’. It concludes that neoliberalism is a more contradictory phenomenon than is often recognised. If analysts continue to portray neoliberalism as a monolithic project, and to emphasize what has been lost, rather than examining the complex trajectories of the new, they are much less likely to be sensitive to the different political possibilities offered in the current context.     

Nested or exclusive? The role of identities on blame attribution during the Great Recession

Despite an increasing number of studies assessing the importance of institutions as regards to accountability, it still remains to be known whether and how an individual's national and regional identity shapes the attribution of responsibilities in multi‐level settings. By focusing on the economic crisis that affected Europe since 2008, we argue that identity‐based assessments of responsibility for the crisis will occur solely among individuals who hold exclusively national or regional identities and who live in regions that have nationalist aspirations. This will be in contrast to individuals that have exclusively identities who live in regions that lack nationalist aspirations, as well as dual‐identity individuals, irrespective of where they live. We test our arguments by using data from Catalonia and Madrid (Spain) and Bavaria and Lower Saxony (Germany). In line with our expectations, our results show that, in minority nationalist regions such as Catalonia, an individual's identity will crucially determine which level of government is blamed for the economic crisis, while this will not occur in regions with no nationalist aspirations. The article reveals the existence of an additional determinant of blame attribution in some specific multi‐level arrangements and contributes to the understanding of the tensions between identity politics and blame avoidance.     

我国草原旅游研究进展

本文通过对已有草原旅游文献的主要研究内容、研究地域、研究方法的分析,认为现有的草原旅游研究内容多集中于开发研究,地域集中,定性方法居多,尚处于起步阶段。今后草原旅游研究应进一步拓展和深化,加强总结,方法多样化,并关注几个重要问题:①草原旅游差异化的开发与科学文化内涵的提升;②草原旅游中相关利益群体的研究;③草原旅游市场与游客行为的研究;④草原旅游与环境保护的协调开发与可持续发展。     

清代县级政区分等制度再探

清代县级政区分等制度自雍正年间提出,至乾隆十二年后大体厘定。但乾隆十二年至四十三年间,仍然发生了高达124次的缺分等第调整,其中又以中、简缺升为最要、要缺为主,迫使清廷于乾隆四十三年出台了繁简互换的规定并得到较为严格的执行,但仍有一些例外。自此直至道光朝仍有相当数量的缺分调整,咸丰、同治两朝改缺甚少,到了光绪末、宣统之际再度升温。各省内缺分分布存在反“中心—边缘”,“中心—边缘”双中心,沿河、沿海、交通线的线状分布,贴近经济中心等诸多模式。以1911年为例,附郭县的缺分等第整体上在府内占据优势地位,但仍有48个府存在附郭县缺分等第低于府内其他厅州县的情况。州县缺分与优瘠缺的关系亦非一一对应,湖南的案例再次证明了这一点。     

Thinking State/Space Incompossibly

Abstract: This paper develops multi‐dimensional analyses of socio‐spatial relations. Building on previous research, we identify some tensions associated with different dimensions of socio‐spatiality and introduce the theme of compossible and, more importantly, incompossible socio‐spatial configurations. Two short studies are deployed to highlight the socio‐spatial implications of the principle that not everything that is possible is compossible. The first shows the power of thinking varieties of capitalism compossibly (via the concept of variegated capitalism) and then examines the successive strategies adopted by the European Communities and European Union to address the significance of changing patterns of variegation for approaches to European integration, spatial strategies, and economic and social policies. The second case discusses some related problems for state spatial projects, starting in the 1980s with spatial planning, promotion of a Europe of the Regions and/or of Europe and the regions, and then turns to examine city‐regional development strategies.     

故宫博物院近期对外及港澳台地区的文化交流

故宫博物院作为国内藏品最多、最有影响力的综合类博物馆,一直保持十分活跃的对外交流态势。2008年以来,故宫博物院积极与国(境)外博物馆建立战略合作关系,打造长期交流机制。如举办和参加各类形式的涉外展览,扩大了对外交流空间;开展并深化项目交流与合作,拓宽了国际视野和交流平台;充分利用各种平台开展多层次学术交流,开展有针对性的出访活动;建立了与国(境)外博物馆的沟通联系;完成多项国宾接待任务;接收海外和港澳实习生等。此外,全面推进两岸故宫的交流与合作。将来,故宫博物院将一如既往地积极开展此类文化交流,让世界了解、欣赏和接受优秀的中国传统文化。     

Smolensk and the Varangians according to the archaeological data

The historical and archaeological sources from the Viking period which concern the city of Smolensk and the large cemetery at Gnyozdovo by the river Dnieper are discussed.

The author examines the most important find groups and grave types and asserts that extremely few specific Scandinavian traits are to be found.

His conclusion is that Smolensk was founded by the Slavs before the Gnyozdovo cemetery was established. The fact that only a few Scandinavian graves are known from the tenth century and none from the ninth and eleventh must mean that only small groups of Scandinavians had settled in the Smolensk area and these were rapidly assimilated with the Slav groups.     

Landscapes of Desire in the Poetry of Vittorio Sereni

The article studies trasformismo (party-switching) in Italian regional councils, examining Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, and Puglia from 1970 to 2010. Although lato sensutrasformismo – enrollment in the mixed group and party switches among the electoral lists – also has empirical relevance at regional level, stricto sensutrasformismo – the transition from the majority to the opposition, or vice versa – was quantitatively negligible. In the transition from the first to the second phase of the Italian Republic (after 1994), the regional system was reorganized according to a government model in which there is a clear distinction between the roles of the majority and the opposition, by virtue of the direct election of presidents from 1995 onwards. Thus, the thesis formulated by Giovanni Sabbatucci is confirmed: trasformismo is a pattern of government from the ‘center’ of the political space, which is a very different option from the adversarial model of democracy which has emerged in the regions over the last two decades. As a result, this also seems to confirm the neo-institutionalistic thesis expressed by Robert D. Putnam in his classic Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (1993), according to which ‘institutions shape politics’ and the behavior of its actors.