Feminist Forays in the City: Imbalance and Intervention in Urban Research Methods

In this paper I argue that imbalances and silences persist in urban research. In particular, there is insufficient attention to anti‐racist and feminist theoretical, methodological, and empirical insights. Intersectional and materialist urban analyses that take difference seriously are under‐represented, while patriarchy, privilege, and positivism still linger. As a partial and aspirational remedy, I propose a “Feminist Partial Political Economy of Place” (FPEP) approach to urban research. FPEP is characterized by: (1) attention to gendered, raced, and intersectional power relations, including affinities and alliances; (2) reliance on partial, place‐based, materialist research that attends to power in knowledge production; (3) emphasis on feminist concepts of relationality to examine connections among sites, scales, and subjects, and to emphasize “life” and possibility; and (4) the use of theoretical toolkits to observe, interpret and challenge material‐discursive power relations. My own critique and research centers on North American cities, but FPEP approaches might help produce more robust, inclusive, and explanatory urban research in varied geographic contexts.     

Begging Letters: Tin Trunk Literacy and the Empathy Economy of Tristan da Cunha,c. 1909–39

European colonialism fostered ‘radically constrained’ literacies in the global south dominated by the epistolary form produced by ‘tin trunk literati’ frequently scribing as amanuenses for collectives. Literacy on the British mid-South Atlantic island colony of Tristan da Cunha was marginal to the nineteenth century male exchange economy and consequently relegated to the female domestic sphere. With the shift from sail to steam in trans-oceanic shipping at the turn of the twentieth century the male exchange economy vanished and female literacy acquired a vital new importance in the creation and maintenance of an empathy economy with the Atlantic mainlands generating the manufactured imports essential to the colony’s survival. The low literacy level and new dependence for subsistence on writing undermined the patriarchal authority of ‘headmen’ and gave a small group of female amanuenses effective political power on the island. The latter worked hard to maintain their newfound power by thwarting repeated metropolitan attempts to spread literacy or socialise the island economy and fostering fear and ignorance of the outside world among the islanders. The profoundly conservative and even oppressive nature of ‘functional literacy’ on Tristan da Cunha in the first half of the twentieth century provides a corrective to the emancipatory claims made for ‘tin trunk literacy’ elsewhere in the global south.     

Restructuring women’s work; labour market and household gender regimes in the Greater Latrobe Valley,Australia

This article examines the impact of economic restructuring on gender relations. It examines the implications of labour market change for households within a region, in this case the Greater Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia. The argument is that the unchanging gender structures of the labour market constrain the intentions and efforts of individuals within households to significantly alter household gender relations. The analysis considers how restructuring has reshaped the regional labour market since 1996, changing opportunities for both men’s and women’s employment. Despite these changes, the regional labour market continues to be underpinned by a ‘male breadwinner’ gender regime and significant occupational and industrial gender segregation. Drawing on four vignettes, the analysis shows that the impetus towards greater gender equality in the household is constrained by a stagnant and stable labour market gender regime.     

Circular cities: exploring local government strategies to facilitate a circular economy

ABSTRACT

Cities are growing rapidly, and the systems of production and consumption that support this growth are contributing to the depletion of natural resources and pollution of the environment. The circular economy model offers an alternative to the predominant take-make-dispose economic system. Local municipalities are seen to have the capacity to encourage sustainable development of the built environment. This paper aims to explore the role of strategic planning in facilitating a circular economy in urban settings. In particular, this research asks: How are local governments facilitating circular economy initiatives through strategic planning? What are the opportunities and barriers when applying circular economy principles through local strategic planning? The research approach used for this paper is a comparative case study of two international municipalities: the City of Melbourne, Australia and the City of Malmö, Sweden. Current strategic planning practice was examined with a focus on circular economy themes. The findings reveal that strategic urban planning can translate circular economy objectives into actions within specific urban areas, although barriers still exist to fully integrating the circular economy model.     

Petra,taxes and trade reconsidered in the light of the Petra Church archive

Much has been written about the Petra Papyri since their discovery in 1993. However, little has been published on their connection with taxes, and our understanding of Petra and trade has changed considerably in the last couple of decades. The papyri provide plenty of information concerning the material culture of Byzantine Petra. The purpose of this paper is to review the economic and historical information in the papyri related to taxes on the land, and to understand the economic reality in Petra and its hinterland during the Byzantine period. The papyri indicate the existence of a stable society and continuity of human settlement in Petra and its neighbouring areas such as Udhruh and Al-Sadaqa, especially after the frequent earthquakes that threatened the region between the fourth- and seventh-centuries AD. It is clear from the papyri that there is an advanced tax system in the Petra region during the sixth-century AD.     

Marketplaces and Morality in Papua New Guinea: Place,Personhood and Exchange

In Papua New Guinea (PNG) more rural people, and especially rural women, earn cash from selling in marketplaces than from any other source. PNG's marketplaces are critical for food security, and for the redistribution of wealth. They are also important meeting places where people gather to see friends, hear the latest news, attend court cases, play cards and be entertained. This introduction to this special issue on ‘Marketplaces and Morality in Papua New Guinea’ reviews the history of PNG marketplaces and their contemporary forms. It charts their transformation from introduced colonial spaces into dynamic Melanesian places, which, as places to buy, sell and socialise, have become pervasive institutions in the lives of both urban and rural Papua New Guineans, and places where people interact with both known and unknown others. From this, marketplaces emerge as important spaces of moral evaluation and contestation in relation to what constitutes morally acceptable exchange and what practices are acceptable in these places. The paper demonstrates that exchange in the marketplace should not be reduced to commodity transactions, and questions assumptions about the types of people marketplaces create. It argues that the country's marketplaces are productive sites to consider ideas of exchange, social relations and social personhood, and that there is a critical need to understand the concrete details of what takes place in contemporary marketplaces.     

Polarization and the growth of low‐skill service jobs in Spanish local labor markets

This paper analyzes the long‐term transformations of the occupational structure in 50 provinces of Spain with a view to ascertain the existence and assess the extent of employment polarization. The peculiar characteristics of this country, namely rigid labor markets and the relatively recent transition to democracy, make for an interesting addition to existing studies on this topic. In line with previous literature on other countries, we find a strong association between the decline of “routine” mid‐skill jobs and the expansion of low‐skill service employment as well as differential labor market outcomes by levels of formal education. Results are robust to various controls and instrumental variables that account for long‐term industry specialization. We also find a positive local multiplier effect of high‐skilled workers on the demand for nontradable service jobs.     

The Effectiveness of Voluntary Environmental Programs—A Policy at a Crossroads?

Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) have been used as a policy tool in the United States since the early 1990s and come in many forms. Early assessments of VEPs targeting changes in production processes showed that industrial participants improved their environmental performance and VEPs were celebrated as a viable alternative to more traditional regulation. Recent analyses using more sophisticated techniques, however, paint a less favorable picture. On the one hand, firms appear willing to sign up to VEPs, and in some cases, participants may be able to create a shield against future losses in shareholder value. On the other hand, these VEPs targeting production processes appear not to generate significant pollution abatement. The latter finding is particularly disturbing and this article discusses various explanations, including institutional failure and participant motivations. Future research needs to focus on understanding the firm motivation to invest in production‐related pollution abatement under a VEP. For policymakers, the research offers a warning on the limited impact to date of VEPs targeting production processes. However, the multitude of other VEPs, such as those which target new product development and changing market demands, merit a closer look to determine the overall potential of VEPs to engender positive environmental change.     

劳动力市场竞争与分割的再认识

马克思在《资本论》中所论述的劳动力买卖、平均利润与生产价格,都是以完全竞争或自由竞争为前提条件的。但是,马克思指出,这是一种"理论上的假定"。这就存在着如何把马克思抽象化的理论运用于活生生的现实的问题。在现实生活中,劳动力市场既有竞争的一面,又有分割的一面,而且二者往往是交错在一起的。     

中日邦交正常化之前的"政经分离"与"政经不可分"之争

上世纪五、六十年代,日本政府在对华关系方面曾推行过“政经分离”政策。其核心是:政治台湾,经济大陆。即只承认台湾当局,不承认中华人民共和国。对此,中国政府提出了“政治三原则”和“政经不可分原则”,与日本方面旨在搞“两个中国”的图谋进行了针锋相对的斗争。在中日复交35年后的今天,“政经之争”早已不再是中日之间争论的焦点。但对如今时而“政冷经热”、时而“政经双冷”的中日关系来说,重温这段“政经之争”的历史,无疑具有特殊的意义。