Molluscan calendars: The use of growth-line analysis to establish seasonality of shellfish collection at the Mesolithic site of Morton,Fife

The technique of growth-line analysis is used to examine seasonal growth patterns in modern specimens of the edible cockle, Cerastoderma edule L. The modern control work provides a basis for the interpretation of seasonal collection in archaeological cockles, and is applied to shells from the Mesolithic site of Morton, Fife. The seasonal use of the site is shown to be clearly related to site function.     

IS THERE A NEW ‘TRUST’ IN INNER SCANDINAVIA? EVIDENCE FROM CROSS‐BORDER PLANNING AND GOVERNANCE

Inner Scandinavia is one of the Swedish‐Norwegian INTERREG‐A three sub‐programmes, and has been working in operationalizing cross‐border projects in the border area since 1994. To date, several cross‐border strategies have been implemented, one for each programming period of the INTERREG‐A programme. This article investigates whether these strategies can be regarded as a type of cross‐border planning mechanism in promoting territorial development of the border region. It does so by developing a typology, which captures the essentials of spatial planning, against the background of which the article also analyses Inner Scandinavia governance structures, which involves a whole set of interconnected territorial partnerships between five border counties: Hedmark, Østfold, Akershus (Norway), Värmland and Dalarna (Sweden). Here, the main goal is to see if the Inner Scandinavia governance structure, which was recently altered by the inclusion of the Hedmark–Dalarna cross‐border committee, also known as TRUST, is favourable to the implementation of a genuine and long‐term cross‐border spatial plan, with the ultimate goal of reducing the barrier effect and improving the territorial capital along the cross‐border region. Project dokuments and interviews indicate that the existing cross‐border governance model in Inner Scandinavia, led by the INTERREG‐A Steering Committee, produced substantial progresses in reducing the barrier effect, in all its dimensions, and in supporting the territorial development across the border area. Consequently, the role of other cross‐border governance structures should be confined to promoting the active involvement and mobilization of local and regional actors in the cross‐border cooperation process, and in implementing several cross‐border projects with local/regional significance.     

Villagizing the city: turning rural ethnic heritage into urban modernity in southwest China

This paper examines the rural ethnic heritage-inspired transformation of the built environment of a relatively small county town in China. The paper explores the ways village-based ethnic heritage is being repositioned by local leaders as a resource for tourism-oriented revenue generation and for ‘improving’ the ‘quality’ and behaviour of town residents. Viewing heritage as a ‘technology of government,’ the paper provides an analysis based on three interrelated themes: the discourses by which town leaders and planners have conceived the heritage development project as one of improvement, the spatial practices by which those discourses have been realised in the built environment, and the ways residents themselves have appropriated and ‘inhabited’ this new ‘villagized’ city as they go about their everyday urban lives. Based on ethnographic field work, a survey, and extended interviews over a period of four years, the paper finds the town leadership’s faith in the ability of the built environment to shape and improve the conduct of citizens to be overstated. While the town’s transformation has generated a new sense of urban modernity among residents, their ways of inhabiting and using urban space have little relevance to the ‘heritagized’ environment in which they now live.     

Why are cultural policy decisions communicated in cool cash?

In this article, we analyze the role of the economic rationale in modern cultural policy decision communication and ask why it remains such an important factor, even though research has argued against it. Based on Luhmann’s system theory, we show how the economic rationale manifests itself in the cultural political communication as parasitic and complementary couplings, and how different communication forms are in play: the indirect, direct, and the both-and form. The point is to construct communicative positions in cultural policy. The positions involve the economic rationale in their own particular way and each of them offers themselves as a communicative platform which the culture politician can optionally step into and out of. The arts system stands out from other systems by not distinguishing itself in one single distinction and coding. In exactly this issue lies the communicative complexity which the communicating cultural politician faces and must handle. As our analysis shows, this complexity is handled by communicating within the economic rationale and coding, with the result that complexity is reduced.     

From laissez-faire to supranational planning: the economic debate within Federal Union (1938–1945)

This article focuses on the early years of Federal Union (FU), the leading British federalist association created in 1938. It sets out to demonstrate that FU members heavily disagreed about the economic powers of the future Federation and that these divisions weakened the appeal of the federalist cause. Archival evidence suggests the organisation shifted from economic neutrality, favoured by allegiance to nineteenth-century liberalism, which emphasized the benefits of free trade while keeping a minimum of centralized force in order to prevent interstate rivalries from boiling over into war, to a radical advocacy of supranational planning, aimed at enforcing social rights and welfare entitlements granted to all the citizens of the member-states. This swing to the Left had several implications, including abandoning the prospect of an Anglo-American union, developing a more sympathetic attitude towards the Soviet system, and breaking ties with influential members of the British establishment who had initially lent support to FU, such as Lionel Curtis and William Beveridge. By pointing at the tension between the models of ‘Federation Pure and Simple’ and ‘Federation Plus’, this article also highlights the supple and muddled nature of federalism as an ideology.     

左江流域合理农业结构的探讨

农业系统是一个开放的复杂大系统。系统的功能决定于系统的结构,合理的农业结构应该是充分合理利用农业自然资源和社会经济资源,因地制宜发挥地区的优势,使农业生态效益与经济效益相结合,构成良性循环,达到低投入,高效益,持续稳定增产的目的。本文根据农业系统的开放性、复杂性和层次性,利用系统工程中的结构分解--协调法计算出南宁地区左江流域六县(市)最优的农业结构,即合理的农业结构。为该地区制定经济发展规划提供科学依据。     

论中部地区在中国可持续发展中的独特功能

中国是一个幅员辽阔、环境多样、人口分布、社会经济水平区域差异大的国家。促进区域协调发展,是中国现代化建设中的一个重大战略问题。本文分析了中部地区的优势,论述了中部地区在中国可持续发展中的独特功能,指出中部地区是:①中国可持续发展的主要食品供应基地;②中国可持续发展的主要水源地、③中国可持续发展的主要能源地,④中国经济区域协调发展的中枢地带。为中国区域协调发展和可持续发展提供科学依据。中国的崛起必须是全领域发展,在开发西部地区的同时,必须把中部地区的开发提高到中国发展战略的高度来认识,充分发挥中部地区在中国可持续发展中的独特功能,进而推动中国的可持续发展。     

基于“主体功能”的新型村镇建设模式优选及聚落体系重构——藉由“图底关系理论”的探索

新型村镇建设与主体功能区规划是分别针对我国当前阶段乡村发展、国土开发的重要空间调控手段,基于主体功能思维而对聚落体系进行自上而下的分类指导应该作为促进乡村聚落有序发展的重要思维。论文借助于图底关系理论,将主体功能区作为"均质面集"的发展意图转译到县级单元内"异质面集"的主导土地用途区,并进一步聚焦到"点集"乃至"点"层面的村镇聚落体系组织与聚落建设,总结了三类主体功能区的7种主导新型村镇建设模式及对应的空间优化目标,拓展了主体功能区规划在县级以下尺度的规划指导价值,实现了不同尺度空间规划的法则演绎,为主体功能区格局下我国县域尺度的村镇聚落功能优化与体系重构提供一种思路。     

制度变迁与中国城市的发展及空间结构的历史演变

我国的城市发展水平同经济发展水平的偏离,说明对城市发展及其空间结构演变分析不能仅局限在物质经济领域,需要我们寻求影响城市发展及其空间结构变化的新因素一制度因素,把制度作为影响城市发展及其空间结构的一个主要的变量,来对此加以解释。为此,本首先构建了“制度变迁一城市发展变化”的理论框架,然后用该理论从宏观和微观两个方面来检验1949-1998年间制度变迁对城市发展及其空间结构的影响。与西方国家的以市场经济为主要动力驱动型的城市发展模式不同,中国城市的发展及其空间结构的演变在很大程度上是制度变迁而诱致的结果。但不同的制度对城市数量增长、组织体系及空间布局和对城市空间结构演变的作用力度又不尽相同。改革开放后,由于制度变迁带来的激励作用,中国城市获得了快速发展,城市空间结构快速变化。但与此同时,中国城市化的发展水平与相同发展条件下的世界城市化水平的差距却在拉大。而且随着市场经济体制的逐步完善,影响城市增长及空间结构的演变力量的因素越来越趋于分散化,制度变迁对城市发展所带来的激励作用正在弱化。为适应新世纪我国城市发展的战略目标,需要进行体制创新,为中国城市的发展及其空间结构的演变提供新的制度支持。     

第三部门的发展与政府改革

该文从第三部门在全球的蓬勃发展谈起,对“第三部门”的概念进行了界定,对第三部门在中国的发展进行了分析,并围绕第三部门的发展与政府改革的互劝关系展开论述。最后,从实际出发提出了培育和发展第三部门的若干政策建议。