The business relations,identities and political resources of Italian merchants in the early-modern Spanish monarchy: some introductory remarks

Abstract

This article offers a preliminary approach to the special volume entitled Business Relations, Identities, and Political Resources of the Italian Merchants in the Early-Modern Spanish Monarchy. It discusses the major issues and debates addressed in the five contributions collected here about the central role played by the Genoese, Florentine and Milanese commercial networks in the framework of a polycentric imperial structure as was the Spanish Monarchy.     

Rosa e Ballo and German literature in Italy: the genesis of an intellectual network and the production of a new repertoire in the field of theatre

Between 1944 and 1950 the publishing house Rosa e Ballo renewed the Italian repertoire of German dramatic literature by collecting translations from Büchner, Wedekind, Toller, Kaiser and Brecht in the book series ‘Teatro/Teatro moderno’. The series was designed by Paolo Grassi, who was then struggling to legitimize the teatro di regia (director’s theatre) against the dominant teatro del grande attore (lead actor’s theatre), a revolution he would accomplish after WWII by establishing the Piccolo teatro in Milan. The company and the network of collaborators set up in Turin and Milan by the editor-in-chief Ferdinando Ballo provided Grassi with an ideal instrument for his subversion in the field of theatre. In turn, Grassi’s networking in Rome, where the most recognized men of theatre were based, brought to Rosa e Ballo its most successful book series and finally a position within the field of publishing. By joining forces, newcomers in two different fields mutually contributed to their primary accumulation of symbolic capital.     

Co-Producing Mobilities: negotiating geographical knowledge in a conference session on the move

In an experimental session entitled Co-Producing Mobilities held at the 2014 Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference, 20 mobility scholars travelled around London on foot, by bus and by Tube to investigate how mobilities could be considered co-produced. In this paper, 18 participants reflect on this collaborative experiment and on how it influenced their thinking about mobilities, geographical knowledge and pedagogy. Contributions cast light on the function of conferences and the multiple forms of pedagogy they enable, and provide guiding resources for those now wanting to continue such experiments.     

En route to New York: diasporic networks and the reconfiguration of female entrepreneurship in Senegal

This article examines the influence of migration and transnational social networks on female entrepreneurship. It interrogates shifting patterns of market development, juxtaposed to the lure of new economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs located at the periphery, Senegal. I critically analyse how a distinct and classed category of Senegalese women entrepreneurs navigates international spaces and legal restrictions in attempts to launch profitable economic ventures in metropolitan centres such as New York City and negotiate new forms of representation and agency in contentious socio-economic spaces. By interrogating the complex interplay between women entrepreneurs and diasporic communities, I weave an often-missing gender perspective into the analysis of the emergence of female transnational entrepreneurship and diasporic social networks. This article demonstrates that diasporic social networks, transnational markets and spatial interconnections, while contributing to market revitalisation and expansion, are nonetheless fraught with tension. Diasporic social networks embody paradoxical positions. They represent an enabling economic transactional space, while embodying an informal social space that nonetheless remains sites of power struggles deeply embedded in gendered, sociocultural and economic dynamics that transfer from local to transnational contexts.     

中国春运人口流动网络的富人俱乐部现象与不平衡性分析

基于“百度地图春节人口迁徙大数据”,利用加权网络的富人俱乐部系数和归一化不平衡系数方法,对2015年中国春运期间人口流动网络的富人俱乐部现象和不平衡性进行分析。研究结果表明：中国春运人口流动网络中存在明显的富人俱乐部现象,富人俱乐部城市包括北京、上海、广州、苏州、深圳和东莞,这些城市主导了超过77.66%中国城市的省际人口流动,且与这些城市之间的人口流动多属于不平衡关系,同时俱乐部城市之间、俱乐部城市与一小部分城市之间则属于平衡关系,这种流动格局很容易造成各城市在人口流动网络中的地位分化,严重影响了人口流动网络的公平性和安全性。     

The politics of repressing environmentalists as agents of foreign influence

Theoretically, this article reveals the long-term risk for local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of participating in transnational advocacy networks (TANs), accepting money from foreign sources and throwing ‘boomerangs’ internationally—a strategy used by local NGOs to seek international allies to pressure repressive and unresponsive states at home. Focusing primarily on the suppression of environmental NGOs that oppose natural-resource extraction, this article examines three cases—Russia, India and Australia—to illuminate the consequences of this trend for local civil society and TANs. It also documents a global trend towards states depicting local NGOs with international linkages as subversive agents of foreign interests, justifying legal crackdowns and the severing of foreign funding and ties. State framing of NGOs as agents of foreign interests is repressing local environmental activism, depoliticising civil society and weakening international NGO alliances—a conclusion with far-reaching consequences for the future of TANs, local NGOs and environmental activism.     

Negotiating mobility in gendered spaces: case of Pakistani women doctors

Through their gendered spatial practices, women in Pakistan re-negotiate and contest the multiple social and material restrictions in their daily mobility to reclaim the urban transit spaces, specifically, roads. Ethnographic research on the automobile use and driving with the women doctors in Lahore, Pakistan reveal the relationship between these strategic practices and the educational and occupational choices of women. These spatially embedded, intentional practices of women doctors, contingent on their social and economic positions, are directly linked to the emerging gendered identities and changing social and material gendered boundaries in Pakistani society. Moreover, these changing spaces are part of on-going flux of shifting power relations between traditional patriarchy and capitalism.     

How housing,infrastructure and water determined the spatial structure of the Randstad

Between 1950 and 1990, housing was the driving force behind the spatial growth of the Randstad. Growth poles (1970s) and later VINEX locations (1990–2010) were the main components of growth management. Transport infrastructure has developed greatly since the 1920s. Since 1990, infrastructure development has increasingly become the structuring force for the spatial dynamics of the Randstad. Schiphol was seen as the mainport for airlines, and Rotterdam-Europoort as the mainport for shipping lines and container transport. The landside infrastructural connections for Schiphol and Europoort had a big impact on the growth in the capacity of continental roads and rail lines. ICT- and energy infrastructure are now developing quickly. Recently, Amsterdam Internet Exchange became the largest ICT node in Europe. Finally, the Delta programme was introduced, strengthening the coastal areas and leaving more room for the rivers. For the future, a combination of housing, infrastructure and water for spatial developments will determine the spatial structure of the Randstad further. A compartmentalized plan of the Randstad between the main dikes is presented, which will increase the resilience of functions of the Randstad in the future when the North Sea level is expected to rise substantially. The analysis presented could be relevant for many urban deltas worldwide.     

Alone or together in the neighbourhood? School choice and families’ access to local social networks

This study explores how the everyday geographies of city life and families’ access to social networks in the neighbourhood influence families’ school choices. The data consist of thematic interviews with parents of 8–14-year-old children (n?=?170) in three urban areas located in the cities of Paris (France), Milan (Italy) and Espoo (Finland) and are analysed via qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate that the families’ access to local social networks influences the reasoning behind school choice to the local school. The children’s relationships with other children and adults in the neighbourhood are considered important, but additionally, the parents’ networks with other parents in the area, mediated by the school, play their role. School choices as practices should therefore be analysed not merely as choices of an institution, as they comprise various aspects concerning the surrounding neighbourhood as a physical and social space.