South Africa: The politics of pre‐negotiations, 1989–1991

The international community has hailed South African state president, F.W. de Klerk, a ‘liberator’. De Klerk liberalised the political process and deracialised aspects of state and society. But how committed to racial reform are be and his government? The regime's policies, strategies and tactics over the last two years raise many concerns that the international community has either baulked or simply ignored. The argument that the government must be rewarded and encouraged is fallacious. The South African government reacts only to pressure. The international community acted prematurely by lifting some sanctions and is undermining the prospects for a post‐apartheid society based on equal rights.     

Making a significant place: excavations at the Late Mesolithic site of Langley’s Lane,Midsomer Norton,Bath and North-East Somerset

Excavations at the site of Langley’s Lane, Bath and North-East Somerset, have revealed an important sequence of Late Mesolithic activity focused around an active tufa spring. The sequence of activity starts off as an aurochs kill and primary butchery site. Culturally appropriate depositional practices occur through the placement of a selection of bone in the wetland of the spring and the digging of pits around the spring margins. The spring at Langley’s Lane continued to be visited and more animal bone and lithic material was placed in the wetland. Finally, visits to the site involved yet more formalized activity in the form of pit digging and the creation of a stone surface. Activities such as these are difficult to locate in the archaeological record and Mesolithic ritual activity rare, making this a site of some significance to studies of Mesolithic NW Europe.     

Oxygen and strontium isotope evidence for mobility in Roman Winchester

Artefacts and burial rites in the late Roman cemetery at Lankhills School, Winchester, southern England, were used by Clarke (1979) to distinguish between local Romano-British individuals and migrants thought to be from the Danube region, a suggestion tested through isotope analysis by Evans et al. (2006a,b). This paper reports strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and oxygen (δ¹⁸O) isotope data for tooth enamel sampled from a further 40 individuals from more recent excavations on the same site. Results suggest that up to a quarter of the sampled Lankhills individuals were incomers, with several individuals possibly originating from the Hungarian Basin and the Southern Mediterranean. However, there was no clear link between isotopic signature and archaeological origin attribution, suggesting that in many cases burial practice was dictated by factors other than ‘ethnicity’, such as kinship, marriage or cultural and political preferences.     

Industrial Policy in Wallonia: A Rupture with the Past?

One of the main issues facing almost all European regional policy-makers is how to ensure a smooth adaptation of their industrial structure in the face of changing societal and technological parameters. In the case of the Belgian region Wallonia, industrial decline has particularly marked the economy during recent decades and the need to promote structural change has been a central preoccupation of national and, subsequently, regional governments. At the same time, the highly complex system of governance in Belgium renders the definition and application of a coherent regional industrial policy difficult. This paper explores the development of industrial policy in the Walloon region with particular attention to the period since 1990 and the pertinence of the instruments and delivery mechanisms with respect to the underlying structural issues facing the regional economy. The paper is divided into four sections: the first offers a historical profile of the industrial development of the Walloon economy and in particular identifies some of the factors which provoked a serious structural crisis. The section reviews the economic impact of the successive phases of rationalization and diversification which have taken place since the 1970s and discusses how the industrial strategies adopted by the business sector and supported by the regional government have influenced the speed of economic regeneration. The second section considers the complex federal system of government in Belgium and how it influences the freedom of action for regional industrial policy. The governance of the economy by the numerous public or semi-public institutions active in the field of industrial policy is a crucial issue. A critical review of the main initiatives, instruments and targets of industrial policy in Wallonia is offered in section three, while the paper concludes by contrasting the Walloon industrial policy with initiatives taken in the neighbouring area of South-West Flanders and ponders the issue of whether in the end the key factor arresting the development of Wallonia is the insufficient level of 'social capital'.