Food,conviviality and the work of mourning. The asado scandal at Argentina’s ex-ESMA

This article addresses a controversial debate raised by an asado-party, which was celebrated by the end of 2012 at the former Navy Mechanics School (ESMA), the main clandestine detention centre where almost 5,000 people were held captive and tortured during Argentina’s last dictatorship (1976-1983). In 2004, the former school was transformed into a “space of memory”. Drawing upon the asado episode, I consider which kind of practices of re-occupation former landscapes of death may allow.

I first provide an overview of the interventions that took place at ESMA within the Kirchnerist period (2003-2015). Second, I bring into play some cultural productions of the new generations, as well as performances and philosophical ruminations regarding the asado as a main theme in the local culture. Finally, I put these materials in the larger context of memory politics to explore how food-reunions – and expanded tables might work as a public pathway for a collective digestion of grief. The question that is ultimately at stake is how to kindle alternative hospitalities and dialogues in landscapes marked by loss. Might the spectrum of activities that took place at the former ESMA during the Kirchnerist years suggest a new conviviality for the aftermath of violence?     

Branding Knowledge-intensive Regions: A Comparative Study of Pisa and Oulu High-Tech Brands

Place marketing and branding have drawn much attention both in the literature and in practice especially in the 1990s and 2000s. However, the research literature of place branding related to the dynamic evolution of knowledge-intensive regions is limited. This article aims at providing an analysis of place branding processes in knowledge-intensive regions in relation to the evolution of their high-tech clusters, in an attempt to identify the relation between brand development and cluster performance from a longitudinal perspective. The article discusses the results of a multiple case study, including Pisa, Italy and Oulu, Finland. The findings suggest that, in these two cases, branding consisted more in labelling an existing economic phenomenon rather than in fostering or having a bet on it in a visionary way. This is related to the political nature of branding which may provoke a mismatch between the timing of the high-tech cluster dynamics and the timing of branding initiatives, a mismatch which is likely to affect branding effectiveness and which should be considered when evaluating branding impacts.     

Access to capital markets and the geography of productivity leaders and laggards

This paper examines whether access to the capital market of convertible and nonconvertible bonds affects total factor productivity (TFP) for the population of Italian joint stock manufacturing companies, based in highly segmented local financial markets, between 2007 and 2017. The hypothesis, well grounded in the literature, is that long-term capital favors investment in intangibles and other risky assets necessary for productivity growth. To identify this effect, we exploit the exogenous shock of the Italian banking deregulation of the mid-1990s as an instrument for firm-level access to capital, interacted with distance from logistic networks. These reforms changed the distribution of the type of branches at the local level, increasing the share of joint stock banks, which have high connections to international capital markets. This geographical reallocation of banking activities ultimately affected firms' financial structure, favouring their access to capital, even when based in peripheral financial areas. Firms which issued instruments of market debt achieved higher levels of productivity and a higher probability to reach top percentiles of productivity distribution.     

The Acqualadroni Ram Recovered Near the Strait of Messina,Sicily: dimensions,timbers, iconography and historical context

Within the framework of the activities of the Soprintendenza del Mare of Sicily, a bronze ram was recovered just north of the Straits of Messina, in the area of Acqualadroni. This paper discusses technical and iconographic features of the ram and compares them with others found in Sicily, Piraeus, Tuscany and Athlit. The study shows the Acqualadroni Ram has more analogies with the latter, although it also has unique features. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the ram was used on a warship dating from the mid‐2nd century BC. It is therefore possible that the Acqualadroni Ram was lost during the Naulochus battle (36 BC) or during the Civil Wars that gave rise to the rule of Octavian.     

‘A Wigwam to Westminster’: Performing Mohawk Identity in Imperial Britain, 1890s–1990s

This article examines the travels and appearances of Canadian Mohawk writers, lecturers, and performers E. Pauline Johnson and John Brant‐Sero, who appeared in Britain as self‐identified Mohawks, Canadians, and members of the British Empire during the late‐Victorian and Edwardian years of heightened imperial sentiment. The article draws upon feminist scholarship on performance, imperialism, and culture and consumption for the late‐Victorian and Edwardian period. It argues that, while Johnson and Brant‐Sero challenged stereotypes of Mohawk gender relations, they also were part of imperialist modernity; their gendered ‘performances’– on and off‐stage – must be analysed within the context of the gendered cultures of consumption and performance of late‐Victorian and Edwardian British society.