Climatic anomalies,food systems,and subsistence crises in medieval Novgorod and Ladoga

Climatic factors have affected subsistence strategies throughout human history. In northern Europe and Russia, short-term climatic anomalies and weather extremes are commonly thought to underlie famines in the Middle Ages. However, medieval subsistence crises were not just natural disasters and medieval people were not passive victims of climatic anomalies. In addition, the capacity to cope with climatic anomalies has varied temporally and spatially throughout the Middle Ages. Yet only a few studies have explored the climatic impact on regional medieval food systems comprehensively. This article examines the significance of climate variability on subsistence crises in medieval Novgorod and Ladoga (Russia), focusing on the relationship between short-term climate anomalies and crop cultivation. In addition, this paper evaluates the impact of crop failures, frosts, and other weather phenomena on the food system. The materials are drawn from medieval sources, paleoclimatological reconstructions, and archaeological evidence. The results show that short-term climatic anomalies alone rarely lead to severe subsistence crises, and during every famine period there is evidence of other contributing factors, such as unfavourable weather phenomena, disease, or social unrest. The variety of cultivated crops and agricultural techniques is shown to increase the region’s resilience to climatic anomalies and to crop failures.     

Development-led planning practices in a plan-led planning system: empirical evidence from Finland

Planning systems are generally divided into plan-led and development-led systems. However, it is quite common that the planning practice follows development-led planning although the planning system would structurally be plan-led. To study how development-led planning affects the implementation of large-scale urban development projects, we conducted a cross-sectional survey in Finland – a country with a hierarchical setting of legally binding zoning plans which can be prepared by following either plan-led or development-led practices. The survey respondents were civil servants managing implementation of large-scale urban development projects. Our results quite surprisingly suggest that development-led planning may cause the projects to become more vulnerable to property market uncertainty compared to the projects following the plan-led practises. These results challenge the usual output-based legitimation of development-led planning to some extent.