Digitalising sex commerce and sex work: a comparative analysis of French,Greek and Slovenian websites

The aim of this article is to explore the complexity of the online sex trade and work by analysing sexuality-related commercial websites, with reference to three European states, France, Greece and Slovenia. The article compares websites in each specific sociocultural context, in order to provide insights into the various types of networks and services that emerge, and to explore how they operate, how they communicate and how sex is being merchandised. We have conducted a two-tier analysis: The first part discusses results of a quantitative macro-analysis exploring 149 websites, while the second part is a micro-analysis analysing the visualisation of egocentric network of three selected websites. The focus is on understanding how gender relations develop in digital environment and how within cyberspace sectorial and national divides are dealt with. While there is evidence to suggest that in some sectors the Internet has opened avenues for sex workers to work independently of the control networks, there are also many forms of exploitation that arise from new media. We observe that sex commerce online is not particularly attentive to the agency of sex workers but is, to the contrary, oriented to provide opportunities and a forum for businessmen and clients.     

Human occupation and geomorphological evolution of the Thessaloniki Plain (Greece) since mid Holocene

The plain of Thessaloniki is an important area from a historical standpoint. Numerous reigns and empires have occupied the area, leaving behind numerous archaeological remains. The literature and historical evidences show that the city of Pella was located near the sea and its harbor was the starting point of various conquests of famous kings such as Philip the 2nd and Alexander the Great. At present, the ancient capital is located 28 km inland the large fertile plain of Thessaloniki.     

Palaeochannels of the Balkh river (northern Afghanistan) and human occupation since the Bronze Age period

In 2002, the unexpected discovery of Hellenistic architectural blocks, buried in 8 m of alluvium, found displaced in a former bed of the river of Balkh, brought about a programme of surveys and excavations under the aegis of the French Archaeological Mission in Bactria. The geoarchaeological side of the programme focused on the drawing of a regional geomorphological map then on the identification, mapping and dating of the palaeochannels of the river of Balkh. We established the chronology of several fluvial channel generations by association with archaeological settlements of different eras (Bronze Age, Bactro-Achaemenid period, Kushan period, Islamic period) and with optically stimulated luminescence dating carried out on alluvium deposits. The present riverbed leading up to Aqcha was formed during the Islamic period. We suspect the primary agent of this change in the river channel to, be tectonic activity and the activation of a blind fault crossing the floodplain. We identified a northern Bactro-Achaemenid aqueduct, currently located in the desert area separating the plain of Balkh from the Amu Darya.     

Geoarchaeology of Ancient Aulis (Boeotia,Central Greece): human occupation and Holocene landscape changes

This article presents the results of a coring operation which brought to light new evidence for the evolution of the coastal plain of Aulis (Boeotia, Central Greece) in the Holocene. Thanks to Homer, Aulis is best known as the gathering point of the Achaean fleet before it sailed to Troy and a sanctuary of the goddess Artemis. Ancient sources and archaeological evidence suggest the presence of an ancient marine bay, potentially used as a harbor. In the course of investigation, we drilled two cores, to a maximum depth of 4.20 m in the marshy lowlands and performed mollusc and micro-paleontological identifications, laser grain size analyses, and magnetic susceptibility measurements in order to reveal the facies evolution of the area. We obtained a chronostratigraphy sequence through a series of seven AMS ¹⁴C radiocarbon dates. Our study shows that the area was affected by a shallow marine incursion from the first half of the 6th millennium BC and gradually turned into a succession of shallow marine/lagoon environments from ca. 5000 cal. BC to the 2nd Century AD, and into a confined lagoon environment during the Roman and Byzantine periods.     

Insights into early Holocene hunter-gatherer mobility on the Peruvian Southern Coast from mollusk gathering seasonality

Quebrada de los Burros (QLB) is an early Archaic coastal archaeological site in southern Peru (∼18.1°S) and the most extensively studied in the area for this period. It was occupied from 10 to 6.5 ka by fishermen also practicing hunting and mollusk gathering. Shell growth lines in 116 individuals of the surf clam Mesodesma donacium were studied to determine the month of their death (±2 months). Our results show that, for the whole occupation period, mollusk gathering was a seasonal activity mainly practiced during austral spring and summer. A change occurred between the early and the middle Holocene: the mollusk gathering season in the middle Holocene occurred ∼3 months earlier in the year than in the older levels. This behavior change could have a cultural origin, rather than dictated by the environment for it is associated with changes in the lithic industry. QLB occupants also hunted herbivores in the nearby lomas ecosystems. These plant communities only grow during the fog season from June to December, suggesting that the site was occupied during this season. A comparison of the span of the mollusk gathering season and the lomas season suggests that, at least during the early Holocene, QLB was occupied all the year round. A permanent freshwater source and the proximity of the sea, the lomas, and raw lithic materials, provided ideal conditions for a permanent occupation. This result reveals a strategy based on a seasonal alternation between marine and terrestrial resources exploitation.     

The Nice Musical Chairs Model: Exploring the Role of Competition and Cooperation Between Farming and Herding in the Formation of Land Use Patterns in Arid Afro-Eurasia

Following a strictly theory-building approach, we developed an agent-based simulation model, the Nice Musical Chairs model, to represent the competition between groups of stakeholders of farming and herding activities in the arid Afro-Eurasia. The model deepens the questions raised by the results of our former model, the Musical Chairs model, and further introduces three socio-economic mechanisms, which modulate the behavior and performance of stakeholders and their groups. First, we define land use pairing as the awarding, regarding productivity, of any direct cooperation between farming and herding within a group. Second, group management is modeled as the prerogative of a group leadership to manage stakeholders to pursue a particular proportion between farming and herding. Third, we introduce restricted access to pasture as the engagement in territorial control of rangelands in opposition to an open access regime. An exhaustive exploration of scenarios and parameters placed the control over rangelands as the most significant factor in the formation of land use patterns, followed by land use management. While the effect of land use pairing is mild in comparison, it is still a significant factor in group selection and thus in the persistence of particular land use patterns in the long run.     

Policy Styles and Degenerative Politics: Poverty Policy Designs in Newfoundland and Quebec

This article examines the proposal suggesting that policy designs are consistent with the social construction of target groups. Associated with policy design theory, the proposal pessimistically suggests that underprivileged citizens will be targeted with policies that do little to help them, creating a vicious circle of degenerative politics. This article argues that the prevalence of degenerative politics depends on policy styles. Significant where the adversarial style prevails, degenerative politics is less common in consensual systems. This proposal is examined through a systematic content analysis of action plans to reduce poverty in Newfoundland and Quebec.