NEIGHBORHOOD DYNAMICS AND PRICE EFFECTS OF SUPERFUND SITE CLEAN‐UP*

ABSTRACT Numerous hedonic price analyses estimate price effects associated with hazardous waste site remediation or other environmental variation. This paper estimates a neighborhood transition model to capture the direct price effect from Superfund site clean‐up and the indirect price effects arising from residential sorting and changes in investment in the housing stock following clean‐up. First‐difference models of neighborhood change and a national sample are used. This approach fails to find consistent positive direct price effects. Positive indirect effects, however, may arise through residential sorting and neighborhood investment spurred by remediation. The findings can be sensitive to policy endogeneity and model specification.     

One‐dimensional criticism: a Marcusean reflection on Habermas's critical theory1

This paper explores the metaphysical foundations of critical theory in Marcuse and Habermas's postmetaphysical alternative. It argues that Habermas's attempt to free critical theory from a normative conception of life‐activity deprives it of the conceptual tools required to accurately diagnose the fundamental structure of social problems today. It thus concludes that Marcuse's efforts towards specifying a life‐grounded foundation to critical theory must be renewed if the project of human freedom is to be advanced today.     

Of Sheep and Scribbling: Women and Writing in (Mostly) Early Modern England

Books reviewed in this article: Kevin Pask, The Emergence of the English Author: Scripting the Life of the Poet in Early Modern England Carol Barash, English Women’s Poetry 1649-1714: Politics, Community and Linguistic Authority Anna Battigelli, Margaret Cavendish and the Exiles of the Mind Helen Wilcox (ed.), Women and Literature in Britain 1500-1700 Jeni Williams, Interpreting Nightingales: Gender, Class and Histories     

Paleoparasitological results from coprolites dated at the Pleistocene–Holocene transition as source of paleoecological evidence in Patagonia

Coprolites attributable to humans, dated from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, obtained from the archaeological site Cerro Casa de Piedra, Santa Cruz Province, were examined for parasites. The feces were processed by rehydration and spontaneous sedimentation using conventional parasitic procedures. Helminthic eggs recovered were identified as Trichuris sp., Calodium sp., other capilariids, and ancylostomid (Nematoda), probably Hymenolepis sp. and anoplocephalid (Cestoda); one oocyst attributable to Eimeria macusaniensis (Apicomplexa) was also found. According to the life-cycles and specificity of the parasites found, it is possible to suggest that some species (i.e., E. macusaniensis and Calodium sp.) represent parasites in transit or pseudoparasitism. Paleoparasitological results revealed the existence of an intensive relationship between parasites and humans in the Pleistocene–Holocene transition in Patagonia. Evidence suggests an early association among parasites, rock shelters and hunter–gatherers in the region. It is also postulated that the ancient lifestyles associated with caves and rock shelters were conductive to illness.     

Can Only Religion Save Us?

This paper will examine the loss of confidence in secular bases for the normative understanding of, and response to, the fundamental social and political problems. The recent arguments of Richard Falk in favour of a religious foundation for a humane globalization will be taken as paradigmatic. While the paper agrees that the normative core of major world religions supports Falk's particular conclusion that religion can provide the content for a universal critique of inhumane global governance, it will conclude that the universal claim that global human solidarity today can only be built on the basis of religious faith does not follow. The paper will contend that the required normative foundation for the positive project of constructing global human solidarity is neither religious nor secular, but synthetic, embracing both—in what I will call, following the work of John McMurtry—the “life-ground of value.”