Performing space across time: a 520-year anniversary in a western Ukrainian village

Abstract

Festivals and celebrations have special significance for the foundation of community and collective memory. They are part of social practice and, at the same, also reveal much about current and historical social structures, traditions and rituals. Festivals contrast with everyday life, taking participants away from it; celebrations, conversely, celebrate and reinforce social hierarchies, the role of individuals in the community and the characteristics of the community. This is clearly demonstrated in this contribution on the example of the festivities of two western Ukrainian village communities celebrating 520 years of existence. The communities’ notable peculiarity lies in the fact that they were founded as a single village. Due the partitioning of Poland along the Zbru? River, however, the two sides were situated in Austria-Hungary and Russia, respectively. In the interwar period, they were located in Poland and the Soviet Union. Since the end of the Second World War, they were part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Although they did not have borders for the first time in 150 years, they nevertheless continued to exist as independent villages. Given this starting point, a celebration of the 520th anniversary of the founding of these communities obviously has very complex historical contexts within different past state regimes. The following analysis of the village festival will first demonstrate how such a celebration was achieved. Further, it will examine the extent to which a socio-spatial demarcation was reproduced just as efforts were simultaneously made to eliminate it. The village is a striking example of the manifestation of the experience and perception, design and imagination of present and past spaces.     

‘Together apart’ or ‘apart together’? – middle-class parents’ choice of playgrounds and playground interactions in socially diverse neighbourhoods

Taking an everyday life setting, namely playgrounds, as a starting point, the paper foregrounds a nuanced analysis of the internal differentiations of the middle class’s positioning in regard to social diversity. In so doing, the paper contributes to debates on contemporary segregation research, (dis-)affiliation of the middle classes in inner-city diverse neighbourhoods and geographies of encounter. Empirical findings are based on an analysis of the narratives and daily spatial routines of middle-class parents in three inner-city neighbourhoods in a major German town. The findings contradict the conventional wisdom that middle-class parents would always seek a socially homogeneous environment in which to raise their children and show the presence of a middle-class fraction with a collective orientation. The analysis highlights the need for a closer look at playgrounds as a setting for cross-social interaction and, in terms of micro-level politics, a setting to promote diverse and inclusive neighbourhoods.     

Der Weg zum Flussgebietsmanagement

Zusammenfassung Der Flussgebietsansatz ist ein zentrales Element der Wasserrahmenrichtlinie (WRRL) und wurde in Deutschland im Zuge der organisatorischen Umsetzung der Richtlinie strukturell implementiert. Die Kooperationsstrukturen auf Flussgebietsebene sollen dabei einen funktionierenden Rahmen auch für die fachliche Umsetzung der Richtlinie bilden. Beim dazu erforderlichen strukturellen Wandel waren insbesondere die in den Flussgebieten bereits vorhandenen Kooperationsstrukturen von Bedeutung. Diese wurden entweder ausgebaut, umstrukturiert oder von neuen Strukturen zur Umsetzung der WRRL überlagert. Die dabei zum Teil entstandenen Doppelstrukturen erh?hen jedoch den Koordinierungsaufwand der Akteure stark, so dass es aktuell zu einer Zusammenführung und Konsolidierungsbewegung kommt. Allerdings wird auch nach der Konsolidierung eine gro?e strukturelle Vielfalt in den Flussgebieten verbleiben, die durch eine enge Zusammenarbeit der Akteure zu bew?ltigen ist. Es bleibt abzuwarten, inwiefern diese Strukturen sich auch eignen, um neuen Herausforderungen, wie beispielsweise den Folgen des Klimawandels, zu begegnen.     

Neolithic Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) from the Island of Gotland show early contacts with the Swedish mainland

Previous research probing early migrations and contacts in the Baltic Sea area is characterized by the analysis of different chronologies and subsistent strategies on all sides of the Sea. Several studies performed on artifact typology, ceramics, grave rituals and physical anthropology ended with varying results. Although the question of human origins remains inconclusive, in this study, we rely on the phylogeography of an animal associated with humans to elucidate findings regarding prehistoric human migration and contacts.Hedgehogs, along with other fauna on Gotland, were brought over to the island by humans. We examined hedgehog mitochondrial DNA from the Pitted Ware Culture (Middle Neolithic). The genetic signatures of the animals on the island were investigated to determine the animal’s origin.From the 23 bones originally examined, twelve bones from all five locations studied yielded reliable results and resembled published extant Erinaceus europaeus sequences from Sweden, Norway and Denmark. We postulate that a western heritage for the Neolithic hedgehogs on Gotland indicates early human contact with the Swedish mainland.