Actualitie´s The ambivalent Jacobin: Vincent Wright as a political historian of modern France. An appreciation

The article situates the Jospin government in the mainstream of European social democracy, and its experience highlighting the continuing diversity of national social democratic governance. The article is divided into four parts. First come a brief consideration and definition of social democracy, followed by a more detailed discussion of the elements necessary to construct a comparative framework of analysis. The third section focuses on the French experience, specifically setting the Jospin government within the framework developed above. The conclusion re-addresses the nature of social democracy by demonstrating how the Jospin government's time in office contributes toward a general understanding of its evolving practice.     

Cotton,climate and colonialism in Dharwar,western India, 1840–1880

Focussing on the cotton improvement projects in Dharwar, western India, that exemplified the modernising aims of colonial agriculture in nineteenth-century India, this article interrogates the architecture of cotton imperialism in the colonised world through the conceptual lens of political ecology. In particular, it brings to the fore the crucial dimension of climate both as an element in colonial thinking and planning, and as a dynamic force impacting on the cultivation of transplanted American cotton. The climate of Dharwar was not quite what the cotton authorities had constructed it to be, and it was, moreover, undergoing change due to the impact of regional deforestation. Furthermore, the article shows how this failure to come to terms with local climate conditions and changes was symptomatic of a broader failure to consider the overall agricultural livelihoods of peasant cultivators. Apart from a brief period when prices were artificially high, peasants much preferred growing the accustomed indigenous cotton rather than the new exotic variety. In turn, cotton was less of a priority than the production of millet food crops. By exploring the ways in which climatic conditions interacted with the economic, social and technological processes of cotton production in Dharwar, this article highlights why American cotton cultivation failed to meet colonial expectations during this period while also revealing the fragile architectural edifice of colonial power.