Reinventing Strategic Planning in Post-socialist Cities: Experiences from Sofia

Recent planning experiences in post-socialist cities indicate a growing interest in strategic spatial planning. In their search for new planning paradigms, municipalities in transition countries have embraced strategic planning as a way to involve the business community and the broader constituency in defining a vision for the future of cities. More importantly, this more proactive approach has created an opportunity for mobilization of funds and political support for urban development thus bridging the resource gap under a regime of fiscal austerity. Drawing on the recent experience of Sofia with strategic spatial planning, the paper outlines the essential characteristics of the process (plan-making) and the product (strategic plan). The research establishes clear links between the process of strategy development, its institutional framework and the hierarchical structure of goals, objectives and actions. It is argued that strategic spatial planning is an efficient tool to manage post-socialist cities.     

Home-grown slaves: women, reproduction, and the abolition of the slave trade, Jamaica 1788-1807

Once the British transatlantic slave trade came under abolitionists' scrutiny in 1788, West Indian slaveholders had to consider alternative methods of obtaining well-needed laborers. This article examines changes in enslaved women's working lives as planters sought to increase birth rates to replenish declining laboring populations. By focusing more on variances in work assignment and degrees of punishment rather than their absence, this article establishes that enslaved women in Jamaica experienced a considerable shift in their work responsibilities and their subjection to discipline as slaveholders sought to capitalize on their abilities to reproduce. Enslaved women's reproductive capabilities were pivotal for slavery and the plantation economy's survival once legal supplies from Africa were discontinued.     

Interpretive approaches and the study of Italian politics

This article asks why, despite their doubtful utility, the categories used in accounts of contemporary Italian politics are almost universally negative in character. It is suggested that at least part of the explanation has to do with the ontological and epistemological assumptions informing the accounts, together with the social circumstances that have given rise to their production. More fruitful, less uncritically negative analyses require the adoption of approaches informed by alternative ontologies and epistemologies, that is, interpretive approaches. These seek to account for social phenomena by rendering intelligible the meaningful action in which the latter are rooted and, as the example of corruption shows, yield less negative accounts by allowing researchers to imagine themselves acting, given similar circumstances, in ways similar to those they study.     

Corruption-mitigating policies: The case of Italy

One of the circumstances likely to be associated with the intensity of both investigative and legislative efforts designed to curb political and bureaucratic corruption is institutional reform. Since the characteristics of electoral and party systems seem to be associated with variations in the intensity of anti-corruption efforts cross-nationally, it was reasonable to think that changes in the characteristics of these systems in Italy in the 1990s would be reflected in a corresponding change in the efforts of legislators and members of the judiciary to tackle corruption. Prior to the 1990s Italy's tripolar party system and its numerous concomitants placed considerable obstacles in the way of the willingness and the ability of judicial investigators and parliamentarians to deal with the corruption emergency. The 1993 electoral law reform, the eventual emergence of a largely bipolar party system and the circumstances surrounding these processes considerably diminished the significance of the aforementioned obstacles, yet there has been little noticeable increase in anti-corruption efforts. This is probably explicable in terms of the electoral effects of such efforts and suggests that institutional change is at most only one of a number of conditions that must be fulfilled in order for more strenuous efforts to be observed.     

Preliminary documentation of a chine-girder barge at Conway, South Carolina

The study of small flat-bottomed plantation craft in South Carolina began in 1983 with the discovery and study of a barge at Mepkin Abbey on the Cooper River. Since that date the author has documented a wide range of craft in contexts ranging from plantations and ferry crossings to marine phosphate mines (Newell. 1986; 1989). The flat which is the focus of this report is the first of its type observed during this 8-year study period. Its construction and hull profile indicate that the vessel is a late 18th century craft. Current research by the author into the origins of the unique design suggests eastern European or French sources for the use of iles or chine-girders, a constructional element of the craft used in conjunction with transverse planking not commonly seen in flats of English design.     

The US military base network and contemporary colonialism: Power projection, resistance and the quest for operational unilateralism

This article explores the contemporary global network of US military bases. This paper examines how the geography of this network is shaped not only by military objectives but also by resistance from allied governments and communities adjacent to bases. Using examples from Guam, Puerto Rico, Okinawa and other locales this paper examines how local resistances to US bases have caused the Department of Defense to increasingly rely on non-sovereign islands as sites for bases. These sites, military strategists believe, will enable the military to train without hindrance and to operate without the need for consultation with allies. These colonies, however, are also sites were military activities are actively resisted. The resulting base network is thus shaped not only by global military priorities, but also by an increasingly globalized network of local social movements resisting militarization.     

Introduction

The second Berlusconi government came to power at the end of a period of unprecedented change in Italian politics to which the term 'Italian transition' is frequently applied. While the new government's arrival has not brought the transition to an end, the manner of its election powerfully symbolizes the end of much of what was 'unique' about the Italian polity. Such uniqueness derived essentially from the tripolar nature of the country's party system and the 'blocked' character of its democracy. The crisis of the early 1990s gave rise to the onset of a regime transition whose phases can be described analytically by applying Flanagan's (1973) developmental framework and Linz's (1978) breakdown and re-equilibration model. Given the transition's 'stalling', the article considers what kind of and how much change has taken place in the Italian political system and the degree to which the second Berlusconi government might represent a new departure for it. The Introduction concludes by presenting the 'aspects of the Italian transition' discussed in the following five articles.