Neolithic economy in central Europe

This article presents a survey of Neolithic economy, land use, trade, natural environment, and usage of plant and animal resources in central Europe, 5415–2240 B.C. (4500–1800 bc). Early, Middle A and B and Late Neolithic materials are summarized and compared. The earliest farmers expanded from southern Hungary and adjacent areas into central Europe over a relatively short time period, 100–200 years. They occupied areas only with good soils; thus probably hunters and gatherers continued to exist in many regions of central Europe. There is an increase in population and more upland areas are exploited for farming during the Middle Neolithic A and B periods. By the Middle Neolithic B period, low-level hierarchical or ranked societies appear in some regions of central Europe. The Late Neolithic may represent a modification of the mixed farming strategy observed during the earlier periods. Perhaps the herding of domestic animals became more important.     

我国沿海港口港城关系协同发展与驱动机制研究

近年来,随着我国港口资源整合、港区功能调整和港口城市的转型升级,沿海港口与所在城市的关系发展面临新的变化和挑战。本文以我国沿海港口为例,结合定量分析与定性讨论,聚焦我国沿海港口港城关系问题,剖析港城关系的演变及驱动机制。研究发现：我国大部分沿海港口已进入极度协调发展阶段,但发展趋势逐渐放缓,区域分化特征显著,港城协同度差距呈现再扩大的发展趋势。在研究期间,我国城市驱动型港口城市数量显著增加,港口驱动型和港城互驱型港口城市数量减少。建议通过政府政策引导、港产城融合发展和港口转型升级等方式,不断提升我国沿海地区港城关系整体协调发展水平,为新时期我国沿海港口与所在城市的高质量发展提供重要支撑。     

Changing models of settlement,economy, and ritual activity: Recent research in late prehistoric central Europe

Recent research in central Europe is changing our understanding of the role of centers in economic and social systems of late prehistoric times. Increased attention to smaller, more typical settlements shows that they engaged in economic activities similar to those at the large, fortified complexes. Abundant new evidence pertaining to ritual activity indicates that ritual was often integrated into daily life at settlements. The evidence from the exceptionally rich data on late prehistoric central Europe can be of substantial value for developing models applicable to contexts in other parts of the world.     

The archaeology of complex hunter-gatherers

Archaeologists' reconstructions of paths to complexity have all too often excluded complex hunter-gatherers. However, recent theoretical contributions and long-term field research programs in several regions of the world have now significantly advanced our understanding of complex hunter-gatherers. A discussion of definitions of complexity and a review of current models of the emergence of complexity provide a framework for analyses of complex hunter-gatherers and important cultural phenomena such as sedentism, political integration, prestige economies, feasting, and ideology.     

New technologies and the political economy of geomorphology

New technologies enable high‐resolution monitoring techniques and the generation of big data and have been heralded as increasing the depth of our understanding of geomorphic phenomena. These technologies, however, also provide us with a convenient entry point into the increasingly constraining political economy of geomorphology. Building on the work of Stuart Lane and of critical physical geographers, this paper traces and examines the multiple roles that new technologies have played in constraining research questions and directing resources. Using the activity sphere framework outlined by David Harvey, the influence of new technologies can be traced around the spheres and their constraining of existing relations within academia and explanation identified.     

Wasting Coconuts? Consumption Versus Commerce in Colonial Wallis and Futuna

ABSTRACT

Early colonial officials and other newcomers frequently lamented the poor copra production in Wallis and Futuna, positioning the continued consumption of coconuts by Islanders as a waste. This article explores the contested uses of coconuts and the divergent visions of the islands’ landscape and future held by Islanders, officials, missionaries and traders during opening decades of French colony rule. In particular, a variety of incidents in the 1920s – from an indigenous co-operative to French expulsions – highlight the centrality of the emergent copra trade to the social and political status of these different groups. More broadly, however, the article demonstrates the failure of elites – both indigenous and newcomer – to substantially increase copra exports prior to the Depression in 1930, indicative of the limits of their ability to demand labour and transform the lifeways of the wider population.     

‘The apostle of free trade:’ Adam Smith and the nineteenth-century American trade debates

This paper examines the diversity of uses of Adam Smith’s ideas in nineteenth-century American debates about the tariff. Legislative debates about American trade policy ran almost uninterrupted from the 1820s to the end of the century; as a result, they provide an abundance of examples of the ways in which legislators marshaled economic ideas to shape political discourse and influence policy. Smith’s causal ideas about free trade and its effects were referenced in policymaking, and Smith’s intellectual authority was often invoked as a legitimating device for partisan ideology. These uses, I argue, contributed to the sloganizing of Smith as the ‘apostle of free trade’ and his enduring popularity as a political icon in American politics.     

Navigating the Fault Lines: Race and Class in Philadelphia's Solidarity Economy

In debates over post‐capitalist politics, growing attention has been paid to the solidarity economy (SE), a framework that draws together diverse practices ranging from co‐ops to community gardens. Despite proponents’ commitment to inclusion, racial and class divides suffuse the SE movement. Using qualitative fieldwork and an original SE dataset, this article examines the geospatial composition of the SE within the segregated geography of Philadelphia. We find that though the SE as a whole is widely distributed across the city, it is, with the exception of community gardens, largely absent from poor neighborhoods of color. We also identify SE clusters in racially and economically diverse border areas rather than in predominantly affluent White neighborhoods. Such findings complicate claims about the SE's emancipatory potential and underscore the need for its realignment towards people of color and the poor. We conclude with examples of how the SE might more fully address racial injustice.     

Neoliberalisation from the Ground Up: Insurgent Capital,Regional Struggle,and the Assetisation of Land

In this paper we argue that “assetisation” has been a central axis through which both neoliberalisation and financialisation have encroached in the post‐Fordist era. We focus on the mobilisation of land as a financial asset in northwest England's former industrial heartlands, offering an account of how property developer the Peel Group came to dominate the land and port infrastructure of the region through aggressive debt‐led expansion and, in particular, a hostile takeover of the Manchester Ship Canal for its land‐bank. In doing so, we illustrate how the capture of resources, especially land, by private corporations has shaped both substance and process of neoliberalisation from the ground up. By focusing on transformative struggles over land we contribute to research agendas attempting to understand the systemically dispossessive nature of assetisation, its relationship to fictitious capital formation, and the way such neoliberalising transformations are produced through grounded and situated socio‐spatial struggles.