Loosening/tightening spaces in the geographies of hanging out

The article is based on research conducted with young people who spend their free time hanging out in a shopping mall and its surroundings in the city centre of Helsinki, Finland. ‘Geographies of hanging out’ is understood here as an interaction between the location and young people: the space offers affordances to the young people and thus affects their ways of being. At the same time, they give new meanings to the space by hanging out and thus take part in the production of that space. Empirical material gathered in the project includes the researcher's observations, in-depth interviews conducted with young people, youth workers, the police and the management of the mall and the photographs taken by the young participants. In this article, hanging out is interpreted as a process where ‘looseness’ and ‘tightness’ of space are negotiated and re-defined. Shopping malls are seen as spaces where boundaries between public and private are often blurred. The presence of young people can make these commercial spaces tighter or looser and thus change the nature of urban space not only for the young people, but for other urban dwellers, too.     

Loose‐footed Sails of the Egyptian New Kingdom Ships

The relief from the temple of Ramesses III (1184–1153 BC) in Medinet Habu is often considered to be the most ancient representation of a brailed sail. According to many researchers, the loose‐footed sail and the system of brails were invented in the ancient countries of the Syro‐Canaanite coast and were later adopted by the Ancient Egyptians. However, iconographic material from Ancient Egypt testifies to the indigenous origin of a loose‐footed sail. The article presents an unknown relief from the Amarna period (1352–1336 BC) that further supports this hypothesis.     

The deposit of KHB-1, Ra’s al Khabbah (Ja’lān region,Sultanate of Oman): Stratigraphy,features and structures

The excavation of KHB-1 archaeological site was part of the Joint Hadd Project [Joint Hadd Project is a project operating in the Ja’lān region since 1985, born under the collaboration between ISIAO (Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, Rome), CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris) and the University of Bologna] carried out in the Ja’lān region, along the coast of the Sultanate of Oman. Different phases of occupation with significant structural evidences were identified within the deposit: an early short-term occupation in the 7th millennium, followed by a longer, extended period of occupation during the 4th millennium by a community of hunter-gatherers, with some evidence of animal husbandry. The material culture recovered from KHB-1, which includes architectural remains, provides new insights on the cultures of this region, highlighting a need for further excavations and analysis. This paper will illustrate the stratigraphic sequence and the main features recovered at KHB-1, followed by a discussion on the two main periods of occupation which will help shed a light on the site function and more broadly provide key insights on mobility, economy, and material culture of Ja’lān in the beginning of 7th and along the 4th millennium B.C.     

实践中的转变：抗日根据地减租减息运动中的减息政策研究

在抗日根据地的减租减息运动中,减息政策的变化受多种因素的影响,但借贷利率的限制无疑是其中最重要的因素。由于规定的利率过低,造成农村金融借贷停滞,给农民的生产和生活造成很大困难,放开对借贷利率的限制成为唯一的选择。减息政策经历了从严格的利率限制到完全放开的转变,这是在实践中根据实际情况作出的政策改变,但从实际效果来看,放开对借贷利率的限制并没有起到预期的恢复农村借贷的效果,借贷困难的局面一直持续下去。     

挽王天培联不是刘莘园先生所作——读《辛亥革命老人刘莘园遗稿》发现的一个错误

2003年12月贵州人民出版社出版发行的《辛亥革命老人刘莘园遗稿》,其中《联语十则》之第八则有“功在定黔,罪在定黔,乱世为人真不易;朝言革命,暮言革命,先生结局竞如斯”这样一副挽联,根据有关文史资料所述,结合《遗稿》中的作者观点,以及联语中的错字来分析,可知该挽联并非刘莘园作品。     

PARKOUR: CREATING LOOSE SPACES?

Parkour is a spectacular and highly mediatized new way of movement that challenges conceptions of acceptable or appropriate behaviour in urban public space. This article will examine the potential of parkour to “loosen” urban spatial texture by applying recent thinking on loose and tight space by Karen A. Franck and Quentin Stevens to data gathered through in‐depth interviews with parkour practitioners (traceurs) in two Finnish cities. When practising in urban public spaces, the traceurs we interviewed often caused confusion among other people. We explore how they negotiate their right to public space in the face of these reactions, either by evasion or with a combination of legal and moral arguments. We argue that parkour is not only a playful and confrontational practice with a potentially subversive character, but that the process of loosening space constitutes a complex dialectic, which may also involve a certain degree of tightening in the public space for other unexpected or unintended activities.