Urban size and KIBS vertical disintegration: the case of Milan

The literature shows that market size favours firms’ vertical disintegration because it reduces transaction and knowledge coordination costs. The existing evidence is based primarily on cross-sectional data and on the manufacturing sector, with little or no attention is given to longitudinal data and services. This paper estimates the effect of urban size on the purchase of service inputs by knowledge-intensive business service firms located in the metropolitan region of Milan. Relying on a rich panel dataset, and adopting different econometric techniques to overcome endogeneity, we find a positive and statistically significant effect of increased urban population on the degree of KIBS vertical disintegration only when urban size is measured at the province level. We also find that this effect holds particularly in the case of traditional professional- rather than technology-related activities.     

20世纪90年代的中日纤维产品贸易

20世纪90年代中日两国贸易结构发生较大变化,即中国对日本出口的食品及矿产等初级产品在对日出口总额中降到不足一成,而纤维产品贸易以几乎每年占中日贸易额的20～30％的速度强劲发展,推动了两国贸易总额的迅速增长,但同时也引起贸易摩擦。尽管纤维产品贸易由垂直贸易分工向初级水平贸易分工发展,以及密切的依存关系两大特征,使中日两国避免了在该领域的贸易战,但是,如何在互补性贸易结构中寻求更多的合作领域以减少贸易摩擦甚至避免贸易战争,是20世纪90年代中日纤维产品贸易带来的重要启示。     

Hope in the Face of Temporal Devastation

This article evaluates Jonathan Lear's account of radical hope in light of the phenomenon of social acceleration. According to Lear's philosophical exegesis of the life of the Crow Nation's last chief, Plenty Coups, radical hope is hope based on the conviction that the world's goodness transcends but includes the goodness of human culture. Such hope enables a culture to persevere in the face of its own collapse through political humility, by which a culture draws on the resources of other cultures in order to revive itself. Social acceleration—which results in the warping of our sense of time as tensed between past, present, and future—demands a more primordial form of radical hope, based on the affirmation of the world's own temporalities as simultaneously resisting and sustaining our own cultural temporalities. This in turn involves a more self-critical form of political humility.     

咸若馆供藏擦擦佛整理研究——兼及与《诸佛菩萨圣像赞》之比较

咸若馆位于故宫外西路慈宁宫花园内,为该园中主体建筑。乾隆三十七年(1772)在东、西稍间的内壁上增设24个挂龛,用于供奉十二套擦擦三百六十佛,共计4320尊。经整理,咸若馆现存擦擦佛4233尊,其中4217尊属于三百六十佛系列,是利用三世章嘉胡图克图·若必多吉编订、乾隆二十二年十一月初十日(1757年12月20日)最终定型的三百六十佛铜阴佛模制作而成,其余16尊背后无字的擦擦无量寿佛则是清后期的作品。4217尊擦擦佛中目前仅有一套完整的擦擦三百六十佛,其余各套均不全。将这套完整的擦擦三百六十佛与《诸佛菩萨圣像赞》进行比较,两者有354尊佛像完全相同,仅6处存在差别,一致性高达983%。依据中正殿火场残存的《四体文佛名折》等一系列档案,考证其出现差别的原因是《诸佛菩萨圣像赞》和咸若馆供藏擦擦三百六十佛分别是三世章嘉编订三百六十佛过程中的前后两个阶段的作品,前者属于稿本,后者为定本。     

PROCEDURE AND SPECTRA FOR ANALYSIS OF RC STRUCTURES SUBJECTED TO STRONG VERTICAL EARTHQUAKE LOADS

Abstract

In view of the compendium of field evidence and supporting analysis work indicating the possible damaging effects of vertical earthquake ground motion, this paper addresses the problem of code-type vertical force calculation. In light of recent engineering seismology studies of the relationship between vertical and horizontal peak ground acceleration, the inadequacy of the 2/3-rule depicted by codes is highlighted. A simple piece-wise linear relationship is proposed and shown to represent existing strong-motion measurements adequately. Bilinear and inelastic spectra are derived and studied. It is demonstrated that net tensile forces and displacements may ensue, thus eroding the shear resistance of RC columns. A simple procedure is outlined whereby modal analysis may be employed to estimate conservatively vertical earthquake forces on buildings. Finally, areas of further exploration and refinement are identified.     

HOW THE OLD LEFT HAS FOUND A NEW PLACE IN THE MEMORY GAME

In his new book, How Modernity Forgets, Paul Connerton seeks to show a relationship between the workings of late capitalism and the institutionalization of forgetfulness in ever more abstract conceptions of space and time. He uses this argument to explain why the topic of collective memory has waxed so large in contemporary historical scholarship. I interpret his argument in light of his earlier work on habit memory and his still earlier critique of Frankfurt School social theory. I close with some comments on his study in the context of recent work on mnemonic practices in modern culture.     

A PROCEDURE FOR COMBINING VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL SEISMIC ACTION EFFECTS

The vertical component of earthquake ground motion has generally been neglected in the earthquake-resistant design of structures. This is gradually changing due to the increase in near-source records obtained recently, coupled with field observations confirming the possible destructive effect of high vertical vibrations.

In this paper, simple procedures are suggested for assessing the significance of vertical ground motion, indicating when it should be included in the determination of seismic actions on buildings. Proposals are made for the calculation of elastic and inelastic vertical periods of vibration incorporating the effects of vertical and horizontal motion amplitude and the cross-coupling between the two vibration periods. Simplified analysis may then be used to evaluate realistic vertical forces by employing the vertical period of vibration with pertinent spectra without resorting to inelastic dynamic analysis.

Finally, a procedure is suggested for combining vertical and horizontal seismic action effects which accounts for the likelihood of coincidence, or otherwise, of peak response in the two directions.     

Exploring the vertical: science and sociality in the field among cavers in Venezuela

Recent scholarship on vertical geographies has lead to a critical reexamination of the relationship between space and power. In this paper, I develop a vertical geographies approach in an unexplored context and with a less tested method: that of cave explorers and scientists in the field in Venezuela, from an ethnographic perspective. Ethnographic analysis of exploration in practice, viewed in relation to a multi-dimensional environment and the social dynamics, bodies, and technologies involved in traversing it, illustrates the ways vertical geographies are constructed and experienced. For the Venezuelan Speleological Society, a group dedicated to cave exploration and science since 1967, examining these geographies highlights culturally specific ways the tension between sports and science in speleology play out and how new members are socialized in the field. Specifically, attention to verticality highlights the role that age, masculinist heroics, and other embodied dimensions play in the construction of speleological geographies. More broadly, an ethnographic focus on exploration, with humans probing the earth's sinuous contours, guards against thinking of verticality abstractly—doing so risks simplifying and even misrepresenting multi-dimensional and processual engagements among humans, their technologies, and the environment.     

Reinventing the British film industry: the Group Production Plan and the National Lottery Franchise Scheme

This article is a comparative analysis of two analogous attempts to restructure the British film industry: the Group Production Plan of the early 1950s and the National Lottery Franchises of the late 1990s. The Group Production Plan brought together key industry figures such as Michael Balcon and John Grierson, who endured a fraught working relationship. The Plan failed, largely due to indifference from the major combines, Rank and the Associated British Picture Company (ABPC). Forty‐five years later, the Lottery Franchises were criticised for failing to produce enough films, although the example of Pathé Pictures suggests that expectations were too high and resources too low. The economic theory of path dependence problematises the policy drive to create vertically integrated companies. This article concludes that historical precedent plays an insufficient role in British film policy discourse and that academic research in cultural policy should aim to improve the dialogue between the past and the present.     

Risk or chance: ‘the liberalization of foreign film imports’ and its impacts in Korea and Japan

This paper outlines the background of the abolition of restrictions on foreign film imports and the influence of this action in Korea and Japan. In order to develop this argument, the paper focuses on policy tendencies, the structure of the film industry, and the reactions of the film industry players in each country. In Korea, the decision provoked an outcry and street demonstrations from both civil society as well as the film industry players. By contrast, in Japan, not only was opposition to liberalization rarely expressed, but some people actually demanded liberalization. The author analyzes the reasons why the players in each country reacted in different ways to similar policy decisions, through two types of models, the ‘market-led model’ of Japan and the ‘government-led model’ of Korea.