bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
From sharing to dividing: young children’s understanding of division
Authors: Squire Sarah , Bryant Peter
Published: March 2003

Children have particular difficulty with division problems, as compared to sharing problems. An inability to discriminate between the dividend, divisor and quotient might contribute to their difficulty with division. This study investigates whether young children (5–9 years) were able to discriminate between the divisor and quotient in simple division problems that were modeled for them. Children were presented with partitive and quotitive division problems in which the dividend was grouped either by the divisor or by the quotient. The children showed a very different pattern of results in the partitive and quotitive problems; they found it easier to identify the answer (quotient) when the dividend was grouped by the divisor in partitive problems and by the quotient in quotitive problems. It is argued that children rely on a schema of action of creating ‘portions’ when they first learn about division, and that the ‘portions’ produced by sharing are different in partitive and quotitive problems. We discuss this finding in terms of the importance of problem representation, children’s schemas of action and mental models.
Eye remember you: the effects of gaze direction on face recognition in children and adults
Authors: Hood Bruce M. , Macrae C. Neil , Cole‐Davies Victoria , Dias Melanie
Published: March 2003

Children and adults were tested on a forced‐choice face recognition task in which the direction of eye gaze was manipulated over the course of the initial presentation and subsequent test phase of the experiment. To establish the effects of gaze direction on the encoding process, participants were presented with to‐be‐studied faces displaying either direct or deviated gaze (i.e. encoding manipulation). At test, all the faces depicted persons with their eyes closed. To investigate the effects of gaze direction on the efficiency of the retrieval process, a second condition (i.e. retrieval manipulation) was run in which target faces were presented initially with eyes closed and tested with either direct or deviated gaze. The results revealed the encoding advantages enjoyed by faces with direct gaze was present for both children and adults. Faces with direct gaze were also recognized better than faces with deviated gaze at retrieval, although this effect was most pronounced for adults. Finally, the advantage for direct gaze over deviated gaze at encoding was greater than the advantage for direct gaze over deviated gaze at retrieval. We consider the theoretical implications of these findings.
Learning to perceive object unity: a connectionist account
Authors: Mareschal Denis , Johnson Scott P.
Published: March 2003

To explore questions of how human infants begin to perceive partly occluded objects, we devised two connectionist models of perceptual development. The models were endowed with an existing ability to detect several kinds of visual information that have been found important in infants’ and adults’ perception of object unity (motion, co‐motion, common motion, relatability, parallelism, texture and T‐junctions). They were then presented with stimuli consisting of either one or two objects and an occluding screen. The models’ task was to determine whether the object or objects were joined when such a percept was ambiguous, after specified amounts of training with events in which a subset of possible visual information was provided. The model that was trained in an enriched environment achieved superior levels of performance and was able to generalize veridical percepts to a wide range of novel stimuli. Implications for perceptual development in humans, current theories of development and origins of knowledge are discussed.
Local Institutional Development and Relief in Ethiopia: A Kire–based Seed Distribution Programme in North Wollo
Authors: Pratten David T.
Published: March 2003

Highlighted here is the important role played by community‐based organisations in relief supply operations. In the context of an emergency seed supply project in northern Ethiopia in 1995, it examines the participation of burial societies, known as kires, in targeting, distribution and management. The paper illustrates that factors of local institutional legitimacy, transparency and accountability are central, both to the effective representation of community views and to long‐term partnerships between local institutions and non‐governmental organisations.
Coping Strategies in an Ethnic Minority Group: The Aeta of Mount Pinatubo
Authors: Seitz Stefan
Published: March 2003

The particular problems arising in the aftermath of natural disasters in indigenous societies in the Third World, especially in ethnic or cultural minorities, have until now received only little attention in social scientific research. The potential of such indigenous groups to use their traditional knowledge and behaviour patterns in coping with natural disasters has been badly neglected. The example of the Aeta in Zambales, Philippines, a marginal group who were hit directly by the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in 1991, shows how traditional economic and social behaviour can in some measure determine their various survival strategies.
Proliferating Principles; Or How to Sup with the Devil without Getting Eaten
Authors: Leader Nicholas
Published: March 2003

The international humanitarian system is seen by many to be in crisis. The reasons for this are complex but include the perception held by many that there is an increasing ambivalence on the part of powerful states to invest military, political and financial resources in upholding humanitarian principles, and a growing feeling that much humanitarian action both ignores human rights issues and can prolong conflict. As a result, much attention has focused on the notion of ‘humanitarian principles’ and there has been a proliferation of statements and initiatives on this topic in recent years.
The Death of Humanitarianism?: An Anatomy of the Attack
Authors: Macrae Joanna
Published: March 2003

Over recent years, the humanitarian community has been under increasing scrutiny and attracted harsh criticism. This mounting critique of humanitarianism has shifted from being concerned primarily with the poor functioning of the humanitarian system to one targeted on basic humanitarian values. This paper is concerned to understand the factors driving the attack on humanitarian values. It identifies four apparently disparate groups who are interested in attacking these values: the anti‐imperialists, the realpolitikers, the developmentalists and the neo‐peaceniks. It concludes that unless humanitarian actors are aware of these diverse threats to their values and operations, they risk being co‐opted or marginalised.
Military Intervention and Humanitarian Action: Trends and Issues
Authors: Pugh Michael
Published: March 2003

An important trend in military doctrine for so‐called ‘peace support operations’ has been to place them on a spectrum that includes coercion and enforcement. This paper focuses on British writers of doctrine as those responsible for driving the debate forward and forging a consensus among leading military powers. Their discourse is combat oriented, a fact reinforced by a trend towards strategic subcontracting to coalitions of the militarily willing and able. At the same time, there has been a move to institutionalise the involvement of military forces in relief, peace building and development activities. The overall emphasis is on stability and security to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief and to establish the conditions for peace‐building processes. In the case of Bosnia, this involves conditionality and economic leverage. Although there is a long‐established record of peace‐keeping forces engaging in goodwill activities (with mixed results), the current trends contain contradictions that seem likely to contribute to the widely perceived erosion of classical humanitarian principles.
Humanitarianism, Pluralism and Ombudsmen: Do the Pieces Fit?
Authors: Christoplos Ian
Published: March 2003

A variety of codes and standards for humanitarian assistance have been put forth in recent years. Many NGOs have agreed to abide by these codes. There is uncertainty, however, about if and how these codes are actually being put into practice. Have we moved from words to action? One response to this concern has been a proposal to establish a humanitarian ombudsman. This paper analyses two choices facing an eventual ombudsman: whether to attempt to take punitive actions to enforce the codes and standards, or whether instead to facilitate agencies' own internal efforts to improve accountability to their beneficiaries. It proposes a pluralistic approach, wherein a variety of methods, structures and local perceptions are accepted as potentially appropriate, but where a clear moral stance is still maintained. Some suggestions are outlined for how flexible forms of policy analysis may be used to combine an acceptance of the validity of a vast range of humanitarian actions while still retaining a strong stance against practices that may harm beneficiaries or feed the causes of conflict. Realism about each agency's room for manoeuvre is essential, especially local institutions. A modest but principled stance will involve helping actors to consider the impact of their work on conflict and to find ways to improve the quality of their interventions as perceived by beneficiaries.
Criteria for Evaluating the Condition of a Tropical Cyclone Warning System
Authors: Parker Dennis
Published: March 2003

This paper evaluates the condition (i.e. health) of a tropical cyclone warning system (TCWS) during a ‘quiet period’ between infrequent intense cyclones. Capacity to make pre‐disaster evaluations is important – disaster warning systems need to be in sound condition before, not after, disaster. The research – part of the UK’s International Decade of Natural Disaster Reduction Flagship Programme – focuses upon an evaluatory method first used on flood warning systems. The Criteria‐development Matrix comprises social, organisational and institutional criteria by which a TCWS may be assessed using a five‐stage development scale. This method is used to evaluate Mauritius’s TCWS using in‐depth interview data. Ways to enhance the method and apply it to other disaster warning systems are discussed. The TCWS in Mauritius is a relatively sound one from which others can learn. Weaknesses requiring attention for Mauritius’s TCWS to progress to an advanced level of development are identified.
How Is Household Vulnerability Gendered? Female‐headed Households in the Collectives of Suleimaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan
Authors: Waite Louise
Published: March 2003

This research tries to reach an understanding of the well‐being of female‐headed household members through a comparison to male‐headed household members in the collectives of the Suleimaniyah governorate in Iraqi Kurdistan. Research was undertaken in five collectives in Suleimaniyah during the summer of 1998. The research contributes to the current gender and development debates which are concerned with improving the understanding of the specific gendered forms of disadvantage faced by female‐headed households rather than assuming the universal poverty of this group. An understanding of well‐being is approached through a broad conceptualisation of vulnerability in preference to a narrow poverty definition. That the findings of this research are complex attests to the multi‐dimensional and mutually constitutive gendered experiences of vulnerability. The definitive conclusion to emerge from this research is a refuting of the rhetoric‐fuelled stereotype that households headed by women are at a disadvantage in all the dimensions of vulnerability in comparison to households headed by men. The research also establishes the methodological necessity of examining intra‐household distributive mechanisms that determine individuals' well‐being.
Social Capital and the Political Economy of Violence: A Case Study of Sri Lanka
Authors: Goodhand Jonathan , Hulme David , Lewer Nick
Published: March 2003

This article examines the links between militarised violence and social capital (trans)formation. It first maps out emerging theoretical and policy debates on social capital and violent conflict and questions a number of the assumptions underpinning these debates. This is followed by an empirical analysis of several war‐affected communities in Sri Lanka. The case studies illustrate that the links between militarised violence and social capital are complex, dynamic and context specific. It is argued that social capital cannot be understood in isolation from political and economic processes, and the belief that violent conflict inevitably erodes social capital is questioned. Finally, the implications for external agencies are highlighted. Rather than focusing on engineering social capital, external agencies need to focus on understanding better the preconditions for social capital formation and how they can contribute to the creation of an enabling environment. This requires as a starting‐point a rigorous analysis of political and economic processes.
Needs Assessment of the Displaced Population Following the August 1999 Earthquake in Turkey
Authors: Daley W. Randolph , Karpati Adam , Sheik Mani
Published: March 2003

In August 1999 a major earthquake struck north‐western Turkey. An assessment followed to identify the immediate needs of the displaced population. A random cluster sample of displaced families living in temporary shelter outside of organised relief camps was designed. Representatives of 230 households from the four communities worse affected by the earthquake were interviewed. Most families lived in makeshift shelters (84 per cent), used bottled water (91 per cent), obtained food from relief organisations (61 per cent), had access to latrines (90 per cent), had a member on routine medication (53 per cent) and obtained information by word of mouth (81 per cent). Many respondents reported having family members who were over the age of 65 (32 per cent) or under age three (20 per cent), who were pregnant (6 per cent), or who had been ill since the earthquake (64 per cent). The greatest immediate need reported by most families was shelter requirements (37 per cent), followed by food (23 per cent) and hygiene requirements (19 per cent). Ten days after the earthquake, basic environmental health needs of food, shelter and hygiene still predominated in this displaced population. Significant portions may have special needs due to age or illness.
Risk and the Neoliberal State: Why Post‐Mitch Lessons Didn't Reduce El Salvador's Earthquake Losses
Authors: Wisner Ben
Published: March 2003

Although El Salvador suffered light losses from Hurricane Mitch in 1998, it benefited from the increased international aid and encouragement for advance planning, especially mitigation and prevention interventions. Thus, one would have supposed, El Salvador would have been in a very advantageous position, able more easily than its economically crippled neighbours, Honduras and Nicaragua, to implement the ‘lessons of Mitch’. A review of the recovery plan tabled by the El Salvador government following the earthquakes of early 2001 shows that despite the rhetoric in favour of ‘learning the lessons of Mitch’, very little mitigation and prevention had actually been put in place between the hurricane (1998) and the earthquakes (2001). The recovery plan is analysed in terms of the degree to which it deals with root causes of disaster vulnerability, namely, the economic and political marginality of much of the population and environmental degradation. An explanation for the failure to implement mitigation and preventive actions is traced to the adherence by the government of El Salvador to an extreme form of neoliberal, free market ideology, and the deep fissures and mistrust in a country that follow a long and bloody civil war.
The Challenge of Civil‐military Relations in International Peace Operations
Authors: Pugh Michael
Published: March 2003

The relationship between military and civilian humanitarian organisations has developed in an increasingly integrative way. Military initiatives to institutionalise the relationship, since the interventions in Somalia and the Balkans, entail a dilution of humanitarian independence as was manifested in practice in Kosovo. Further, the state‐centric foundations of military intervention run counter to the potential for humanitarian organisations to foster a cosmopolitan ethos that would not only preserve humanitarian principles but also contest statist assumptions about conflict, development and power.
Therapeutic Governance: Psycho‐social Intervention and Trauma Risk Management
Authors: Pupavac Vanessa
Published: March 2003

This paper critically analyses the significance of psycho‐social intervention as a new form of international therapeutic governance based on social risk management. First, the paper examines the international psycho‐social model and its origins in an Anglo‐American therapeutic ethos. Second, the paper argues that psycho‐social approaches jeopardise local coping strategies. Third, the paper highlights the potential political, social and psychological consequences of the pathologisation of war‐affected societies. Finally the paper concludes that therapeutic governance represents the reduction of politics to administration.
Coexistence of nonprofit, for‐profit and public sector institutions
Authors: Handy Femida
Published: March 2003

If nonprofit organizations are superior institutions in resolving informational asymmetry and resulting contract failure, why do nonprofit (NPs), for‐profit (FPs) and government/public institutions (GPs) survive in the same industry? This article explicitly models the nonconvex budget set for the consumer that arises through the juxtaposition of the inefficiencies and contract failures that occur in the three sectors. Because the consumer is willing to trade quality for efficiency and price, varying market shares for NPs, FPs and GPs can exist in the same industry. The theory offered complements the functionalist explanation of the existence of nonprofits advanced by Weisbrod and Hansmann using a micro‐analysis.
Assessing Public Library Efficiency Using Data Envelopment Analysis
Authors: Vitaliano Donald F.
Published: March 2003

Linear programming Data Envelopment Analysis is used to determine the relative efficiency of 184 libraries in New York (U.S.A.). Efficiency is defined as whether or not a library could reduce the inputs it uses equiproportionately and still produce the same output. Inputs are defined programmatically: holdings, opening hours, serials and new books. Output is internal and external circulation.

The subject libraries operate at just 67% efficiency, i.e., inputs could be reduced by one‐third without sacrificing output if all libraries were as efficient as the benchmark 23 identified by DEA. Too many hours of opening is the main source of inefficiency.
An Examination of Borrower Orientation and Scale Effects in UK Credit Unions
Authors: McKillop Donal , Ferguson Charles
Published: March 2003

At present there are 597 credit unions operating within the UK with their growth, be it defined in term of new credit union establishment, asset growth or membership growth, placing them as the fasting growing financial grouping in the UK over this last decade.

The fundamental motivation of a credit union is to provide financial services to its membership, in particular a depository for savings and an access to consumer credit. As a practical problem there are, however, a number of reasons why credit unions may achieve a less than perfect balance in the treatment of borrowers and savers. For example, maintaining low loan rates may reduce the credit union’s ability to offer high dividend rates while the maintenance of high dividend rates may require higher loan rates. Consequently, the competing pull of these two objectives may result in the emergence of conflict between those credit union members who on the one hand are net savers and those that are net borrowers. If such conflict does emerge it is then likely to place in jeopardy other aspects of a credit union’s function most notably their role as financial counsellors and promoters of thrift within low income communities.

The approach taken in this study is to derive an index of member group imbalance and then to employ this index to determine whether member group imbalance has an adverse impact upon the generation of total benefits by individual credit unions. The analysis demonstrates that there is a strong pro‐borrower bias in the operation of UK credit unions with this pro‐borrower bias driven by the regulatory environment within which they operate.
Efficiency, Bond of Association and Exit Patterns in Credit Unions: Australian Evidence
Authors: Brown Rayna , Brown Rob , O'Connor Ian
Published: March 2003

Data envelopment analysis is used in this study to provide measures of the efficiency of individual credit unions in the Australian state of Victoria in the period 1992–5. The resulting measures are consistent with those reported in comparable studies. There is no evidence that over the period of the study, the ‘average’ credit union moved closer to the efficient frontier. Efficiency measures are analysed according to the bond of association and the results are consistent with the proposition that a tighter bond will tend to reduce operating costs. In the period of the study there were a large number of exits by merger, including exits by small credit unions with high efficiency measures. Possible explanations in terms of the expected benefits to the members of acquiring and exiting credit unions are suggested and evaluated.
A case for water utilities as cooperatives and the UK experience
Authors: Morse Lawrence B.
Published: March 2003

This article explores the creation of consumer cooperatives as a means of privatizing water utilities. The first section examines the structure of ownership and sets out Hansmann's theoretical basis for determining which category of persons is most efficiently assigned ownership. The section extends the discussion of market contracting costs by considering the externalities and social costs associated with a water utility. The heart of the paper is the second section which applies the theory of efficiently assigned ownership to the case of water utilities. The third section briefly reviews the literature on the relative efficiency of private and public utilities and also succinctly applies the theory of the firm to the question of vertical integration in the case of water utilities. The fourth section discusses the UK's experience with water utilities. The final section draws together the paper's conclusions.  The application of Hansmann's general theoretical scheme for assigning ownership leads to the conclusion that water utilities should be consumer cooperatives. Consumer‐owned utilities would confront lower market contracting and ownership costs, than would investor‐owned utilities. Additionally, the social costs and externalities that are particular to water are better left to consumers who are more prone to take them into account in their decisions.
Cooperative Credit in Spain: An Analysis of Credit Sections of Cooperatives
Authors: Server Izquierdo Ricardo , Meli´n Navarro Amparo
Published: March 2003

The long history and deep‐rooted tradition of co‐operative credit in Spain (credit co‐operatives and credit sections of co‐operatives) and the lack of detailed studies of the latter suggest the need to reflect on them and highlight their potential. This study examines the ways in which the credit sections can access the financial markets, describes their financial and economic structure and the sources of their income and expenditure and analyses their competitiveness in terms of efficiency.
UMTS in France and Europe: How to allocate the licenses?
Authors: Curien N
Published: March 2003

The awarding of UMTS mobile licenses in France gave rise to a passionate debate as well as to a rather fluctuating history. A beauty contest with a predetermined price was preferred to an auction mechanism, as opposed to what was decided in most European countries, in particular United Kingdom and Germany where licences’ prices reached very high levels. In France, only two candidates could be selected from a first tendering and a second one is now being organized in order to allocate the two remaining licences, after the Government has drastically lowered the price of all four licenses. The purpose of the present contribution is to show that auctions, although refused in France for the sake of “controlability” of the awarding procedure, are indeed an appropriate means of spectrum allocation for mobile services, provided that the mechanism is carefully designed and adapted to the context, which may differ according to the country. We first summarize the main lessons from the auctions theory and then discuss the compared efficiency of different mechanisms and their resistance to predation or collusion. On this basis, we finally analyse the actual process of UMTS auctions in various European countries and we tentatively propose a backward fictitious scenario for France.
Telecommunications Reforms In Malaysia
Authors: Lee C.
Published: March 2003

The article examines the range and scope of physical and structural changes that have taken place in the telecommunications sector in Malaysia in the past 15 years. It reviews the main policy reforms that have shaped the sector, including corporatization and privatization, and liberalization in fixed line and cellular services. The article documents the increase in competition, particularly in the cellular phone service market. Major regulatory reforms were introduced in the 1990s with the passage of the Communications and Multimedia Act and the establishment of the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission. The key principles for regulating the sector are reviewed, including those directed towards economic regulation and consumer protection. With the absence of a formal competition law in Malaysia, the onus for addressing competition issues in the telecommunications sector rests with the sectoral regulator.
Crossing the Factory Frontier: Gender, Place and Power in the Mexican Maquiladora
Authors: Wright Melissa W.
Published: March 2003

A pressing question raised by contemporary feminist theorists is how to conceptualize the intricate relationship between women as social agents and “Women”— an ideological representation of a female subject. Scholars have shown how women must often disavow this Woman in trying to establish their own careers. This article explores one facet of this issue by tracing one woman's journey through a Mexican maquiladora in the hope of demonstrating how this ideology produces the capitalist division of labor through the reproduction of sex‐difference, nationality, and ethnic categories within one firm. The account raises some interesting questions about resistance, which may not be resolvable in the context of the workplace alone.
The Cultural Contexts of International Capital Expansion: British Ranchers in Wyoming, 1879–1889
Authors: Rico Monica
Published: March 2003

In the late‐nineteenth century, open‐range cattle ranching in the American West became popular among the British upper classes both as an investment and as a vocation. However, after a severe winter in 1886–1887, many of these enterprises failed and foreign investment in the American range cattle industry waned. This paper examines the experiences of British ranchers in Wyoming and in particular the career of Moreton Frewen (1857–1924) in order to explore the dialectical relationship between culturally constructed nature, shaped by discourses of class and gender, and material nature, itself transformed by capitalist production. Although from an élite family, Frewen lacked the financial resources necessary to sustain the kind of life to which he felt he was entitled. The great profits and excellent big‐game hunting supposedly available to ranchers attracted him to the Powder River region of Wyoming, where he began a ranch that failed in the crisis of 1886–1887. British images of a bountiful American nature spurred investment, but also led to ranching practices that were ultimately harmful to the ranges upon which cattle depended. A detailed study of the élite British ranchers provides insight into the specific cultural, historical, environmental, and local contexts within which global capital expansion takes place.
“Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones”: A Personal Geography of Harassment
Authors: Valentine Gill
Published: March 2003

Over recent months I have received silent phone calls and malicious homophobic mail that has referred to my sexual identity, my research, my teaching, and my position within the discipline of Geography, and I have been “outed” as a lesbian to my parents. This paper attempts to unpack these experiences: first, by examining the different processes (all of which play upon the mutual constitution of my academic self and sexual self) through which my harasser has sought to exclude me from the discipline of Geography; second, by exploring the geography of this harassment—focusing on how malicious letters/calls can disrupt meanings of place, particularly the way that personal geographies can be taken for granted until they are transgressed; third, by considering geographies of the law. Finally, the paper reflects onthe mutual constitution of my sexual identity, geographical research and writing, academic identity as a geographer, and the discipline of Geography itself.
Multiple Trajectories: A Critique of Industrial Restructuring and the New Institutionalism
Authors: Hart Gillian
Published: March 2003

This article argues that the agrarian studies literature sheds new light on the multiple,nonlinear trajectories of capitalist development occurring in the context of accelerating global integration. Cast in relation to classical political economy, work on agrarian change is centrally concerned with multiple paths of agrarian transformation. It attends both to historically specificforms of social property relations and to the ways that struggles over resources and labor are simultaneously struggles over culturally constructed meanings, definitions, and identities. Accordingly, it goes well beyond the “new institutionalism” that figures prominently in the literature on industrial restructuring. The article draws on recent research in globally linked industrial districts in former bantustan areas of South Africa to illustrate thecontemporary and continuing salience of agrarian histories and concepts. It also suggests how attention to multiple trajectories of sociospatial change can be used to challenge the neoliberal orthodoxy taking hold in post‐apartheid South Africa.
Body, Corporeal Space, and Legitimating Chronic Illness: Women Diagnosed with M.E.
Authors: Moss Pamela , Dyck Isabel
Published: March 2003

The trendiness in using the body as a unit of analysis does not keep us from trying to understand how the body is part of the mundane stuff that makes up everyday life, particularly the chronically ill body. In our research with women diagnosed with chronic illness, we found that women experience their bodies, both sensorially and in their capacity for labor and leisure, through social scripts, seeming economic imperatives, and their own blood, sweat, and tears. The synchronous existence of the discursively ill and materially ill body seemed to be highlighted in these women's accounts of their experiences of myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E., popularly referred to as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS). This spurred us to rethink the body in terms not just of embodied social practices but also of embodied experiences. In this paper we draw on women's experiences of M.E. as a way to assist in building a radical body politics. We first review and critique various attempts to come to terms with the simultaneity of the discursive and material body. We then present our empirical study comprised of in‐depth interviews with women diagnosed with M.E. and living in Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We then elaborate the notion of corporeal space as a way to access embodied experience. We close with comments about how body and space create a nexus through which we can access bodily existence within space.
Melting the Cold War Permafrost: Restructuring Military Industry in Scotland
Authors: Law Alex
Published: March 2003

Military industry stands at the confluence of local, national and global processes. This paper examines the restructuring of this peculiar industry in one region, Scotland, from a perspective that takes the geography of production to be a joint, though contradictory, creation. Following the work of Lovering for the UK as a whole, the case of Scotland—often imagined as “militantly proletarian”—allows a specific study of the accumulation strategies of state and capital and the role of organized labor in mediating the spatial fix. Until the early 1990s accumulation was premised on additive “capital widening” strategies. Since then, both “capital narrowing” rationalization strategies and “capital deepening” intensification strategies have been pursued. Through restructuring, the UK military industry attempts to utilize the abstract spaces of the social economy to expediently and opportunistically reconstitute the concrete spaces of production and renegotiate its dependency on the refractory material of proximate living labor. Yet spatial shifts have not uniformly benefited the southern core of the UK military industry. One reason for thecontinuing salience of military industry in Scotland has been the role of a pan‐class alliance, “the Scottish lobby,” in campaigning against closures and for the allocation of defense contracts. Trade unions have attempted to mediate the contradictions of restructuring by supporting external strategies to retain firm survival in their present localities, even as internally workforce numbers are cut in half and management regimes become more abrasive.
Global Rhetorics, National Politics: Pursuing Bank Mergers in Canada
Authors: Tickell Adam
Published: March 2003

In the neoliberal reconfiguration of both national and international political economies during the 1980s and 1990s, the interests of North American financial capital have apparently reigned supreme. Having ceded sovereignty to financial markets and financial institutions, national states seem to have lost their power to control them: the genie appears to be well and truly out of the bottle. Drawing upon an analysis of political debates in Canada over plans by the country’s largest banks to merge, this article critically engages with literatures that imply that liberal strategies and corporate politics are doomed to prevail. In exploring the reasons for the Canadian government’s rejection of the mergers, the article demonstrates the complex relationships between geography, politics and economics in the discursive representations of the national interest. Not only did the banks fail to understand the need to lobby effectively, the paper argues, but bank finance has gone from occupying a privileged role in the Canadian body politic to one in which its interests must now compete openly against others, highlighting important political changes in a globalising world.
Uneven Geographies of Capital and Labour: The Lessons of European Works Councils
Authors: Wills Jane
Published: March 2003

This contribution explores the ways in which trade unions have sought to organise workers in transnational corporations (TNCs) before looking at the pitfalls and possibilities of European Works Councils in more detail. The EWC directive covers an estimated 1400 companies across Europe, employing at least 15 million workers, and there are now more than 500 EWCs in existence. These new institutions are designed to allow employee representatives from across Europe to meet together for the purposes of information exchange and consultation with the senior managers from the TNC concerned. EWCs thus provide new horizontal networks of employee representatives across Europe and create new opportunities for information exchange, the formulation of transnational trade union responses and strategy and even active solidarity across national divides. This contribution draws upon original empirical evidence that highlights the difficulties of making EWCs work in this way. It is argued that there are at least four areas in which trade union intervention would make a difference to the operation of EWCs: (1) building active networks within and beyond any EWC; (2) sharing corporate intelligence; (3) formulating strategy at the level of the EWC; and (4) fostering identification with colleagues in other parts of the corporate network.
Local Labour Markets and the Reconfiguration of the Sugar Industry in Northeast Brazil
Authors: Porter Gina , Dabat Christine Rufino , De Souza Hermino Ramos
Published: March 2003

This paper focuses on a set of debates surrounding the working of local labour markets in the depressed sugarcane sector of Pernambuco, which faces strong competition from the Centre‐South of Brazil. Millowner, planter, labour and union perspectives on current problems in the sugar industry and their solution are reviewed, with particular reference to issues of low productivity, access to land and the potential for diversification out of sugar. Historical antagonisms between (white) landowner classes and (black) labour, and their reworking in recent years, complicated by competing economic rationalities between these groups, make progress towards viable, sustainable socioeconomic improvement difficult. Employer attempts at reconfiguration of the labour market by relocating sites of labour reproduction (thereby breaking old social attachments) while retaining control over labour at sites of production bring continued conflict with the unions.
Excavating the Logic of British Urban Policy: Neoliberalism as the “Crisis of Crisis–Management”
Authors: Jones Martin , Ward Kevin
Published: March 2003

This paper suggests that crisis theories provide a framework for analyzing the urban spaces of neoliberalism. Drawing on crisis–theoretic approaches to state theory, we examine the path–dependent links between neoliberalism, urban policy, and Britain’s cyclical and crisis–prone cities through three tendencies: the geographies of state regulation, the institutionalization of interurban competition, and rescaling as the “crisis of crisis–management.” These are used to explore the argument that Britain’s cities are hosts to ineffectual regulatory strategies because urban policy appears to be a response to the sociopolitical and geographical contradictions of previous rounds of urban policy, and not the underpinning contradictions of accumulation.

Whether state power is able to manage and reproduce the highly oppressive, irrational, and self–contradictory capitalist system is of course an open question. (Offe 1984:257)
“The City is Dead, Long Live the Net”: Harnessing European Interurban Networks for a Neoliberal Agenda
Authors: Leitner Helga , Sheppard Eric
Published: March 2003

A network discourse has emerged during the last two decades, representing networks as self–organizing, collaborative, nonhierarchical, flexible, and topological. Progressive scholars initially embraced networks as an alternative to markets and hierarchies; neoliberal thinkers and policymakers have reinterpreted them in order to serve a neoliberal agenda of enhanced economic competitiveness, a leaner and more efficient state, and a more flexible governance. The European Commission and the German state have initiated and financially supported interurban network programs, broadly framed within this neoliberal network discourse, despite their long traditions of regulated capitalism. Really existing interurban networks depart, however, from these discourses. Embedded within pre–existing processes of uneven development and hierarchical state structures, and exhibiting internal power hierarchies, really existing networks are created, regulated, and evaluated by state institutions, and often exclude institutions and members of civil society, making them effective channels for disseminating a neoliberal agenda. At the same time, they create new political spaces for cities to challenge existing state structures and relations and are of unequal potential benefit to participating cities, both of which may catalyze resistance to neoliberalization.
A Forest of Contradictions: Producing the Landscapes of the Scottish Highlands
Authors: Robbins Paul , Fraser Alistair
Published: March 2003

While total global forest cover is decreasing, in many parts of the world forests are on the rebound. Uncritical examinations of this phenomenon credit the benign diffusion of capitalist development for this “forest transition.” More critical readings of this question—including green Marxian and poststructuralist approaches—might conclude something very different, however. In this paper, we explore the question of expanding forest cover, using the case of the Scottish Highlands, where forestland has tripled since the 1920s, in an attempt to critically explain regional land–cover change. Drawing upon historical sources and Scottish Executive and Forestry Commission data, we examine the specific environments currently forming in the Highlands under conditions of economic change. We conclude that two divergent forestry practices and ecologies have been formed in the wake of economic restructuring: those geared towards industrial production and those targeted at consumption through ecotourism. We conclude, therefore, that capitalism's spatial fix to declining industrial power in the region is an inherently ecological one that takes the form of “schizophrenic forestry,” in which forest expansion leads to the rise of degraded monocultures alongside “pristine” sites of conservation.
Asia and the Pacific on the move: workers and refugees, a challenge to nation states
Authors: Hugo Graeme
Published: March 2003

In the last 30 years international migration has been transformed from being of little or no significance in Asia to being of substantial economic, social, political and demographic importance. Two types of migration which have increased greatly in significance since the 1970s are international labour migration and refugee movements. Throughout most of the last two decades Asia has had more refugees than any other world region, although numbers have declined in the 1990s with the success of resettlement and repatriation programmes for Indochinese refugees. On the other hand, international labour migration has continued to increase in scale and importance, with the majority of workers moving between Asian countries in the 1990s, although the Middle East remains an important destination. It is argued that two elements, proliferating migrant social networks and the emergence of a vibrant immigration industry, have given a momentum to international migration which to some extent limits the power of nation states to control it. There is some concern among countries in the region that the increase in migration is creating excessive economic dependence upon the export of labour. Fears that migration threatens social cohesion depend upon the extent to which migrants settle permanently in destination areas.
Economic development and producer services growth: the APEC experience
Authors: Daniels P.W.
Published: March 2003

This paper explores the idea that in the Asia‐Pacific region the relationship between economic growth, industrial transformation and the rise of service industries in general, and producer services in particular, appears to be different to that found in North America or Europe. After an exploration of the context for producer services growth, some simple indices for measuring the relative position of Asia‐Pacific producer services in the global context are used to demonstrate that they are apparently less prominent than expected. More robust data, including case studies, are needed to substantiate this preliminary paper. The paper concludes with the elements of an agenda for further research.
Corporate regional functions in Asia Pacific
Authors: Ho K.C.
Published: March 2003

Drawing on managerial interview material from a multi‐industry sample, this paper sketches the locational dynamics of regional functions in the Asia Pacific. Generic factors like proximity to company affiliates and market access are discussed, along with industry specific dynamics for air delivery and online information services. The paper ends with an analysis of the inertia created by agglomeration effects of established places versus the competing pulls of new markets and production sites.
Changes in producer services location, Sydney: globalisation, technology and labour
Authors: Searle Glen H.
Published: March 2003

This paper explores the distribution of producer services within Sydney in the context of globalisation, technological change and the location of labour. Four case study industries are analysed: management consultancy, general insurance, graphic design, and data processing. It is concluded that globalisation appears to have reinforced the traditional central city focus of Sydney’s producer services sector, although the producer services surveyed here have dispersed away from the CBD itself. Technological change in conjunction with residential preferences is expanding this focus in parts of the sector, particularly toward residential areas of professionals in less contact‐intensive activities.
Intensification of Agricultural Systems in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Bourke R. Michael
Published: March 2003

This paper provides an overview of the ways in which villagers have intensified agricultural systems in Papua New Guinea, focusing on the last 60 years. The intensification techniques used by villagers include: adoption of more productive staple crops, in particular sweet potato, cassava, Xanthosoma taro, Solanum potato and maize; adoption of more productive cultivars, especially of banana and sweet potato; shortening the fallow period; extending the cropping period; certain soil fertility maintenance techniques, other than natural regrowth fallows (composting, managed tree fallows, especially using casuarina, a legume/root crop rotation, and soil erosion control); and some other intensification techniques including soil tillage, drainage, construction of garden beds, garden segregation, mounding and irrigation. People often use more than one technique and the techniques used vary between the major agricultural zones. The adoption of new food crops and more productive cultivars of existing food crops has facilitated many of the other changes, particularly longer cropping periods and shorter fallow periods.
Boserup and Brookfield and the Association between Population Density and Agricultural Intensity in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Allen Bryant J.
Published: March 2003

Data from a 1990–96 nationwide study of Papua New Guinea systems – the Mapping Agricultural Systems in PNG study (MASP) – is used to re‐examine Brookfield with Hart's (1971) findings on the association between agricultural intensity and population density in Papua New Guinea. A significant association exists between these variables, both within the MASP data, and within the agricultural systems examined by Brookfield with Hart, when the MASP data is applied to them. However, a large amount of variation exists in the data. Systems in which ‘mismatches’ occur between population density and agricultural intensity are found to be associated with small island environments, the substitution of purchased food for locally produced food, migration and high levels of child malnutrition. Child malnutrition may be one of the consequences of a failure to innovate and thus maintain food production. It is argued that Boserup's (1965) model of agricultural transformation and Brookfield's past work on intensification which he now downplays, continue to provide valuable insights into agricultural change in contemporary Papua New Guinea.