bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Radical Right in Southern Europe
Authors: Ruzza Carlo
Published: February 2018

This chapter examines the connections between the trajectory of the radical right in Italy, Spain, and Greece and the impact of the 2007 economic crisis and its aftermaths. The crisis sparked sweeping anti-political sentiments directed against the mainstream political actors that had been ruling these countries in recent decades, and which were held responsible for the disproportionate impact of the crisis on these countries. However, it is argued that distinctive supply-side and contextual political factors affected the relevance of radical right parties in the countries examined. Competition from new types of populist formations such as Podemos and the Five Star Movement limited the viability of the radical right in Italy and Spain, while in Greece the radical right emerged in association with conventional extreme right ideologies. In addition, in Spain a perception of migrants as less threatening and competition from ingrained ethnonationalist identities further limited the viability of the radical right.
The Radical Right in the Nordic Countries
Authors: Widfeldt Anders
Published: February 2018

This chapter deals with the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. For many years these four countries were neatly split into a dichotomy, with relatively strong populist radical right parties in Denmark and Norway and less successful counterparts in Finland and Sweden. Since about 2010, however, the populist radical right now has a firmly established foothold in all four countries. In addition, populist radical right parties have moved from isolation to acceptance in three of the studied countries, entering government in Norway and Finland and exerting considerable policy influence in Denmark. Exploring this development, the chapter deals with the origins, ideologies, electoral support, and political impact of the main Nordic populist radical right parties. It is argued that they will not disappear from the political center stage, and that the Swedish radical right can be expected to eventually obtain a position of legitimacy and influence.
The Radical Right in Post-Soviet Russia
Authors: Arnold Richard , Umland Andreas
Published: February 2018

This chapter introduces some basic contours of Russia’s contemporary radical right scene. It distinguishes between systemic and non-systemic ultra-nationalist groups in Putin’s Russia, the principal difference being the groups’ and individual actors’ proximity and clarity of connections to the crypto-authoritarian regime. The systemic component consists of political groups, authors, and activists that are allowed or encouraged to participate in official mass media and public life. Main actors of the mainstream radical right include Vladimir Zhirinovskii’s Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia and organizations using the “Rodina” (Motherland) label. Major expressions of government-supported Russian “uncivil society” and anti-democratic intellectual discourse include the writings of the far right political thinkers Lev Gumilev and Aleksandr Dugin. Manifestations of the non-systemic component of Russia’s extreme right include skinheads and their use of ethnic violence, political movements such as the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, other descendants of the “Pamiat” (Memory) organization in the 1980s, and their activities.
The Radical Right in the United States of America
Authors: Parker Christopher
Published: February 2018

This chapter examines the attitudes, beliefs, and behavior of the reactionary right in the United States. It seeks to provide a better understanding of what motivates the reactionary right, and how such motivations inform the policy preferences and behavior of its constituents. However, the paucity of data restricts the analysis of the reactionary right to a fifty-year span, from the 1960s through the Tea Party. It begins with an overview of reactionary thought, including a brief history of reactionary movements through the mid-twentieth century. It then conducts an assessment of the immediate predecessor of the Tea Party: the John Birch Society. This is followed by an analysis of the contemporary reactionary movement in the United States: the Tea Party, and the movement responsible for the election of Donald Trump. The conclusion also briefly touches upon the continuities (and discontinuities) between the Tea Party and its European counterparts.
The Radical Right in Israel
Authors: Perliger Arie , Pedahzur Ami
Published: February 2018

In a landmark article, Sammy Smooha, a prominent scholar of Israel’s regime, argued that as an ethnic democracy, Israel was unlikely to witness the emergence of “European-style” radical right-wing populism. The gist of the argument was that in ethnic democracies the state already occupies the ideological spaces that radical right-wing parties fill in liberal democracies, leaving such ideologies no room to evolve. In contrast to Smooha, this chapter considers ethnic democracies as fertile grounds for the growth of radical right politics. It maintains that such regimes facilitate the entrenchment of radical-right sentiments within significant parts of the population and political system, and consequently further facilitate the radicalization of radical-right parties that seek to distinguish themselves from other political actors. The chapter tests this argument via an analysis of the various ideological pillars of the Israeli radical right.
The Radical Right and Populism
Authors: Betz Hans-Georg
Published: February 2018

Populism is considered one of the most contested concepts in the social sciences, notoriously difficult to define. The association of populism with the radical right has further muddied the waters. Particularly in the popular media, populism is conflated with demagoguery, political manipulation, the provision of simple solutions to complex problems, and the promotion of a black-and-white view of politics and the world in general. As a result, populism has acquired a thoroughly negative connotation. However, the association between the radical right and populism is often taken as a foregone conclusion rather than critically probed and interrogated. This chapter discusses the nature of populism, its core narratives, and mechanisms; explores to what extent the radical right can be said to have adopted populism and what explains the radical right’s populist turn; and analyzes the impact of the populist turn on the radical right, its ideology, and its electoral appeal.
Time and Opportunity
Authors: Tompson Lisa , Coupe Timothy
Published: February 2018

This chapter provides insights into often-observed temporal regularities of different types of crime. It begins by briefly appraising relevant theories that explain variations in time incidence. It then discusses methodological issues that are unique to temporal analysis. The bulk of the next section presents temporal patterns from four years of crime data recorded by West Yorkshire Police, UK. Several units of analysis are considered: years, months, weeks, and days, and a medley of theories are used to suggest putative explanations for the observed patterns. It focuses first on crimes committed against property (predominantly theft and damage offenses) before considering crimes committed against people and, finally, Internet-enabled crimes against both people and their property. The intention here is to illustrate a variety of empirical regularities for different crime types, and to posit plausible explanations for those patterns.
Geoprofiling Terrorism
Authors: Rossmo Kim
Published: February 2018

A number of recent research projects have explored applications of geographic profiling to counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. These efforts analyzed geospatial patterns of terrorist cells (e.g., the spatial relationship between safe houses and weapon storage sites), tested the ability of these techniques to locate terrorist bases from minor crimes and seditious graffiti, and examined the utility of geoprofiling for locating preparation sites used by insurgents for improvised explosive devices and rocket attacks. In appropriate cases, geoprofiling models have utility for prioritizing geo-intelligence and identifying logistic bases of terrorist operations. This chapter first discusses environmental criminology and the geography of crime. It then covers the basics of geographic profiling, its various applications, and the role of geospatial intelligence and crime pattern theory in counterterrorism. Finally, it examines the geospatial and temporal patterns of terrorism to show how geoprofiling can be used to analyze seditious graffiti, insurgency attacks, cyberterrorism, and bioterrorism.
The Individual Perspective
Authors: Summers Lucia , Guerette Rob T.
Published: February 2018

This chapter considers how offenders and victims make use of space and how variations in their patterns of movement influence the occurrence of crime. It examines examples of individual offender decision-making, such as how past experience informs future decisions (both legitimate and illegal), and how individual activity patterns can influence the broader social processes that take place within the environment. It begins with an exploration of the fundamental theoretical frameworks upon which environmental criminology is based. It then discusses how these frameworks inform various aspects of our endeavor to understand crime, the particular benefits of each theoretical approach, and how they complement and contrast with one another. Particular emphasis is placed on how potential offenders, victims, and others use space, and how this impacts upon crime patterns. This is followed by discussions of specific areas related to offender mobility, namely the journey to crime and displacement.
What Have We Learned from Environmental Criminology for the Prevention of Crime?
Authors: Welsh Brandon C. , Taheri Sema A.
Published: February 2018

A recent study of the role of theory in modern-day crime prevention makes the case that situational crime prevention (SCP), compared to the two other major crime prevention strategies of developmental and community prevention, has had a greater influence on practice. This chapter surveys environmental criminology’s contribution to the prevention of crime. It does so through the lens of SCP and its highly influential classification system. As one of the major crime prevention strategies, SCP is an organizing concept for a wide range of theories that contribute to, and practices focused on, “reducing opportunities for highly specific forms of crime.” To ensure its coverage has some breadth and depth, the chapter draws upon leading empirical and narrative reviews of the effectiveness of SCP as well as more recent studies in the published literature.
Deciding on the “Appropriate” Unit of Analysis
Authors: Lawton Brian
Published: February 2018

One of the primary decisions of any research endeavor is to identify where the information necessary for successfully completing the study is going to come from. In traditional criminological research this is a relatively easy question to answer. When we want to know about victims, we study victims. When we want to know about agents of the criminal justice system, we speak to them directly. However, the study of environmental criminology, or crime at places, does not have such a straightforward gatekeeper to this information. This chapter addresses the following question: What is the appropriate unit of analysis for research? It starts by considering the importance of the decision, followed by a series of concerns often associated with this decision-making process. It highlights how changing units of analysis can suggest different ecological patterns. It concludes with a discussion of how these considerations may impact our findings.
Systematic Social Observation
Authors: Brunton-Smith Ian
Published: February 2018

Systematic social observation (SSO) is the application of rigorous, replicable, and generalizable approaches from survey methodology to field observation (ethnography). SSO provides researchers with independent, robust, and quantifiable data about the forms of social interactions most commonly obtained through qualitative inquiry. This chapter begins with a general overview of the SSO approach. Section 14.3 describes the application of SSO approaches to environmental settings. Section 14.4 discusses the ecometric approach first proposed by Raudenbush and Sampson (1999), demonstrating how the science of SSO and the science of ecological analysis were intimately related. Finally, section 14.5 discusses current developments in SSO for environmental analysis. It focuses on three areas: interviewer observational data routinely collected as part of larger social surveys; participant-generated observations using space–time budgets; and Google Street View as a repository for environmental audit data. Developments in crowdsourced SSO data like Mapilliary are also briefly discussed.
Cybercrime and Place
Authors: Miró Llinares Fernando , Johnson Shane D.
Published: February 2018

This chapter discusses how environmental criminology can be applied to cybercrime. It first discusses the concept of cybercrime and how there are different types of offending and opportunities. It then considers the architecture of cyberspace and how it differs from physical spaces. In particular, thought is given to how concepts of time and space differ across the two environments, and why it is necessary to rethink or adapt models of environmental criminology to understand crimes in cyberspace. Section 38.4 looks at some of the criminal opportunities afforded by the configuration of the Internet and how it is used. Finally, conclusions are drawn and (some) policy implications that follow from an environmental criminology approach to cybercrime are discussed.
Emotion Dysregulation in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Authors: Neuhaus Emily
Published: February 2018

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined by deficits in social communication and interaction, and restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests. Although current diagnostic conceptualizations of ASD do not include emotional difficulties as core deficits, the disorder is associated with emotion dysregulation across the lifespan, with considerable implications for long-term psychological, social, and educational outcomes. The overarching goal of this chapter is to integrate existing knowledge of emotion dysregulation in ASD and identify areas for further investigation. The chapter reviews the prevalence and expressions of emotion dysregulation in ASD, discusses emerging theoretical models that frame emotion dysregulation as an inherent (rather than associated) feature of ASD, presents neurobiological findings and mechanisms related to emotion dysregulation in ASD, and identifies continuing controversies and resulting research priorities.
Decolonization and the Arid World
Authors: Fletcher Robert S. G.
Published: February 2018

Decolonization transformed political geographies; in many ways, it made the world in which we live. But the constraints and possibilities of physical geography were not as readily disregarded. This chapter considers the comparable and connected histories of the world’s desert environments in the era of decolonization. It explains how decolonization and the Cold War took a distinct path in the arid world, asks whether we’ve given enough weight to the place of arid regions in these wider histories and reflects on how, in many ways, these regions still resist being folded into the national stories of imperialism’s successor states.
Anti-Colonialism
Authors: Lee Christopher J.
Published: February 2018

Anti-colonialism as a historical phenomenon defies easy categorization. Despite its use as an expression across a range of academic disciplines, it resists simple definitions of practical form, political scope, and empirical content due to the ubiquity of anti-colonial thought and activism across time and geography. It is arguably one of the oldest forms of political conduct in the basic sense of opposing foreign domination. Yet, in most cases, it has primarily served as a generic rhetorical device to describe that which is against colonialism. This chapter offers a reassessment of anti-colonialism. Its reservations about monolithic approaches to colonialism and anti-colonialism reflect a common appraisal formulated by many scholars over the past several decades. Anti-colonialism must be recognized and understood as a significant phenomenon in defining the political history of the modern world. However, it must also be considered in many cases as indiscrete from the colonialism it confronted.
Postcolonial Migrations to Europe
Authors: Buettner Elizabeth
Published: February 2018

The global dynamics of decolonization set in train a whole matrix of mobility that in turn transformed European social and political trajectories. Ostensibly a moment in which empire vanished, metropole and colony in fact switched roles—the massive inward migration of formerly colonized peoples now made the major cities of Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands much more ethnically diverse. This chapter examines the debates these post-colonial migrations triggered about nationality, citizenship, social welfare, and border controls, all of which have rarely been examined from a comparative European perspective. The ways in which immigration was rendered problematic, recurrent official concerns regarding ‘integration’, ‘assimilation’ and ‘segregation’, and the language in which these new cultural encounters were mediated are considered, as are European discourses of tolerance, pluralism, and discrimination. Particular attention is paid to the longer-term effects of post-colonial migrations for comprehending Europe’s place in the world.
Remnants of Empire
Authors: Parsons Michael J.
Published: February 2018

In the 1960s, as large swathes of the British Empire had either achieved independence or were on the verge of doing so, the UK government commissioned a survey of the smaller territories and attempted to find ways of decolonizing them. It was keen to avoid criticism from the international community, particularly the United Nations Organization. However, Britain’s withdrawal from empire is still not complete, and a number of islands and the Gibraltar peninsula still remain linked with Britain with a degree of internal self-government that falls short of UN decolonization standards. This chapter explores the current British overseas territories and briefly compares them with examples from those administered by other comparable former maritime empires.
Perceptions of Medieval Settlement
Authors: Gardiner Mark , Kilby Susan
Published: February 2018

Medieval archaeologists, possessing elements of the landscape and the buildings of the past, together with a good knowledge of the historical context, can recover many aspects of the way that space was perceived in the past. A phenomenological approach has been applied not only to castles, but also to the mundane world of peasants. Phenomenology emphasizes the experience of the world whereas archaeologists have been no less interested in the way in which that experience was manipulated and also in the competing ideas of space. Examples of encultured landscapes examined include natural places, gentry houses, village tofts, liminal places, and sites of pilgrimage. Drawing upon the evidence of place-names and documents, as well as the archaeological remains, it has been possible to reconstruct how people conceived of and experienced the world around them.
Agricultural Buildings
Authors: Brady Niall
Published: February 2018

Despite the apparent wealth of information that exists on agricultural buildings and the implements used to help cultivate the land and manage the livestock, there is still great potential for future research. The assemblage of agricultural equipment and buildings, which survive above ground in large numbers especially in England, is well known and lends itself to fresh approaches founded on landscape analysis. This chapter introduces readers to the range of material and the approaches to its study in the past, and suggests new ways of considering the material by combining archaeological analysis with a knowledge of contemporary written sources. The chapter highlights the grain barn as a case in point.
Overview
Authors: Lilley Keith D.
Published: February 2018

This overview provides an overview of some emerging key themes and topics in the archaeological study of later medieval towns and cities. The focus is on the contribution archaeology makes to providing an understanding of how urban landscapes were shaped on the ground, and what kinds of activities took place in medieval townscapes. The pattern of urban development across the twelfth to fifteenth centuries shows some similarities across Britain, even though differences within and between towns and cities are evident in their details. The archaeology of later medieval urbanism has revealed much that would otherwise not be known if written records alone were to be relied upon, showing clearly that the archaeologist is in a strong position to shed light on the nature of living in medieval towns.
Urban Housing
Authors: Schofield John
Published: February 2018

From many excavations in medieval towns in Britain since the 1970s, the forms and development of town houses and properties can be reconstructed. Timber buildings were the great majority, and they grew higher over time, particularly in the central streets. The urban property was usually built around its commercial front, the shop, with domestic accommodation behind and increasingly above. The form of buildings was influenced by urban building regulations, where they existed, to prevent fire and control waste. Histories of buildings can be constructed by dendrochronology. Houses in towns may have been part of an urban culture which was different from that in the countryside; more wealth, more ostentation, different values which encouraged the birth of a consumer society.
Medieval Battlefield Archaeology
Authors: Foard Glenn
Published: February 2018

This article discusses the role that archaeology is increasingly taking in the study of battlefields and siege sites in Britain. It notes the interdisciplinary nature of the approach, integrating documentary with physical evidence, to understand both the events and their landscape context. Particular attention is given to the character of battle-related archaeology; techniques for its investigation, especially metal-detecting; and its potential to advance the understanding of warfare in general. To inform future work, key research objectives are identified and consideration is also given to the threats faced by the resource and the conservation management needs that must be met if the full archaeological potential of these sites is to be realized.
Quarrying and Extractive Industries
Authors: Parsons David
Published: February 2018

Traditionally the evidence cited for extractive industries in this period has been largely documentary. Here the emphasis is on archaeological evidence, most of which has been discovered in the last fifty years. The industries considered include stone quarrying and the extraction of sand, gravel, clay, and brickearth; precious and base metals (silver, lead, iron, tin, copper); coal, jet, and related substances; and salt. Also briefly discussed are the issues of transportation—from the source of the raw materials to processing sites, and thence to the point of use—and the importing and exporting of raw materials and finished products. Finally, a section outlines the possible directions of future research.
The Medieval Monastery and Its Landscape
Authors: Bond James
Published: February 2018

Illustrated by recent scholarship, this chapter explains the different archaeological approaches available for the study of monasteries and their landscapes. Excavation is now commonly complemented by aerial photography, topographical survey, and studies of the fabric of standing buildings which provide structural phasing. Among the key themes selected for further discussion are the siting of new religious houses, their precinct plans (including monastic gardens), the main claustral buildings and some variations on the ideal standard monastic plan, burials, and estates, and, finally, the impact of their suppression, for the most part between 1524 and 1540. Archaeology and the study of documents offer complementary insights into the practicalities of servicing the needs of religious communities, constructing and maintaining buildings, managing water resources, the production, processing, and consumption of food, and dealing with sickness and death.
An Archaeology of Pilgrimage
Authors: Yeoman Peter
Published: February 2018

An understanding of medieval pilgrimage can be informed by the application of archaeological approaches to the physical evidence. This chapter outlines the evidence of pilgrimage within the historic landscape, demonstrates the existence of an infrastructure for the support of pilgrims, and applies a functional approach to interpreting the sometimes fugitive remains of shrines. Consideration is also given to the impressive material culture of pilgrimage souvenirs, and the evidence that this provides of pilgrims’ travels at home and abroad. Extraordinary insights can also be gained into the life experiences and personal faith of medieval individuals from the excavation of pilgrim burials.
Cooking, Dining, and Drinking
Authors: Willmott Hugh
Published: February 2018

Food preparation, eating, and drinking became increasingly complex and engaging activities during the Middle Ages, and the properties of food and material culture were actively exploited to stimulate the senses of sight, smell, taste, and even touch. The subjects of medieval cooking, dining, and drinking have received considerable historical attention in recent years, yet the material culture associated with these activities has largely been overlooked, beyond inclusion in specialist reports. This chapter reviews the evidence for these consumptive practices, combining historical documentation, excavated artefacts, and other archaeological sources of evidence, to provide an overview of what was arguably the most important aspect of medieval life at all levels of society.
Medieval Medicine, Public Health, and the Medieval Hospital
Authors: Huggon Martin
Published: February 2018

Despite the wealth of historical documentation for medieval medicine there is a lack of archaeological evidence. Some studies have highlighted the importance of archaeobotany and zooarchaeology for future developments in this field, but this also highlights how historical discussion frequently centres on medicine only available to the wealthy or religious, not the majority of the secular population. The discussion on public health focuses on recent scientific studies and osteological research about two major diseases, the Black Death and leprosy, raising questions over burial practices and social attitudes to two of the most well-known medieval epidemics. The chapter examines hospitals and almshouses, built to care for the poor, sick, and vulnerable. The possibility of these institutions sharing similar forms of access and layout caused by the complex relationship between religious and secular areas is highlighted, a trait that is seen even in later secular almshouses of the fifteenth and sixteenthth centuries.
Looking West
Authors: Barry Terry B.
Published: February 2018

This chapter outlines some the Irish evidence for later medieval settlement and society and the seismic shift in settlement which came about as a result of invasion and then conquest of the island by the Anglo-Normans, beginning in ad 1169. There was always a particular defensive aspect to this settlement, both in a rural and in an urban context, but the economy of the Anglo-Norman generally flourished until crisis in the second half of the fourteenth century. This discussion covers castles, tower houses, moated sites, rural settlement, towns, and churches before describing trade and contact with Britain. Pottery imports are highlighted, concluding that Ireland is to be seen as anything but peripheral to the broader context of medieval Europe.
Looking North-East
Authors: Roesdahl Else
Published: February 2018

This chapter investigates British influences and imports in southern Scandinavia from the late eleventh to the early sixteenth centuries from a mainly archaeological perspective, set against contemporary political and commercial developments. The geographical extent of this area is roughly defined as the medieval Danish kingdom, but the text also touches on Norway’s much closer British connections. Danish links with England continued in various forms after the Viking Age, but decreasingly so; contacts with Germany and The Netherlands, in particular, became much more important, illustrated by the main Danish port to the west, Ribe. Two British-Danish royal marriages in the fifteenth century demonstrate British interest in the increasingly important Baltic trade, then controlled by Denmark from the castle at Elsinore. From that century onwards many Scots settled in East Danish towns—the first evidence of extensive relations between Scotland and Denmark.
Looking South
Authors: Gerrard Christopher , Gutiérrez-González José Avelino
Published: February 2018

This chapter explores medieval contact and trade between Britain and the Iberian Peninsula. For the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain, archaeological evidence includes coins, burials, badges, scallop shells, and souvenirs of bone, ivory, and jet as well as artistic influences on heraldry and artistic representation. The important heavy goods being transported were wool, cloth, metals, and bulk foodstuffs for which there is an emerging archaeology of production in Spain and Portugal. There was also minor trade in leather and salt as well as in foodstuffs like honey and wine, figs, and candied fruit. Pottery and tile exports from Spain are today the most telling indication of commercial contact and personal exchange but English embroideries and alabaster devotional panels are among the items of exchange which travelled south and have survived. Overall, Anglo-Iberian contact in the Middle Ages has left an oddly skewed signature in the archaeological record.
London Smellwalk Around 1450
Authors: Dugan Holly
Published: February 2018

This chapter examines the smell of medieval cities and its role in shaping individual, collective, and social knowledge about navigating these realms. To breathe in medieval cities was a communal affair; men and women inhaled all aspects of this crowded, shared space, including the smell of its many animal and human inhabitants, its industries, and their collective detritus. Using literary and historical sources to create a medieval urban odour descriptor wheel, I argue that the smell of medieval cities was both more pungent and pleasurable than we usually assume; this wheel will hopefully help readers orient themselves towards new understandings about the vitality of smell in the past as well as in the present. Literary sources might usefully be combined with archaeological evidence and recent tools developed by urban geographers and computational social scientists that seek to translate visceral experiences into sensory maps of shared urban realms.
Town and Countryside
Authors: Dyer Christopher
Published: February 2018

The differences between town and country are defined, and their changing fortunes compared from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries. Urban characteristics can be identified through dwellings, high-status buildings, and life styles. Hierarchies of towns, and the influence on the countryside of the various categories of town, can be analysed using the concepts of umland and hinterland, central place and spheres of influence, and von Thunen’s zones of land use around the city. Evidence of interactions between town and country come from the distribution of pottery, stone used for building and artefacts, and supplies of food. Agriculture, including the choice of crops and livestock, was influenced by the towns. Rural industry was not necessarily subordinated to the urban economy, but towns provided goods, services, and culture to country dwellers. There were pronounced regional differences in the degree of urbanization, and the interaction between town and country.
Medieval Graffiti Inscriptions
Authors: Champion Matthew
Published: February 2018

Although the study of medieval church graffiti inscriptions has a long pedigree, recent large-scale surveys have brought to light tens of thousands of previously unknown examples. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the new discoveries is the fact that the vast majority of these early graffiti, where intelligible, have been shown to have distinctly spiritual, devotional, or votive meaning. Whilst the most obvious of these take the form of prayers or invocations, sometimes written in the conventional Latin forms of the Orthodox Church, many others appear to have been created in non-traditional forms. Vast numbers of these early inscriptions appear to reflect aspects of lay piety and belief, having an apotropaic function, and represent a personal interaction between parishioner and the medieval church. Taken together they indicate that medieval graffiti were regarded as both accepted and acceptable forms of devotion.
Coping with Disaster
Authors: Brown Peter J.
Published: February 2018

This chapter considers the impact of natural hazards and their accompanying human disasters during the later medieval period. British medieval populations faced severe challenges as a result of sudden onset events including windstorms, tidal surges, floods, and lightning strikes. As well as the historical accounts of these disasters which litter the documentary record, the evidence for these catastrophic occurrences can often be traced in the surviving archaeology. Not only does this make it possible to visualize exactly what damage these events wrought to settlements, through excavation and landscape survey, and structures, through standing-building analysis, but study of the material culture also illuminates the religious reactions that disasters engendered. The combination of archaeological and documentary evidence allows a particularly detailed exploration of the impacts, responses, and adaptations driven by disasters during the medieval period.
Global Prospects: The Asian Century?
Authors: Berry Michael , Engels Benno
Published: February 2018

This chapter explores the development and differentiation of the Asian region in the twenty-first century. The discussion commences with a broad overview of those national economies in Asia that have been described as ‘the breakout nations’, drawing on the available comparative economic, environmental, and social data. It then moves on to a consideration of the nature of the complex and changing interrelations between economies in the broad region, stressing the nature of uneven development emerging. A discussion of the key development issues identified and the drivers at work follow this. Is the ‘convergence thesis’ a useful framework for understanding what is happening? In looking to the future, what might happen in the leading Asian economies, both established and emerging over the next decade and beyond? Finally, the challenges that the study of a dynamic region like Asia raises for the development of economic geography as a discipline are noted.
Evolutionary Economic Geography
Authors: Boschma Ron , Frenken Koen
Published: February 2018

The chapter gives a brief overview of the most recent, relevant literature on evolutionary economic geography. We describe how evolutionary economic geography has provided new and additional insights on a number of topics that belong to the core of the economic geography discipline: why do industries concentrate in space, how do clusters operate and evolve, how are innovation networks structured in space and how do they evolve over time, what types of agglomeration externalities induce urban and regional growth, how do regions diversify, and how do institutions and institutional change matter for the development of new growth paths in regions?
Institutions, Geography, and Economic Life
Authors: Gertler Meric S.
Published: February 2018

Institutional approaches to understanding economic activity have become widespread in recent years. Both economists and economic geographers have embraced the idea that institutions shape, constrain, and enable economic behaviour, and that the nature of this relationship will vary according to the institutional architecture of particular geographical spaces. While much work has focused on national institutions, geographers have shown interest in the role and influence of regional institutions in shaping economic behaviour. Economists have largely confined their analysis to how formal national institutions shape aggregate outcomes of nation states. While geographers have begun to focus on the question of how regional institutions interact with national institutions, the analysis still remains preliminary and tentative. Equally pressing questions pertain to the processes of institutional change—both regional and national, the role and influence of individual agency, and the extent to which the path and direction of institutional evolution are predictable.
The Logic of Production Networks
Authors: Yeung Henry Wai‐chung
Published: February 2018

This chapter highlights and evaluates the most significant economic–geographical research that examines the logic and role of production networks in facilitating global–local economic integration. It first explains how the global production network (GPN) approach describes and explains the logic of this global–local economic integration. Advocating a network understanding of the economic–geographical process of value transformation in a global mosaic of local and regional economies, this approach has deployed or developed three central concepts—power relations, network and territorial embeddedness, and strategic coupling. The chapter then considers the significance of this GPN literature, its key controversies, and the prospects and future directions for research in, what might be termed, GPN 2.0 research in economic geography in the next ten to fifteen years.
Innovation Highways and the Geography of Inclusive Growth
Authors: McGahan Anita , Stein Janice Gross
Published: February 2018

Important advances regarding the geography of innovation focus on the competitiveness of cities, nations, and regions through the establishment of innovation clusters and national systems of innovation. In this chapter, this logic is linked with emerging scholarship on innovation for inclusive growth, which focuses on entrepreneurialism in resource-limited settings. By connecting the two streams, the chapter conceptualizes relationships between communities as ‘innovation highways’. It is argued that economic and public policy seeking to advance both prosperity and inclusiveness would benefit from deeper and more extensive consideration of collaboration between communities. The chapter argues that future research on the geography of innovation will take innovation highways between communities as central to prosperity, and consider the governance of these highways as a central mechanism of inclusiveness.
Talent, Skills, and Urban Economies
Authors: Florida Richard , Mellander Charlotta
Published: February 2018

From industrial location theory and Alfred Marshall’s concern for agglomeration to more recent research on industrial clusters and districts, firms and industries have been the dominant unit of analysis in urban economics and economic geography. But the last decade or two have seen a shift in urban and regional research toward talent, human capital, and skills. This includes studies of human capital, occupations, the creative class and specific types of skills, and also on the characteristics of cities and regions that enable them to attract talent, and the role of talent and human capital and skills in urban and regional development. This chapter summarizes the key lines of research on talent, skills, and urban economies.
Immigration and the Politics of Skill
Authors: Iskander Natasha , Lowe Nichola
Published: February 2018

Skill has played a central role in immigration
scholarship, most notably in a protracted debate over whether ‘unskilled’ immigrants threaten
job security for less or moderately educated native-born workers. In recent years, scholars
have re-examined whether immigrant workers, particularly those with limited formal education,
are unskilled. Extending this further, the chapter argues that immigrants are not simply
individuals that possess, acquire, and apply their skill. Immigrants are also contributors to
collective learning processes through which industry skills are developed, replenished, and
recombined overtime. But immigrants are especially vulnerable to skill misclassification because they
lack access to institutions that can protect and defend spaces for collective learning.
Considering immigrant skill reproduction in the absence of institutional protections allows us
to reflect on the role those institutions play in shaping the politics of skill—a role that
can be strengthened as part of a growing movement in support of low-wage workers more
generally.
The Global Financial Networks
Authors: Wójcik Dariusz
Published: February 2018

The chapter outlines the concept of the global financial networks, defined as networks of the financial and business services firms, and their activities linking financial centres, offshore jurisdictions, and the rest of the world. It is a concept that helps to map finance, place it on the map of the world economy, and analyse the latter in a dynamic framework accounting for the forces of globalization and financialization. At the core of the global financial networks lies the global network of securities centres, focused on the creation, distribution, and circulation of securities, which contributed to the recent global financial crisis. Major trends reshaping the global financial networks include the rise of regulation and public finance, technologies connecting investors, borrowers and lenders with each other, and a potential geo-financial shift towards Asia.
Information Flows, Global Finance, and New Digital Spaces
Authors: Zook Matthew
Published: February 2018

Information has long played an important role in the economy and over the past decades its prominence has increased, particularly within the financial sector. Digital flows of information are central to building advantage within capital exchanges, the creation of synthetic worlds, and the functioning of dentralized currencies and shared recordkeeping. These new practices, spaces and geographies—manifesting within the architecture of computers and absolutely dependent upon information flows—are powerful influences on the financial industry and the entire global economy. The power to channel information flows makes it absolutely fundamental to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of these configurations. The economic geographies emerging from the current structure of information flows reflect the ideologies with which they were created and the goals of their designers.
The Geography of the Creative Industries: Theoretical Stocktaking and Empirical Illustration
Authors: Lorenzen Mark
Published: February 2018

Economic geographers are increasingly interested in the creative industries because not only does this set of industries have increasing economic impact, but also because their complex interrelationships with societal factors and profound ongoing change make them useful for employing and examining theory on the geographical organization of economic activity. This chapter summarizes recent developments of the geography of the creative industries and takes stock of the main theoretical arguments made for explaining them. By way of illustration, the chapter applies these arguments in a brief juxtaposition of the recent developments of the filmed entertainment clusters in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Mumbai, India (‘Bollywood’).
The Financialization Thesis Revisited: Commodities as an Asset Class
Authors: McGill Sarah
Published: February 2018

Roughly coinciding with the onset of the commodity price boom of the 2000s was an influx of financial investment in commodity derivatives. This ‘financialization’ has given rise to debates regarding the potential influence of investors on commodity prices. This chapter examines these debates and places them within the context of the wider scholarship on financialization. It argues that critiques of financialization are problematic in several important respects. They are underpinned by long-standing suspicions and misconceptions of derivatives trading as a socially unproductive or harmful activity; they tend to conflate the participation of financial investors with ‘speculation’. The chapter finds that the term ‘financialization’ is ultimately misleading for in its characterization of the new institutional realities of the commodity price formation process. Rather than attempting to demarcate ‘purely’ financial investment in commodities from commercial trading, ‘financialization’ should refer to the growth of ‘hyper’ or short-term trading that occurs in commodity markets.
Pursuing Equitable Economic Growth in the Global South
Authors: Rodríguez-Pose Andrés , Wilkie John Callum
Published: February 2018

Economic growth is not an inherently equitable process. It has become clear that certain groups of society are more consistently capable of reaping the benefits of economic growth and that much of the interpersonal and territorial inequality that is especially pervasive in the Global South is attributable to the pursuit and achievement of economic growth in the absence of sufficient concern for notions of equity. This awareness has invigorated an interest in the development of a more comprehensive understanding of what more equitable, inclusive economic growth might entail and how it can be achieved. This chapter provides a multifaceted exploration of the notion of equitable economic growth with a specific focus on the Global South. Firstly, it proposes a holistic, employment-oriented conceptualization of equitable economic growth. Secondly, it offers basic insights into the operationalization of equitable economic growth and the suitability of different strategic approaches for its pursuit and achievement.
Policy Through Practice: Local Communities, Self-Organization, and Policy
Authors: Clark Jennifer
Published: February 2018

Economic geography fixes the lens of analysis on both the scale of economic action and the processes that determine how economic resources are distributed and concentrated across places. This chapter focuses on institutional intermediaries and how they contribute to the evolving practices of self-organizing within local communities through third-sector strategies. The chapter presents three models of ‘third-sector intermediaries’ in cities and regions across the USA illustrating the ways in which third-sector policy strategies operate in local and regional economies both through city governments and in parallel to them. These strategies are the result of variations in the capacities of local communities to address regional economic challenges and increasingly contribute to that diverse landscape. The chapter concludes with a discussion of economic policy implications of these modes of policy design, delivery, and decision-making affecting regional economies and uneven development, local autonomy, institutional intermediaries, city governance, technology diffusion, and policy innovation.