Urban History

I am very honoured that this book was co-winner of the Allan Lloyd Smith Memorial prize for best book in the Gothic published 2009/10 and has been shortlisted for the ESSE Award for CUltural STudies in English, Category A..

This book examines 'home front' literature of the Second World War, arguing that Gothic tropes and forms mark moments of fracture in the national mythologies of wartime home, city and fellowship. These works in the Gothic mode subvert mythologies of nation that are still influential today. Anna Kavan, Mervyn Peake, Elizabeth Bowen, Roy Fuller, Henry Green and others present counter-stories to the dominant national mythology of British survival and emotional resilience. In the texts of this monograph, the city grows strange, time distorts, and hallucinatory narrative voices depict a nightmare realm.

Doubling, temporal dislocation, narrative disjunction and tropes of haunting gather around shadowy figures on the margin of the nation. This book moves from city streets, to hospitals and prisons, to factories, to homes and finally to morgues. Each location presents a London that is, in the words of Mervyn Peake, "half masonry, half pain."

Women in southern and eastern African cities commonly devote time and energy to cultivating an urban garden. This is an often observed but little analyzed activity ; it makes an important contribution to family nutrition and sometimes income, but has been neglected in studies of urban informal activities, food supplies to urban areas, household labor, and development. This paper investigates the past and present agricultural work done by urban women in Mozambique, and shows that the inclusion of this area of female endeavor improves our understanding of the process of urbanization.
This paper documents the history of women's urban agricultural work during the colonial era, findings that alter ideas that this work is only related to periods of economic crisis. Another intriguing aspect was the discovery that the majority of women who worked full time in the garment or cashew factories also invested time and energy in urban family agriculture. This work was not only the province of women who were otherwise unemployed and had the time to devote to growing food for their families. The adaptation of women's rural labor to the urban setting, even for women with full-time waged jobs, speaks eloquently of the rural impact on African city life.

"The micro context of urban growth: immigrants’ positions and trajectories on the Antwerp labour market in the second half of the eighteenth century".

This article draws upon a sample of over 5,500 immigrants recorded in the Antwerp census of 1796 to map the city’s predominantly regional pattern of recruitment and to analyse the employment structure of its immigrants. It argues that the city’s limited migration field in the second half of the eighteenth century was the result mainly of an unattractive local opportunity structure dominated by low-paid textile industries. In turn, the specificities of the immigrant employment structure primarily reflected the predominantly rural background of the migrants themselves. These structural constraints notwithstanding, considerable room remained for individual and collective agency, whereby hinterland and family networks helped to establish comparative advantages in certain ‘rural-oriented’ trades. Consequently, most long-term immigrants were considerably better-off than their local-born counterparts, while many temporary migrations were probably also ‘successful’ vis-à-vis their specific savings or training purposes.

Taking the Belgian city of Antwerp as her case-study, Winter argues that the direction of nineteenth century societal change was such as to make some migrant groups better suited to reap the benefits of new urban opportunities than local people. Between 1760 and 1860 the city underwent a profound transformation from a middle-sized regional textile centre into a booming international port town of more than 120,000 inhabitants, making Antwerp an ideal case from which to track the dynamics of migration and its consequences. Winter uses this to formulate more general insights on the relationship between migration and urban transformation in the transition from preindustrial to industrial society.

Historiographical debates on the causes and implications of early modern and early industrial settlement legislation, which determined the locality where one could apply for poor relief, have so far focused mainly on England and Wales. These regions are deemed exceptional for the national character and universality of their Poor Laws (1601), associated Act of Settlement (1662) and later amendments. However, if the focus is shifted from the national legislative framework to actual practice, several continental regions had relief and settlement arrangements that bore many resemblances to those in England and Wales. This article draws on existing literature and archival research to explore the evolution of settlement law and practice in the Southern Netherlands, i.e. present-day Belgium, from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries, and compares its main features with the situation in England and Wales. This comparative exercise brings to the fore a number of striking resemblances and remarkable differences, which question the precise nature of the British exception. While further research is needed to gauge fully the causes and consequences of the observed similarities and differences, this article aims to demonstrate how a comparative approach towards issues of settlement and relief not only elucidates our understanding of the particularities and generalities of the English/Welsh case, but also widens our insight into the social, economic, and cultural implications of settlement arrangements in general.

A special dossier of Il Giornale dell´Architettura (Denis Bocquet, Thibaut de Ruyter and Cristiana Chiorino eds) about 20 years of town planning and architeture in Berlin since the fall of the wall.

Also features papers by Zvi Hecker and Raffaello Pochettino

Key Words:
Berlin, Architecture, urbanism, town planning, Hans Stimmann, Regula Lüscher, Hans Scharoun, Mies van der Rohe, Gehry, Helmut Newton Foundation, Kahlfeldt, Kleihues, Chipperfield, Schloss, Kulturforum, Rem Koolhaas, Nagel, Sauerbruch-Hutton, von Gerkan, Renzo Piano, Axel Schultes, Charlotte Frank, Schinkel, Dudler, Kollhoff, Urania, Helmut Jahn, Jean Nouvel, Ostalgia, Westalgia, Potsdamer Platz, Walter Benjamin

In the early twentieth century, Spanish-Colonial Revival became embedded in the local culture of Southern California. However, this architectural style did not simply appear, rather it was materialized by architects, builders, realtors, and manufacturers of construction materials who built for and sold to homeowners. This process was not simply about using “history“ and “heritage.“ Rather, these social actors had to legitimize the ubiquitous use of red-tile roofing and cement stucco to establish new aesthetic norms and conventions for the vernacular landscape. As such, this article will look at the relationship between the political economy of building and aesthetics in the shaping of the vernacular landscape.

Cultural heritage has recently come to be viewed as a panacea for sterility in city development but preoccupation with creating or discovering a ‘sense of place’ without investigating the authentic cultural fabric, is one of the pitfalls that urban professionals encounter. Lack of authenticity in reading and understanding the development of cities leads to a ‘Disneyesque’ invention of that which a city should be – a place which ‘entertains’ rather than engages.

Community based histories have frequently been the poor cousin of heritage research despite their potential to be a rich source of material for establishing cultural heritage significance. Stories of the past, interwoven with artefacts such as photographs, documents and expressed heritage (stories, dance, tracing of lives) can inform interpretation with a level of authenticity difficult to otherwise replicate.

This paper will explore the richness that has been discovered in central Perth through the Northbridge History Project – an initiative whose role is to revitalize the city authentically by drawing on its diverse histories.

Containing sites of recognized cultural heritage significance, Northbridge has undergone significant infrastructural and generational change in the last 20 years, bringing with it dislocation of its identity. Fragments of the cultural fabric are being collated into an online electronic archive of primary sources www.northbridgehistory.wa.gov.au which is being used to proactively create understanding of the cultural heritage of the area.

Discovering and making available the histories of this diverse area has created a new sense of identity and community engagement bringing awareness that the life of the city is played out against the backdrop of the built environment but the soul of the city comes from its context within the cultural fabric. This is underpinning changes in perception of the area by government and policy makers in which the heritage of the area is more than that which is represented in the streetscape. No longer is there discussion of physically melding the area seamlessly with the city but instead there is increasing awareness that the area's living cultural heritage is valuable and has much to offer the city as it seeks to position itself as Australia's Indian Ocean gateway.

A fully interactive GIS is in the final stages of being planned whereby cross-linking of the archive and an interactive presentation will allow a virtual rendition of the history of the area for interpretation, policy making and research.

"Vid. a book review by Teófilo F. Ruiz (University of California. Los Angeles)

“Yet, there is a great deal here that is most commendable and that makes this book worthy of review and reading. The author shows a willingness to explore new issues, thus moving his description of the social and economic history of Santander to different interpretative and analytical stages than those occupied by earlier studies. His openness to other European historiographies is also to be noted, as in his careful treatment of women and their role within strategies of social reproduction. Centering his study on questions of space –spaces of production, spaces of power, spaces of social reproduction- Solórzano has produced a book that it is both innovative and informative”.

"The American Historical Review". Vol. 114, No. 1: pp. 194-195.

Book reviews:
a.The American Historical Review. Vol. 114, No. 1: pp. 194-195 by Teófilo F. Ruiz de la University of California.
b. Edad Media. Revista de Historia, nº 5, p. 303-306 by Jesús G. Peribáñez de la Universidad de Valladolid.
c. Le Moyen Age. CXIX.2013, p. 235, by C. Mazzoli-Guintard.

"Vid. a book review by Teófilo F. Ruiz (University of California. Los Angeles)

“Yet, there is a great deal here that is most commendable and that makes this book worthy of review and reading. The author shows a willingness to explore new issues, thus moving his description of the social and economic history of Santander to different interpretative and analytical stages than those occupied by earlier studies. His openness to other European historiographies is also to be noted, as in his careful treatment of women and their role within strategies of social reproduction. Centering his study on questions of space –spaces of production, spaces of power, spaces of social reproduction- Solórzano has produced a book that it is both innovative and informative”.

"The American Historical Review". Vol. 114, No. 1: pp. 194-195.

Book reviews:
a.The American Historical Review. Vol. 114, No. 1: pp. 194-195 by Teófilo F. Ruiz de la University of California.
b. Edad Media. Revista de Historia, nº 5, p. 303-306 by Jesús G. Peribáñez de la Universidad de Valladolid.
c. Le Moyen Age. CXIX.2013, p. 235, by C. Mazzoli-Guintard.

The Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus had been since 1468 fighting against the Czech king George of Poděbrady. With a crusade that was ordered by Pope Paul II he managed to gain some lands that pertained to the Czech kingdom, namely Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, and even be elected by the Czech nobles as a Czech king in 1469. The three provinces accepted the new king relatively heartily. He was then confirmed by the papal legate in 1471, confirmed by the Emperor in 1477, and finally he and his rival Vladislav II Jagellonian accepted their respective claims in 1478/79, Matthias securing the rule in Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, Vladislav in Bohemia.
With Moravia, Matthias obviously got into his possession also the royal towns, namely Olomouc, Brno, Jihlava, Znojmo, Uherské Hradiště, and Uničov, the only six towns, which stayed in the royal chamber. The first four joined the fight against George of Poděbrady in 1467 and in 1468 together with the Catholic estates accepted the fighting Hungarian king as their leader. Since 1469 Matthias wielded power at them as their lawful lord, being able to take over the royal institutions (e.g. the institution of subcamerarius) and the royal control over the towns; he collected the taxes and in many lawsuits he was the ultimate source of justice. The other two towns being faithful to George and Vladislav got under the rule of Matthias only in 1479, after the peace treaty of Olomouc, they were exchanged for the two important towns on the side of Matthias in Bohemia, Plzeň and České Budějovice.
The analysis of the material kept in the town archives shows the multi-faceted relations of the towns and the new king. There is no question that since 1469, even though there were two Czech kings at the time and no official consensus was made, he was accepted by the four towns as their king. He could confirm their old privileges, but also demand support from them, especially the war supplies in the form of their own contingents or war material – weapons, including canons and guns. In a way he was administering the Moravian towns similarly as his Hungarian royal towns, only with the difference that the Moravians felt to be further away and thus safer from his demands and able to reject them in some cases. Towns also meant quite a stable source of money, which could be and was used for rewards for his servants who were often given pays in the towns in return to their service (not only politicians and warriors, but also for example a doctor from Olomouc was given 100 fl. of yearly pay in his town).
In the lawsuits and their solution it is possible to see the tendencies of Matthias’ reign. He usually let the Land Officials to be the judges in the problematic cases, however, there are cases when Matthias wants to decide himself and e.g. explicitly states that Jan Filipec, who held both the position in Moravia (bishop of Olomouc) and in Matthias’ court in Hungary (Czech chancellor, bishop of Várad (Oradea)), was to act not from the power of a Moravian lord, but from the power of his other position at the king.
The form of the correspondence also shows the changing attitude of Matthias towards the towns. First, almost all the charters are in Latin, sealed by the Hungarian seals; after his election, however, he writes most often in Czech (exceptionally in German or Latin) and seals his charters with the new Hungarian-Czech seal. We may conclude that the relations of the Moravian towns and the king were within the ordinary interaction between these two social institutions. Their dealings were, however, favourable to the towns, for there were no special harms done by the king as in the case of Wrocław; or at least they are not recorded. The relation functioned on mutual acceptance: the towns accepted Matthias as a king and he secured their privileges, for he needed them as centres of power, not having his own court in Moravia.

The metaphor of contagion pervades critical discourse across the humanities, the medical sciences, and the social sciences. It appears in such terms as ‘social contagion’ in psychology, ‘financial contagion’ in economics, ‘viral marketing’ in business, and even ‘cultural contagion’ in anthropology. In the twenty-first century, contagion, or ‘thought contagion’ has become a byword for creativity and a fundamental process by which knowledge and ideas are communicated and taken up, and resonates with André Siegfried’s observation that ‘there is a striking parallel between the spreading of germs and the spreading of ideas’.

Contagious Metaphor offers an innovative, interdisciplinary study of the metaphor of contagion and its relationship to the workings of language. Examining both metaphors of contagion and metaphor as contagion, Contagious Metaphor suggests a framework through which the emergence and often epidemic-like reproduction of metaphor can be better understood.

Contents:
Chapter 1: Contagious metaphor
Chapter 2: Pestilence and poison winds: Literary contagions and the endurance of miasma theory
Chapter 3: The French fin de siècle and the birth of social contagion theory
Chapter 4: The contagion of example
Chapter 5: Infectious ideas: Dawkins, meme theory, and the politics of metaphor
Chapter 6: Networks of contagion

Reviews:
"Peta Mitchell's highly readable Contagious Metaphor explores medical and popular beliefs and practices about contagion--and the metaphors that shape them. Reaching back through the nineteenth century and then ranging widely through more recent decades, she shows how ambivalence about figurative language and misunderstanding of metaphor itself has shaped our responses to epidemics both imaginedand experienced. From miasma to Dionysian frenzy to memes on the internet, Mitchell challenges our assumptions about both language and contagion, providing engaging and provocative analyses of examples from film, philosophy, linguistics and literature." -- Pamela K. Gilbert, Department of English, University of Florida, USA

"The history of medicine and metaphor come together in Contagious Metaphor; Peta Mitchell perceptively chronicles the circulation of the metaphor of contagion and the contagion of metaphor in the current moment to show how ideas travel through language to shape lived experience. Contagious Metaphor anatomizes the transmission of thought itself as it brings together astudy of the social phenomenon of a veritable obsession with the concept of contagion and a profound understanding of the role of language in creating notjust individual, but a broadly cultural consciousness. This study will enrich contemporary understanding of the longstanding appeal of contagion as a conceptand of the power of metaphor as they circulate through, and register a widespread attempt to make sense of, the networks of contemporary social life." -- Priscilla Wald, Department of English, Duke University, USA

"This is a captivating book: interdisciplinary scholarship at its best. Moving deftly between meme theory and modern literature, nineteenth-century French social science and fifth-century theological debates, Peta Mitchell's genealogy of contagion metaphor reveals the intimacy, and indeed interdependency, of these two concepts. The subtlety, sophistication and scholarly rigour of Contagious Metaphor all but guarantee the spread of its ideas." -- Angela Woods, Centre for Medical Humanities, Durham University, UK

Teresa Marat-Mendes and Maria Amélia Cabrita Anastácio

Published in the Proceedings of ISUF Conference 2008 - “Landscape and Urban Form”, 21-23 November 2008, Artimino, Italy



Astract

The present paper introduces the results of an analysis of a case study, which has examined the relationship between the cultural identity and the morphological aspects of the construction of the landscape of the territory, in the county of Cascais, located in Lisbon’s environs. As a result, it attests the applicability of the theoretical propositions developed by Caniggia and other authors, in the scope of the Italian School of Urban Morphology, focusing on the analysis of small rural-urban settlements wherein an implicit order of the urban growth is therefore distinguished. In addition, it extends the possibility to apply such analysis not only in small urban nucleolus but also on undifferentiated dimensions of settlements. Wherein considering the human settlements as a phenomenon and a result of a collective human force, and a expression of History, it also seeks to demonstrate the possibility to integrate the local cultural elements at the planning and project scale, as a key factor for the readings of the anthropic environment, the landscape and the urban form, including the building scale. Ultimately, it is outlined a methodological proposal to apply such Typological Process, as already attempted by the above-acknowledged authors.

Key-words: Lisbon’s Surroundings, Cultural Identity, Landscape, Small Rural Settlements, Typological Process, Caniggia.

This study focuses on a very small area of land that forms part of the northern central business district of Perth in Western Australia. In investigating this microscale of human occupation, Geographical Information System (GIS) was a research tool to investigate traditional historical sources not commonly thought of by historians as spatial. Changes, hidden until rediscovered through the agency of GIS, showed that the northern part of the townscape was intimately defined and cast in response to its swampland topography.

The most isolated outpost of the empire ‘upon which the sun did not set’ was Perth, capital of the Swan River Colony, in Western Australia. Isolated as it was, the settlement was tethered by an imperial paradigm that influenced its location, response to the environment and town planning.

Through its town plan, street names and concepts of environment, its’ layout embodied key principles of Imperial thought – assumptions about natural landscapes and their inhabitants, the segregation and alienation of wealth through the expungement of land and the inherent value of real property, the imposition of law and order through physical form and, most overtly, the naming of spaces and places with names drawn from the social and political elite of Great Britain.

In this, Perth was not unique. Many cities in the British Empire show similar characteristics – spawned from the same pod in a rigorous imposition of a British authority and sensibility over foreign lands – however, central Perth articulates this particularly clearly – with a self-consciously preserved character and usage which has resisted the impetus of change on all except a few streets. This paper proposes that Perth, the capital of Western Australia, formed as a British colony, still retains the legible stamp of its inception – a tangible expression of British imperialism in the most far-flung of British settlements.

The tribal territory of the Kurds through Arabic medieval historiography

Boris James 1

(19/11/2007)


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Since the very early stages of Arabic historiography in the ninth century, the Kurds have been mentioned by several authors. According to the texts, these populations, described as being fierce and rough, lived in the mountainous regions of the Middle East from Fârs to the Taurus. The area or field of action crossed by the Kurdish tribes is an always shifting tribal and political space, not an area over which military domination or political sovereignty is necessarily applied.
During the twelfth century, Arabic literary sources seem to describe a reduction of what might be called the “tribal territory of the Kurds”. This phenomenon follows a political reshuffling born of Turkmen infiltrations and the counter-crusades led by the Zankid rulers resulting in the emergence of the Ayyubid dynasty. During the Mamluk era, Mongols and Mamluks battled with each other, with the “tribal territory of the Kurds” lying at the boundary of these two entities.
This paper will address the problems posed by the textual approach. I will recall the polysemy implied by the word “Kurd” and discuss the question of Kurdish “ethnicity” during the Middle Ages, the criteria for it, and the manifestation of the sense of group belonging.
The use made of the words bilâd al-akrâd and zûzân al-akrâd in Arabic medieval literary sources will be analysed. Which space do they designate? What do they imply? I will argue that these designations are not an administrative or a literary abstraction. I will also address another problem: the separation between Zagrosian and Ciszagrosian Kurdish tribal territory that appears in the texts.
I will then describe the territorial dynamics and the spatial reorderings of the regions inhabited by the Kurds from the 11th to the 14th century, drawing a map of the Kurdish settlements or nomadic spaces and showing the changes inside a broader social and political configuration. Thanks to al-‘Umarî’s Masâlik al-Absar which lists many Kurdish tribes, I will discuss the anchoring of these populations and the rebirth of a tribal political anchoring in these regions during the Mamluk period.
Lastly, I will try to embrace the subjective dimension of the attachment of the Kurds to a specific territory. Is there evidence of a sense of belonging to this territory? What is the link between the latter and the Kurds in Syria and Egypt?

Sometimes a room is just a room, especially in late-medieval painting. Houses in the Low Countries during that time were built and divided in a certain way and rooms contained a very specific kind of furniture and other household goods, distributed over it in a certain way. This is confirmed in hundreds of interior scenes. It cannot therefore be that hidden symbolic meanings can be given to just these items in secualr, saintly or even holy paintings all at the same time. While not excluding certain symbolic hints in the same, it is in my opinion vastly exaggerated to innundate everything you see in this art with a hidden meaning.

In the spring of 1998, early morning commuters along Route 22, a four-lane highway running west from Pittsburgh, woke to find a new billboard touting “Pittsburgh’s New Suburb ... in Ohio.”  The billboard was part of an advertising campaign spearheaded by the Progress Alliance, a progrowth coalition of local officials and business leaders formed in 1996 to take advantage of new transportation links extending across the Pennsylvania border through the narrow West Virginia Panhandle to eastern Ohio.  “It accomplished what we needed to do,” explained regional planner Gary Dufour.  Pennsylvania residents and business leaders “began to think, ‘Oh yeah, it isn’t that far.’”  Indeed, by the time the first billboard went up announcing the newest “Burb of the Burgh,” metropolitan growth had already reached the community, with a new upscale residential project built by a Pittsburgh developer and a number of tenants in a new industrial park along the highway.
Suburban historians from Sam Bass Warner to Owen Gutfreund have extensively documented the expansion of urban services to the metropolitan periphery in the wake of new transportation links.  While the story of Pittsburgh’s new suburb may sound like just another narrative of decentralization and sprawl, the community seeking to attract new residents and businesses was the small city of Steubenville, a largely rural, polluted and poverty-stricken jewel of the deindustrialized Rust Belt. “You could let off a howitzer down on Market Street in Steubenville and not harm a soul,” declared one local resident in 1994.  “In fact, I’m not even sure there would be enough people there [to notice] a big bang.”  By the late 1990s, however, the completion of Route 22 and other highways fostered increased commuting for work and play and the articulation of a “post-industrial” vision of the landscape that provided an opportunity to symbolically recreate the battered hinterland as a vital part of the larger metropolitan region.
The overarching goal of this paper will be to trace the postwar evolution of Steubenville as a model for understanding the opportunities and challenges faced by small cities on the edge of larger metropolitan regions.  At least since the late nineteenth century, the economic development of Steubenville has been intimately tied to the fortunes of its larger neighbor upriver via a dense network of mines, mills, and railroads.  With the rise of the automobile and the postwar decline of the region’s heavy industrial base, however, the community became increasingly isolated from the social opportunities of growing suburban areas.  The cultural reimagining of the “Burb of the ‘Burgh,” thus, represents not a simple linear narrative of metropolitan expansion but a reestablishment of earlier regional bonds.  Consequently, the story of Steubenville provides insight to the economic development of other “satellite cities,” such as Flint, Michigan, Gary, Indiana and Oakland, California.  In addition, the “Burb of the ‘Burgh” pushes urban historians and other scholars to move beyond an overly narrow focus on suburban decentralization and also to the continuing process of regional centralization highlighted in the late 19th century by William Cronon and others.  This dual approach suggests a synthesis of urban, suburban, and “rural” history that offers a more realistic portrayal of the evolving position of small cities within the contemporary metropolis.

O trabalho preparatório do Plano Director de 1938/48, "Elementos para o estudo do plano de urbanização da cidade de Lisboa", foi publicado em 1938 e elaborado pelo engenheiro municipal António Emídio Abrantes, chefe da Repartição Técnica da Planta da Cidade. Seguidor e admirador confesso de Ressano Garcia, que numerosas vezes elogia nos seus planos, Emídio Abrantes foi autor de mais de 40 planos para o município de Lisboa até à sua participação nos estudos para o Plano Director, que iniciaria em 1932.

O Plano Director de Urbanização de Lisboa seria desenvolvido sob direcção do urbanista francês de origem russa Étienne de Gröer, convidado em 1938 por Duarte
Pacheco para ocupar o cargo de “urbanista-conselheiro técnico de câmara.”

Partindo do relatório e desenhos elaborados por Emídio Abrantes, revistos por Étienne de Gröer e constantes do Arquivo Municipal do Arco do Cego, este artigo pretende
contextualizar o trabalho preparatório daquele que foi o mais importante instrumento de planeamento da cidade de Lisboa e que acabaria por traçar a sua expansão e desenvolvimento urbanístico durante a segunda metade do século XX.

When Rome becomes the new capital city of Italy, in 1870, a long-lasting struggle between State and Municipality begins, in the context of the complex relationship between Catholics and the Nation. The object of this paper is to use the controversy about the Tiber river embankment and the modernization of the sewing system to analyze the decision making processes at work. The aim is to implement an history of decision making processes in the field of public works, with a link with political stakes, in order to try and propose an urban history method that could bring together the study of the urban form and the study of political life, with an attention to the history of technical and bureaucratic apparels.

Based on a historiographical review, this paper attempts an interpretation of the role of history in the field of urban networked infrastructures studies. Indeed, history has had an important role in the emergence of social science network studies and in the building of some of the most successful interpretative paradigms, with both considerations on the context of decision making processes and the study of the social inertia involved in the development of networks. However, many questions remain on the role of history in present debates. Considerations on the time-factor in network development, and the originality of the historical method, do not always fulfil the need for methodological innovation anymore. The aim of this paper is therefore to try and indicate some possible tracks for a renewal of the historical approach in the field, from a new political economy of urban infrastructures, to the history of the governance of technical systems, a micro-history of decision making processes or a spatialization of the reading of institutional conflicts.

The Symbolic History of the Hyphen: Urban Alterity Between Jaffa and Tel-Aviv" Zmanim – History Quarterly Vol. 106 (Hebrew)



ערים מעורבות בישראל הן זירה למאבק על מרחב וזהות הניטש זה כמאה שנים. בין ערים אלו בולטת יפו במורכבות יחסיה עם תל-אביב – "העיר שהולידה מדינה". מערך יחסים טעון זה מעלה שאלות פוליטיות, חברתיות ותרבותיות לגבי זהות העיר ועתידה, שעמן מתמודדים התושבי והממשל מאז סיפוחה לתל-אביב ועד היום. על סמך הצהרות של מנהיגים, מחזות פופולריים ופזמונים מוכרים, אירועים דרמטיים ופעילות של ארגונים שונים בחיי העיר, בוחן דניאל מונטרסקו את הדימוי המסוכסך של יפו בתרבות הישראלית. את המתח שבין השאיפה להתמזגות לרצון להתבדלות, או בין בליעה להפרדה מרחבית, מסמן ומנציח המקף שבין "תל-אביב" ל"יפו" בשמה הנוכחי של העיר. מערך הייצוגים התרבותיים של יפו ממקם אותה בתווך בין תפישה רומנטית של עיר בעלת עומק היסטורי ("העיר עמוסת העבר") לבין זיהויה כזירה של אלימות פוליטית ("קוץ ממאיר בלב הישוב הגדול"), בין ראייתה כמקור של זהות וערגה (בעבר הרחוק) לבין סמל של אחרוּת ואיבה (בעבר הקרוב) – מושא שסוע של פחד ותשוקה. המאמר מתחקה אחר שלושה מופעים היסטוריים של אוריינטליזם תרבותי משנת 1948 ועד לעת האחרונה, שבה צמחו יוזמות תרבותיות חדשות ולהן תביעות לאזרחות שוויונית ולשיתוף פעולה דו-לאומי בעיר.
"

Introducción 

SAN JUAN: CUENTOS Y NOVELAS PARA FOMENTAR EL TURISMO
Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá

LA CIUDAD ES PARA MÍ: LA REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA HABANA Y SANTIAGO DE CUBA EN LOS HOME-MOVIES NORTEAMERICANOS DE LOS AÑOS VEINTE
Emmanuel Vincenot

AL RESCATE DEL CENTRO DE SANTIAGO: EL DETECTIVE  HEREDIA Y SU RECUPERACIÓN DE LOS ESPACIOS MARGINALES DEL GRAN SANTIAGO EN ÁNGELES Y SOLITARIOS
Claudia Femenias

LA CORRUPCIÓN, LA ESTAFA Y LA CIUDAD COSTERA EN EL
CINE ESPAÑOL CONTEMPORÁNEO
Jason E. Klodt

LA HISTORIA MULTICULTURAL DE UNA CIUDAD: “NOVÍSIMA
ODA A BARCELONA” DE JOSÉ AGUSTÍN GOYTISOLO
Jaime María Ferrán

NÁPOLES Y LA ESPAÑA IMAGINADA
Yolanda Gamboa-Tusquets

EL MULATO Y LA HABANA DEL SIGLO XIX EN CECILIA VALDÉS
María Espinoza

DE LA PROMOCIÓN TURÍSTICA A LA CONCIENCIA DE MARCA:
LA MARCA-CIUDAD EN EL CINE ESPAÑOL CONTEMPORÁNEO
Alfredo Martínez Expósito
                                       
ESPACIO DE FLUJOS, ESPACIO DE LUGARES: CULTURA URBANA ESPAÑOLA EN LA ERA DE LA INFORMACIÓN
Molly Palmer

DESDE SARMIENTO A COETZEE: LA GRANDEZA Y CAÍDA DE LA
CIUDAD LETRADA        
Heike Scharm

JOSÉ MARTÍ Y LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO: HETEROTOPÍA INAUGURAL
DE UNA VISIÓN FUNDACIONAL DE LO HISPANOAMERICANO
REGIONAL MODERNO          
José Antonio González

LA CIUDAD OPRESORA: MUJER Y ESPACIO URBANO EN IFIGENIA DE TERESA DE LA PARRA              
Elena González-Muntaner

BORGES EN BUENOS AIRES CON BENJAMIN Y DERRIDA          
Rafael Lamas

LA CIUDAD METAFÓRICA, SIMBÓLICA, Y PERSONIFICADA EN
EL SEÑOR PRESIDENTE DE MIGUEL ÁNGEL ASTURIAS          
Laura A. Chesak

ENMARCANDO EL MOMENTO: VISIONES DE DESESPERACIÓN
Y LA GRAN CIUDAD          
Marlyn Henríquez

During the years 1996 to 2005, West Virginia produced the greatest proportion (56.25%) of regionally accredited institutional rebrandings. In addition, the state experienced the greatest proportion (25%) of the specific “college-to-university” rebranding strategy than any other state. This study set out to discover the reasons why West Virginia produced such a high percentage of “college-to-university” changes. Using a mixed method approach of analysis, the researcher used quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the rationale, strategies, and implications of the college-to-university change.

As West Virginia was viewed as a nested population in Appalachia, a population of 51 institutions that experienced the college-to-university change located in 10 states containing Appalachian counties was generated. Administrators from these schools were surveyed and the returns provided a basis for interviews of  West Virginia administrators. Additionally, 103 institutions in the United States that rebranded as universities were analyzed in regard to effects of the rebranding five years following the
change. The variables studied included the following: enrollment, tuition, Carnegie Classifications, the numbers and types of graduate programs, and undergraduate selectivity.

The study focused on the rebrandings at the following West Virginia institutions: The University of Charleston (1979), Salem-Teikyo University (1989), Wheeling Jesuit University (1996), West Virginia University Institute of Technology (1996), Mountain State University (2001), Concord University (2004), Fairmont State University (2004), Shepherd University (2004), West Virginia State University (2004), Ohio Valley
University (2005), and the planned changes at West Liberty State College.

This dissertation features information concerning the rationale for change, how the change was realized, the relationship of the change to regulatory bodies, reactions by stakeholders to the change, the effect of the change upon enrollment, the implications of institutional prestige, and administrative advice regarding the change. In addition, a case study on retaining an institutional brand was conducted of the “Allegheny” higher education brand and its usage among institutions in Appalachia was included. This case study examined how Allegheny College has protected its brand and gained brand dominance in the wake of the rebranding efforts of other institutions.

To understand the rebranding phenomenon, a total of 22 individuals were interviewed, 34 administrators returned surveys, and an additional 48 individuals provided information specific responses. A total of 102 unduplicated respondents
participated in this study and these included: past and present university administrators, institutional staff, researchers, governmental representatives, alumni, accreditation liaisons, and educational consortia staff.

"This article focuses on the water distribution network in Paris, from the 1830s, when most Parisians got their water from public fountains and private wells, to the 1930s, by which time almost all of the capital’s inhabitants had been connected to the same network and enjoyed a standard service. It contributes, by a detailed analysis of the entire chain of mediators and mediation, to specify how the modern infrastructure ideal actually took form. In that aim, we analyze the manner in which each actor (public as well as private), in accordance with his/her constraints and resources, which depend on his/her position in the social space, was able to conceive of his/her environment, define objectives, confront problems, make choices and deploy a whole range of frequently innovative practices. In order to understand the underlying factors, our task consists in identifying the actors, modi operandi, progress and phases involved in universalizing water services. Spatially analyzing the extension of the water network, this article demonstrates that the process of universalization, far from being the inexorable and linear outcome of the action of a small number of “major historical forces”, was the upshot of the actions of a whole range of actors acting in specific different geographical, social, economic and technical contexts. The achievement of the “modern infrastructural ideal” as a macro-social phenomenon was ultimately down to a long accumulation process of a multitude of actions, interactions, conflicts and learning processes.

Keywords: Water network; Paris; France; 19th century; Infrastructure Universalization History; Public actors; Urbanism; Large technical system (LTS)
"

Scribbles on the back flyleaf of London, British Library, Royal 2.B.v (the 'Regius Psalter') are examined and the case put forward that they include notes relating to charters in favour of Christ Church Canterbury in the mid-eleventh century and not a lost copy of a ninth-century document as proposed by O'Neill.

Συμβολή στη συλλογική ελληνική έκδοση και γαλλική μετάφραση του Χρονικού του Παπασυναδηνού, που καλύπτει τα έτη 1598-1648. Έχει εκδοθεί και ελληνική μετάφραση του έργου. Πρόκειται για μία εισαγωγή στην Τοπογραφία και την Ιστορία της πόλεως των Σερρών κατά τη διάρκεια της οθωμανικής κυριαρχίας. Βασική μας φροντίδα ήταν να συγκεντρωθούν όλες οι υπάρχουσες πληροφορίες σχετικά με τη δημογραφία, την οικονομική και κοινωνική δομή, τους θεσμούς και τις πολιτικές εξελίξεις στην πόλη και την ενδοχώρα της. Δόθηκε ιδιαιτέρως σημασία στη συγκέντρωση συγκρίσιμων μεταξύ τους στοιχείων σχετικά με την πληθυσμιακή εξέλιξη της περιοχής.

Die vorliegende Untersuchung serbischer Diskurse zwischen 1848 und 1905 in der Vojvodina entstand im Rahmen des von Prof. Rosita Schjerve-Rindler geleiteten FWF-Forschungsprojekts Hegemoniale Diskurse und Diskurse des Widerstandes in der Habsburgermonarchie im 19. Jahrhundert, das von 1999 bis 2001 durchgeführt wurde. Die vorliegende Arbeit hat sehr von den fachkundigen Anregungen der Projektleiterin und Prof. Michael Metzeltins profitiert und ebenso von den anregenden Diskussionen mit allen beteiligten KollegInnen. 1 Das Erstaunliche am Diskurs der serbischen Eliten in der Vojvodina zwischen 48er Revolution und erstem Weltkrieg ist, wie stark die Umbrüche und Unterschiedlichkeiten im Bezug auf verschiedene Machtzentren waren: »Habsburg«, »Ungarn«, die »Deutschen«. Im Spannungsfeld von Krieg, Demokratie, Klassenkampf, Geschlechterdifferenz und ethnischer Identität bekamen diese vorgestellten, aber auch praktisch erfahrbaren Mächte ganz unterschiedliche Qualitäten zugeschrieben. Letztendlich ging es in diesem Diskurs nicht nur darum, wie »man« sich nach »außen« positionieren solle, sondern auch darum, wer im Diskurs selbst die Oberhand gewinnen würde. Diese Spannungen werden anhand von ausgewählten Texten aus Zeitungen der serbischen Minderheit in der Habsburger Monarchie untersucht. Darunter finden sich nicht nur prominente Leitartikel herausragender Persönlichkeiten, sondern auch Berichte, Notizen, Feuilletons und Artikel über alltägliche Belange wie das Einkaufen. Den Anfang machen theoretische Überlegungen über Diskurs, Hegemonie, Widerstand und Nationalismus. Es folgt der historische Kontext für die analysierten Texte von 1848 (p. 9), danach eine Analyse der Texte selbst (p. 12) -usw.: Kontext, Texte, Kontext, Texte. Als Endpunkt wurde das Jahr 1905 ausgewählt, in dem in Ungarn Wahlen stattfanden und zu erwarten war, dass es insofern weniger markante Diskursereignisse bieten würde als das Jahr 1848. Das ließ dieses Jahr als gute Vergleichsmöglichkeit zum auch diskursiv turbulenten Revolutionsjahr 1848 erscheinen. Zwar lässt sich einiges aus dem Unterschied zwischen den beiden Vergleichspunkten 1848 und 1905 schließen, doch erschienen Stichproben geeignet, um diese Vermutungen zu bestätigen. Deshalb gibt es Analysen eines Textes von 1856 auf Seite 19 und von 1866 auf Seite 22. Die Kontexte dazu befinden sich auf den Seite 18ff. Manche LeserInnen werden es nützlich finden, zuerst die Gesamtinterpretation ab Seite 31 zu lesen und dann zu jenen Textanalysen und Kontexterläuterungen zu gehen, die besonders interessant erscheinen.

The architecture of the Palazzo Francesconi. Baldassarre Peruzzi: a career spent between Rome and Siena

On the basis of new documents and a detailed analysis of its fabric, the article examines the architecture of the Palazzo Francesconi at Siena, one of the many buildings traditionally attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi in his hometown, but never yet subjected to any detailed study. After a summary discussion of the chronology of the building, closely linked to the fortunes of its patron, and after firmly establishing that the work began in 1520, the author examines its architecture in detail. She points out the close links with architectural research in Rome, and especially in the circle of Leo X, in the second decade of the sixteenth century, but also the differences and similarities with the contemporary context in Siena itself, from the viewpoint of plan, use of materials, design of the main façade and type of arcaded courtyard.
In the second part of her article the author presents some hypotheses on the configuration of the initial project, which was only partially put into practice, and reviews the successive changes in programme. The regular plan and the façade with superimposed orders – a case unique of its kind in Siena in the first half of the sixteenth century –, the patron Bernardino Francesconi’s network of political and family contacts, the dating, personal relations with the Sienese artistic environment, and the traces identified in other projects of the architect and in some of his drawings, permit the author to argue convincingly for the project’s attribution to Peruzzi. A less schematic division of the chronology of Peruzzi’s activity as an architect, traditionally separated into an ante 1527 in Rome and a post 1527 in Siena, results from this. The article thus suggests a greater mobility of Baldassarre and lends force to the idea that he continued to have relations with Siena throughout his career, as would also be confirmed by other episodes recalled in the article.

Summary of the report submitted to the ESRC on factors affecting recruitment to courses in the less widely taught languages

The context is the national problem of recruitment to university language courses, and particularly to those languages not usually taught in school, the less widely taught (LWT) languages.

Objectives
The impetus for the research came from an unexpected outcome of the ATLAS project - the discovery that 40% of the school students surveyed expressed an interest in starting a new language at university. However less than 1% of HE students study LWT languages. The research aimed to gather information about factors which influence recruitment to university courses in the LWT languages and make suggestions as to ways of tackling the problem of low recruitment.

Methods
Data was collected by means of questionnaires, focus groups, interviews and from existing relevant research. Four groups were targeted; - school students from year 10 -12 in two state schools, one a Language College (LC) and one not; their language teachers; university LWT language students (of Dutch, Arabic and Scandinavian languages) and their teachers. As the research progressed it was found helpful to interview also sixth form students and undergraduates who were not studying languages.

Questions for pupils and students explored family and academic background, achievement in, and attitudes towards, language study and knowledge of career and progression options in all languages. For language teachers, they covered pedagogical method, perceptions of the reasons for the decline in recruitment to language courses, knowledge of progression routes and teaching conditions. For university LWT language teachers they also included criteria for recruitment, categorising students, and expectations of new recruits. A sixth form careers advisor was also interviewed.

Findings
Analysis of the data from the university LWT students and their teachers found there were two broad categories of HE students on courses in the LWT languages. They were idealists, influenced by affective factors, and pragmatists, motivated by the practical benefits of learning the target language, (TL).

The idealists may be divided into sub-categories: 1 “Traditional” students, i.e. 18-20 year olds, from state schools, continuing the study of a language, or another subject, begun in school, and adding a new language out of interest; 2 Students with family connections in the country of the target language: 3 Mature students returning to education out of an interest in the language and culture of a particular country: 4 Students from abroad wanting to extend their multilingualism.

The pragmatists may also be sub-divided: 1 “Traditional” students switching courses with the hope that the new course will be more suitable for them; 2 Students from abroad wanting to convert their knowledge of the TL into a degree; 3 Mature students studying for a postgraduate degree, with an academic interest in the TL.

In the departments interviewed there was little or no effective attempt made to recruit students.

The main factors affecting adversely affecting recruitment to LWT languages, were found to be
1 Negative experience of language learning (LL) at school,
2 Lack information about LWT courses and their progression possibilities.
3 Alternative career aspirations, or lack of them.
4 Whether the pupil has an idealistic or pragmatic attitude towards education.
5 The availability (or not) of courses.

The evidence from schools revealed that, predictably, pupils from the LC were more positive about language learning, referring to enjoyment, feelings of achievement, appreciation of teachers and teaching methods and parental support. With pupils in the non-language specialist secondary school, enjoyment and appreciation of teaching method had low scores. Some pupils in both sets expressed an interest in taking up a new language at university (66% in the LC and 25% in the non LC). Their reasons were not job-related but to do with excitement, interest, travel and meeting people. The most popular languages for starting “ab initio”, were Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Portuguese, Japanese, Urdu and Arabic.

There was a wide-spread lack of knowledge about career opportunities. Teaching and tourism were incorrectly regarded as the normal career progression for language graduates. Only a quarter mention school as a source of information for progression routes and career opportunities. For most, family and friends were the main source of information.

The most frequently cited reason for not continuing language study was dissatisfaction with the content and method of GCSE language courses. The research investigated the current so-called “communicative” model and found it was failing to satisfy the better pupils and failing to interest the average and less able students.

Other demotivating factors were the irrelevance, to their lives, of the languages offered (e.g. French and German), and compulsion to take one specific language

Recommendations
Early imaginative experiences are a strong motivator. The current policy of the government to introduce languages into primary schools should concentrate on this aspect of cultural and language tasters. The inspirational approach needs to be continued in the early years of the secondary school. Primary and secondary schools should encourage exploration of the world through open-ended projects.

By year 9, information about careers and study opportunities, including in LWT languages, should be made available to all pupils. The case for transferable skills should be stressed. There is a chance of influencing those pupils who are narrowing choices in the upper years of the secondary school. Given the power of their influence, parents need to be better informed and university language departments need to be energetic and realistic in their marketing efforts.

For most pupils in England, the choice of languages offered is very limited. Repeatedly, the pupils interviewed said they want wider choices. An imaginative solution will have to be found to provide them.

Finally, and most urgently, there is a need for a reappraisal of the content and method of teaching the current GCSE MFL syllabuses and the “communicative competence” theory underpinning them.

Terry King,
Research Fellow,
The Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching,
UCL, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, WC1E 6BT
terry.king@ucl.ac.uk Phone 02076791939