Translocal assemblages: Space, power and social movements

In this paper, I deploy an analytic of ‘translocal assemblage’ as a means for conceptualising space and power in social movements. I offer a relational topology that is open to how actors within movements construct different spatial imaginaries and practices in their work. In using the prefix ‘translocal’, I am signifying three orientations. First, translocal assemblages are composites of place-based social movements which exchange ideas, knowledge, practices, materials and resources across sites. Second, assemblage is an attempt to emphasise that translocal social movements are more than just the connections between sites. Sites in translocal assemblages have more depth than the notion of ‘node’ or ‘point’ suggests – as connoted by network – in terms of their histories, the labour required to produce them, and their inevitable capacity to exceed the connections between other groups or places in the movement. Third, they are not simply a spatial category, output, or resultant formation, but signify doing, performance and events. I examine the potential of assemblage to offer an alternative account to that of the ‘network’, the predominant and often de facto concept used in discussions of the spatiality of social movements. I draw on examples from one particular translocal assemblage based in and beyond Mumbai which campaigns on housing within informal settlements: Slum/Shack Dwellers International.     

Living through the tsunami: Vulnerability and generosity on a volatile earth

How might geographers respond ‘generously’ to a disaster on the scale of the Indian Ocean tsunami? Critical geographers and other left intellectuals have chosen to stress the way pre-existing social forces conditioned human vulnerability, and have implied that ordinary people ‘here’ were implicated in the suffering of others ‘there’ through their positioning in chains of causality. Critics have also sought to expose the bias, unjustness and inappropriateness of post-tsunami patterns of donation and programs of aid and recovery. A supplement to this mode of critique is offered in the form of a view of disasters and human vulnerability that hinges on the idea of the self as ‘radically passive’: that is, as inherently receptive to both the stimuli that cause suffering, and to the demands of others who are suffering. All forms of thought – including geography and disaster studies should themselves be seen as ‘vulnerable’ and responsive to the impact to disasters. The idea that every ‘self’ bears the trace of past disasters – and past gifts of others – forms the basis of a vision of bodies and communities as always already ‘fractured’ by disaster – in ways which resist being ‘brought to light’. This offers a way of integrating human and physical geographies through a shared acknowledgement of what is unknowable and absent. It is also suggestive that gratitude might be an appropriate response to a sense of indebtedness to others – for who we are, as much as for what we have done.     

New insights into the origin and migration of brines in deep Devonian aquifers, Alberta, Canada

Analysis of hydraulic heads and chemical compositions of Devonian formation waters in the west central part of the Alberta Basin, Canada, characterizes the origin of formation waters and migration of brines. The Devonian succession in the study area lies 2000–5000 m below the ground surface, and has an approximate total thickness of 1000 m and an average slope of 15 m/km. Four Devonian aquifers are present in the study area, which form two aquifer systems [i.e., a Middle–Upper Devonian aquifer system (MUDAS) consisting of the Elk Point and Woodbend–Beaverhill Lake aquifers, and an Upper Devonian aquifer system (UDAS) consisting of the Winterburn and Wabamun aquifers]. The Ireton is an effective aquitard between these two systems in the eastern parts of the study area. The entire Devonian succession is confined below by efficient aquitards of the underlying Cambrian shales and/or the Precambrian basement, and above by overlying Carboniferous shales of the Exshaw and Lower Banff Formations.The formation water chemistry shows that the Devonian succession contains two distinct brine types: a ‘heavy brine,’ located updip, defined approximately by TDS >200 g/l, and a ‘light brine’ with TDS <200 g/l. Hydraulic head distributions suggest that, presently, the ‘light brine’ attempts to flow updip, thereby pushing the ‘heavy brine’ ahead. The interface between the two brines is lobate and forms large-scale tongues that are due to channeled flow along high-permeability pathways. Geological and hydrogeochemical data suggest that the following processes determined the present composition of the ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ brines: original seawater, evaporation beyond gypsum but below halite saturation, dolomitization, clay dehydration, gypsum dewatering, thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR), and halite dissolution. The influx of meteoric (from the south) and metamorphic (from the west) waters can be recognized only in the ‘light brine.’ Albitization can be unequivocally identified only in the ‘heavy brine.’ The ‘heavy brine’ may be residual Middle Devonian evaporitic brine from the Williston Basin or the Elk Point Basin, or it may have originated from partial dissolution of thick, laterally extensive Middle Devonian evaporite deposits to the east of the study area. The ‘light brine’ most probably originated from dilution of ‘heavy brine’ in post-Laramide times.     

Ecological restoration, cultural preferences and the negotiation of ‘nativeness’ in Australia

The paper addresses cultural assumptions about ‘nativeness’ and ‘belonging’ to place as they are implicated in notions of ‘ecological restoration’. Given the centrality of complex notions of ‘indigeneity’ to the issue of what ecological ‘restoration’ means in Australia, this is a rich area for cultural and historical analysis. Case materials illustrate the negotiated and ambiguous nature of Australian ideas about what ‘belongs’ ecologically and culturally across the broad continent of this relatively young post-Settler nation. We seek to foreground these issues through consideration of what ‘restoring’ nature might mean in the context of debates about native plants, the re-introduction of an iconic species of ground dwelling bird, the removal of cane toads that are demonised as highly ‘alien’, and the multiple ways in which the dingo is regarded ambiguously as both native and a ‘pest’ that needs to be controlled and culled. By showing how ‘restoration’ can be understood and mobilised in a variety of ways – in terms of the ‘re-naturing’, ‘re-valuing’ and/or ‘repatriating’ of indigenous species, as well as impassioned rejection of ‘exotics’ – we emphasise the importance of social science for building a well-grounded sense of how environmental management priorities and approaches are informed by a wider set of cultural assumptions.     

Isotope provinces, mechanisms of generation and sources of the continental crust in the Central Asian mobile belt: geological and isotopic evidence

The available geological, geochronological and isotopic data on the felsic magmatic and related rocks from South Siberia, Transbaikalia and Mongolia are summarized to improve our understanding of the mechanisms and processes of the Phanerozoic crustal growth in the Central Asian mobile belt (CAMB). The following isotope provinces have been recognised: ‘Precambrian’ (T_DM=3.3–2.9 and 2.5–0.9 Ga) at the microcontinental blocks, ‘Caledonian’ (T_DM=1.1–0.55 Ga), ‘Hercynian’ (T_DM=0.8–0.5 Ma) and ‘Indosinian’ (T_DM=0.3 Ga) that coincide with coeval tectonic zones and formed at 570–475, 420–320 and 310–220 Ma. Continental crust of the microcontinents is underlain by, or intermixed with, ‘juvenile’ crust as evidenced by its isotopic heterogeneity. The continental crust of the Caledonian, Hercynian and Indosinian provinces is isotopically homogeneous and was produced from respective juvenile sources with addition of old crustal material in the island arcs or active continental margin environments. The crustal growth in the CAMB had episodic character and important crust-forming events took place in the Phanerozoic. Formation of the CAMB was connected with break up of the Rodinia supercontinent in consequence of creation of the South-Pacific hot superplume. Intraplate magmatism preceding and accompanying permanently other magmatic activity in the CAMB was caused by influence of the long-term South-Pacific plume or the Asian plume damping since the Devonian.     

Jewish settlement and its economic impact on the West Bank, 1967–1987

This paper focuses on the process of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and its economic consequences in the period from 1967 to the outbreak of the Intifada late in 1987. It attempts to show that this process is the practical application of Israeli objectives which are based on expansion and occupation of neighbouring Arab lands, facilitated by the fashioning of a dual or bifurcate economy there.After the war of June 1967, Israeli occupation authorities started to draw up plans with a view to settling Jews in the West Bank. There has been an increase in the numbers of settlements and settlers, estimated at 122 and 52,000 respectively in 1987. The pattern of settlement distribution is randomly dispersed, although it is concentrated in a region located to the NW of Jerusalem. The settlement began in the Jordan valley and extended gradually westward in the highlands.Jewish settlement has affected economic development of the West Bank, where there were many constraints on Arab agriculture and industry. Inequality is evident between settlers and Palestinians in an economy that has been structurally bifurcated: although settlers represent about 3% of total population of the West Bank, their economic activity constitutes at least 35% of the GDP of the West Bank.     

Jewish settlement of Hebron: The place and the other1

Kiryat-Arba and Jewish Hebron are communities planted in the most heated front of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This paper examines how the Hebron Jewish settlers' collective memory interprets the `truth' of Hebron as a typical Israeli Place that reveals Zionism in its purest form. Today the populations of Kiryat-Arba and of the Hebron Jewish enclaves number about 5,000 and 500, respectively. Kiryat-Arba functions as an economic and educational centre for the nearby Jewish settlements in the region. Rejecting the segregative concept of a separate Jewish settlement overlooking Hebron, the settlers treat Kiryat-Arba as part of Hebron. Some 70,000 Palestinians live in Hebron, many more residing in neighbouring towns and villages, cutting Hebron – Kiryat–Arba off from the nearest Jewish urban centres of Jerusalem and Beer-Sheva. The settlers initiated the narrative of `Return' to the city after the massacre of Jews in 1929 in the city, as the key symbol Symbolically, the first place Hebron Jews reidentified with was its ancient Jewish graveyard. Today, IDF soldiers protect settlers and their visitors who want to tour Hebron. The huge gulf between `metaphorical Hebron' as a symbolic centre and `actual Hebron' as a poor development town creates tensions fuelling violent events. The Jews in Hebron take the Israeli logic of `Place' making to its extreme, thus testing concepts of Israeli territoriality. If Israeli society rejects Hebron as a `Place' constructed from intense memories and violent national encounters, it would leave the Hebron Jews out of the so-called Israeli normalcy.     

The Caesura: remarks on Wittgenstein’s interruption of theory, or, why practices elude explanation

This paper aims to bring the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein into contact with the growing interest and concerns over the status of practice, performance and non-representational ‘theory’ within human geography. Drawing predominantly on Wittgenstein’s later work, the aim is to use Wittgenstein’s comments to illuminate how certain presuppositions and idealisations over the nature of understanding and meaning are or have been built into our (social scientific) modes and methods of explanation. Thus Wittgenstein’s work is used as a diagnosis––a diagnosis of how the modus operandi of giving an explanation can, and often does, prevent us from acknowledging the practical and the performative, from witnessing the taking-place of meaning and understanding. The paper carries out this task by focusing first on Wittgenstein’s critique of the role of ‘rules’ and ‘rule-following’ in the construction of social scientific accounts and secondly, through a consideration of the implications of Wittgenstein’s ‘scenic’ style of writing through which he attempts to deconstruct the epistemo-methodological idealisations and representationalist desires of social analysis. The claim here is not that Wittgenstein’s work provides the solution to the problematics which confront us in considering the status (or otherwise) of practice, but rather that his work may provide us with other ways of going-on, ones more sensitive to the eventful, creative, excessive and distinctly uncertain realms of action.     

The impact of boundaries on patterns of rural settlement: The case of Samaria (Israel)

The superimposition of the Jordanian-Israeli boundary line, in 1949, on the western and northern fringes of the Samarian Highlands, created a frontier zone in which the geographical characteristics of the rural settlements underwent rapid changes. These changes reflected two main trends. One, spontaneous uncontrolled consequent processes-on the Jordanian side of the frontier — such as de-population, with the development of anomalies in the demographic structure of the remaining population, transformation in the pattern of agriculture and other economic activities, changes in site and layout of villages as well as in their spatial organization. Two, on the Israeli side, a carefully planned and strictly controlled new spatial pattern of rural settlement with rapid increase in population, intensification and expansion of economic activities and conspicuous changes in the landscape.The examination and comparison of the effects of the newly formed border, with its extreme separation functions, under two contrasting political and administrative systems, presents an instructive lesson in Political Geography. So does the study of the geographical transformation processes which have been taking place in the same area since the removal, in 1967, of this boundary line.     

Further evidence for 1.85 Ga metamorphism in the Central Zone of the North China Craton: SHRIMP U–Pb dating of zircon from metamorphic rocks in the Lushan area, Henan Province

This paper reports SHRIMP zircon U–Pb dating of Precambrian supracrustal and granitic rocks from the Lushan area, Henan Province, in the southern portion of the Central Zone (also referred to as the Trans-North China Orogen) of the North China Craton. A graphite–garnet–sillimanite gneiss (Sample TW0006/1) of the Shangtaihua ‘Group’ gives a range of inherited zircon ages from 2.73 to 2.26 Ga and a metamorphic zircon age of 1.84 ± 0.07 Ga. A garnet-bearing gneissic granitoid (Sample TWJ358/1), which is considered to intrude the Shangtaihua ‘Group’, gives a magmatic zircon age of 2.14 ± 0.02 Ga and a metamorphic zircon age of 1.87 Ga. The metamorphic zircon ages of 1.87–1.84 Ga obtained in this study indicate that an important tectonothermal event occurred at the end of the Paleoproterozoic in the Lushan area. This supports the southern continuation of a Central Zone in the North China Craton that workers have recently considered to result from continent–continent collision. It is also evident that the Shangtaihua ‘Group’ was formed during the Paleoproterozoic (between 2.26 and 2.14 Ga), and not during the Archean, as previously considered.     

The genesis and significance of ‘hummocky moraine’: Evidence from the Isle of Skye, Scotland

The range of genetic and climatic interpretations of Scottish ‘hummocky moraine’ is reviewed, and new data are presented from the Isle of Skye, western Scotland, which are used as the basis of a genetic classification. ‘Hummocky moraine’ on Skye is shown to consist of three principal sediment-landform associations: (1) recessional moraines; (2) chaotic ice-stagnation moraines; and (3) drumlins and fluted moraines. The recessional moraines consist of transverse moraine ridges and chains of mounds, and were formed by a combination of glaciotectonics and debris accumulation at active ice margins. Second, chaotic moraines consist of randomly-distributed hummocks, mounds and rim-ridges and record deposition in contact with inactive ice. Finally, drumlins and fluted moraines are longitudinally-oriented subglacial bedforms formed by a combination of lodgement and sediment deformation. Individual occurrences of ‘hummocky moraine’ may comprise one, two or all of these associations. The detailed study and differentiation of Scottish ‘hummocky moraine’ provides a valuable source of information on former glacier dynamics and landscape change.     

Deep-rooted piercement structures in deep sedimentary basins — Manifestations of supercritical water generation at depth?

Deep-rooted enigmatic piercement structures in sedimentary basins, including ‘mud volcanoes’, ‘shale diapirs’, ‘salt diapirs’, and ‘asphalt volcanoes’, range in size from less than 1 km², surface area, up to 64 km², and have often an unknown depth of penetration due to incomplete imaging. We propose that they form a family associated with fluid flow. Our argument is based partly on their inferred location (above deep faults) and on the chemical analysis of emitted products, which includes liquid clays, brines and other substances from salt diapirs, and asphalt and light oils from the asphalt volcanoes. We explain these compositions by chemical alteration caused partly by supercritical water, a phase of water existent at high pressure and temperature, locally and temporarily achieved at depths generally beyond 10 km below surface, i.e., at the sediment–crust boundary. Our hypothesis overcomes some of the problems with interpreting fluid flow products, which are otherwise very difficult to explain. In case this hypothesis can be further verified, the family could perhaps be called ‘hydrothermally associated piercement structures’.     

Comments on: Carbonatites in a subduction system: The Pleistocene alvikites from Mt. Vulture (southern Italy) by d'Orazio et al., (2007)

[D'Orazio, M., Innocenti, F., Tonarini, S., Doglioni, C., 2007. Carbonatites in a subduction system: the Pleistocene alvikites from Mt. Vulture (southern Italy). Lithos 98, 313–334] describe a new finding of alvikite Ca-carbonatite at Vulture. They stress its importance as being the first carbonatite to be discovered in a subduction environment. They suggest that this rock is different from the other Italian carbonatites, considered as ‘rocks sharing a carbonatitic affinity’, which are radiogenic and chemically diluted by addition of sedimentary limestone. They note that Vulture ‘alvikite’ is not diluted and is very unradiogenic with respect to other Italian carbonatites. However, they maintain that Vulture ‘alvikite’ carbonate is derived from subducted limestones. We present an account of the field relationships relating to the above-mentioned rocks, setting the geological and petrographic records straight and describing pyroclastic rocks. We did not find that these rocks are formed from alvikite dykes or lava, but instead recognised them to be a continuous blanket of ‘flaggy’, welded tuff. We found that the rocks consist of physically separated melilitite and carbonatite juvenile lapilli settled into a carbonatite ash matrix form the rock. We disagree with the geochemical interpretation of the rock by [D'Orazio, M., Innocenti, F., Tonarini, S., Doglioni, C., 2007. Carbonatites in a subduction system: the Pleistocene alvikites from Mt. Vulture (southern Italy). Lithos 98, 313–334], and are particularly concerned by their conclusion of its carbonate origin. We remark on the rock's geodynamic assignment in the frame of an extensional tectonic setting, also referring to the other Italian carbonatite occurrences. We reject any ad hoc modified subduction as a direct source of Vulture and Italian carbonatites.     

NEHRP soil classification and estimation of 1-D site effect of Dehradun fan deposits using shear wave velocity

Shear wave velocity of the near surface soil at nearly 50 sites in the sub Himalayan mountain exit covering Doon fan deposits, was determined using Multi-channel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW), a seismic reflection technique. Based on the average shear wave velocity of the upper 30 m soil column, sites in the Dehradun fan are predominantly classified as class ‘D’ (180–360 m/s). Similarly, sites located on the northwestern, eastern and southeastern sides of the fan deposit have shear wave velocities (in the upper 30 m soil) greater than 360 m/s, thereby classifying them as class ‘C’ (360–760 m/s) in accordance with NEHRP provisions. Some of the sites towards the southwestern side of the fan deposits had average shear wave velocities less than 180 m/s and could be classified as soil class ‘E’. One dimensional site effects, including amplification and dynamic period were calculated for the majority of the sites. However, some of the representative suite of sites across the north–south profile of Dehradun fan has been discussed here. Although the attenuation is greater on the southwestern side of the Dehradun fan deposits (i.e. thicker, low velocity sediments) and the sites had been classified as class ‘D’ and ‘E’ but the site amplification tends to be greater in the northern and northwestern part of the city due to large impedance contrast with in the near surface soils.     

Modeling outflow from the Ernest Henry Fe oxide Cu–Au deposit: implications for ore genesis and exploration

The Ernest Henry Fe oxide Cu–Au (IOCG) deposit (>ca. 1.51 Ga) is hosted by breccia produced during the waning stages of an evolving hydrothermal system that formed a number of tens of metres to a kilometre scale, pre- and syn-ore alteration halos, although no demonstrable patterns have been attributed to fluids expelled through the outflow zones. However, the recognition of a population of hypersaline fluid inclusions representing the ‘spent’ fluids after Cu–Au deposition at Ernest Henry provides the basis to model the geochemical characteristics of the deposit's outflow zones. Geochemical modeling at 300 °C was undertaken at both high and low fluid/rock ratios via FLUSH models involving three host rock types: (1) granite, (2) calc–silicate rock, and (3) graphitic schist. In models run at high fluid/rock ratios, all rock types are essentially fluid-buffered, and produce an albite–quartz–hematite–barite-rich assemblage, although in low fluid–rock environments, the pH, redox, and geochemical character of the host rock exerts a greater influence on the mineralogy of the alteration assemblages (e.g., andradite, Fe–chlorite, and magnetite). Significant sulphide mineralization was predicted in graphitic schist where sphalerite occurred in both low- and high-porosity models, which indicates the possibility of an association between high-temperature IOCG mineralization and lower temperature base metal mineralization.Cooling experiments (from 300 to 100 °C) using the ‘spent fluids’ predict early high-T (300–200 °C) Na-, Ca-, Fe-, and Mn-rich, magnetite-bearing hydrothermal associations, whereas with cooling to below 200 °C, and with progressive fluid–rock interaction, the system produces rhodochrosite-bearing, hematite–quartz–muscovite–barite-rich assemblages. These results show that the radical geochemical and mineralogical changes associated with cooling and progressive fluid influx are likely to be accompanied by major transformations in the geophysical expression (e.g., spectral and magnetic character) of the alteration in the outflow zone, and highlight the potential link between magnetite- and hematite-bearing IOCG hydrothermal systems.     

Albian and Cenomanian palaeobathymetry in the Pieniny Klippen Belt Basin, Polish Carpathians

During the Albian and Cenomanian, the Pieniny Klippen Belt Basin, a part of the Carpathian geosynclinal domain, showed a clear differentiation into an axial deepest part represented by the Pieniny and Branisko successions and two marginal zones, a southern (Nizna and Haligovce successions, in Slovakia) and a northern zone (in Poland and Slovakia) represented by the Niedzica, Czertezik and Czorsztyn successions, becoming progressively more shallow towards the north. Five palaeobathymetric foraminiferal associations have been distinguished in the axial and northern marginal zone sediments of the Klippen Basin, corresponding to: ‘A’ shelf and upper slope: relatively large proportion of nodosariids and miliolids (Czorsztyn succession); ‘B1’ middle part of slope; oligotaxic planktonic assemblage dominant (Niedzica through Branisko successions and northern part of the Pieniny succession); ‘B2’ middle part of slope: larger proportion of agglutinated foraminifers, association characteristic of sediments influenced by turbidites (submarine flyschoid channels in the Branisko succession); ‘Cl’ middle and lower parts of slope: scarce microfauna, Hedbergella and textularids dominant (Pieniny succession, middle part); ‘C2’ slope/abyssal plain transition, close to foraminiferal lysocline (probably about 3500m below sea level): scarce specimens corroded and slightly dissolved (Pieniny succession, southern part).     

Palaeomagnetism of the Loch Doon Granite Complex, Southern Uplands of Scotland: The Late Caledonian palaeomagnetic record and an Early Devonian episode of True Polar Wander

The Southern Uplands terrane is an Ordovician–Silurian back-arc/foreland basin emplaced at the northern margin of the Iapetus Ocean and intruded by granite complexes including Loch Doon (408.3 ± 1.5 Ma) during Early Devonian times. Protracted cooling of this 130 km³ intrusion recorded magnetic remanence comprising a predominant (‘A’) magnetisation linked to initial cooling with dual polarity and mean direction D / I = 237 / 64° (α₉₅ = 4°, palaeopole at 316°E, 21°N). Subsidiary magnetisations include Mesozoic remanence correlating with extensional tectonism in the adjoining Irish Sea Basin (‘B’, D / I = 234/− 59°) and minority populations (‘C’, D / I = 106/− 2° and ‘D’, D / I = 199/1°) recording emplacement of younger ( 395 Ma) granites in adjoining terranes and the Variscan orogenic event. The ‘A’ directions have an arcuate distribution identifying anticlockwise rotation during cooling. A comparable rotation is identified in the Orthotectonic Caledonides to the north and the Paratectonic Caledonides to the south following closure of Iapetus. Continental motion from midsoutherly latitudes ( 40°S) at 408 Ma to equatorial palaeolatitudes by  395 Ma is identified and implies minimum rates of continental movement between 430 and 390 Ma of 30–70 cm/year, more than double maximum rates induced by plate forces and interpreted as a signature of true polar wander. Silurian–Devonian palaeomagnetic data from the British–Scandinavian Caledonides define a 430–385 Ma closed loop comparable to the distributed contemporaneous palaeomagnetic poles from Gondwana. They reconcile pre-430 Ma and post-380 Ma APW from this supercontinent and show that Laurentia–Baltica–Avalonia lay to the west of South America with a relict Rheic Ocean opening to the north which closed to produce Variscan orogeny by a combination of pivotal closure and right lateral transpression.     

‘Competing Regionalisation’ Through Territory and Cluster Networks: Experiences from Post-Socialist Eastern Germany

‘New regionalism’ has become a buzzword in current debates on regions and regional governance. Much of this discussion revolves around the ‘right’ scale and structure of regional governance, implying changes to the ways in which the conventional main variables institutions, hierarchy and territoriality interact to circumscribe ‘regions’. The main difference between ‘old’ and ‘new’ regionalism is the degree of variability and responsiveness to locational strategies by businesses, i.e. essentially relative regional competitiveness, and thus by implication the question of territoriality and boundedness. Evidence ‘on the ground’ among policy makers, however, suggests that the changes may go further than theoretical arguments with their emphasis on territory and scale (Brenner, 2000, 2003) are suggesting. Much of the difference revolves around the distinction between technocratic, planning focused and firmly institutionalised understandings of territorially fixed regions within a government structure on the one hand, and more purpose driven, flexible, and inherently temporary and variable arrangements outside fixed government structures, whose territoriality is composed of the varying spatial background of the participating actors. Here, regional territoriality is an incidental rather than determining factor. The cleavage between ‘old’ and ‘new’ regionalism has become particularly obvious in post-socialist eastern Germany, where staid forms of traditional institutionalism and territorial governance had been transferred from ‘west’ to ‘east’. Increasingly, these arrangements appeared inadequate to respond to the vast and spatially widely varying challenges of post-socialist restructuring. The result has been a tentative emergence of new forms of regionalisation in between, and in addition to, the established ‘old regionalist’ approaches. Evidence from eastern Germany suggests that ‘new’ is not necessarily replacing ‘old’ regionalism’ in the wake of a shift in paradigm, but rather that the two coexist, with new forms of regionalisation sitting within established conventional territorial-administrative arrangements. This points to the emergence of a dual track approach to regionalisation, sometimes covering the same territory, more often relating to variably sized areas that overlap. Both forms of regionalisation aim at an internal and external audience, using varying images and employing different sets of actors when dealing with the two main sources/directions of consumption: internal (local) and external (corporate, competitive). By their very nature, however, these processes are varied and differ between places, rooted in particular local-regional constellations of policy-making pressures, actor personalities and established ways of doing things. This paper examines such processes for two regions in eastern Germany, both with distinctly different economic traditions and geographical contexts, aiming to illustrate the multi-layered process of regionalisation and region making. Inevitably, within the scope of this paper, the study cannot cover all possible models and regionalisation approaches across eastern Germany, because they not only differ between places, but also over time.     

A Triassic large igneous province in the Pontides, northern Turkey: geochemical data for its tectonic setting

A strongly deformed and metamorphosed Triassic oceanic seamount(s) and plateau succession extends as an east–west belt for 1100 km along the Pontides of northern Turkey. This succession, known widely as the Nilüfer unit, consists mainly of metabasic lava and tuff–marble–phyllite association including tectonic slices of ultramafic rock and gabbro. According to the conodont findings the unit formed during the Early to Mid-Triassic, and the isotopic age data indicate that it underwent high-pressure greenschist facies metamorphism during the latest Triassic period. The metavolcanic rocks form over 80% of the sequence. The Nilüfer unit covers an area of 120,000 km², with the volume of mafic lava estimated as 2×10⁵ km³. Such a huge volcanic pile has erupted rapidly in a relatively short period during the Early to Mid-Triassic (approx. 10 Ma). Hypotheses for the origin of the Nilüfer unit include a ‘seamount’, ‘intra-arc and/or fore-arc basin’, ‘oceanic plateau’, and ‘Early Triassic rift’. The geochemistry of metabasites and that of relict magmatic clinopyroxenes indicate that there are two main mafic rock groups in the Nilüfer unit displaying tholeiitic and alkaline affinities. No metabasite and clinopyroxene sample display typical orogenic basalt affinity or a subduction signature. Geochemical data obtained in this study are consistent with the derivation of the metabasites from the topmost extrusive layers of an oceanic plateau (LIP) together with the volcanic rocks of seamount(s).     

Crisis? What crisis? Displacing the spatial imaginary of the fiscal state

This paper argues that there is an immanent and evolving relationship between the prevailing form of taxation and the economic geographies of the state. Despite this, the geographic significance of taxation has been obscured by the language in which its historic transformation tends to be couched. Prevailing fiscal systems tend to be presented as essentially static – institutionally and spatially fixed and routinely inscribed within the fixed boundaries and territories of the ‘sovereign’ fiscal state. Any threat to, or change in the nature or geography of the fiscal state tends to be couched in terms of ‘crisis’ – of negative and discontinuous change. This paper contends that these related and essentially conservative discourses of fiscal geography mask the degree to which fiscal spaces are both multiple and continuously evolving. More importantly, it argues, this fluidity and multiplicity does not threaten the stability and viability of state form, but it is an essential process in its maintenance and reproduction. Running counter to the prevailing discourse of the ‘national economy’, the practice of fiscal geography is an under-analysed but key aspect of the historical evolution and transformation of the imagined geographies of economies.