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Region, security and the return of history -- Contents -- Region, Security and the Return of History -- Critiquing ASEAN -- The Convergence Era -- Security and Talk -- Regionalism in Europe -- Recognizing Difference -- Difference in the Regional Conversation -- The Historian -- Excess, Islam -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- About the Author.

This paper examines the possibility of constructing an alternative national narrative of Palestine's past and of regional heritage based on current scholarship and ongoing discoveries that would affirm the Palestinian people's continuous existence in their land and offer a more constructive approach to their identity. Palestinian self-understanding, as reflected in traditions, public assumptions, educational curricula and tourist information, needs to engage in what scholarly work has to offer, and must benefit from it to retrieve a more inclusive account of the past. The paper first examines how ancient Palestinian history has been lost and destroyed by old traditions as well as by appropriative Western and Zionist claim systems. The paper also suggests future approaches and recommends priorities for research that bear on this effort.

The volatile social status of older neighbourhoods has been a concern of both scholars and politicians for some time. Three competing hypotheses, representing different interpretations of past trends and contrasting scenarios for the future, have dominated recent research: the impoverishment (decline), élite (gentrified) and persistence (stability) models. This paper examines these three models with respect to changing income distributions between and within Canadian metropolitan areas and their inner cities from 1950 to 1985. All three hypotheses are found to be wanting. It is shown that the direction of change in inner cities differs markedly among the metropolitan areas, and that while inner-city-suburban contrasts continue to grow in most cities, in a few places these contrasts are overwhelmed by internal diversity and by new clusters of suburban poverty and inner-city wealth. The emerging ecology of income and social status is much more complex and variable than any single hypothesis or research paradigm can encompass.

The objective of this paper is to present the main characteristics of the public employment system in Brazil, focusing on its history, scope and current coverage. It seeks to contribute to the debate on social and employment policies, especially as regards creating job opportunities that help people escape from poverty. A conceptual caveat: throughout the paper, the expression employment policies is used in a narrow sense to encompass policies whose specific objectives promote direct and explicit actions within the labour market (Barbosa and Moretto, 1998: 20). The paper therefore omits other policies that act on macroeconomic factors, labour relations, access to social security and healthcare. While these greatly influence the level and quality of employment in the economy, their actions are beyond the scope of the paper. On the other hand, regulation of certain aspects of working conditions and wages has been regarded as falling within the scope of employment policy whenever the goal of such regulation was to affect labour market outcomes directly. This includes setting a minimum wage, for example, but it excludes workplace health and safety standards. The term public employment system is reserved for the set of employment policies that are seen as acting together to ensure individuals' entry or reintegration into the labour market. The paper is divided into three parts. The first outlines the history of employment-related government policies, from the compensation scheme for newly terminated employees and supplemental pay to the design of what it known as the employment system. The second section maps out the scope of existing employment policies and points to the limitations of the public employment system as currently understood by the Brazilian government; it also presents selected indicators concerning the public system's coverage relative to the Brazilian labour market. The final section highlights a number of issues faced by the public employment system today as regards its ability to reintegrate ...

Despite its many challenges and limitations the concept of in situ upgrading of informal settlements has become one of the most favoured approaches to the housing crisis in the 'Global South'. Due to its inherent principles of incremental in situ development, prevention of relocations, protection of local livelihoods and democratic participation and cooperation, this approach is often perceived to be more sustainable than other housing approaches that often rely on quantitative housing delivery and top down planning methodologies. While this study does not question the benefits of the in situ upgrading approach, it seeks to identify problems of its practical implementation within a specific national and local context. The study discusses the origin and importance of this approach on the basis of a review of international housing policy development and analyses the broader political and social context of the incorporation of this approach into South African housing policy. It further uses insights from a recent case study in Cape Town to determine complications and conflicts that can arise when applying in situ upgrading of informal settlements in a complex local context. On that basis benefits and limitations of the in situ upgrading approach are specified and prerequisites for its successful implementation formulated. ; Trotz vieler Herausforderungen und Beschränkungen gilt das Konzept des in situ upgrading informeller Siedlungen als eine der wichtigsten Herangehensweisen an die Wohnraumkrise im "globalen Süden". Aufgrund seiner immanenten Prinzipien einer schrittweisen Entwicklung an Ort und Stelle, der Vermeidung von Umsiedlungen, dem Erhalt lokaler Existenzgrundlagen sowie demokratischer Beteiligung und Kooperation, wird oftmals angenommen, dass diese Herangehensweise nachhaltiger ist, als eine quantitativ ausgerichtete Wohnraumversorgung und Top-Down-Planungsansätze. Während diese Studie die Vorteile des in situ upgrading nicht in Frage stellt, zielt sie darauf ab, Probleme der praktischen Umsetzung dieses Ansatzes in einem spezifischen nationalen und lokalen Kontext zu identifizieren. Die Studie diskutiert die Herkunft und die Bedeutung des in situ upgrading auf der Grundlage einer Rückschau auf die Entwicklung internationaler Wohnraumpolitik und analysiert den politischen und sozialen Kontext der Einbettung dieses Ansatzes in die südafrikanische Wohnraumpolitik. Darüber hinaus macht sie sich Einblicke einer kürzlich durchgeführten Fallstudie in Kapstadt zunutze, um Probleme und Konflikte zu erfassen, die bei der Umsetzung des in situ upgrading in einem komplexen lokalen Kontext entstehen können. Auf dieser Grundlage werden die Vorteile wie auch die Beschränkungen des in situ upgrading näher spezifiziert und zentrale Voraussetzungen für eine erfolgreiche Umsetzung des Konzeptes formuliert.

This paper looks at the residential location of cultural workers in the smallest Canadian cities, with the primary goal of understanding the factors making some more successful than others in attracting them. The study examines employment in 13 cultural industries in 109 small Canadian urban areas using data drawn from the 2006 Canadian census. Six explanatory factors are put forward and entered into a regression model to explain the location of cultural workers in small places: size, location with respect to metropolitan areas, work structure, amenities, elderly populations and public-sector choices. The results suggest that, beyond industry-specific production processes, the location of cultural workers in small cities is also driven by residential and lifestyle preferences.