East-west Division Research Articles

Library of Congress Subject Headings, Dewey Decimal Classification and the Ambiguity of Subject Representation of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in American Knowledge Organization Systems

The paper examines the classification and subject representation of the concepts of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in the context of the knowledge organization, especially historical information, in American research and academic libraries during the Cold War and post-Cold War era. The author argues that classification and subject schemes such as Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) have reflected the concept of the region, generally referred to as Eastern Europe, as an intellectual and political invention, with its historical biases and ambiguous representation. As will be demonstrated, despite the emergence of new nation states and the expansion of the European Union, the concepts of Central and Eastern Europe as separate entities are still alive as if the Cold War’s East-West division had never ended. The paper concludes with the analysis of the latest changes to DDC and LCSH (or lack thereof) to reflect current conditions in the region.

Attempting to Break Binary Oppositions of East and West: Hanan Al-Shaykh’s “I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops”

Abstract Hanan Al-Shaykh’s, “I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops”, calls for cross-cultural dialogue between different cultures. The text explores the cultural tensions that shape an individual’s identity within the postcolonial context. This article examines an encounter in the text between the Moroccan protagonist and her English boyfriend, his sister and his friends in London. Engaging in dialogue between multiple postcolonial theories such as Frantz Fanon’s concept of “absolute depersonalization”, Edward Said’s Orientalism and “contrapuntal consciousness” – Mary Louise Pratt’s theory of transculturation and Homi Bhabha’s notion of “hybridity”, this research studies how the processes of transculturation and hybridity can act to transcend cultural clashes and East–West divisions. The author resorts to using colonial tropes or Orientalist stereotypes to eventually subvert these problems but, at times, this causes ambiguity and contradictions in her text. The female protagonist follows a non-linear trajectory, experiencing various stages before she reaches a hybrid state; these stages involve a fascination with London, cultural clashes, self-assertion and integration, incorporating cultural crossing and hybridity. The female protagonist slips back and forth from one stage to another with all her experiences contributing towards the attainment of cultural dialogue.

Re-evaluating the East-West divide in the European Union

ABSTRACT This introduction argues that the East-West divide in Europe continues to be politically salient since the fall of the Berlin Wall and two decades since the accession of most East Central European (ECE) countries to the European Union. We re-evaluate the nature of the East-West divide in the EU, consider its sources, and examine the interplay between political variation and cross-border economic inequalities. The fundamental question posed here is whether such divisions are persistent, intractable, or transitional. We note that earlier scholarship on the East-West divide emphasised economic divergence as a primary explanatory factor. As relevant as the economy still is, our contribution is to argue that the divide also needs to be assessed against the broader political backdrop of democratic backsliding and new geopolitical developments. Although we find that the East-West divide is still highly salient, the articles here specify how fluid categories are and how variation has emerged – both between and within countries in the ECE region. Finally, the very perception of an East-West divide is politically consequential. If unaddressed, East-West divisions and tensions will impede future reforms of the EU’s internal governance processes and limit its power on the global stage.

EU’s ‘Eastern discontents’ – when ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ politicisation collide – the case of Romania in the future of Europe debate

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, the wave of successive crises that hit the EU has tested the EU’s legitimacy and resulted in increased EU politicisation. In the period between the Brexit referendum up until the 2019 European elections, several CEE member states (such as Poland and Hungary and to a lesser extent Romania) contested the EU for breaching their national sovereignty, claiming that their countries’ values and identities are ‘threatened’ by the EU’s interference. In this article, we analyse the case of Romania’s clashes with the European Commission between 2017 and 2019 on the topic of rule of law backsliding. We analyse these discursive clashes in connection to the country’s first Presidency of the Council, as an illustration of the increased politicisation placed in the overall context of the Future of Europe debates. The empirical part is based on a chronological account of selected qualitative data about how this national-supranational ‘power struggle’ unfolded in the studied period. The findings show that in the case of Romania two forms of politicisation coincided and collided - one that was ‘bottom-up’, marked by highly polarised national politics and an East–West division and another that was ‘top-down’ - defined by the tensions inside EU’s own political dynamics between the Council and the Commission.

Bibliometric Analysis of Top-Ranked European Law Schools’ Research Outputs: an East–West Comparison

The paper deals with a bibliometric analysis of a sample of the top law schools included in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022. An equal number of Western European and Central and Eastern European law schools have been analysed. The results show that both groups follow similar publication patterns. There is a clear tendency to publish in journals controlled by the authors’ universities. Citation rates in the sample are very low, and in line with what has already been found for humanities. There is a clear division between the multidisciplinary and transnational legal journals that are more international and less internationally recognised law reviews focusing on domestic issues. Law clearly follows its own publication pattern, and the East–West division is in this respect negligible: both groups perform equally well (or equally poorly) as far as the metrics indicate.

William of Tyre, Orientalism and the (De)Construction of Latin Identity in Twelfth-century Jerusalem

Abstract This article examines the representation of Jerusalemite identity in William of Tyre’s Historia Ierosolymitana (c.1184). William laments that his contemporaries in Jerusalem did not live up to the standards of their forefathers anymore: they were not wise, virtuous men, but put their own needs before those of the community. In doing so, William makes use of a narrative strategy that is found in the Roman historians Livy and Sallust as well. In the histories of Livy and Sallust, it was contact with the Near East that prompted societal decline. The riches and dolce far niente of the East had, in their eyes, corrupted Roman morals. In William’s work, by contrast, the Eastern Other often functions as a mirror for the Self. This, in combination with William’s emphasis on former generations as reference point for the current generation allows for a much more dynamic interplay of identities than an orientalist binary East-West division.

Population genetic structure of the endemic fish Gambusia marshi from the Cuatro Ciénegas basin and its outflow in Coahuila, Mexico

The valley of Cuatro Ciénegas in Coahuila, Mexico, has the highest degree of local endemism of any habitat in North America. Despite the arid desert climate, the basin harbours an extensive system of permanent streams, wetlands, and spring-fed pools, and is divided into two sub-basins by the central Sierra de San Marcos y Pinos. Microsatellite loci were surveyed to infer the genetic diversity and population structure of Gambusia marshi, a poeciliid fish endemic to the Cuatro Ciénegas basin and the Río Salado de Nadadores in north-east Mexico. Bayesian clustering analysis revealed four genetic populations within G. marshi and a major east–west division corresponding to the Sierra de San Marcos y Pinos. Most sample sites exhibited high levels of genetic differentiation, although there is evidence for recent gene flow between some of these locations. The population of G. marshi in Poza Anteojo is extremely divergent, and appears to represent a remnant of a different historical system. The G. marshi in Poza Anteojo should be considered an independent management unit. Documenting the number and distribution of distinct populations of G. marshi provides additional justification for protecting the Cuatro Ciénegas basin from additional water withdrawals and further homogenization via the construction of additional canals. By analysing the population structure of a widespread species within a region containing many range-restricted and endemic species, these results shed new light on historical connections among aquatic ecosystems and raise awareness of the possibility that units of conservation concern may exist in other, more range-restricted taxa in the Cuatro Ciénegas basin and encourage the assessment of their conservation status. The results also have implications for species in arid regions in other parts of the world that may also harbour as yet unrecognized isolated populations worthy of conservation.

Indicator-based assessment of sustainable energy performance in the European Union

The COVID-19 and the resulting global energy crises highlighted the importance of decarbonization and the necessity of shifting the economy from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources. Sustainable energy transition is also a key element of circular economy, social welfare and justice. In this paper we developed an indicator set and we compiled a composite indicator to measure the performance of the EU Member States regarding the sustainable energy transition between 2007 and 2019. Our results show significant differences which do not follow the usual East-West division of the integration. Both convergence and divergence can be revealed.

Urban Expansion in China: Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Determinants

China’s urbanization has attracted many scholars’ attention due to its significant impact on socioeconomic sustainability. Many studies have explored the spatial pattern and effects of the factors influencing urban expansion. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics integrating spatial and temporal dimensions and the spatial scales of the influencing factors are always ignored. This study applied the framework of exploratory space–time data analysis (ESTDA) to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban expansion across 342 cities in China from 1990 to 2017 and, further, used multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to estimate the effects of influencing factors on urban expansion. We found that urban expansion had an obvious south–north division, and yet the effects of influencing factors usually showed an east–west division. We also found that the dynamic local spatial dependency of urban expansion was accompanied by a volatile coevolution process and inclined to transfer from heterogeneity to homogeneity, and homogeneity tended to be stable. The coevolution of urban expansion between cities and other neighboring ones became stronger with increases in time and regional integration. These findings support the use of customized urban planning for specific regions in different spatial dependence to improve land-use efficiency and coordinate regional development.

Barrier to Gene Flow of Grey Mangrove Avicennia marina Populations in the Malay Peninsula as Revealed From Nuclear Microsatellites and Chloroplast Haplotypes

Contemporary mangrove forest areas took shape historically and their genetic connectivity depends on sea-faring propagules, subsequent settlement, and persistence in suitable environments. Mangrove species world-wide may experience genetic breaks caused by major land barriers or opposing ocean currents influencing their population genetic structure. For Malay Peninsula, several aquatic species showed strong genetic differentiation between East and West coast regions due to the Sunda shelf flooding since the Last Glacial Maximum. In this study genetic diversity and structure of Avicennia marina populations in Malay Peninsula were assessed using nuclear microsatellite markers and chloroplast sequences. Even though all populations showed identical morphological features of A. marina, three evolutionary significant units were obtained with nuclear and cytoplasmic markers. Avicennia marina along a 586 km stretch of the West coast differed strongly from populations along an 80 km stretch of the East coast featuring chloroplast capture of Avicennia alba in an introgressive A. marina. Over and above this expected East-West division, an intra-regional subdivision was detected among A. marina populations in the narrowest region of the Strait of Malacca. The latter genetic break was supported by an amova, structure, and barrier analysis whereas RST > FST indicated an evolutionary signal of long-lasting divergence. Two different haplotypes along the Western coast showed phylogeographic relationship with either a northern or a putative southern lineage, thereby assuming two Avicennia sources facing each other during Holocene occupation with prolonged separation in the Strait of Malacca. Migrate-n model testing supported a northward unidirectional stepping-stone migration route, although with an unclear directionality at the genetic break position, most likely due to weak oceanic currents. Low levels of genetic diversity and southward connectivity was detected for East coast Avicennia populations. We compared the fine-scale spatial genetic structure (FSGS) of Avicennia populations along the exposed coast in the East vs. the sheltered coast in the West. A majority of transects from both coastlines revealed no within-site kinship-based FSGS, although the remoteness of the open sea is important for Avicennia patches to maintain a neighborhood. The results provide new insights for mangrove researchers and managers for future in-depth ecological-genetic-based species conservation efforts in Malay Peninsula.

Magyar közép- és nagyvárosok versenyképességi tipológiája és humán tőkét vonzó potenciálja

In the context of globalization, cities and metropolitan areas are playing an increasingly important role compared to regions, in parallel with growing urban-rural disparities. In addition to economic factors, social and cultural factors that make a city attractive to young, creative populations play a more important role than ever before. The research attempts to typify the fifty-eight Hungarian middle and large sized cities with more than twenty thousand inhabitants on the basis of their infrastructure, as well as their economic and socio-cultural characteristics. It then presents the behaviour of different city types based on additional variables. Relevant variables were selected by principal component analysis, then the investigated settlements were classified into five clusters based on the four principal components. Also, a secondary analysis has been done to examine correlations between cluster membership and demographic characteristics of the member cities (percentage of young people between 20-39, of the educated population, and of population commuting, population size). Regarding cluster membership along with the rate of young people between 20-39 there was no significant difference. Examining the members of the clusters, it can be seen that Budapest plus its agglomeration have an even greater spatial structural effect than expected. Another important result is that the present cluster analysis shows unquestionably the east-west division of Hungary. However, there are also clear developmental breakdowns along the distribution of past or present industrial production.

Mapping perception of China in Central and Eastern Europe

Since the 2008 Beijing Olympic and Global Financial Crisis, the rise of China has been a key topic in the international arena. Capitals in the USA and Western Europe, as leaders of the West, have explicitly expressed their concerns, labelling China as a sharp power, a strategic competitor and a systemic rival. One concern repeatedly raised by Brussels, in recent years, is the potential of deepening the East–West division inside the Union by China’s effort in reinvigorating its relation with countries in Central and Eastern Europe via the 16 + 1 cooperation mechanism. This paper devotes to map the impacts on China perception in the EU member states who are participants in the 16 + 1. Subsequently, it examines whether 16 + 1 has widened the East–West divergence in the EU. Applying public opinion survey data, it is found that the additional communication and cooperation provided by 16 + 1 have not constructed a united identity in Central and Eastern Europe. Basing on the identified differences among Central and Eastern European countries, this paper divides them into four categories: China-friendly, China-neutral, China-polarised and China-sceptic.

COVID-19 outbreak and Urban dynamics: regional variations in India.

India was the second highest COVID-19 affected country in the world with 2.1 million cases by 11th August. This study focused on the spatial transmission of the pandemic among the 640 districts in India over time, and aimed to understand the urban-centric nature of the infection. The connectivity context was emphasized that possibly had inflicted the outbreak. Using the modes of transmission data for the available cases, the diffusion of this disease was explained. Metropolitans contributed three-fourths of total cases from the beginning. The transport networks attributed significantly in transmitting the virus from the urban containment zones. Later, there was a gradual shift of infections from urban to rural areas; however, the numbers kept increasing in the former. The massive reverse migration after lockdown spiked the infected cases further. Districts with airports reported more with influx of international passengers. A profound east–west division in April with higher infections in the southern and western districts existed. By mid-May eastern India saw a steep rise in active cases. Moran’s I analysis showed a low autocorrelation initially which increased over time. Hotspot clustering was observed in western Maharashtra, eastern Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and around Kolkata by the second week of August. The diffusion was due to travel, exposure to infected individuals and among the frontline workers. Spatial regression models confirmed that urbanization was positively correlated with higher incidences of infections. Transit mediums, especially rail and aviation were positively associated. These models validated the crucial role of spatial proximity in diffusion of the pandemic.

The spatiality and driving forces of population ageing in China

Studying the spatial characteristics of China’s ageing and its influencing factors is of great practical significance because China has the largest elderly population in the world. Using 2000 and 2010 census data, this study explores the degree, pace, and pattern of population ageing and its driving mechanism using exploratory spatial data analysis and the geographically weighed regression model. Between 2000 and 2010, population ageing increased rapidly countrywide; yet, spatial differences between eastern and western China narrowed. The degree of provincial population ageing and its spatiality were determined by natural population growth, migration, and local economic development. Life expectancy and mortality were the primary long-term factors, and GDP per capita was the prime contributor in the early days of economic development; the migration rate was the dominant influence after 2010. China’s overall spatial differentiation of population ageing shifted from a north–south to an east–west division.

Examining the population flow network in China and its implications for epidemic control based on Baidu migration data

This paper examines the spatial pattern of the population flow network and its implications for containing epidemic spread in China. The hierarchical and spatial subnetwork structure of national population movement networks is analysed by using Baidu migration data before and during the Chinese Spring Festival. The results show that the population flow was mainly concentrated on the east side of the Hu Huanyong Line, a national east-west division of population density. Some local hot spots of migration were formed in various regions. Although there were a large number of migrants in eastern regions, they tended to concentrate in corresponding provincial capital cities and the population movement subnetworks were affected by provincial administrative divisions. The patterns identified are helpful for the provincial government to formulate population policies on epidemic control. The movement flow from Wuhan (the city where the covid-19 outbreak) to other cities is significantly and positively correlated with the number of confirmed cases in other Chinese cities (about 70% of the population was constituted through innerprovincial movement in Hubei). The results show that the population flow network has great significance for informing the containment of the epidemic spread in the early stage. It suggests the importance for the Chinese government to implement provincial and municipal lockdown measures to contain the epidemic spread. The paper indicates that spatial analysis of population flow network has practical implications for controlling epidemic outbreaks.

The Foot of the Lake

In 2013, Dinkin reported an unexpectedly sharp dialect boundary in northern New York between the communities of Ogdensburg and Canton in St. Lawrence County: Ogdensburg exhibited the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCS) and very little evidence of the low back merger, while Canton showed low back merger nearing completion and no NCS. This article investigates the nature of this dialect boundary via new sociolinguistic interview data from eight neighboring communities: four along the St. Lawrence River and four 25 miles south of it. An east-west division is observed in merger incidence: the four communities to the west, including Ogdensburg, show relatively robust lot-thought distinction, though apparent-time trends toward merger exist; east of Ogdensburg, the merger is much more advanced. A similar sharp boundary may hold for the NCS raising of trap (though the data are spottier due to the NCS’s obsolescence). The geographical sharpness of this boundary suggests that it is not due merely to socioeconomic differences between communities. It may be due to historical patterns of transportation: in the nineteenth century, Ogdensburg was the easternmost navigable point of the upper St. Lawrence River, meaning communities east of Ogdensburg were not directly accessible to the Great Lakes shipping network.

Woody plant subregions of the Amazon forest

Abstract The Amazon forest covers 7.5 million km2 in nine countries, hosts 25% of the global biodiversity and is a major contributor to the biogeochemical and climatic functioning of the Earth system. Despite its global importance, a regionalization of the Amazon tree flora is still lacking. Clear and data‐driven delimitation of subregions is important for macroecological studies, to the identification of metacommunities and is a requisite for conservation planning. We aimed at identifying and mapping plant species subregions and investigated their relationships with environmental, historical and human correlates. We provide the first woody plant regionalization of the entire Amazon forest using a data‐driven approach based on assemblage composition patterns. We compiled data on woody species composition from 301 assemblages based on species occurrences. We then used unconstrained ordination, interpolation and clustering techniques to identify and map discrete woody subregions. Hierarchical clustering analysis was conducted in order to investigate the relationships between the identified subregions. We used multinomial logistic regression model and deviance partitioning to investigate the influence of environmental, historical and human factors on subregions distribution. We identified 13 woody subregions in the entire Amazon forest. The hierarchical subregion classification showed a broad Andean‐Cratonic east–west division. Variation in subregions was explained jointly by human factors and spatial structure followed by environmental factors and spatial structure combined. Synthesis. Our woody plant subregions differed from World Wildlife Fund ecoregions and physiognomic‐based maps, highlighting the importance of basing regionalizations on taxon‐specific groups and confirming that vegetation maps should not be used as proxies to plant diversity subregions. Our findings also confirm the need for multiple and extensive protected areas in the Amazon forest. The relevance of current climate factors in our study alerts to a profound impact that climate change could have on the spatial organization of the Amazon flora.

Jan Tinbergen and the Construction of an International Economic Order

This paper analyzes the reasons why Jan Tinbergen was initially hostile to the idea of European integration, which he regarded as a poor substitute for an international order. The paper argues that Tinbergen's thought on the international order was crucially shaped by two influences, his thinking about economic order at the national level and his experiences at the League of Nations. His views on economic order on the national level were based on the idea of peaceful co-existence between the different social classes along corporatist lines, supplemented with economic expertise. When he imagined an international order, these elements were again recognizable, but the class-division had now been replaced with a North-South and East-West division. His work at the League of Nations, supported by his earlier pacifism, had convinced him that any postwar order had to be truly international and not Western, and therefore he promoted global institutions rather than regional ones. When global economic integration failed to make the desired progress, he started to reconsider his views on Europe and became convinced that European integration could be a stepping stone towards more international integration.

The east–west division of changing precipitation in Nepal

AbstractChanges to precipitation patterns and extremes over the Nepalese Himalayas were examined using a high‐resolution, station‐based daily dataset, Asian Precipitation‐Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation (0.05° × 0.05° APHRODITE) from 1951 to 2007. The annual statistics of extreme precipitation across Nepal show a significant increase since the end of the 20th century. However, seasonal mean precipitation shows a remarkable decrease in western Nepal, particularly since 1980, forming an east–west division in the precipitation change. This decreasing trend of precipitation led to a reduction to the dry‐season stream flow of Karnali River, the major river in western Nepal. At the same time, the increasing extreme precipitation produced greater threat of flash flood in Nepal. This east–west division of the precipitation trend agrees with the second leading mode of the mean precipitation variability, which was traced to the interannual variability of the Indian Ocean sea surface temperature that showed a slowdown of warming. Similar to the APHRODITE trends, precipitation simulated by the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) models depicted the decreasing historical trend in western Nepal, but future projections reverse that trend towards an all‐Nepal increase. CMIP5 future climate projections depict continual warming in the Indian Ocean, potentially reversing the historical decreasing trends of precipitation in western Nepal.

The combined use of raw and phylogenetically independent methods of outlier detection uncovers genome-wide dynamics of local adaptation in a lizard.

Local adaptation is a dynamic process by which different allele combinations are selected in different populations at different times, and whose genetic signature can be inferred by genome‐wide outlier analyses. We combined gene flow estimates with two methods of outlier detection, one of them independent of population coancestry (CIOA) and the other one not (ROA), to identify genetic variants favored when ecology promotes phenotypic convergence. We analyzed genotyping‐by‐sequencing data from five populations of a lizard distributed over an environmentally heterogeneous range that has been changing since the split of eastern and western lineages ca. 3 mya. Overall, western lizards inhabit forest habitat and are unstriped, whereas eastern ones inhabit shrublands and are striped. However, one population (Lerma) has unstriped phenotype despite its eastern ancestry. The analysis of 73,291 SNPs confirmed the east–west division and identified nonoverlapping sets of outliers (12 identified by ROA and 9 by CIOA). ROA revealed ancestral adaptive variation in the uncovered outliers that were subject to divergent selection and differently fixed for eastern and western populations at the extremes of the environmental gradient. Interestingly, such variation was maintained in Lerma, where we found high levels of heterozygosity for ROA outliers, whereas CIOA uncovered innovative variants that were selected only there. Overall, it seems that both the maintenance of ancestral variation and asymmetric migration have counterbalanced adaptive lineage splitting in our model species. This scenario, which is likely promoted by a changing and heterogeneous environment, could hamper ecological speciation of locally adapted populations despite strong genetic structure between lineages.