Iconic Sites Research Articles

Empathic unsettlement and the outsider within Argentine spaces of memory

In quite distinctive ways, protagonists of Argentine spaces of memory have addressed the complex questions of whether and how visitors experience empathy and empathic unsettlement in these spaces. I will draw from my recent experiences as co-professor with Marita Sturken of a group of US students in Buenos Aires. I will suggest that tension-ridden engagement between outsiders and insiders, including our exchanges with Argentine guides in three iconic sites of memory, can in some instances be conceived as empathic unsettlement. I will make use of performance studies to reflect on our “situatedness” within these spaces, in terms of “co-performance” and the outsider within. I hope to relate our dialogues and experiences to the possibilities for cross-border solidarities.

Symbolically Laden Sites in the Landscape and Climate Change

Attention is drawn to the threat posed by climate change to symbolically laden places, landscapes and landmarks, and suggested that, insofar as some of those sites are treated as sacred by certain populations, their disturbance may be especially problematic. Special consideration is given to the significance glacial retreat for local, nearby populations, and its importance from the point of view of climate justice and ethics is discussed. The potential value of iconic sites from the perspective of engagement and action on climate change is considered. It is concluded that climate impacts on symbolically charged places in the landscape should be of significant concern, as well as interest, for policy and decision-making.

Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America Colin R.Johnson. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2013.

Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America Colin R. Johnson. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2013.Ever since Thomas Jefferson penned panegyrics to those who labored in the earth, conceptions of American citizenship have been organized by space: heartland conservatives versus urban elitists, tolerant cosmopolitans against atavistic hillbillies. Nowhere is this truer than in queer politics, where the urban is regarded as the iconic site of same-sex desire and the only possible location for its consummation. Though there is risk in the countryside-consider the account of Matthew Shepard, mistaken for a scarecrow when his body was discovered lashed to a fence in rural Wyoming-the solution to oppression is not metrochauvinism (197). The binaristic formulation of urban/rural and queer/straight empowers homophobia and is a myth to be resisted.Colin R. Johnson's Just Queer Folks does more than unsettle that binary; it offers a queer history of rural America, as well as an account of the normalizing national practices that transformed the countryside into the center of vicious normalcy. While he does not contest John D'Emilio's claim that urban capitalism created coherent queer identity, Johnson focuses not on identity but practices. He also refuses the oppositional status of the country and the city, since the urban sphere is a particular location, while the territory is diffuse and massive, stretching between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans with only a discrete handful of metropolitan interruptions.Over the course of six chapters, Johnson devotes much of his attention to rural, white working-class cisgender men, about whom the most substantial archive exists and for whom the prospect of queemess is now presumed most remote (23). Historically, these men have required normative discipline, because homosocial locations provide frequent contexts for the development of heterosexual masculinity (157). The final chapter, Hard Women: Rural Women and Female Masculinity, proffers compelling readings of female sharecroppers in Walker Evans and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) in conversation with changing standards of Depression Era fashion and Dorothy Allison's figuration of rural women as measured [and] manlike... solid [and] stolid (179-180). Female masculinity, Johnson suggests, is not simply a radical posture toward queer futurity; it also resists novel forms of feminine self-fashioning offered by modern capitalism's ready-to-wear clothing and impractical shoes. …

Iconic site development and legitimating policies: The changing role of water in Dutch identity discourses

This paper focusses on the role of iconic sites in the legitimation of policies. Traditionally the legitimation of administrations is based on national communities. The undermining of these territorial communities, through globalisation and individualisation, make iconic sites more important to anchor spatial identities and link these between groups and across scales. Traditional thick spatial identities based on a historically formed nested hierarchy of local, regional and national territorial communities are in decline. Administrations have to rely more on thinner, more forward looking identities. The spatiality of iconic sites makes them useful to communicate a consistent identity discourse linking different types and scales of spatial identities of administrations and populations. This paper differentiates between backward looking heritage sites and forward looking flagship sites previewing an ideal identity to be realised in the future. The ways these types of iconic sites are used in identity discourses by administration to legitimise policies is illustrated by an analysis of how local identity discourses on waterlogged backlands are linked with the changing national policies of water management in the Netherlands. This shows how the administration of the city region of Arnhem–Nijmegen uses a newly constructed park as an iconic site in their spatial identity discourse.

Is Matang Mangrove Forest in Malaysia sustainably rejuvenating after more than a century of conservation and harvesting management?

Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR) in Peninsular Malaysia is under systematic management since 1902 and still considered as the best managed mangrove forest in the world. The present study on silvimetrics assessed the ongoing MMFR forest management, which includes a first thinning after 15 years, a second thinning after 20 years and clear-felling of 30-year old forest blocks, for its efficiency and productivity in comparison to natural mangroves. The estimated tree structural parameters (e.g. density, frequency) from three different-aged mangrove blocks of fifteen (MF15), twenty (MF20), and thirty (MF30) years old indicated that Bruguiera and Excoecaria spp. did not constitute a significant proportion of the vegetation (<5%), and hence the results focused majorly on Rhizophora apiculata. The density of R. apiculata at MF15, MF20 and MF30 was 4,331, 2,753 and 1,767 stems ha−1, respectively. In relation to ongoing practices of the artificial thinnings at MMFR, the present study suggests that the first thinning could be made earlier to limit the loss of exploitable wood due to natural thinning. In fact, the initial density at MF15 was expected to drop down from 6,726 to 1,858 trees ha−1 before the first thinning. Therefore the trees likely to qualify for natural thinning, though having a smaller stem diameter, should be exploited for domestic/commercial purposes at an earlier stage. The clear-felling block (MF30) with a maximum stem diameter of 30 cm was estimated to yield 372 t ha−1 of the above-ground biomass and suggests that the mangrove management based on a 30-year rotation is appropriate for the MMFR. Since Matang is the only iconic site that practicing sustainable wood production, it could be an exemplary to other mangrove locations for their improved management.

Protection and Preservation of Australia’s Palaeontological Heritage

Australia’s rich and diverse fossil heritage includes many unique and world famous localities of critical importance to palaeontology. Though some sites are well managed and adequately protected, others, due to their remoteness and difficulties associated with 24-h policing, have suffered from vandalism or theft. Under the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986, designed to prevent the export of culturally and scientifically valuable material, Federal (Commonwealth of Australia) law only protects fossil specimens, rather than the localities at which they occur. Several iconic sites have attained World Heritage recognition. Legislation to protect palaeontological sites varies considerably across state and territorial jurisdictions, ranging from inclusion in National Parks to local reserves created specifically to preserve fossils. Unfortunately, some of the latter completely lack any protective measures and only serve to highlight the existence of collectable specimens. In Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania, collection of fossils is partly restricted under regulations governing fossicking, whereas in the other Australian states and territories, the legal situation regarding collecting requires clarification. In legislating against unregulated exploitation and potential destruction of fossil sites, and developing mechanisms to protect scientifically valuable specimens, governments should be wary of imposing restrictions against collecting which would deny the public their right to enjoyment of fossils as a recreational and educational hobby. The PaleoParks initiative, developed by the International Paleontological Association, provides a model with a flexible approach to site preservation and collecting (where appropriate) with a minimum of bureaucratic management.

Tahrir: Politics, Publics and Performances of Space

One of the iconic sites of the Arab uprisings that started in December 2010 was (and remains) Tahrir Square in Cairo. This is also a site that makes it possible to trace the entanglements of a digital public sphere with a physical public space. Many commentators on events in Egypt have insisted on the power of digital social media, and especially Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to activate and co-ordinate political opposition to the Mubarak regime. But conventional means of communication also played a crucial role, and the presence of large crowds gathered together in public spaces was vital to the immediate gains made in by what was a remarkably heterogeneous revolution. Using the work of Judith Butler, it becomes possible to clarify the ways in which the animation of a diverse public was inseparable from its ability to appropriate and in some substantial sense ‘gather’—to re-claim and re-appropriate—a properly public space. In short, it was through both their digital platforms and their bodily presence that so many people collaborated in a series of political performances that were also performances of space.

A Bayesian chronology for Great Zimbabwe: re-threading the sequence of a vandalised monument

Great Zimbabwe is one of the most iconic sites in southern Africa and indeed the world, but like so many famous monuments it has suffered from the attention of early excavators who have destroyed key categories of evidence. Chronology is crucial to understanding the development of the various elements of Great Zimbabwe and its relationship to other important regional centres such as Mapungubwe. A number of radiocarbon dates are available, however, and in this study they have been combined with the limited stratigraphic information and with datable imports to provide a Bayesian chronology of the site and its structures. Construction of the stone walls probably began at the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century AD, reaching its peak in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, although occupation continued up to at least the sixteenth and probably into the seventeenth century AD. These results indicate that occupation at Great Zimbabwe must have overlapped with that at Mapungubwe, and argue for a polycentric model of sociopolitical complexity in this region of southern Africa during that crucial formative period.

Review: French Encounters with the American Counterculture, 1960–1980 by Caroline Maniaque-Benton

Caroline Maniaque-Benton French Encounters with the American Counterculture, 1960–1980 Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2011, 244 pp., 51 color and 58 b/w illus. $99.95, ISBN 9781409423867 This handsome book investigates an intriguing and novel topic: the French attraction to American “alternative architecture,” which was prompted by the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s and which is being revisited by historians as a harbinger of today’s sustainability movement. The book’s protagonists were young Frenchmen, mostly recent graduates of the Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts and architecture students, who discovered America’s alternative architecture through publications and road trips in the western United States, including visits to iconic settlements such as Drop City (pictured on the cover of the book). These young travelers became prominent educators (Pierre Joly and Marc Vaye), practitioners (Francois Lombard and Jean-Louis Veret), writers (Patrice Goulet), and publishers (Jean-Paul Jungman and the founders of the Editions Parentheses). Maniaque-Benton interviewed them around 2000 and pored over their personal archives and book collections. Extensive quotes from these interviews, as well as reproductions of travel photographs and book covers, bring substance and vivacity to her account. Readers will notice that the book’s cast of characters includes no women, with the exception of a cameo appearance by Agnes Varda. In 1967, the movie director shot a twenty-two-minute film, Uncle Yanco , in the Sausalito houseboat community, “a place of pilgrimage for European architects who were attracted to these strange and wonderful constructions” (27). One is left to wonder whether male bonding, as experienced by several protagonists in tandem or as a trio of travelers, was integral to this rite of passage through a distant and exotic culture. Chapter 1, “Framing the Debates around Technology,” accounts for the rich and complex historical context behind this initiation into American counterculture, which took place at a time when France’s “aversion to American imperialism” (3) was extreme and when architectural training in Paris became pluralistic, as the previously centralized Ecole des Beaux-Arts atelier system …

A ‘Glittering Landmark for a 21st Century Entertainment Centre’: The history of The Point multiplex cinema in Milton Keynes

In May 2012, the Milton Keynes Citizen reported, under the headline ‘Future signs could Point to iconic site’s demise’ that The Point, in Milton Keynes, would be demolished if a suggested redevelop...

Installation of a Bridge Barrier as a Suicide Prevention Strategy in Montréal, Québec, Canada

We investigated whether the installation of a suicide prevention barrier on Jacques-Cartier Bridge led to displacement of suicides to other jumping sites on Montréal Island and Montérégie, Québec, the 2 regions it connects. Suicides on Montréal Island and Montérégie were extracted from chief coroners' records. We used Poisson regression to assess changes in annual suicide rates by jumping from Jacques-Cartier Bridge and from other bridges and other sites and by other methods before (1990-June 2004) and after (2005-2009) installation of the barrier. Suicide rates by jumping from Jacques-Cartier Bridge decreased after installation of the barrier (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.24; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.13, 0.43), which persisted when all bridges (IRR = 0.39; 95% CI = 0.27, 0.55) and all jumping sites (IRR = 0.66; 95% CI = 0.54, 0.80) in the regions were considered. Little or no displacement to other jumping sites may occur after installation of a barrier at an iconic site such as Jacques-Cartier Bridge. A barrier's design is important to its effectiveness and should be considered for new bridges with the potential to become symbolic suicide sites.

Contemporary experiences of Chinese tourists in Italy: An on-site analysis in Milan

This exploratory research used insights from studies of the experience economy to explore Chinese tourists' on-site involvement in a western iconic site — the Duomo and the Piazza in Milan. It adopted a holistic approach and assessed Chinese tourists' on-site sensory, affective, cognitive and activity based responses as well as their relationship experiences. Informal interviews and a follow-up questionnaire based survey were conducted. Findings from this study add specific detail to the currently limited information about on-site experiences, and particularly the Chinese views of key attractions. The analysis of the data also examined the varied experiences of the Chinese independent tourists and their counterparts on group tours. The independent tourists spent a larger amount of time in the space and attended to more detail, but were less positive and somewhat more critical of the site features and local interaction. Specific items of concern at the site offer management implications for the city of Milan which will host the World Expo in 2015.

London’s Public Events and Ceremonies: an Overview Through Three Centuries

A revised and abridged record of the Annual Lecture of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, given at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, on 12 November 2012Two exceptional events in London in 2012, the queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, provoked questions about the origins and legacy of major public events of the past. This article explores the impact on the fabric of London since the eighteenth century of occasional planned spectacles through discussion of two main types of event, namely the procession along a predetermined route and occasions requiring a large organized space.George, Elector of Hanover, succeeded to the throne as George I on 1 August 1714. The proclamation of a new monarch took place at a series of traditional sites. The Heralds started at the king’s residence, St James’s Palace, and proceeded to Charing Cross, where the statue of Charles I had replaced the medieval Eleanor cross destroyed in the Civil War. The third site, Temple Bar, marked the boundary of the City Liberties. Within the City the proclamation was repeated at St Mary le Bow and at the Royal Exchange — recent post-Fire buildings, but iconic sites — marking the significance of the Church and the power centre of the City merchants.

The politics of non-iconic space: Sushi, shisha, and a civic promise in the 2011 summer protests in Israel

City streets and squares have become centre stage for political change, in the wave of protests in Europe and the Middle East. Most protest locations are iconic sites of national resonance. Yet this was not the case in the summer 2011 wave of social protests in Israel. Rothschild Boulevard, which was the heart of the protest movement, is a non-iconic street usually associated with the good life of sushi and espresso bars and constant cycle traffic. This unusual choice contrasted sharply with Egypt’s Tahrir Square, Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and protest sites in Jerusalem – all associated with the politics of the nation. Yet it is exactly the lack of symbolic national resonance, and its down-to-earth association with urban joie de vivre, that enabled the Boulevard to assemble a broad and diverse coalition of protestors, and to transcend the exclusive language of politics in Israel. In a country where the national is identified with the ethnic (Jewish), the pedestrian symbolism of Rothschild allowed protestors to forge a civic language that appealed to Israel’s citizenry and residents, Jews and Arabs, local and migrants.

Ring-Around-the-Rosie Atlantic: Transatlantic Uses of Rings Among Bata Drummers, Caravan Guards, and Muslim Insurgents

Abstract In the preparation of the bata drums of Cuba and Yorubaland, ritual specialists affix a small iron ring near the smaller of the two heads of these drums. The ring is the material marker that the drums are consecrated, imbued with the power of Ayan, the orisha of drumming. This study looks to other appearances of iron rings and iron idiophones along sub-Saharan trade routes connected to the Oyo Empire, the ‘source’ of bata drumming. The study links the use of rings in these regions to iconic sites of Yoruba culture in the Americas—Brazil and Cuba—as a means of revisiting some of the dominant narratives in the constructed past of orisha worship on both sides of the Atlantic, before and after the transatlantic separation. The prominence given to the Oyo-Shango complex in American forms of orisha worship is considered here to be unwarranted.

Social Dimensions of ′Nature at Risk′ in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

The Galapagos National Park is an iconic site of environmental conservation; hundreds of thousands of tourists, students, and scientists have visited the islands since the national park was founded in 1959. What a casual visitor to the region might fail to see, however, is the history of conflict that has accompanied the formation and maintenance of the park. In 2007, the tension on the Galapagos Islands became so great that UNESCO put it on their list of World Natural Heritage Sites 'In Danger', arguing that the Galapagos Islands residents had to resolve a set of problems before the effects of increasing population numbers and poor management overran the unique natural environment. We draw on the literature within political ecology and argue that while there was broad agreement on the 'facts' of the crisis, people on the islands interpreted those facts very differently; individual assumptions, beliefs, and experiences imbued the facts with different and often confrontational meanings that, in turn, shaped the possibility of managing the crisis. Based on in-depth qualitative research conducted between 2007 and 2011, we illustrate the differences in the way people 'see'-or understand and experience-the problems on the islands, and show how these differences continue to complicate the search for resolution.

Flows, floods, floodplains and river restoration

Returning water to rivers as environmental flows is now a major tool for restoration. Many plans for environmental flows have been modelled and devised but few have been delivered, at least in Australia. Nevertheless, as planned in the latest version of the Murray‐Darling Basin Authority’s (2011) Draft Basin Plan, water recovery for environmental flows is firmly advocated. In environmental flow planning, a key component to restore is periodic (seasonal) floods. Thus, in upland rivers that have been dammed, below-dam floods are seen as vital to reshape channels, to remove unnaturally high levels of sediments accumulated since dams were built and to improve water quality. An example of this is the restoration of the Snowy River below Jindabyne Dam (NSW Office of Water 2010). Environmental flows are released to lift base flow and to introduce variability that mimics pre-dam levels and the seasonal snow-melt flood. The flood is not of the magnitude of the pre-dam flows, but is designed to improve the river by remoulding the channel, removing accumulated sediments and detritus, improving water quality and rebuilding habitats typical of an upland river. In general, restoring floods in constrained upland rivers aims to improve channel conditions. Lowland rivers are usually floodplain rivers, which, in their intact state, regularly (seasonally) flood their floodplains. When the floodplains were flooded, as still occurs in the few remaining unregulated rivers (e.g. Ovens River, Victoria), there is a boom of primary production (bacteria, phytoplankton, macrophytes, tree growth) followed by a pulse of secondary production both of aquatic (zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, fish) and terrestrial fauna (e.g. birds, amphibians, reptiles). The high primary production is fuelled by nutrients coming in with the flood but also by nutrients and organic carbon released from the floodplain (Baldwin & Mitchell 2000). Flooded, intact floodplains are one of the most productive types of ecosystems in the world. The loss of that ecological production arising from river regulation and floodplain alienation in dammed lowland rivers is known, but its size and value are seldom acknowledged in developing outcomes for managed flows. Floods in upland rivers are pulse (sometimes intense) disturbances, whereas in floodplain rivers, floods are regenerative or restorative disturbances, notwithstanding some disruptions of the terrestrial biota (Lake et al. 2006). The ongoing viability of the biota of floodplain ecosystems lies in their capacity to capitalize on floods and to survive the dry periods between floods. To maintain the ecological integrity of floodplains, regular flooding covering the floodplain is essential.

Les ruines comme mémoire des crimes du passé

Of the various types of ruins, some are precipitated by nature and time, but others, more violently, in conflict and war. Such ruins act as signs of wasteful and destructive human acts, and often carry hortatory overtones for the viewer. The ruin, far from being a ‘mark of peace’ (as Simmel, in his classic article suggests), is a sign that warns of man's violent nature. This idea is explored in this paper, in part, through the work of modern artists Anselm Kiefer and Anne and Patrick Poirier. Author then looks to the ancient world, to Greece and Rome and to such examples as Rome and Athens, as well as to iconic modern sites such as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in Berlin and the Königsplatz in Munich. The author offers a summary typology of the ruin and suggests that we can construct a model of restless yet significant sites.

A Reply to "Should the UK Be Nominating More World Heritage Sites?"

Norman has sensitively and sensibly opened a can of very squirmy worms. Her question, “Should the UK Be Nominating More World Heritage Sites?” resonates with fundamental issues that will plague archaeology and heritage management with increasing virulence in the future. How are the trade-offs between economic impact and outstanding universal cultural value (OUV) to be managed? How are equities to be balanced within countries, continents or, most profoundly, between North/South nation states. What heritage is of universal value, and how is recognition of OUV to be apportioned between natural endowments and human-made locations? And what should be the essential goals of the World Heritage Sites (WHS) process—protection and conservation as absolute priorities, or economic development and cost/benefit effectiveness? Norman’s analysis brings to these questions the sensitivity of a committed heritage manager and the cautious realism of a practitioner fresh from the trenches. Her article at least touches on all of these issues, and my comment does not attempt to offer a perspective on every one. Rather, I choose to take issue with Norman’s conclusion that “Ultimately, the argument seems to be an ethical one” (Norman, 2011: 77). Without disputing the ethical issues she raises, nor the importance of ethical considerations in this matter, I argue that her article and the underlying research to which she refers make a much stronger case for considering the economic consequences of the World Heritage inscription process than perhaps she herself recognizes. There are four points to consider: First, the reality is that the UK, like the rest of the world, is entering into an era of constrained economic resources that will disproportionately affect heritage-related activities in favor of social services. Second, a paucity of hard data and sound evaluation has rendered impossible up-or-down judgments on the value, economic or otherwise, of WHS status. Third, Norman’s paper and related materials raise the specter that WHS “branding” may have diminishing or even negligible returns to the investment made in achieving WHS status. Fourth, therefore, the increasing need for sponsors of potential World Heritage Sites need to give far greater weight to their opportunity costs and the potential returns to investment. I would like to consider each of these matters in order. No regular reader of the daily newspapers could fail to be aware that the present UK government’s budget has severely slashed support for heritage-related matters. English Heritage has suffered draconian budget reductions, and UK universities that underwrite so much heritagerelated work are under profound pressure to demonstrate their “impact,” prominently to include economic value. And of course, the UK is not alone. Most of the world is under severe economic pressure. Greece is wrestling with a profound crisis of government financing. Facing lesser pressures, Italy has placed responsibility for heritage, museums and antiquities in the hands of a former McDonalds Corporation executive who is actively evaluating privatizing iconic sites such as the Colosseum. The United States is on a budget trajectory to reduce funding for its vast system of parks and for other forms of heritage. Japan is recovering from a natural disaster. These economic pressures are global in nature, with only a few fortunate nations in Asia seemingly immune from pressures on national budget priorities. In this environment, any actions to preserve heritage or

Iconic Sites for Alpine Geology and Geomorphology

In the Alps — as with the rest of Europe — renewed interest in geoheritage sites has grown since the late nineteen-nineties. Inventory, conservation and promotional (didactic, tourist) projects for geosites have blossomed at every scale — local, national and international – articulated around the central concept of geodiversity. The present article will demonstrate that far from being an entirely new tendency, this constitutes rather a specific stage in a number of different threads of the history of landscape heritage, on-going since the nineteenth century. What is new, however, is the movement that consists in basing the selection of heritage sites on their intrinsic scientific value with regard to their pertinence to the history of the Earth, rather than for any merely picturesque or aesthetic qualities. This tendency towards the implementation of geoheritage contributes to the general drive for the sustainable development of alpine territories, particularly by means of the establishment of territorial development tools such as Geoparks.