This paper explores Italy’s perspective on West Germany’s evolving role in Europe in the 1970s, focusing on the interplay between leadership expectations and the fear of hegemony. In the context of the collapse of the Bretton Woods System, the oil crisis and transatlantic tensions, Italy viewed West Germany as both a potential leader and a dominant economic power. By examining political and public debates, this study delves into Italy’s complex ambivalence towards German leadership – admiring its economic strength while simultaneously fearing its influence over European integration and monetary policy – in a way that demonstrates a nuanced Italian reaction to German ‘reluctance’. The rejection of Germany’s hegemonic role was closely tied to an expectation of leadership. However, this expectation conflicted with the type of leadership Germany offered, revealing a sharp contrast between Italian and German conceptions of leadership.

Los estudios sobre las acciones colectivas de las trabajadoras sexuales se han centrado principalmente en la esfera pública, abordando procesos de organización sindical, movimientos sociales y articulación de redes para la reivindicación de sus derechos. Sin embargo, han prestado escasa atención a las acciones que les permiten sobrellevar los agravios en su contexto laboral. Este estudio tiene como objetivo comprender las acciones colectivas cotidianas de protesta de las trabajadoras sexuales en entornos laborales estigmatizados por la norma de género. Para ello, realizamos una etnografía etnometodológica feminista durante dieciocho meses en el norte de Chile, donde observamos diversos escenarios del trabajo sexual y realizamos dieciocho entrevistas en profundidad. Concluimos que las trabajadoras sexuales producen acciones colectivas de protesta situadas y efímeras, mediante las cuales buscan restituir, aunque precariamente, el equilibrio de poder en sus escenarios laborales, y que relegan la posibilidad de impugnar directamente el orden social debido al costo que significaría en sus vidas.

Over the last two decades, since scholarly writing on India witnessed an “urban turn,” numerous historians have analyzed the role of the improvement trust in the redevelopment of Indian cities in the twentieth century, most specifically those of Bombay, Calcutta, and Delhi. This paper revisits and reassesses some of their key arguments to suggest that rather than studying the “failures” of the individual trusts to foster sanitary built environments, we should pay attention to the contingent workings of the city trusts that were constitutively designed for such failures. Using a comparative analysis of the Bombay and Calcutta improvement trusts, this paper offers a retelling of the history of twentieth-century Indian urbanism through the inauguration of an “improvement regime.” It posits that a structural analysis of the trust’s legal and financial framework opens innovative ways of reading “improvement” as a new, twentieth-century language, technology, and rationality of urban governance. The improvement trust devised the art of spatiotemporal management to secure the city’s built environment—rather than its residents—against future uncertainties. The paper takes us through various episodes in the career of the improvement trust—its introduction of technocratic rule, partnership with private investors, speculation in the urban land market, and finally emergence as the city’s leading rentier—in short, the “new developments” that we associate with neoliberal urbanism today. Rather than mapping these developments as neoliberal inventions, this paper invites readers to view them as the slow and (dis)continuous unraveling of a century-old improvement regime.

This article explores the evolving concept of patriotism in the context of contemporary liberal democracies. As politicians increasingly employ patriotism in response to globalization and neoliberalism, diverse conceptions such as civic, constitutional, ethical, and cosmopolitan patriotism have emerged. Three evaluative criteria are thus introduced: inclusiveness, identity, and critical loyalty. Civic patriotism emphasizes democratic governance but may lack national rootedness. Constitutional patriotism risks overlooking cultural particularities, while ethical patriotism seeks to reconcile diverse identities but risks universalizing differences. Cosmopolitan patriotism aims to bridge global and national loyalties but may overlook critical loyalty complexities. Therefore, patriotism can be compatible with liberal democracy and citizenship if it is adequately inclusive, respects personal identities, and is critically loyal to universal constitutional ideals and specific cultural contexts.

Macro-financial stability plays a crucial role amidst global crises and can significantly impact the economic security of European Union members. It is crucial to have sufficient resources to address macroeconomic challenges since economic vulnerability can worsen risks, threats and instability, ultimately resulting in greater inequality. The article aims to investigate the influence of EU macro-financial stability on the economic security among EU member states with different development levels. Indicators that serve as the foundation for assessing the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) have been chosen for studying the economic security of advanced, emerging, and developing economies within the EU. Studies utilizing correlation and regression analysis have revealed an interconnection between the EU’s macro-financial stability and its member countries’ economic indicators. This correlation is found to be significant regardless of the country’s level of development. The findings highlight the vulnerability of national economies to macro-financial shocks within the EU and the potential adverse effects on the economic security of member countries. Insights into the impact of macro-financial stability on economic security help identify destructive trends and risks arising from macro-financial destabilization, proving beneficial to EU members and countries aspiring to EU membership. The novelty lies in establishing the link between financial stability and economic security of EU member countries at the macroeconomic level, regardless of their development level, and elucidating potential consequences of macro-financial destabilization on economic indicators.

In 1921 the international Red Cross movement passed a series of resolutions declaring they had a right and duty to intervene in civil wars, ‘social and revolutionary troubles’. This article focuses on the specific historical origins of the resolutions. It argues that these resolutions were a direct response to the Russian Civil War and designed to enable humanitarian interventions against Soviet Russia and other communist revolutionaries. The ICRC followed through on these intentions with robust efforts to access political prisoners in Soviet Russia. However, other parties embraced these resolutions and applied them to nationalist and anti-colonial struggles, such as the Third Silesian Uprising, Irish Civil War and Rif War. These conflicts did not fit the template of the Russian Civil War, leading to reluctant, cautious and often ineffective interventions by the ICRC. The open-ended language of the resolutions hid a much more direct historical context that restricted its viable application.

This essay reviews the following works:

Urban Latin America: Inequalities and Neoliberal Reforms. Edited by Tom Angotti. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017. Pp. 306. $37.00 paperback. ISBN: 9781442274488.

Urbanización y revolución en América Latina: Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires y Ciudad de México (1950-1980). By Óscar Calvo Isaza. Mexico City: El Colegio de México and Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2023. Pp. 398. $13.00 paperback. ISBN: 9786075644189.

Monstrous Politics: Geography, Rights, and the Urban Revolution in Mexico City. By Ben A. Gerlofs. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2023. Pp. xiv + 262. $39.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780826504777.

La ciudad latinoamericana: Una figura de la imaginación social del siglo XX. By Adrián Gorelik. Mexico City: Siglo XXI, 2022. Pp. 424. $55.82 hardcover, $7.99 ebook. ISBN: 9789878011370.

Representing the Barrios: Culture, Politics, and Urban Poverty in Twentieth-Century Caracas. By Rebecca Jarman. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023. Pp. xvii + 352. $60.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780822947653.

Reclaiming the Discarded: Life and Labor on Rio’s Garbage Dump. By Kathleen M. Millar. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018. Pp ix + 248. $24.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780822370505.

Historia de las villas en la ciudad de Buenos Aires. By Valeria Snitcofsky. Buenos Aires: Tejido Urbano, 2021. Pp. 326. Open-access ebook. ISBN: 9789873779541.

This article examines the challenges Indigenous communities face in safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in the digital age, using two case studies. Referring to the Te Hiku Media case, it analyzes the threat of data colonialism posed by corporate digitization projects. The article argues that existing legal frameworks provide limited protection for Indigenous ICH, prompting Indigenous communities to develop the innovative theory of Indigenous data sovereignty (ID-SOV). The Government of Nunavut–Microsoft partnership case highlights the benefits and drawbacks of public–private partnerships (PPPs) for Indigenous ICH. Key takeaways from both cases’ analysis lead to our proposal of integrating ID-SOV principles into PPPs to limit data colonialism risks and improve the sustainability of Indigenous ICH digitization projects. The article contends that implementing ID-SOV principles by design and by default in PPPs can empower Indigenous communities while leveraging the oversight of public actors and resources of private partners to safeguard Indigenous ICH through digital tools.

Este texto tiene un carácter exploratorio a partir de la experiencia etnográfica del levantamiento indígena y popular que paralizó Ecuador en el mes de junio de 2022. Con epicentro en Quito, la capital del país, dicha movilización fue la más larga de todas las que ha protagonizado el movimiento indígena ecuatoriano desde la década de 1990. El artículo reflexiona sobre las características de esta última protesta; señala sus diferencias con respecto a las movilizaciones de los años noventa y de los primeros años de este siglo XXI; y plantea algunas hipótesis sobre la nueva generación de líderes que están al frente de la organización indígena más importante del país, la CONAIE (Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador). El argumento principal que se explora es que la adopción de discursos y repertorios de protesta más orientados hacia una dimensión clasista que hacia una puramente etnoidentitaria ha sido la clave en la mayor capacidad de convocatoria del movimiento. Esto se reflejó en el masivo respaldo al llamado de la CONAIE contra las medidas neoliberales adoptadas por el Gobierno nacional.

The scandal of the Cuban Missile Crisis lies in the fact that it brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war for actions associated with relatively minor strategic and political gains. In this article I will treat this crisis as a diagnostic event to identify two significant interinstitutional dynamics that drove Nikita Khrushchev and President John F. Kennedy to this rationality-defying precipice. The first of these dynamics explores the consequences of transitioning military units from peacetime routines to crisis-level field deployment, which quickly created considerable command-and-control problems for both political leaders. Yet each believed that the other side remained in control of its forces, erroneously understanding local action by the other side as strategic moves ordered by central command. This created the potential for uncontrollable escalation. The second dynamic resulted from the interaction of two institutional arrangements in the United States. American presidents are simultaneously the country’s highest decision makers in foreign affairs and political campaigners interested in their own reelection. Foreign policy decisions thus become potential campaign moves. After World War II, a campaigning tradition emerged in which both parties felt compelled to outdo each other with anticommunist rhetoric and policies. This strategy built on deeply instituted anticommunism in the electorate, which politicians felt compelled to further cultivate. This dynamic significantly limited Kennedy’s response options, making it more likely than not that he would have called for an invasion of Cuba if Khrushchev had not backed down. The consequences would have been disastrous. The article concludes with tentative lessons to learn from these two dynamics.

This paper explores the implementation and enduring significance of the German language program in Milwaukee Public Schools between 1867 and 1918. Despite the German language program facing challenges, notably the Bennett Law of 1889—which sought to restrict foreign language instruction statewide—the program persisted, highlighting the tension between local identity and state mandates. This study argues that the creation of the German course initiated a process of consolidation and standardization in Milwaukee Public Schools, shifting decision-making to school administrators who sought to accommodate the largest cultural group in Milwaukee. This case study of the Milwaukee Public Schools’ German Language Program reveals how school policies prioritized a multilingual approach to Americanization. The paper is structured in three sections, examining the evolution of language policy, the political implications of the Bennett Law, and the post-Bennett landscape of language education, ultimately demonstrating the interplay between consolidation and cultural inclusivity.

The making of the Passeio Público, Lisbon’s first public garden, is filled with contradictions, advances and setbacks. By looking at the long-term history of this green infrastructure, from its inception in 1764 until the inauguration of the boulevard built on its footprint in 1886, and considering the various technical-scientific, artistic, economic, social and political factors, this article demonstrates that the so-called public garden of the ancién régime was in fact made by the Liberals. Political issues and the Liberals’ narration of events were primarily responsible for the disappearance of the Passeio Público.

The tendency to dismiss history in favour of close reading by twentieth-century British critics has cast a long shadow over critical practice. Yet the tendency to revere a formalist, a-historical, even a-political critical method primarily for its own sake seems to be singularly strong in English studies. This somewhat self-isolating tendency has not, for example, appeared as a noteworthy part of critical practice in comparative literature. Of course, the two fields have built up over time a mutual suspicion of each other’s critical methods, though it wasn’t just about the necessity of multilingualism but also about the value of history.