Valuing the cultural monuments of Armenia: Bayesian updating of prior beliefs in contingent valuation

The most appropriate way to measure the social benefits of conserving built cultural heritage sites is to ask the beneficiaries of conservation interventions how much they would be willing to pay for them. We use contingent valuation - a survey-based approach that elicits willingness to pay (WTP) directly from individuals - to estimate the benefits of a nationwide conservation of built cultural heritage sites in Armenia. The survey was administered to Armenian nationals living in Armenia, and obtained extensive information about the respondents' perceptions of the current state of conservation of monuments in Armenia, described the current situation, presented a hypothetical conservation program, elicited WTP for it, and queried individuals about what they thought would happen to monument sites in the absence of the government conservation program. We posit that respondents combined the information about the fate of monuments provided by the questionnaire with their prior beliefs, and that WTP for the good, or program, is likely to be affected by these updated beliefs. We propose a Bayesian updating model of prior beliefs, and empirically implement it with the data from our survey. We found that uncertainty about what would happen to monuments in the absence of the program results in lower WTP amounts. © 2008 Pion Ltd and its Licensors.

‘Darkened surfaces’: camouflage and the nocturnal observation of Britain, 1941–45

Positioned in relation to an emerging geographical interest into the effects of different atmospheric and observational conditions in shaping sensory engagements with the Earth's surfaces, this paper considers how a critical examination of the practices of camouflage can open up new dialogues into how the Earth's surfaces become known, are interacted with, and transformed in the conditions of darkness. With an empirical focus on the cultural and historical geographies of nocturnal camouflage practised during the Second World War, the paper examines the systematic attempts of civil camoufleurs to understand how natural and artificial landforms were visibly 'present' in the nocturnal landscape, despite darkness often being conceived as producing an environment of 'visual absence' through diminished sensory engagement. Furthermore, the paper highlights how the tensions between visual presence/absence that shape both the nocturnal experience and the 'knowing' of landscape can often be exploited for social, cultural, and political ends, in this case, to enable protection against aerial attack. © 2013 Pion and its Licensors.

The making of a void sovereignty: political implications of the military checkpoints in the West Bank

Research on the Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank has emphasized not only that these checkpoints have dire implications for the Palestinians living there, at the personal, familial, and communal levels, and devastating eff ects on the Palestinian economy, but also that they have far-reaching consequences for the ability of the Palestinians to establish an independent political entity. At the same time, analysis of the Israeli forms of domination over the Palestinians has also stressed the role of a Palestinian governing authority in sustaining the Israeli rule, since the former relieves the latter of its responsibility to care for the occupied Palestinian population. This paper aims to address this apparent contradiction claiming that a comprehensive analysis of Israeli forms of domination requires a spatial examination of the operation of sovereignty with an assessment of governmentalizing arrays. This combined analysis suggests that a Palestinian sovereignty, but one which is emptied of its actual ruling power, is construed at the checkpoints as an epiphenomenon of Israeli apparatuses of control. © 2013 Pion and its Licensors.