21.146 geographical models: the Netherlands

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 146.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
  www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
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         Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:53:17 +0100
         From: "Hunsucker, R.L." <R.L.Hunsucker_at_uva.nl>
         Subject: RE: 21.144 geographical models: the Netherlands

Dear Willard and others,

If you can bear with me a bit longer : just a further note on what I
wrote in great haste on Saturday (before running off to the theatre).

In addtion to the typo ("teleration" for "toleration"), I note that the
direct url under which I accessed the pdf-file of Van Iterson's paper
doesn't work now that I try it after distribution on this list. Because
it's a quite interesting paper, let me mention, then, that you can get
to it e.g. via the Research Papers in Economics service at EconPapers
(http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/dgrumanib/1997008.htm)
or the University of Connecticut Econ Dept.'s "Ideas" site
(http://ideas.repec.org/p/dgr/umanib/1997008.html).

It is perhaps furthermore useful to mention that this particular
Netherlandish manifestation of a "native geographical model" came
into some international prominence with the rise and fall of the
so-called "polder model" * in the period of the 1990s through the
first five or so years of the 21st century. ( An obvious reference here
is the book _Exit polder model? : socioeconomic changes in the
Netherlands_, by Lei Delsen [revised and translated from the Dutch.
- Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002]. )

* The _OED_'s definition of "polder" being : "a piece of low-lying
land reclaimed from the sea, a river, etc., and protected by dykes".
The concept of a "polder mentality" is a fairly often-referred-to one
in these parts. It also plays a small part, by the way, in Jared Diamond's
_Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed_ (Allen Lane and
Viking, 2005).

- Laval Hunsucker
    UvAmsterdam

> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: Humanist Discussion Group [mailto:humanist_at_Princeton.EDU]Namens
> Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty
> <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>)
> Verzonden: maandag 2 juli 2007 7:50
> Aan: humanist_at_Princeton.EDU
> Onderwerp: 21.144 geographical models: the Netherlands
>
>
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 144.
> Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
>
> www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/hum
> anist.html
> www.princeton.edu/humanist/
> Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu
>
>
>
> Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:45:57 +0100
> From: "Hunsucker, R.L." <R.L.Hunsucker_at_uva.nl>
> >
> Willard,
>
> Very interesting topic to think about.
>
> > > [ . . . ]
> > Does anyone here know of others?
>
> I've seen no reponse yet to this query, and may be speaking
> slightly out of turn (as non-native here), but one that occurs to
> me is the commonplace that Holland's centuries-long battle
> with the waters has (but actually: to what extent?) determined
> ways of thinking and acting (cooperation, compromise,
> consensus, teleration) that were most obvious in the early
> modern period, but still operative today. How far can you take
> this -- also into the intellectual, literary and artistic spheres ?
>
> As I say, this is a sort of commonplace, also here, a kind of
> cliche. See, for example the paper by Ad van Iterson, "The
> development of national governance principles in the Netherlands"
> (Maastricht : NIBOR, 1997), available at :
> http://arno.unimaas.nl/show.cgi?fid=3D655
> -- but also, for a more critical view, dating to the same year :
> "Dutch nation-building: a struggle against the water?", by Hans
> Knippenberg in _GeoJournal_ 43.1, p.27-40. See, too, Sako
> Musterd & Ben de Pater, "Eclectic and pragmatic: the colours
> of Dutch social and cultural geography", _Social & cultural
> geography_ 4.4 (2003), p.549-563.
>
> - Laval Hunsucker
> UvAmsterdam
Received on Tue Jul 03 2007 - 02:12:05 EDT