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“When James Boswell returned from a tour of Corsica in 1765 he wrote: ‘It is indeed amazing that an island so considerable, and in which such noble things have been doing, should be so imperfectly known.’ The same might be said today of Puerto Rico.” Thus began Millard Hansen and Henry Wells in the foreword to their 1953 look at Puerto Rico's democratic development. Four decades later, the same could again be said about the island.

No longer do resource economists merely regard nature as a collection of inert materials to be improved by human labor and manufactured capital; rather, nature is, to an increasing extent, taken to be a mindless producer of economically valuable ecosystem goods and services. Instances of natural capital are frequently said to produce such goods and services in a manner that is relatively detached from human agency. This article argues that, historically, the idea of nature as a systematic original producer capable of self-generation is hardly novel. The eighteenth-century roots of this idea can be found in the writings of Carl Linnaeus who depicted the whole Earth and all of its productions as the “oeconomy of nature.”

Using the perspectives of dramaturgy and symbolic interactionists like George Herbert Mead and Carl Couch this study focuses on paid sex work in the hypermodern, virtual world of Second Life. Using seventeen semi-structured interviews and six months of ethnographic fieldwork, I find that the employment of sexual scripts, carrying off a successful erotic scene, and the creative use of communication and embodiment are highly valued in escorts’ performance of Second Life sex work. Escorts craft an online persona that is a digital representation of the self, which is manifested in the embodiment of their digital body or avatar. In addition to digital representations of the physical self, Second Life allows for multiple methods of computer-mediated communication, and escorts are able to re-embody the first life body through the trading of first life pictures, voice cybersex, and web cam cybersex. The data allow the conclusion that most escorts are unwilling to re-embody the first life body for reasons of personal safety and the desire to restrict access to the first life self. I find, however, that there is a porous boundary between first life and Second Life in which the first life self comes through in the Second Life persona. In the concluding remarks, I explore the implications this study has for the negotiation of privacy for new social media actors who are reluctant to fully disclose their lives yet perform a persistent, archived persona for friends and followers on the Internet. This study contributes to a small, but growing, body of literature on Second Life and expands the existing work on embodiment and privacy in the digital realm.

Diving has become a popular tourism activity for professionals and novices. Coral reefs or other types of natural sources are still the most preferred diving sites. However, they are under threat for many reasons, for example, climate change, intensive human activities or commercial use. Many countries have promoted artificial reefs to protect coral reefs and create new attractions for tourists. These new underwater atmospheres have changed diving and diving experiences. Wrecks, vessels, monuments, hotels, sunken cities or other types of artificial reef forms invite divers to discover and explore the human-driven underwater environment with novelty seeking, photographic opportunities and mysterious surroundings. This atmospheric turn has brought many advantages to communities, stakeholders and nations with socio-economic benefits, advantages in sustainability management and destination image. This chapter examines the range of underwater atmospheres in different structures and countries and explores their potential benefits.

Current events in the Soviet Union cannot be understood without comprehending the nature of Soviet communism. Begins with a description of the system singlehandedly imposed on the Soviet Union by Lenin and Stalin, focusing on the key elements of Marxist‐Leninist ideology and the nomenklatura. Brings to light a seldom‐recognized characteristic of communist governments, which is obscured by official propaganda, that Marxism‐Leninism is firmly grounded on “science”. It involves the rejection, by communist policy makers, of any coherent intellectual framework which would guide and also explain their actions. This, however, is not surprising, because any theoretical blueprint would force these leaders to spell out the precise goals they are pursuing, as well as the costs (to whom?) and the benefits (also to whom?) of their actions. It would, additionally, make the communist party accountable for its policies, a fact that would represent an intolerable restriction of its practically unlimited power. Perestroika has not changed this situation. The absence of a programme or of a priori guidelines allows Gorbachev to declare his willingness to introduce market processes, while, at the same time, emphasizing that all his reforms are made “in accordance with the socialist choice”. A case study of the recently legalized Soviet “co‐operative” sector confirms this lack of commitment to unambiguous policies. The prerequisites for a transition from a centrally planned to a market economy are therefore developed by Western, not Soviet, experts. They invariably call for the abandonment of the communist system and the demise of its beneficiary, the nomenklatura. Gorbachev, who has risen to power as an exponent of the “new class” (Milovan Djilas) is unwilling to accept this trade‐off. He can therefore be expected to continue his policy of vacillation, while his country′s economic, political, and social problems remain unresolved.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.