Issues and Paradoxes in the Development of Iranian National Cinema: An Overview

Contemporary Iranian cinema has enjoyed wide success on the international scene—winning awards at film festivals, receiving praise by critics, and being screened in many countries around the world. But this success has another side to it: at home in Iran, the movie theater attendance is in decline and a range of players, including individuals, policymakers and government entities continue to meddle in shaping its future. Throughout the twentieth century and during the two decades of post-revolutionary successes abroad, Iranian cinema developed its own unique style and aesthetic. A cinema which was sometimes nurtured and financially encouraged by the government, yet at other times censored or banned by it. This paper provides a brief survey of the history of Iranian cinema since the 1900s in order to reveal the paradoxical issues both propelling and bedeviling its development and the role of principal actors involved in fashioning an Iranian national cinema.     

‘Fighting Stick of Thunder’: Firearms and the Zulu Kingdom: The Cultural Ambiguities of Transferring Weapons Technology

This paper investigates the reluctance of the nineteenth-century Zulu people of southern Africa fully to embrace firearms in their war-making, and posits that this was an expression of their military culture. Not that the Zulu could not appreciate the battle-winning potential of the new military technology, or were dissuaded from increasingly determined efforts to obtain large quantities of firearms from traders. Yet, because firearms were prestigious weapons, monopolized by the elite, or professional hunters, Zulu commoners had little opportunity to master them and continued to rely instead on their traditional weapons, particularly the stabbing-spear. Even so, cultural rather than practical reasons were behind the rank and file’s reluctance to upgrade firearms to their prime weapon. Employing recorded contemporary Zulu oral evidence, praise songs, and statements of prisoners-of-war, to unpack the Zulus’ own perception of their heroic military culture, it is argued that, because of the engrained Zulu cultural consensus that only hand-to-hand combat was appropriate conduct for a true fighting-man, killing at a distance with a firearm was of inferior significance, and did not even entail the ritual pollution that followed homicide and the shedding of human blood. Only close combat was worthy of praise and commemoration.     

The Capital of Diversity: Neoliberal Development and the Discourse of Difference in Washington,DC

Complicating top‐down analyses of neoliberal development, this article charts how demographically diverse residents in Columbia Heights—a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Washington, DC—reinforce and resist dominant narratives of diversity that praise multicultural, mixed urban spaces. These narratives often not only fail to discuss power and equity, they are typically used to market state‐sponsored, upscale development that actively threatens the very diversity appropriated to sell a neighborhood. I argue that many residents initially reproduce this rhetoric of diversity, but discuss power and difference more candidly in their discussion of the neighborhood's history and amenities. Most residents who recently moved to the neighborhood juxtapose praise of diversity with comments that associate crime, litter, and “grime” with that diversity. Residents who grew up in Columbia Heights moved from praising the influx of development and new (largely upper‐middle class) residents to expressing concerns about exclusion, disrespect, and possible displacement.     

Legislative Coalitions and Presidential Signing Statements

We examine how the congressional coalition in favor of a law affects the probability of the president appending a positive or negative signing statement to it. Our results show that coalitions matter—presidents consider the power and status of a law's sponsor and the composition of its cosponsorship coalition when deciding whether to offer praise or raise concerns. Moreover, the factors driving praise and criticism differ from one another in important ways. These analyses demonstrate the value of assessing the valence of a signing statement rather than just its presence, and of extending the focus of research on signing statements beyond aggregate factors to investigate how the context surrounding a particular law shapes the president's reaction to it.     

Drug Control in Afghanistan: Culture,Politics, and Power during the 1958 Prohibition of Opium in Badakhshan

This article explores the process leading to the Afghan government's decision to implement a prohibition and eradication of opium in the northeastern province of Badakhshan. It explores why Daud chose Badakhshan, the impact of the opium ban on the people of Badakhshan and the future of opium production and trade, as well as the evolution of drug control in Afghanistan under the Musahiban dynasty. Ultimately, the ban was launched because it allowed Daud to garner international praise and financial support, while enforcing eradication in an area inhabited by ethnic minorities ensured that the Afghan government's coercive strategy would not generate resistance from rural Pashtun tribes historically opposed to these types of state intervention.     

新中国成立初期的革命烈士褒扬抚恤工作——以《人民日报》为中心的考察

中国共产党领导全国人民经过28年艰苦卓绝的浴血奋战,终于迎来中华民族浴火重生的曙光,建立了新中国。为铭记革命烈士的不朽功勋,在革命战争年代,解放区施行了褒扬革命烈士和抚恤烈属、军属的政策。新中国成立不久,经政务院批准,内务部制定了一系列对革命烈士进行褒扬抚恤的政策法规,在全国范围内开展对革命烈士的褒扬抚恤工作,如修建公墓和烈士陵园等纪念设施、举行烈士纪念仪式、宣传烈士事迹、收集烈士遗物、向烈士家属发放抚恤金、发动社会广泛开展拥军优属活动等。新中国对革命烈士的褒扬抚恤工作,树立了革命烈士的光辉形象,弘扬了革命烈士的崇高精神,对新中国成立初期社会价值观的塑造产生了积极影响。     

基于网络口碑的长春市文化娱乐场所空间布局研究

基于微观个体的心理认知及参与空间行为的差异性需求分析成为21世纪场所微区位研究的新趋势。本文尝试通过将文化娱乐场所的网络口碑信息与地理空间关联,从地理分布与口碑分布两个方面,探讨长春市文化娱乐场所的空间布局特征。研究认为文化娱乐场所的空间圈层分异明显,数量等级特征显著;空间热点区总体一致,呈多中心发展态势;空间分布模式表现各异,口碑得分具有随机性;不同业态类型场所其空间区位选择、分布模式及口碑得分均具有显著差异,对文化娱乐场所的研究应深入到微观业态内部及业态之间去比较分析。     

The ‘Prentice’s Bracket’ at Gloucester Cathedral

The 14th-century ‘Prentice’s bracket’ in the south transept of Gloucester cathedral has usually been thought to represent the fatal plunge of a young mason, watched by an older colleague. The implicit parallel is with Icarus and Daedalus, which suggests a moral lesson about the risks of Pride for artisans who worked at dangerous heights. However, this reading of the imagery may not be correct. In light of what is actually shown — the younger man is clearly attached to a vault — it seems more likely to represent a rescue through supernatural intervention. Numerous parallels for such rescues exist in medieval sources, particularly in the praise literature dedicated to the Virgin Mary.     

Roi mineur et naissance de la majesté dans les discours auliques

The numerous treatises on reason of State are part of a genre which theorises political actions a posteriori. It is not possible for reason of State to be expressed directly and publicly ? How is it staged by the State itself ? Courtly literature, with its subtle dialectic of imitation and idealization, contains abundant material exemplifying this manifestation as representation, all the more significant when it concerns an interregnum. The minor age of the prince, his crowning and the ceremony of his coming of age are essential moments which are surrounded by the rhetoric of praise and during which the State institutes in the prince both the faculty of reason and its own reason: a panegyric reason of State.     

Further Thoughts on the Imperial Endgame and Britain's Dirty Wars

The publication of my book Imperial Endgame: Britain's Dirty Wars and the End of Empire in 2011 provoked many to respond, although not with a criticism that was consistent across the board. In my work, I intentionally did not draw a moral conclusion and took care to present what I considered a balanced account of British decolonisation, without praise or condemnation of past actions. This has made my argument vulnerable from several directions since, as reviewer Ashley Jackson commented, ‘it is rather difficult to know on which side the author's bread is buttered’. This paper is an attempt to bring clarity to my argument and to continue the debate on some of the aspects of Britain's end of empire that my book discussed.     

The Topographic and Soil Maps of the United States

A comparison of United States topographic maps with the actual terrain shows a disregard of geographical differences in the use of vegetation symbols, contour lines and population centers. This is attributed to the fact that topographic technicians lack a geographic background. The county soil surveys of the United States evoke a great deal of admiration and praise, but the lack of a uniform soil classification enabling the compilation of generalized soil maps is deplored.     

Buyer Engagement and Labour Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Bangladesh Accord and Beyond

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (‘the Accord’) has received both praise and criticism concerning its implications for corporate responsibility and power. This article contributes to the debate by situating the Accord within a broader set of activities that buyers are engaged in to promote better labour conditions in their supply chains. The authors identify three approaches of buyer engagement: auditing, capacity building and advocacy. Drawing on interviews conducted with European brands and retailers, the article shows how buyers perceive the merits and challenges of these approaches, and whether and how they discharge responsibility and power through these activities. The study shows that the Accord is seen primarily as part of the auditing approach with a key feature being its use of collective leverage as a means of enforcement. While greater buyer power has not necessarily been accompanied by greater responsibility, the article highlights heterogeneity among buyers in how they take up different approaches, painting a more nuanced picture of buyer responsibility and power.     

洋务新政时期普通士人的思想转型——以江顺诒为中心

在晚清洋务新政背景下,江顺诒虽屈居下僚,然能以通时务、达事权为奋斗目标。在中外文明比较中,除了对基督教有所批评外,对西洋商业文明、政治制度等多持肯定态度。虽给人"抑中而扬外"的印象,然实则是以"西学中源"为底色的一种"尊西方——超西方"的路径。在古今之变上,并非由"泥古"到"求新"的简单转型,而是务求实用,主张"泥古"、"背古"皆非,以富强为目标的社会发展观。他从一个普通知识分子的角度,回应了洋务新政所带给人们价值观的新变化。     

Cultural icons and urban development in Asia: Economic imperative,national identity,and global city status

Global cities are characterized by the multiplicity of flows that they are implicated in – flows of people, goods, services, ideas, and images. Yet, global cities do not derive their status only on the basis that they are networked nodes. They also require particular forms of cultural capital. Cities with global aspirations have thus increasingly recognized the need to accumulate cultural capital, for which one means is to create new urban spaces, in particular, new cultural urban spaces (e.g. grand theatres, museums, libraries). These often monumental structures are intended to support a vibrant cultural life, in order to attract and sustain global human and economic flows. In this paper, I examine the efforts by Shanghai's, Singapore's and Hong Kong's governments to develop cultural icons as part of the strategy to help their cities gain global city status, and in the process, constructing shared national and city identities. I illustrate how such efforts are not universally interpreted in the manner intended, with city populations sometimes protesting, sometimes simply oblivious. At the same time, I argue that such strategies to achieve global city status are sometimes at odds with projects of nationhood.     

雅克·勒高夫对新传记的探索

20世纪后期法国出现的传记回归对年鉴学派提出了挑战。雅克·勒高夫对此进行回应,倡导把结构分析方法与传记体裁融为一体的"新传记",并撰写了《圣路易》。勒高夫通过解构史料把握圣路易与历史表征或"典范"的辩证统一关系,进而在圣路易与社会环境的互动中解释和呈现"真实的"圣路易。《圣路易》赢得学界诸多赞誉,但也提出新问题,即,如何实现科学的史学方法与个体化的叙述方法的有机融合,又能同时保持传记的生动性和趣味性。无论如何,《圣路易》是史家进一步探索新传记的重要基点。     

东汉伦理政治初探

伦理政治的迷失是新朝政权倏忽兴亡的重要原因.刘秀复汉的成功,与对儒家思想的借重是分不开的.儒家政治伦理作为东汉极力表彰的意识形态,享有崇高地位,并与政治实践密切结合.伦理制衡既体现为东汉前期皇帝对治道和施政政策的主动调整,也体现在儒臣对朝廷决策和施政的约束和引导,从而发挥了一定的政治调节作用.东汉素来以朝廷表彰名节、士风高亢而彪炳中古史册,这构成该时期伦理控制的鲜明特征.东汉社会的伦理冲突,集中表现为清流士大夫捍卫德治传统、与黑暗势力的殊死斗争.     

浅论汉代历史理论及特点

汉代历史理论很丰富,可以说有了一些体系。在形式上,不仅体现于史书的序、论、赞以及"寓论断于序事",还有专篇史论、诸子书中的一些相关史论、一些奏疏中的相关史论和政论中的史论,等等;同时,史书的史论在形式上又有一个变化发展过程。在内涵上,不仅对历史中的根本问题作了深入、连续的思考与理论概括,而且还对现实中出现的重大问题作了探讨和理性回答。在方法与特点方面,不仅从天地人参合的思维来探究人类历史演变,显示出汉代人宏阔的理论视野;同时把握历史与现实的联系,使史学形成了通变的分析传统和"为世典式"的致用传统。     

The Latin doctors of the Church on sexuality

The Latin doctors of the early Church, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, are well known for their advocacy of virginity or chastity. Jerome was so vociferous in his praise of the virgin life that he was accused of denigrating marriage as the Manichaeans had done. Ambrose earned the title of Doctor of Virginity for his many writings on the subject, and Augustine's well-known conversion was associated with his adoption of a celibate life. The preponderance of tracts and letters on virginity and general continence within the corpus of patristic writings suggests that their view of sex might be summarized by two words: ‘avoid it’. However, the view of sexuality that shaped their visions of chastity was more complex than that, and this paper will explore the sexual beliefs that underlie such an important part of patristic writings. While they shared an advocacy of the celibate life, the three Latin doctors did not share a single view of sexuality. In fact, they represent two distinct positions on the subject. Jerome and Ambrose present one view that was shared by many of the earlier church Fathers, including Tertullian, Gregory of Nazianzen and others. Augustine represents a change in the analysis of human sexuality.     

东晋都督诸州军事与其所领将军职的关系探讨

东晋国家设置的都督诸州军事与将军职有密切的关系。实际上,将军职是都督诸州军事任职的必要条件。东晋都督诸州军事与将军职的结合表现出明显的多样性,并且也呈现出复杂性。由于都督诸州军事与将军职结合的密切,因此将军职可以体现都督诸州军事的地位,可以在一定程度上表现都督诸州军事的等级,可以表现国家对都督诸州军事的表扬和惩处。都督诸州军事与将军职的密切结合,就使其军事职官的特征更明显了。