Modifying sense of place in a federal company town: Sunflower Village,Kansas, 1942 to 1959

The federal government built Sunflower Village, Kansas, to house employees of the Sunflower Ordnance Plant and their families during World War II. The community existed in this fashion until 1959 when a private real-estate developer bought the land and buildings. The Village evolved out of many perspectives in urban planning including those of federal ownership, ‘Garden City’ communities, and private company towns. This study examines a modified, or unique, development of sense of place that evolved here due to these varied urban forms and despite evidence of mobility and a short residence. Landscape analysis, archival searches and personal interviews also reveal a distinct difference in the experiences of youth and adults that resulted in varying processes of attachment within the community.     

“三党竞斗”:中共在高校中建党的背景分析

在中国革命史上,共产党、青年党和国民党纵横捭阖,在一定程度上决定了中国政党政治发展的格局和走势。而三党竞斗的一个重要交汇点,就在于争取青年学生。在此后20多年三党循环敌对和相互抗衡中,中共广泛运用思想交锋、党团制度、统一战线等斗争策略,从而确保其在国、青两党的攻击下立于不败之地。     

当前高校教师职称评聘工作存在的问题与对策

高等院校教师职称的评聘是关系到学校师资建设的重要工作,也是高校内部管理体制改革的重要环节。随着职称改革的不断深入,当前高校教师职称评聘中存在的主要问题有:评审体系有失科学性,评审材料有失真实性,评审程序有失公正性。解决高校教师职称评聘中这些问题的对策是:评审条件要进一步硬化,监控机制要进一步强化,约束措施要进一步细化,评聘重心要进一步弱化。     

The leitmotiv in the mathematical thought of Gerbert of Aurillac

The political transformation of Italian cities during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had a significant impact on the social fabric of those communities. This essay examines the effect of political change on the social order in urban Italy through a study of the response of lay confraternities in Bergamo to the demise of the commune and the rise of the Visconti signoria. We examine the administration, the civic commitments, and the charitable donations of the city's largest confraternity, the Misericordia Maggiore, from the late thirteenth century, when it was a close supporter of the commune, to the mid-fourteenth century, when the confraternity came increasingly to resemble the signorial regime. In its emulation of the social values of contemporary government, and its willingness to adapt to suit prevailing political structures, the Misericordia helped smooth the transition from commune to signoria for its membership and the community at large.     

Becoming Rafinesque: Market Society and Academic Reputation in the Early American Republic

This article focuses on how knowledge came to be valued in conflicting ways in the American Republic during the 1820s and 1830s – one based on a market model that considered knowledge to be a commodity for sale, and another that produced cultural value through social connections created in new academic institutions. Constantine Rafinesque, who taught at Transylvania University in Kentucky, and his research in the natural sciences serve as an example of the first sort of scholarship. His life also illustrates how a market society could lead to dandies, like Rafinesque himself, even in academia, and how that threatened both new middle class social proprieties and a system of clubby social relations that had come to dominate America’s colleges and universities in the early nineteenth century.     

The Suburb as a Space of Capital Accumulation: The Development of New Towns in Shanghai,China

Drawing attention to the governing role of capital accumulation and its interaction with the state, this study examines the dynamics of the new wave of suburbanization in China, which is characterized by the development of new towns. New towns essentially function as a spatial fix in China's contemporary accumulation regime. Rather than resulting from capital switching from the primary to the secondary circuits, new towns help to collect funds for the leverage of industrial capital and thus simultaneously sustain both circuits. Meanwhile, the development of new towns is also a process of territorial development, in which municipal governments expand the space of accumulation under strengthened fiscal and land controls and develop a metropolitan structure. Underlying the specific form and dynamics, however, is the worldwide trend of capital switching from declining manufacturing industries in developed countries to the new investment frontier in developing countries.     

Where the heart is: home space transitions for residential college students

Home and the transition to adulthood are related temporal and spatial constructs. Building upon Kenyon’s [1999. “A home from home: Students’ transitional experience of home.” In Ideal homes? Social change and domestic life, edited by T. Chapman, 84–95. New York: Routledge] categorization of physical, social, personal, and temporal elements of home for college students, we analyze survey responses from 256 students at a 4-year U.S. residential college in order to uncover how perceptions of home-like spaces change as students move from pre-college homes, through on- and off-campus home spaces, and toward imagined future homes. Our quantitative findings show that the four home elements matter differently across time and type of home, supported by qualitative findings wherein students articulate how they conceptualize similarities and differences between the different home spaces. This study adds to ongoing conceptualizations of the transition to adulthood as placed (for four-year residential college students especially), and as fluid and multilayered in terms of social actors’ views of their past, present, and imagined future homes and accompanying identity transitions.     

The refugee camp as a space of multiple ambiguities and subjectivities

Analyses of refugee camps have criticised Agamben's conceptualisation of exception, understood as the juridical production of ‘bare life’ by the sovereign. They have emphasised the multiplicity of actors and exclusionary dynamics involved in the production of exception, as well as the politicisation of space. This scholarship has however stayed framed around an ‘exclusionary paradigm’. This article proposes a complementary way to move beyond Agamben's analysis of the camp by reconsidering the idea of a ‘zone of indistinction’ between exclusion and inclusion. It refers to Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, where many dwellers have a dual status of ‘refugee-citizen’. It analyses how the subject and citizenship are ambiguously constructed as simultaneously excluded and included – and not solely included through an exclusion. To explore these complex spatial dynamics of exclusion and inclusion, the analysis addresses the exercise of three forms of power – sovereignty, discipline and government – by focusing on the materiality of the camp and the practices of authorities managing space. These powers are ambiguously contributing to the inclusion of the camp and its dwellers in the territory of the Jordanian state, as well as in the neoliberal city of Amman, while maintaining the character of the camp as an excluded humanitarian and temporary space. Through this process, camp dwellers are recast not only as assisted subjects and beneficiaries, but also as autonomous and productive subjects, as well as entrepreneurs and consumers. This article therefore argues that the camp needs to be re-considered as a space of multiple ambiguities and subjectivities aimed at creating a differentiation in the city.     

The Nanjing Massacre as recorded in American sources

ABSTRACT

During the Nanjing Massacre, American figures who remained in Nanjing, or who took an interest in Nanjing’s plight despite not being present in the city, produced copious reports, observations, records, and analyses with respect to the events that unfolded, forming highly unique third-party sources on the history of the Nanjing Massacre, and disseminated them across China, Europe, and the United States. The American sources recorded the facts of the massacres, rape, looting, arson, narcotics trafficking, implementation of a “comfort women” system, and other atrocities committed by the Japanese Army, and revealed the actions taken by Japan to conceal its war crimes; their evidentiary value was demonstrated during the war crimes trials in Tokyo and Nanjing. The documents were produced during the course of the Americans’ efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Chinese soldiers and civilians, but at the same time, they also reflect these figures’ consideration for American interests in China.     

Queers in the American City: Transgendered perceptions of urban space

This paper explores the complex relationship between transgendered people and cities in the USA, and, in particular, their relationship with queer spaces within those cities. Some have argued that queer spaces occur at the margins of society and constitute a safe haven for LGBT oppressed by the hetero-normative nature of urban areas. Data from a survey of 149 transgendered individuals indicate that although queer spaces provide a measure of protection for gender variant people, the gendered nature of these spaces results in continued high levels of harassment and violence for this population. The author argues that the strongly gendered dimensions of these spaces suggests that a discursive re-visioning of gender is needed to create more transgender friendly urban spaces.     

Desocializing space: the decline of the public realm in Western Sydney1

This paper addresses the public realm and considers its contemporary context in an important Australian region, Western Sydney. Although problematized by social theory in recent years, my base position is the Habermasian premise that a public realm is critical to the healthy functioning of liberal democracies, such as Australia. This paper has three specific aims. First, I note the erosion of the public realm in an important Australian region, Western Sydney, and the obfuscation of its presence and role by new institutional arrangements emerging principally but not exclusively from federal policy settings. I then consider the consequences of this ‘desocialization of space’ for democracy and equity in a socially and culturally diverse urban region such as Western Sydney.

Désocialiser l'espace: le déclin de la sphère publique dans le Western Sydney

espace public, Western Sydney, néolibéralisme

Le présent article s'intéresse à la question de la sphère publique et examine sa condition actuelle à Western Sydney, une région australienne d'une importance capitale. Bien que la théorie sociale l'a récemment remise en cause, je m'appuie sur la prémisse d'Habermas selon laquelle la sphère publique est essentielle pour le bon fonctionnement des démocraties libérales comme celle qui prévaut en Australie. Les trois principaux buts de cet article sont de faire état de l'érosion de la sphère publique dans une des plus importantes régions australiennes qu'est Western Sydney. Je souligne à quel point sa présence et son rôle sont embrouillés par de nouveaux arrangements institutionnels qui naissent surtout mais pas uniquement grâce aux instances politiques fédérales. J'aborde ensuite les conséquences qu'entraînent la «désocialisation de l'espace» pour la démocratie et l'équité dans la vaste mosaïque socioculturelle urbaine de Western Sydney.

La desocialización del espacio: la disminución del terreno público en el oeste de Sydney

espacio público, el oeste de Sydney, el neo-liberalismo

Este papel trata el terreno público y considera su contexto contemporáneo en una región importante de Australia, el oeste de Sydney. Aunque la teoría social lo ha problematizado en recientes años, yo me baso en la premisa de Habermas de que un terreno público es esencial al buen funcionamiento de las democracias liberales, como la de Australia. Este papel tiene tres objetivos específicos. Primero, hablo de la erosión del terreno público en una región importante de Australia, el oeste de Sydney, y de la ofuscación de su presencia y de su papel, causada por nuevos arreglos institucionales que han surgido principalmente, pero no exclusivamente, de la política federal. Luego, considero las consecuencias para la democracia y la igualdad de esta ‘desocialización de espacio’ en una región urbana donde hay gran diversidad cultural y social, como el oeste de Sydney.     

Music in French geography as space marker and place maker

For several decades, there have been broad research developments on the links between music and geography in the English-speaking world, initially in the USA, then in Europe and also in Asia, the Middle East and Oceania. In the French-speaking world, although developments are more recent, research bringing together music and geography is well developed, too. However, it was not until the end of the last decade that Francophones began to take Anglophone work into account and even this was inconsistent. In Anglophone publications, the work of the Francophones is almost completely absent. With this commentary, a Francophone–Anglophone dialogue could open new perspectives.     

北魏军镇州郡化问题新探

军镇的成立、发展乃至转型皆深藏于北魏政治演进之中,并在政区地理以及地方行政制度维度,与州郡相互勾连。太武帝基于地方行政治理的需要,在部分军镇开启了州郡化进程,至孝文帝时,军镇州郡化全面席卷地方行政领域。而军镇在政区地理方面的差异,影响了州郡化的路径与结果。根据军镇的类型及其转型方式,军镇州郡化应细分为“改镇立州”“废镇立州”“废镇存州”三种方式,前两种直接改变了北魏政区体系,并使得军镇体制渐次退出地方行政领域,第三种的作用则仅限于制度变化方面。三者共同推动军镇政区及军镇体制的州郡化,进而在政权结构层面引发北魏地方行政制度的更张。     

Rescaling as a class relationship and process: The case of public procurement law in Turkey

In this study we focus on two problematic aspects of the recent rescaling literature: overgeneralization of abstractions rather than examination of concrete class forces; and unidirectional understanding of the relationship between rescaling processes in the core and periphery, where rescaling is seen as an outcome of the uneven development of capitalism based on the tendency of over-accumulated capitals in the core to move to the periphery. We suggest an alternative approach that conceives rescaling as a class relationship and process shaped by the contradictory interaction between global capitals in the core and newly growing capitals in the periphery. Through a study of the formation and transformation of the public procurement law in Turkey (2001–2005), we illustrate that the rescaling of the Turkish public procurement market was not only shaped by global capitals unidirectionally, but through their contradictory interaction with the domestic capitals in Turkey. Although the initial law was formed under the hegemony of global capitals, the AKP government then made many attempts to change the law in line with the demands of domestic capital groups. In this process, scale was shaped by the unequal but mutual power relationships between global and domestic capital groups.     

Feeling and the production of lesbian space in The L Word

This article seeks to understand the production of lesbian space in the TV series The L Word (TLW) (Showtime 2004–2009). To do so, it departs from theories of the lesbian gaze to discuss the visibility of feeling. Specifically, I consider how TLW represents the visibility of feeling as constitutive of lesbian bodies, communities and spaces. In TLW, real spaces (actual locations) fold into virtual ones (on screen) in a deliberate construction of televisual lesbian space. TLW implicitly reflects and is embedded within real-life configurations of lesbian space. I identify four excerpts from the series – ‘gay LA’, ‘the pool’, ‘Olivia cruise’ and ‘High Art’ – that problematise lesbian visibility by foregrounding the relationship between feeling and place. Permission to feel, represented as permission to look, reproduces community as the threshold of lesbian identity. Critical to understanding this production of lesbian space is the way in which TLW associates feeling with social relationships as vividly depicted by ‘the chart’, a representational motif that maps lesbian sexual relations and the intelligibility of lesbian feeling. Finally, I develop my account of lesbian visibility through the example of the facial expression of feeling, at once a demonstration of the visible embodiment of lesbian feeling, and the intelligibility of lesbian space.     

明代以来江南市镇的内涵与发展——太湖南部四镇的个案剖析

明代以来江南地区出现了众多的市镇,各市镇的经济内涵是有所不同的,市镇经济内涵的形成与市镇发生的历史背景以及所处的地理位置有着十分重要的关系,而市镇的经济内涵又决定着市镇的发展前景.     

The public relevance of the church and Catholicism in Italy

Abstract

This article highlights the particular situation of the Catholic religion in Italy which distinguishes itself for its systematic organization, active association-forming and cultural vitality, unrivalled in any other European country either Protestant or Catholic. On the one hand the church in Italy still disposes of such a wealth of clergy and religious figures, dioceses and parishes, educational and social institutions, ecclesiastical groups and associations, and so on, that it can maintain a diffuse presence scattered over the national territory; it deploys numerous forces and resources which form an integral part of normal social relationships that animate civil society. On the other hand, the church and Italian Catholicism today are particularly active at a cultural level, with their contribution of ideas and experience on vital questions arising in social coexistence (ranging from the family to bioethics, from religious freedom to the secular State, from national identity to the multiethnic presence, and so on).