赫西俄德的史学地位

赫西俄德是古希腊前史学时期的著名诗人 ,他的诗作《田功农时》和《神谱》中所反映出的历史思想在西方史学的起源上具有重要意义 ,他本人是希腊史学从萌芽状态走向完全形成长过程中的最后一位承上启下的人物     

Aid as a Catalyst

This article argues that aid is not the prime mover of development, but rather a catalyst. It might be used as a reward for good development governance. However, it will fulfil its catalytic function better by creating conditions for policy improvement. Better governance should be seen not only as a pre‐condition for development and for development aid, but also as a development objective in itself. This is particularly true for aid recipient countries in disarray.     

群众文化是社会和谐发展的催化剂

近几年来,在党和政府的重视、关心和大力支持下,群众文化正以极其迅猛的势头蓬勃发展着,并对促进全社会的精神文明建设发挥着越来越显著的作用。就我们西宁市而言,广大群众文化工作者依托全市一个群众艺术馆、四个区文化馆等群众文化设施为阵地,以社区文化、广场文化、军营文化、校园文化为抓手,以提高市民文化素质和城市文明程度为目标,开展了许多形态各异、特色鲜明、适合广大人民群众需要的群众文化活动。     

Friendship as a Political Challenge

Abstract

Blitz argues for the necessity and possibility of political philosophy by uncovering its origins in the thought of Plato. By tracing its emergence from the political and moral, Blitz explains the nature of philosophy.     

Immigration as a Political Dilemma in Britain

Informed by evidence drawn from the British case, this article assesses three competing explanations for how and why political elites in Western Europe lost control of postwar immigration and immigrant policy: the liberal thesis, the political-historical perspective, and the political institutional breakdown explanation. The British case casts doubt on the assumption that West European elites did lose control of policy, although, to the extent that perfect control was not exercised, the political-historical argument best explains this phenomenon.     

Traditional Fijian Apology as a Political Strategy

This paper is a reflection upon tradition in Fiji, taking up the question of a controversial ceremony of apology during the 2000 Fijian crisis. A subject of dispute, as much for the social actors as for anthropologists, the notion of tradition that I piece together appears as just such an object of negotiation — between interlocutors but equally between they and the anthropologist. While stressing articulations between customary and constitutional rights, it also highlights the personal and collective strategies that are hidden behind a conflict said to be ethnic, and in the construction of Fijian nationalism.     

Western Mediterranean sand deposits as a raw material for Roman glass production

During the Late Roman and Byzantine period, natron glass was made from its raw materials in a limited number of primary production centres in Egypt and Syro-Palestine. For the earlier Hellenistic and Roman period, no primary furnaces have been found and the location of primary production during this era remains unclear. Ancient authors such as Strabo and Pliny the Elder suggest that glassmaking sands were found near the River Belus (Israel), in Egypt, near the mouth of the Volturno River (Italy) and also in Spain and France. However, primary production in the western part of the Mediterranean is not supported by any direct archaeological evidence and possible sand raw materials from these regions have never been evaluated for their suitability to produce glass.     

Improving Efficiency in Australian Local Government: Structural Reform as a Catalyst for Effective Reform

Municipal amalgamation has been the main policy instrument of local government structural reform programmes in Australia for well over a century. However, council consolidation programs have not achieved the intended cost savings or improved service provision promised by advocates of this means of structural reorganisation. This paper considers whether the failure of municipal amalgamation processes to produce significant economic benefits necessarily implies that structural reform programs that invoke consolidation have no place in Australian local government policy. It is argued that ‘top-down’ state government structural reform policy initiatives carrying the threat of amalgamation constitute an efficient mechanism for evoking optimal ‘bottom-up’ structural change models.     

Hobbes as Political Theologian

Abstract

Although an orphaned subject among scholars of religion, the theology of Thomas Hobbes is now among the most contested issues in Hobbes studies and the study of early liberal political theory. This essay maps the state of the question and offers a theological appraisal of it. In so doing it attempts to critique a leading reading of Hobbes’s Leviathan by highlighting its attack on civil religion and endorsement of a biblical political theology. The relationship between Hobbes’s political and theological views in Leviathan also receives sustained attention.     

现代西方史家对奥古斯丁政治思想的解读

奥古斯丁在西方政治思想史上具有重要地位。围绕着“政治是否符合人的自然本性”这一命题 ,本文回溯了一个世纪以来西方学者对奥古斯丁政治观的阐释。总的来说 ,比较传统的解释相信奥古斯丁不认为政治符合人的自然本性 ,但 2 0世纪九十年代以来的新观点作了相反的解释。     

Political pragmatism and the creative economy: Singapore as a City for the Arts

Can the arts and culture prosper under a less than democratic political regime? This paper looks at the soft authoritarian Singaporean government and the making of Singapore into a ‘City for the Arts’. Many scholars advocate that a culturally vibrant and creative city must also celebrate diversity, tolerance and experimentation. This implies that a democratic space is needed for creative energies to flow. Singapore is not known for its democracy. But Singapore has become relatively successful in being the cultural hub in the region. A more liberal approach to diversity and criticism of the authorities can now be observed but there are still many strong‐handed social and political controls in the city‐state. This paper tries to answer these two questions: has Singapore become democratic because the authorities want the arts and culture to flourish? Is democracy necessary for the creation of a lively cultural city?     

Political Theology as Liberative Theology

ABSTRACT

Challenging the widespread assumption that “political theology” as a discipline began with Carl Schmitt in the 20th century, this essay explores the biblical theme of God’s preferential option for the poor and oppressed first articulated as a modern political theology by Latin American theologians, but organically and independently manifest in US black liberation theology, and First World feminist theologies. At the heart of this movement is a commitment to speak truth to power at the risk of personal loss and even martyrdom.