Awareness and Action: The ethno-gender dynamics of Sri Lankan NGOs

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are the modus operandi in the development arena at this juncture. Many, including feminists, place much faith in these actors for creating a progressive space for social, political, and economic activities to be undertaken. This article employs fieldwork evidence from eastern Sri Lanka, carried out in 1998–1999 and early 2004, to challenge this simplistic reading. The primary social group that was studied during the fieldwork period was female-headed households. This article argues that there are different types of NGO working in multiple ways in the region, and it is important to distinguish between these differences. NGOs that primarily execute development-oriented projects without considering the ethno-nationalist and gender politics are culpable of the violence of development. It is only when NGOs are in local communities for the long haul that they are able to develop a commitment to reassess and evaluate the social transformative potential of their activities. Using a feminist political economy perspective this article argues that it is important and necessary that NGOs confront social, political, and economic structures, including ethnic identity politics, if their activities are to lead to transformative feminist politics. In other words, NGOs would have to do more than pay lip service to gender mainstreaming, as is more often the case. These actors need to recognize and understand the potency of ethno-nationalist politics, social structures, social exclusion, and social injustice in order to create social spaces that are enabling of women's agency in the local communities within which they work and operate.     

Environment and Cultural Heritage in China: Introduction

The transformation of the natural and built environment over the past three decades has left China with a legacy of environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity. The loss of cultural heritage, including cultural forms associated with the natural ecology, has been just as dramatic. The three studies in this special focus section of Asian Studies Review explore significant issues in environmental conservation, cultural heritage, and grassroots activism in urban and rural China, with an emphasis on the relationship between the natural environment, the transmission of traditional cultural forms, and localised forms of agency or activism. As discussed here, while China's discourse on these issues is strongly influenced by global norms, different regions of China are developing their own individual responses to environmental conservation, the protection of biodiversity, and the ongoing transmission of endangered cultural forms.     

Geoffrey Holmes and the Public Sphere: Augustan Historiography from Post-Namierite to the Post-Habermasian

This article attributes the relative lack of attention to the 'public sphere' in Geoffrey Holmes's work to the pervasive influence of Lewis Namier and the Namierite conception of political history. Holmes's British Politics can be understood as a product of what might be called the revisionist's dilemma. Because the main thrust of the argument of this work was to challenge the Namierite interpretation of the structure of politics in Anne's reign, Holmes could not fail but to replicate the structures of the original Namierite paradigm. Nevertheless, Holmes's demolition of the Namierite view of Augustan politics also opened up new possibilities for further research; it ultimately widened our understanding of the 'political' and it prepared the ground for the remarkable interdisciplinary dialogue between literary historians, intellectual historians, and political historians. The article concludes with a discussion of how Holmes's successors began to build on his work in ways that can help explain why the Habermasian public sphere paradigm emerged to the foreground of current scholarship in a field where it had been ignored for three decades. Historians are now beginning to build a detailed post-Habermasian understanding of the ways in which the public sphere affected the structures of politics in later Stuart Britain. Work along these lines may well finally help explain the transformation of British politics from an age of Stuart revolutions to the age of Hanoverian oligarchy.     

中国史视野中的“公共领域”

通过考察从事中国史研究的学术群体对于"公共领域"理论的认知过程,展现了这一理论在一定程度上符合了中国史研究领域关注"国家与社会关系"的学术旨趣,对于"国家与社会关系"提供了更具兼容力的解说方式,并提供了许多操作性很强的研究单位。但另一方面,在将这一理论运用于实证研究时,研究者们往往难以摆脱"资产阶级公共领域"的限定性概念,此外,还存在着对于"公共"的界定不清晰,对于文化和意识形态方面的"公共性"关注不够,对于体制化的"公共领域"和现象层面的"公共领域"区分不明确等问题。对于这些问题的深刻反思,将会有助于揭示中国历史上公共领域的独特性格。     

A summary of the past two decades' research on non-governmental forces in modern China

Recent research on non-governmental forces in modern China, during its inception in the early 1990s, bore obvious influences from Western theories of civil society and the public sphere. By the late 1990s, this research began to pick up new momentum: the scope was expanded, findings were increased, essays and empirical studies came forth incessantly. During the first decade of the twenty-first century, research by Chinese scholars on the topic grew at an even greater rate. Aside from those academics who continued to borrow theories of civil society and public sphere, more scholars began employing the analytical framework of “society and state” to tackle the many issues within the non-governmental sectors of modern China.     

清末民初城市的"公共休闲"与"公共时间"

城市近代工商业的发展是市民生活城市化、社会化、公共化的自然要求和必然结果,是市民生活公共领域的重要组成部分,也为民间社团、学会活动及公众集会、演说、演出等公共活动提供了条件。这一时期群众性的政治活动和文化活动剧烈频繁的壮观局面,使人们思想交流和互动空前频繁,形成日益趋同的思想变革节奏和价值取向,成为清末民初政治鼎革的社会文化基础。这是近代公民社会公共领域所形成的社会文化效应。     

Risk and the Sacred: Environment,Media and Public Opinion in Bali

This exploration of controversies over environmental regulation in the Indonesian province of Bali traces the relationship between the media, environmental attitudes and Balinese identity, focusing on the religious dimension of that identity and the ways in which this has become bound up with conceptions of environmental imbalance and a popular critique of capitalist development on the island. The fusion of cultural and environmental metaphors of ‘erosion’ and ‘preservation’ in public discourse is striking in the Balinese case, since sites of great spiritual significance are also attractive to investors for their aesthetic appeal and heritage value (Verschuuren et al. 2010). From the earliest emergence of environmental conflict on the island, the emotive power of cultural identity became intimately connected with environmental politics. This article traces several of the pervasive and interconnected dichotomies ‐ sacred and profane, cultural value and economic interest, environmental preservation and use (exploitation), certainty and uncertainty (risk) ‐ that characterise debates surrounding environmental regulation and development on the island.     

Establishing the Public Sphere and Abolishing the Private Domain: The Rise of a Doctrine and Its Social Significance in the Spring and Autumn Period

The dominant views regarding the concepts of “the public” (gong) and “the private” (si) took shape in the Spring and Autumn period and matured in the succeeding years of the Warring States period. This paper is an attempt to trace both the growth of the vocabulary containing “gong” and “si” and the development of philosophical views regarding issues that center on the relation between the individual and the larger social/communal/political body, of which that individual is a member; it also touches on issues related to the proper handling of public affairs and the relation between state, sovereign, and the individual. The era is often characterized as “The Contention of the Hundred Schools of Thought,” notwithstanding it ended with but one view that is universally accepted by thinkers of diverse persuasion, namely, si is the source of all social evil and, therefore, should be condemned. This is the doctrine known as ligong miesi (abolishing si so gong may be established), which contributed to the orthodox for that era and the millennium to come. By extolling gong and condemning si, it painted a portrait of the pair as two irreconcilable norms or forces in social and political life; it provided a justification for the then emerging new social arrangement and ways of distribution of power and resources, and it also led to acute conflicts between the sovereign and the state, the ruled and the ruler, the state and the subject, as well as the public sphere and the private domain. Translated from Nankai Journal, Vols. 4, 5, 2004     

从精英掌控到大众文化空间——19世纪上半叶大英博物馆的建构与功能转换

19世纪上半叶,英帝国的强盛将大英博物馆推向新纪元,馆藏规模得到极大扩充,书籍、手稿、自然和人工制品的收藏增长迅速。这一时期,英国议会对大英博物馆更加重视也更加慷慨,愿意花费公共资金来扩充藏品。另一方面,严厉的参观规则得以变更,进入博物馆参观或学习的限制被放宽,繁杂的参观时间规定得以改进,阅览室的空间不断扩充。作为大众文化空间,博物馆为公众服务的宗旨和理念随着国家的重视和精英人物的努力逐渐由虚设变为现实,其由国家掌控的特性及作为国家文化工具的使命第一次得到明确的认可和界定。     

Religion and Politics in the Philippines: The Public Role of the Roman Catholic Church in the Democratization of the Filipino Polity

Abstract

From a social-ethical point of view, an appalling lack of a sense of common good continues to haunt Philippine political life even after the restoration of democracy through the 1986 People Power revolution. Our study contends that it is mainly caused by a polity that does not allow for a participatory deliberation and envisioning of the common good and a political culture that is not nurturing but hindering the collective and institutional commitment for it. While the Roman Catholic Church has been partly responsible for this democratic deficit, it nevertheless remains a social force with a moral high ground for political transformation, if it is able to change its social location and re-invent its social mission. A self-critical Filipino church whose base ecclesial communities are inserted like leaven in civil society holds the most important key to the democratization of Philippine polity and culture in the light of the Gospel.     

Gender and Environmental Justice in Louisiana: Blurring the boundaries of public and private spheres

Many scholars have examined the implications and effects of a putative dichotomy between public-as-masculine and private-as-feminine spheres on community activism, and suggest that women's community activism blurs this ideological divide in numerous ways. This article draws on a case study of a siting conflict in St. James Parish, Louisiana, to examine how, in the process of blurring boundaries between gendered spheres of interest and activity, predominantly women environmental justice activists contended with differently gendered contexts. Concepts of performance and performativity shed light on how gendered hierarchies of public and private sphere activism both constrained and enabled the protest group's political practice.     

现代性及其限度：民国文官考试制度平议

民国文官考试制度是一个传统与现代的混合体.其现代性主要体现为法制化程度的提高,平等性和开放性的增强,考试权的独立和考试内容的现代化.但是对经义考试的保留,对传统科举制考试程序的模仿,考试与任用的脱节,党治和军治色彩的存在,个人因素的干扰,派系势力的抗拒等,又使民国文官考试制度的现代性受到极大限制,难以发挥其应有的功效.     

宗族与地方社会的国家认同——明清华南地区宗族发展的意识形态基础

考察明清时期“宗族”的历史 ,应该超越“血缘群体”或“亲属组织”的角度。华南地区宗族发展是明代以后国家政治变化和经济发展的一种表现。宗族的发展实践 ,是宋明理学家利用文字的表达 ,改变国家礼仪 ,在地方上推行教化 ,建立起正统性的国家秩序的过程和结果。文章概括讨论了宗族意识形态通过何种渠道向地方社会扩张和渗透 ,宗族礼仪如何在地方社会推广 ,把地方认同与国家象征结合起来的过程。     

世纪之交的问题意识与新范式探索--日本学者对中国"结构变动"的研究

"文化大革命"结束后,日本学者对现代中国研究的思想史范式提出质疑,开始系统地探索从政治结构的角度阐释中国的历史与现实.到90年代,在历史连续性与不连续性的维度上分析中国的"结构变动"成为日本学者刻意追求的新范式,他们尝试通过对中国政治、经济、社会与外部世界关系诸方面的结构变动分析,提出对中国以及中国改革开放的总体性认识.     

塑造新思想:建国前后北京与上海的“五四”纪念活动

建国前后,北京和上海都举行了规模盛大的"五四"运动纪念活动,这两次活动都不仅仅是群众性的纪念仪式,更深刻的意义在于,它一方面号召继承"五四"革命精神,表达对现实服务的方向;另一方面则书写着自"五四"运动以来中国革命胜利的历史必然性,从而确证新民主主义理论的正确性以及对中国革命和即将展开的新中国建设的指导意义,即为新中国确立了一个新的思想坐标——马克思主义、毛泽东思想。这种以"五四"为中介而实质上是为了引导和塑造新思想的纪念活动方式,成为后来"五四"纪念的传统,为社会主义意识形态确立领导地位发挥了积极的作用。     

逡巡于意识形态与现实利益之间的选择——关于新中国成立前后美国对华政策的再思考

反共主义的意识形态和服务于美国全球战略的现实考虑,使新中国成立前后的美国对华政策既表现出浓厚的意识形态色彩,也表现出明显的现实利益因素。单从意识形态或现实利益的角度认识和理解美国对华政策既不全面也不客观,应该说它是美国在中国历史发生巨大转折的情况下,逡巡于意识形态与现实利益之间的艰难选择。     

试论清末民初大众媒体对女子学校教育的影响

清末至民初各种大众媒体关注女子解放问题,不仅全方位抨击当时为女子学校教育兴起造成困难的缠足风俗,帮助广大妇女解放双足,并积极报道西方女子的学校教育情况,大力提倡新式女学,为女子学校宣传助威,还利用舆论的力量逐步推进女子学校教育的合法化、正规化。大众媒体的宣传为女子教育的发展奠定了基础和铺平了道路,对女子学校的教育影响巨大而深远。     

New public management and welfare-to-work in Australia: Comparing the reform agendas of the ALP and the Coalition

Since the 1990s, the adoption of new public management (NPM) as a management philosophy has translated into multiple waves of reform in the employment services sector in Australia, namely Working Nation (1994–96), Job Network (JN: 1996–2009) and Job Services Australia (JSA: 2009–present). Each wave has sought to improve the preceding policy. In this article, we examine changes implemented during the Rudd/Gillard Labor governments. Using government policy documents and survey data from frontline employment services staff, we compare JSA to JN against five benchmarks. Our data indicate that JSA has generated modest improvement. JSA is also a system with less emphasis on strong forms of sanctioning. Our combined data suggest that policy actors operating under NPM conditions are indeed able to influence specific aspects of frontline practice, but they must spend great effort to do so and must accept new imperfections as a consequence.

1990年代以来,新型公共管理被作为一种管理哲学而被接受。这导致了就业服务部门的数次改革浪潮,即工作国（1994—96）、工作网（1996—2009）、澳大利亚工作服务（2009至今）。每波浪潮都力图改良此前的政策。本文考察了陆克文/吉拉德工党执政时期的变革。作者根据政府的政策文件、一线就业服务机构员工的调查数据等等,在五个基准点上将澳大利亚工作服务与工作网做了对比。根据我们的资料,澳大利亚工作服务这个系统带来的改进最小,也不大注重强有力的制裁。我们认为,实施新型公共管理的政策制定方的确能影响一线实践的某些方面,但他们还要花大力气,还要接受往后新的不圆满。