絜矩:一个已消亡的文化概念

“絜矩之道”是《礼记·大学》篇所提出的一个思想文化概念,后经朱熹的重新阐发,在宋元明清时代有重要影响。其基本含义有君子应重视对人民大众行为的师范表率作用、恕道、均平思想等。但是,这个文化概念在近代以后则湮灭不彰。其根本原因,在于它的基本思想内涵被消解在已有的更成熟的也更为深刻的文化概念中,它实际上是中国古代“均平”思想的另一种解说,而缺乏一个文化概念所应具有的独立性品格。思想的历史证明,思想概念的生命力,永远属于那些新生的富有活力的东西。     

Towards a network of regions: The United States of Europe

Starting from the changing role of governments in planning (physical, environmental, economic, etc.), this paper calls attention to the drastic structural changes taking place in the regional scene after the transition towards market orientation and global competitiveness. The main focus is on European developments. In addition to économie forces, two phenomena will be highlighted, namely, the transition towards a network economy and the profound technological changes taking place at the regional and urban level Particular attention will be devoted to European spatial dynamics in a networked society. Various new geographical configurations and maps of Europe will be shown, followed by some exploratory remarks on future trends. The main message of the paper is that transport planning in Europe needs to be integrated with the emerging new economic networks. The paper ends with some policy conclusions.     

从孤魂野鬼到神灵的转化--闽南"私人佛仔"的初步研究

一、引言 所谓"私人佛仔",是指闽南一带的居民对某些神品较低的神灵的主位称呼,这种神灵主要供奉在厢房、内室或僻屋中,很少进入民间供奉正神的厅堂正中,而且他们主要是由住在该内室的人敬奉的,并与该内室的人有一些千丝万缕的关系,因为,他们主要是由这家过去夭折或凶死的亲人转化而来的.私人佛仔过去被称为"夫人妈",①但是用"夫人妈"来概括指称这类神灵是有些问题的.因为,在闽南,"夫人妈"是对某神灵的夫人的一种尊称,凡是神灵的夫人均可以用此称之.换言之,夫人妈是专对女神而言的.     

God and the illegal alien: United States immigration law and a theology of politics

This essay considers the marks of authentic Christian prophecy in Fra Anton Montesino's 1511 sermon in Hispaniola, in its political and cultural context, arguing that these marks are witness, courage, discernment and a concrete, contextual focus. It then reflects on the ways in which these marks of authentic prophecy might be displayed in our own very different context, drawing a characterization of that context from Charles Taylor's A Secular Age. It concludes with reflections on the foundation of prophecy in prayer and hope, and with critical discussion of Luke Bretherton's use of the motif of “exile in Babylon” (Jeremiah 29) as a Biblical image for Christian prophetic presence in liberal, secular societies.     

How and why we should encourage undergraduate geography students to participate in the Erasmus programme

Studying or working abroad during the course of an undergraduate degree has been associated with many positive outcomes and benefits. Despite this, there is scant literature on the role higher education institution (HEIs) play in encouraging outgoing student mobility. There is subsequently limited practical guidance for individuals within HEIs wishing to increase student participation in mobility programmes. Using evidence from the existing literature, and primary research conducted for a PhD study, this paper addresses this gap and offers guidance for encouraging students' participation in the European region action scheme for the mobility of university students (Erasmus). This paper focuses on the mobility of geography students who underperform in terms of participation in the Erasmus programme.     

The territorial dynamics of innovation: a Europe United States comparative analysis

The United States and European Union differ significantly interms of their innovative capacity: the former have been ableto gain and maintain world leadership in innovation and technologywhile the latter continues to lag. Notwithstanding the magnitudeof this innovation gap and the political emphasis placed uponit on both sides of the Atlantic, very little systematic comparativeanalysis has been carried out on its causes. The empirical literaturehas emphasized the structural differences between the two continentsin the quantity and quality of the major ‘inputs’to innovation: R&D investments and human capital. The verydifferent spatial organization of innovative activities in theEU and the US—as suggested by a variety of contributionsin the field of economic geography—could also influenceinnovative output. This article analyses and compares a wideset of territorial processes that influence innovation in Europeand the United States. The higher mobility of capital, populationand knowledge in the US not only promotes the agglomerationof research activity in specific areas of the country but alsoenables a variety of territorial mechanisms to fully exploitlocal innovative activities and (informational) synergies. Inthe European Union, in contrast, imperfect market integrationand institutional and cultural barriers across the continentprevent innovative agents from maximizing the benefits fromexternal economies and localized interactions, but compensatoryforms of geographical process may be emerging in concert withfurther European integration.     

Epistemological Ignorances and Fighting for the Disappeared: Lessons from Mexico

Social justice struggles across the Americas have, over the last half century, transformed the urban areas of this region into international staging grounds for protesting the global devastation wrought by capitalist exploitation, state terror and social hatred. This paper maintains that there is much to learn for struggles against this triangulation in other parts of the world. In particular, through a discussion of how contemporary activism in Mexico against feminicidio, drug wars and brutal repression draws from a long legacy of protest across the Americas, I seek to illustrate the relevance for other places as people fight a cruel modernity that evolves through terror, profit and hatred. Critical geography has long contributed to exposing these connections and can still deepen its commitments to mapping the landscapes of the growing populations of disappeared and marginalized peoples in Mexico and elsewhere.     

Kant and the magnitude of sensation: a neglected prologue to modern psychophysics

Quantitative relations between the sensations and the stimuli that produce them are the domain of psychophysics, a branch of natural science not yet known at the time of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). But Kant's philosophical doctrines of perception imply that sensations can be quantified. Accordingly, he proposed not only to consider the magnitude of both sensations and stimuli but also to work out an appropriate mathematics that would relate these magnitudes to each other. This part of Kant's work received almost no attention up to the present time although it contains some essential elements of modern psychophysics.     

Erasmus Darwin: Master of Interdisciplinary Science

Abstract

Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) was by profession a physician, at Lichfield and later Derby, and was widely regarded as the leading doctor in Britain, author of the massive treatise Zoonomia (1794–6). His many original contributions to science cover a wide range of disciplines, including physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, plant growth and nutrition and evolutionary biology. He was a prolific inventor, a close friend of Boulton and Watt, and a leading spirit in the ‘Lunar Society’ of Birmingham. In the 1790s he became the most famous poet of the day with his Botanic Garden, which greatly influenced Coleridge, Wordsworth and others.     

Comparative Approaches to Visions of Community

The aims of the first VISCOM conference were to compare different methods employed in the study of community to address new methodological perspectives for the analysis of categories of identification and belonging, the conditions and processes of the making of communities across large cultural and geo-political fields. At the same time, this exchange was meant to provide thorough reflections on the process of comparative research itself. This contribution sets out to discuss the diversity and creative tension of these methodological approaches before proceeding to outline how they may contribute to future collaboration both within the VISCOM project and beyond in interdisciplinary and, eventually, in transdisciplinary collaboration between historians and socio-anthropologists. The text thus focuses on the methodological tools and the very practical research processes addressed at the conference and in the case studies brought together in this thematic issue. It will specifically address the challenge to develop comparable, but contextually differentiated approaches to different types and amounts of medieval source material across time and space, viewing the methodological and conceptual framework of the project and the contributions of this issue as a toolbox. I will thus take up the claims of several contributors to more thoroughly contextualise the very conceptual notions underlying our research (such as identity, ethnicity and community) and argue in favour of a less “loaded” and more flexible conceptual vocabulary developed in close relation with the source material to cope with the high diversity of sources and methodological approaches.