平实叙事寓论于史--评《转折年代--中国的1947年》

1945年9月3日,是中国抗战胜利纪念日,当中国国民党总裁、国民政府主席、军事委员会委员长蒋介石,一身戎装,志得意满地乘坐敞篷车巡视重庆市街,接受市民的欢呼时,他无论如何也不会想到,应他之邀正在重庆参加国共谈判、且就在前一晚的酒桌上     

The Return of Keynesianism in Australia: The Rudd Government and the Lessons of Recessions Past

The global recession of 2008–09 brought Keynesian countercyclical budgeting back into vogue – conveniently for governments of the Left such as the incoming Rudd Labor government in Australia. This paper reviews some of the key moments of 20th century macroeconomic policy to assess the reasons and rationale for this revival and concludes that the lessons of those experiences are not always what they seem to be. The paper argues that: (1) Keynesianism is often confused with a narrow focus on fiscal, rather than monetary, policy and an emphasis on full employment at any cost; (2) the return of Keynesianism in Australia has only been made possible by an unusual, if not unprecedented, convergence of conducive conditions; (3) the ‘automatic stabilisers’ significantly reduce the necessity for discretionary fiscal policy; and (4) policy achievements must be seen in the light of Australia's external economy.     

A Byzantine hagiographical parody: Life of Mary the Younger

Abstract

In this paper, it is argued that The Life of Mary the Younger, an anonymous Byzantine text of the eleventh century, has a conscious intertextual dialogue with the oldest Byzantine Life venerating a holy woman, the Life of Macrina written by her brother, Gregory of Nyssa, between 380 and 383. The intertextual relation between these two female Lives takes the form of parody. Following Linda Hutcheon's theory of parody, this article shows how the anonymous hagiographer of Mary reworks Gregory's authoritative text to create a new work, a parody in terms of postmodern literary criticism, whose aim was to criticise old and contemporary customs, conventions and ideologies. In other words, the present article approaches and decodes the literariness, the function and ideology of Mary's Life in the light of Macrina's Life.     

Economic inequality in Australia: A reassessment

This article reviews and analyses the evidence on the distribution of income and wealth in Australia since the 1960s. A number of scholars – most prominently among them Thomas Piketty – suggest that inequality has been increasing across the advanced capitalist world. Kuznets’ benign picture of an ‘inverted u-curve’ depicting declining inequality in modern industrial society is replaced with an altogether different and potentially quite alarming one. Does this hold for Australia? Surveying 25 income trend and 17 wealth distribution studies, we draw on the best available evidence and find that overall there has been far less of a rising inequality trend than is often assumed or argued.

本文分析了1960年代以来澳大利亚的收入及财富分配。有一些学者——其中最著名的是托马斯·皮凯提——认为所有发达资本主义国家的不平等都在加大。库兹涅倒U曲线所描绘的近代工业社会不平等不断减弱的美丽图画被一个全然不同、令人震惊的景象所取代。那么澳大利亚也是这样么？笔者考察25种收入趋势、17种财富分配的研究后发现,总的来说,不平等远并不像人们所常说的那样增加。     

一个民间叙事传统的形成--以廪君叙事为例

被誉为土家族祖先的廪君,据说其诞生地在湖北长阳都镇湾的武落钟离山。廪君叙事最早以神话形式出现,并且被各类书面文本保留着这份民族文化传统。随着时代发展,具有民族始祖神格的廪君逐渐消退了身上的神性光环,继而被向王的传说所取代,直到今天,     

Good International Citizenship: A Third Way for British Foreign Policy

To date, there has not been a sustained attempt to bring the philosophy of the Third Way into foreign policy. In order to fill this gap, the authors turn to the idea of 'good international citizenship' pioneered by the former Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans. It is argued that good international citizenship provides a conceptual rationale for an ethical foreign policy as well as a standard for judging the priority accorded to the goals of security, trade and human rights. Through an examination of a number of cases, the authors conclude that Britain's record as a good international citizen has been uneven and argue—against Labour's critics—that the government has set a new course for Britain's way in the world. More importantly, it has encouraged a public debate about the meaning and priority accorded to the promotion of different values.     

Being Canadian: Dual Citizenship in Historical Perspective

Why do states configure their citizenship laws in certain ways? Why do they allow or prohibit dual citizenship? Why was it only in 1946 that Canada decided to enact its first citizenship law which prohibited multiple national allegiances? Why was a similar proposal abandoned in 1931? And why was this citizenship law changed in 1977 to allow dual citizenship? A common answer is that citizenship reflects the national “identity” of each nation-state. Through a perusal of the debates regarding citizenship laws in Canada, I locate the particular motivation for introducing those laws. I argue that although the symbolic element of citizenship laws is significant, citizenship laws are enacted as a political instrument to achieve immediate and specific goals. In particular, accepting dual citizenship in Canada should be seen as a one of the strategies political elites tried in order to incorporate English and French speakers under the same flag.     

Missionization in New Zealand and Australia: A Comparison

This paper discusses missionization in New Zealand and Australia during the nineteenth century. Despite sharing aspects of colonial history and a geographical proximity in the South Pacific, the development of missions in both countries was disparate, leading to two very different types of missions, types I have identified as the “household” mission in New Zealand and the “institutional” mission in Australia. In both types common themes can be found, concerned with the “civilizing mission,” domesticity, and gender roles. These two types of missions were replicated in other parts of the globe, such as North America and the Pacific.     

Factoring Mary Poovey's A History of the Modern Fact

Book reviewed in this article:
Mary Poovey, A History of the Modern Fact: Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of Wealth and Society     

A survey of Australia

Venturino G. Venturini (ed.), Australia—a survey (Schriften des Instituts für Asienkunde in Hamburg, Vol. 27), Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1970, pp. xi + 397.