Participation and Power: Poor People's Engagement with India's Employment Assurance Scheme

‘Participation’ has become an essential part of good developmental practice for Southern governments, NGOs and international agencies alike. In this article we reflect critically on this shift by investigating how a ‘participatory’ development programme — India's Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) — intersects with poor people's existing social networks. By placing the formalized process of participation in the EAS within the context of these varied and uneven village–level relationships, we raise a number of important issues for participatory development practice. We note the importance of local power brokers and the heterogeneity of ‘grassroots’ (dis)empowerment, and question ideas of power reversals used within the participatory development literature.     

Sexual Misconduct and Church Power on Scottish Mission Stations in Xhosaland,South Africa,in the 1840s

Tensions over the control of improper sexuality were a key concern of African converts and Scottish missionaries in Xhosaland, South Africa, in the first part of the nineteenth century. Missionary preoccupations with sexual behaviour meant that sexual acts became key sites for the negotiation of status and identity. Reading the case of Jan Beck, which is represented in unusually rich detail in the mission archive, allows us to see how converts used European understandings of sexual morality to gain access to mission resources as well as to exclude other converts from them. In the process, male converts were mediating between Xhosa and missionary evangelical sexual mores and identities. Their ability to do so reveals both the power of local figures to influence colonial outcomes, and the relative fragility of missionary authority in these contexts.     

1840-1860年间清政府三种外交体系分析

两次鸦片战争期间的中外关系,如果按照类型分析法标准来划分,可以基本分为朝贡体系Ⅰ型、Ⅱ型和Ⅲ型三类。中国与三类国家间的关系及其各自体制内部的演变错综复杂。两次鸦片战争之间的中外关系显然发生了重要变化。澄清这一时期中外关系复杂的性质,对中国近代史研究具有重要意义。     

华侨华人社团的“拟村落化”现象——荷兰华侨华人社团案例调查和研究

通过对荷兰华侨华人生活的实地调查和研究,分析了华人社团的类型、功能、运作方式及其在社会融合中的作用。认为华侨华人社团在华人世界中扮演着一个关键性的角色——拟村落化,提供了一个非常重要的社会生活和活动空间。他们凭借着原有的历史经验和记忆,将社团当作村落来经营和管理,在社团内进行博弈和地位实现,在一定程度上缓解了他们在移入国的边缘化感受,缓解了因失落而对主流社会的抱怨,这在一定程度上降低了华侨华人与主流社会的对抗。由此可见,荷兰的华侨华人社团不同于专业化的行业组织或政党组织,有着多样的、综合性的社会属性,是一个村落式的我群社会。     

乡村权力文化网络中的"社"组织研究--以晋南万荣通化村、荣河村和河津西王村为例

一、前言 　　在社会现代化进程中,中国乡村的社会结构和权力文化呈现着多元互动的组合模式.对于中国农村,既不能从主流政治的立场把它简单地界定为国家权力的基层组织,也不能从纯行政区域的眼光看待其空间组合,而要从历史文化变迁、人文地理状况等多方面深入考察不同区域的社会文化特征.我们在晋南万荣、河津等地的田野调查中,就深刻地体会到不同区域乡村组织的复杂性.“社“这一从古代传承下来的民间组织,在其他地区已经销声匿迹了,但是,在河津、万荣以及与此隔河相望的陕西韩城、合阳却还存活着,而且正显示着实际的社会功能,这引起我们对当前乡村民俗组织的结构特征、存活形态、运行机制等问题的浓厚兴趣.经过考察,我们发现“社“这种民俗组织在不同历史时期、特定地域内显示着不同的社会功能,因而在乡村社会中也表现出相异的民俗特征,它作为乡村权力文化网络的交织点正在社会现代化进程中发挥着不可替代的作用.……     

Religion And Technological Innovation: The steamboat in 1840s France

Summary

Looking beyond the reaction to and the discourses surrounding inventions, it may appear incongruous to link religion with technological innovation, especially considering the underlying religious motivations of the inventive act. Steamship propulsion and the search for an alternative to the paddle wheel in 1840s France implicates three inventors (Frédéric Sauvage, Augustin Normand, Achille de Jouffroy d'Abbans) and three inventions (the continuous propeller, the divided propeller, the flipper apparatus); only Normand's propeller would have a vertiable future. This contest also entails three different types of religious temperaments: a Romantic religiosity, a “bourgeois” or private Catholicism; and a clerical‐legitimist militancy. The question which will be considered here is: were these inventors influenced by the strength of their religious convictions; and if so, how did this affect their scientific reasoning ?     

Amateurs and the Rise of Astrophysics 1840–1910

This essay examines the role of amateurs in founding the astronomical subdiscipline of astrophysics. During 1840–1870, they initiated many of the observing programs that came to comprise the new specialty. And during 1870–1910, they participated both in the ongoing research of the field and the campaign to provide it with an institutional base. These general trends are illustrated by examples from the lives of ten prominent amateur solar physicists.