Degrees of Engagement: Using Cultural Worldviews to Explain Variations in Public Preferences for Engagement in the Policy Process

Scholars have been studying the concept of public engagement and its role in the policy process for some time. Scholars have argued that understanding the interests and motivations of the public and engaging them in the decision‐making process can lead to better policy designs and, ultimately, better policy outcomes. However, studies of public engagement often assume that people have a desire to get involved in the policy process. This paper tests this key assumption using the case of nuclear facility siting in the United States to ask: what factors influence an individual's stated willingness to want to engage in the policy process? Using data from a national web survey fielded in 2013, we ask the public if and to what extent they would likely engage in the siting process if given the opportunity. Findings indicate that the likelihood of engagement varies rather substantially across individuals. We find that an individual's cultural belief system and existing level of political activity account for some of this variation. These findings suggest that public engagement programs may vary across groups and communities. In other words, the prospects of engagement are likely to appeal to some members of the population and not others.     

Oskar von Miller and the Art of the Electrical Exhibition: Staging Modernity in Weimar Germany

Within the larger framework of understanding how modernity wasframed within and through the domestic sphere, this articleconsiders the efforts of Bavarian electrical engineer Oskarvon Miller to electrify and modernize Germany against the backdropof Weimar reform movements. Unlike modernist reformers associatedwith such projects as the Bauhaus or the Werkbund, Miller wasa practical systems-builder who sought to encourage consumptionwithin traditional frameworks of home and Heimat. For Miller,exhibiting the benefits of technology was a key element in securingits success, and his reliance on consumers rested on a corporatistideal that would create a new kind of community centred on technology.Whereas in the Imperial era Miller focused on Handwerker andsmall machines as the guarantors of both progress and socialstability, in the Weimar era he turned to housewives and housework.Through his involvement in electrification schemes as well asin his work in founding the Deutsches Museum, one of the firstmuseums of science and technology in Europe, Miller createda powerful narrative of technological progress that was bothtraditional and modern.     

Building détente in Europe? East–West trade and the beginnings of Romania's nuclear programme, 1964–70

This article examines the connection between détente in Europe and East–West nuclear technology transfers through the lens of Romania's co-operation policy in the field of atomic energy in the 1960s. It argues that until 1967 the bourgeoning relations between Western Europe and Romania did not stem from a desire to overcome the artificial division of Europe, but rather from the pursuit of unilateral economic benefits. This situation worked to the advantage of the Romanians, who acquired an important nuclear research reactor from the British by playing West European countries against one another. Afterwards, in order to boost their competitiveness, the West Europeans started pooling their nuclear industries together, although traditional rivalries such as the Anglo-French competition endured. Despite these efforts to achieve closer integration, the West Europeans failed to sell a nuclear power plant to Romania because of internal problems within their nuclear–industrial complexes, and because of Soviet meddling in the internal affairs of its satellites. This research adds to our understanding of Romania's détente policy during the 1960s, while also shedding light on the development of East–West relations in the field of atomic energy.     

‘The country(side) is angry’: emotion and explanation in protest mobilization

The role of emotion in social movement mobilization and political protest has received renewed attention in the past decade. However, few, if any, studies have followed the emotional trajectories of activists through their involvement in protest activity. This paper explores the significance of emotion in rural protests in Britain since 1997. Drawing on first-hand and second-hand sources, it focuses on the emotions of participants in pro-hunting countryside marches and in farmers' demonstrations as they move through various stages of mobilization. It proposes the metaphor of a ‘ladder of emotions’ to describe the different emotions that are foregrounded as mobilization proceeds. It suggests that emotional responses to perceived threats to a landscape or place-rooted way of life to which individuals have an emotional attachment are important as motives for political mobilization. These individual emotions are subsequently translated into collective action as emotions such as anger, frustration and desperation guide pathways for action. Successful mobilization also relies on participants overcoming initial emotions of fear or trepidation at protest activity, giving way to emotions of pleasure and pride that enthuse activists and help reproduce and sustain campaigns.     

中国博物馆大型原创性特展之展览策划——以南京博物院为例专访龚良院长

21世纪以来,中国博物馆的大型原创性特展工作呈现良好的发展态势。南京博物院龚良院长指出,大型原创性特展作为博物馆为公众提供更好的文化服务的文化产品,既能衡量博物馆的发展活力,也有利于博物馆的可持续发展。博物馆应根据自身的定位和特色完善藏品体系,从而确定展览主题,制订展览规划。高校应该围绕研究公众、服务公众调整博物馆学的课程设置。试行中的理事会制度将有助于推动博物馆为公众提供高品质的文化服务、满足公众更高的精神文化需求。南京博物院近年大力推行策展人制度,鼓励策划大型原创性特展,重视并强调展示文物之间的相互关系。2016年度举办的"法老·王"展是一次用低票价、非营利的方法,举办了一个不用财政资金、为公众提供优质服务的高品质展览,并将展览作为文化创意产品的有益尝试,将为中国博物馆界提供一个可复制的成功案例。     

近代欧洲早期农业革命考察

在17、18世纪之际的“农业革命”发生之前,欧洲农业生产就已出现了许多关键性的技术进步,可把16、17世纪的这种进步称为“早期农业革命”,而14、15世纪则可视为早期农业革命的准备阶段。通过对中世纪欧洲农业的低技术起点,14、15世纪的农业技术进步,16、17世纪的早期农业革命等三方面的考察,我们发现欧洲农业技术进步中的连续性特点远超过其突变性。     

A Lapse in Historical Memory: Guy Weadick and the Calgary Stampede

Guy Weadick was the American founder of the Calgary Stampede in 1912. By 1930, due to Weadick's vision and promotional genius, the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede (two events having merged by then) was internationally recognized as the premier event of its type in the world. Then, with dramatic suddenness, Weadick was fired in 1932. This article suggests that the mutual bitterness and resentment that accompanied this termination resulted in “a lapse of historical memory” and to Weadick's relative under-recognition by the organization for which he did so much.     

I Quindici Giorni di Scanzano: identity and social protest in the New South

Abstract

This paper examines the dramatic events of ‘I Quindici Giorni di Scanzano’, the vast popular uprising in Basilicata in November 2003 that thwarted a government decree to create a consolidated national nuclear waste dump at Scanzano Jonico. The struggle cut across lines of locality, age, social class and political affiliation, mobilizing the populace with various symbols, including references to brigandage, postwar struggles for land, and the Madonna of Loreto. Solidarity for the protest came from all quarters of the South, especially the neighboring regions of Apulia and Calabria. Although government representatives and some of the media portrayed the Lucanians in recognizably anti-Southern tropes of ‘uncivicness’, this paper argues that this remarkable moment in Basilicata's history created a new sense of public identity and action that in many ways reflected recent intellectual discourses on the South.     

公共行政人员行为选择的伦理困境及其化解

公共行政人员作为最重要的公共行政活动主体,其职权行为对社会具有普遍影响力。然而,作为一个“利益人”,公共行政人员的职权行为具有多元的利益取向,进而可能产生行政行为的伦理困境。实现负责任行政行为的关键在于制度伦理建设、公共精神的彰显以及行政人格的塑造,通过外在约束和自我规制,从而构建以公共利益为导向的行政行为。