A flawed perspective: the limitations inherent within the study of Chinese nationalism1

ABSTRACT. Is nationalism in China on the rise? Is it making China more combative in the international arena? More fundamentally: Is a focus on nationalism the most effective intellectual framework for understanding how those living within the People's Republic of China (PRC) are defining their position in contemporary world politics? This article briefly answers each of these questions. It argues that, despite forwarding some compelling insights, previous work on Chinese nationalism has been undermined by a number of major flaws. It then finds that such shortcomings are in no small part a product of the narrowing gaze that a focus on nationalism alone imposes on the study of identity politics. The article then advocates that in place of the nationalism rubric, a turn to the broader question of national identity formation is merited. Utilising this perspective, it concludes by cautioning that incipient splits within contemporary Chinese national identity may portend a more tumultuous relationship between China and the rest of the world in the years to come.     

The Philosophy of a Persona

Summary

The essay collects Ian Hunter's central theoretical and methodological arguments from their various interpretative contexts and restates them in order to consider criticisms, real and imagined. Is Hunter's criticism of common forms of philosophical history itself open to such criticism, making its validity dependent upon prior adoption of a philosophical stance? Is his empirical intellectual history a form of ‘social’ reductionism?     

The Fundamental Contradiction of Modern Cosmopolitanism

This article is a study of that eminently European contribution to world politics: the idea of cosmopolitanism. The argument is that modern cosmopolitanism depends on two postulates which are contradictory. Cosmopolitans have always claimed, “There are two cities, one higher and one lower.” Modern cosmopolitans, however, claim, without abandoning the first postulate, “There is only one city.” In this article I ask four questions which enable the contradiction between these to be illustrated. These are: Is the cosmopolis the higher of two cities? Is it a community of men and gods? What is the criterion of inclusion in it? How free is one to be cosmopolitan? Along the way I clarify what I consider the fundamental contradiction of modern cosmopolitanism to be by distinguishing it from what I call the fundamental problem and the fundamental paradox of cosmopolitanism.     

Coexistence in modernity: A euromed perspective

Does cultural diversity lead to a want of respect, intolerance, and violence? Is religious culture in Islamic or other states tending towards a territorial imperative, denying any democracy a chance? Is globalization threatening value, identity and meaning? In the wake of 9/11, war on the Taliban's Afghanistan and Saddam's Iraq, the lingering Israeli–Palestinian tension, and what appear to be re-discovered genres of brutality—such as suicide bombings, beheadings, the wanton destruction of churches and other temples—this article teases out some historical and philosophical contexts in an attempt to assuage contemporary uncertainties. Distinguishing between the Mediterranean and the Middle East as two different realities, the article discusses how seemingly bewildering new theses and premises in a post-war, post-colonial, post-communist world may be read and possibly reconciled during the twenty-first century.     

The legitimisation of clicktivism

Is clicking ‘Like’ on Facebook a legitimate form of political participation? Is changing your profile picture or sharing an online article politically meaningful? It is undeniable that such actions can be politically-themed, but whether they amount to what we term ‘political participation’ remains contentious. This article explores the legitimacy of clicktivism as a political act, arguing that legitimacy be understood as multifaceted. To this end, the paper develops a series of lenses by which to explore the theoretical boundaries of these emerging actions. These are: the adherence of the action to tradition avenues; the acceptance of the action, and belief in that action; and, the intentionality of the action, and the context in which it is situated.     

艺术收藏品的价值增长点

在中国艺术品市场由“非典”之后的疯狂进入“金融风暴”之后盘整的今天,冷静地思考艺术收藏品的价值增长点何在？是我们不得不做的一道功课,不做好这一门功课,将很难应对下一轮市场的崛起。     

German-Austrian social democracy and the nation-state idea: 1889–1918

In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia-Hercegovina. Serbia protested and was itself threatened by the Danube Monarchy. In 1992, Serbs are fighting in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Is there any justification for the annexation policy of both nations in the two periods? How do the European nations react?     

Consensus and the Fringe in American Archaeology

Is the “consensus of the scientific community” to reject transoceanic diffusion as an explanation for cultural change in the Americas justified by logic, data, or disciplinary politics?     

瓷釉色彩语词的跨文化语义焦点——以青釉为例

在跨文化语境下,色彩词是怎样命名的?相近意义的色彩词有没有语义流变或焦点?同音异字的汉语色彩词组与色彩词的语义比较是怎样的?本文将探讨色彩词的建构与文化影响,使人们在不同文化语境下了解和探讨瓷釉色彩的深层含义,以便合理应用。     

Intra- and inter-regional knowledge spillovers: Evidence from European regions

Is the knowledge creation process linear or characterized by feedback relations among actors involved in the regional innovation system? How can the innovation process of ‘lagging’ regions be strengthened? What is the role and extent of inter-regional knowledge spillovers? The paper aims at providing satisfactory answers in investigating a knowledge production function framework adapted to the specific questions and which is tested on an extended sample of European regions. On the basis of the results, concrete policy measures are derived aiming at upgrading the knowledge creation capacity of European regions.     

Transport Geography: A bit of a caveat here and there1

But you must also be aware of another distinct bias nearly all of the examples are from the United States, Canada, Britain and Sweden. Is it fair? Are the new ideas to be found almost exclusively in these four countries —what the French call les Anglo-Saxons. Is this where the explosion in modern geography started, and continues to gather its strength? Now I am probably going to make myself extremely unpopular around the world but I am going to answer Yes to those three questions with a bit of a caveat here and there—which is the Latin word for a loophole you can wriggle out of if you have to     

Ethics Appropriate for an Empire: A Question Whose Time Has Come

Abstract

This article offers a Christian ethical commentary upon the debate over the contemporary "American Empire." While many decry unprecedented US global dominance based on various secular standpoints, few have articulated religiously-grounded perspectives on this new US relation to the world. The task of mustering religious objections to openly imperial ambitions looms particularly large in light of prominent unabashed defenses of US global hegemony. The paper has three parts: (1) preliminary clarifications regarding terminology and context; (2) a survey of policies (e.g., unilateralism in foreign policy, interventions, a doctrine of pre-emptive war, diminished regard for international institutions) that reflect imperial ambitions and conflict with mainstream Christian perspectives on global justice and self-determination; and (3) a tentative listing of seven criteria appropriate for the pursuit and exercise of power on the part of global hegemons, in light of Christian principles. The constructive task is aimed at offering ethical constraints, such as the judicious correlation of means and ends in foreign policy. We will evaluate the contributions of Catholic social thought and the school of Christian realism on key questions: Is the notion of empire ever morally acceptable? Is "benevolent hegemony" possible in our times? If so, on what terms?     

宋代官窑的几个问题

宋代官窑是长期以来学术界研究的热门问题,尽管许多方面都取得了一定的进展,但仍有不少问题尚未最终解决,如:北宋朝廷为什么命令汝州烧造青瓷?北宋朝廷亲自设窑的地点在何处?汝州张公巷窑是不是汝州新窑,即狭义的北宋官窑?南宋余姚官窑的地位以及与内窑等窑口的关系如何?乌泥窑位于何方?等等。本文对这些问题进行了较深入的探索,提出了一些具有学术价值的新观点。     

Bad,bad multiculturalism!!

Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? By Susan Moller Okin with respondents (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), vi?+?146 pp. $29.95 cloth; $12.95 paper.     

On the shock of civil war: cultural trauma and national identity in Finland and Ireland

What role does national identity play after civil war? Is reconstruction possible on the basis of an existing identity, or does a new identity have to be found? Much depends on whether narratives of conflict are unifying. I use the tools of cultural sociology to explain why the Finnish Civil War of 1918 has become a unifying ‘cultural trauma’ for the Finns, whereas the Irish Civil War of 1922–23 never became the dominant referent in Irish national identity. The difference is explained by the greater shock civil war posed to Finnish national identity.     

BETRAYAL: THE CASE OF THE NEW GUINEA BARUYA

This article is situated within the discussion started in 1962 by John Barnes, whose observations on the fluidity of social organization in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea raised the question, what binds together a certain number of individuals belonging to distinct kinship groups? Is it defense of a common territory? Is it participation in initiation rituals which institute a general order between genders and between generations? Or is it, as in the Big-men societies, participation in cycles of ceremonial exchanges which involve all the local groups of a same region? These questions have been discussed by various authors: De Lepervanche (1967–8), A. Strathern (1968, 1970), and Feil (1981, 1984) to mention just a few. The fabric of Baruya society is generated by two principles: direct exchange of women and an elaborate system of male and female initiations. The Baruya share the same culture and the same language with their neighbours and enemies, but they distinguish and define themselves by claiming a common territory conquered at the expense of local groups and by the fact that their women circulate primarily between kinship groups residing on this territory. However, from time to time these two principles are transgressed by individuals or segments of lineages who betray their kinship or tribal solidarities, generating situations which reshape the internal composition of the Baruya tribe and its relationships with its neighbours. I intend by analysing the mechanisms of these betrayals to throw some light on this key-moment in the dynamics of New Guinea Highlands societies.     

Rethinking the Concept of Membership in Nature Advocacy Organizations

The political science literature on interest groups, particularly since Olson (1965), normally focuses on individual motivations to join groups or the incentives offered by groups to entice prospective members to join and, more important, to stay on as members over time. But what happens to our understanding about “members”—a term freighted with overtones of democratic participation—when these individuals are more likely to be passive “supporters” or “donors”? Is there a conceptual and practical distinction between the two? This article ponders this question by examining the advocacy organizations that comprise the national environmental community.     

Gene technology in humans: can the responsibilities be borne by scientists,physicians, and patients?

Abstract

The possible and likely application of gene technology in medical treatment raises a multitude of ethical and philosophical questions, as well as inducing conjecture about the nature of scientific research. Is a strictly causalistic way of thinking and the positivistic expectation of a clear cut outcome applicable in the life sciences? Is the concept of the gene as the inseparable and indivisible unit of heredity still valid? Certainly the one gene–one protein hypothesis is no longer tenable. Competition in genomic research has largely become economic competition, much of this research being in the hands of small firms, and thus the traditional rules of scientific honesty in research are no being longer observed. All this has led to a dissolution of responsibility and to mystification in the media and the public mind. This article is an appeal for the adoption of a sober, modest, and rational attitude towards these important and at the same time complex issues.     

Oral History and Public Memories

How does oral history, based as it is on individual memory,affect beliefs about the history of a whole community? Is oralhistory compelling enough to influence an interpretation ofa community's history when powerful groups insist on a differentinterpretation? Hamilton and Shopes have chosen a collectionof articles that present a range of perspectives, a diversityof problems, and a variety of specific sites in which to testanswers to these questions. Oral history interviews often turnup surprises, and this book is full of surprises. In the first section, David Neufield begins his article, "ParksCanada, the Commemoration of Canada, and the Northern AboriginalOral