THE PROBABILITY OF THE IMPROBABLE: SOCIETY–NATURE COEVOLUTION

This article aims to show how evolutionary theory, social‐metabolism and sociological systems theory can be utilized to develop a concept of society–nature coevolution. The article begins with a conception of industrialization as a socio‐metabolic transition, that is, a major transformation in the energetic and consequently material basis of society. This transition to industrial metabolism was essential for the emergence and maintenance of industrial societies and is at the same time the main cause of global environmental change. The article proceeds by asking what the notion of society–nature coevolution can potentially contribute to understanding environmental sustainability problems. An elaborated concept of coevolution hinges on (1) a more precise and sociologically more meaningful concept of cultural evolution and (2) understanding how cultural evolution is linked to the environment. Next I briefly outline major lines of thought and controversies surrounding the idea of cultural evolution. The direction proposed here commences with an abstract version of Darwinian evolution, which is then re‐specified for social systems, understood as communication systems, as developed by Luhmann. The re‐specification implies three important changes in the theoretical outline of cultural evolution: first, shifting from the human population to the communication system as the unit of cultural evolution and to single communications as the unit of cultural variation; second, shifting from transmission or inheritance to reproduction as necessary condition for evolution; and third, shifting from purely internal (communicative) forces of selection towards including also environmental selection. Adopting elements from the work of Hägerstrand and Boserup, the primary environmental selective force in cultural evolution is conceptualized as the historically variable constraints in human time–space occupation. In the conclusions I tie the argument back to its beginning, by arguing that the most radical changes in human time–space occupation have been enabled by major socio‐metabolic transitions in the energy system.     

Consumption,Environmental Sustainability and Human Geography in Australia: a Missing Research Agenda?

‘Consumption’ is a central concept in the global environmental sustainability agenda. However, one important argument from Agenda 21 — that all social actors must now practise ‘sustainable consumption’— has been publicly and politically marginalised in high‐income countries such as Australia. Geographers potentially have a role in bringing consumption back onto the agenda by constructing a critical geography of consumption. Such research can help understand how the contextual use of natural resources is perceived and practised, and how consumption helps to shape contemporary social relations. This body of knowledge is vital for building sustainable development into everyday lives. Yet a focus on urban consumption perceptions and practices appears somewhat lacking in Australian geography. Ways forward can be drawn from international geography, such as in the United Kingdom where a substantial body of work has drawn a complex picture of contemporary consumption and environmental understanding. It has also challenged prevailing ‘ecological modernisation’ policy approaches, which ignore consumption's cultural facets. In sum, considering consumption in Australia can offer insights into cultural practices expressed through consumption; can challenge and add to European geographical literatures, and can also contribute to sustainability debates by offering alternatives to currently ineffective policy discourses.     

大城市中产阶层化与商娱场所的空间结构

自上个世纪70年代随着发达国家"后工业社会"转型以来,中产阶层化现象成为西方发达国家城市问题与空间规划方向的重要研究方面之一,发展至今日,中产阶层化成为了一种全球化的社会与空间现象(Bell,1999)。娱乐作为一种文化现象,可以反映国家生产力水平的高低,是与每个人的生存质量息息相关的领域。因而有关文化休闲娱乐场所的微区位研究也逐渐引起了中外地理学界和社会学界有关学者的极大兴趣。从城市社会空间结构的角度探讨中产阶层生活方式及其消费(娱乐消费)与娱乐场所形成的中产阶层化现象等的社会空间结构。     

新文化地理学视野下的消费空间研究进展

随着城市消费空间的大规模出现,消费主义景观成为新文化地理学最新、最重要的研究对象之一。相关研究内容主要集中在消费空间的象征意义、消费空间公正、消费空间性别政治和消费空间生产的研究等四个方面。论文从文化解析入手,剖析了消费空间的符号与象征意义、空间权力与空间公正的互构关系,消费主义语境下性别权力的空间诉求、消费空间生产等议题。在此基础上,总结出新文化地理学视野下消费空间的研究趋势：更加强调消费空间的社会、文化意义的研究,关注全球化背景下城市消费景观的塑造与蕴含的意识形态关系,重视探讨与消费空间相对应的现代人本性场所与亚文化体系的构建,以及“时空压缩”下消费空间生产机制与地方性建构的可能。     

乌镇模式的迪士尼化特征与形成机制

乌镇模式作为中国古镇旅游开发的成功典范，其主题化发展的内涵值得挖掘和借鉴。本文借助迪士尼化理论框架，采用文献分析法解析乌镇模式与迪士尼化的内在联系，并通过地方视角揭示其背后的形成机制。结果发现：乌镇模式在主题化、混合消费、商品化、表演性劳动等方面具有明显的迪士尼化特征；产权统一是乌镇模式迪士尼化发展的重要前提与支撑；在遵循主题公园区位选址与市场运作逻辑的同时，在地文化与区域自然景观的有机结合，以及古镇形象与古镇主题的辩证统一关系是乌镇模式形成的关键。最后，本文指出了国内古镇社区普遍存在复杂的产权问题，影响乌镇模式大规模的推广。     

Colonization and the Commodification of Nature

This paper explores some of the theoretical issues surrounding the commodification of nature and its value as a research topic. In particular it examines the relationship between European colonization, the rise of capitalism and the increased use of abstract space. An appeal is also made for adding environmental history to the research agenda of historical archaeology. Case studies from South Africa and Virginia illustrate the manner in which abstract notions of space and the environment contributed to the commodification of nature. The Virginia case study from Jamestown Island provides a particularly vivid example of how micro- and macro-level environmental changes can be linked to important political and economic events.     

Moon,mud, and cell phones: geographies of race and construction of difference through normalization

How does the meaning of space emerge and get negotiated when individuals of diverse backgrounds interact with each other? Studies reporting that African Americans tend not to spend time in outdoor space attribute this finding to limited access to resources, cultural values, degree of assimilation to mainstream practices, discrimination in outdoor space, or a perception that outdoor recreational space is “white space”. Little research has addressed how such meanings relate to other meanings attached to outdoor space, let alone how this happens through interactions between people with different views on outdoor space. This article, based on interviews and participant observation of college students on an alternative break trip from the Northeastern U.S. to New Mexico in 2014, shows how students of various backgrounds experienced nature differently, how differences were articulated and explained, and how they subverted normalization processes that render not “being in tune with nature” as deficiency. Suggesting that geographies of race are fluid and influenced by individuals’ agency, this article calls for encouraging students to examine the ways their subject positions have shaped their experiences and challenge cultural bias in what is deemed universally desirable.     

梁启超《过渡时代论》与当代"过渡期历史观"的构造

对梁启超历史观的评价一般有两种意见,一种观点认为梁启超是中国现代史学的开创者,其主要贡献是把中国历史纳入到世界史的解释框架之内,用线性的因果关系替代了王朝更替的历史观。另一种观点认为梁启超从欧洲归来后完全放弃了他所倡导的“进步史观”,而成为了一个文化保守主义者。实际上,梁启超所采取的是一种过渡期的历史观,这种历史观既强调历史的进步是不可阻挡的一种趋势,又主张解释历史不能仅仅依赖于纯粹科学方法,而尚需运用直觉的手段,同时他又强调文化积淀而不仅仅是物质更新在文明演进中的作用,这样的阐释方法使我们有可能超越西方历史观对我们思维的长期制约,也可避免“现代”与“后现代”两种极端解释取向所造成的偏颇后果。     

6. SPACE: A USELESS CATEGORY FOR HISTORICAL ANALYSIS?

Much fuss has been made of the “spatial turn” in recent years, across a range of disciplines. It is hard to know if the attention has been warranted. A confusion of terms has been used—such as space, place, spatiality, location—and each has signified a cluster of often contradictory and confusing meanings. This phenomenon is common to a range of disciplines in the humanities. This means, first, that it is not always easy to recognize what (if anything) is being discussed under the rubric of space, and second, that over‐extended uses of the cultural turn have stymied meaningful engagement with (or even a language of) materiality in discussions of space. This article shows how materiality has been marginalized both by a casual vocabulary and a vigorous a priori epistemological holism on the part of scholars, and how the spatial turn has been too closely linked to the cultural turn to allow it to develop its fullest explanatory potential. It demonstrates how historians might profitably theorize the significance of place and space in their work (borrowing techniques from geographers and anthropologists, and referring to the phenomenological tradition), and sets out some challenges for using space more effectively in explanatory systems. Inspired by environmental history, sociology, and science and technology studies, I propose a way of establishing space as different from conventional historical handling of materiality, and end by identifying some methodological problems that need to be solved if we are to proceed on a surer footing.     

符号化的空间与空间的符号化——网络实体消费空间的建构与扩散

本文以消费社会和网络社会为背景,从鲍德里亚的消费社会理论出发,运用符号学方法,对南京"淘淘巷"网络实体街区这一消费空间的建构与扩散机制进行了分析。指出符号是消费空间特色塑造的重要路径,但消费空间的扩散并非简单的符号复制过程。揭示了网络实体消费空间作为一种半组织性的社会空间,其内涵的社会关系和运行的内在机制才是它得以存在的内因。网络实体街区这一消费空间是一种超越符号的存在,并非完全归结于符号的消费。     

Neurobiographies: Writing Lives in the History of Neurology and the Neurosciences

This essay surveys the present state of biographical writing in the history of neurology and neuroscience. Individual lives play a significant role in practitioner-historians' narratives, whereas academic historians tend to be more nonindividualistic and a-biographical. Autobiographies by neurologists and neuroscientists, and particularly autobiographical collections, are problematic as an historical genre. Neurobiographies proper are published with several aims in mind: some are written as literary entertainment, others as contributions to a cultural and social history of the neurosciences. Eulogy, panegyrics and commemoration play a great role in neurobiographical writing. Some biographies, finally, are written to provide role-models for young neuroscientists, thus reviving the classical, Plutarchian biographical tradition. Finally, a recent cooperative biography of Charcot is mentioned as an example of how the biographical genre can help overcome the alleged dichotomy between the historiographies of practitioner-historians and academic historians.     

Neurobiographies: writing lives in the history of neurology and the neurosciences

This essay surveys the present state of biographical writing in the history of neurology and neuroscience. Individual lives play a significant role in practitioner-historians' narratives, whereas academic historians tend to be more nonindividualistic and a-biographical. Autobiographies by neurologists and neuroscientists, and particularly autobiographical collections, are problematic as an historical genre. Neurobiographies proper are published with several aims in mind: some are written as literary entertainment, others as contributions to a cultural and social history of the neurosciences. Eulogy, panegyrics and commemoration play a great role in neurobiographical writing. Some biographies, finally, are written to provide role-models for young neuroscientists, thus reviving the classical, Plutarchian biographical tradition. Finally, a recent cooperative biography of Charcot is mentioned as an example of how the biographical genre can help overcome the alleged dichotomy between the historiographies of practitioner-historians and academic historians.     

历史古镇空间格局的解读与再生——以华阳古镇为例

历史古镇经过几千年物质和文化的积淀,形成独特的空间结构,但随着城市功能的注入却使古镇的肌理受到颠覆性的破坏,城镇经济发展与历史文化保护之间的矛盾越来越突出。以陕西省洋县华阳古镇为例,运用"空间结构理论"对其空间体系进行解读,从而提出空间格局再生的思路,这对于保护与弘扬优秀传统文化,促进历史古镇的繁荣发展具有重要的现实意义。     

亚文化消费空间场所依赖维度探索性研究——以大连市泡泡玛特门店为例

在后现代消费时代,文化逐渐成为城市消费空间建构的重要手段。其中亚文化以其有别于主流文化的文化特质,引导人们在消费空间中有着别样的空间实践,进而传递给人们独特的空间感知。本文借助场所依赖理论,以大连市 5 家泡泡玛特门店为例,通过开放式深入访谈和参与式观察等形式的实地调查收集资料,运用扎根理论对资料进行三级编码分析,获得一个由亚文化风格、文化审美、消费空间、休闲时间、社会交往五个维度组成的亚文化消费空间场所依赖理论模型。以期帮助人们更清晰的了解,具有不同身份认同的亚文化群体,在多样的文化消费模式下开展的空间实践过程,以及随之产生的空间情感联系。     

Environmental History within a Revitalized Integrative Research Methodology for Today and Tomorrow

Abstract

In the past decades, historians and scientists worldwide have focused intensively on researching and recording the micro and macro trends of the environmental history of many places with reference to numerous aspects of nature that involve people. Yet no definite methodology, epistemology or even theory has resulted from these research contributions, which were and are being conducted within disciplinary and sometimes interdisciplinary frameworks. The transdisciplinary research approach, at least as practiced by historians, is a ‘newcomer’, although it features familiar criteria. For several reasons, some historians appear to be neither in favour of, nor familiar with, research co-operation with other disciplines, private practitioners or informed community members. There are obstacles to using a research methodology that complements the interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approach, especially the grey areas of research quality, source validity, methodology and publication value. However, if approached constructively and meaningfully, transdisciplinary research may result in what we could call higher-order research because it is all-inclusive and can provide diverse perspectives on any theme, for example, environmental history. This article discusses the possibility of progressing towards ‘transdisciplinary’ as part of an integrative multidisciplinary approach in research on environmental history. An integrative multidisciplinary (‘triangular’) research model is proposed, especially for use by historians and others who want to approach environmental research from disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives. It is also hoped that this discussion will stimulate the debate by historians on research co-operation with the social sciences and humanities, as well as collaboration with non-related sciences in environmental history.     

Does Nature Always Matter? Following Dirt through History

Despite several decades of impressive scholarship in environmental history, the field remains largely marginal to the discipline as a whole. Environmental stories are still more likely to turn up in introductions, sidebars, and footnotes to political, social, and economic histories than they are to be incorporated into those narratives in a transformative way, though we as environmental historians know that potential is there. As we struggle to identify what precisely it is that we want other historians to do with our work, we run up against questions of definition and mission: What is environmental history? What do we do that is unique? What do we want other historians to learn from what we do? Some scholars in our field have suggested that we can answer these questions by framing “environment” as a category of analysis parallel to race, class, and gender, arguing that careful attention to the environment offers as rich a way of uncovering power relationships in societies as attention to these other categories does. While it is true that power can be read in the environment, and is frequently expressed through it, I argue that “environment” as both concept and fact is so fundamentally different from class, race, and gender that the analogy does not work, and distracts us from another, more fruitful strategy for articulating the broader relevance of our scholarship: demonstrating the significance of material nature for histories beyond the environmental realm. If other historians would join us in our attention to the physical, biological, and ecological nature of dirt, water, air, trees, and animals (including humans), they would find themselves led to new questions and new answers about the past.     

20世纪90年代以前美国环境史研究的特点

在20世纪90年代以前,美国环境史研究具有以下三个特点:就研究范围而言,研究的主要问题都属于自然保护和资源保护的范畴,荒野研究成为美国环境史研究最鲜明的特色,而城市及人工环境则未受到应有的重视。其次,从价值取向上说,环境史研究具有显著的环境保护主义的道德和政治诉求。环境保护主义既使环境史受益,使环境史具有鲜明的文化批判意识,同时,它也限制了环境史的未来发展。最后,环境史研究具有比较明显的时空特点:就时间而言,它研究的主要是近现代;就空间而言,美国环境史优先研究的地域首先是西部,其次是东北部,最后是南部。     

Language and the Shift from Signs to Practices in Cultural Inquiry

A model of culture as a partially coherent system of signs comprised the most widely employed instrument for analyzing cultural meaning among the new cultural historians. However, the model failed to account for meanings that agents produce by executing social practices rather than by only "reading" contrasts among signs. It also encouraged some analysts to conceive the difference between sign system and concrete practice as that between what is graspable as an intellectual form and what remains inaccessibly material or corporeal. This essay introduces three exemplars of the ties between signs and practices to show how the pragmatics of using signs comprises a structure and a generator of meaning in its own right. In the three exemplars, which are based on the tropes of metonymy, metaphor, and irony, I employ the analytic tools of linguistics to appreciate the non-discursive organization of practice. Analysis of the diverse logics for organizing practice offers promising means for investigating how signs come to seem experientially real for their users. Finally, this view of culture in practice suggests new hypotheses about the possible interdependencies as well as the lack of connection among the elements of a cultural setting.     

Masculinity and Cultural Contestation in the Australian 1950s

Enduring popular narratives posit the 1950s as a time of gendered oppression and conservative stability. While previous historians have pointed to the social and political changes of the period, their work has understood culture as a passive reflector of these transformations. Through analysis of four Australian films, this article argues that the contemporary cultural landscape was a dynamic space that actively negotiated between competing ideals. Exploring the representation of distinct albeit legitimate models of masculinity in these films, this article reveals the complex and unsteady gender order unfolding in the cultural world of the 1950s.     

他者凝视下粤剧粤曲展演空间分析——广州荣华楼曲艺茶座个案研究

人文地理学领域鲜有关注"饮茶听粤曲"这一独特的音乐文化景观,鉴于此,本文以百年茶楼——荣华楼的曲艺茶座为例,采取深度访谈及参与式观察、定性描述方法,用"凝视"理论探讨在他者与我者、"看"与"被看"的互动中,荣华楼曲艺茶座其空间功能的塑造及转变、其社会关系的建构及意义。结果表明:①对茶楼关注的焦点随时间发生转移促使经营者思考如何改造展演空间的功能达到维持经营的目的,致使粤剧粤曲展演空间原有功能被分割;②"凝视"是一种展演反思的作用力;3粤剧粤曲展演空间发挥着维系社会某一特定群体文化体系的功能。