Karl Polanyi and the Modernity-versus-Postmodernity Debate

The originality of Karl Polanyi's work in the interwar period has gained increasing recognition in recent years, during which time the major debate on modernity has erupted. In order to link Polanyi's work with this debate, I will first discuss his legacy on the controversial concept of progress, and then relate his position to this debate. It is my contention that Polanyi's position combines the better aspects of the two rival approaches to modernity. I will then re-link Polanyi's thought to the intellectual figures, movements and climate of his time and thereby disclose a curious affinity between his thought and the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. This affinity can best be understood within the parameters of the historical context that they once shared.     

A contrapuntal commentary

Hanson, E Allan, and Louise Hanson. Counterpoint in Maori Culture. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983. ix + 232 pp. including figure, glossary, notes, bibliography, and index. $35.00 cloth.

Breeneis, Donald, and Fred R. Myers, eds. Dangerous Words: Language and Politics in the Pacific. New York: New York University Press, 1984. xii + 284 pp. including notes, bibliography, and index. $35.00 cloth, $16.50 paper.     

Appendix: deconstructive commentary

Abstract

A ‘short and thin’ model for work experience has been devised at Middlesex University. The reasons for adopting this approach are discussed, and its benefits and drawbacks are identified. The challenge of designing a work experience for a technological area such as GIS that also meets the academic requirements of a non‐vocational degree programme is also discussed.     

原工业化理论及其相关争论

自1970年代以来,“原工业化”这个术语在西方已广泛使用于学术作中,而且在学术界出现了有关这个论题的研究热潮,出版了多种研究成果。在国内,却仅有较少论中偶尔提及而没有较系统的论述和深入的探讨。本试就原工业化的理论,西方学术界对这一问题的争论及研究原工业化的意义诸问题,作一粗略的论述,供同行参考并求指教。     

Some Angles on the Anglo Debate

Little can be done to replace English as the world’s common language for full WAC congresses. WAC intercongresses, however, offer an opportunity for linguistic (and intellectual) diversity. A regular plenary session at WAC full congresses in which the best works in archaeological theory are presented, with special efforts to include archaeologists whose works are not in English (in addition to those whose works are in English) might help insure diversity of perspectives in WAC.     

Jazz and the Great Samba Debate,and Vice Versa

This paper will argue that jazz emerges as samba’s kindred foil in Brazilian popular music discourse of the 1940s and 1950s. Eager to underscore “blood” ties between idealized samba do morro and early blues and jazz, contributors to journals such as Diretrizes and Revista da Música Popular nonetheless tended to equate postwar bebop and big band with the menacing venality of the US music industry and the “vulgar” fandom to which it was associated. It was amidst such critical ambivalence toward jazz that bossa nova arrived on the scene, acutely vulnerable to accusations not just of appropriation but also servile imitation and therefore second-hand “decadence.”     

Polish Historiography of the Holocaust--Between Silence and Public Debate

The story of Polish historiography of the Holocaust lends itselfto divisions when one analyses the number of publications, andthe questions asked by the scholars in the field. There wasa great deal of valuable activity in the period immediatelyfollowing the Second World War and, to a lesser extent, up to1968; the revitalization of the field at the end of the twentiethcentury has roots that go back to the late 1980s. Holocaustscholarship in Poland has changed in many respects since theend of the war. Within the last three years a number of importantpublications have appeared that challenge the long-held assumptionsof Polish historians about the fate of Polish Jewry under Nazioccupation. These works have transformed the field with respectboth to the key topics for investigation and the questions askedby historians researching these aspects of the Holocaust. JanT. Gross led the way with Neighbors, published in 2000. Thisbook opened a heated discussion, and became an important triggerin the process of changing Polish Holocaust historiography.