Watching Wall Street: A global earthquake

When the liquidity crisis in the United States reached fever pitch in early October 2008, I began to keep a weekly journal to see if I could make sense of the event. I continued the diary for three weeks but sent it every seven days to Anthropology Today. In the journal, I used local or US expressions for the events and inserted some of my reactions as a participant - observer. I did not survey the effects of the crisis on other countries or compare their experiences to those in the US. Little did I expect that anthropology would help clarify what happened in those 21 days, but it did. I found themes from postmodernism to spheres of value, and some anthropological ideas for other ways to manage the mess.     

试论魏玛"福利国家"的早期实践(1918-1920)

一战结束后,德国社会遭遇了政治、经济与社会的多重危机,政府权力亟待合法性认同,社会期稳定。魏玛政府力图把福利国家作为控制与解决危机的一种手段。1918-1920年间,魏玛的福利国家建设曾规范劳动市场、协调劳资关系、改革保险和救济政策、解决住房问题以及调整经济运作模式等方面掀起高潮从短时段看,这些实践活动确立了基本的福利国家原则,维护了政府权威,初步解决了战后德国的社会危机然而从长时段看,这一时期的福利实践存在许多问题,埋下了日后经济危机、社会危机乃至民主危机的隐患。     

Coconut Crisis in Kerala? Mainstream Narrative and Alternative Perspectives

India's oilseeds sector, which includes its coconut economy, experienced drastic changes in the wake of agricultural liberalization in the mid‐1990s. A persistent coconut crisis ‘narrative’ emerged after sharp price declines between 2000 and 2002 in which small farmers in the state of Kerala, India's main coconut producer, were identified as victims of the liberalized importation of cheap palm oil. This article describes this crisis narrative based on a literature review of academic and official reports, and challenges its problem analysis by juxtaposing it with information from ethnographic research with local farmers and traders. The research indicates that local labour shortages and increased regional competition also had a strong impact on Kerala's coconut market, production and processing, which varied from region to region. Furthermore, small farmers, with their diversified livelihoods, did not recognize a ‘crisis’ as such. Drawing upon the ‘advocacy coalition framework’, the article also indicates reasons for the emergence and persistence of the coconut crisis narrative and points to complex processes of restructuring social space in the age of globalization.     

THE ALLURE OF DARK TIMES: MAX WEBER,POLITICS, AND THE CRISIS OF HISTORICISM

This article argues that realist invocations of Weber rely on an unrealistic reading of Weber's realism. In order to escape the allure of Weber's dramatic posture of crisis, we place his seminal lecture on “Politics as a Vocation” (1919) in its historical and philosophical context of a revolutionary conjuncture of dramatic proportions, compounded by a broader crisis of historicism. Weber's rhetoric, we argue, carries with it not only the emotion of crisis but is also the expression of a deeper intellectual impasse. The fatalistic despair of his position had already been detected by some of his closest contemporaries for whom Weber did not appear as a door‐opener to a historically situated theory of political action but as a telling and intriguing impasse. Although the disastrous history of interwar Europe seems to confirm Weber's bleakest predictions, it would be perverse to elevate contingent failure to the level of retrospective vindication.     

The Crisis of the “Disadvantaged Child”: Poverty Research,IQ, and Muppet Diplomacy in the 1960s

In the early 1960s, the US federal government deemed poverty to be a national crisis, and actively intervened to solve this problem. My question for this article is how did preschool education become a key site to remedy this crisis? Government interventions were a combination of poverty research, racialized politics, and child development. I show how the discipline of early childhood education cohered around the term “disadvantaged child”, in turn influencing the War on Poverty policies, including the basis of Head Start preschool education. During this same decade proponents of Sesame Street—with private funding, along with extensive testing mechanisms by consultants—argued that the television could reach more children, therefore be more cost effective. This paper investigates how surplus populations became determined and demarcated, as early as three years old. I question how televised preschool taught “affective skills” and proper social relations during times of political crisis.     

"周鸿庆事件"与美日台三角关系

1963年末发生的"周鸿庆事件"引发了台日关系的危机.在这场事件中,日本不顾台湾当局的压力,坚持允许周鸿庆返回大陆.在台湾看来,这是日本亲大陆的严重过失行为,因此对日采取了激烈的报复措施,台日矛盾激化,一度濒临"断交"的边缘.作为台日双方的盟友,美国利用驻台"大使馆"向台湾当局斡旋,不断对其施加压力.美国国务卿腊斯克也亲自访日、访台,为解决双方矛盾不遗余力.最终,在美国的调节下,台日双方各让一步,就此渡过了这场"外交"危机.在解决整个事件的过程中,美国的重要作用不可低估,同时,美国在远东的战略意图也反映得淋漓尽致.     

Austerity and consociational government in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This article examines the institutional crisis of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2015 as a case study on the impact of austerity on multiculturalism in Ireland. I make a case for viewing the Assembly as a multicultural institution through pointing to the historical role of community relations policy, which was directed at reconciling “sectarian” Irish nationalists and Ulster unionists. It did so through shifting from an understanding of the conflict as one based on the struggle for Irish national self-determination to one based on conflicting identities. I argue that Sinn Féin’s embracing of multiculturalism is a product of its accommodation to British rule in Ireland. Sinn Féin has made a virtue out of its political volte-face by becoming the strongest advocate of ethnic Irish nationalism in Northern Ireland. The ethnic power politics of Sinn Féin has found its unionist equivalent in the political manoeuvrings of the Democratic Unionist Party. Austerity measures imposed by the Westminster government have created problems for the parties in the power-sharing Assembly, problems that threaten the collapse of the Assembly. It is because of, rather than in spite of, the multicultural mechanisms embedded in the Assembly that the institution has got to crisis point. This is an institutional crisis, not a crisis of multiculturalism.     

危机管理视角下的绥靖行为论析

20世纪30年代英法等西方国家对纳粹德国实施的绥靖政策,一般被认为是鼓励希特勒侵略胆量和野心、最终导致二战爆发的一个重要原因,它在日后甚至发展成了国际政治中软弱无能、胆怯和丧失原则的无益让步的代名词,即所谓“慕尼黑类比”。在“慕尼黑类比”的阴影下,“绥靖”一词被严重污名化,沦为政治攻击的工具,用以反对任何正常和必要的国家间谈判、妥协和友好交往,为强硬外交乃至战争铺路,产生了严重的国际政治后果。但从危机管理的角度来看,绥靖可以是一种通过向对方做出不对等的利益让步来化解危机、避免战争的理性手段,它是一国在面临他国直接威胁挑战或危机情形下,当相互妥协、威慑与强制外交等其他手段都失败或不可行,从而使危机发展到一定阶段时,国家基于成本收益计算和利害权衡,为了避免战争而做出的最后努力。未来研究中应摒弃政治与意识形态上的偏见,发掘更多绥靖案例,对诸如绥靖政策何以成败等问题进行深入分析,以丰富和加深我们对于国际政治中的绥靖现象的理解。     

On expectations in the aftermath of the ‘refugee crisis’: Ethnographic prospects from a post‐industrial German city

At the height of the ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe, right‐wing critics challenged refugees’ rights to asylum. One of the ways they did this was by predicting chaotic, doom‐laden futures. In reality, nobody – neither the communities hosting the refugees, nor the refugees themselves – knew what the post‐crisis future would bring. Anthropologists are in a position to consider that future ethnographically. This article discusses the emerging future expectations of one Afghan family in the German post‐industrial city of Bremerhaven. It attends to the local production of representations of the future during the aftermath of the crisis. The author uses this material to literally look ahead with ethnography and to thereby intervene in the broader context of the politics of expectations. He argues that the earlier we anthropologists can provide detailed accounts of how the future is starting to take shape in our fieldsites, the more efficiently we can stop further fearmongering and the deprivation of human rights. These ‘ethnographic prospects’ may allow us to ask different questions and offer different imaginations of the future.     

A Bretton Woods moment? The 2007–2008 crisis and the future of global finance

The 2007–2008 global financial crisis encouraged speculation about the prospects for a ‘Bretton Woods moment’ in which the global financial system would be radically redesigned. Many of those hoping for this outcome have since become disillusioned with the limited nature of the international financial reform agenda. But the success and innovation of the Bretton Woods conference was made possible by unique political conditions that are not present today, notably concentrated power in the state system; a transnational expert consensus; and wartime conditions. Moreover, a close reading of history reveals that the Bretton Woods system did not emerge from a single moment but rather from a much more extended historical process. If a new international financial system is being born today, it will be a slower and more incremental development process that can be divided into four phases: a legitimacy crisis; an interregnum; a constitutive phase; and an implementation phase. Viewed from this perspective, post‐crisis developments look more significant. The crisis of 2007–2008 has already intensified twin legitimacy crises relating to international financial policy and leadership. It has also generated an international reform initiative that has been unusual for its speed and internationally coordinated nature. Many of the details of this reform initiative remain unresolved and its content and breadth are hotly contested in various ways. We thus find ourselves in more of an interregnum than a constitutive phase. It remains unclear how quickly, if at all, the latter might emerge and in what form.     

Toward a synthesis of foreign relations in the Civil War era, 1848–77

Perhaps the greatest void in the scholarship on U.S. foreign relations is the lack of a synthesis covering the Civil War era, 1848–77. Largely as a result of the crisis of the Union, these years constitute a distinct period in foreign relations that should be treated as a whole. Though sectionalism, party conflict, the Civil War and Reconstruction did not influence foreign policy in a consistent manner, statesmen viewed foreign affairs through a lens colored by the process and meaning of the domestic conflict. Additionally, ethnicity and race, flows of capital, and geopolitical and commercial rivalries all factored into the equation of foreign policy formulation. This essay explores the historiography and suggests that foreign relations in the Civil War era constituted a contested period of transition, dominated by the crisis of the Union.     

浅论中美大使级会谈的背景

中美大使级会谈是一个僵持性谈判。在冷战白热化的年代里 ,中美两国为什么要启动这样一个双边谈判 ?了解启动中美大使级变化的历史背景 ,有助于了解我们理解其僵持的原因。本文认为 ,中美两国启动大使级谈判的背景为日后双方的谈判出现长期僵持局面埋下了伏笔。在要不要进行双边接触的问题上 ,中美两国采取了不同的政策和态度。基于解决台湾问题的需要 ,中国一直在积极地寻求双边接触的办法和途径 ,而美国则不断地回避接触 ,第一次台海危机的爆发并没有促使美国与中国进行直接接触 ,而中国随后的一系列外交活动却迫使美国不得不考虑通过双边接触的方式化解危机。在讨论中美双方会谈的议程和谈判内容上 ,双方存在着巨大矛盾 ,其实质是对待台湾问题的政策目标的根本对立。     

郎先锦与戴戡师生行谊考述

郎先锦与戴戡初结缘于学问相授,继而同心协力于在乡间利济桑梓;于乱局中劝勉忠义、笃行救时;多年间“共济艰难,既效于乡,犹施于国”,身处“冰山骤倾鼎沸方始之际”,也未曾置身事外。体现出传统士人的志节风骨,以及深厚的师生情谊,值得后人尊敬。     

The Crofter and the Iron Works: The Material Culture of Structural Crisis, Identity and Making a Living on the Edge

The iron and steel industry has been of the greatest importance to the Swedish economy since medieval times. During the seventeenth century a large number of new iron works were erected in the Värmland region of western Sweden. The iron works brought an urban and industrial culture into an otherwise rural area. They were also of great importance to the local economies, as a number of people could earn their living, or part of their living, by working at the iron works or in other forms of associated employment. In the late nineteenth century a serious structural crisis hit the Swedish iron industry, causing many iron works to close. However, the actual effects, in the form of unemployment and increased poverty, appear, for hitherto unknown reasons, to have been minimal. In this article the household of a crofter family with close links with an iron works at the time of the structural crisis is investigated. Aspects of the crofter’s material culture, identity and consumption pattern are studied, and it is found that although the household shared in an urban and industrial identity, its economic basis was in the rural tradition of a mixed economy, combining wage employment and land-based elements. The mixed economy stands out as one reason why the structural crisis did not have as dramatic an effect as might have been expected.     

Financial crises and the balance of power in international finance, 1890–2010

Has the centre of gravity of international finance irreversibly started to shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific since the financial debacle of 2007-2008? This article discusses this highly topical question in a historical perspective, by considering previous changes in the balance of power in international finance and the role played by global financial in these changes. Particular attention is paid to the Baring Crisis of 1890, the American Panic of 1907, the financial crisis of July -August 1914, the banking crises of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the financial instability of the early 1970s and the ensuing banking failures, the International Debt Crisis of 1982, and the Japanese Banking Crisis of 1997-8. The article concludes that financial crisis, perhaps surprisingly, did not lead to clear changes in the balance of power in international finance; and that the financial debacle of 2007-8 is unlikely, in the medium-term, to fundamentally alter the current order.     

旅游危机事件与旅游业危机管理

"非典"再次提醒人们要重视危机事件对中国旅游业的冲击。正确认识中国旅游业面对的国内外危机事件的特点,根据危机发展过程的特征进行旅游业危机管理迫在眉睫。本文分析了危机事件对旅游业的影响及其类型,以及可能面临的危机的情势;根据危机发展过程和行为主体特征,分析了旅游业危机管理的构成体系以及在危机各阶段需要采取的主要应对措施;提出中国旅游业在当前进行危机管理急需完成的任务。     

An aborted reformation: Germans and the papacy in the mid-fifteenth century

Why did the Reformation not occur in mid-fifteenth century Germany? The Germans had already become very angry with the papacy, and began a movement to force the curia to allow them to reform their own Church in their own way. The curia, which had its own plans for reform, of course refused. Each side began to develop weapons; but the struggle, which came close to a crisis, quickly fizzled. I maintain that the reason was that the Germans, who detested heresy, were unable to focus their anger against the curia sufficiently to carry out their program, chiefly because localism was so strong that no program could be agreed on for more than a few months. The event that brought about the crisis was the Turkish advance in Europe, which both the papacy and the Germans wished to use for their own purposes. Gradually the incipient revolt simmerend down, but the underlying causes remained. Fifty years later, this anger was able to achieve direction, and the stored-up feeling, now focussed, was able to explode.     

增强执政党应对金融危机的能力

应对金融风险是执政党必须高度注重的重大问题。在经济全球化时代金融危机频发以及金融风险增多的条件下,增强执政党应对金融危机的能力,妥善处理金融危机所带来的各种挑战,尽快化解可能引发的政治危机和社会危机,不仅关系到党执政的合法性基础,关系到党执政地位的巩固,而且关系到国家政局的稳定和人民群众的财产安全。     

Lincoln and the Rebirth of Liberal Democracy

It is a privilege to speak in this, the house of the Supreme Court of the United States, of Abraham Lincoln, our supremely great President. His task, he said, was greater than George Washington's. In the United States’ gravest crisis and most terrible war, Lincoln saved the country, its democratic republic, and the republic's devotion to the equal rights of man. He did more than save. He renewed the republic and purified it of slavery.