THE CRISIS OF CULTURE AND THE CULTURE OF CRISIS

“Crisis” in cultural policy is a widespread phenomenon, whose meaning can be exemplified in case of opera. The Berlin, Paris and London opera houses hit a crisis at the end of the twentieth century. At the core of these crises and the discussions surrounding them were funding problems – which were also a point of academic interest. But beyond that, opera seemed to be an arena of discourse where creeping conflicts in the political system and society were debated as fundamental crises of a most cherished cultural heritage. This paper examines how, in these cases, “crisis” proves to be a cultural phenomenon in itself, displaying a symbolic and functional character rather than being defined by references to specific matters and qualities.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF SCOTS AND IRISH IN UPPER CANADA, 1851-71

Recent geographical studies of evolving cultural patterns in North America have encompassed spatial scales from continental (Meinig 1986; Rooney, Zelinsky et al. 1982; Zelinsky 1973) to local (Clarke and Skof 1985; Millward 1981; Norris 1984). This interest may reflect, in part, previous neglect of cultural dimensions in North American geography, as well as emerging conceptual insights including that of the 'charter group' of founding colonists (Porter 1965), the somewhat similar 'doctrine of first effective settlement' (Zelinsky 1973), and the classification of spatial-cultural types within emerging regions of the continent (Meinig 1986).     

HARTOG,KOSELLECK, AND RICOEUR: HISTORICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE CRISIS OF THE PRESENT

I enquire here into whether historical anthropology may serve to orient the critique of modes of temporalization under the conditions specific to what François Hartog designates as the contemporary regime of historicity. To this end, I bring Hartog into conversation with Paul Ricoeur: both arrive at a diagnosis of the crisis of the present on the basis of a parallel interiorization of the metahistorical categories of Reinhart Koselleck. Sharing a common interlocutor, the diagnoses at which they arrive are nevertheless quite different in nature, a result of the way in which these categories are inflected alternatively toward the anthropological perspective of fundamental temporalization and the semantic perspective of articulation at the level of “orders of time.” I suggest that the crisis of the present eludes the grasp of both and, with a view to gaining a more secure critical purchase over this crisis, propose a framework for bringing them into conversation.     

CRISIS OF THE FISCAL CRISIS?

Book reviewed in this articles:
A Review of James O'Connor's The Fiscal Crisis of the State and its Urban Implications     

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.     

3. EVOCATION, ANALYSIS, AND THE "CRISIS OF LIBERALISM"

In The Years of Extermination , the second volume of Nazi Germany and the Jews , Saul Friedländer attempts to write an "integrated" history of the Holocaust that captures the "convergence" of German decisions and policies, the reaction of the surrounding world, and the perceptions and experiences of the Jews. Although several historiographical issues are studied in detail (the role of Hitler, the evolution of Nazi anti-Jewish policy, and the role of the Christian churches), the most innovative aspect of the book is its extensive use of excerpts from over forty diaries of Jewish victims, which are interspersed among the statements of Nazi leaders and officials, Wehrmacht soldiers, churchmen, and various collaborators and bystanders in order to juxtapose "entirely different levels of reality." What ultimately holds the book together, despite its intentionally disrupted narrative and Friedländer's disclaimer that the history of the Holocaust can be encompassed within any "single conceptual framework," is the overarching theme of the "crisis of liberalism."     

THE TRADE OF INDO-PACIFIC SHELLS INTO THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN AND EUROPE

Summary. This paper is on shells which originate in the Indo-Pacific marine province (Red Sea or other waters to the south and east) and are found at sites in the Mediterranean Basin and Europe over 250 km. from their source. The catalogue of over 160 sites yielding these shells ranges in date from the Upper Paleolithic to recent times. Sixteen sites which supposedly produced Indo-Pacific shells are shown to be incorrect identifications.
Many of these exotic shells are seen to come from graves and sanctuary sites. Some shells are unmodified, others made into simple beads, and some finely worked by engraving and incising.     

INCOMES,TRADE, AND THE BALANCE OF PAYMENTS WITHIN AN URBAN SYSTEM*

ABSTRACT Attention is initially focused on the principal characteristics of a hierarchical urban system. The structure of trade flows among the various levels of the hierarchy is outlined, and consideration is then given to nontrade flows, these comprising government transfers and capital movements, as well as the associated property-payment flows. An equilibrium model is presented which is concerned with income at each level of the hierarchy. The balance-of-payments implications of the model are explored, and there is a discussion of the manner in which a trade imbalance at a particular level can be sustained in equilibrium.     

ICTIS DISENTANGLED, AND THE BRITISH TIN TRADE

Summary. Recent writers here, on routes by sea to ancient Britain, have revived the quest for Ictis, recorded as a port for the trade in its tin. Apart from Caesar's De Bello Gallico, nearly all the relevant sources are in Greek, and one of the few in Latin is from previous Greek. The relevant archaeology, marine technology and natural sciences, should still be advantaged by attention to these texts, in their wording and their contexts and chronology. They comprise three groups: Pytheas and Timaeus, before and after 300 BC, Polybius and Posidonius, before and after 100, Diodorus in the middle first century and Strabo near its end. Pliny, after the middle first century AD, quotes Timaeus. Each of the three groups throws light on the trade, Diodorus almost certainly, and nearly always Strabo, reflecting what had been shed by writers before them. It is Diodorus, expected here to be using Posidonius, who tells us of Ictis. But the various dates of the evidence altogether, when compared with the archaeological and scientific findings, let routes for the trade be distinguished not only in geography, but also in the chronology of their use. This essay takes account of all relevant work done hitherto, but advances beyond it wherever this is seen to be feasible. It disentangles the location of Ictis from persistent error, though doing so cannot yet fix it with final probability; but putting all the ancient sources for the trade to a critical scrutiny, with exact translations, enhances their accord with archaeology.     

中国境外经贸合作区的文化适应性研究——以中埃·泰达苏伊士经贸合作区为例

不同国家在政治体制、经济发展水平、社会文化习俗等方面存在巨大差异,使得中国境外经贸合作区嵌入东道国时产生了制度和文化方面的冲突,出现“水土不服”的窘境,因此境外经贸合作区如何克服文化差异以更好地融入东道国成为研究的科学问题。本文以中埃·泰达苏伊士经贸合作区为例,基于文化尊重、融合和创新等原则,从物质文化、行为文化、制度文化和精神文化四方面探讨合作区的文化适应性。研究发现：①合作区的文化适应性不能一概而论,需要先识别文化类型,再明确各类文化的属性与特征,最后选择恰当的文化适应路径。合作区在物质文化、行为文化、制度文化和精神文化方面的有效适应,可以凝聚成推动其嵌入东道国“土壤”的文化合力,为合作区可持续、高质量发展提供动力。②中埃·泰达苏伊士经贸合作区遵循求同尊异、创新融合的理念,在文化适应性方面取得良好的效果,但也存在属地化管理困难、制度文化有待优化等问题。     

中国电子机械制造业出口产品贸易网络研究——基于产品内分工与贸易视角

在区分中间/最终产品、一般/加工贸易后，描述了中国电子机械制造业出口产品贸易网络，并探讨了出口经验和产品关联如何影响企业进入网络从事出口和拓展优势贸易伙伴。结果表明：①出口地、目的国、出口地-目的国维度出口经验和产品关联可以显著地促进4种电子机械制造业产品企业进入特定贸易网络进行出口。②在位出口企业扩展优势伙伴方面，出口地-目的国维度出口经验对4种企业均有促进作用；目的国出口经验、出口地产品关联的促进作用集中在中间产品企业；出口地出口经验则集中在一般贸易企业。     

东亚经济危机与东亚发展模式新探

本文从三个方面论述了东亚经济发展模式。首先,从历史的角度分析了东亚经济发展模式的产生、特点及其局限性。然后,进一步指出在经济全球化和信息化加速发展新的历史条件下,东亚发展模式已不能适应时代发展的要求,东亚发展模式与这次东亚经济危机存在着内在的必然的联系。最后,对东亚经济发展模式的发展与变革提出了自己的观点。     

ON THE IMPACT OF COMPETITION ON TRADE AND FIRM LOCATION

We study how the level of trade costs and the intensity of competition interact to explain the nature and intensity of trade within a given industry and the location of firms across countries. As trade costs decrease from very high to very low values, the global economy moves from autarky to two‐way trade, through one‐way trade from the larger to the smaller region. By exploring the intensive and extensive margins of exports, we investigate how the intensity of trade reacts to the degree of competitiveness. Furthermore, when firms are free to change location, they flow from the small to the large country, and the larger country is always a net exported on the manufactured good. Firms located in the big country have a bigger size than those located in the small one. Under one‐way trade, the relocation of firms changes their attitude toward export.     

SOVIET ASIAN-PACIFIC TRADE AND THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOVIET FAR EAST

During the 1970s and early 1980s it was generally accepted, by both Soviet and Western specialists, that in the Soviet Far East the expansion of exports to the nations of the Pacific Basin offered a solution to the region's economic problems. However, recent policy statements suggest the rejection of this export-led development strategy. This study examines the changing structure and dynamics of Soviet trade with the Asian-Pacific region. At present, for a combination of economic and political reasons, Soviet trade with the Asian-Pacific region is dominated by exports of machinery and equipment and petroleum to the socialist nations of the region, inasmuch as Japanese demand for Soviet natural resources is stagnant. Therefore, because of the resource orientation of the Far Eastern economy, contemporary trade relations do not favor the expansion of the Soviet Far Eastern export base. Consequently, the future role of the region in the national economic system will be determined largely by the availability of domestic capital investment funds.