Human rights in a global ecumene

How should we understand the cultural politics that has surrounded the development of international human rights? Two perspectives frame contemporary debate. For ‘cultural particularists’, human rights are western artefacts; alien to other societies, and an inappropriate basis for international institutional development. For ‘negotiated universalists’, a widespread global consensus undergirds international human rights norms, with few states openly contesting their status as fundamental standards of political legitimacy. This article advances an alternative understanding, pursuing John Vincent's provocative, yet undeveloped, suggestion that while the notion of human rights has its origins in European culture, its spread internationally is best understood as the product of a ‘universal social process’. The international politics of individual/human rights is located within an evolving global ecumene, a field of dynamic cultural engagement, characterized over time by the development of multiple modernities. Within this field, individual/human rights have been at the heart of diverse forms of historically transformative contentious politics, not the least being the struggles for imperial reform and change waged by subject peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds; struggles that not only played a key role in the construction of the contemporary global system of sovereign states, but also transformed the idea of ‘human’ rights itself. In developing this alternative understanding, the article advances a different understanding of the relation between power and human rights, one in which rights are seen as neither simple expressions of, or vehicles for, western domination, nor robbed of all power‐political content by simple notions of negotiation or consensus. The article concludes by considering, in a very preliminary fashion, the implications of this new account for normative theorizing about human rights. If a prima facie case exists for the normative justifiability of such rights, it lies first in their radical nature—in their role in historically transformative contentious politics—and second in their universalizability, in the fact that one cannot plausibly claim them for oneself while denying them to others.     

Cultural rights and their contribution to sustainable development: implications for cultural policy

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the meaning and implications of cultural rights for cultural policies concerned with sustainable development. Although references to both cultural rights and sustainable development have become widespread within cultural policy documents in recent decades, the actual conceptual and operational implications often remain vague, as an ambitious discourse that may conceal a poverty of resources and capacities. As a result, the ideal horizon suggested by cultural rights and sustainable development may not always be achieved in practice, nor are the mechanisms to achieve it always well known. In this respect, the article aims to dissect the actual requirements posed by cultural rights and sustainable development, including their different notions and areas of synergy and intersections, in order to shed light on relevant cultural policy approaches. To this end, a range of examples taken from a variety of contexts will also be examined as areas of expressed needs or areas of possible solutions.     

Going for Wombat — Transformations in Wirangu and the Scotdesco Community on the Far West Coast of South Australia

ABSTRACT Becoming an object of touristic interest is only one of a series of ways that Aboriginality is being transformed in contemporary Australia, as the space opens up for individuals and groups to reposition themselves as Aborigines within the nation, with a distinctive culture in various forms. The nation's appetite for Aboriginal ‘culture’, within desirable limits (Povinelli 2002) and energised by a sentimental politics (Cowlishaw 2010), continues to grow. There is, however, a destructive flip side to the politics of difference being played out within Aboriginal societies. This is evidenced by the many battles for access to or control of ‘cultural’ resources for their commercial benefits or collective survival value. In many places communities or groups are faced with the terrible choice of distinction or extinction (Comaroff & Comaroff 2009). That is, they must find, and make alienable, something distinctive about themselves or face collective extinction. How one Aboriginal community is responding to these threats and challenges is the subject of this paper. This paper also adds to the growing literature on ethno‐commercialisation by focusing on the central role of language in these processes.     

Prudence and principle in international society: reflections on Vincent's approach to human rights

John Vincent's Human rights and International Relations argued for embedding the right to be free from starvation in the international society of states. Principle and prudence were combined in a distinctive English School analysis of the universal human rights culture. Vincent argued that the entitlement to be free from the tyranny of starvation and malnutrition was one principle on which most societies could agree despite their profound ideological differences. Other conceptions of human rights, including western liberal doctrines of individual freedom, had the potential to create major divisions within international society, particularly when linked with a doctrine of humanitarian intervention. More recent approaches to world poverty raise large questions about whether Vincent succeeded in attempting to marry prudence in preserving an international order that remains anchored in state sovereignty with a principled commitment to ending starvation. Important issues also arise about how to build on his reflections on the prospects for a global ‘civilizing process’ that bridges cultural and political differences in the first universal society of states.     

英语语言学习与西方文化影响

语言与文化是相互依存的关系,文化对语言学习的影响重大,在英语学习过程中应注意对文化渊源的了解。语言和文化有着不可分割的关系,对语言学习而言,文化意识至关重要。古希腊神话和基督教思想是西方文明的源头,深刻影响着西方文明的发展。作为语言艺术的西方文学反映和代表着西方文化。所以,了解西方文化,广泛涉猎英美文学作品,对英语学习者是十分必要的。     

解读“施教”类遗产

在中国的“全国重点文物保护单位”中有一种发挥着独特作用的遗产,从其诞生之初起就承担着传播知识、完善人格、服务社会的功能,即“施教场所”,包括书院教育类、大学教育类、革命教育类三种;这些遗产所发挥的作用不仅仅是物质的,更在非物质层面具有深远意义,它们不仅呈现着中国教育脉络、体现着中国教育精神,而且极大丰富了当代文化建设、助推了当代文化旅游发展,因此需要倍加珍惜与审慎利用.     

Liberalism and cultural claims in Central and Eastern Europe: toward a pluralist balance†

ABSTRACT. This article relies on cases from new EU member states in postcommunist Europe to integrate two overlapping debates about majority–minority relations. Since the Second World War, political theorists and international institutions have tended to discourage group‐rights approaches in favour of individual rights; meanwhile, policy‐makers who achieved interethnic peace in postcommunist Europe have often opted for group‐rights approaches. On the basis of political theory, international norms and the conduct of political elites in this region, we argue that both the individual‐rights and group‐rights approaches can be differentiated internally along the dimension of pluralism – that is, their willingness to accommodate multiple processes of cultural reproduction. Moreover, both group‐rights and individual‐rights approaches can offer justifications for restricting minority cultural opportunities; furthermore, restrictive group‐rights approaches sometimes cloak their efforts behind ‘Western‐sounding’ individual‐rights rhetoric. Likewise, both group‐rights and individual‐rights approaches can permit group accommodation that can lead to political integration. We find that de facto pluralist approaches to minority accommodation – often spearheaded by moderate parties of the majority in coalition with minority‐group parties – encourage ethnic peace, regardless of their foundation in individual or group rights.     

Caught between extremes: the culture and economics of traditional mask art in contemporary Sri Lanka

In contemporary Sri Lanka, the commodification of local mask production resulting from cultural tourism has caught the traditional mask artisan in a tight spot between “tradition” and “modernity”. The impacts of tourism are diversely received and interpreted within the local mask artisan community, with tourism simultaneously resulting in what can be called a “cultural discovery” and “cultural decline”. Within this cultural debate, this paper is an attempt to understand how the traditional mask artisan arrives at a balance between “tradition” and “modernity”, and culture and commerce. Qualitative research conducted in southern Sri Lanka shows that tradition and modernity are shifting conceptions. Negotiating a balance between tradition and modernity is, therefore, largely a matter of meaning and interpretation. When cultural commodification occurs, tradition and modernity are continuously redefined and reinvented by both the traditional mask artisan and cultural consumer to fit their own needs and agendas. Cultural commodification contributes to the survival and revival of Sri Lanka's mask tradition, a strategy that is simultaneously welcomed and contested within the local mask artisan community.     

Intergroup aggression: multi-individual organisms and the survival instinct

Abstract

Intergroup aggression, carried out at the level of the in-groups and out-groups of ethnocentric theory, has continued unabated throughout the twentieth century. The frequency of aggression together with its ferocity suggests a potent biological cause. Primates have evolved as social animals and it is postulated that evolution has proceeded to such an extent that the in-group is a multi-individual social organism, that is, an organised body consisting of mutually connected and dependent parts constituted to share a common life. The social organism results from the total integration of individuals into the social structure and culture of the in-group; individuals are inseparable from their society. The evidence for this integration comes from sociology (the roles individuals play within the group according to society's rules), from the psychology of culture (where culture is defined as knowledge and beliefs within the group), and from a consideration of the evolution of the mind (the development of the social intelligence module in the brain of primates). Cohesion is brought about by means of the Durkheimian collective consciousness and collective memory of the group. The evolution of multi-individual organisms is analogous to the evolution of multicellular organisms (the Metazoa) by the association of unicellular organisms. All biological organisms require living space; multi-individual organisms require access to territory for food and raw materials and are endowed with the behavioural characteristics that are necessary to maintain that access. This survival instinct ensuring access to territory is a potent biological cause of intergroup aggression. The prime factor in initiating intergroup conflict is the need for each social organism to maintain the integrity, stability, and survival of its own society, based on territory.     

For a Critical Cultural Political Economy

This paper argues that, if cultural political economy is to be worthwhile, it needs to be critical of its object. In order to develop its critical understanding of contemporary society, it needs to do at least three things. Firstly, while the cultural turn has corrected and sometimes inverted economic reductionism's dismissive treatment of culture and the lifeworld, it needs to avoid reducing economic systems to the lifeworld in which they are embedded, so that the extent to which systems are responsible for economic and cultural effects—good or bad—is not obscured. Secondly, it needs to take a more critical look at the social and cultural embedding of economic activities, and at the way system mechanisms of capital accumulation and uneven development have powerful dis embedding and disruptive effects. Thirdly, it needs to reconsider, rather than ignore, classical political economy, which was always cultural and is still of relevance today, even though it failed to anticipate new issues of cultural and political significance, such as the politics of identity.     

少数民族文化旅游资源保护与产权合理安排

文章从目前少数民族文化旅游资源保护方式和存在的问题入手,认为仅仅以民俗博物馆、民族文化村和生态博物馆等方式来保护少数民族文化旅游资源的形式不能从根本上解决少数民族文化旅游资源开发中的保护问题。根据产权理论和文化资源的本质,文章提出解决少数民族旅游文化资源的保护应从产权合理安排方面着手,改变以往不合理的产权安排.论述了合理的产权安排能从本质上解决少数民族文化旅游资源在保护中存在的问题,是处理好民族文化旅游资源保护与经济发展之间的矛盾和冲突的基本前提。提出只有让少数民族在文化资源开发中得到最大的利益,成为自己资源的真正主人,才能从根本上激励他们合理保护自己的文化资源,使民族文化资源得以可持续利用。     

Human Rights and Multinationals: Is there a Problem?

In recent years interested individuals and pressure groups have expressed considerable concern over the alleged complicity of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in violations of human rights. While such allegations are not historically unprecedented, the context in which they arise has changed. In particular, the increased integration of the global economy has created a perception that MNEs should take more responsibility for the social dimension of their actions, a perception that enterprises themselves have in part accepted through inter alia the issuing codes of corporate conduct. Furthermore, the rise of identity and lifestyle politics has made MNEs, as purveyors of products and services that help to define consumer lifestyles, a target of concern. These changes have significant implications for the evolution of human rights theory. In particular, they require a shift in the traditional view that corporations can only be victims of violations of human rights committed by states, towards one that extends responsibility for the commission, prevention and avoidance of such violations to MNEs themselves. On the other hand, there exist strong arguments against such an extension of human rights responsibilities. In particular, it is said that MNEs should only be responsible for the conduct of their business and should not be forced to involve themselves in such wider social issues. They are also private law entities and so should not possess the same responsibilities as states. This articles posits that such arguments in favour of extension, though strong and likely to remain influential, cannot answer the need for an extension of responsibility for human rights violations to MNEs where appropriate, on the basis that any attack on human dignity, whatever that legal nature and functions of its originator, must be liable to legal sanction. The technical legal means by which this might be done are considered. None the less, the article ends with a caution that any extension of human rights responsibilities to MNEs must not be allowed to deflect attention from the primary responsibility of states, as the most likely perpetrators of human rights violations, to avoid human rights violations on their own part and to establish a legal order in which the risk of such violations committed by private entities can be minimized, whether through effective national regulatory laws or international agreements on standards of corporate conduct.     

Reimagining sustainable cultures: constitutions, land and art

Globalisation is about the interconnection of peoples and places in accelerated ways, but it is also about resistance and adaptation in the face of change. Discussions of sustainability now incorporate both dynamic understandings of culture and the recognition that place matters because the practices that are in need of sustaining, as well as those that pose threats, happen in particular communities and in specific geographic contexts. Culture is codified not only in property rights and legislation, but also in the public artistic expressions of peoples and places. Case studies from Nunavut and Scotland show the interrelationships of sovereignty and claims to identity and community. Art, as a result of creative action in the case of Cape Dorset Inuit printmakers and carvers on Baffin Island, and a millennium tapestry telling the stories of the Isle of Harris, complement matters of property rights. Both discussions show that identity is about material culture and property relations in respect of land. Serious discussions of sustainability, in contrast to the technical practices frequently invoked using the term sustainable development, require considerations of the dynamics of complex cultural arrangements in particular places, rather than assumptions of stability of either peoples or their ecological contexts.     

Language identity,linguistic diversity and political cleavages: evidence from Ukraine

ABSTRACT. This article revisits the notion of linguistic diversity and its function as a political cleavage. It argues that people's linguistic and cultural attitudes are influenced not only by their communicative practice but also by their identification with particular language(s) – even though they may not always communicate in that language. In Ukraine, from which my empirical data is drawn, language identity is embodied in the concept of native language that was imposed by the Soviet institutionalisation of ethnicity and came to mean ethnic belonging as much as linguistic practice. My analysis of survey data demonstrates that native language is a powerful predictor of people's attitudes and policy preferences with regard to both language use and other socially divisive issues, such as foreign policy and historical memory. This finding should also be applicable to other societies with a large‐scale discrepancy between language practice and identity.     

Heritage Protection and Social Inclusion: A Case Study from the Bangladeshi Community of East London

The bodies charged with identifying and protecting England’s built heritage have not addressed the needs and aspirations of ethnic minority groups, thus marginalising their cultural identity. The Bangladeshi (Bengalee) community is the largest minority group in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and it has developed a distinct cultural and commercial identity within a defined geographical area. New and adapted buildings and streetscapes give a physical expression of British Asian culture in streets such as Brick Lane. Through consultation with community workers and leaders within the Bengalee community key areas, sites and buildings of significance are examined. Comparisons are drawn between those buildings and areas identified as being of special interest by English Heritage and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the Bengalee community’s values and view of built heritage. Possible mechanisms for the identification and protection of sites of importance to the Bengalee population are put forward.     

“Upon Past Ebenezers We Built Our Jehovah‐Jireh”: The Vision of the Australian Aborigines’ Mission and Its Heritage in the China Inland Mission1

In 1902, the New South Wales Aborigines’ Mission found that financial constraints hindered them from achieving their vision and they adopted the faith mission principles of the China Inland Mission. A period of growth followed. By 1907, the name was changed to the Australian Aborigines’ Mission. The article will investigate the vision of the mission from its foundation within the Christian Endeavour movement and its later heritage within the China Inland Mission. It will demonstrate that when it became a faith mission the defining principle was that of trusting God for physical needs. The article will establish that in the first half of the twentieth century the mission did not address the issue of the interface of gospel and culture. The process of conversion included western influence, but it has not erased cultural identity and the ministry of Indigenous converts is a witness to some fulfilment of the vision.     

Listing and protecting culturally significant events: intangible cultural heritage and policy considerations for hockey broadcasting in Canada

ABSTRACT

Listed events are policies enacted by states to protect the free-to-air rights of specific television and radio broadcasts that are identified as being of particular national significance. Some states (including the UK, Belgium, and Argentina) have begun to adopt these listed events policies, typically regarding significant national sporting events. We re-conceptualize listed events as a practical means by which to protect the intangible cultural heritage of states – an issue addressed by international institutions such as ICOMOS and UNESCO. Furthermore, we engage in a critical analysis regarding both the merits and potential problems involved in the possibility of Canada adopting listed broadcasting events policies, specifically involving hockey broadcasts.     

Toward an ecological model for chalcolithic cultures of central and western India

The culture area is a construct of behavioral uniformities which occur within an area of environmental uniformities. It is assumed that cultural and natural areas are generally coterminous because the culture represents an adjustment to the particular environment. (Steward 1955:35)     

城乡一体化进程中的社会认同问题研究

我国已经进入统筹城乡一体化发展的重要时期。要实现城乡全面协调可持续发展的胃标,仅仅建立城乡统一的社会制度体系还远远不够,必须在此基础上促进城市和乡村真正深层次的融合,重塑城乡之间积极的社会认同,包括身份认同、制度认同和文化认同,建立城市居民和外来群体在身份、制度和文化层面上的相互认可、融合和整合,保障城乡居民获得平等的生存和发展权利,实现真正意义上的城乡一体化发展。