历史地理学与历史学

一历史地理学是研究历史时期地理环境结构及其发展变迁的规律,简单地说,就是研究历史时期的地理的科学。历史地理学是地理科学一门分支学科,就其学科性质而论,在现阶段它还是介于历史科学与地理科学之间的边缘科学,因此历史地理和历史学、地理学的关系,都同样密切。历史地理学和历史学的关系,从总的方面考察,主要表现有三个方面:(一)是研究时间的重合,(二)是研究对象的交错,(三)是研究资料和手段的部分相同。(一)历史地理学与历史学研究的时间都是人类历史时期,狭义仅指有文字记载的历史,广义则自人类社会形成即原始社会开     

马克思“人与自然对象性关系”概念对环境史研究的意义

环境史作为一门独立发展的史学分支学科,首先要解决的是环境的社会历史性问题。马克思在《1844年经济学哲学手稿》中重新阐释的"对象性关系"概念,为认识和把握这一问题提供了最初的理论基石。人类的"对象化"活动使得自然完成了"人化"的过程,从而演变成具有社会历史意义的自然,为环境史的诞生和"环境史"作为一门学科的成立提供了根本前提。处于对象性关系中的人与自然,其矛盾从来就有。在人类史中存在和发展的环境史,迄今为止已经经历了萌生与确立、普遍化与危机两个阶段,并正在孕育更生与和解的第三阶段。要正确认识环境问题的社会历史性,开展环境史学研究,就应当在"对象性"关系视域中审视人与自然的关系,同时坚持环境问题的社会历史性和环境史中的人类主体性,将环境问题与经济问题、政治问题、技术问题、文化问题等联系起来考察。     

重论章学诚与戴震的修志之争

清代著名学者戴震和章学诚,曾为修志发生过一场激烈争论。后人根据二人争论中涉及的“史”、“地理”等概念,认为这是方志属于历史学还是地理学的争论。但文章认为,只要认真分析历史与地理学科的形成过程和二人争论的有关问题,就可以发现,二人争论有性情和学术背景不同的原因．也有对修志争论体例的不同认识,但是没有涉及方志学科属性的争论。方志的形成与现代学科的形成是两个不同的历史过程．章、戴之争与方志学科属性无关。     

唐纳德·沃斯特和美国的环境史研究

唐纳德·沃斯特是美国著名的环境史学家 ,对世界环境史研究作出了突出贡献。本文分为两部分 :第一部分从环境史理论、环境知识史和新西部史等三个方面介绍沃斯特的主要研究成果 ;第二部分是作者对沃斯特的访谈 ,他就环境史的兴起、农业生态史模式、世界环境主义运动的发展、“9.11事件”后美国环境史研究的新趋向等问题提出了自己的看法。     

解释中国历史的新思维:环境史——评述伊懋可教授的新著《象之退隐:中国环境史》

这是一篇对伊懋可教授的新著《象之退隐 :中国环境史》的评述 ,由三部分组成。第一部分分析了伊懋可的环境史概念、理论基础和本书的分析框架 ,认为它是经济史、科技文化史和环境史的有机结合。第二部分分析它的史料和方法论特点。史料方面引人注目的是诗歌、传教士回忆录和多种语言研究成果的吸收。在方法论上主要使用了跨学科研究、比较研究和综合分析与案例研究相结合的方法。第三部分提出了三个需要深入研究的问题 ,分别是人口增长与环境破坏的关系 ,介于文人环境意识和农业生产之间的农学知识 ,以及双向比较方法的应用等问题。总之 ,《象之退隐》虽然存在一些问题 ,但瑕不掩瑜。它是一部谁也绕不开的著作 ,在某种程度上预示着中国史研究的新方向     

《世纪之交的西方史学》出版

世纪之交,西方史学发生了两次重要转折。一次是20世纪70年代以后后现代主义的出场,它催生了新史学分支学科和新研究视角的出现,这些新学科包括:历史人类学、微观史学、女性主义史学、后殖民主义史学以及环境史等;90年代前后,冷战的结束、苏联的解体、全球化在经济和移民方     

马丁·麦乐西与美国城市环境史研究

马丁·麦乐西教授是美国著名的环境史学家,曾经担任“美国环境史学会”(1993-1995年)、“公共史全国委员会”(1992-1993年)和“公共工程历史学会”(1988-1989年)的主席。本文分为两个部分。第一部分从理论基础、概念界定、功能发挥以及具体的历史研究成果等方面介绍了他的城市环境史成就。第二部分是作者对马丁教授的访谈,他就城市环境史与农业生态史的关系、自然环境与人工环境的关系、技术在城市环境史中的作用、环境正义运动的性质等问题进一步阐述了自己的观点。另外,本文在注释中附有朱尔·A·塔尔教授对相关问题的简要回答。     

环境史续论

环境是指人类周围的空间范围,即人类赖以生存的物质世界。它包括自然环境和人工环境,但是不包括社会环境。生态中心论的提法忽视了人类的主动性和创造性,有些矫枉过正。环境恶化和环境污染,是环境史研究的两大重点。历史地理学、农史林史水利史的部分内容属于环境史,它们与环境史各有侧重,不能等同为一。考古学扩大了环境史研究的视野。环境史与上述学科的关系,体现了环境史跨学科的特点。     

复杂语境中的德国“历史学家之争”

1986—1987年,联邦德国就纳粹大屠杀在世界历史上是否独一无二以及如何对待纳粹历史等问题,发生了著名的"历史学家之争"。这一争论的爆发和推进是联邦德国历史学学科内外复杂语境作用的结果。其主要的影响因素包括:第一,联邦德国当时的政治氛围和围绕新的历史政策展开的讨论;第二,历史学内部的分裂和不同学术流派之间的竞争;第三,占据主导地位的一代历史学家在学科和职业的自我认知上的共性与分歧;第四,大众新闻媒体作为活跃的争论平台的介入。这些因素共同决定了争论的中心议题、发展轨迹、阵营形成和论战氛围。在这场争论中,历史学家的个体性与职业性、历史学的科学性与社会性、史学争论的学术性与策略性构成了一个紧密交织的整体。     

一个值得重视的学科:科学史学史

众所周知,史学史是研究和阐述史学本身发展史的学科,它考察历史知识的积累过程和历史编纂方法的演变。然而科学史(history of science)作为一门完整独立的历史学科,也有其形成和发展的历史,这样可以把关于科学史的历史称为:“科学史学史”(history of the history of science)或(history of scientific history)。笔者提出这个概念,是基于一个基本事实:科学史随着一大批历史学家、科学家和科学史学家数个世纪以来艰苦卓绝的努力,已经建构成一个相对成熟的学科,它不仅在史学界和科学界占据一席之地,而且随着科学本身的迅速增长,它在整个历史学领域中,日益扮演着更加重要的角色,显示出更加蓬勃的生机,体现出更加独特的研究价值。于是讨论以科学史为研究对象的科学史学史,就具备了可能性和必要性。     

Neither a Discipline nor a Colony: Renaissance and Re-imagination in Economic History

After years in the wilderness, economic history is becoming fashionable once more. Intellectual shifts by its parent disciplines of history and economics, the failed experiment of economic history as a separate discipline, and the impact of major economic events have conspired to produce a renaissance in the field of study in the last decade and a half. We explain these changes and show that economic history derives its main strength from its role as an interdisciplinary research field that draws upon and integrates with its closest disciplines. We analyse the nature and recent progress of economic history in Australia and offer a prospective for its future role.     

Biodiversity and Nature Conservation: Some Common Arguments and Alternative Views

Abstract

The impact of human activities on the environment is perhaps now reaching its greatest level of awareness in human history. There is concern regarding health effects of pollutants generated by industry, climate change related to burning of fossil fuels and effects of anthropogenic activities in terms of promoting the extinction of biological species. Proposals are being put forward at local, national and international levels to preserve biodiversity. It is commonly believed that human activities, if not controlled, will lead to dramatic decreases in the earth's biodiversity. In this report, temporal perspectives of biodiversity (e.g. from palaeontology) are emphasized both as reasons for conservation and as possible errors of reasoning in conservation debates. Questions and novel implications related to an integral view of humans as a part of nature are also presented in the context of related environmental issues.     

The Environmental History of the Holocaust

ABSTRACT

The introduction conceptualizes environmental history of the Holocaust as a subdiscipline of Holocaust studies. The authors approach this emerging field of research through the context of environmental humanities with its current interest in the Anthropocene, soil science, forensics, multispecies collectives, and explorations of relations between ecocides and genocides. Proposed approach considers post-Holocaust spaces and landscapes as specific ecosystems and examines relations between its actors (human and non-human) in order to show the Holocaust’s spatial markers and long-terms effects. The article outlines existing literature on the subject, identifies the central research problems and questions, and discusses sources and methods. The authors demonstrate that the environmental history of the Holocaust applies a hybrid methodology that uses methods from various disciplines with the aim of creating new theories and interpretive categories and thus should be considered complementary to existing approaches in Holocaust studies. The authors follow the methodological principles of grounded theory in generating new concepts and seeking multidisciplinary methods for explaining nature’s role in the Holocaust and how Holocaust has changed nature. The authors claim that environmental history of the Holocaust broadens Holocaust studies as a field of research and opens up new questions concerning relations between nature and extermination in order to provide a more holistic perspective for exploring the relationship between culture and nature, genocide and ecocide. The approach proposed here shows Holocaust and post-Holocaust landscapes in terms of ecological/natural heritage, which might influence the way these spaces are commemorated, conserved and preserved, as well as used for tourist purposes.     

The residual humanism of hybridity: retaining a sense of the earth

The concept of hybridity has become an influential theoretical tool for examining and reconsidering relations between society and nature. Although benefits have accrued from this school of thought, this paper contends the deployment of hybridity within the geographic discipline falls short of its reconstitutional claims. These shortcomings are a consequence of the original sources used to develop the language and logic of hybridity. Although the concept of hybridity has a long history in the biological sciences, the utilisation of hybridity in the geographic discipline has predominantly relied upon evolving theories developed in science and technology studies. This paper indicates how Haraway's cyborg and Latour's Middle Kingdom limit the scope of hybridity by portraying humanity as central to hybridity. The pervasive centrality of humans within the literature on hybridity (1) limits the ability of geographers to embrace poststructuralism in its entirety and (2) diminishes the discipline's claim to credibly represent the (natural) landscape. This paper argues for a thicker hybridity by borrowing from emergent theories in the biological sciences, wherein hybridity is conceived as a common occurrence that frequently takes place outside the direct purview of society. Rather than reifying nature, thick hybridity forces society to embrace environmental uncertainty more than it has heretofore.     

OBJECTS OF HISTORY: THE PAST MATERIALIZED1

What is the role of material culture in understanding the past? This review essay explores two principal approaches—the history of museums and antiquities and environmental history—to reflect on their shared investment in historical materialism. It reviews Timothy LeCain's The Matter of History and Peter Miller's History and Its Objects, discussing their perspectives on objects and the writing of history. One important part of this history concerns the relationship of academic historians to the idea of a history museum, curatorial practices, and public history. What kinds of history can we do in a museum, with things, that might not occur without the presence of objects? Why were nineteenth- and early twentieth-century efforts to encourage a close relationship between historical research and the history museum largely abandoned in favor of a document-driven approach? The second dimension of current interest in historical materialism concerns new approaches to environmental history. It draws inspiration from Deep History as well as recent work in archaeology and STS (Science and Technology Studies) to argue for a more integrated history of humans and nature that demonstrates how things have made us. The history of successive efforts to remake the environment in different parts of the world and their consequences offers crucial object lessons in how humans have responded to nature's own creativity. Both approaches to historical materialism highlight the virtues of a more interdisciplinary approach to historical scholarship, in the museum or in the field, but most important, in our own sensibilities about what it means to think historically with artifacts and to treat them as compelling evidence of a shared history of humanity and nature.     

什么是环境史?——对唐纳德·休斯的环境史理论的探讨

唐纳德·休斯是美国丹佛大学约翰.埃文斯历史学杰出教授,环境史的开创者之一,从环境史诞生伊始到现在,一直活跃于环境史研究领域,发表了大量的相关成果。休斯对环境史的贡献,不仅在于他取得的丰硕成果,更在于他所作的理论思考。这突出地表现在如下方面:1)对生态及其在历史中的作用的论述;2)对"什么是环境史"及其与其他学科之关联的分析;3)对环境史与其他历史门类之区别和联系的阐述;4)对环境史的丰富意义的揭示。通过对休斯环境史著述中的理论思考的梳理,我们既可以从总体上把握他对环境史的一般理论问题的认识,也可以在一定程度上领略他从事环境史研究的个性特征。而休斯对环境史的意义的揭示,还使我们更深刻地体会到,历史学家在研究和叙述历史的同时也在创造历史。     

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.     

Urban memory and planning: investigating the use of oral history

Investigation of the reciprocal relation between individuals and space within its cultural and historical evolution allow us to conceive the intrinsic qualities and dynamics of any space in its context and to develop new conceptions to explain what kind of a place it is. Oral history provides opportunities to listen to the voice of space as well as a new way to discover its unique and different characteristics that give the users the feeling of belonging and place attachment. In this study, the place of oral history method in historiography, its use in diverse disciplines related to the shaping of urban space, such as urban planning and architecture, and the possible contribution of oral history to planning and designing urban space are discussed. It is revealed that the use of oral history in research and practice can give effect to develop a sense of belonging for all users and to achieve sustainability of urban memory. For this reason, place-based studies and utilization of oral history method within them are of significant importance, for either acquiring the knowledge embedded in memories or understanding the expectations of users or to provide solutions to place-based problems.     

Gender and Environment: Some preliminary questions about women and water in the South Australian context

This paper speculates on three issues about the relationship between women and water, focusing on the context of South Australia, a particularly dry part of the world. First, it is suggested that gender affects our connections to environmental resources, in this instance to water. Second, it is noted that currently unexamined archival material exists for the South Australian situation and that the analysis of this material may shed light on the relationship between gender and environmental resources. Third, it is possible to argue that the conflation of nature and the feminine through such things as tropic devices in language results in both being constituted largely as corporeal, as bodies requiring management. Such a possibility suggests that a body politics exists in environmental studies and related disciplines that requires further theoretical work.