The Italian colonial cinema: Agendas and audiences

In 1997, Italy's leading politicians began the overdue process of revising the existing constitution. The bicameral commission of parliament charged with this task has proposed significant alterations to the country's institutional structure. Innovations include a directly elected presidency, an end to bicameralism and a greater role for sub‐national tiers of administration. However, this article argues that the suggested changes are in fact less sweeping than they seem, and do not address the country's urgent need to move towards a more competitive form of democracy.     

近代东亚工业技术的演化:以丰田织布机为例

丰田织布机的创造和传播是近代东亚工业技术演化的一个实例。丰田佐吉凭借"逆着潮流游泳"的熊彼特式企业家精神,成功开发了丰田织布机这一技术产品,带动了日本工业化的发展。1920年代,通过拆解仿制,中国的大隆机器厂等企业也成功制造出丰田织布机。抗战胜利后,中国机器制造公司通过丰田的技术转让,获取了丰田式自动织机的制造能力。发明创新、逆向工程与技术转让构成了近代东亚工业技术演进的三条路径,后发国家需要凭借企业家的精神动力克服技术演化中的难关,尤其需以"非理性"的动机超越市场需求中理性决策对技术发展的抑制。对后进国的技术演化而言,意识形态起着关键作用。     

On the trail of social relations in the colonial Sahara: a postcolonial reading

The Atlantic coast of the Sahara Desert was belatedly colonised by Spain. The paternalistic nature of this process and the collaboration of Sahrawi tribal leaders produced a specific type of colonial relations. The military hierarchy of colonial structures overlapped with the social stratification of Sahrawi tribes. Yet outside the upper echelons of Sahrawi authorities and Spanish military officers, daily life in the colony was defined by interactions among workers who performed the less lucrative jobs, Spanish immigrants from the Canary Islands as well as members of the indigenous population. Given their similar social status, four decades after the Spanish decolonisation (1975), we can still recognise the feelings that Sahrawi people inspire among Canarian returnees and the Sahrawis’ recollections of Canarian settlers, proving that colonial relations are never simple but ambivalent and open to new interpretations, especially when they intersect with other categories such as social class. Informed by postcolonial studies, our analysis of in-depth interviews conducted in the Canary Islands and the Sahara over the last ten years reveals the affective bond shared by colonisers and colonised at the bottom of the social hierarchy, allowing us to identify colonial memory as a cornerstone of social and cultural geography.