One for all,or all for oneself? Governance cultures in regional public transport planning

Due to the fragmented organizational landscape characterizing public transport, it is important to study and explore how regional governance of public transport adapts to national institutional reforms. By employing the term ‘governance cultures’ to a comparative case study of regional public transport planning in Sweden, we contribute to theories of governance by cultural sensitization. Combining governance theory with cultural analysis, we apply a cultural perspective to understand the two cases. We conclude that public transport planning in the Stockholm region is defined by ‘negotiations’ between stakeholders, whereas in the Västra Götaland region it is characterized by a governance culture of ‘collaboration’. The evidence from our case studies emphasizes the importance of understanding local governance practices as situated in cultural contexts as well as of viewing governance cultures as an important factor affecting the purpose, degree and outcomes of collaboration in planning practices.     

Philology and Presence

Various scholars have argued that the rise of modern information technology over the past century has coincided with a steady decline of traditional methods of learning and interpretation, and has contributed to the general sense of “worldlessness” or anomie. In the words of Paul Ricoeur, “we are overwhelmed by a flood of words, by polemics, by the assault of the virtual, which today create a kind of opaque zone.” Philology, the ancient discipline that grew in the past two centuries to encompass literary study, linguistics, and intellectual history, was originally conceived as a return to the past with the aim of retrieving the knowledge of bygone times. While the recent revival of interest in philology recognizes its importance to the humanities, it remains unnamed as such. The aim of my exploration of the history and practices of philology is to suggest how it can reinstate the presence of the past. With its attentiveness to language—undertaken in the silent spaces of private study, archive, and library—philology not only confirms the presence of the dead but also enacts a more fundamental return to “world.”     

MacIntyre and Nussbaum on Diversity,Liberalism, and Christianity

This article argues that the politics of difference has been unsuccessful in its attempt to liberate itself from the modern politics of universal dignity and self-determination. As a result, theorists who emphasize difference ultimately must find a way to balance a conception of diversity with that of a universal normative ethics. To make this case, I examine the virtue ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre and Martha Nussbaum as two different examples of this tension, one constructing a particularistic virtue ethics around specific traditions, while the other presents a universalistic virtue ethics around universal human experience, thus serving as an example for how the “right” and “left” engage with diversity. There is a common denominator to the virtue ethics of MacIntyre and Nussbaum in that they both go about this by reconstructing an ethics of character out of elements of Aristotle's ethics of virtue in his Nicomachean Ethics as the basis for a model of pluralism and do so within a modern liberal and hence rational–individualist framework. Both are critical of certain elements of Aristotle's thought, while attempting to recover the “true” essence of Aristotelianism. While those who identify with the different political extremes are diverse, one basic premise is that the former believes in the role of tradition and the values of slow change in dialogue with the past, while the latter advocates the good of all individuals within a state that is blind to differences notwithstanding the practices of the past. Each approach faces a significant weakness: tradition is often unable to recognize that social benefits have often been brought about by modern liberalism's rejection of tradition, while universal human experience tends to forget that universal thinking is not universal but is a liberalization of a particular Christian way of approaching the world.     

DISTRIBUTION AND CONTEXT OF WORKED CRYSTALLINE ARTIFACTS FROM THE MIDDLE CUMBERLAND REGION OF TENNESSEE

Antiquarian and modern explorations within the Middle Cumberland region of Tennessee have uncovered vast quantities of ceramic, stone, bone, and shell artifacts. Objects made from mineral resources represent a modest percentage of the overall artifact assemblage. Specimens manufactured from crystals comprise a very small portion of the mineral sample, as only six worked crystalline artifacts are documented to date for the Middle Cumberland region. These specimens of fluorite and calcite consist of four earplugs, one bird effigy pendant, and one bead from four different Mississippian period sites. Fluorite and calcite deposits occur within the study area, but additional research is needed to determine whether these sources were used to make the Middle Cumberland items. The recovery of three earplugs (two of which are very unusual) and raw calcite crystals from the Castalian Springs mound complex comprises intriguing evidence for the production of crystalline objects as a site activity.     

救援、革命、外交——华工联合会研究

华工联合会原名中华旅俄联合会,1917年由在俄学习的中国留学生发起成立。成立以后,华工联合会对第一次世界大战时期进入俄国的华工提供了大量帮助。1918年底,华工联合会转变为“无产主义者组织”,它积极对在俄华工进行革命宣传,建立起与中国境内革命组织之间的联系,促进了中国革命事业的发展。此外,华工联合会还促成中国政府与苏维埃俄国之间进行对话,在俄中两国的外交活动中发挥了重要的作用。本文依据大量史料,追溯了旅俄华工联合会在救援、革命和外交等方面做出的卓越贡献,对华工联合会这一以往较少引人注意的华侨组织进行了深入的探讨与研究。     

Seventeenth-Century Vehicle of the Middle Passage: Archaeological and Historical Investigations on the Henrietta Marie Shipwreck Site

This study describes the archaeological investigations that have taken place at the wreck site of the English slave ship Henrietta Marie (1700) since its location in 1972. Information is provided on the methodology utilized during on-site archaeological data recovery, and the artifacts retrieved from the wreck site are described in detail. An account of complimentary documentary research on this wrecked slaver is also presented. Contemporary historical data gleaned from shipping lists, slaver’s logs, seamen’s wills and other sources are utilized to place Henrietta Marie within her proper context as a vehicle involved in the notorious transatlantic slave trade.