Introduction: Between Morality and Anthropology—Sociability in Enlightenment Thought

Summary

This introductory article sketches out the evolution of the concept of sociability in moral and political debates from Grotius to the German Romantics, so as to elucidate the range and scope of the contributions to this special issue. The article argues that the concept of sociability serves as a bridge between moral theory, domestic politics and international relations, just as it also connects the jurisprudential mode of enquiry to subsequent Enlightenment enquiries into political economy, aesthetics, individual and collective moral psychology, forms of government and philosophical history. Particular attention is paid to sociability's relationship to moral scepticism, and to its position between morality and anthropology. The article highlights the central role of Rousseau in radically reformulating the debate and in sparking new controversies up to the nineteenth century.     

Intellectuels belges en quête d'un nouveau socialisme: l'aventure des Cahiers socialistes (1944–1953)

Summary ?The publication of the first issue of Cahiers socialistes at the very end of the war in 1944 and its nine-year run have to be considered in the framework of the new socialist politic, which combined realism and reformism. It is in answer to the ‘formal, parliamentarian and conformist’ socialism that the collaborators of Cahiers socialistes, mostly trained at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, formulated an alternative left-wing proposition focused on socioeconomic reforms grounded in moral ideals such as freedom and human dignity. Cahiers socialistes were thus the product of an intellectual elite which then had a career in academe or in the civil service. This small group did not have a great impact in the shaping of public opinion but it has left a considerable conceptual legacy for socialist intellectuals.

La parution du premier numéro des Cahiers socialistes dans les derniers jours de guerre en 1944, et la poursuite fructueuse de la publication au cours des neuf années qui suivirent, doivent être vues dans le contexte socio-économique de l'époque et de la ‘nouvelle’ politique socialiste belge, réaliste et réformiste, avec ses points de vue en matière de politique sociale, de politique étrangère et d'intégration européenne. C'est en majeure partie en réaction au socialisme ‘parlementaire, formel et conformiste’ que les collaborateurs des Cahiers socialistes, pour la plupart issus de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, proposèrent une gauche alternative centrée sur des réformes socio-économiques, situées dans une optique volontariste, même personnaliste, et liées à une série d'idéaux moraux comme la liberté et la diginité humaine. Les Cahiers socialistes étaient le produit d'une élite intellectuelle. Tant le contenu des publications que le profil sociologique de ses collaborateurs—la plupart d'entre eux firent carrière dans l'enseignement, la recherche scientifique ou dans l'administration—en témoignent. Il s'agissait d'un petit groupe d'intellectuels dont l'engagement, s'il était considérable, ne trouva pas vraiment grand écho dans l'opinion publique. Cela n'a toutefois pas empêché la constitution d'un héritage spirituel à long terme destiné aux générations futures d'intellectuels socialistes.     

„Fremde Körperwelten”︁. Russische Anthropologie und Medizin im kolonialen Diskurs des ausgehenden Zarenreiches

?Exotic Bodies”?: Russian Anthropology and Medicine in the Colonial Discours of Late Imperial Russia. In the nineteenth century Russian anthropologists adopted Western theories on the biological superiority of the white man in order to justify Russian colonization at the Asiatic periphery. After the Great Reforms the imperial process of acculturation was discussed in the context of modernization that also touched the institutionalization of colonial medicine. Whereas Russian armchair anthropologists were operating with racial idioms, physicians as practitioners on the colonial spot were not receptive to the ideology of “white man's burden”. From experience with the socioeconomic backwardness of Russia's Asiatic periphery physicians stood up for the vital rights of the indigenous population in the colonial Public Health. With deep respect for indigenous medicine Russian physicians were not advocates of Russian colonial expansion and racial discrimination that made them different to their Western colleagues. On the basis of Russian nineteenth century medical literature and Siberian archival sources this paper outlines the critical reflections of Russian physicians on Tsarist colonialism     

The Geography of Knowledge Spillovers Between High-Technology Firms in Europe: Evidence from a Spatial Interaction Modeling Perspective

The focus in this article is on knowledge spillovers between high-technology firms in Europe, as captured by patent citations. The European coverage is given by patent applications at the European Patent Office that are assigned to high-technology firms located in the EU-25 member states (except Cyprus and Malta), the two accession countries Bulgaria and Romania, and Norway and Switzerland. By following the paper trail left by citations between these high-technology patents we adopt a Poisson spatial interaction modeling perspective to identify and measure spatial separation effects to interregional knowledge spillovers. In doing so we control for technological proximity between the regions, as geographical distance could be just proxying for technological proximity. The study produces prima facie evidence that geography matters. First, geographical distance has a significant impact on knowledge spillovers, and this effect is substantial. Second, national border effects are important and dominate geographical distance effects. Knowledge flows within European countries more easily than across. Not only geography, but also technological proximity matters. Interregional knowledge flows are industry specific and occur most often between regions located close to each other in technological space.     

Economic effects of recent experiences of federalism: Analysis of the regionalization process in Spain

Setting limits on government action is critical to economic development. Some forms of government organization, such as market-preserving federalism, seem effective to protect property rights in the long term with good results for economic efficiency. Spain endowed its regions with “Statutes of Autonomy” in the 1980s thus moving from a centralized to a decentralized form of government. It renewed and expanded some of the statutes in the 2000s. This article investigates whether these two waves of regionalization, which had their own characteristics in each region, had led to positive effects on economic performance. Using a novel autonomous region/country-matched balanced sample for the period 1950–2016, we apply the synthetic control method and compare the economic growth trajectories of Spanish regions with their synthetic control groups not affected by the regionalization process. We show that the first wave of “Statutes of Autonomy” had a positive but temporary economic growth impact. By contrast, the second wave of regionalization of the 2000s is associated with a negative growth impact.     

中国自然保护区生态旅游开发研究刍议

本文从生态旅游的角度的出发,阐述了自然保护区生态旅游开发的意义,分析了自然保护区生态旅游资源的特点和开发限制因素,初步探讨了我国自然保护区生态旅游开发原则。