Schooling on the Missionary Frontier: The Hohi Mission Station,New Zealand

Schooling was integral to the process of missionization in many of the places where it occurred throughout the world, yet it has scarcely been explored through the archaeological record. Excavations at Hohi, New Zealand, located a school founded by CMS missionaries in 1816, providing a material record that, in conjunction with documentary sources, enables reconstruction of schooling during the earliest stages of cultural engagement in this part of the Pacific. The motivations of both missionaries and indigenous Maori in the establishment and erratic progress of this school are examined, highlighting the role of indigenous agency in the cultural engagements that played out there.     

Election Campaigns and Television News Coverage: The Case of the 2001 Australian Election

This paper examines the patterns of television news coverage of the political parties, their leaders and the issues they raised during the 2001 Australian federal election campaign. By focusing on some issues, parties and leaders, television has long been argued to constrain voters' evaluations. We find that television news coverage in the 2001 Australian election campaign focused primarily on international issues, especially terrorism and asylum seekers, and on the two major parties—virtually to the exclusion of coverage of the minor parties and their leaders. Within the major party ‘two-horse race’, television gave substantially more coverage to the leaders than to the parties themselves, thereby sustaining what some have called a ‘presidential’-style political contest. John Howard emerged as the winner in the leaders' stakes, garnering more coverage than Labor's Kim Beazley.     

Reflections on Ethics at Stanford

Mindful of the need to be productive, Ian was caught a bit off-guard by some basic differences of opinion that emerged, specifically concerning WAC’s responsibility to intervene in situations of human rights issues that concern cultural heritage. His own assumptions about the similarity of perspectives on this issue that he expected to find among WAC colleagues were discomforted and challenged by this. Upon reflection, he better understands the historical and contemporary reasons for these differences and took this to be a good lesson in unsettling our assumptions, which is probably what WAC is all about.

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Résumé Conscient de la nécessité d'être productif, Ian s’est senti un peu pris au dépourvu par l’expression de points de vue largement différents, notamment au sujet de la responsabilité du CMA d'intervenir dans des situations touchant à l’héritage culturel et impliquant la question des Droits de l'Homme. L’idée qu’il se faisait d’une probable convergence d’opinion sur ce sujet parmi les collègues du CMA s’est ainsi trouvée largement mise en doute et fragilisée par ces désaccords. A la réflexion, il comprend mieux les fondements historiques et contemporains à l’origine de ces différences et considère qu’il s’agit d’une bonne expérience incitant à déconstruire nos hypothèses, en accord sans doute avec un certain esprit du CMA.

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Resumen Preocupadp por la necesidad de ser productivo, Ian fue tomado por sorpresa por algunas diferencias de opiniones que surgieron, especificamente en relación a la responsabilidad del WAC de intervenir en situaciones de los derechos humanos en el tema del patrimonio cultural. Sus propias suposiciones acerca de la similitud de perspectivas que esperaba encontrar en colegas del CAM en este tema ,fueron incomodadas y cuestionadas por esto. Despues de reflexionar sobre el asunto, él comprende mejor las razones históricas y contemporáneas de esas diferencias y considera que es ésta una buena lección para desestabilizar nuestras suposiciones, algo que probablemente sea de lo que se trata el WAC.

     

Democratic Civility and the Dangers of Niceness

Contemporary debates about the virtue of civility oscillate between anxious calls for more of it in contemporary politics, as a panacea for all manner of religious-political conflict, and wholesale debunkings of civility talk, as an ideological fog intended to induce conformity to the terms of unjust social arrangements. I argue that this oscillation should come as no surprise, given the term's fraught theological and political associations in the history of modern ethical thought. This history left civility with an ambivalent legacy, one associated with democratic respect on the one hand, and hypocrisy and deception, on the other. Through a reading of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” I try to rescue civility from this oscillation, by explicating it as an ancillary virtue: the part of justice that disposes citizens to confront unjust relationships in ways that leave open the possibility of relational repair. When explicated with due care and set in an interactive context of other virtues – including courage, prudence and toleration – civility can be distinguished from its semblance, niceness. This distinction helps us understand civility, properly understood, as neither a cure-all for democratic conflict nor an ideological device of conflict suppression, but rather as an ancillary, but important, excellence of character helping to sustain democratic relationships of mutual recognition.     

An integrated assessment of China's South—North Water Transfer Project

China's South–North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) is a vast and still expanding network of infrastructure and institutions that moves water from the Yangtze River and its tributaries to cities in North China. This article aims to assess the SNWTP's impacts by beginning to answer seven questions about the project: How is the management of the SNWTP evolving? What are the problems to be resolved when managing SNWTP water within jurisdictions? What are the status and management of water quality in the SNWTP? What are the consequences of resettlements caused by the SNWTP? How is increased water supply affecting regional development? Is the SNWTP achieving its stated environmental goals? What are the sustainability credentials of the SNWTP? Drawing on primary and secondary data, the article demonstrates both that the opportunities and burdens characterising the project are highly uneven and that management systems are evolving rapidly in an attempt to enforce strict water quality targets. Furthermore, while the SNWTP may be helping to resolve groundwater overexploitation in Beijing, it is highly energy intensive, raising questions about its sustainability. Our analysis highlights the need to continue to interrogate the socio‐economic, environmental, and political implications of such schemes long after they are officially completed.