Arenas of Power in Climate Change Policymaking

This article investigates the potential linkage between particular policy design ideas and distinctive patterns of politics and power relations. The research examines a sequence of four cases involving the use of the cap‐and‐trade policy design principally to combat global climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Through the lens of arenas of power framework, the comparative case analysis suggests the existence of consistent linkages between particular cap‐and‐trade design ideas, and distinct patterns of political conflict and empowerment. The article concludes with a brief consideration of what the findings suggest about the national politics of climate change policymaking in the United States in the near term, and more important, an assessment of the implications for the further development and refinement of policy theory.     

Assemblages of State Power: Topological Shifts in the Organization of Government and Politics

Abstract: Multi‐scalar or multi‐site power relations offer two contrasting ways of understanding the shifting geography of state power. In this paper, we argue for a different starting point, one that favours a topological understanding of state spatiality over more conventional topographical accounts. In contrast to a vertical or horizontal imagery of the geography of state power, what states possess, we suggest, is reach, not height. In doing so, we draw from Sassen (2006 , Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages, Princeton University Press) a vocabulary capable of portraying the renegotiation of powers that has taken place between central government in the UK and one of its key city regions, the South East of England; one that highlights an assemblage of political actors, some public, some private, where negotiations take place between elements of central and local actors “lodged” within the region, not acting “above”, “below” or “alongside” it. The articulation of political demands in such a context has less to do with “jumping scale” or formalizing extensive network connections and more to do with the ability to reach directly into a “centralized” politics where proximity and reach play across one another in particular ways.     

Still methodologically becoming: collaboration,feminist politics and ‘Team Ismaili’

This article mobilizes a feminist analytic to examine team research and collaborative knowledge production. We center our encounter with team research – a collectivity we named ‘Team Ismaili’ – and our study with first- and second-generation East African Shia Ismaili Muslim immigrants in Greater Vancouver, Canada. We draw upon feminist politics to highlight the ways in which ‘Team Ismaili’ at once destabilized and unwittingly reproduced normative academic power relations and lines of authority. A ‘backstage tour’, of ‘Team Ismaili’ shows the messiness and momentum of team research and sheds light on how collaborative knowledge production can challenge and reconfirm assumed hierarchies. Even as we are still methodologically becoming, through this discussion we strive to interrupt the prevailing silence on team research in human geography, to prompt more dialogue on collaboration and to foreground the insight garnered through feminist politics.     

Performing refugeeness in the Czech Republic: gendered depoliticisation through NGO assistance

The article examines the gender micropolitics of non-governmental assistance to refugees in the Czech Republic – a post-socialist society which is becoming a country of immigration. It critically examines relations of power between refugees and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs). These NGOs act as mediators between refugees and the state, media, wider public and academic production of knowledge. It is argued that despite the important roles they play in securing refugees' access to rights, their assistance is often perceived as problematic by refugees. The article analyses these relations in a wider context of the institutions of the refugee system where the state has increasing power in defining the conditions under which NGO assistance to refugees is provided. The study is based on qualitative research among recognised refugees from the former Soviet Union living in the Czech Republic and local NGOs assisting them with integration into society. I demonstrate how particular forms of assistance and public representation depoliticise refugees in a sense of fostering rather than challenging unequal power relations that lock refugees in a position of clients lacking political means of influencing their place in a receiving society. This is done by conceptualising ‘a refugee’ as a performative identity that is being produced and enacted in feminised NGO spaces. The analysis highlights refugees' critical reflections on their position in the relations of assistance.     

财政与皇权的互动——北宋内藏库运作机制之演变

宋初以北伐为目的而设置的内藏库,依靠江南金银课利的固定上供渠道,以及与三司合作设置的市易务收入遗利,储备了大量的国家财政资金。这些财政资金,一方面应对高额的军费支出;另一方面,天子通过借贷给三司或政府,从而支配国家的行政运行,以提升皇权的效能。北宋一百六十七年间,皇权的提升与内藏库运作机制的发展演变交相辉映。     

基层政区设置中的地方权力因素——基于广东花县建县过程的考察

以往政治地理学对于行政建置的研究,多注意其结果,极少注意到变化过程。广东花县原为数县交界之地,从明中叶开始,当地不断出现要求建立新政区的呼声。方案有建直隶州、建镇、建县三种。但历经150年,直到康熙年间才最终建县。本文分明中叶、明末、清初、最终建县4个阶段讨论国家与乡绅对政区建置的意见分歧,表明乡绅意志最终通过政区设立得到体现,反映出地方权势对国家决策具有不可忽视的影响力。     

领导干部要注重提高自身媒体执政力

随着经济社会发展及新技术的广泛应用,媒体在现实社会生活中的作用日显重要,但领导干部在如何对待媒体和运用媒体方面却存在着明显的不足。为此,如何正确对待媒体和善于运用媒体,提高自身的媒体执政力,是当代领导干部所面临的一个崭新课题。     

史学话语权与20世纪的中国民族史学——兼说10卷本《中国史学思想通史》

20世纪中国社会发生变动,受到西方学术思潮的影响,中国史学进入到近代化时期.西方学术话语处在强势地位,在这样的大背景下,近代史学理论、思想的争论,基本是按照西方的史学理论的热点而展开,也随着西方史学理论的热点的变动而变动.这对扩大研究视野、深化相关的史学认识有一定的意义,但另一面是,民族史学的重要思想失去应有的地位.传统民族史学思想、理论具有重要的价值,是西方史学理论不能完全替代的;民族史学话语权的失落,对于中国史学发展是不利的.进入到21世纪,史学理论发展不能忽视中国民族史学思想的研究".认真总结民族史学思想遗产,对于当代史学具有重大的意义,是振兴民族史学的重要工作,也是民族史学走向世界的基本要求.     

义和团运动时期慈禧太后心态剖析

戊戌政变后,慈禧心中的“仇洋”情结不断膨胀,终于完全外化为其思想主流,并在一段时间内支配着她的行动。她一手导演的“宣战”闹剧,实质上是“己亥建储”的继续,是她在极度膨胀的权力欲望的驱使下、为实现“废立”而设计的“短、平、快”战术。慈禧于“宣战”五天后表示：由于义和团在京城“蔓延已遍”。“只可因而用之,徐图挽救”,其实清廷利用义和团、对外主战的内外政策并无实质性的改变。北京失陷后、她立即撕下虚伪的面具,把“肇祸”的责任全部推给义和团。同时把“纵容拳匪,启衅友邦”的责任推给了“首祸王大臣”。     

India's policy on Diego Garcia and its quest for security in the Indian Ocean

ABSTRACT

The ongoing contention between Mauritius and the UK over the sovereignty of the Diego Garcia presents a difficult challenge for Indian foreign policy-makers. New Delhi's principled opposition to colonialism and its historical relationship with Port Louis has made it steadfastly support the Mauritian claim. However, such principled foreign policy militates against India's quest to balance the growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean. Insofar, Diego Garcia allows the US Navy to maintain an active presence in the Indian Ocean, thereby keeping the Chinese naval power at bay. Balance of power considerations notwithstanding, the expanding trajectory of the Indo-US strategic partnership also demands New Delhi to weigh the burden of its policies on Diego Garcia carefully. This article juxtaposes India's historical record on Diego Garcia during the Cold War with its contemporary approach to the issue. In doing so, it sheds further light on India's strategic decision-making in the Indian Ocean, its dilemmas in confronting a genuinely hostile maritime power in the region, and deliberates on potential options for dispute resolution which can not only satisfy Mauritian demands but also ensure a healthy balance of power in the Indian Ocean.