Curating convergence: interpreting museum objects in integrated collecting institutions

This article is concerned with the phenomenon of convergence (institutional integration) of museums, libraries, archives and other cultural facilities. It investigates how such amalgamations impact the capacity of curatorial and collections staff to carry out interpretive practices, including object research, documentation and exhibition development. Through thematic content analysis of staff interviews conducted at five case studies of local government-run converged collecting institutions in Australia and New Zealand, the paper suggests that administrative restructuring – often predicated on the dual imperatives of financial efficiency and improved cultural provision – produces institutional frameworks that undermine the capacity of collections staff to interrogate the meanings of objects. In turn, impediments to interpretive practice limit the extent to which collections are rendered intellectually accessible to visitors.     

#GomorraLaSerie: Converging audience and enhanced authorship on twenty-first-century Italian screens

Based on Roberto Saviano’s book Gomorra (2006), production of the TV series Gomorra – La serie (2014) was met with scepticism as many feared it would glamorise organised crime and, consequently, attract young people toward Camorra affiliation. The series’ bleak portrayal of criminals and criminality was offered as a response to such concerns. Despite the preoccupations, Gomorra – La serie was hugely successful and, because of its quality, was sold to other countries. In Italy, the series’ success can be measured by the popularity of its Twitter hashtag #GomorraLaSerie. Engaged with Henry Jenkins’ theories of media convergence and based on a corpus of tweets bearing this official hashtag, this article proposes a quantitative analysis and advances conclusions regarding the Italian TV audience and second-screen viewing practices. Additionally, through a qualitative study of Saviano’s tweets about the series, it examines the writer’s use of the social media platform as a tool of narrative continuity. Finally, the article highlights a few examples of fan-generated media and concludes with remarks regarding Saviano’s problematic position at the centre of a transmedia object.     

An evolutionary model of social change in the Middle Ohio Valley: Was social complexity impossible during the late woodland but mandatory during the late prehistoric?

We present an evolutionary model of social change in the Middle Ohio Valley during the Fort Ancient period (AD 1000–1650), primarily relying on an application of Winterhalder’s (1986) and Kelly’s (1995) evolutionary ecology model of cultural responses to environmental variability. We predict changes in social organization, political complexity, and patterns of stylistic similarity. As the environmental background for our model we employ recently published moisture data. By iteratively applying the synchronic Winterhalder–Kelly model we are able to predict a sequence of general trends that agree with much current interpretation of Fort Ancient development. Specifically, the model leads us to expect increasing village size, the development of regional traditions, and the development of leadership roles and a region-wide style Horizon around AD 1400. However, our model provides the ability to make testable predictions that deviate from the accepted cultural history and predicts that the Middle Ohio Valley and the groups referred to as Fort Ancient were far from homogenous.     

文化融合视野下的宋代佛教史学

中国佛教史学是一个复杂的融合体。它既有佛教因子的影响,也有中国传统文化的痕迹,如易学、玄学、史学、理学等思潮对中国佛教史学形成与发展有着巨大的影响。本文即在佛教与中土文化融合的大视野下,以中国传统文化为切入点,着重阐释中国宋代佛教史家如何将中土传统文化融入到佛教史学视野中,从而成为中国佛教史学一个要素。     

区域经济增长俱乐部趋同的界定及识别——一个文献评述及中国案例的分析

从分析角度上,可以把俱乐部趋同界定为时间俱乐部趋同、空间俱乐部趋同和时空耦合俱乐部趋同。考虑到不同的检验方法对俱乐部趋同概念的理解并不相同,对于俱乐部趋同的界定除了考虑时空维度以外,还需按照检验方法进一步细分。本文通过对中国俱乐部趋同的识别,发现了随机型时间俱乐部趋同、空间俱乐部趋同及随机型时空俱乐部趋同的存在性,从而验证了本文定义俱乐部趋同的思路是具有实践价值的。     

我国东西部地区差异的实证研究与收敛性的R/S分析

本介绍了赫斯特指数(H)和分维值(DB)的计算方法,分析了我国改革开放以来的东西部人均GDP的差异,试图用分形理论中的R／S分析法分析1978--1999年我国基尼系数的收敛性约分形特征,得到赫斯特指数(H)和分维值(DB),进而分析这个时间序列的发展特性,并预测我国区域经济发展差异的未来变化趋势,提出政策建议,为国家的宏观调控政策提供理论上的依据。     

Migration and regional inequality: changing characteristics of China’s economic inequality

Scholars studying economic inequality in China have maintained that regional inequality and economic divergence across provinces have steadily increased over the past 30 years. New studies have shown that this trend is a statistical aberration; calculations show that instead of quickly and sharply rising, regional inequality has actually decreased, and most recently, remained stable. Our study suggests that China’s unique migratory regime is crucial to understanding these findings. We conduct a counterfactual simulation to demonstrate how migration and remittances have mitigated income inequality across provinces in order to show that without these processes, we would have seen more of a rise in interprovincial income inequality. We conclude by arguing that inequality in China is still increasing, but it is changing and becoming less place-based. As regional inequality decreases, there are signs that point to the increasing importance of interpersonal inequality.     

Interest aggregators,not office chasers: evidence for party convergence and divergence in Australia

This paper examines whether Australia’s major political parties continue to fulfil a representational role. This was often the traditional view of the parties, but has been much criticised in recent decades by scholars arguing they have largely converged, moderating their policies and abandoning their links with civil society. Here I outline a theoretical framework – supported with evidence from four empirical tests – that characterises the major parties as interest aggregators representing electoral alliances made up of politicians, activists, financial contributors and voters, united by key economic policy goals. These actors create a centrifugal force, pushing party policies away from each other in salient areas. Using this framework, I theorise that the parties matter for policy outcomes, building on the assumption that cleavages in the social structure are reflected in the political system, with policy implementation the result of the competing demands and interests of the parties’ constituencies.     

HYPOTHESES,GENERALIZATIONS, AND CONVERGENCE: SOME PEIRCEAN THEMES IN THE STUDY OF HISTORY

This essay examines the relationship among some key elements of Charles Sanders Peirce's general theory of scientific inquiry (such as final causality, real possibility, methodological convergence, abductive reasoning, hypothesis formation, and diagrammatic idealization) and some prominent issues discussed in the current philosophy of history, especially those pertaining to the role of generalizations in historical explanation. The claim is that, appropriately construed, Peirce's recommendations with respect to rational inquiry in general can provide a reasonable basis for formulating a productive critical method for a responsible philosophy of history. The essay further seeks to reduce the tension between Peirce's interest in epistemic convergence and the arguments that champion the value of historical distance and perspectival pluralism. On the account offered, the kind of methodological convergence envisioned by Peirce need not conflict necessarily with a responsibly construed historical pluralism. On the other hand, the critical perspective of an epistemically disciplined philosophical inquiry may prove indispensable in weeding out wishful but unrealistic ideological perspectives from the writing of history. Hence, the resulting proposal envisions the critique of historical imagination as one potentially viable modality for the pragmatist philosophy of history.     

西部地区旅游经济空间变化趋势及影响因素研究

文章建立了一个旅游经济空间差异影响因素的分析框架,包含旅游要素投入、旅游基础设施、旅游服务设施、经济发展水平和旅游资源禀赋5个方面,并基于收敛理论的σ-收敛、β-收敛和俱乐部收敛等方法定量分析了2000～2009年西部地区旅游经济的空间变化特征及影响因素,得到如下结论:①12省(区、市)间旅游经济呈现出比较明显的σ-收敛和β-收敛趋势,表明均衡化发展的主流变化特征,但西南和西北两地区不存在俱乐部收敛;②影响因素分析显示,旅游业从业人员数量、城镇居民可支配收入和旅游资源禀赋水平对西部地区旅游经济的均衡化发展发挥了主导的推动作用,而星级酒店水平更支持旅游经济的空间集聚。在此基础上,提出了旅游经济较落后省份加快发展旅游经济、缩小区域差异的建议措施。