Political economy and mimetic desire: A postmodernist reading of ‘Babette's feast’

Spinoza's use of the phrase “sui iuris” in the Tractatus Politicus gives rise to the following paradox. On the one hand, one is said to be sui iuris to the extent that one is rational; and to the extent that one is rational, one will steadfastly obey the laws of the state. However, Spinoza also states that to the extent that one adheres to the laws of the state, one is not sui iuris, but rather stands under the power [sub potestate] of the state (TP 3/5). It seems, then, that to the extent that one is sui iuris, one will not, in fact, be sui iuris. In this paper, I offer an interpretation of Spinoza's notion of being sui iuris that enables us to overcome this paradox and sheds light on Spinoza's relationship to the republican tradition. I work towards this goal by distinguishing between two ways in which Spinoza uses the locution, which correspond to two different conceptions of power: potentia and potestas. This distinction not only allows us to save Spinoza from internal inconsistency, it also enables us to see one important way in which Spinoza stands outside of the republican tradition, since he conceives of liberty not as constituted by independence, or citizenship in a res publica, but as being sui iuris in the first sense described above: being powerful.     

浙江省博物馆收藏的一批商周青铜器

浙江省博物馆收藏有一批商周青铜器,包括鼎、簋、爵、斝、觚等,来源不一。本文对其中15件礼器作了初步整理与分析,认为它们在器型、纹饰、铭文等方面皆具有较为明确的时代特征。     

河南考古六十年 保护科研结硕果

河南省文物考古研究所成立于1952年。60年以来,本所配合国家、省、市建设项目,相继开展了大量文物普查和考古发掘工作,并为解决学术课题进行了一系列主动发掘项目,取得了许多重要考古发现及重大学术突破。在旧石器时代向新石器时代过渡研究、裴李岗文化研究、仰韶文化研究、中国古代文明起源研究、夏商文化研究、古代冶金研究、古代陶瓷研究等诸多重要考古研究课题中取得突出成就,文物保护、科技考古等工作也得到了长足发展。科研合作硕果累累,编著出版大型考古报告专集、图录与论文集、学术专著180余部,在专业刊物上累计发表考古发掘报告、简报、简讯、研究论文和其他文章2500余篇,取得了丰硕的科研成果。     

Environmental Degradation of Russian Coastal Regions: Exploring the Gulf of Finland

An American geographer and Russian ecologist discuss current and prospective environmental hazards precipitated by large-scale infrastructure projects on Russia's southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The region, investigated by both authors during the course of regular field research from 1999 to 2009, is one of the best environmentally preserved coastlines of the Baltic Sea with abundant potential greenfield sites, largely due to its closed-border-zone status during the Soviet period. A favorable location for trade also places the region under intense development pressure. The authors devote particular attention to two major developments, a multifunctional port complex (which inter alia serves as a major pipeline terminus and oil export port) and expansion of an existing nuclear power plant. Based on extensive personal observations and government documents, they analyze the emerging environmental threat posed by these initiatives as well as the challenging political environment that discourages public participation and local involvement in spatial planning.     

NEW EMPIRICAL RESPONSE SPECTRAL ATTENUATION LAWS FOR MODERATE EUROPEAN EARTHQUAKES

This paper presents response spectral attenuation laws used in the new French Safety Rule, which is the reference for nuclear safety studies in France. Attenuation laws were derived from 965 horizontal and 485 vertical components from a two-step inversion method and accounts for geometrical spreading, anelastic attenuation and geological site condition. The datasets are mainly constituted of European strong motion records (83%) recently collected and homogeneously processed. In order to complete the distribution data beyond magnitude 6, a few American records were added, representing 17% of the datasets. The magnitude type and source-to-site distance definitions chosen to derive the laws are tested with respect to other definitions. These parametric tests induce a conservative law, for some magnitude and distance ranges of interest. The residual values between observed and predicted spectral accelerations are studied and do not exhibit any bias. The inferred laws are in good agreement with classical strong motion attenuation laws.     

Space,power and sexuality: transgressive and transformative possibilities at the interstices of spatial boundaries

The themed section consists of articles that explore the relationship between power and space in relation to gender and sexuality by looking at processes of transgression, subversion or expansion of normative spatial practices and narratives. Using a theoretical framework that draws out power and space within a more specific context of feminist and queer literature, the articles explore the possibility to transgress, subvert or expand norms at the interstices of spatial boundaries beyond traditional binaries and hierarchies. Collectively, the articles call for a continued theoretical and methodological focus into the importance of looking at everyday sites of struggles and resistance in the crevasses, the liminal zones of space. The transgression of spatialized norms of sexuality and gender present a transformative potential that should be recognized for its political significance but, we argue, with caution as heteronormative and heteropatriarchal norms too often remain de rigueur in a neoliberal context.     

‘Indigenous Knowledge’ and ‘Science’: Reframing the Debate on Knowledge Diversity

Responding to Kai Horsthemke’s call for the valorisation of universal knowledge within the debate on indigenous knowledge, the paper argues for an understanding of knowledge that is based neither universalism nor relativism. Arguing against the dualisms of ‘indigenous knowledge’ and ‘science’, the paper proposes that the debate be focused rather on knowledge diversity. Drawing on the work of Nelson Goodman and Catherine Elgin, the paper argues that diverse epistemologies ought to be evaluated not on their capacity to express a strict realism but on their ability to advance understanding. Such an approach allows for the evaluation of the advancement of understanding without necessarily requiring the expression of the literal truths that divide ‘belief’ from ‘knowledge’.     

与时俱进锐意进取为创新党的干部教育事业而努力奋斗

50年来,中共青海省委党校在干部教育培训、理论研究和教职工队伍建设、信息化建设、基础设施建设等方面,取得了可喜的成绩,有效地发挥了“三个阵地、一个熔炉”和干部培训轮训的“主渠道”作用。总结50年的奋斗历程,我们深刻地认识到:党校工作必须适应党和国家工作大局的需要,促进建设中国特色社会主义伟大事业和新时期党的建设伟大工程的发展;党校教育必须适应干部成长规律的要求,有针对性地开展教学培训工作,促进和帮助各级干部全面健康成长。面向未来,我们必须以科学发展观为统领,坚定不移地贯彻党的基本理论、基本路线、基本纲领和基本经验,以提高党的执政能力和加强党的先进性建设为重点,把建设高素质干部队伍作为全部工作的出发点和落脚点,不断探索和实践具有时代特征的干部教育培训工作的新方法、新途径,努力使党校的办学理念、教学内容、学科发展、队伍建设、综合管理等更好地体现时代性、把握规律性、富于创造性。     

An archaeological signature of multi-level social systems: The case of the Irish Bronze Age

Recent research suggests that contemporary human social groups are structured according to principles of fission and fusion that are also observed in some of our primate relatives, raising the possibility that such social systems have been a feature of hominin society throughout prehistory. The current paper examines the possibility of identifying archaeological signatures of multi-level social structures through the examination of site size distributions. Data on the sizes of Irish Bronze Age stone circles and predictions for the size of aggregations they could accommodate are compared with simulations parameterized using data on modern human groups. The results suggest that the presence of hierarchically inclusive, multi-level social structures provides a better explanation for the data than more traditional archaeological accounts based on the rank-size rule and related inferences concerning the emergence of political elites.     

The House of Nassau between France and Independence, 1795–1814: Lesser Powers,Strategies of Conflict Resolution,Dynastic Networks

The historical agency of the small- and medium-sized historical actors, the so-called Lesser Powers, remains much neglected in the historiography of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. The reason for this is that hitherto historians have failed to develop a historical perspective that does justice to the particularities of Lesser Power agency. This article explores the historical agency of two Lesser Powers, Nassau and the Netherlands, in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era, though with a particular emphasis on the era of the reconstruction of the post-Napoleonic international order, the years 1812–15. By viewing the agency of these historical actors through the prism of the dynastic network of the House of Nassau, rather than through the prism of its component parts, the Walramian Nassaus of Weilburg, Usingen and Saarbrücken and the Ottonian Nassaus, commonly referred to as the House of Orange-Nassau, the ruling dynasty of the Dutch Republic, this article offers a new approach to researching Lesser Power strategies of international conflict resolution, thereby hopefully contributing to the creation of a much-needed historical narrative of Lesser Powers.