The 2010 independence jubilees: the politics and aesthetics of national commemoration in Africa

In 2010, as many as seventeen African states celebrated their independence jubilees. The debates surrounding the organisation of these celebrations, and the imagery and performances they employed, reflect the fault lines with which African nation‐building has to contend, such as competing political orientations as well as religious, regional and ethnic diversity. The celebrations represented constitutive and cathartic moments of nation‐building, aiming to enhance citizens' emotional attachments to the country and inviting to remember, re‐enact and re‐redefine national history. They became a forum of debate about what should constitute the norms and values that make‐up national identity and, in the interstices of official ceremonies, provided space for the articulation of new demands for public recognition. A study of the independence celebrations thus allows us to explore contested processes of nation‐building and images of nationhood and to study the role of ritual and performance in the (re)production of nations.     

Fichte and the German Idiom: the Metaphysics of the Addresses to the German Nation

This article argues against the dominant Anglophone and Francophone interpretation of Fichte, which reads him as advancing either a form of ethnic or cultural nationalism. It claims that what is missing from the current reception of Fichte is the essentially philosophical and cosmopolitan character of his nationalism – the fact that the Addresses to the German Nation uses non‐empirical and cosmopolitical concepts to develop and articulate its nationalistic viewpoint. It therefore claims that the notion of a national philosophical idiom that the Addresses present, far from being a screen for its nationalism, is its driving engine. It does this by considering the problems of translating the German locution ist unsers Geschlechts. Consequently, it is claimed that the cosmo‐nationalism of Fichte is not reducible to a set of claims regarding ethnicity or even the empirical world, even if a discourse on the organismic, on what counts as life, irreducibly haunts the Addresses.     

A bigger Settecento Italiano: wider vistas and open terrain

This paper introduces the six essays from the UCLA-Clark Library Conference on ‘The Culture of Enlightenment and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Italy’ (23?–?24 January 2004). Franco Venturi's persona, productivity, method, and themes are reviewed to help explain his influence on Italian Enlightenment Studies, while at the same time showing how recent research has developed in a number of directions?–?following up on his insights, exploring new topics, or leaving large questions yet unexamined.     

A peculiar pluralism

Abstract

In this article, we shall describe the complexity and differentiation that characterizes the state of religion in Italy, beginning with a concise reconstruction of the chief factors that characterize the relationship that Italians experience with their birth religion or the prevailing religion (Catholicism). We shall then describe the level of ethical and religious pluralism (found both within the Catholic universe and, especially, outside of that universe) that Italian society is beginning to experience directly, in part because of the fact that other religious entities (both old and new) are become increasingly visible in the public sphere, adding color and identity to the symphony of voices attempting to speak publicly in religious terms. In conclusion, we shall explore a phenomenon, popular religion, which continues to show extraordinary vitality. The basic hypothesis that we intend to set forth is based on the idea that ordinary Italians consider themselves Catholic but have a variety of different ways of interpreting their practical involvement with the Catholic Church.     

No Italian Stalingrads. The C.G.I.L. and the working class in the northern industrial heartlands, 1945-1955

ABSTRACT

This article challenges conventional wisdom on the northern Italian industrial heartlands during the first decade after the Second World War. For there still exists a certain mythology about the post-war proletarian north as a region that was both intensely political and united in purpose. What this article demonstrates is that the ‘industrial triangle’ of Genoa, Milan and Turin was far more divided than historians have assumed. By revisiting the manifold (wildcat) strikes, trade union demonstrations, and factory occupations of the early post-war years, it shows the industrial north to be divided along both social and geographical lines. In doing so, it sheds fresh light on the series of defeats that the main Italian trade union confederation (C.G.I.L.) suffered in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It argues that these defeats were due as much to the explicit politicization of labour struggles and their exclusive focus on the interests of skilled workers as to the hostile socio-political climate in which the C.G.I.L. had to operate.     

Defending ‘the Principle of Representation’: Andrew Bisset,The English Civil War,and The History of the Struggle for Parliamentary Government in England

Abstract

Victorian attitudes to the past were varied and in some cases irreconcilable. Newer standards of expertise and objectivity coexisted with older approaches, and the idea that history should be used for present purposes remained intact. Throughout the Victorian age there were circumstances in which history was a polemical tool, designed to give one set of interpretations or values or policies an advantage over its rivals. This article explores the work of a relatively neglected figure in Victorian historiography – the reform-minded historian and lawyer Andrew Bisset (1803–1891) – whose primary goal was to illustrate and advance what he called ‘the principle of representation’. He discussed people and events of the past to this end, offending reviewers along the way because of his obvious political agenda, but also developing a rigorous source-based style, usefully evaluating for his readers the work of Macaulay, Carlyle, and others, and helping to shape Victorian opinion about, in particular, the political and religious crises of seventeenth-century Britain. Like others, Bisset believed that the disputes of that period had relevance to the public controversies of his own day. This article is designed to contribute to ongoing debates about the Victorians’ relationship with the past.     

ATTENUATION RELATIONSHIP FOR LOW MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKES USING STANDARD SEISMOMETRIC RECORDS

Northwestern Italian weak-motion data were used to study attenuation characteristics of horizontal peak ground acceleration (PGA) and horizontal peak ground velocity (PGV) from earthquakes of local magnitudes (M _l ) up to 5.1. Data have been provided by the RSNI (Regional seismic network of Northwestern Italy) and RSLG (Regional seismic network of Lunigiana-Garfagnana) waveform database. The database consists of more than 14000 horizontal components recorded in the period 1999-2002 by both broadband and enlarged band seismometers. The accuracy of the procedure used to extract PGA values from the velocity recordings was verified comparing observed and derived PGA values at station STV2, which was equipped with both a temporary K2 Kinemctrtcs accelerometer and Guralp CMG40 broadband sensor. The attenuation of both peak ground acceleration and peak ground velocity was found to be logarithmically distributed with a strong attenuation for low distances (less than 50 km) and low M _l values (<3.0). The resulting equations are:

Log(PGA)=?3.19+0.87M?0.042M ²?1.92 Log(R)+0.249S,

Log(PGA)=?4.23+0.76M?0.018M²?1.56 Log(R)+0.230S,

where PGA is expressed in g, PGV is expressed in m/s, M is local magnitude, R is the hypocentral distance in kilometers and S is a dummy variable assuming values of 0 and 1 for rock and soil respectively. For increasing distance and magnitude, both PGA and PGV values show a linear distribution. The validity range of the obtained attenuation relationships is 0–200 km for distances and M _l up to 4.5. Sensitivity studies performed by analysis of residuals, showed that predicted PGA and PGV values are stable with respect to reasonable variations of the model and distances providing the data. Comparisons with attenuation relationships proposed for Italian region, derived from strong motion records, are also presented.     

Reconsidering the Metamorphosis of Io: on Texts,Images and Dates

This article reconsiders the portrayal of Io's metamorphosis in texts and images from the fifth century BCE. It discusses points of synchronicity and diachronicity, innovation and variety in this myth. While the depiction of Io on vases may not help us date with more certainty the texts of the fifth century BCE, including the Prometheus Bound and Bacchylides’ Ode 19, I argue that the comparison between texts and images may draw attention, instead, to a synchronic variety in the depiction of Io in the decades preceding and following the mid-fifth century BCE. This shift in perspective leads me to advance the proposition that myth interpretation may be revitalized by a paradigm shift from “tree” to “network”.     

解说:源起、概念、研究内容和方法

解说是旅游休闲研究中相当重要的一个概念,但关于解说的研究却只是近50年以来的事情。从20世纪60年代至今,解说研究经历了形成期、寻找最佳媒介期、探求正当性阶段,到1990年代初期初步走向成熟。目前,国际上的解说研究借助更多社会学和心理学理论,以及应用社会科学如营销、消费行为、应用行为分析及教育分析方法等,通过理性行为理论、计划行为理论、规范焦点理论、阐述可能性模式、基模理论、防御动机理论以及其他认知和社会认知理论得到理论架构,并逐渐走向成熟。与此相应,解说的理论研究在国内大陆尚未得到应有的重视,研究水平也与国际上存在较大的差距。本文从文献综述的角度,梳理了国际解说研究的最新进展,对解说的源起、概念、研究内容和方法等问题进行了探讨,并针对我国解说研究的现状分析了我国解说研究发展的前景,通过研究发现,我国的解说研究主要集中在台湾地区,研究的案例地选择较单一,对解说效果的评估缺乏定量的评估等等,另外也看到中国大陆地区,有关解说研究的论文曾逐年增多的态势,解说研究在中国也会越来越得到重视,解说也会被用到旅游的各个方面。     

侵入与接替:上海市闵行区古美街道居住空间的演变

多重背景下,我国大城市社会空间正在重构。居住分异是研究社会空间分化的重要维度。以上海市闵行区古美街道为例,说明城市向郊区的侵入与接替过程中,社会经济环境、就业等复杂因素综合作用使郊区居住分异由一元同质性社会空间向非均衡多元异质性社会空间转变。演变中凸显了就业市场需求与流动人口居住空间萎缩、空间隔离和农民的社会垂直流动少等问题,建立贫困群体的城市规划、将流动人口纳入廉租房受益范畴,多渠道加强就业信息建设、增强就业培训等是解决问题的关键。