Gramsci's unorthodox Marxism: political ambiguity and sociological relevance

Gramsci's work continues to enjoy popularity amongst academics and activists. There is nonetheless a real question about the relevance of his central political ideas for the twenty-first century. This paper defends the thesis that Gramsci's humanism is part of a long tradition of political thought which dates back to Machiavelli, and that although this national-popular humanism is now outdated for reasons which are suggested in the writings and films of Pier Paolo Pasolini, there is also a sociological component to Gramsci's theorising that retains resonance today.     

国际资本流动研究评述

资本流动研究是90年代以来区域经济地理学前沿的研究热点之一,本文通过经济学与地理学在国际资本流动研究方面的比较,指出了目前经济地理学研究中存在的问题,并建议加强资本流入的负面影响研究,外资流入的适度规模研究,资本流动过程研究和动力机制研究。     

时代变迁与民营书业地位之嬗变

中国当代民营书业伴随着改革的步伐逐渐发展壮大,从初创时期作为国有书业的补充,到发展时期自辟天地、寻求自主发展,再到壮大时期与国有书业平分秋色、占据我国书刊发行行业的半壁江山,它在整个中国书业中的地位也随着时代的变迁而不断发生变化。探讨不同发展阶段我国民营书业的历史作用,分析当代中国民营书业历史地位的嬗变轨迹,将有助于深化我国的文化体制改革,促进社会主义文化的繁荣与发展。     

社区社会资本对居住满意度的影响——基于北京市中低收入社区调查的实证分析

居住满意度是居民对所居住的住房和社区宜居性的综合评价。尽管近年来,中国的城市地理学者开始关注城市重构与居住分异背景对社区邻里关系、社会互动及居民的社区满意度的影响,已有研究对社区社会资本与居住满意度之间因果机制的探讨,缺乏合理的指标构建和实证依据。本文结合城市社会学、地理学和政治学相关理论,构建了一套适合于中国城市转型背景的社区社会资本指标体系,通过对北京市九个中低收入社区的实证研究表明,社区社会资本与居住满意度有显著的正向关系,然而,尽管低收入居民对于邻里信任因素的重视大于对社区组织的信任、邻里互助和共同价值,其在社会资本的几个维度中得分最低。因此,打破社区内的分异与隔阂,建立邻里信任,应当成为社区社会资本建设中首先解决的问题。     

中国抗日战争在世界反法西斯战争中的历史地位

抗日战争时期,在中国共产党的倡导和推动下,建立了全民族的抗日民族统一战线,中国人民的抗日战争抵制和消耗了日本军队大量的兵力,阻止了日本进攻苏联的计划,配合和援助了世界反法西斯战争。因此,中国人民抗日战争在世界反法西斯战争中具有重要的历史地位。     

现代企业管理中的人心资本经营探析

本文尝试从企业经营管理层面重新审视人心资本经营问题,在确定人心资本概念的基础上,深入地对人心资本经营的基础理论作了一些探索性的研究和分析,进而提出有效经营人心资本的对策。     

Framed for Compromise? The Role of Bill Framing in State Legislative Behavior on Natural Gas Policy

State legislative decision making on natural gas policy has become a balancing act, as legislators are forced to grapple with tensions between economically beneficial policies and environmental impacts. Despite increased public attention to the benefits and costs related to hydraulic fracturing, there has been little scholarly attention paid to how policy framing affects legislator behavior on this issue. We analyze recorded votes on bills relating to natural gas policy in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico between 1999 and 2008; a time period spanning the recent boom. Using a novel database of bill frames, we create a ratio measure that accounts for the proportion of environmental to economic arguments within each piece of legislation. We find status quo–challenging, anti‐development policies can receive bipartisan support, as long as economic frames balance or are greater than environmental frames. Framing natural gas as a win‐win scenario where economic benefit and environmental protection can be achieved simultaneously is an effective legislative strategy. Using the case of natural gas policy, this study demonstrates bill framing substantively affects state legislator vote choice and implies bipartisan compromise is possible given the right balance of frames.     

Are there differences in social capital related to corporate regional engagement in dynamic and less dynamic non-core regions?

ABSTRACT

This article explores corporate regional engagement and related social capital in non-core regions. Corporate regional engagement comprises various activities of firms to influence regional contexts, which are challenging in non-core regions (e.g. on account of their organizational or institutional thinness). Corporate regional engagement engenders positive effects for regional development when firms collaborate among themselves (bonding social capital) and with other actors (bridging social capital) to improve regional endowments. We assume that dynamic regions have at their disposal higher levels of inclusive social capital in terms of collaboration networks for regional concerns and trust, while less dynamic regions have more exclusive and fragmented social capital. Consequently, less dynamic regions in particular appear to have potential to develop in a more social sense by activating the endogenous potential of region-wide collaboration. Those assumptions are tested based on a survey with Chief Executive Officers from the manufacturing industry from three dynamic and three less dynamic Swiss regions. The findings show that in dynamic regions, more firms are members of regional cross-industry associations, favouring regional collaboration; in less dynamic regions, meanwhile, more firms are members of industry-specific associations and service clubs, where benefits seem to be higher for individual firms than for the regional business environment.     

From folklore to patriotic and protest songs: Music,youth, and Basque identity during the 1960s

Taking a bottom‐up approach to the study of nationalism, the following pages constitute an attempt to shed light on the role singing played for a young generation of Basques who actively participated in the process of construction of Basque collective identity during the cultural revival movement of the 1960s. In doing so, this article aims at showing the fundamental role of active audiences, as well as their changing political and social context, in conforming the meaning of “Basque songs” as means to promote Basque nationalism and sustain opposition to the Franco regime. The study of the production, reception, and reinterpretation of Basque music during the cultural revival of the 1960s presented here intends to emphasize the interest of focusing on how ordinary people contribute to the recreation of the nation through their appropriation and interpretation of cultural symbols and practices.     

How real estate became ‘just another asset class’: the financialization of the investment strategies of Dutch institutional investors

The managers of a growing wall of money are continuously searching for investment opportunities. The financialization literature describes how this mobile capital puts pressure on commodities, debt, public services and economic activities to transform into investable, tradable, financial products. Regarding real estate, these investigations show how opaque, local, non-standardized goods, highly depending on both local legislation and developments, have been transformed into liquid, globally traded financial assets. By analysing the real estate investment strategies of Dutch institutional investors since the 1980s, this paper shows how a quantitative framework increasingly provides the basis for institutional investors’ real estate investment strategies. Direct ownership of properties has been exchanged into shares of properties, that is, fictitious capital, creating an impetus for ‘objectified numbers’ to measure the performance of these indirect investments. As knowledge about real estate has been outsourced, Dutch institutional investors now perceive real estate increasingly as ‘just another asset class’, thereby increasing leverage and volatility. This paper not only shows how finance ‘financialized’ itself by adopting a quantitative investment perspective, but it also offers an empirical account on how investment properties are transformed into financial assets that put pressure on state agencies to mobilize urban planning to deliver more of such assets.