Spatialities of transnational resistance to globalization: the maps of grievance of the Inter-Continental Caravan

This paper explores the spatialities constructed through resistances to globalization. It focuses on the Inter-Continental Caravan, an ambitious project which united activists from the Indian New Farmers Movements with West European green activists in contesting neo-liberal institutions and biotechnology. The paper argues that these political activities constructed distinctive 'maps of grievance'. This term is used to suggest that the construction of grievances has both a distinctive spatiality and is constitutive of political identities. The paper argues that the different maps of grievances generated through the project were both a condition of possibility for these transnational alliances and exerted pressure on the formation of solidarities. It concludes by arguing that the location of counter-globalization politics at the intersection of different routes of resistance can be integral to the formation of alternative political imaginaries.     

澄清九一八事变时不抵抗方针研究的误区

长期以来大陆通行一种说法 :九一八事变时 ,东北军对日本关东军的进攻未予抵抗 ,是张学良“忍痛执行”蒋介石的不抵抗主义命令 ,使他蒙上“不抵抗将军”骂名 ,做了蒋的“替罪羔羊”。研究中存在一些误区 ,需要澄清。 1 .蒋介石、张学良之间并非简单的上下级关系 ,张学良具有相当的独立性 ,他与蒋的意见不同时 ,对蒋的命令可以不听 ,防守锦州问题即是如此。 2 .这一观点主要靠一些回忆录作依据 ,而许多回忆资料的说法存在种种漏洞。 3.事变前中国一方对日军挑衅采取“力避冲突”方针 ,对此蒋张二人具有共识。事变前蒋氏指示对日军挑衅采取“力避冲突”方针 ,对事变后张学良实行不抵抗政策不无影响 ,但事变前“力避冲突”与事变发生后“不抵抗”方针 ,二者有明显区别。 4 .事变发生后 ,张学良和荣臻等人的电文均证明 ,是张学良对东北军下了不抵抗命令。 5 .九一八事变发生后 ,蒋介石和国民政府处置事变的方针 ,并非可以简单地归结为不抵抗政策。国民政府对事变的处置是 ,诉诸国联 ,并准备抵抗。四个月后就发生了一·二八淞沪抗战 ,采取的是“一面抵抗 ,一面交涉”方针。 6 .张学良晚年一再说过 ,下不抵抗命令的 ,是他自己 ,而不是中央政府     

试论宋代的市民文艺和商业

宋化繁荣昌盛,是华夏化的顶峰之一,本试图从宋代的市民艺的出现及其与商业两的关系中,剖析宋化兴盛的原因。     

From the Little Tree,Half a Block Toward the Lake: Popular Geography and Symbolic Discontent in Post‐Sandinista Managua

Abstract: The inhabitants of Managua, Nicaragua have a sophisticated, often bitingly ironic, popular geography that they use to navigate the city. The Nicaraguan capital has been destroyed twice by earthquakes, ravaged by war, left to decay for lack of funds, transformed by the creative destruction of speculative capitalism and subjected to a series of ideological impositions. Few people know the official names of streets, and recent governments have not had the ability to put up signs. So a supple system of popular geography dominates, resisting and ridiculing attempts to impose an official order, and adapting to change while preserving a bottom‐up sense of memory, history and place. Drawing on Allan Pred's classic account of popular geography in late nineteenth century Stockholm, I use Managua's language of spatial orientation as a window into peripheral modernity and the politics of everyday life.     

城市广场:城市制约中的空间政治

现代性的线性时间维度向后现代的空间转向,是一种典型的文化表征。城市广场,作为当代城市生活转向空间存在的"第二自然"。它开始成为一种超越空间二元对立模式划分的"异位空间",并具有了特定的空间文化意味与空间政治学色彩。即城市广场的空间狂欢、类民主化的自由集市和秩序失序后的再秩序化是其显著的特征。这些都使得城市广场成为一个具有后现代意味的文化空间。     

Evaluating civil development in counterinsurgency operations: the case for a field experiment in Afghanistan

It is a widely held belief that civil development programs play a central role in any counterinsurgency campaign. It is assumed that civil development assistance is key to ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of the civilian population, which, in turn, is crucial for victory. However, there is currently little evidence to support this belief. This article begins by analysing the different methods that have been used in Afghanistan in order to evaluate the effectiveness of civil development programs since 2001. It finds that these methods have severe limitations. Indeed, based solely upon current methods of evaluation, we have no reliable evidence whether civil development programs are actively improving security, having no impact or making matters worse. As such, this article makes the case for a field experiment approach to be adopted in Afghanistan. It argues that field experiments are the most powerful methodology currently available to social scientists for making causal inferences and, by making minor changes to the way in which civil development is distributed, we can vastly improve our understanding of the relationship between aid and security.     

Nationalism,civil society,and the revolution of 1989

Relying heavily on the work of Edward Shils, this paper argues that a robust sense of national identity among the peoples of East Central Europe played a crucial role in the revolutions of 1989 and the subsequent emergence of civil society in the region's countries.     

Dwelling in the Sites of Finitude: Resisting the Violence of the Metaphysical Globe

Abstract: In this paper Martin Heidegger's notions about dwelling in the sites of finitude and “power‐free” (Macht‐los) “letting‐be” (Gelassenheit) are explored as fundamental possibilities for resisting the ontological violence posed by global capitalism, the planetary outcome of the metaphysical condition Heidegger calls the “machination” (Machenschaft). Beginning from the planetary machination—the emergence of the flexible and circularly functioning power of calculative intelligibility—resistance is understood ontologically and hence as a radical critique of power as a consummation of the history of the metaphysical constitution of being. The paper culminates in a discussion of Heidegger's view on the awakening of the “other beginning” of the abyssal “Event” of being, a groundless “time‐space‐play” capable of constituting an alternative modality of relations no longer based upon the calculative functions of power but upon groundless thought and non‐violent dwelling in the earth‐sites of finite being.     

Grassroots Environmental Activism and the Internet: Constructing a Green Public Sphere in China

The past three decades have seen the resurgence of China's civil society through the blossoming of NGOs that campaign for various marginalised interests, including environmental protection. Many studies have examined the co-evolution of the Internet and China's civil society. This paper examines the role of the Internet in strengthening grassroots environmental activism, taking into consideration the corporatised character of Chinese NGOs. Through a detailed ethnographic case study of a leading grassroots environmental group, the Global Village of Beijing (GVB), I argue that Internet technologies effectively empower resource-poor activists in their self-representation, information brokering, network building, public mobilisation and construction of discourse communities. The Net therefore contributes to the nascent formation of a green public sphere in China by fostering a discourse that counterbalances rapid economic development. Also discussed here are issues that hamper this process, including resource limitations, the fragmentation of online discourse communities, and the marginalisation and “caging” of environmental discourse.