The evolving techniques of the social engineering of extraction: Introducing political (re)actions ‘from above’ in large-scale mining and energy projects

Ecological catastrophe and global inequality are pressing, yet socio-ecologically destructive natural resource extraction continues unabated. This special issue explores the strategies and tactics employed by large-scale mining and energy companies to render extraction socio-politically feasible in the face of multi-pronged opposition. Extraction, we contend, does not only need physical engineering, but requires social engineering as well. This entails shaping the behavior of people to ‘manage’ dissent and ‘manufacture’ consent. Situating the social engineering of extraction in key debates in the literature, this special issue introduction traces the evolution of its main technologies and techniques, related to colonialism, wars of decolonization, neoliberalism and the ‘green’ economy, respectively. We conclude by outlining a number of ways to advance research on the social engineering of extraction.     

中国行政区划改革的内卷化风险及其生成机制

透过对行政区划调整现象与文献的梳理，发现中国部分政区有“改而不变”的倾向，本文借用“内卷化”的概念对这种现象及其效应进行探讨，指出政区改革在行政层级、运行逻辑、空间关系、职能配置等方面都存在着“内卷化”隐忧。在此基础上，通过对国家结构、行政区划的资源属性和行政区经济之间关联的分析，阐释了政区改革内卷化的生成机制，认为行政区划配置资源的功能可能是政区改革陷入内卷化的一个重要前提。最后以常州武进和海南政区改革为例，探讨了本研究的分析框架与逻辑，并建议构建面向市场经济的行政区划调整框架，为继续深化行政体制改革提供空间支撑。     

The ‘creative township’ in the post-apartheid: globalisation,nation building or gentrification?

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the ambiguities of post-Apartheid public cultural policies in South Africa by focusing on the case of the Red Location Museum and Cultural precinct (RLMCP), a multisectoral project for socio-economic development, based on tourism, art, culture, heritagisation and urban regeneration, implemented in Red Location, one of the oldest townships of Port Elizabeth. In the post-Apartheid period, cultural policies have been employed as catch-all policies that could lead to urban renewal, desegregation and development. The case of the RLMCP drives home how efforts to use art and culture as leverages to transform townships into the core of the creative city and into the prototype of a new form of neighbourhood led to exclusionary representations and patterns; moreover, it is an example of how cultural policies enforce gentrification dynamics at the local level, in the name of restructuring urban governance and rescaling the city to the global dimension.     

锦州为汉代徒河县再考

关于汉代辽西郡徒河县的地望，以往学或将其确定在营州东北，或定为邰集屯汉城址，或定在锦州西北，或定为锦州市。本作通过对大量献记载的考证，结合对锦州汉城遗迹、遗物的实地调查，对上述诸说进行了讨论，认为锦州市区新发现的汉代城址应为汉代辽西郡徒河县的旧址。     

值得重新体味的清民之际的"封建"观

清末民初,黄遵宪、梁启超、严复、章太炎、孙中山等先进中国人参考日译新名“封建”,初步形成兼容古义与西义的封建观,用以表述中国、日本、欧洲的相关历史时段,较成功地实现了古今“封建”义的承袭与转换、中西义的对接与涵化。由于尚未能做深入的学术论证,清民之际学人的封建观无力抵御后来兴起的强势的泛化封建观,退隐而去,但其包蕴的合理精义,值得我们重温。