Globalisation,Gentrification and Spatial Hierarchies in and beyond New South Wales: the Local/Global Nexus

Popular visions of globalisation envisage the collapse of physical space as a significant determinant in social relations. The rapid speed at which movements of capital and information occur are touted as evidence that the constraints of physical space are eroding. The emergence of a global network of persons referred to as the transnational elite further supports these popular perceptions. Characterised as highly educated professionals employed in globally aligned industries, the transnational elite seemingly construct their individual and group identities beyond the scale of the local. However, research undertaken in Newcastle and Sydney with gentrifiers actively constructing their ‘global personas’ problematise popular discourses of globalisation as contributing to the decline of space as fundamental to identity construction. As an emergent élite global community, the gentrifiers create complex cognitive maps of spatial desirability reinforcing the significance of specific places. Through this process, places are ranked according to their global significance forming complex spatial hierarchies. Consequently, some places are cast as global and hence desirable, while others are stigmatised as undesirable non-global spaces.     

驻村工作队与乡村精英互助作用下的乡村治理研究

基于乡村“公”、“共”、“私”三分领域的治理理论，以G省F贫困村为例，运用实地考察、深度访谈等质性研究方法，结合F村实证特征和问题分析，探讨政府（驻村工作队）与社会（乡村精英）互助作用下的乡村治理特征。研究指出，驻村工作队代表政府权威，领导并协助村两委工作；新乡贤利用自身社会资本，与驻村工作队在项目确定、资金使用、村庄发展等方面协商互助，降低治理成本；村两委则以维持乡村生产、生活秩序为主，并领导/协助新乡贤参与村中事务。总体而言，驻村工作队嵌入乡村，代表上层政府的外部政府权威，乡村精英代表乡村内生权威，二者作为“中间者”在乡村层面协作互助，实现“上、中、下相结合”的较为均衡的乡村治理。     

跨国精英移民的日常生活实践与根植性家的营造

流动性背景下，跨国精英移民如何在迁入地实践、重构和感知家，以实现长久居留既是现实问题也是学术问题。本文援引“根植性家（rooted home）”的地理学概念，采用半结构化深度访谈和观察法等质性研究方法，以根植性类型的跨国精英移民为研究对象，探究其日常生活实践与家的营造。研究发现：①跨国精英移民对家的根植性理解并非意味着他们“不流动”，而是在流动中与“过去的家”保持联系与平衡。②跨国精英移民对家的根植性实践表现在使用怀旧性的日常生活实践策略，涵盖物质性、情感性和外部性维度，其中物质性维度较易实现，而情感性和外部性维度即使是精英移民也难以实现。③流动性加深了对根植性类型跨国精英移民对“过去的家”的认同，并影响其对现在和未来的家的感知和去向的思考。研究借助日常生活视角补充和完善了“根植性家”的理论与实证，也为跨国精英移民的深度研究提供了可供参考的范本。     

两晋南北朝等级婚姻初探

婚媾讲求门第等级 ,历来大抵如此 ,并有它相对的合理性。但在两晋南北朝时代 ,这种风气愈演愈烈 ,变成了不具条文的金科玉律。两晋南北朝等级婚姻十分讲究门当户对 ,以保持世家在政治、经济等方面的特殊地位 ,这种婚姻给当时社会带来了一系列严重后果     

Hazor rulership and ritual manipulation

ABSTRACT

Hazor was unquestionably the largest Bronze Age Canaanite site, standing as an anomaly in the southern Levant in terms of its size, elaborate public architecture, special geopolitical stature and far-reaching international networks. While the site has been well established as an urban center with many temples, the use of each of Hazor’s temples and how they relate to one another remains unclear. In this study, we analyze the rituals and other activities that were conducted within Hazor’s numerous temples. The methodology we employ stresses, fundamentally, the necessity to contextualize objects within entire assemblages – through spatial analysis – to most accurately assess how Hazor’s cultic spaces were actually used. We apply the same methodology to other MB and LB Canaanite temples to establish a generalized ideal-type temple assemblage for Canaanite temples. This study successfully demonstrates that Hazor’s temples substantially diverge from the ideal temple assemblage, indicating cult at Hazor was practiced differently than elsewhere in the region. This includes the atypical distribution of certain cultic vessels (e.g. miniature vessels), the appearance of special vessels in ritual contexts (e.g. cups), and a fundamentally different use of indoor and outdoor spaces when compared to other Canaanite temples. It turns out that Hazor’s elites were major factors controlling the anomalies of cultic practice at the site. Hazor’s rulers impacted cultic architectural forms and locations and played instrumental roles in dictating and manipulating the types of rituals and associated cultic paraphernalia that were allowed to be performed and used throughout the entire settlement landscape.