传统廉洁文化的历史局限性

传统廉洁文化虽然是建设当代廉洁文化的重要思想资源,但要看到其历史局限性:专制独裁下的理想主义,封建官场“潜规则”表面的漂亮旗帜,存在以“礼”、“德”为主的偏颇意识。认识其局限性是为了实现反腐败方式的现代性转变。     

Recognising values of China’s scenic and historic interest areas as world heritage cultural landscapes: Lushan case study

ABSTRACT

China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas are a major contributor to the State’s World Heritage lexicon. However, understanding of their values has led to confusion internationally and in China, not least with controversy over China’s latest promotion of the Natural Protected Areas System. This paper discusses values of China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas from the cultural landscape perspective through an in-depth case study of Lushan. A theoretical framework for recognising values of China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas has been set up and tested at Lushan, including exploring stakeholders’ understanding of its values as a world heritage site by using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The findings reveal that Lushan clearly represents cultural values inextricably associated with Scenic and Historic Interest Areas, and also need for supplementary advice on its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). It suggests that the ideology driving management of China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas as national parks or natural parks focusing mainly on objective nature-related conservation without regard to the traditional Chinese philosophy of the culture-nature binary will adversely affect China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas as cultural landscapes and their community values.     

Numerical Modeling of a Church Nave Wall Subjected to Differential Settlements: Soil-Structure Interaction,Time-Dependence and Sensitivity Analysis

ABSTRACT

Historic masonry structures are particularly sensitive to differential soil settlements. These settlements may be caused by deformable soil, shallow or inadequate foundation, structural additions in the building and changes in the underground water table due to the large-scale land use change in urban areas.

This paper deals with the numerical modeling of a church nave wall subjected to differential settlement caused by a combination of the above factors. The building in question, the church of Saint Jacob in Leuven, has suffered extensive damage caused by centuries-long settlement. A numerical simulation campaign is carried out in order to reproduce and interpret the cracking damage observed in the building.

The numerical analyses are based on material and soil property determination, the monitoring of settlement in the church over an extended period of time and soil-structure interaction. A sensitivity study is carried out, focused on the effect of material parameters on the response in terms of settlement magnitude and crack width and extent. Soil consolidation over time is considered through an analytical approach. The numerical results are compared with the in-situ observed damage and with an analytical damage prediction model.     

The analysis of innovation processes

Methods are described for modelling both the speeds and the driving forces of innovation processes, namely Critical Path Schedules and Cash Flow Curves respectively. The differences between innovations in modern industrial conditions and simpler societies are discussed, and the models applied to early innovations, but the data are too fragmentary to make quantitative models, although they can be used qualitatively to show general trends. In early societies the speeds were very slow but benefit/cost ratios very high, whereas the reverse tends to be true on average for modern innovations. Long delay times are often found in early innovation processes and these are determined by a wide variety of cultural factors. Seldom has the progress of the technology itself been on the “Critical Path” of innovation processes. The “Critical Path” and “Cash Flow” methods can also be used to study other, non-innovative, complex processes.     

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。     

Pacifism and the Question of Responsibility

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationship between pacifism and responsibility through conversations with four white U.S. women formed in historic peace church traditions. The conversations resist the dominant tendency to present pacifism and responsibility as dichotomies. For these women, responsibility is not an absolute criterion to which a pacifist position must answer; nor is it a worldly commitment shunned by faithful adherence to the gospel. Rather, responsibility is a crucial yet highly contextual consideration in the pacifist life one cannot but live. This article concludes that it is a mistake to utilize responsibility as an external criterion by which to judge pacifism and a mistake to deny the importance of responsibility in a pacifist life. Both of these dichotomous arrangements mischaracterize the lived experience and moral reflection of the interviewees. The question of responsibility is not whether one should be a pacifist, but how to live nonviolently in a violent world.