Intensive El Niño and the Iron Age of South-eastern Africa

Burnt daga structures in Iron Age villages serve as proxies for severe drought on the plateau of southern Africa. The distribution of burnt daga remains in two other rainfall areas, KwaZulu-Natal and the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone over Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, establishes a sequence of simultaneous burnings that parallels the severe droughts recorded for the interior plateau. These widespread correspondences suggest a common cause. Another correspondence with natural proxy data from South America indicates that intensive El Niño events most likely caused the droughts.     

在“南水北调中线工程考古发现与研究学术研讨会”上的讲话

本文为作者代表中国考古学会在"南水北调中线工程考古发现与研究学术研讨会"上的讲话:一、为什么要保护好文物;二、考古学在文物保护中的位置;三、考古学如何在文物保护中发挥作用;四、此次会议取得的成果。     

Anxiety and injustice: the anatomy of contemporary English nationalism*

ABSTRACT. An explicit and politically mobilised English nationalism has been remarkable because of its absence from deliberation on constitutional change in the United Kingdom. In short, it remains a mood and not a movement. This article explores the mood and explains why that mood has not become, as yet, a movement. It examines three related aspects of the English nationalist mood. First, it considers anxieties about the condition of contemporary England which can be found in the work of intellectuals and artists. Second, it identifies the sense of injustice which animates the lobby group the Campaign for an English Parliament. Finally, it looks at how mainstream party politics responds to these national anxieties and that sense of national injustice.     

Digging Deep for Justice: A Radical Re-imagination of the Artisanal Gold Mining Sector in Ghana

Abstract:  This article explores the concept of "contact zones" to counteract misrecognition and exclusion in the artisanal gold mining sector of Ghana. The large majority of the 300,000–500,000 Ghanaian artisanal miners work without an official license, illegally. Due to their encroachment on corporate concession lands, the use of toxic mercury in the gold extraction process, and the social disruption caused by their migratory activities, these miners are often marginalized and criminalized. Yet, devaluation and misrecognition hamper environmental stewardship and participation in political decision-making. Through parity-fostering participatory research, I propose a radical re-imagination of the sector that encourages agency and flourishing among these ostracized men and women diggers.     

Acknowledging the Racial State: An Agenda for Environmental Justice Research

Abstract:  This paper argues that environmental justice scholars have tended to overlook the significance of the state's role in shaping understandings of race and racism, and argues for the use of critical race theory to deepen insight into the role of the state in both fostering and responding to conditions of racialized environmental injustice. Critical race theory offers insights into both why and how the state manages racial categories in such a way as to produce environmental injustice, and how the state responds to the claims of the environmental justice movement. Closer attention to the interplay between the racial state and the environmental justice movement as a racial social movement will yield important insights into the conditions, processes, institutions and state apparatuses that foster environmental injustice and that delimit the possibilities for achieving environmental justice in some form or another.     

Benevolent and Benign? Using Environmental Justice to Investigate Waste‐related Impacts of Ecotourism in Destination Communities

Abstract:  We contribute to the diversification of environmental justice (EJ) by using it to frame ecotourism-related solid waste management problems. Ecotourism is a service industry portrayed as benevolent (providing benefits), and benign (reducing negative impacts). We propose four characteristics shared by ecotourism-based communities in the Global South and communities struggling with more conventional EJ conflicts. We apply these characteristics to the solid waste crisis in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, a renowned ecotourism destination. First, we show that, despite their general absences from the EJ literature, service industries such as tourism and hospitality can create environmental injustices that disproportionately impact certain types of communities. Second, we highlight the roles of location and socio-economic marginality in siting ecotourism development, in complicating related environmental impact management, and in limiting local abilities to respond to environmental management shortcomings. Third, we provide an example of opportunities to introduce EJ concepts and theory into the study of tourism.     

论“朝鲜中华主义”的实与虚

朝鲜后期,北伐论激起朝鲜士大夫小中华意识高度发展,因此有学者将其称为"朝鲜中华主义"。然而从事实来看,朝鲜士大夫虽然有很强的文化自尊意识,但是这种自尊意识是建立在春秋大一统之上的,小中华意识的发展反而使一元的天下观进一步强化,将中华秩序理想化。所以,朝鲜后期小中华意识的发展并不表示朝鲜士大夫以朝鲜为中华之正统或中国之正统,反而继续承认朝鲜为小中华,而在事实上更不证明朝鲜为当时东亚的文化中心国家,所以我们在使用"朝鲜中华主义"概念时尚需仔细斟酌。     

论改革开放以来法价值取向的历史流变与发展趋势

法价值是法学的基本命题,也是社会关注的焦点。中国自改革开放以来法价值取向随着时代的变化而有所侧重。我们可以认为：自党的十一届三中全会以来,中国法价值取向经历了从秩序到效率、法治与人权的历史流变,但其发展趋势必然朝着公平正义的方向发展。     

一切能力都是为人民执政——学习十七届四中全会《决定》

所谓党的执政能力,其本质就是为人民服务的本领。一切能力,都是为人民执政;一切能力,都要为人民执政。归根到底,党的执政能力要从人民群众的历史创造中来,要在与群众密切联系的实践中历练,要在严酷的反腐败斗争中提升,最终还要由人民群众来断定。加强党的执政能力建设,意义重大,任务艰巨,过程艰苦。     

领导干部问责制刍议

领导干部问责制是问责制的中心环节和切入点。近年来领导干部问责在实践和制度建设上均取得了进展,但问责主体、问责范围、客体界定、问责程序方面仍有完善的空间。为此,需进行相应的制度建设,以促进领导干部问责制适应现实的需要,并为中国特色问责制度的确立奠定基础。