The Little Nyonya and Singapore’s national self: reflections on aesthetics,ethnicity and postcolonial state formation

Singapore’s postcolonial state formation process has combined the appeal/distress of a multiracial society with the nationalistic pride of economic development. In recent years, the city-state has witnessed a revival of Peranakan culture and history, referring to the descendants of early Chinese immigrants who integrated into Indigenous societies before becoming prized mediators for British colonisers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We question how these references are strategically deployed as part of the process of postcolonial state formation and how their aesthetic representations support public discussions and debates about what defines contemporary (Chinese) Singaporean identity. By examining Peranakan representations in the television series The Little Nyonya from a Deleuzian perspective, it will be argued that Peranakan history and culture are mobilised to de-territorialise previous meanings of national ethnic markers, specifically Chineseness, and to re-territorialise a local sense of Indigeneity. In reaction to concerns over Mainlander identity, representations of Peranakan culture and history in The Little Nyonya support the indigenisation of a specific Chinese identity that is accessible to all Singaporeans, offering an aesthetic framework in which the ongoing process of negotiating between Singapore’s national self and other unfolds.     

国家级新区的空间生产与治理尺度建构

国家级新区是近年来备受瞩目的新国家空间类型。首先,论文从新国家空间的理论视角出发,认为国家级新区是我国新时期国家空间选择偏好从城市内部空间转变为城市群体空间的产物,是国家为参与全球城市竞争和承接全球产业转移而在城市-区域尺度上构建的新地域组织。其次,论文研究了国家级新区的空间生产,发现其在微观尺度上具有多尺度行政区跨界联合的特征,并且表现出自上而下和自下而上相结合的机制。然后,基于空间生产与尺度重组的密切联系,论文同时研究了国家级新区治理建构的情况。通过分析不同类型的国家级新区空间治理结构,发现影响国家级新区尺度重组进程的关键因素,是新尺度与原有行政区划的耦合程度。最后,在上述研究的基础上,论文对国家级新区未来治理改革提出了政策建议。     

The role of charity in public relief, 1708–1871: Copenhagen as case

This article explores when and why charity vanished from public relief in Copenhagen and thereby differentiates itself from the traditional research field on welfare that focuses on studying the growth of taxation and social spending in the 19th century. This article reveals that charity was not solely a transfer of financial resources, but that charitable donations also entailed a cultural symbolism, which implied that charity was meant to support the local worthy poor. When the function of public relief underwent a transformation, especially at the beginning of the 19th century, the cultural symbolism of charity became incompatible with public relief. After the 1830s, the inhabitants of Copenhagen ceased to donate to public relief and instead donated charity to private philanthropy, which usually targeted the worthy poor for its help.     

Archaeologist as anthropologist: Much ado about something after all?

It has been said that “archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing.” And so archaeologists have become conversant in and contributors to cultural theory. Other archaeologists have undertaken ethnoarchaeological studies on material culture when ethnographers have not supplied the data needed. Yet archaeologists might undertake more traditional participant-observation fieldwork to help nuance the cultural questions we ask and to render our tales of the past more convincing, in particular, when we purport to speak of the sensuous and meaningful experience of the “prehistoric other.” This article discusses the venturing of one archaeologist in Madagascar tracking aspects of the classic problem of state origins across archaeology, oral history, ethnoarchaeology, and ethnography. This process of joining objective analysis to lived experience is perhaps the most proper task of anthropology, the one that distinguishes it from other social science…     

RE-ENVISIONING CURRENT DISCOURSE: ALTERNATIVE TERRITORIAL CONFIGURATIONS OF PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD

This paper explores seven scenarios of Palestinian state formation and attempts to propose a suitable peaceful territorial solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ features of each scenario are examined against the backdrop of recent geopolitical developments and the complex geographic and demographic realities of the region. Some of these scenarios suggest that a peaceful territorial arrangement should involve incorporating some Israeli territory, encompassing a broad segment of the Palestinian population and exploring the possibilities of sharing territory through condominium arrangements. Drawing anew upon the boundaries and partitioning principle of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, the author offers a proposal for the peaceful and permanent settlement of the conflict. According to this scenario, Palestine would be repartitioned and divided into four political entities: A Palestinian sovereign area on 30.3 percent of the territory, a Palestinian autonomous region on 4.5 percent, an Israeli sovereign area on 55.6 percent, and areas under a condominium arrangement on 9.6 percent of the land. Arguably, such territorial configuration of space proposes genuine options for dealing with the geographical problems of refugee settlement, demography, ethnic composition, and the retention of Israel's national identity (i.e., Jewishness), whilst also suggesting a concrete basis for peaceful coexistence rooted in the geographical imperatives and realities of the region. Cet article évalue sept configurations possibles de l'État palestinien et tente de proposer une solution pacifique au conflit entre Israel et la Palestine. A la lumiere des développements géopolitiques récents ainsi que des réalités ggographiques et démographiques de la rggion, l'auteur examine le pour et le contre de chacune des sept configurations. Certaines configurations font éat du fait que, pour en arriver a une rgsolution pacifique, (a) Ifftat palestinien devra comprendre des territoires actuellement sous le contrdle d'lsrael; (b) il devra regrou- per une forte majorite de la population palestinienne; et (c) le partage des territoires par l'entremise d'enten- tes genre ‘condominium’ mérite d'sêtre exploré. S'inspirant à nouveau du principe des ‘frontieres et du morcellement des terres’ dont fait l'objet le United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine de 1947, l'auteur propose une solution pacifique et perrnanente au conflit. Selon le scenario prefgrt?, la Palestine serait redivisge sur le plan territorial. Quatre entité politiques résulteraient de ce re-morcellement: un état Palestinien souverain sur 30,3 pour cent du territoire, une rggion d'autonomie palestinienne sur 4,5 pour cent du territoire, un état Israélite souverain sur 55,6 pour cent du territoire et une région (9,6 pour cent du territoire) gérge par l'entremise dententes genre ‘condominium’. En même temps qu'elle propose des methodes concrétes de composer avec les problemes ggographiques en ce qui concerne l'établissement des réfugiés, la demographie, la composition ethnique des états individuels et le maintien de l'identite nationale d'lsrael, cette solution propose aussi une base solide pour la coexistence des deux nationalitgs, base ancrtée dans les imperatifs et les réalités ggographiques de la region.     

战国时宋都彭城辨

钱穆著<战国时宋都彭城证>提出十五证并二事,以为战国时"宋都彭城,不都睢阳,断可定矣."查钱氏提出的诸证据没有一条是直接的,都为推测之论,而且存在很多问题,于直接说到战国时彭城属楚属齐的材料也没有提出很好的解释.通过对钱先生有关论述之辨析,及诸多反证之综合讨论,宋都彭城(今江苏徐州市)说实不可信."宋"与"相"古为双声叠韵字,"相城"实即"宋城"之异写,再参考其他一些旁证资料,说战国时宋国迁都于相城(今安徽淮北市),可能性要更大一些.     

Social engineering and cultural policy – theoretical and empirical reflexions from Swedish cultural policy in a historical perspective

This article explores the influence of social engineering in various forms within Swedish cultural policy, seen in a historical perspective. In social engineering cultural policy measures, reforms and projects are justified by scientifically based research rather than party based ideological arguments. Karl Popper’s classification of the utopian and the step-by-step engineering make up the starting point, redefined as paternalistic engineering, welfare state engineering and utilitarian engineering in order to apply these ideas to cultural policy. Social engineering was predominant in Swedish cultural policy mainly during the post war period. In the 1950s as well as in the 1970s this engineering takes on a paternalistic character, in the struggle against injurious culture, such as video violence. Current practice of paternalistic engineering is directed at revealing and identifying invisibles structures in the field of cultural heritage. The welfare state engineering had its highlights in the planning era of the 1960s and the 1970s, and today culture as a beneficial factor for both citizens and society is labelled utilitarian engineering.     

Explaining accommodation and resistance to demands for independence referendums in the UK and Spain

This article examines why the UK Government accepted the 2014 Scottish independence referendum while the Spanish Government opposes a similar referendum in Catalonia. Adopting a most similar research design, we argue that the variation is best explained by perceived political opportunities by the two ruling parties. These are embedded in different conceptions of the state and constitutional designs, mostly mononational in Spain and mostly plurinational in the UK but multiple and contested in both cases. In Spain, vote‐seeking calculations incentivise the Popular Party to oppose a referendum, while its mononational conception of the state and the Spanish constitutional design provide a further constraint and a discursive justification for their position. In the UK, David Cameron's accommodating position was based on the view that the Scottish referendum was low risk – as support for independence was minimal – with a high reward: the annihilation of the independence demand. The Conservatives have recently adopted a more restrictive position because seeming political advantage has changed. The findings suggest that independence referendums will continue to be rare events.     

尺度重组理论视角下的粤港澳大湾区建设研究

粤港澳大湾区建设是由中央政府推行的新的区域发展政策安排,旨在调控国家、区域和城市尺度之间的关系进而引导资本流动以实现特定的空间发展目标,因此可视之为新一轮国家的尺度重组。借鉴西方的尺度重组理论,本文主要从大珠三角城市在经济上的空间联系以及香港问题在政治上的领域关系等两个方面,探讨关系空间如何影响到国家的尺度重组,以及国家的尺度重组对城市的尺度重组的影响。研究认为,粤港澳大湾区建设在于重塑资本流动的地方空间,为“资本固着”提供社会活动平台,继续参与国际劳动分工,深化经济合作,提高区域的全球竞争力。与此同时,国家也通过尺度重组来解决经济全球化过程中出现的领域政治问题,通过新的空间规划把边界问题纳入一体化的经济发展体系之下,保证政治稳定。中央政府把国家建设的尺度下移到粤港澳地区,促进了粤港澳的城市发生多元尺度重组策略,包括城市内部的尺度上推和尺度下移,城市外部的合作联盟和尺度政治。最后,文章从区域发展的角度分析粤港澳大湾区建设带来的影响,讨论粤港澳大湾区的建设与实践对尺度重组理论的补充和对认识国家政治经济发展的启示意义。     

“Better to kill them off at once”: race,violence, and human rights in antebellum western state constitutional conventions

My paper argues that delegates to antebellum western state constitutional conventions, in both slave and free states, expressed violent, even homicidal ideas about free black people. They predicted and described mass exterminations, lynching, and even a race war. These delegates sought to enshrine coercive measures in their state constitutions, including re-enslavement and forcible removals, and they employed ferocious language to support their arguments. My paper explores the delegates’ efforts to mount legal and constitutional justifications for violence toward free black people. I compare the language in antebellum western conventions to coeval debates in other regions. Although no state legitimized lynching, let alone genocide, these debates provide a useful window into the delegates’ efforts to find constitutional justifications for the removal – or even extermination – of free black people from the new western states.