Recent British research on prehistoric territorial boundaries

The British Isles are very rich, compared to the rest of Europe, in prehistoric boundary earthworks. There are difficulties in deducing prehistoric territories from them, mainly because of the incompleteness of other evidence of settlement patterns. Fortunately, in the past two decades there have been major advances in territorial studies, in particular, of the pattern defined by the reaves (long walls) on Dartmoor in Southwest England and in the Anglo-Saxon pattern in Southern England defined by boundaries in legal documents (charters). These studies enable some general principles of early land divisions to be deduced, particularly the relations of boundaries to the natural features of the terrain. These principles can be applied to the study of other early boundary earthworks, and, in some cases, reasonable deductions on the nature of the prehistoric estates can be made. The paper concludes with a discussion of major problems, namely, the dating of earthworks, the continuity of boundaries between prehistoric and historic eras, the functions of boundary markers, their chronological development, and their social implications.     

1919年中英关于西藏问题的交涉

1919年中英就西藏问题进行了交涉。北京政府提出解决西藏问题的新建议。英国希望迅速解决西藏问题 ,交涉时在西藏与中国内地分界线问题上表现出灵活的立场 ,但北京政府突然中断谈判使其感觉受到了愚弄 ,并在外交上对中国进行了报复。日本干预西藏问题的谈判 ,遭到英国的强烈反对。北京政府采取“拖延”谈判的策略 ,对英交涉的立场也越来越强硬 ,最终挫败了英国迅速解决西藏问题、侵犯中国主权的图谋。     

Mapping the New Deal: local disparities in the performance of Welfare-to-Work

In recent years, following the lead of the US, several OECD countries have introduced 'workfare' policies that link receipt of unemployment and related social benefits to compulsory participation on state-administered work and training schemes. The UK's New Deal (Welfare-to-Work) for Young People is one of the largest and most developed of these workfare programmes. Official evaluations of the UK's New Deal for Young People claim that it has been a national success, but overlook local variations in its results. This paper uses the Government's own performance measures, data on local unemployment flows, numbers of New Deal participants recycled through the scheme as second starts, and interviews with both local policy managers and participants, to demonstrate that these local variations have been substantial. These different indicators suggest that the programme has been noticeably less effective in many inner urban and depressed industrial labour markets. In such areas the 'recycling and churning' of participants through the programme are more significant, and suggest that local labour market structures play a significant role in shaping policy outcomes. The paper argues that recent additions to the New Deal to improve job search and matching fail to address this local variation, and that a longer-term approach is required that seeks to improve not only the employability of individuals, but also the local employment opportunities open to them. One key implication is clear: that local labour market conditions can exert a significant influence on the outcomes of national workfare type policies, not only in terms of geographical variations in the problem to be solved, but also in shaping and constraining the local nature of policy outcomes.     

Myth,Primogeniture and Long Distance Trade‐Friends in Northwest New Britain,Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT The origins of ceremonies for firstborn children and long distance trade networks are embedded in Bariai mythology and cosmology. Based on my ethnographic research and the ethnographic reportage contained in the Australian colonial Patrol Officers' Reports, this paper explores the pre‐ and post‐contact trade networks of Bariai parents as they pursue a reputation for ‘renown’ by entering into complex trade‐friendships (sobo) and exchanges for the necessary wealth to undertake one (of seventeen) firstborn ceremony, the mata pau or ‘new eye.’ My intent in this paper is to (1) reiterate that a people and their culture can only be understood within regional systems of relationships; (2) indicate the manner in which long distance trade‐friendships were created and maintained over a long period of time; (3) show how these socio‐economic institutions are embedded in Bariai cosmology and thus made meaningful; (4) attest to the vitality and importance of these systems despite the impact of modernity, missionization and money.     

The social selectivity of migration flows affecting Britain's larger conurbations: An analysis of the 1991 census regional migration tables

Little is known about the social composition of migration affecting British cities, despite the currently high political salience of this issue. This is principally because of the very limited availability of reliable city‐scale data on such migrant characteristics as occupation and income. This paper uses the Regional Migration Tables from the 1991 Census to document the migration of labour force members to and from Britain's larger conurbations, distinguishing six main Social Groups defined on the basis of occupation. It is found that all eight areas were net losers of economically active people, that all six Social Groups were generally contributing to these net losses and that, in every case except London, there was a strong positive relationship between social status and the rate of net out‐migration to the rest of Britain. This latter case suggests the need for further work, which would benefit from the more detailed migration datasets that are promised from the 2001 Census.     

What Do Objects Want?

This paper develops an argument for the agency of objects, looking at the effects objects have on people. Groups of related objects, such as pots or metal ornaments, create stylistic universes which affect producers and users of new objects, bound by the canons of style. For an object to be socially powerful in a recognized manner, the form of the object lays down certain rules of use which influence the sensory and emotional impacts of the object. Formal properties of artifacts are influenced by the genealogy of the object class, including historical continuities and changes, and also its perceived source. The forms of objects, the historical trajectories of the class of objects and their perceived sources combine to have social effects on people, shaping people as socially effective entities. Britain’s incorporation into the Roman Empire between 150 BC and AD 200 provides an excellent case study through which to look at the changing corpora of objects, which had continuities and changes in form, a set of subtle attributions of sources and a complex range of social effects.     

马来亚的独立与英国殖民撤退的策略

英国从其广大的殖民地撤退是一个漫长的历史进程。这一进程既是殖民地民族民主运动的本质性结果,也带有宗主国适时“非殖民化”的色彩,但二者所处地位不同。前者作为主导因素,决定了事件的性质,其强烈程度决定了后者的进程;而后者只是一种策略,是不得已而为之的隐蔽的殖民统治手腕。这一点在一些殖民地都有所表现,而在马来亚则表现得较为典型。在马来亚民族解放运动日益高涨之时,伦敦方面先是拖延、推迟马来亚的独立,后是培育倾向于英国的当地政府和领导人,以便有效地储蓄其自身的巨大利益。     

巨文岛事件中的英国外交活动

巨文岛事件是近代东北亚国际关系史上的一个热点问题。从地缘政治观察,该事件是以朝鲜为地理中心的区域政治参与势力在当时的东亚权力格局下进行的一场国际政治博弈;从全球政治观察,是英俄两国在全球争夺势力范围矛盾激化背景下,在东亚地区的区域历史反映。作为事件主角的英帝国,在事件过程中运用“以中国为轴”的外交策略周旋于区域势力的外交压力之中,最后“借力中国”,用巨文岛这枚政治棋子与俄国达成局外妥协,成功地实现了遏制俄国海军进驻朝鲜的东亚战略目标。而中国则审时度势,在险恶的局势中谨慎的开展外交活动,有力地利用了局势施压俄国,实现了维护其在朝鲜半岛宗主权的初衷。     

冲突与合作:霸权转移视野下的现代英美关系考察(1914-1947)

20世纪前半期英美两国总体保持了合作关系,但在霸权争持矛盾的作用下,两国在世界秩序塑造、海上权势分配、战时战略规划、殖民地与势力范围归属以及经贸竞争等一系列问题上发生过激烈冲突。然而,实力上的巨大差距、国际体系的变迁、战争的冲击以及美国渐进并相对克制的崛起方式等因素迫使英国且战且退,于二战后不久完成了向美国转移世界霸权的进程。     

试析英美保守主义的异同

英美保守主义具有同源性,都维护传统,坚持宪政,反对极端主义,与自由主义共同构成其社会的主流意识形态。但二战后情况有所变化,美国保守主义者反对新政以来的自由主义,具有越来越明显的极端主义倾向,并自20世纪80年代开始左右着美国的对外政策,给世界带来了某种不稳定因素。