Migrant workers,self‐reliance,and the propensity to hold income protection insurance by country of residence

Utilising a large comparative survey across 11 countries, it is shown that country effects condition the individual uptake of income protection insurance and that shared attributes, including labour market status, are important factors in determining the take‐up of income protection insurance, whatever the respondents' country of residence. We observed differences in the respondents' coping strategies, including self‐reliance, and were able to distinguish between migrant workers and those who work in their country of origin, along with the “special” case of the Australian respondents. These findings have implications for the ongoing debate on the labour market effects of globalisation and the significance of national institutions and regulatory practices.     

全球视野下的美国早期史研究国际学术研讨会述评

2007年5月24~27日在天津召开的"全球视野下的美国早期史研究国际学术研讨会"为中外学者提供了一个独特的增进相互交流和了解的机会,将有助于推动中国学者对美国早期史的研究。提交会议的国外学者的论文在研究课题、视角、观点、材料和方法上多有新颖之处,从中可以看出国外美国早期史研究的一些发展趋势。相较而言,中国美国早期史研究尚存在极大局限和不足,提交会议的中国学者的论文大多选题偏大,观点缺乏新意,同时缺少详尽新颖的一手史料。可见,中国的美国早期史研究亟需得到提高。     

Building a Venture Capital Market in Vietnam: Diffusion of a Neoliberal Market Strategy to a Socialist State

Abstract

Vietnam’s venture capital (VC) industry took shape in the late 1990s during a period of exceptional economic growth in the country and the development of its high-technology sector. High growth rates and technological advances have typically coincided with both strong VC market activity and state support of equity financing. This, however, has not been the case in Vietnam. In this article a policy diffusion framework is used to investigate the international and domestic origins of Vietnam’s nascent VC policies, and how they became part of the agenda of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) as credit-based, rather than equity-based, solutions. The article argues that Vietnam’s heterodox approach to VC policy results from both external forces from donors and from domestic factors. In particular, Vietnamese policymakers have a preference for credit-based SME financing solutions and Vietnam’s official development assistance providers diffuse expertise on loans, not equity investments, to the Socialist Republic. The only donors recommending VC and equity-based financing in Vietnam have gone “around the state” rather than through it by working directly with the private sector. As a result, Vietnam’s SME financing initiatives have significantly diverged from international VC policy patterns.     

Europe at the crossroads of three worlds: alternative histories and connections of European solidarity with the Third World, 1950s–80s

Abstract

Over the past few years, there has been growing interdisciplinary interest in the history of European solidarity movements that mobilized on behalf of the ‘Third World’ in the wake of the post-war decolonization process. Focusing on European campaigns against the Vietnam War and Pinochet’s Chile, this article aims at positioning these international solidarity movements in the broader history of North–South and East–West exchanges and connections in Europe during the Cold War. It explores some key ideas, actors and alternative networks that have remained little studied in mainstream accounts and public memories, but which are key to understanding the development of transnational activism in Europe and its relevance to broader fields of research, such as the history of Communism, decolonization, human rights, the Cold War and European identity. It delves into the impact of East–West networks and the Communist ‘First World’ in the discovery of the Third World in Western Europe, analyses the role of Third World diplomacy in this process, and argues how East–West and North–South networks invested international solidarity campaigns on ‘global’ issues with ideas about Europe’s past and present. Together, these networks turned resistance against the Vietnam War, human-rights violations in Pinochet’s Chile, and other causes in the Third World into themes for détente and pan-European cooperation across the borders of the Iron Curtain, and made them a symbol to build a common identity between the decolonized world and Europe. What emerges from this analysis is both a critique of West-centred narratives, which are focused on anti-totalitarianism, as well as an invitation to take North–South and East–West contacts, as well as the role of European identities, more seriously in the international history of human rights and international solidarity.     

International solidarity and ethnic boundaries: using the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to strengthen ethno‐national claims in Northern Ireland

While scholars have described vertical nation‐building narratives that genealogically anchor a specific group to a specific territory (Smith 1981; Eriksen 2002), I argue that, in addition to vertical strategies, expressions of international solidarity constitute horizontal nation‐building strategies. Expressions of international solidarity can be used to maintain local ethnic boundaries and reinforce local divisions. By adopting an ally, expressions of international solidarity also designate an adversary, making the boundary between the two a possible incentive for solidarity. In Northern Ireland, some Unionist and Nationalist political entrepreneurs rely on expressions of international solidarity with Israelis or Palestinians, respectively, to make adversarial ethno‐national claims to the nation‐state. This study examines flags, graffiti, murals and political speech on display in Northern Ireland that advocate for either Israelis or Palestinians. Through the concept of ‘borrowed legitimacy’, I acknowledge the strategic use of the ethnic boundary in expressions of international solidarity.     

Blended learning with international students: a multiliteracies approach

While the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) continues to transform learning, international migration and the increasing complexity of intercultural exchange and communication continue to do so as well. In this paper, we connect the dots and ask how ICTs can be used to enhance the learning experiences of international students. Using a case study of a new program for first-year international students at a Canadian university, we bring together insights from blended learning and multiliteracies approaches to show how multiple cultural references and multimedia can form the basis for the development of new potentials between learners, knowledge, and disciplinary practice. This involves an analysis of the innovative structure of a two-course sequence in Human Geography, followed by a discussion of student feedback on the model. Based on our results, we conclude that blended learning offers not only a sophisticated approach to multiliteracies in the context of an international student setting, but for teaching students in the social sciences and humanities more broadly.     

How the nerves reached the muscle: Bernard Katz,Stephen W. Kuffler,and John C. Eccles—Certain implications of exile for the development of twentieth-century neurophysiology

This article explores the work by Bernard Katz (1911–2003), Stephen W. Kuffler (1913–1980), and John C. Eccles (1903–1997) on the nerve–muscle junction as a milestone in twentieth-century neurophysiology with wider scientific implications. The historical question is approached from two perspectives: (a) an investigation of twentieth-century solutions to a longer physiological dispute and (b) an examination of a new kind of laboratory and academic cooperation. From this vantage point, the work pursued in Sydney by Sir John Carew Eccles’ team on the neuromuscular junction is particularly valuable, since it contributed a central functional element to modern physiological understanding regarding the function and structure of the human and animal nervous system. The reflex model of neuromuscular action had already been advanced by neuroanatomists such as Georg Prochaska (1749–1820) in Bohemia since the eighteenth century. It became a major component of neurophysiological theories during the nineteenth century, based on the law associated with the names of François Magendie (1783–1855) in France and Charles Bell (1774–1842) in Britain regarding the functional differences of the sensory and motor spinal nerves. Yet, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that both the histological and the neurophysiological understanding of the nerve–muscle connection became entirely understood and the chemical versus electrical transmission further elicited as the mechanisms of inhibition. John C. Eccles, Bernard Katz, and Stephen W. Kuffler helped to provide some of the missing links for modern neurophysiology. The current article explores several of their scientific contributions and investigates how the context of forced migration contributed to these interactions in contingently new ways.     

爱尔兰的国际旅游硕士教育

国际旅游硕士是近年来国外的热门专业。本文介绍了爱尔兰国际旅游硕士的课程设置和教育特色,通过分析其教育方法,汲取相关的经验,为我国旅游高等教育提供借鉴和参考。     

略论冷战后美国的国际安全理论

冷战结束后,为维持"一超"霸权地位,美国的国际安全理论与实践发生了巨大的变化。在理论上,"终结主义范式"理论、"文明冲突范式"理论和"霸权稳定范式"理论在美国政府的决策上占据了主导地位。这些理论鼓吹大国之间和"民主"国家之间的冲突已经结束,现在的冲突,是异质文化与西方文化的"文明冲突"。为了国际安全,需要改造异质文化,消除"暴政",推行"民主"。为此,美国可以"先发制人",对"威胁"其国际安全的国家或其他行为体进行军事打击,以"结束世界上的暴政"。这些理论导致了美国的对外干涉、战争和冲突。这充分证明,在冷战结束后,不仅非传统安全因素威胁着国际安全,美国霸权主义更威胁着国际安全,需要充分揭露和批判。     

当代科索沃问题的国际政治因素

科索沃问题如同近代以来巴尔干半岛内部分裂一样,不仅是此前漫长历史演变的结果,更是现当代国际政治角逐和巴尔干各国利益冲突的结果。巴尔干半岛各国经济利益、政治关怀、民族构成、宗教信仰和文化基础的多样性造成了该地区复杂的政治、民族、文化和宗教冲突,消解这些分裂因素的力量极为软弱。特别是多种国际势力的介入促使该地区问题成为难以化解的"死结",推动各种对立因素呈现出爆炸性的冲突。科索沃单方面宣布独立无助于当地民族冲突问题的解决,并为巴尔干地区更大规模的种族对立埋下伏笔。