All Things Depending: Renewing Interdependence in Oceania

ABSTRACT Despite the enormous efforts made to civilize the Hawaiian, the Maori, the Samoan, and Fijian, Islanders have not forgotten all of their stories and in fact many Pacific peoples are in a position to recover much of the knowledge that sustained communities for thousands of years. There is hope in what we have done to reclaim our heritages—finding our voices in our languages, stories, and songs, our perspectives in our arts and literatures, our muscle and will in our own political advocacy and pursuit of our rights in courts and international arenas. There is need, however, for a new vision that reunites human beings with all of their relations in the world, a vision necessary to sustain a very difficult struggle.     

20世纪上半叶河南烟草生产及其运销格局初探

20世纪上半叶,烟草是河南经济作物的一大特色。期间,河南烟草生产迅速发展,形成了烟草种植区域化、专业化的生产模式,并成为全国三大烤烟产区之一,一定程度上改变了河南农业单一的种植结构;同时,河南烟草生产的商品化程度不断提高,不仅满足了国内外卷烟加工工业的市场需求,而且还扩展了河南农村市场的发展空间;在此基础上,烟草集散市场的网络体系初步形成,烟草运销格局也因铁路运输方式的出现而发生重大变化。近代河南烟草的产销不仅提高了农民的生活水平,增强了农民的市场意识,且刺激了河南金融业的发展,并推动了豫中城镇的近代化进程,对河南乃至华北农村的近代社会转型产生了较为深远的影响。     

20世纪50年代上海新公私合营企业的工资改革

1956年,全行业公私合营后不久,鉴于建立统一的政治体制及与计划经济体制相适应的新工资制度的需要,国家开始在新公私合营企业中实行工资改革。上海新合营企业的工资改革与全国各地一样正式开始于1956年9月,但由于情况复杂,历经准备试点及全面推开等阶段,直到1957年10月才基本结束。其中工资改革的集中统一领导,工资水平与工资增长指标,新工资等级,变相工资、计件工资、保留工资等问题成为工资改革中最重要的内容。新合营企业工资改革的完成,标志着与计划经济体制相适应的统一的企业工资制度开始全面确立,在收入分配环节上,基本完成了对新合营企业从产权到治理结构、再到分配制度的崭新的企业制度安排。     

Christianity and Justice in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission: A Case Study in Religious Conflict Resolution

Abstract

Historically, international conflict resolution theorists have largely adopted the position that organized religion is an instigator of violence. As a result, these theories have tended to exclude religion as a force for peacebuilding. Recently, however, scholars have suggested that religion can contribute constructively to a theory of conflict resolution. Their general thesis is that, if religion played a significant part in people's lives, and if religion played a part in fuelling the conflict, then when resolving the conflict, religion must be at least taken into account. An example of a conflict resolution process in which religion, specifically Christianity, played a central role was South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). In dialogue with leading critics of the TRC process, particularly Richard Wilson, this article examines the ambiguous role that Christianity played in influencing concepts of justice in the TRC.     

Urban Morality and the Great City in the Book of Jonah

Abstract

This paper reads the book of Jonah through the lens of moral geography. It focuses on the topic of the Great City, treating Nineveh as a character within the text, seeking to explore the question as to whether there is an urban morality which can be identified by reading the text of Jonah alongside key works from the field of cultural geography. In particular the paper discusses the parallelism between human and social embodiment as channels for exploring urban identity. In this study urban evil takes its place within a wider concept of city morality when it is measured by the tension between city-state as a powerful political force and the vulnerability and finitude of urban populations.     

The Use of the Bible by the Christian Human Rights Organizations Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and International Justice Mission (IJM)

Abstract

This paper explores the use made of the Bible by two Christian human rights organizations: Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and International Justice Mission (IJM), identifying the particular parts of Scripture appealed to, the hermeneutic adopted, and asks whether there are other resources in the Bible which they could use to inspire and inform their work. CSW with its focus on the persecuted Church most naturally draws its inspiration from the New Testament, especially the Epistles; whilst IJM whose work principally addresses other forms of injustice, makes greater appeal to the Old Testament. The biblical framework for IJM's work could be strengthened by a more sustained attention to Jesus' ministry as a model of human rights intervention and advocacy, by reflection on the significance of the Exodus as indicative of God's purposes for those who are oppressed, and by consideration of the book of James. CSW needs to integrate its commendable emphasis on Jesus' mission as exemplary for Christian human rights action with a holistic reading of the Bible and a greater exploration of the importance of the Church as the Body of Christ.     

From China's Urban Social Space to Social and Environmental Justice

A senior American specialist on China and noted geographer argues that the preoccupation of China geographers' with empirical analyses of that country's dramatic economic, social, and urban transformation over the last two decades—usually explained in terms of the now familiar quadruple forces of globalization, marketization, deregulation, and decentralization—should be broadened to reflect a concern for the problems of disadvantaged groups impacted negatively in dynamic urban and environmental settings. The methodology of reflexive activism is proposed as affording a framework for a more relevant geography focused on the study of China, with the potential to bring about positive and constructive change on behalf of China's disadvantaged population and its natural environment, and (as a possible side benefit) generate local epistemologies enriching the study of geography more broadly. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P30. 68 references.     

The enlightened city

Postsecularity, or the nature of the reflexive questioning or destabilization of the secular, remains a highly contested and problematic notion across the social sciences and humanities. Most perspectives share profound disappointment in the institutions of liberal democracy, requiring us to rethink the grounds for ethical and political action in post-political, -democratic, and -truth times. I argue with reference to select illustrative cases that one possible value of postsecularity rests in the notion of the enlightened city that emanates from three broad lines of inquiry: (1) new geographies of religion and postsecularity with implications for decolonial urban theory and the commons; (2) Frankfurt School-inspired messianic critical theory, reflexive secularization, and decolonial urban postsecularity; and (3) reflexive humanization, perceived “impossibility” of wholeness, and critical discourse on the Anthropocene. Rather than repeat the all-too-familiar dangers of Enlightenment rationalism, this approach stresses an immanent transcendent overlapping of ethical and political imperatives beyond the classical separation of life and politics, “planetary urbanization” and zone of indistinction providing the canvas from which postsecular processes unfold, and new subject formation that reconciles radical differences towards a higher unity and confronts injustices in more inclusive and humane ways.     

清代中期直隶灾后跨省赈粮调度的定量重建与特征分析

本文基于历史文献资料,提取清代中期(1723-1850)直隶灾后朝廷组织的跨省赈粮调度相关记载,对逐年赈粮数量进行定量重建。结合同期水旱灾害强度,对其反映的政府救灾力度的总体变化趋势及时空分布特征进行分析,并进一步讨论其影响因素。结果显示,赈粮调度在雍正朝还并非常规赈灾措施,至乾隆朝成为常态,数量上达到顶峰,至嘉道时期则显著衰落;在空间上更偏重于直隶中部的近畿一带,南部则相对易被忽视。当其兴盛之时,在直隶灾后赈济中发挥的作用不可替代,其演变过程在一定程度上既是清王朝兴衰历程的缩影,亦受到各方面因素(如皇帝意志、灾害强度、区位条件、仓储状况、荒政效率等)的综合作用。从中总结的历史经验教训,也可作为当前防灾实践的参考。