Engaging with place: artists,site-specificity and the Hebden Bridge Sculpture Trail

This paper traces the creative processes employed by artists participating in the 2004 Hebden Bridge Sculpture Trail and examines relationships between place, art and site-specificity. The Trail is a popular, temporary annual local arts event that invites international artists, students and community art groups to create and exhibit site-sensitive sculpture within Hardcastle Crags in Yorkshire, England. We consider some of the multiple ways in which artists mediate relationships between ‘site’ and artwork. We connect geographical concepts of place that highlight location, locale and sense of place, with mobile understandings of site as porous and flowing. The paper positions geographical research of art, opening out art and site in a non-urban environment through comparative discussion of concepts of ‘place’ and three ‘paradigms’ in site-specific art (phenomenological, social/institutional and discursive, Kwon 2002 Kwon, M. 2002. One Place After Another: Site-specific Art and Locational Identity, Cambridge MA: MIT Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Three elements of site-specificity – histories, natures, interactions – are then explored through fourteen artists' creative practices and our documentation of the installation of their artwork in the Trail. We highlight the juxtaposition of ‘sites’ within the Trail, the over-lapping of ‘paradigms’ within individual artworks, and transitory aspects of ‘site’ to suggest that ‘time’ holds great significance in understanding site-specificity, place and art outdoors.     

Contemporary rural imitation: a Tardean analysis of five Danish rural parishes

The objective of the article was to update Tarde's approach by directing attention to the rural space and the concept of rural imitation. It analyses an empirical study of people settling in five Danish rural areas using Tarde's key concepts of imitation and monads. Mixed methods were employed, including surveys, participant observation and photo-ethnographic interviews. The data analysis applied the grounded theory approach to add a structural dimension to Tarde's approach. The analysis revealed that Tarde's approach and his key concepts of imitation and monads can be used to develop contemporary perspectives on rural experiences. The pivotal point in the rural–urban relationship is the ability to be in contact with an identity constructed from decisions about specific emotional states and a sense of the present. Within a broader perspective, this view of identity building based on rural settlement in nature calls for attention to health studies regarding how nature is associated with coping and how it can help relieve stress, one of contemporary society's most common ailments. The analysis suggests the existence of a triangle of monads in contemporary rural imitation. This triangle of monads is what stabilises, reproduces and supports the creation of rural identities.     

China's Energy Security: Challenges and Priorities

In a companion paper to the essays comparing China's and India's economic rise (Prime, 2009) as well as India's energy security (Dadwal, 2009), two specialists on China's energy industries review the country's challenges posed by the need to dramatically increase energy use in order to support economic growth while coping with pressures to reduce environmental impacts from emissions of greenhouse gases. After reviewing the current mix of fuels in the economy and discussing each major energy resource (in terms of proven reserves, production, consumption, and foreign import requirements), the authors focus on measures undertaken by the Chinese government and corporations to improve access to vital supplies. The paper covers efforts to enhance the country's energy security, which include diversifying sources of oil supply, purchasing oil and gas concessions and financing of energy infrastructure development in African and Central Asian countries, instituting reforms to encourage more efficient energy use, and developing alternative energy sources. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O130, P280, Q400. 7 figures, 2 tables, 82 references.     

Spiritedness,Reason, and the Founding of Law and Order: John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Abstract

John Ford's 1962 classic Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, analyzes the difficulties inherent in founding a new political order based on the rule of law. Some critics have concluded that the film mordantly portrays the closing of the frontier, the tragic loss of the rugged individualism it promoted (represented by Tom Doniphon), and the ascendance in its place of a fraudulent political class (represented by Ransom Stoddard), while exposing that even free societies are founded on crime. Yet, as others have argued, Doniphon also represents the spirited part of the Platonic tripartite soul, revealing spiritedness's ambiguous relation to justice: he refuses to fight unless personally threatened; perpetuates servitude, if not slavery; and shows no interest in promoting equality of women. Doniphon stands in opposition to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, pointedly recited at the film's chronological center, and his eclipse by Stoddard is not a tragic mistake. In addition, John Locke's state of nature teaching unlocks why Valance's death is not a crime that sullies the foundations of the society. Finally, the legend told as fact at the film's conclusion combines both men into a single entity, “the man who shot Liberty Valance,” thereby propagating a salutary lesson for future citizens: reason must combine with and rule over spiritedness if law and order are to prevail.     

The Platonic Enlightenment

Abstract

Mark Blitz has written an analysis of Plato’s political philosophy that engages with a large proportion of the Platonic corpus. His examination is orientated by Plato’s intention of expressing his views in dialogue form, and animated by Plato’s principle that political philosophy must emerge from the attentive critique of ordinary or political experience. This article raises the question whether Blitz has done justice to the “poetic” (constructed, historical, etc.) character of ordinary experience or doxa, and so of the radical nature of Plato’s political thought.     

日本石油储备的现状、措施及启示

日本是世界第3大石油消费国,而且石油对外依存度高达99％以上,作为确保石油供应安全的重要一环,自20世纪60年代初开始,日本逐步建立起了官民并举的石油储备制度。2006年石油、LPG的储备规模分别为172天和78天。本文首先从基地布局和储备数量两个方面介绍了日本石油及LPG储备的现状,在此基础上,从立法、管理体制和政府扶持3个角度阐述了日本建立石油储备的政策措施,最后在借鉴的基础上提出了完善我国石油储备体系建设的政策建议。     

管窥刘辰翁文学思想中的“情真”与“自然”理念

刘辰翁是宋元之交著名的作家和文学评论家,他的文学思想丰富而又深刻,主要体现在诗文序跋和大量的评点批语中。通过对这些内容的分析与归纳,再联系他所生活的时代与个人的经历,可以看出其文学思想中具有鲜明的追求“情真”与“自然”理念。     

逻辑解构：从能动与受动关系看规律的主体性之维

在现代化进程中,人们为了满足日益膨胀的欲望,藐视客观规律,恣意夸大主体性,从某种程度上形成了一定的“反主体性效应”,导致人与自然关系的恶化、与社会关系的异化及与自身关系的二重化。强调能动性与受动性的协调统一,揭示客观规律所蕴含的主体性维度成为现时代赋予的历史使命。     

党的先进性建设的根本价值取向

党的先进性建设,是一个蕴涵着崇高价值取向的命题。保持党同人民群众的密切联系,立党为公,执政为民,坚持人民的利益高于一切,是党的先进性建设的根本价值取向。     

英国的环境史研究

英国的环境史研究的起源与美国不同,它是英国深厚的环境研究基础和英帝国多元学术文化交流相结合的产物。在英国的环境史研究发展进程中表现出了三个突出的特点:农业生态史与城市环境史研究并重;强烈的南方环境史研究取向;优秀的基础设施和平台建设。另外,对西蒙斯教授和娃岑博士的访谈也会有助于我们弄清楚英美环境史研究的联系与区别,有助于打破美国在国际环境史研究领域的话语霸权。