A Response to David Lehmann

Abstract

The author offers a simple theological framework for critiquing the issues of globalization and empire. The vast majority of people look at the world with theological lenses, and far too often those who attempt to speak to them use language that makes little sense to the rank and file. Here then is one form that such a framework might take.

The Powers Are Good

The Powers Are Fallen

The Powers Can Be Transformed.     

The Effects of Inter-generational Support on the Mortality of Older People in Rural China

As inter-generational support is the primary source of support for the Chinese elderly in rural areas, such support is likely to affect their physical and psychological health. This paper investigates the effects of four types of inter-generational support on the mortality risk of the elderly in Anhui Province. Results showed that mortality risk was influenced significantly only by receiving household support. Financial support and personal care had no effect. Results also indicated that household and emotional support were effective in reducing mortality when delivered at closer proximity, suggesting that quality of support may be enhanced by co-residence and ready access to children. Conclusions about the health benefits of tangible forms of support need to be tempered by an understanding that poor health predisposes inter-generational co-residence, and that the quality of household assistance and emotional support may be sensitive to the geographic distance between older parents and their adult children in rural China.     

Loosening/tightening spaces in the geographies of hanging out

The article is based on research conducted with young people who spend their free time hanging out in a shopping mall and its surroundings in the city centre of Helsinki, Finland. ‘Geographies of hanging out’ is understood here as an interaction between the location and young people: the space offers affordances to the young people and thus affects their ways of being. At the same time, they give new meanings to the space by hanging out and thus take part in the production of that space. Empirical material gathered in the project includes the researcher's observations, in-depth interviews conducted with young people, youth workers, the police and the management of the mall and the photographs taken by the young participants. In this article, hanging out is interpreted as a process where ‘looseness’ and ‘tightness’ of space are negotiated and re-defined. Shopping malls are seen as spaces where boundaries between public and private are often blurred. The presence of young people can make these commercial spaces tighter or looser and thus change the nature of urban space not only for the young people, but for other urban dwellers, too.     

Political economy and social legislation in Germany,ca 1870–1890

Summary

This article examines the nature of academic political theory in Britain in the post-war period, examining in particular the degree to which theorists were able to mount normative theoretical arguments. Traditionally, commentators such as Brian Barry and Perry Anderson have argued that political theory in this period was largely dead between 1945 and 1970 due to the impact of positivism, but I argue this is mistaken for two main reasons. First, it fails to distinguish between the different forms that positivism took in the post-war era. Thus although it is true many theorists tended to claim that moral and political values could (or should) not be discussed rationally, their reasons for doing so varied considerably. For while theorists such as A. J. Ayer and T. D. Weldon justified their positions theoretically, with arguments drawn from behaviourist social science or innovations made in linguistic philosophy, others, such as Ralf Dahrendorf and Anthony Crosland, argued that it was the perceived success of post-war welfare states or the alleged failure of political ideologies that made traditional political theory irrelevant. Second, following on from this, I argue that delineating more accurately how positivism actually operated helps to explain how political theorists were able to pursue their discipline normatively—albeit that few reacted to all aspects of positivism. Thus if some (such as Karl Popper) were more concerned to insist that political philosophy had something to say in practice, others (such as Michael Oakeshott), reacted more strongly against the proposition that human behaviour can be understood purely causally. Finally, I examine the impact of ordinary language philosophy on post-war political theory, and argue that rather than simply damaging the cause of normative political theory by encouraging a myopic concentration on the linguistic analysis of particular moral and political concepts, over the longer term its effects were much more positive, since it helped to focus attention on the irreducibly normative dimension of political concepts.     

试论元朝中央政府对畏兀儿地区的统治

章依据元代畏兀儿书及汉史籍探索元朝政府治理畏兀儿地区的措施,考述其在畏兀儿地区的行政建设以及亦都护地方政权的性质与职掌。认为蒙元政府对其所统辖的畏兀儿社会的间接军事行政统治,乃是通过自上而下的蒙古制度与自下而上的当地制度之间相互交叉渗透的结合而实现的。     

长春市城市游憩系统研究

休闲游憩作为城市居民的一种社会行为,以人为本是构建城市游憩系统的总原则,本文认为只有基于游憩者的游憩需求并以游憩者满意度为出发点,才能达到游憩场地、游憩设施效用的最大化和游憩者游憩偏好的最大满足。本文通过问卷调查及其相关资料的分析,总结出长春市游憩者行为的时空规律和活动频律,分析目前长春市游憩设施使用状况,确定游憩设施存在的缺陷与不足,并对其发展提出合理性建议。     

四川平武白马生态脆弱地区经济模式变迁评析

历史上白马地区的经济发展经历了从原始的农牧业到消耗型的伐木经济,再到今天的民俗生态旅游和生态农牧经济的变迁。半个多世纪白马人的经济发展告诉我们,凡是以高度消耗自然资源为代价的经济活动都难以持续。白马地区的经济变迁还显示,生态脆弱地区理想的经济结构应当是适应环境特点的多元复合结构,而不能是一条腿走路的单一结构;同时,生态脆弱地区发展生态经济还应当根据当地的自然地理条件,充分发挥当地人民的创造性,走内源发展之路,避免盲目移植外来的经济模式。     

周恩来与中日民间外交

在长期从事与领导中日民间外交的实践活动中 ,周恩来提出了“民间先行、以民促官”、“官民并举、以官带民”、“不忘老朋友、广交新朋友”等方针 ,使中日民间外交在经贸往来、人员互访、文化交流等多方面得以展开 ,最终促使中日官方外交关系的建立。此后 ,中日关系在民间和官方两个层次上同时进行 ,相互促进。     

孙中山对儒家文化的扬弃

孙中山从儒家文化中汲取精华并用之于革命实践活动,从而将他的革命理论根植于儒家文化的深厚沃土之中,使儒学在服务于资产阶级革命的同时也充满了现实意义。     

民族互嵌视野下的畲族海外移民研究——基于浙南文成侨乡的田野调查

论文以浙南侨乡文成县为田野调查点,基于畲汉民族互嵌的视角,分析了文成畲族海外移民的历史背景、动力机制、发展现状,阐释了侨乡畲族海外移民的时代意义。浙江文成县畲族海外移民既是中国改革开放的时代产物,也是文成县侨乡文化强烈辐射和畲族与汉族良性互动的结果。其深层动因则源于文成畲汉民族关系由形式上的互嵌向结构性的互嵌之顺利转型。文成畲族海外移民案例,标志着畲族历史变迁中的时代飞跃,有利于缩小畲汉发展结构性差异和增强畲汉民族关系的和谐,对当今畲族乡村振兴和畲汉民族关系发展亦具有重要启迪意义。