Mourning the Un-mournable? Political Theology Between Refugees and Religion

Since the arrival, or the attempted arrival, of millions of refugees in Europe, the performances of the Center for Political Beauty – a Berlin-based collective of artists and activists – have had a huge impact on public and political debates about Germany's migration policies. In this paper, I analyze the performance “The Dead Are Coming” in which the artists buried refugees who drowned in their attempt to enter the European Union. Drawing on Judith Butler's political philosophy of performativity, I assess “The Dead Are Coming” as a “doing” rather than a “describing” of dignity. I argue that the integration of God into the practices of mourning enables both the activists and the audience to resist the differential distribution of dignity in Europe's migration policy. Ultimately, I advocate a re-thinking of political theology in which art learns from theology and theology learns from art in order to promote dignity under de-dignifying conditions.     

Methods and Approaches for Blind Test Predictions of Out-of-Plane Behavior of Masonry Walls: A Numerical Comparative Study

ABSTRACT

Earthquakes cause severe damage to masonry structures due to inertial forces acting in the normal direction to the plane of the walls. The out-of-plane behavior of masonry walls is complex and depends on several parameters, such as material and geometric properties of walls, connections between structural elements, the characteristics of the input motions, among others. Different analytical methods and advanced numerical modeling are usually used for evaluating the out-of-plane behavior of masonry structures. Furthermore, different types of structural analysis can be adopted for this complex behavior, such as limit analysis, pushover, or nonlinear dynamic analysis.

Aiming to evaluate the capabilities of different approaches to similar problems, blind predictions were made using different approaches. For this purpose, two idealized structures were tested on a shaking table and several experts on masonry structures were invited to present blind predictions on the response of the structures, aiming at evaluating the available tools for the out-of-plane assessment of masonry structures. This article presents the results of the blind test predictions and the comparison with the experimental results, namely in terms of formed collapsed mechanisms and control outputs (PGA or maximum displacements), taking into account the selected tools to perform the analysis.     

Experimental Studies and Vulnerability Assessment of Timber-Arched Lounge Bridges

ABSTRACT

There are many preserved timber-arched lounge bridges in China and some of these bridges are hundreds of years old. The woven arch is the main bearing structure of a timber-arched lounge bridge. Few studies still exist about woven arch mechanical performance, a fact that contributes to the improper repair. This article concerns the structural performance of the woven arch. The results of experimental studies on deformation, stress distribution, force-transferring mechanism, and failure modes were presented. Two woven arch models with and without П-shape braces under symmetrical load and asymmetrical load were investigated. The results indicated that the woven arch had high bearing capacity, especially under symmetrical load. The comparison of experimental results obtained for models with and without brace showed that braces modified the failure mechanism and increased the load carrying capacity and integrity. Based on the failure conditions observed experimentally, limit criteria were defined in order to facilitate vulnerability assessment of timber lounge bridges.     

Courting Actresses and Exploring Love in Early Republican China

This article focuses on the early Republican theater as a popular site of experiments with love and discusses the significance of pengjue courtship between actresses and male patrons. It argues that while the literati still played a role in shaping theater patronage culture, employing the discourse of qing and the scholar-beauty romance, the popularization of pengjue enabled a more flirtatious mode of love that combined male homosociability and heterosexual desire. Male patrons’ courtship of actresses was marked by frivolity and performativity, as well as economic calculations. It deviated from the traditional ideal of qing and the New Culture notion of romantic love and thus aroused intense criticism from conservatives and reformists alike. However, this article argues that the practice of pengjue created an alternative affective sphere for performing gender, contesting social norms, and exploring new forms of love in the public space of commercial theater and in everyday life.     

民俗的表演性:表演理论、活态传承与公共文化实践

表演理论是20世纪美国民俗学对于学界的重要贡献,其核心是"表演"和"语境"。在表演理论提出以后,民俗学经历了从关注文本向强调语境的转向,使得以差异性为基础的本真性再次成为学术研究的中心议题。然而,在随后以"语境"为中心的研究实践中,研究者们逐渐开始质疑本真性问题存在的逻辑合理性以及在实际民俗活动中的可操作性,研究重点也由此从辨析民俗事象的真伪,转变为讨论本真性背后的权力关系和文化政治。正是基于对"本真性"的祛魅,在当代非物质文化遗产保护的具体实践中,学术话语所追求的本真性与实际操作中的共享原则之间的矛盾,便因此而消解,这为当代公共民俗学实践提供了去语境化和再语境化的理论支撑和实操可能。在此,以行动认同为旨归的"表演"(形式)在"语境"(意义)的"式微"中重新凸显,实现了民俗传统的实践回归。     

行业异质性与空间黏性：企业迁移成效的差异及其解释——以英德市产业转移园为例

企业迁移成效的差异是经济区位理论和区域发展政策关注的重要科学问题。区域产业转移实践往往呈现出多个行业的产业转移到相同区域的特征,以及产业转出地和转入地之间对不同行业的空间黏性存在差异,导致区域产业转移效果存在差异和理论解释的复杂性。基于此,本文从企业迁移的微观视角出发,以珠三角地区转移到粤北地区的产业转移园为例,通过行业投产数据的比较和空间盈利边界的理论演绎,分析区域不同行业产业转移效果的差异及其成因。研究表明,企业迁移成效存在行业异质性的差异,这是由于不同行业企业的对转出地的空间黏性大小不同造成的。空间黏性较小的企业比空间黏性较大的企业有更多的空间盈利。     

‘Making Change’ in the memorial landscape to the Dakota–US War of 1862: remembrance,healing and justice through affective participation in the Dakota Commemorative March (DCM)

The Dakota–US War of 1862 led to the removal and exile of Dakota people from their ancestral homeland. Integral to this process was the forced march of 1,700 women, children and elders from the Lower Sioux Agency to Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Despite the siting of numerous memorials related to the war and its aftermath, few mark the forced march and its legacies. Since 2002, however, the seven-day Dakota Commemorative March (DCM) has been held biennially to remember and honour Dakota ancestors on the original forced march. Following a brief overview of extant place-based memorials at sites along its path, we draw on documentary sources to explore the significance of the DCM as a distinctive Dakota intervention in the commemorative landscape. Through a process we call ‘affective participation’ – an intense bodily, emotive and transformative engagement in an event – participants on the DCM not only seek to remember but also strive towards healing and justice in the present and the future. Our hope is to expand the focus of current geographical work on discrete site-based memorials to consider the social- and cultural-geographical significance of alternative (particularly Native) forms and scales of commemoration.     

Revelation and Resolution: Religion as the Key to Cognition,Power, and History in Anthropology

Religion is often considered as key to interpreting human psychological and social processes. Yet, the notion that ritual performance and religious beliefs offer a transparent portal onto the inner workings of culture, power relations, historical change, and cognition are subject to critique. The political and psychological implications of ritual practice differ considerably from culture to culture and religion defies reduction to a single explanatory or etiological framework. Anthropologists best learn about emic and etic understandings of belief by interpreting the historically varied articulations of religious experience with other social domains.     

从9种核心期刊的文献计量分析看核技术在文物保护与考古中的应用

从9种核心期刊的文献计量统计分析入手,分析了不同期刊、不同具体核技术方法、不同年份核技术应用文献量的差别,研究了差别的原因.介绍了主要核技术具体方法的含义和在考古及文物保护工作中的作用.分析和数据表明,核技术在考古和文物保护领域更广泛地应用及提高年代测量精度是核技术应用的两个发展方向.