“Comrade Mzala”: Memory Construction and Legacy Preservation

Adopting the broad inter-disciplinary concept of “memory” and its construction in a public sphere, I examine some of the ways in which memories of Jabulani Nobleman Nxumalo, known as “Comrade Mzala” in liberation struggle circles, have been constructed and kept alive since his passing. A leading activist of the ANC, MK and the SACP, Mzala succumbed to an illness in a London hospital on February 22, 1991. A number of commemorative events and other activities, including grass-roots and branch-level initiatives, media releases, memorial lectures, colloquia and speeches and tributary statements, are analysed. Their tone, emotion, style and implicit objectives are explored. Notwithstanding the ubiquitous recognition of Mzala's liberation struggle credentials and intellectual prowess, there is no homogeneity in the manner he is remembered and celebrated; nor is there agreement in the reading of Mzala in a post-apartheid South Africa and its associated political and socio- economic context. Moreover, whilst it is predominantly organisations and individuals within the Tripartite Alliance who have been the main proponents of remembering, honouring and memorialising Mzala, there are others, outside of the Alliance and even antagonistic, who find inspiration in his radical world outlook, work and persona; and often use their memory of Mzala to critique the current political and economic conjuncture.     

Making a homeland,constructing a diaspora: The case of Taglit-Birthright Israel

The study of diaspora policies in political science, international relations, and political geography has moved away from conceiving diasporas as bounded entities to conceptualizing diasporas as a process to be made. One body of literature maps different strategies employed to bond diasporas to their country of origin, while another body of literature pays specific attention to diasporic identities and the ways such identities are reproduced and constructed abroad. This article seeks to bring these two literatures together by focusing on homeland tourism as a diasporization strategy, i.e. the construction, reproduction, and transmission of diasporic identity. Through the case of Taglit-Birthright – a free educational trip to Israel offered to young Jewish adults – the article identifies the specific mechanisms and micro-practices used in order to transform Israeli territory into a Jewish homeland, reproduce the narrative of dispersion, and demarcate group boundaries. Incorporating insights from theories of territorialization and based on the program's educational platform and existing ethnographies of Taglit-Birthright, this article unpacks the notion of the homeland and demonstrates how the homeland itself – as an embodied, affective, and symbolic site – is strategically used in order to cultivate diasporic attachments.     

Power to the people: when culture works as a social catalyst in urban regeneration processes (and when it does not)

This article focuses upon the relationship between culture, urban regeneration schemes, and their impact on socio-cognitive assets – namely, social and human capital. It examines three major urban regeneration projects in the districts of Saint Michel (Montreal, Canada), Auburn (Sydney, Australia) and Bicocca (Milan, Italy), where culture has been invoked as a main transformational driver at the economic and socio-environmental levels, but with different approaches and results. Through comparative analysis, we develop a more general reflection on the social impact of culture-led urban transformation processes, questioning the actual role of cultural initiatives – particularly those related to the creation of new cultural facilities and the programming of big cultural flagship events – and participation as a means to improve the local social milieu. We find that a key role for social efficacy is played by projects’ capacity to elicit the commitment of residents through inclusive cultural participation, as opposed to instrumental top-down initiatives mainly addressing city and neighbourhood branding and real estate marketing purposes.     

Adopting ‘things of the little’: intangible cultural heritage and experiential authenticity of place in the Jewellery Quarter,Birmingham

The paper discusses notions and experiences of authenticity of place in relation to intangible cultural heritage. Drawing on qualitative informant interviews with representatives of traditional and new businesses in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham (UK), it analyses authenticity of place with regard to three key dimensions: the experience of origins, the experience of continuity and the experience of potentiality and actuality. Findings suggest that intangible cultural heritage activates and facilitates experiences of authenticity, often related to people’s individual identity constructs and associated benefits or detriments. Some heritage concepts have evolved from their narrowly defined historic context and inform experiences of authenticity in the present.     

Migration,marginalization and metropolitaneity: negotiation of masculinities of Nepali drug users in Hong Kong

Many studies on men and masculinity have discussed how Asian male migrants who experience a ‘masculinity crisis’ negotiate their masculinity vis-à-vis dominant black and white masculinities in Western societies. Yet, few have discussed how they negotiate their masculinity in the Asian contexts. In this study, Nepalis have a tradition of transnational migration. Their transnational networks have facilitated the development of overseas Nepali communities. This research therefore aims to study the negotiation of masculinities of Nepali male heroin users, a marginalized group in Hong Kong. By using a qualitative mixed-methods approach, it is argued that their negotiation of masculinities is nuanced and relational; intersecting with race/ethnicity, social space, and generation. In the process, discursive resources in the cultural repertoire are utilized to construct alternative forms of masculinities in school, the workplace, and rehabilitation treatment. These masculinities are pluralistic and contingent, in relation to the transnational space and post-colonial situation of Hong Kong.     

Trans youth and social media: moving between counterpublics and the wider web

Today’s trans youth grew up with the internet and online LGBTQ resources and spaces are important to these communities. This article focuses on conceptualising the digital cultural strategies that trans and gender questioning youth adopt both as social media users and producers in order to cope and thrive. Drawing on ethnographic data detailing a group of trans youth’s engagements with LGBTQ social media counterpublics and the wider web, and their movement between these spheres, in combination with close readings of online material identified as salient by the participants, this article argues that in the face of rampant transphobia and cis coded online paradigms, trans youth respond both critically and creatively. More specifically, I highlight how they resist prescribed user protocols of mainstream social networking sites as well as employ pragmatic strategies for navigating a binary gendered online world, staking out their own methods and aesthetics for self expression and community formation. Having examined the content and style of social media examples highlighted by the participants, the article contends that trans youth’s consumption and production of types of online and social media is significantly more diverse than research to date has recognised.     

南方地区古建筑木结构的整体性残损点指标研究

古建筑木结构的残损点指标是对古建筑木结构进行结构安全评估和加固修缮设计的重要指标,目前主要依据1992年制定的《古建筑木结构维护与加固技术规范》(GB 50165—92)中的规定,为了对该规范中的构架整体性残损点指标进行验证和补充,本研究通过对南方地区传统的穿斗木构体系和抬梁木构体系的典型榫卯节点和构架的试验研究,得出两种木构体系结构的整体性关键残损点指标,并与GB 50165—92规范进行比较分析。结果表明:规范规定的抬梁式木构架和穿斗式木构架的局部倾斜残损点比试验结果小,规范值偏于安全。规范中规定的抬梁式木构架梁柱榫卯连接残损点略小于试验结果,规范值偏于安全;而规范中规定的穿斗式木构架梁柱榫卯连接残损点对于燕尾榫穿斗木构而言是安全的,但对于透榫穿斗木构而言,则是不安全的。     

Buddhism,Democracy and Power in the 1932 Thai Revolution

The People’s Party toppled the Siamese absolute monarchy and introduced constitutional democracy in Thailand in June 1932. Scholars have generally denied that the revolution had any popular resonance, but this article shows that in Buddhism, the country’s premier cultural form, democratic rhetoric in the 1930s resonated among young monks marginalised by the ecclesiastical hierarchy. A group of young monks within the Mahanikai, or Great Order, rebelled against the palace-established Thammayut order that exercised the most power in institutional Buddhism. A “thin” or formal democracy established in 1932 – one displaying the main trappings of a regime of popular sovereignty but purposefully limited in scope by the People’s Party – thus inspired an assertion of a “thick” democracy, or democracy as a much older social value that governed both the Sangha internally and its relations with local communities, which the Mahanikai activists claimed was the core of original Buddhism.

     

Market Liberalism,Marginalised Citizens and Countermovements in India

How has neo-liberalism transformed the economic structure and policies of India? And what are the politico-economic implications of such policies for marginalised populations? Following Karl Polanyi’s theory of “double movement”, this paper argues that while market liberalism has helped India overcome the slow so-called “Hindu rate of growth”, it has adversely affected the economic interests of the poor. It further argues that the expansion of the market (first movement) has led to various social dislocations in the lives of the poor. Such dislocations have generated several countermovements (second movement), which have found expressions not just in electoral politics but also in various grassroots movements. While it may be true that such countermovements have not always been successful in overturning the tide of neo-liberalism, they have certainly influenced the policy priorities of the state in favour of the poor and the marginalised in India.