Trade and culture: the United States

ABSTRACT

The US government has long held that cultural goods and services represent an economic sector like any other and should be liberalized. The American cultural and digital industries enjoy a strong competitive advantage and constitute a leading export sector. This US stance has antagonized many countries pursuing cultural policies. This has led the US government to soften its trade strategy and accept financial measures, as well as a broader array of ‘traditional’ cultural regulatory instruments. At the same time, the United States insists on the absence of restrictions in digital networks, through which cultural contents are to be increasingly distributed and accessed. Under the negative-list negotiating approach, whereby everything is liberalized save for specific exceptions, states parties to US trade agreements have secured a varying array of measures. However, only a handful, essentially industrial countries, have secured digital exceptions, the latter coupled with conditions raising questions concerning their applicability.     

试析印度自由贸易区战略及前景

近年来,印度对外开放的步伐日益加快,最明显的就是印度参与自由贸易区的力度越来越大。尤其新世纪以来,印度已经同多个国家和地区缔结了自贸协定。综合来看,印度自由贸易区战略包括了政治和经济利益诉求。就发展前景来看,虽然有若干有利因素,但挑战也不容忽视。     

西江中游文化区的生业经济及其发展阶段

西江中游地区是岭南历史文化区内一个相对独立的考古学文化区,新石器时代大致经历了三种生业经济形态,早期是一种广谱的渔猎采集经济,中期是一种利用贝类为主的渔猎采集经济,晚期是较发达的稻作农业经济。演进过程在整个文化区内具有一致性。贝类利用自新石器时代早期开始呈现出一种显著强化的趋势,但一直未在食物结构中占据主要地位。     

影响语言学习策略使用因素分析

在二语习得领域,影响语言学习策略使用的因素分析是近几年来语言学家的兴趣所在。通过阅读大量二语习得领域的资料,作者发现性别、职业、语言学习观、语言水平和学习者动机是对语言学习策略使用影响最为显著的因素。     

上海都市旅游发展战略研究

本文首先讨论了都市旅游概念的内涵及其特点.然后分析了都市旅游发展的战略框架:在宏观架构上,都市旅游发展要与区域发展相协调;在中观层次,都市旅游要与城市其他行业互动;在微观操作层面上,都市旅游支撑体系要有效运行与发展.本文最后讨论了上海都市旅游的深度发展,提出:要打造和谐社会,促进城市可持续发展;以城市化和区域联动带动都市旅游的深化;加强产业互动,促进都市旅游产品的提升;科教兴旅,注重资源集约利用,加快信息化.     

Maximising Skeletal Data Collection in Commercial Archaeology

This paper explores the application of quick, simple and low‐cost procedures for data collection in commercial‐driven ‘salvage’ archaeology. In large‐scale cemetery contexts, the collection of a meaningful data set is often under extreme time and cost constraints. This requires the application of tailored field techniques and interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists, anthropologists and developers in order to maximise results. The authors examine procedures recently utilised to document and preserve skeletal data in three post‐mediaeval cemeteries in Prague, and evaluate their efficacy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Socialism and democratic strategy in Italy’s Biennio Rosso: Gramsci contra Treves

This article examines the divisions in Italian socialism between revolutionaries and reformists against the backdrop of the Biennio Rosso (1919–20), taking the writings of Antonio Gramsci and Claudio Treves respectively as characteristic of the two traditions. The central focus is on their opposing accounts of how the socialist movement should organize the masses to achieve its objectives – referred to here as its ‘democratic strategy.’ I demonstrate how the key strategic elements of Gramsci’s and Treves’s positions developed in a dialogue centered on the place that violence, (il)legality, soviets, parliaments and compromise should play in effectively mobilizing the masses for socialism. The article concludes by arguing that in retrospect Treves’s reformism has been a more successful approach, and Gramsci himself conceded something to it in his prison writings. However, I also maintain that the popular character of Gramsci’s radical democratic strategy – first fashioned in the Biennio Rosso – can still contribute to debates on socialism and social democracy today.     

Economic Change in the Prehistoric Hexi Corridor (4800–2200 bp), North‐West China

It is widely known that the Hexi Corridor in North‐West China lies at a hub of trans‐Eurasian cultural exchange. Its role became increasingly important during the late prehistoric period, particularly as the ancient Silk Road began to be used. While the profound transformation of local cultural characteristics in the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age is well documented, the detailed economic dynamics of cultural evolution have not yet been clearly illustrated. In this paper, we report on significant new zooarchaeological and faunal isotopic data from the Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in the Hexi Corridor. The primary objective is to systematically reconstruct the prehistoric economic context of this area by combining these new data with previous archaeological studies and radiocarbon dates. We argue that the primary economic activities of local inhabitants changed dramatically in the prehistoric Hexi Corridor. This was marked by agricultural production at c.4800–4000 bp , agro‐pastoral production at c.4000–3000 bp and animal husbandry at c.3000–2200 bp , respectively. The major subsistence strategies of these three periods show considerable variation. It is very likely that these transformations of economic patterns in the prehistoric Hexi Corridor were primarily triggered by transcontinental cultural exchange and, to a lesser extent, by climate change.     

Housing Squats as “Educational Sites of Resistance”: The Process of Movement Social Base Formation in the Struggle for the House

This paper aims to contribute to the scholarly work on the internal dynamics of contemporary housing movements. In particular, it explores the spatial strategies through which squat inhabitants change the configuration of the squat to turn an abandoned building into a house for multiple families. The main argument is that these strategies, requiring horizontal participation and solidarity, catalyse the transformation of a sum of people dispossessed of the house into a collective, political subject. Therefore, the author proposes to analyse housing squats as “educational sites of resistance”. The findings come from the author's participant observation of Rome's housing movement organisation Coordinamento Cittadino di Lotta per la casa. In addition to providing empirical knowledge, the paper aims to offer inputs for investigating to what extent the process of politicisation is shaped by the space and what constitute the peculiarities of a so‐recomposed collective subject.     

太平天国应对社会危机的政略实践及得失——兼谈太平天国的评价问题

江南是太平天国建立较稳定统治并有力推行各项政策方略的地区。太平天国政府作为该区域的政治实体,在应对社会危机和基层社会治理方面均有不同程度的尝试和努力,主要采取了“应变十策”,旨在完成由“打天下”向“坐天下”执政理念的转型。但因主客观条件限制,太平天国应对社会危机的成效不大,调控社会秩序的预期没有实现;但某些地区的太平天国地方当局在内忧外患的非常时期,仍能于社会建设领域有所建树,所以过去认为太平天国“重立不重建”的政权建设惯性也仅是相对而言的。政府调控和应对社会危机的政略实践,还是国家统治技术和社会战略的体现。太平天国的社会战略展现了太平天国时期国家与社会关系的特殊实态。我们发现太平天国的政治权力以较为积极的姿态向乡村社会渗透,不同于该时期绅权扩大的一般势态,占领区的绅权呈现被压缩的另面镜像。太平天国战争之后,清政府在重整社会秩序工作中有意识地继承江南绅权被压制的趋势,在更广范围内限制和约束绅权,激发了国家权力与地方社会的新一轮角逐,并对晚清政局产生了影响。这一视角还为我们客观理性地认知太平天国的历史地位提供了切入点,呈现了太平天国复杂多重的历史面相。