Aiming for a Just Society

Abstract

I think it is time that theologians, as well as the Church at large, speak up and speak to the social injustice we are faced with because of the economical collapse in Iceland in autumn 2008. If we think theology (i.e. the discourse about God) does not happen in a vacuum, if we think it is affected by, and is also affecting its context, then theology must have a part to play in the political discourse. If we think everything related to our human condition is affecting our understanding and our talk about God, then all theology has to be political in the most inclusive sense of the word. In this article the intention is to test major theological terms against the situation we are faced with in our society, which is recovering from an economic collapse. Thus the question: to what extent are key theological terms useful when we need to address the outgrowth of social injustice and self-inflicted economical catastrophe?     

Development and the environment: Perception and opinion in St Andrews,Scotland

In 2003, three proposals were being mediated through the planning system in the peri‐urban environment of St Andrews, Fife: a large housing development, a rail link, and a Green Belt. Using questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews with key stakeholders, we investigate the ways in which diverse conceptions of ‘the environment’ shaped public reactions to these proposals, and evaluate the fit between these and the respondents’ stated environmental perceptions. 98% of local residents surveyed describe themselves as ‘concerned about the environment’. However, large majorities conceive of the environment as a local rather than a global phenomenon, and regard it primarily in terms of personal benefits (such as landscape aesthetics or traffic considerations). By exploring the environmental perceptions in the light of the planning proposals, the study supports the contention that the ‘local environment’ is a socially constructed phenomenon which can be fashioned and re‐fashioned according to local perceptions of threats and opportunities.     

清代“烟瘴缺”制度演变考——以两广所属文官为中心的探讨

烟瘴缺是清廷于烟瘴地区设立的特殊官缺。在烟瘴缺选人条件方面,经历了从严格限定到逐渐宽泛的过程。选人方式方面,康熙时地方督抚题补阶段为掣签,雍正以降,改为督抚、两司"会商",其实质为地方督抚对题补缺人事权形成垄断。再者,乾隆初年确立了以保障烟瘴缺官员生命健康为核心的五省籍贯制度,该制为两广部分烟瘴缺所特有,他省未见此制。烟瘴缺俸满升迁方面,由起初列于即升班内,转为部分留于本省升用,说明督抚在烟瘴缺题补中分割吏部对官员任命权的同时,也被迫承担了原本由吏部承担的责任,呈现出权力与责任趋向成正比的态势。乾隆中期以降,烟瘴缺制度未有大的变动,说明其时清廷边疆治理体系已相对成熟稳定。     

Universities in inclusive regional innovation systems: Academic engagement and uneven knowledge use in Brazil

The purpose of this paper is to spatially and regionally examine academic engagement within Brazil, identifying patterns. Moreover, our investigation can contribute to a better understanding of how knowledge can be turned into a tool to fight regional inequality. We depart from two hypotheses: first, universities situated in peripheral regions interact more with companies from relatively more dynamic regions, and second, in the absence of industrial knowledge demand, universities tend to collaborate more closely with a diverse range of stakeholders in the region. To evaluate these hypotheses and find empirical evidence, we consider 4497 research groups and 4603 nonacademic organizations as “nodes” connected by 8830 collaborations throughout all Brazilian regions. Social network tools are used to illustrate the spatial and regional dimensions of academic engagement more accurately. The results show that academic engagement is not regionally homogeneous, demonstrating essential differences regarding local nonacademic partnerships. Innovation policies, which encourage only university–firm interactions, perpetuate regional inequality.     

城市入境旅游景气指数构建研究——以北京为例

本文基于城市视角编制了旅游景气指数,并从理论上建立了包括先行指数、一致指数、滞后指数的旅游景气指数体系。本文以北京为例,运用月度数据编制了2007年-2012年入境旅游景气先行指数和一致指数,分析了在此期间北京入境旅游市场的波动情况及成因,揭示了先行指数和一致指数之间存在的时滞关系,以期为政府管理机构和旅游企业准确判断城市旅游业的发展并预测未来的动向、制定相关政策提供一定的依据。     

Evidence for a Neolithic Age fire-irrigation paddy cultivation system in the lower Yangtze River Delta,China

Establishing stable cropping systems was vital in antiquity, assuring certain yields and enabling ancient people to settle, thus possibly causing various modern food habits and culture to form around the world, especially in cereal-cultivation-dominated countries. China, one of the most famous ancient agricultural countries, has a long history of rice planting, and the fire-irrigation paddy cultivation system is prevalent in the lower Yangtze region, which is considered a rice domestication center. However, its origin and cultivation pattern remain unclear. We studied a famous agricultural vestige, the Chuodun site, involved in rice planting in the lower Yangtze River Delta in eastern China, during the Neolithic Age. Clear evidence from archaeology, paleobiology, pedology and biogeochemistry suggest both that the rice fire-irrigation cultivation system formed during the Neolithic Age and that ancient peoples lived there steadily. Under this extensive cultivation system, soil structures and properties changed significantly; in particular, it left more black carbon in the soil and increased the organic carbon soil stability, which can be used to reconstruct prehistoric environments. Meanwhile, the prevalent fire-irrigation paddy cultivation system used by farmers in this area, though for a different purpose than ancient people, may be inherited from the Neolithic Age.     

Identifying of buried archaeological remains with ground penetrating radar,polarized microscope and confocal Raman spectroscopy methods in ancient city of Nysa,Aydin – Turkey

The aim of this study was to image buried remains and appoint buried Hellenistic street system, and identify minerals and rock types of the ancient city of Nysa, one of the most important historical sites of Turkey. This study used polarized microscope and confocal Raman spectroscopy (CRS) ground penetrating radar (GPR) method, to identify the buried remains, rock types and minerals.     

A new Late Silurian plant with complex branching from Xinjiang,China

Wang Yi, Fu Qiang, Xu Honghe, & Hao Shougang, June, 2007. A new Late Silurian plant with complex branching from Xinjiang, China. Alcheringa 31, 111-120. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new fossil plant is described from the middle part of the Wutubulake Formation (late Pridoli) of Xinjiang, China. This plant demonstrates at least two orders of branching. The first-order axis has pseudomonopodial branching with alternately attached second-order axes. Fertile units are alternately inserted along the second-order axis, and consist of a branching system and two sporangia at each tip. Sporangia are narrowly obovate with rounded apex and tapering base. This plant is characterized by more complex branching than other Silurian and Early Devonian plants, and is named Wutubulaka multidichotoma gen. et sp. nov., and placed under open higher-order nomenclature.     

Becoming imperialist: Italian colonies in Fascist textbooks for primary schools

The essay explores the way in which primary school textbooks in Fascist Italy played an important part in disseminating the colonial discourse. Starting from a brief overview of the education system and textbooks in Liberal Italy, the essay reviews the changes made by the Fascists after 1922: Gentile's reform; the national commission for primary school textbooks; the introduction of the testo unico di Stato (single state-approved texts). These changes reveal the increasing emphasis on colonial topics and the development of the ‘new Italian man’. The impact of 1936 as a turning point in Fascist colonial policy following the conquest of Ethiopia and the proclamation of the empire of Italian East Africa is highlighted by the ways in which primary school textbooks reflected Fascist ambitions to imbue pupils with a new imperial consciousness.     

Arguing for a worldwide perspective: Italy and the reform of the international monetary system between transatlantic cooperation and European integration (1971–73)

The end of the Bretton Woods system, following the US decision of August 1971, and the simultaneous re-launch of the European integration with the enactment of the Werner plan came at a critical moment of internal weakness for Italy. This article highlights how the Italian government and the monetary authorities – while not always on the same wavelength – tried to tackle these challenges with a view to preserving the principles of multilateral cooperation that had promoted the country's recovery in the post-war years. By launching the project denominated ‘Global Approach’ in the summer of 1972, Italy tried to interconnect the modification of the Werner plan with the reform of the international monetary system within the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to restrain the growing trends towards unilateralism. However, despite all efforts, both initiatives were doomed to failure while the country entered a dramatic period of political instability and social unrest.