贵州遵义市播州杨氏土司墓葬形制研究

纵观播州杨氏土司墓葬的发展,其规模、结构、雕刻均有由繁至简的发展趋势,对昭穆制的遵循从严格走向了松散。腰坑葬俗是宋元明时期播州境内比较盛行的丧葬习俗,墓志亦是播州杨氏礼制遵循和身份等级体现的一个方面。墓前神道或拜台有自南宋中期的繁复到宋元明之交的简单到明末又归于复杂的发展轨迹,体现出时代的特征和墓葬装饰自内向外的转变。     

驰骋西北的平阳商帮

平阳商帮作为晋商的一支,明清两代是其发展的重要阶段,清末民初逐渐由繁盛走向衰落。平阳商帮经贸西路,其经营地点基本为丝绸之路沿线城市如西安、兰州、银川、武威、酒泉、西宁等,其经营行业涉及盐业、冶铁业、布业、烟业及茶叶等。明朝"开中法"的实施为平阳商人经贸西路拉开了序幕,丝路贸易的繁荣吸引平阳商人前去经商,"互通有无"的商业模式给平阳商人提供了商机,便利的交通亦是平阳商人经贸西路的重要条件。     

Local government reforms in Georgia and their impact on state-society relations

Abstract

This paper studies how the local governance reforms carried out between 1997–2014 shape state-society relations at Georgia’s local level. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of governmentality, I analyze how the reforms shape practices and actors at the local level. Research interviews with state officials at the national and subnational levels and citizens of the Georgian district Marneuli highlight both government rationalities and how people react to them. I argue that the reforms, which have been declared to promote participation and accountability, hardly contribute to bridging the huge gap between state and society, particularly with respect to the case of the Azeri minority in Marneuli. Thus far, the newly introduced formal actors at the local level, the municipalities, lack power. Societal action in absence of the state and interaction with the state via informal networks remains dominant. The study contributes to literature on state-building and transformation in Georgia by shedding light on the often-neglected local level and to the debate on external democracy promotion and policy transfer by empirically studying the effect of a policy transfer.     

“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.     

Spatial differences of reindustrialization in a post-socialist economy: manufacturing in the Hungarian counties

Over the past two and a half decades, the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, have become an integral part of the global economy. Following the change of regime, the rate of foreign direct investment increased, modern industries emerged and exports became significant. However, this process was halted by the global economic crisis in many advanced and transition economies, and the concept of ‘reindustrialization’ emerged as one of the economic policy responses to the new challenges generated by the crisis. In our paper, we study whether reindustrialization is present following the lowest point of the crisis in one of the post-socialist countries of the EU, in Hungary. If so, in which regions and industries, and under what conditions? Our research indicates that reindustrialization can be generally observed only in a few rural regions after 2009, limited to only one or two industries, while, for instance, in the capital and in its agglomerations and in urban regions with large research universities, deindustrialization is more likely to take place.     

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.