Improvised Hybridity in the “Fixing” of Chinese Infrastructure Capital: The Case of Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway

The article explores the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the globalisation of China's infrastructure capital. Examining how accumulation strategies of Chinese SOEs are driven by a complex set of political and economic, state and private, interests, it foregrounds the inherently hybrid nature of China's state capitalism. We use Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) as a case study to analyse how state infrastructure capital traverses borders, and the specific ways that contradictions of accumulation in China are relocated through the improvised hybridity of SOEs. In Kenya, China Road and Bridge Corporation, the main SGR contractor, shifted and adapted its strategies as the pursuit of economic productivity gave way to political priorities in China, simultaneously responding to changing socio-political circumstances in Kenya and across East Africa. Analysing these dynamics, we highlight the contingencies of, and limitations to, structural reorganisation of actually existing forms of state capitalism in China and beyond.     

Developments in Rural Life on the Eastern African Coast,a.d. 700–1500

The eastern African coast is known for its Swahili “stonetowns.” Archaeological study of stonetowns has overshadowed that of Swahili rural life, and how it reformulated in the context of urban transformations after a.d. 1000. To help redress that imbalance, we focus here on village research carried out in a Swahili heartland—Pemba Island, Tanzania—in the context of two archaeological projects. We feature four settlements: later 1st millennium Kimimba village and its large, trading village neighbor, Tumbe; and 2nd millennium Kaliwa village, neighbor to Chwaka stonetown. Their archaeology, contextualized within a regional landscape, allows us to say new things about the changing nature of rural life on Pemba, and to make a case for the potential of village complexity elsewhere on the Swahili coast.     

Railway Architecture: The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) at Dundalk

ABSTRACT

This article is adapted from the dissertation ‘Railway Architecture: The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) at Dundalk’, completed by Siobhan Osgood for the MPhil in Art History: Art + Ireland, where it was awarded a distinction. The study provides an historical analysis in the context of architectural development and broader railway culture in Ireland to provide an interpretation and understanding of the use of polychromatic yellow, red and black brickwork to create a visual identity for railway architecture. The use of accented colours to pick out key features is repeated across a series of buildings, thus creating a distinctive style of ‘brick-branding’. These are most prominent in the town of Dundalk, where the GNRI had its central engineering works at the halfway point on the Dublin to Belfast mainline and at the point where the Irish North line extended west and north. The buildings were each intricately designed by the GNRI's first chief engineer, William Hemingway Mills, a second-generation railway engineer who merged the roles of architect and engineer using an amalgamation of architectural designs from his earlier career in Derby, Scotland, Mexico and Spain. Mills thus created his own ‘Millsian’ style of industrial architectural design.     

新疆阿勒泰地区早期铁器时代铜器的科学分析研究

阿勒泰地区位于新疆的最北端,与欧亚草原之间存在丰富的文化交流,而冶金技术的发展与人类文明紧密相关,为探究新疆阿勒泰地区的冶金发展情况,选取9件草原游牧文化的代表性器物——铜鍑和马具,使用金相显微镜、扫描电子显微镜和X射线能谱仪及双通道电感耦合等离子体发射光谱仪,对16个样品进行金相组织分析和成分分析,并探讨其制作技术特征。研究发现阿勒泰地区的早期铁器时代铜器普遍采用范铸工艺,其成分主要为红铜、砷铜、铅砷青铜。该分析结果为研究新疆阿勒泰地区的冶金发展提供了重要参考。     

Urban Sámi Identities in Scandinavia: Hybridities,Ambivalences and Cultural Innovation

One of the most significant social and cultural changes in the northern part of Scandinavia, as in other parts of the world, is urbanization. All over the northern region, towns and cities are growing, and a large portion of the indigenous population now lives in urban areas throughout all Scandinavian countries. Within these multicultural cities, urban Sámi communities are emerging and making claims to the cities. From a situation where migration from a Sámi core area to a city was associated with assimilation, an urban Sámi identity is now in the making. In this article, we discuss what seems to be the emergence of an urban Sámi culture. The article builds on findings from a study of urban Sámi and their expression of identity in three cities with the largest and fastest-growing Sámi populations in the region: Tromsø (Norway), Umeå (Sweden) and Rovaniemi (Finland). A main finding is the increasing recognition of their status as indigenous people and the growth in Sámi institutions in the cities. Another finding is an urban Sámi culture in the making, where new expressions of Sámi identity are given room to grow, but where we also find ambivalences and strong links and identifications to places in the Sámi core districts outside of the cities.     

新疆历史纵论

章对新疆历史研究做了宏观探讨,认为研究新疆历史首先要站在历史的脊梁上观察历史,既要了解我们先辈对新疆的开拓和开发,也要了解前人对新疆的探索和研究;众多民族共同创造了新疆的历史和新疆是统一多民族国家不可分割的一部分,是我们认识新疆历史的出发点和归宿点;历代王朝对新疆的治理,新疆是各民族共同生活的大家园而不是哪一个民族的家园,多种宗教在碰撞中并存,多元化的共存、交融与互补,屯垦戍边的历史与现实证明了其必要性和合理性,构成了新疆历史发展的五个基本问题;以往了解历史是为了研究历史,现在研究历史是为了更好地了解现状和解决现实中的问题,这是我们研究新疆历史应该注意到的。     

城乡边缘带研究的回顾与展望

本文综述了国内外对城乡边缘带的概念、地域结构、土地利用形态、社会经济特征、形成演变机制等方面的研究,并对城乡边缘带研究的最新进展及今后的研究方向作了评述。     

近代以来新疆艺术述论(1840-1999)

本文把近代以来新疆艺术发展划分成三个阶段,对各艺术种类在不同时期的演变进行了概括性的研究,认为新疆艺术和中国政治社会变化密切相关,各阶段的新疆艺术既有其鲜明的时代烙印,也深刻地体现着其独具的传统特点;虽然新疆艺术受东、西方文化和艺术潮流的影响,但是此期中国内地艺术的影响深刻而全面。     

吉黑两省铁路交涉局的“嬗变”——1898—1917年中东铁路附属地行政管理权研究

清末,在俄国中东铁路管理局的要求下,中东铁路途经的黑、吉两省将军衙门分别设置了相应的交涉机构——"铁路交涉局"。在中东铁路建设、经营、管理过程中,它负责中俄之间有关铁路事务的交涉,同清朝的其他涉外机构有较大区别。它一度成为中方在中东铁路属地及其影响下地区的"准行政机构"。时事变迁,该机构的名称及功能也不断演变。由于它同时接受中俄双方影响,功能也复杂,所以其地位和作用难定,争议至今。从初设时被打上沙俄扩张的烙印,到后来成为制衡沙俄侵略的重要力量,"铁路交涉局"机构的嬗变体现了哈尔滨作为一座现代城市的独特发展史和基本特征。     

旅游目的地形象修复策略:关联游客行为意图的量表开发与检验

在形象修复理论基础上,开发了旅游目的地形象修复量表,通过对441名入境游客的问卷调查,采用结构方程模型对旅游目的地形象修复量表进行了整体验证,并关联分析了其对游客行为意图的影响,结果表明:本文所开发并实测的旅游目的地形象修复策略量表,整体结构良好,量表信度和效度值都处于较好水平;旅游目的地形象修复策略由6个基本维度构成,其中柔和的形象修复策略对游客行为意图有显著影响;本量表提出策略的实施效果与西方的研究总体趋同但略有差异。文章同时指出,针对入境客源市场,目的地形象修复策略要遵循跨文化信息传播的基本特点,同时要重点使用渐进式的目的地形象修复方式。