Financial crises and the balance of power in international finance, 1890–2010

Has the centre of gravity of international finance irreversibly started to shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific since the financial debacle of 2007-2008? This article discusses this highly topical question in a historical perspective, by considering previous changes in the balance of power in international finance and the role played by global financial in these changes. Particular attention is paid to the Baring Crisis of 1890, the American Panic of 1907, the financial crisis of July -August 1914, the banking crises of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the financial instability of the early 1970s and the ensuing banking failures, the International Debt Crisis of 1982, and the Japanese Banking Crisis of 1997-8. The article concludes that financial crisis, perhaps surprisingly, did not lead to clear changes in the balance of power in international finance; and that the financial debacle of 2007-8 is unlikely, in the medium-term, to fundamentally alter the current order.     

中国封建皇帝封禅略论

在祭教合一的封建时代,皇帝举行隆盛的封禅典礼,既是构成皇权存在合理性、合法性的普遍逻辑性法则和终极依据,又是皇位正统和大一统所必须的文化表征.在儒学思想演绎和阐释下的封禅仪式过程和象征意义,不仅是一种政治秩序和制度模式的构建,而且也是一种意识形态和价值观的展示.     

Mapping Sxwóxwiymelh: A Pre-contact Settlement in the Upper Fraser Valley,Southwestern British Columbia

Abstract

Maps and mapping are fundamental to archaeology. Archaeologists sometimes fail to recognize that the maps we use and create are fraught, like material culture, with interpretive complexities. These complexities arise from the fact that maps are created with social meaning dependent on the context in which the map was created and used. Here, we relate our experience with maps and mapmaking at the pithouse settlement of Sxwóxwiymelh, in southwestern British Columbia. We review the mapping history of the site, highlighting the contexts in which the maps were constructed and how they influenced subsequent interpretations of the site. We describe our deconstruction of these earlier maps and how we combined them to create a more accurate and detailed map that presented a rendition of the site as it was prior to significant modern development. This process of map deconstruction and construction allowed us to see several previously unknown details about the ancient settlement (e.g., house form, relative house size, and feature spacing) of Sxwóxwiymelh. In general, this process provides conceptual and practical lessons for incorporating previously collected map data into archaeological research.     

Performing Academic Practice: Using the Master Class to Build Postgraduate Discursive Competences

How can we find ways of training PhD students in academic practices, while reflexively analysing how academic practices are performed? The paper's answer to this question is based on evaluations from a British–Nordic master class. The paper discusses how master classes can be used to train the discursive skills required for academic discussion, commenting and reporting. Methods used in the master class are: performing and creative arts pedagogical exercises, the use of written provocations to elicit short papers, discussion group exercises, and training in reporting and in panel discussion facilitated by a meta-panel discussion. The authors argue that master classes have the potential to further develop advanced-level PhD training, especially through their emphasis on reflexive engagement in the performance of key academic skills.     

Governance,public policy and boundary-making

This symposium draws attention to innovative and emerging research in Australian public policy exploring the interplay of governance, public policy and boundary-making. Conceptually and substantively, boundaries are fundamental to understanding policy outcomes, yet remain overlooked and undertheorised. We aim to contribute to public policy debates, in Australia and beyond, by provoking further reflection on this theme, in particular, the distributive effects of boundaries in policy-making; the blurring of boundaries implicit to governance frameworks; the crossing of boundaries, especially by policy-officials within and between institutions; the construction of boundaries to separate and marginalise; and the existence of temporal–spatial boundaries that demarcate jurisdiction and authority. In short, the study of governance and public policy-making is marked by multiple different types of boundaries but the way in which boundaries get drawn and redrawn is also suffuse with political contestation meaning they raise crucial questions about the exercise of power.     

Presentational state power: temporal and spatial influences over asylum sector decisionmakers

Previous analyses of forced migration have drawn attention to the increasing discretion held by asylum sector decisionmakers. According to these accounts, as the state reacts to the political risks associated with asylum migration control, responsibility for forced migration management is increasingly transferred onto a range of intermediate actors, between state and society, including local government employees, asylum interviewers, immigration judges and security staff. Yet little research has directly addressed these intermediaries' collective experiences and the influences to which they are subject. The article therefore focuses attention explicitly upon the nominal conduct of this increasingly authorised, discretionary and highly heterogeneous population. Drawing upon 37 interviews across four sites at which asylum sector intermediaries have significant and increasing discretion over asylum seekers' experiences, the findings demonstrate the importance of institutionalised timing and spacing for the determination of their volitional conduct. The timing and spacing of government institutions are important, not only through their influence over asylum seekers directly, but also because they present asylum seekers to those with discretionary authority in ways that are conducive to exclusionary uses of this authority.     

L’impossible constitution d’une théorie générale des machines ?

Three projects on the theories of machines are presented: “mecanology” of the architect Jacques Laffite (1932) inspired by biological evolution; “mecanical analysis ” of Louis Couffignal, a specialist in computing machines (1938), which pre figures functional analysis, and the algebraic theory of machines by the mathematician Jacques Riguet (beginning of the 1950’s). During those years, the three men are members of the Circle of Cybernetic Studies. The article focuses on the dialogue between projects, the axes of unification and divergence, and the styles, strategies and postulates of these three candidates, for generalization converging toward the reference constituted by cybernetics.