城市语言景观研究进展及展望

语言景观是城市景观的重要组成部分,同时也是重要的人文地理表征。新世纪以来语言景观日益引起语言学家和地理学家的关注和重视。1997年西方社会语言学家首先提出了语言景观(linguistic landscape)定义,21世纪以来涌现出大量城市语言景观研究成果;国内语言景观主要集中在城镇书法景观的地理学研究,主要包括书法景观与城镇景观的关系、书法景观的空间属性、书法景观的人地关系等。论文从三个方面对城市语言景观进行了评述。最后从语言地理学视角,对未来城市语言景观重要研究内容进行了展望,认为城市语言景观将可能成为语言地理学深入研究的有效途径和新方向,尤其是在城市象征空间塑造及其地方建构中语言景观研究将大有作为。     

世界史研究发展的当代背景

整体的“世界史”概念是在地区国别史研究的基础上逐步形成的,对“世界体系”认知的热情从来也没有像第二次世界大战以后这样高涨。这种学术现象的出现是以经济发展全球化、生活模式单一化、价值观念趋同的趋势为大背景的。可以认为,真正意义的世界史观念是全球经济一体化不断深化和不同文化交流日益频繁这一形势在历史研究领域引起的反应。作为全球化的逆向思维,强调对话反对对抗,强调联系和交流反对封锁,对各个民族原创文明的探讨成为文化知识界的共识。对多元文明,特别是不同文明之间“联系”的探讨是整体世界史研究发展的又一种深层动力。整体的宏观的世界史研究与地区国别史研究相辅相成、互相促进。现代科技水平和新科技观念迅猛发展,促进了地区国别史、专门史、断代史学者的交流,加强了世界各地学者之间的联系,打破了历史学和其他哲学社会科学学科、甚至自然科学学科之间的壁垒,交叉与对比研究为世界史研究的新发展开辟出无限广阔的空间。     

Missing the point: globalization, deterritorialization and the space of the world

This article provides a critique of a dominant strand of the literature on globalization – that which suggests it can be understood as deterritorialization. It argues that suggestions that we have moved away from territorial understandings of politics fail to conceptually elaborate the notion of territory itself. Drawing parallels between mathematics and politics in the seventeenth century, the paper claims that the notion of territory is dependent on a particular way of grasping space as calculable. This way of understanding space makes bounded territories possible, but also underlies new global configurations. In other words globalization is a reconfiguration of existing understandings rather than the radical break some suggest. The article concludes by making some comments on this reconfiguration, and suggesting that further historical and conceptual work on territory is necessary before it can be thought to be superseded.     

Is technology the enemy of culture?

This article examines how changes in technology affect the strategies various national governments have adopted to protect their respective cultures. The focus is primarily on national policies toward film and television. National quota systems that limit the import of American entertainment products will soon be made impossible to enforce, thanks to new digital and satellite technologies. Economic incentives will still make American products attractive to proliferating private television channels, but narrow‐casting and cable distribution will offer new opportunities for locally produced shows and movies. Increasingly, those countries that wish to continue to protect their cultures from the homogenizing trends of global markets dominated by American films and television programs, will need to move away from quotas and toward subsidies. Moreover, they will have an interest in promoting technologies that are favorable to the promotion of national culture. Financial instruments that reduce risk to local producers may also be appropriate.     

变动中的家与地方:一个关联性的研究综述

家与地方的关系是地方性研究中的关键性命题。人本主义地理学认为地方根植是家的根本属性,批判地理学则从社会建构的角度阐释家与地方的动态关联。在全球化和灾害影响下,家与地方的联结方式不断变动,呈现出异常丰富的多样性。本文从理论脉络入手,对全球化进程中因绅士化引起的家的置换,无家可归与家在他乡,以及离散者的漂移之家等现象进行了分析;并从灾民自我调适行为和灾后重建计划的实施方面,讨论了灾害影响下家的重构与认同问题。相关学科和国际研究在这一领域的快速发展,将为国内社会文化地理学对家的探索创造良好的机遇。     

Modernization, welfare and 'third way' politics: limits to theorizing in 'thirds'?

The current period of welfare reform in British politics is taking place within a discourse of modernization described in terms of a 'third way'. The ideas which constitute this discourse resonate with recent developments within human geography, namely a movement to theorizing 'in-between' spaces, a turn to culture and to issues of globalization. This paper suggests that welfare reform is a restructuring project which allows the nature of thinking and acting 'in thirds' to be questioned. It problematizes the 'third way' approach to cultural modernization and economic globalization as a de-politicized discourse, and argues for the cultural politics and political economics which underpin welfare reform to be foregrounded. As a form of political discourse analysis, it points to the developing need for a welfare geography that is attuned to the languages and practices through which dominant systems of social and economic distribution are constituted.