Heritage destruction and cultural rights: insights from Bagan in Myanmar

Recently, the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights has stated that the intentional destruction of cultural heritage is a violation of cultural rights. The Rapporteur examines a timely issue but bases her statement on narrow understandings ‘heritage’ as irreplaceable and ‘destruction’ as ideologically motivated and aggressive. This reinforces hegemonic ideas about heritage and what constitutes its destruction. In this article, I discuss the case of Bagan in Myanmar to illustrate the limitations of the Rapporteur’s statement. In Bagan, whether and how ‘heritage’ should be protected has been the topic of controversy. By implication what is – or is not – considered intentional destruction is contested. Ambiguity about the meaning of cultural rights, the dissonant nature of heritage, the subjectivity of destruction, and complex multi-layered motivations behind ‘destructive’ practices make overarching statement about the destruction of cultural heritage and cultural rights violations too bold and call for more nuance and contextualised research.     

Conceptions of place: approaching space,children and physical activity

In this paper, we argue that place mapping is useful for approaching children's conception of place and that this is of relevance when designing physical activity interventions. We contend that socio-material factors influence children's perception and use of places, and are crucial to understand in relation to their use of local neighbourhoods for physical activity. A place mapping of children's understandings and everyday use of their local neighbourhood in suburban Copenhagen was conducted with a fifth grade elementary school class. The mapping and subsequent analysis resulted in three categories of relevance to children's conceptions of place; located social experiences, experiences of the unknown, and children's contested spaces. We argue that such knowledge can provide useful information in the development and evaluation of activities that promote physical activity in urban spaces.     

Governing system innovation: assisted living experiments in the UK and Norway

Debates on how to address societal challenges have moved to the forefront of academic and policy concerns. Of particular importance is the growing awareness that to deal with issues such as ageing, it will be necessary to implement concerted efforts on technological, social, institutional or political fronts. Drawing on a number of theoretical perspectives – including socio-technical transitions and embedded state theory – the aim of this paper is to identify and understand different approaches to the governance of such system innovations by comparing state responses to assisted living in two contrasting national systems of care, namely that of the UK and Norway. Its findings highlight that state-supported and funded experimentation projects have been instrumental in designing and implementing system innovation: through their emphasis on co-design and co-creation, these projects demonstrated the value of early implementation pilots to explore the ‘fit’ between novel technologies and prevailing practices and institutional structures in national systems of care. Still, competition, biases or conflicting interests should not be ignored between well-established agents and institutions and experimental solutions whose efficacy remains relatively untested and which involve a combination of new technical, social, organizational and institutional solutions.     

Tourism–conservation enterprises as a land-use strategy in Kenya

Since the early 1990s, nature conservation organizations in Eastern and Southern Africa have increasingly attempted to integrate their objectives with those of international development organizations, the land-use objectives of local communities and the commercial objectives of tourism businesses, in order to find new solutions for the protection of nature and wildlife outside state-protected areas. The increased inclusion of the market in conservation initiatives has led to diverse institutional arrangements involving various societal actors, such as private game reserves, conservancies and conservation enterprises. The Koija Starbeds ecolodge in Kenya – a partnership between communities, private investors and a non-governmental organization – serves as a case study for emerging institutional arrangements aimed at enabling value creation for communities from nature conservation. Based on a content analysis of data from individual semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews, as well as a document and literature review, this article reveals a range of benefits for community livelihood and conservation. It also identifies a range of longer term governance challenges, such as the need to address local political struggles, the relations between partners and transparency and accountability in the arrangement.     

The application of numerical techniques to insect assemblages from the site of Stóraborg,Iceland

The problems of interpretation of many overlapping species lists of fossil assemblages are discussed using the example of insect faunas from a late medieval farm site in southern Iceland. Numerical techniques were employed, principally those available within the CLUSTAN package, and it was concluded that a considerable refinement in interpretation was achieved. Such quantitative procedures are suitable for groups other than fossil insects but their employment cannot be regarded as a substitute for, rather than an adjunct to, a sound ecological approach.     

Geographies of adult multigenerational family households in metropolitan Sydney

This paper investigates spatial trends of multigenerational adult families in metropolitan Sydney. Australia's immigrant gateway city, Sydney has high housing costs and infrastructure pressures, and planning policies support higher residential densities. In this context, the accommodation of persons living in multigenerational families is examined, by major region of origin, their geographies in Sydney, and by housing costs and constraints. Results highlight that cultural origins were influential in multigenerational household formations, and such formation is higher in areas of first and second ethnic community formation areas. Multigenerational living is also more common in middle ring and outer areas of cheaper housing. Implications are drawn for more nuanced housing policies in Sydney and comparable cities, given that detached and semi‐detached houses were favoured by these households, whereas two‐fifths of new housing constructed in Sydney in 2011 consists of two or less bedroom apartments.     

多源数据结合的城市生活空间质量评价——以南京为例

在当前我国社会经济转型的背景下,城市生活空间质量成为居民、学界与政府关注的焦点。采用多源数据,拓展了已有城市生活空间质量的评价维度与评价方法,从舒适性、便利性、健康性、安全性、社会性五个维度构建了评价指标体系,并通过GIS空间分析方法,以南京为例进行了生活空间质量评价并识别其空间分布规律。实证分析表明：①南京的城市生活空间质量存在着明显的空间分异。高质量生活空间呈现明显的等级集聚特征,主中心位于核心区周边1-3 km的圈层,低质量生活空间总体分布较为分散。②在构成生活空间质量的五个维度中,舒适性和社会性的发展质量呈现由城市中心向外围递增的趋势,便利性的发展质量呈现由城市中心向外围递减的趋势,健康性受城市环境质量分布趋势的影响,呈现由西北向东南递减的趋势,安全性的高值集聚不显著而低值集聚于城市中心区。     

刘遗民非"遗民"考

刘程之,号遗民,晋宋问人,晋末弃官归隐。后人往往根据其不仕之事与“遗民”之号,将其理解为易代后出于政治立场与道德自觉不仕新朝的“遗民”。其实,遗民一词的此一义项在晋宋之世尚未确立,刘遗民不过是一位追求山林玄远之趣的隐逸之士。并且,由于刘遗民的历史存在,还产生了“遗民”一词不被广泛注意的另一义项——隐士。     

关于民族文物的几点认识

民族文物是人类文化遗产的重要组成部分,是反映古代不同社会形态以及生产、生活状况的活化石.它填补了史籍记载的缺失和田野考古的不足,为人类社会发展史研究提供了珍贵的实物资料,在科学研究、发展旅游业、繁荣民族经济等方面具有重要价值.民族文物是中华民族的珍贵遗产,应及时抢救保护.     

评1868年中美《浦安臣条约》－以华工出国及华侨保护问题为视角

19世纪中叶,随着资本主义的迅速发展以及黑奴贸易的被禁,西方列强将其寻求廉价劳动力的目光转到了亚洲。两次鸦片战争后,中国人出国佣工形成高潮。签订于1868年的中美《蒲安臣条约》进一步促进了华工出国之步伐,同时也将西方社会保护本国侨民的观念融入其间,对清政府侨政的转变起了促进作用。