后现代、现代性重建与中国的现代性问题

后现代主义对现代性的批判为人们提供了一个理解现代的有益视角,它有利于揭示现代性充满矛盾和悖论的一面,促使人们加强对现代性的反思并发掘其尚未释放的理性潜能,从而实现现代性的重建。就中国的后现代主义者而言,他们对现代性的批判过多地集中于剖析其“西化”本质,忽视了现代性的某些普遍内涵,使中国的现代性问题局限于中西对立的二元视野。客观地评价中国的现代性,就应当突破上述理论框架,认识到现代性中所包含的普遍性与特殊性之间的张力,同时借鉴后现代主义的建设性作用,努力实现现代性的解放功能。     

流动、旅游与后现代——一个研究视角与一种精神转向

后现代思潮作为对现代性的全面反思甚至批判,为我们理解今天的社会现实和社会生活提供了一个系统的视角。在这一背景下,人们可以开始重新思考和重构旅游的意义,并在新的后现代和后结构哲学思潮以及更广阔的流动背景下探讨旅游的新特征和旅游体验的新方向。流动作为一种批判语境,意味着对传统以稳定和界限为主体的文明形式的挑战,也在更深层意义上代表着新的社会精神内涵。随着社会流动的增加和人们意识的改变,人们将习惯一种流动的生存和生活方式,在流动中居住,在居住中流动。在此意义上,旅游的内涵或者是生活化了,又或者是生活旅游化了。文章最后从"何为旅游世界"、"旅游体验"以及"再谈游的精神"等三个方面对后现代语境下旅游发展的趋势进行了论述分析。     

STRUCTURE AND AGENCY: CONTESTED CONCEPTS IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

The concepts of ‘structure’ and ‘agency’ have been of central significance to geographic research. This paper focuses on recent debates in critical social geography, and the contributions of Marxist, feminist, and postmodern perspectives to rethinking the structure-agency question. Significant changes in conceptualizing structure and agency are outlined, from early work in Marxist geography to current efforts to grapple with postmodern culture and identity. The paper demonstrates that critical geographic approaches to structure and agency have become more inclusive and nuanced, as researchers have addressed challenges posed by critiques and new perspectives. It concludes by considering the significance of place, space, and social difference in mediating processes of social change and thus in concrete explanations of how the ‘dialectical dance’ of structure and agency unfolds within particular locales. Les concepts de «structure» et d' «action» ont une importance capitate dans les recherches en géographie. Cet article porte sur les débats qui ont récemment eu cours dans le domaine de la géographie sociale critique et sur les contributions apportées par les tenants des points de vue marxiste, féministe et postmoderne dans la reconceptualisation du rapport entre la structure et faction. On y mentionne les importants changements qui ont eu lieu dans le domaine de la conceptualisation des structures et des actions, des premiers travaux effectués en géographie marxiste jusqu'aux récents efforts dé-ployés pour mieux saisir la culture et I'identité postmoderne. Ce texte démontre que dans le domaine de la géographie critique, on voit la structure et faction d'une manière plus englobante et plus nuancée à mesure que les chercheurs se sont penchés sur les défis soulevés par les critiques et les nouvelles perspectives. Nous finissons par évaluer la place qu'occupent I'endroit, I'espace et la différence sociale dans la médiation des processus du changement social - et ainsi dans les explications concrètes des variations de la « danse dialectique » de structure et de faction dans des milieux particuliers.     

In the lure of Geistesgeschichte: the theme of decline in Hungarian historiography and historical thinking in the first half of the twentieth century

Decline was the fundamental issue in Hungarian historiography and historical thinking between the two world wars. This article primarily analyses the views of historian Gyula Szekf?, the writers and essayists Dezs? Szabó and László Németh, and those of philosophers Lajos Fülep and György Lukács. In this period, the so-called spiritual history (Geistesgeschichte) prevailed in Hungarian intellectual circles, in which the themes of decline and even fall were fundamental. Of the most important representatives of Geistesgeschichte, Spengler, Ortega, Huizinga, Croce and Maritain had significant influence on the authors mentioned above. Historians were ready to reject the ideas of these thinkers regarding the criticism of culture, and rather followed the power- and state-centred streams of Geistesgeschichte, conceived by Ranke, Troeltsch and Meinecke. At the same time it is also true that the decline and generation theory developed by the historian Gyula Szekf? (e.g., in his book Three Generations), is one of the most original interpretations of modern Hungarian history. It was shared by many Hungarian intellectuals of the period. Paradoxically, the theme of decline also appeared in the views of the so-called ‘Századok’ (Centuries) circle, mainly in the writings of the historians István Hajnal and István Szabó. They rather followed the social-history-oriented French Annales School, and even attempted to offer a solution to the problems of the so-called ‘third way’ alternative. Almost all of the above-mentioned concepts were tied in the later political discourse to the so-called right-wing tradition of Hungarian political–historical thinking, but the author also touches briefly upon the notion of decline in the leftist (Marxist) tradition of György Lukács, whose ideas had an impact on the beginnings of the Frankfurt School. The article also offers a brief overview of the main ideas of spiritual history/Geistesgeschichte, since the author suggests that this was a common feature in all the interpretations of decline in the period treated here.     

Triad Dramas as Commentaries on Revolutionary Disharmony,Totalitarian Nostalgia,and a Yearning for Past Chivalry

In 2007, amateur on-line writer Kong Ergou’s triad novel series, Past Events of the Northeast: Twenty Years of the Triads, became a hit as a piece of network original literature. Five years later, the first volume of the book series was adapted into a network television drama of the same title. Focusing on the television drama, this paper examines three interrelated “dimensions” of the text. The first “dimension” relates to the correspondence between the inception and development of underworld gangs, and the vicissitudes experienced by the Chinese people during the harsh and unprecedented economic and cultural conditions that were introduced during the post-Mao era. A second “dimension” of this dramatic text finds that the nostalgia for and admiration of totalitarian times, together with a postmodern parody and deconstruction of Maoist society and its ideology, are juxtaposed in contemporary popular cultural products such as Past Events, thus demonstrating the complex and obscure emotions of ordinary Chinese people in relation to socialist revolutionary times. The final “dimension” compares the chivalrous spirit espoused by the gangsters with the ever-deteriorating morality and ethical values prevalent in present-day China.     

重申全球化时代的空间观:后现代地理学的理论与实践

"空间"是人文地理学研究的核心概念。全球化时代,空间概念的内涵与外延都发生了重要变化。本文通过重述后现代主义哲学、当代城市与区域空间重构的社会实践、当代人文地理学前沿理论三者之间相互印证的理念与事实,重申全球化时代的空间观为空间与社会辨证统一的后现代空间观,并阐述了其对当代人文地理学研究的重要意义。     

THE ECOSYSTEM HEALTH METAPHOR IN SCIENCE AND POLICY

Ecosystem health' is an increasingly common metaphor in the langauge of science and policy. Given the prominence of both the ecosystem and health concepts within geography, this paper examines the meanings generated by the adoption of the metaphor for scientific research and for environmental policy on the North American Great Lakes. 'Ecosystem' can be characterized as an entity, an abstract concept, or a perspective. As perspective, ecosystem shares many features of postmodern science, emphasizing complexity and holism and calling for the inclusion of human beings in our considerations of nature. The ecosystem health metaphor is politically powerful in its ability to evoke action and concern for the environment with an appeal to the universal experiences of human ill-health. The organismic ecosystem health metaphor provides a new, relevant way of thinking about the natural world. In policy discourse, however, metaphor can be problematic in that there is potential for the author or speaker to hide behind the nonliteral language. Moreover, the acceptance of the ecosystem health metaphor which can draw upon widely held beliefs and norms implies that other ways of knowing the world are necessarily omitted. We highlight some of these issues in a case study of a policy document prepared by the Ecological Committee of the Great Lakes International Joint Commission. To continue to know how to study nature in new ways, metaphors must be encouraged, but their meanings must also be widely explored     

人文地理学空间思想的几次重大转折

理解空间思想的演变及其与人文地理学的关系具有重要意义。从思想史角度出发,可将人文地理学空间思想的演变划分为起、承、转、合四个阶段。康德从哲学角度第一次系统地界定地理学为专门的空间科学,抬升了地理学的学科地位。赫特纳-哈特向承袭康德的空间观,将空间科学的抽象规定与方志传统的实际历史结合,把地理学研究对象归约为区域。其后,人文地理学的空间思想出现了四次重大转向,分别是空间几何学、人文空间性、激进的空间、空间的生产;它们体现了人文地理学与数学、哲学和其它社会科学的紧密关联与交叉。20世纪80年代以来兴起的后现代空间思想某种程度上契合康德空间观,但在哲学理念和侧重点上存在很大差异。由于不同空间认识论都有其价值,价值大小也难以评估,所以人文地理学学科地位与身份问题的争论已趋于淡化,这提示了人文地理空间研究可采取多重面向。哲学和其他学科在为人文地理提供依据和工具,使得人文地理学身份陷入迷离的同时也为其增添了活力和魅力,这是人文地理学面临的最大机遇与挑战。