‘It's a public,I reckon’: Publicness and a Suburban Shopping Mall in Sydney's Southwest

Traditionally, public space has been perceived as an integral part of fully functioning liberal democracy. Yet much research argues that public space is in decline due to regimes of neoliberal governance paralleled with a growth in quasi-public spaces such as shopping malls, casinos and gated communities. It is argued that these new spatial forms posit a commercialised, sanitised and ultimately exclusionary urban form in place of more egalitarian, engaging and ultimately democratic public spaces. Increasingly, however, urban research has questioned the veracity of the claims made about the nature of traditional public space as well as investigating the marginal and contingent nature of publicness as constituted by and enacted in a variety of places. Drawing on Foucault's concept of heterotopic space, this paper reports on a qualitative study based on focus group interviews conducted with users of a suburban shopping mall in Sydney's southwest. The research uncovers both a more complex and less overtly deterministic publicness than has previously been identified in such spaces. From these findings the paper argues for a conception of publicity which moves beyond the zero-sum game approach endemic in much work in this area to one which analyses the qualitative effect quasi-public spaces are having on the nature of publicness in the Australian context. The paper concludes by arguing that a rethinking of publicness allows room for the emergence of a more progressive public ethic.     

Religion and the cultural public sphere: the case of the Finnish liberal intelligentsia during the turmoil of the early twentieth century

The political public sphere is at one and the same time both public, and private and religion operates in both the public and the private spheres in the modern way of life. This article approaches the dynamics between the cultural and the political public sphere from the point of view of religion; how the cultural intelligentsia developed its worldview fuelled with attitudes towards religion in times of political turmoil. The case study, based on the empirical analysis of cultural periodicals and societies around them, concerns the Finnish liberal intelligentsia in the early twentieth century. The first decade of the 1900s was a particularly important period of formation for the Finnish public sphere; the societal turmoil highlighted the importance of cultural periodicals in defining what was important for the national public sphere. The case of religion is an illustrative example of it, particularly from the point of view of the liberal intelligentsia of the era.     

马来西亚华人社会的语言生活和认同结构——以问卷调查为基础的分析

为了客观反映马来西亚华人在语言和认同等领域的现状,采用问卷调查的方法,通过基本数据材料的分析,探讨了当今马来西亚吉隆坡、古晋、吧巴和诗巫等地的华人认同情况.在语言方面,华人子弟在小学阶段大致打好华语基础,同时保持华人认同.在日常生活中,华语和华人方言的使用占优势,但在商业和职业范围,马来语和英语的使用率有所增加.经济生活方面,华人发扬了传统的奋斗精神,贡献于国民经济的发展.政治认同方面,华人对马来西亚的认同,远远高于对中国等其它对象的认同.结果显示:华人既保持华人性而又能动地适应国民规范;华人以民族语言维持传统文化的族群社会功能,扮演着国家社会发展的重要角色,在这一过程中,华人形成了本身的"华人文化圈"并进一步孕育着华人文化的发展与创新.     

Chinese Independent Documentary Films: Alternative Media,Public Spheres and the Emergence of the Citizen Activist

This article argues that contemporary independent documentary filmmaking in China has been used as a tool by Chinese citizens to intervene in the public sphere and to provoke social change. I therefore propose to look at the phenomenon of Chinese video activism under the umbrella of alternative media. In particular, I take into consideration the “rhizomatic” media approach, which focuses on the interaction of alternative media with authority, the market and civil society. The case studies I present consist of several documentary projects completed between 2004 and 2010 that opened up spaces of dialogue between filmmakers and local authority, mass media and civil society. The paper claims that documentary films have an impact on audiences, whose members are consequently motivated to engage in discussion and action. I argue that activist video-making in China is reshaping the identity of urban citizens: through filmmaking, urban citizens claim their right to access information and demonstrate their will to participate and intervene in social issues.     

福泽谕吉与“脱亚论”的理论与实践

福泽谕吉既是一位近代启蒙思想家,也是一个征韩侵华论的积极倡导者。这种“矛盾”性,取决于他要着力完成的两大任务：一是建立主权独立的近代化国家;二是以武威“大东亚秩序”来取代札教“华夷秩序”。前者诱因于西方“条约体系”下的“民族国家”理念;后者催生于颠覆东亚“朝贡体系”进而取中国而代之的百年夙愿。两大任务的显隐交替和互为前提,解释了《文明论之概略》与《脱亚论》之间的表层矛盾和内在关联。     

从精英掌控到大众文化空间——19世纪上半叶大英博物馆的建构与功能转换

19世纪上半叶,英帝国的强盛将大英博物馆推向新纪元,馆藏规模得到极大扩充,书籍、手稿、自然和人工制品的收藏增长迅速。这一时期,英国议会对大英博物馆更加重视也更加慷慨,愿意花费公共资金来扩充藏品。另一方面,严厉的参观规则得以变更,进入博物馆参观或学习的限制被放宽,繁杂的参观时间规定得以改进,阅览室的空间不断扩充。作为大众文化空间,博物馆为公众服务的宗旨和理念随着国家的重视和精英人物的努力逐渐由虚设变为现实,其由国家掌控的特性及作为国家文化工具的使命第一次得到明确的认可和界定。     

Grassroots Environmental Activism and the Internet: Constructing a Green Public Sphere in China

The past three decades have seen the resurgence of China's civil society through the blossoming of NGOs that campaign for various marginalised interests, including environmental protection. Many studies have examined the co-evolution of the Internet and China's civil society. This paper examines the role of the Internet in strengthening grassroots environmental activism, taking into consideration the corporatised character of Chinese NGOs. Through a detailed ethnographic case study of a leading grassroots environmental group, the Global Village of Beijing (GVB), I argue that Internet technologies effectively empower resource-poor activists in their self-representation, information brokering, network building, public mobilisation and construction of discourse communities. The Net therefore contributes to the nascent formation of a green public sphere in China by fostering a discourse that counterbalances rapid economic development. Also discussed here are issues that hamper this process, including resource limitations, the fragmentation of online discourse communities, and the marginalisation and “caging” of environmental discourse.     

The Laurentian world map with special reference to its portrayal of Africa

When the Jesuit missionaries began to work in China, they attracted the attention of the Chinese by introducing European knowledge. This is the context in which Jesuits such as Matteo Ricci, Giulio Aleni, Francesco Sambiasi and Ferdinand Verbiest made their Chinese‐language world maps. Sambiasi was a man of many talents. He was a tactful diplomat and a learned scientist. His world map shows him to be a skilful adapter of earlier knowledge, which he passed on to future generations. The six known copies of his map are in two versions, printed from two sets of wood blocks (c. 1639). A text at the top of one version explains why the world must be seen as a sphere, which demonstrates how these maps were meant to convince the Chinese public of European scientific findings.     

For the Wealth of the Realm: the transformation of the public sphere in Swedish politics,c. 1434–1650

This article addresses the transformation of the representative public in late medieval and early modern Sweden. While recognizing the importance of Habermas' theory of the public sphere, the focus is on the progressive character of the royal administration and on how the interaction within the administrative setting eventually came to serve as a basis for political opinion. The interplay between local bargaining over taxes and political action at the national level is of critical importance. The state formation process served to empower new groups such as peasants and burghers, who eventually learned how to wield rational arguments in defence of their interests. This is demonstrated here by focusing on the interaction between local officeholders and the tax-paying peasantry.     

A peculiar pluralism

Abstract

In this article, we shall describe the complexity and differentiation that characterizes the state of religion in Italy, beginning with a concise reconstruction of the chief factors that characterize the relationship that Italians experience with their birth religion or the prevailing religion (Catholicism). We shall then describe the level of ethical and religious pluralism (found both within the Catholic universe and, especially, outside of that universe) that Italian society is beginning to experience directly, in part because of the fact that other religious entities (both old and new) are become increasingly visible in the public sphere, adding color and identity to the symphony of voices attempting to speak publicly in religious terms. In conclusion, we shall explore a phenomenon, popular religion, which continues to show extraordinary vitality. The basic hypothesis that we intend to set forth is based on the idea that ordinary Italians consider themselves Catholic but have a variety of different ways of interpreting their practical involvement with the Catholic Church.