Exchange on the quantitative measurement of ethnic and national identity*

In recent decades, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of quantitative techniques in the study of ethnicity and nationalism, without, however, a sufficient amount of reflection on how these techniques have contributed to our understanding of ethnic and national identities. As such, in this exchange three sets of authors answer questions about the degree to which it is possible to use quantitative data to measure ethnic and national identities, which types of methods are most suitable in measuring these identities and what the major research findings of this quantitative research are that were not possible using qualitative approaches.     

Cultural participation in Europe: shared problem or shared problematisation?

Europe has a ‘problem’; it is becoming a ‘less cultural continent’ as fewer Europeans are ‘engaging in cultural activities’. This conclusion has been reached due to the findings of the latest cross national cultural participation survey. This paper questions the existence of this ‘problem’ and instead suggests that there is a shared problematisation across Europe sustained by common discursive archaeology that employs various discursive strands in relation to a dominant institutional discourse. The argument is that the ‘problem’ of ‘non-participation’ legitimates a ‘solution’ that predates its emergence: the state subsidy of arts organisations. The paper recaps the comparable problematisations that the researchers have previously identified in the policy texts of their respective countries. It progresses to consider three distinct but interwoven discursive strands upon which the problem representation in both countries, and potentially across Europe, appears to rely.     

Not Just a Jesuit Atlas of China: Qing Imperial Cartography and Its European Connections

In the literature, the ‘Overview Maps of Imperial Territories’ or Huangyu quanlan tu 皇輿全覽圖, is mostly referred to as ‘the Jesuit atlas of China’. The reason is that this early eighteenth-century atlas of all Qing China’s territories plus Korea and Tibet is assumed to have resulted from European missionaries importing European cartographic practices. In this essay, I argue that this view is outdated and can no longer be sustained. By revisiting the background of the missionaries’ involvement in cartographic exchanges between Asia and Europe, the techniques used for surveying Qing territories and the production of the resulting atlases, I show that the mapping project behind the ‘Overview Maps of Imperial Territories’ is best understood as a creative answer to the unique needs of Qing frontier management and imperial control, made possible by the integration, in mensurational and in representational terms, of European and East Asian cartographic practices.     

Heterochronism in the Moisture Supply of Eurasia in the Middle Ages (Landscape Ethnos,V)

The author relates climatic fluctuations in inner Asia to the political fate of the nomadic inhabitants from the 1st century A. D. to the 18th century. He thus establishes an absolute chronology of climatic changes related to latitudinal shifts in storm tracks. Previous articles in this series appeared in Soviet Geography, June 1964, February 1966, and December 1966.     

Pension Exclusion in Grey Capitalism: Mapping the Pensions Gap in Britain

The switch in Britain's pension policy towards private funded schemes and a liberal style of state regulation have exposed variations in individuals' ability and willingness to undertake pensions saving. This paper focuses on the patterns of exclusion and the geographies of pension consumption created by this reform. It argues that there are new patterns of pension provision which have important but neglected spatial dimensions. First, it shows that widening inequality among current pensioners involves a North-South divide in income and benefit take-up. Second, private second tier pension coverage, especially the take-up of personal policies, is found to be lower in areas with lower levels of income among existing pensioners. The paper considers whether the Government's new stakeholder pensions are likely to be able to fill this pensions gap.     

废甲编区:清初衡山县里甲赋役改革与基层区划的重塑

清初,迭遭兵燹的湖南地区经历了兴垦、均编粮里、清丈等重建赋役秩序的过程。其中,衡山县于康熙四十三年实施的"废甲编区"更是呈现出清初里甲赋役改革的丰富面相。因应偏沅巡抚赵申乔革除里排、滚单催征的举措,衡山县打破原有里甲规制的束缚,改革中坚持粮不过区、就地编区的原则,孕育了字区的地缘性色彩,重塑十七字四百三十七区的赋役区划体系。以康熙五十三年新一轮的清丈为契机,知县葛亮臣在业已建立的区划结构内清查荒籍,使字区成为地方重要的赋役征派和土地登记单位。在这一区域变迁的历史过程中,字区的行政区划功能逐渐得到强化和延续,以赋役征派为目的建立起来的基层赋役区划向实体化与政区化迈进,与之相应的行政话语也深刻地影响着民间契约文本的表达。     

The China Maps of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville: Origins and Supporting Networks

Abstract

By 1735, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville had produced forty-one maps of the Qing Empire, or China, a process significantly more complex than scholars have hitherto appreciated. A close study of d’Anville’s maps and their originals has revealed their relationship with the different versions of a Chinese atlas, the first of which was completed early in 1718, the outcome of nearly a decade of collaborative surveying between officials of the Qing Empire and European missionaries. The precise origins of some of the maps are identified for the first time, and the network behind the remarkable intercontinental exchange of cartographical material that allowed d’Anville to produce his China maps is also discussed, thereby illustrating the central role of the French Jesuits, as well as the connection with St Petersburg.     

After Ethnic Violence in the Caucasus: Attitudes of Local Abkhazians and Displaced Georgians in 2010

The paper combines the results of two nearly simultaneous surveys in 2010 to provide a unique, rather comprehensive picture of the attitudes of (a) current residents of Abkhazia and (b) largely ethnic Georgian former residents of Abkhazia now living in forced displacement in Georgia following the 1992-1993 war. More specifically, it probes the views of these two groups about each other and the sensitive question raised by the disputed return of displaced Georgians to breakaway Abkhazia. Also investigated are the potential conditions for possible return in the future, including issues relating to property ownership. The authors conclude by discussing the policy implications of the survey results. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D740, I310, J600, O150. 13 figures, 24 references.     

近年来景德镇元代青花窑址调查与研究

本文对2000年以前景德镇元代青花窑址考古调查的历史进行了简要总结,对2000年以后在景德镇老城区城市改造中揭示出来的小港嘴、落马桥、电磁厂—刘家弄、戴家弄、小黄家弄—桂花弄(十八桥)、四图里(半边街)等六处元代青花窑址及其出土的部分元青花瓷器进行了介绍。作者根据窑址调查和考古资料,对景德镇元青花窑址的基本分布情况、景德镇元代青花瓷器生产的鼎盛时期及景德镇元青花瓷器是否存在官窑等问题进行了论述。