Care,pay, love: commodification and the spaces of live-in care

This paper investigates uses of the concept of commodification in contemporary analyses of waged care. Drawing on theoretical work on commodification and discourse-analytical research on private live-in care in Switzerland, I explore how Swiss live-in care questions central discussions in the literature. Scholars have focused on the ways in which care is embroiled within market relations and the adverse effects of commodification on the character and quality of care. The paper outlines the two central discussions, identifies important limitations and explores the ways in which Swiss live-care contests their underlying assumptions. Swiss live-in care exhibits intricate processes of waging elder care. Live-in care services are offered and arranged on agency websites while taking place at elderly persons’ private households. Elder care thus becomes entangled in market relations both in virtual spaces and at home. Furthermore, live-in care workers do not distance themselves from their work but actively seek to improve their conditions of work. In so doing, they complicate the assumption that paying for care corrupts caregiving or turns it into a product for sale. Based on this evidence from Swiss live-in care, I propose that a careful use of commodification might best serve feminist interventions.     

基于临海文化视野下的城市旅游开发研究

文章以浙江省临海市城市旅游开发为主要研究对象,通过阐析城市环境、城市文化与城市旅游之间的关系,探讨基于临海文化视野下的城市旅游开发思路,对临海城市文化建设、提升城市形象具有重要意义。     

‘Hanging out in Runescape’: Identity,Work and Leisure in the Virtual Playground

This article explores young people's practices in the virtual spaces of online gaming communities. Based on a three-year field-study of virtual worlds, it considers how young people construct and maintain identities within virtual social systems. The article discusses the relationship between the material and virtual aspects of young people's leisure. It suggests that the boundaries between these domains are porous. Virtual worlds offer spaces for the imagination and can enhance agency and, potentially, resistance. However, virtuality is no ‘liberated space’ and it incorporates norms and practices that often mirror those of the material world.     

‘Life in Happy Land’: using virtual space and doing motherhood in Hong Kong

This paper examines how a group of Hong Kong working mothers use the internet in performing and realizing their paid work and domestic role identities. The internet is a technology-enabled space and also what Michel de Certeau calls a ‘practiced place’, where its nature and functions are necessarily determined by the actions and practices of agents. Through participant observation and the analysis of a sample of chatroom and forum messages from a user-driven Hong Kong-based parenting website called Happy Land, I examine the relationship between this virtual space and its users. I find that the website has developed beyond its technology-mediated nature into a community of face-to-face friendships and social and emotional support. In effect, this virtual space plays a role in the social reproduction of the contemporary dual-earner family by enabling working mothers who use the website to perform roles in production and reproduction respectively.     

The digital restoration of painted patterns on the No. 2 Qin bronze chariot based on hyperspectral imaging

The No. 2 Qin bronze chariot unearthed from Qinshihuang's Mausoleum is world famous for its huge size and colourful painted patterns. However, since it had been buried for a long time and was affected by its harsh environment, its painted patterns have been severely damaged. The traditional restoration methods, which mainly rely on expert experience, are manual, inefficient and lack scientific support. Moreover, to protect the important cultural relics, any invasive operations, such as sampling analysis, are strictly prohibited. This paper presents a method that combines hyperspectral imaging and computer technology for the digital virtual restoration of the bronze chariot's patterns. It is non-destructive, more efficient and more scientific. The method reproduces the damaged patterns with the following approaches: restoring the missing edges of the patterns; and distinguishing the different pigments. The obtained result implies that the method can digitally reproduce some of the damaged patterns, and that it can be used as a reference for recreating the patterns of the other painted bronze.     

Virtual anthropology and forensic arts: the facial reconstruction of Ferrante Gonzaga

In the last few years virtual anthropology has been used to solve different problems that could not be properly addressed using a traditional anthropological approach. Mainly when dealing with mummies or embalmed bodies, the virtual approach is the only solution to carry out a detailed analysis of the skeleton without jeopardizing the integrity of the physical remains.     

网络虚拟财产的法律保护

网络产业已经成为我国重要的经济增长点,但是,在我国网络上的虚拟财产并没有得到有效的保护,究其原因在于现行法律没有对虚拟财产的合法性作出明确规定,相关法律法规对网络虚拟财产的保护还是一片空白。因此,本文在对虚拟财产进行法律界定的基础上,对虚拟财产的法律保护进行了初步探讨。     

民法解释在处理旅游合同纠纷中的作用——以孟元诉中佳旅行社旅游合同纠纷案为例

现今旅游纠纷日益增多,而在我国旅游行政管理部门及司法实践中,普遍存在＂无法可依＂的认识误区,以及回避纠纷性质,重结果轻分析的倾向。《最高人民法院公报》公布的＂孟元诉中佳旅行社旅游合同纠纷案＂及其判决,虽然并未引起旅游业界、法学界的太多争议,但其在旅游合同性质认定及解除权问题上的认定,存在着一定的问题和瑕疵。本文从民法解释的角度重新审视该案,并对该案判决提出较为具体的不同意见,以呼吁业界通过解释现行民事立法,充分发挥其在解决旅游民事纠纷中的作用。     

高斌《南河图说》与乾隆首次南巡研究

雍正年间黄河河政管理制度的变化,推动了清代黄河图绘制内容和机制的变化;而康熙年间张鹏翮所绘河渠水利图集的内容和形式,也影响了乾隆年间江南黄运河图集的编绘。海内外分别收藏有以江南黄河、运河、洪泽湖、淮河工程为主题的河渠水利图集一"南河图说",经考证均为乾隆十五年(1750年)江南河臣高斌、张师载等人在乾隆帝首次南巡的背景下绘制呈送的定本、副本或后人摹绘本。《南河图说》既是河督高斌反映河情、陈述治河政见、彰显治河政绩的工具,也是乾隆帝确定南巡路线、了解河务、进行河政决策的重要依据。《南河图说》的绘制、呈奏和运用在很大程度上确定了乾隆首次南巡的模式,对研究乾隆南巡和乾隆朝河政运作具有重要价值。     

The Anthropology of Virtual Worlds: World of Warcraft

Three recent ethnographies of the well-known massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft demonstrate the health and vitality of the study of virtual worlds. In particular, they emphasize the importance of anthropologists reading ethnographic work done by researchers in other disciplines, and by connoisseurs and cultural practitioners of video games who deserve to be taken as intellectual interlocutors. It may be, however, that less and less work will be done on virtual worlds in the future as scholarly attention focuses on other, more novel forms of technology.