A call for more elaborate and transparent pension data to inform policy‐making: A critical examination of World Bank data for Eastern Europe

This article offers a critical analysis of the methods by means of which data relating to the performance of second pillar pension schemes are collated, compared and reported. This is done with regard to the performance of mandatory private second pillar pension funds in Eastern Europe. By critically examining data published in a number of World Bank studies, and through the identification of data problems and irregularities, the article argues that a much more elaborate and transparent approach to the collation, comparative analysis and reporting of data is needed. Required is the establishment of a consensus regarding what should represent a robust basis for making credible policy recommendations, not least with regard to pension re‐reforms in the countries of Eastern Europe and elsewhere. In the absence of such a consensus, unresolved data problems and irregularities may potentially continue to influence the formulation of incomplete national policy conclusions regarding the performance of second pillar pension funds and, in turn, the ability of policy‐makers to evaluate appropriately the need for, and assess the feasibility of implementing in a sustainable manner, pension re‐reform.     

From pension funds to piggy banks: (Perverse) consequences of the Stability and Growth Pact since the crisis

As part of their strategy for economic and monetary union, European governments committed themselves to fiscal discipline – particularly by placing limits on annual deficits and on public debt. Subsequently, and as they sought to respond to the “current crisis”, they embraced the view that only if public finances were kept under control would sustainable recovery be possible. Rules of fiscal governance were strengthened. To help them meet these rules, the governments of many member States of the European Union made changes to their pension systems or to funds they had established specifically to pay the costs of population ageing. The intention was not to cut retirement benefits or to improve the efficiency of the relevant pension schemes and institutions. Rather, it was to free up resources immediately. Funded pension schemes and pension funds were treated like “piggy banks” that were raided when times became hard. Moreover, the policies pursued succeeded in meeting their objectives only because the system of national accounts according to which outcomes are judged does not recognize the way in which most of the fiscal gains are matched by future fiscal liabilities.     

Intersecting discourses on race and sexuality: compounded colonization among LGBTTQ American Indians/Alaska Natives

This article examines discourses on race and sexuality in scientific literature during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries in context of U.S. settler colonialism. It uses a theoretical and methodological intersectional perspective to identify rhetorical strategies deployed in discursive representations salient to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Two-Spirit, and queer American Indians and Alaska Natives. These representations reflect a context of compounded colonization, a historical configuration of co-constituting discourses based on cultural and ideological assumptions that invidiously marked a social group with consequential, continued effects. Hence, language is a vector of power and a critical vehicle in the project of decolonization.     

论保罗·德曼思想中的“转义”

转义不只是语言的一种修辞手段,更是理解语言意向性的认识论前提。把转义视为语言的本体,强调语言的意向性,是德曼语言观的理论出发点;把转义作为文学阅读的原则,强调文本意义的不确定性,促成了文本意义的多样化;把转义看作认识论的起点,更好地审视了语言建构和解构意识形态的运作机制。     

巴赫金对话理论中的“盲视”——一种保罗·德曼式阅读

“对话”是巴赫金理论体系中的核心概念,它体现了他的认识论、存在论和价值论等多方面的重要思想。然而,美国著名解构主义思想家保罗·德曼却以语言的修辞性为基本立场,把对话看作是解构巴赫金思想体系的重要的“墙角石”：第一,对话作为理论术语和巴赫金现实生活的潜意识对应,在某种程度上会影响其理论体系向艺术创作的辐射力度,造成阅读过程中的盲视;第二,对话作为文艺研究方法,忽视了虚构与现实之间的关系,否认文本语言的转义性,造成了阅读过程中诗学话语和阐释话语两种阅读模式之间的不确定性。     

现代汉语“名1＋（的）＋名2”定中结构非典型领属关系研究

现代汉语＂名1＋（的）＋名2＂定中结构内部的领属关系又可分为典型的领属关系与非典型的领属关系。文章重点探讨了非典型领属关系的各种表现形式,如领属结构中存在隐喻,指称义的虚化等等。     

Exemplary sound and hearing in sensory treatises from the early modern Spanish-speaking world

This essay considers sound in sensory treatises from the seventeenth-century Hispanic world: Jerónimo Becerra’s Estvdioso discvrso philosophica anathomia, y theatro ingenioso de los organos y sentidos interiores, y exteriores del hombre (Mexico, 1657); Tratado de los bienes del silencio y males de la lengua, attributed to rector of the Colegio de Manila Diego de S. I. Bobadilla (Manila, 1645) and Diego Calleja’s Talentos logrados, en el buen uso de los cinco sentidos (Madrid, 1700). My purpose is to draw out the authors’ engagement with aural discourses that intersect with other areas of early modern thought. Above all, I underscore the reconciliation of existing ideas about sound’s spiritual significance with developments in medicine and anatomy. The study is the first in-depth examination of each of the three treatises it considers. It advances our understanding of seventeenth-century sound culture and underscores the need for re-reading cultural production from this time period through an aural lens.     

Austérité budgétaire et flexibilisation du marché du travail: une association risquée

Les auteurs évaluent les effets de l'association entre politiques d'austérité budgétaire et de réduction du coût du travail, et apportent ainsi quelque éclairage sur les débats en cours. Ils s'attaquent au problème de l'agrégation dans une perspective mondiale au moyen d'un macromodèle mettant en évidence la dynamique de la répartition. La flexibilisation réduit la part salariale et entraîne des rétroactions qui s'enchaînent dans une spirale descendante avec une contraction de l'activité, même dans les économies tirées par les exportations. Les gains initiaux de compétitivité se révèlent éphémères. Sur le long terme, les salaires sont les premiers moteurs de l'économie mondiale, qui réagit positivement aux stimuli keynésiens coordonnés.     

符号学与修辞

第一届变音符号学研讨会在康奈尔召开,会议的主题为“文本,前文本及语境”。保罗·德·曼在此会议上讲演了符号学与修辞,其中提出很多有见解的思想,如在文学内部的法则和规律被严格遵循的前提下,我们现在可以自信地专注于外部问题研究,即文学的外部策略,并对此研究趋势作简要探讨;同时以美、法、英国文学个案为例讨论文学修辞与语言学的关系,提出语义符号学的修辞语法化观点。     

Comment vendre un produit incertain ? Activités de détachement et d’attachement d’une firme d’agrofourniture

This article examines the sales practices of a French agricultural supplies company whose products have uncertain qualities and contested effects. We show that this characteristic leads the sales technicians responsible for selling these products to develop arguments that make extensive use of a rhetoric aiming to detach the clients from their competitors. Given how difficult it is to establish an objective assessment of products’ intrinsic qualities, we also show how attachments are built around a broad-ranging solution that in particular includes providing consulting services for farmers. More generally, in the analysis of sales work, the commerce of these uncertain products invites one to think of processes of attachment and detachment in symmetrical terms.