Narratives of national belonging: the domestic,the wild,and the mutant in Australian film

This article explores understandings of postcolonial national belonging through an analysis of cinematic representations of humans, animals and the environment. It does so by analyzing a series of Australian films about plants, animals or people who are out of place or out of control. The article registers some of the changing representations of Australian flora, fauna and, by association people, as native, domesticated, simpatico, feral and wild; interpreting these shifts as recalibrations of a moral hierarchy of cultural belonging. Films including Lantana (2001) Dir. Ray Lawrence; Razorback (1984) Dir. Russell Mulchay; Rogue (2007) Dir. Greg Mclean; and Black Water (2007) Dirs. David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki are read in terms of political anxieties. Drawing on work ‘that insists humans and animals are currently bound in a complex network of relationships’, I use these films to explore issues of the nation, place, belonging in relation to aliens and natives. Given that in the past 20 years there has been increasing recognition of the history of colonialism and its effects on Indigenous peoples but also a different but related blossoming of environmental nationalism, the key question that animates this research is how these understandings are represented in film and what work animals and plants might have played in filmic cultural representations of national belonging.     

How national identification matters: the development of European identification among established ethnic minority groups

Based upon the data from qualitative studies of eight national minorities between the Baltic and the Danube, this article investigates the formation of European identification among members of the minority groups representing ‘split nations’ along the new eastern borders of the enlarged EU. The analysis reveals mechanisms of the formation of supranational identification by focusing on the relationships between subnational, national and European identifications to ascertain the degree of interconnectedness of these identification levels. These relationships are examined in the context of the potential impact of perceived ethnic conflict and utilitarian expectations of socio-economic and cultural gains from the process of European integration.     

National Language Capacity in Global Competition

The term national language capacity refers to the sum total of a nation’s ability to grasp linguistic resources, provide language services, deal with linguistic issues, develop the language, and related tasks. Key capacities include the possession of linguistic resources, utilization of language and language services, development and use of linguistic resources, the language of the members of the nation, reserves of linguistic talent, language management, development of language enterprises and linguistic influence. The development of informatization has made national language capacity an important part of national strength. It is hard power as well as soft power, playing a very important role in social progress and cultural inheritance, in promoting economic development and technological innovation, and in protecting a country’s national security and international development.     

How the host nation's boundary drawing affects immigrants’ belonging

Across Western democracies, the place for newcomers in the host society is debated, involving often a questioning of immigrants’ belonging to their new nation. This article argues that immigrants’ feeling of host national belonging depends on how the host nation imagines its community and its concomitant boundaries. Utilising survey and country level data in multilevel regressions, immigrants’ belonging is found to vary significantly across the 19 countries included. A central contribution is the finding that citizenship policies do not explain this cross-national variation. Instead, what matters is the informal boundary drawing produced in the majority population's conception of what is important for being part of the national ‘us'. Thus, immigrants’ belonging is significantly greater when the majority population prioritises attainable criteria of national membership. In addition, these priorities are shown to have deep historical roots as immigrants’ belonging is greater in settler countries and in nations which democratised early. By showing that national imageries have consequences for a country's welcoming capacities, and by showing that these welcoming capacities are historically path dependent, the study contributes to the debate within nationalism studies about national identity's causal significance.     

Voluntary contributions and wages in nonprofit organizations

Voluntary work provides a major source of labor for many nonprofit organizations. Consequences of volunteers and paid staff working alongside each other in nonprofits are well documented. This article contributes to this strand of literature and investigates whether the presence of volunteer work influences paid employees' wages in nonprofit organizations. We estimated a multilevel wage equation accounting for personal characteristics of workers and characteristics of nonprofits. The analysis revealed that nonprofit organizations engaging volunteers pay lower wages to their employees. Our findings contribute to the understanding of wage‐setting behavior of nonprofits and improve the methodological approach of empirical research in this field.     

Ethnic studies,citizenship education,and the public good

Since the 1990s, ethnic studies and other components of multicultural education have been criticized by neo-conservative and assimilationist scholars who maintain that school diversity initiatives weaken national identity and fail to help students attain the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to function effectively in the national mainstream culture. The banning of ethnic studies courses in the Tucson (Arizona) Unified School District in the USA was a widely publicized manifestation of the neo-conservative response to multicultural school initiatives. This article describes neo-conservative critiques of ethnic studies, and argues that ethnic studies is an important component of US history that is required to help students become effective and thoughtful citizens in a democratic nation and global world.     

新世纪前后中国文学版图中的“宁夏板块”

“宁夏文学”在中国当代文学史上占有一席之地，始于社会主义新时期。20世纪80年代，张贤亮以其饱经沧桑和忧患之后的慷慨悲歌征服了大江南北。张贤亮的小说创作，不仅提升了宁夏文学总体的创作水平，也为宁夏文学在中国文坛赢得了美好声誉。进入20世纪90年代，宁夏文学在略事犹豫和徘徊之后，终于在新世纪前后，再次向中国文坛奉献了“宁夏青年作家群”。这一创作群体的崛起，不仅给新世纪前后的中国文学界吹来一股清新怡人的创作之风，而且，这一与广阔深厚的中国古老土地和“中国经验”血脉相连，并因此取得了不凡文学业绩的青年创作群体的成功，也充分证明，在市场经济条件下，居于偏远地区的文学创作事业，只要领导得法，调动有方，是可以走在全国前列的。     

《三国演义》在明清时期的传播对民族精神的影响研究

《三国演义》是我国"四大古典小说之一,其在明清时期的广泛传播对中华民族精神产生了不可或缺的深远影响:树立了集"忠义"和"神勇"于一身的崇拜偶像—关羽,提升了民族笃信好义精神,提高了民族凝聚力,增强了民族忧患意识。     

民族认同的影像表达——以《建国大业》与《建党伟业》为例

《建国大业》与《建党伟业》是两部影响巨大的献礼影片，两部影片在历史事件选择与表达方面别具手眼，具有突破性。这种突破并非是一时兴起，而是指向了“民族认同”这一深刻主题。     

智库建设的困境摆脱与国家软实力提升

智库是国家软实力的重要体现。改革开放以来，国家软实力的提升为智库建设的机制创新创造了有利条件。但在新时期新的历史条件下，由于体制内官方智库的非自主性、体制外智库发展的滞后性、智库设置和定位的模糊化、智库建设和发展的保障不足等仍影响着国家软实力的提升。不断加强官方智库建设，高度重视半官方智库建设，加大民间智库的扶持力度，引导大学附属型智库的积极发展，建立各类智库的互动合作机制，是我国进一步提升国家软实力的必由之路。