关键时刻的语境大串联——关于文化研究的对话

这里刊出的是两位著名文化研究学者的一篇对话,主题自然是文化研究。劳伦斯.格罗斯伯格早年学习历史与哲学,后在英国伯明翰大学当代文化研究中心做研究,师从文化研究领军人斯图尔特.霍尔。他撰写和主编的大量论著在文化研究领域具有广泛影响,许多成为经典性论著。他主编的《文化研究》杂志,创刊于1987年。20年来,该杂志发表了近千篇学术论文,对文化研究领域的形成和发展有举足轻重的意义。刘康现担任美国杜克大学公共政策学院中国传媒中心主任、教授,南京大学兼职教授。照对话者的看法,文化研究的要旨在于如何“讲好故事”,路径之一乃是“串联”(articulation,又译作“接合”)。“串联”概念源出于斯图尔特.霍尔,旨在将不同事物联系起来构成新东西。对话者首先提出了跨学科的“串联”,以问题为中心,将不同学科的视角、方法、观念和理论相互碰撞,必然会产生各种新的观念。以问题为核心,就是强调回到问题本身是研究之宗旨所在。这就触及到所谓的“激进的语境主义”,也就是将特定问题带回到它们出现的那个特定社会、政治、经济和文化背景之中。提倡从问题出发、反对理论先行,这就击中了当前一些文化研究普遍存在的弊端。“关键时刻”概念特指社会矛盾激化的重要时刻,是语境的另一种描述,中国和西方目前都处在这一时刻。劳动的贬值,共同价值的衰落,文化的经济化,消费社会的崛起,传媒的影响等,都作为关键时刻的问题凸现出来,向文化研究提出了挑战。理论如何与大众“串联”,是对话又一重要主题,将文化研究变成公共知识,而非学院派的密语,看来是今后文化研究所面临的难题。在这方面右派比左派做得更好,也更有效,倒是一个发人深省的问题。于是,文化研究议程的创新,特别是在中国,如何从理论消费转向理论生产,乃是一个不容忽视的重大问题。     

Mini-batch learning of exponential family finite mixture models

Mini-batch algorithms have become increasingly popular due to the requirement for solving optimization problems, based on large-scale data sets. Using an existing online expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm framework, we demonstrate how mini-batch (MB) algorithms may be constructed, and propose a scheme for the stochastic stabilization of the constructed mini-batch algorithms. Theoretical results regarding the convergence of the mini-batch EM algorithms are presented. We then demonstrate how the mini-batch framework may be applied to conduct maximum likelihood (ML) estimation of mixtures of exponential family distributions, with emphasis on ML estimation for mixtures of normal distributions. Via a simulation study, we demonstrate that the mini-batch algorithm for mixtures of normal distributions can outperform the standard EM algorithm. Further evidence of the performance of the mini-batch framework is provided via an application to the famous MNIST data set.     

The Experience-Earnings Profile: Productivity-Augmenting or Purely Contractual? Evidence from the UK

We test the human capital interpretation of the experience-earnings profile. Does the upward sloping portion of the experience-earnings profile reflect on-the-job training which in turn causes the experience-productivity profile to slope upwards, or do purely contractual factors determine the nature of life-cycle earnings. Herein, we provide additional evidence on the relationship between productivity and earnings by examining earnings differentials in the UK academic labor market for economists. Using a test first suggested by Mincer, we find that the empirical results are consistent with human capital theory. We find that, although the positive relationship between earnings and experience persists when individual productivity measures are included in the salary equations for lecturers and senior lecturers, the positive relationship becomes statistically insignificant when the same productivity measures are included in the salary equations for professors. For lecturers and senior lecturers, the experience-salary profile properly reflects the structure of the national pay scale rather than variations in individual research productivity. At the professor level, where individual salaries are not determined by a pay scale, the data support the human capital explanation of the positive experience-earnings profile.

Home gardening practice in Pune (India), the role of communities,urban environment and the contribution to urban sustainability

Urban Ecosystems - Urban agriculture (UA) is regarded as an emerging tool and strategy for sustainable urban development as it addresses a wide array of environmental, economic and social...     

Graphical Presentations of Data Envelopment Analyses: Management Implications from Parallel Axes Representations*

The conversion of multivariate data analysis into information that managers can readily use in their decision making has always been a challenging task. In this paper we provide a parallel axis representation of multivariate data and demonstrate how this representation may be used as a tool for implementing the results of data envelopment analysis. We use an analysis of the efficiency of electricity generating plants to illustrate the technique.     

Faculty Performance Evaluation: Modeling to Improve Personnel Decisions*

Based on likely future changes in faculty evaluation practices, this paper examines how institutions of higher education might operationalize performance evaluation as related to research, teaching, and service. A model is developed that allows coupling performance evaluation and relevant market considerations with merit pay, tenure, and promotion decisions. The approach is specifically applicable to tenure-track faculty members in colleges and universities.     

On approximations via convolution-defined mixture models

An often-cited fact regarding mixing or mixture distributions is that their density functions are able to approximate the density function of any unknown distribution to arbitrary degrees of accuracy, provided that the mixing or mixture distribution is sufficiently complex. This fact is often not made concrete. We investigate and review theorems that provide approximation bounds for mixing distributions. Connections between the approximation bounds of mixing distributions and estimation bounds for the maximum likelihood estimator of finite mixtures of location-scale distributions are reviewed.     

Parenting Disputes After Separation and Divorce: Who Needs a Family Lawyer?

Australia's family law system continues to be plagued by serious delays. This article acknowledges the need for legal interventions in post‐separation parenting disputes in which individuals may be at risk, or in cases of genuine emergency. The article next contrasts cases involving significant risk or urgency with the many ‘ordinary’ (even if sometimes complex) post‐separation disputes over parenting in which these circumstances are not present. I argue that in such cases, legal advice, legally informed dispute processes, and court hearings are remnants from earlier attitudes to separation and divorce. These interventions are expensive, frequently destructive of ongoing parental relationships, and at their heart, inappropriate for considering the needs of children. They also divert time and resources from the critical investigative and legal decision‐making processes needed in urgent or risk‐related cases. I propose that legal narratives in ‘ordinary’ post‐separation parenting disputes be replaced by narratives focused on the main drivers of these disputes, which are invariably expressed in terms of relationship difficulties. Such narratives are amenable to facilitative, therapeutic, and systemic interventions aimed at achieving self‐determined resolutions. They contrast markedly with narratives reflecting common law notion of normative resolutions derived from the application of legal precedent. Key issues in the first section of the article are then teased out via the reflections of an imaginary separated parent in an ‘ordinary,’ albeit difficult and emotionally intense, dispute about how to care for the children. In the final section, I offer brief clinical and systemic reflections on past practice and on future narratives focused on individual self‐determination.     

MARKET PENETRATION AND LOCATIONAL CONFLICT IN FRANCHISE SYSTEMS*

This paper addresses the questions of market penetration and locational conflict in a franchise system of distribution. The models developed provide a means to evaluate alternative scenarios and the effects of various franchise policies. It is shown that the market penetration and location goals of the members of a franchise system coincide only under a very limited set of circumstances.