‘Nothing about us without us’: the emerging disability movement and advocacy in China

The disability movement and disabled persons’ self-help organizations (DPOs) are emerging in China, some of which succeeded in promoting policy and social changes with special strategies. Based on an original survey and interview, this article explains the development and survival strategies of China’s DPOs, and especially interprets some successful cases of social advocacy and policy advocacy in the emerging disability movement. It is hoped that scholars will pay more attention to the advocacy and public engagement of the disability community in non-western settings in the future.     

Fragments of Modernization: Domestic Spaces Indicating Traditional Dialects in a Modern Speech

This article examines the change in Turkish domestic space through modernization and, in particular, the artifact of lace, as a nonchanging object in Turkish home in its relationship with the “traditional” and the “modern” domestic settings. Thereby it investigates how traditional and modern settings are defined in Turkish society and, this leads to a further analysis of the modernization process in Turkey within the scope of Turkish house and its domestic settings. The aim of the article is to analyze lace as an agent, which is an actant of the change in domestic settings, to read the connection between the daily life of people and social lives of artifacts. Therefore, examining the dialogue of lace with traditional and modern domestic settings provides to deconstruct the network of the artifact, the house and the individual during the modernization process that Turkish society has been through. The theoretical perspective of the article relies on a material‐semiotic approach with an emphasis on Latour's Actor‐Network Theory and, the methodology of the article is based on ethnography: It includes observations and semi‐structured interviews conducted with people from different social environments focusing on the meaning and the use of lace in domestic environment.     

Accounting for the Performance of Environmentally Significant Behavior: The Symbolic Significance of Recycling

The scientific community has pronounced climate change unequivocal and its consequences disastrous. Yet Americans' behavioral response to the global social problem of environmental degradation has been largely confined to the individual act of recycling. This article examines why Americans are not doing more to address climate change and other environmental issues. Taking a cognitive sociological perspective, I describe how Americans think about environmental issues and pro‐environmental behavior. I draw on Swidler's concept of a “cultural tool kit,” to examine the cultural narratives Americans use to account for the small amount of pro‐environmental behavior they perform. The act of recycling functions as a synecdoche for pro‐environmental behavior in general, allowing individuals to over‐claim the significance of a modest amount of pro‐environmental behavior. I argue that Americans' failure to engage with environmental issues at a collective level is rooted in the individualized culture of American environmentalism.     

Mighty Crime Victims: Victims' Rights and Neoliberalism in the American Conjuncture

Over the last 30 years, the victims' rights movement has expanded the role of victims in the American criminal justice system. As a result of this movement, judges, prosecutors and parole boards must now hear victims' views at all stages of the criminal justice process, including plea bargains, and sentencing and parole decisions. Legislative efforts have been spearheaded by victims' families, and legislation has been named after deceased victims. Also, victims' families can now view executions in states across the country. The victims' right movement assumes that the criminal justice system should privilege victims' interests over those of society. In so doing, it denies society as a consideration, which is tantamount to a denial of society itself. This article positions victims' rights' denial of society within the current conjuncture, marked as it is by the contradiction between neoliberalism and American liberalism. Victims' rights' denial of society is an expression of the denial of society implicit in American neoliberalism, which seeks to privilege individual interests over those of society. This paper argues that victims' rights is a powerful element of the neoliberal project for three reasons. First, victims' rights imputes the authority of legal discourse to neoliberalism's denial of society. Second, important actors in the rise of neoliberalism have also worked to establish victims' rights. Finally, victims' rights comprehensively circulates throughout America and offers powerful points of identification that incorporate Americans into the victims' rights formation. I explore the denial of society in three victims' rights practices: naming criminal legislation after crime victims and passing such laws in honour of victims; allowing victims' families to view executions; and prosecutors, judges and police personnel making legal decisions according to victims' wishes. I examine the consonant denial of society in three neoliberal practices – monetarism, supply-side economics and welfare reform – and demonstrate how neoliberal advocates like Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Paul Gann worked to advance victims' rights. I also describe the production, consumption and comprehensive circulation of victims' rights texts. Finally, I consider Cultural Studies' unique contribution to legal studies.     

层级制:存续抑或终结

层级制是人类管理史上一种高效率的组织形式,但由于其包含着组织利益与个体利益、平等与等级、自由与依赖、稳定结构与环境变化等内在理念的冲突,以及现实中独断的领导方式,信息沟通不畅通等痼疾,将会为一种民主、平等、自我管理的网络型的理想组织体系所替代,然而,这种替代性方案必须在一定情景之下才能实现。纵观我国管理界,层级组织仍然是主要模式,如何推进我国组织体制的变革,始终是一个棘手的问题。通过对层级制组织的分析,希望为我国组织体制的变革提供理论支撑。     

论中国人的信仰

在将"信仰"与"宗教"混同的情况下,西方一些人很难了解中华文化中的信仰状况,甚至以为中国人没有信仰。实际上,在中国传统文化的主流中,看似"无"宗教,却是"有"信仰的。从《周易》开始,中国人就确立了以"天"为最高信仰,以人为关怀对象,追求"顺天应人"的人本主义信仰方式。这种信仰方式有其合理先进之处:它借多元宗教和非宗教的外壳,保持了"以人为本"的内核,有利于避免西方特别是欧洲历史上多次发生的那种流血的宗教冲突,给社会的发展多保留了一点难得的稳定和安宁。但也有不合理的一面:它对现实中很严肃的重大问题关注得不够认真、不够执著、不够彻底,甚至对于自己的信仰对象也缺少彻底的追究和一贯的把握,而是任其含混不定,随意改变;对于"信仰"这种心理和行为本身,它更少有正面的、开诚布公的自觉、反思、追问和交代,而是将其当作心照不宣的约定,满足于"运用之妙,在乎一心",停留于自发选择和盲目运用的水平。其结果便是,使人容易满足于眼前的、似是而非的所"得",而忽略在那些更大、更深远、更宝贵的东西的所"失"。在新的时代,人们既要深入理解它的特点,这是解开中华文化之谜的一把钥匙;又要充分挖掘它的资源,依据民主法治原则处理好信仰与宗教的关系,这是中国当代先进文化建设的一项重要任务。     

论血缘文化的锁定及其突破——中国传统伦理的近现代转换

血缘是中国文化的最本质要素,它建构、锁定了以家庭为核心,以"家国一体"为主要构架的中国伦理;在承载几千年的历史使命之后,在遭遇西方文明的碰撞之时,血缘文化及其建构的中国伦理在合法性上遭受了质疑;从过去的封建小农经济到今天的大工业社会,中国伦理的失范与重建成为一代代学人所共同关注的核心。     

当今世界人类日益凸显的文化关系

在全球化时代,人类文化的存在和发展正经历着深刻的变革和转型。日趋激烈的文化矛盾和冲突,让文化成为人们关注的焦点,文化开始从边缘走向中心。在这一具有世界历史意义的过程中,人类的文化关系开始普遍确立。而伴随人类实践的深化和拓展,文化结构类型之间的关系、传统文化与现代文化的关系、本土文化与外来文化的关系、虚拟文化与现实文化的关系,正成为当今世界人类日益凸显的文化关系。     

城市文化软实力构建的“网都”范式

当前全球数字网络化的发展浪潮和历史背景下,"网都"型文化中心城市建设成为转变城市文化发展方式、提升城市文化软实力的新的战略路径和城市设计愿景。城市发展的"网都"形态具有多元文化范式,要根据不同城市的特点和文化基础,推进网络媒介城市(media city)、网络文化产业高地、网络文化名城、互联网总部基地、文化科技融合的创新引领中心、网络文化宜居之都、互联网枢纽城市等不同类型的"网都"建设。不同的网都范型(paradigm)关切到城市文化软实力的不同层面,存在着从硬文化实力向软文化实力的渐变和过渡谱系;既可以单独构建特色网络文化城市的核心性格与差异化竞争力,也可以综合构建城市文化软实力的体系化架构。     

论文化哲学的方法论意蕴

文化哲学所具有的独特性,绝不仅仅表现为一系列新颖的理论观点,方法论革新与进化也是其所追求的重要理论主旨。虽然文化哲学的样态多样,但其方法论原理清晰可辨,主要体现为"从人与文化的关系切入"、"凸显历时意识"、"追求整体取向"和"强调价值诉求"。这一方法论原理具有深刻的实践应用意义,可以作为理论框架分析多种具体对象。