Gift Giving, Identity, and Transformation: The AIDS Memorial Quilt

Those who have originated the AIDS Memorial Quilt have often referred to it as a gift. In this essay, the author discusses theories related to gift giving to discuss the quilt and its constructed effects for those who experience it as a gift. In particular, Weiner's notion of inalienable possessions is highlighted to address how the quilt, as a gift that is kept inalienable from its original creators, maintains historical identity and immortality for its originators, many of whom are gay and bisexual men. Also, Hyde's notion of erotic gifts is presented to consider the quilt's ability to draw people together, create feeling-bonds among them, and affect their transformation.     

《看不见的人》中的象征意蕴探寻

《看不见的人》是现代美国文学中的一部经典作品,被誉为一部以现代人寻求自我为主题的现代寓言小说。而蕴含在这部小说各个层面的象征,有力地深化了这个主题。“个人化”的象征体系是作品的最大特征,如结构象征、人物象征、视觉象征、身份象征以及语言层面的诸多象征意象。     

社会系统及其“同构律”

本文从新的视角界定了社会系统概念及其特征,给出了社会系统的"同构"概念,提出了社会系统的"同构律",把概念社会系统与实体社会系统统一起来,为管理科学和其他科学研究问题提供了新的思路.     

Consumption and its discontents: addiction, identity and the problems of freedom

The focus of this paper is on the notion of 'addictive consumption', conceived as a set of discourses that are embedded within wider socio-historical processes of governance and control. It examines the discursive convergences and conflicts between practices of consumption and notions of addiction, which it notes are consistently represented in terms of the oppositional categories of self-control vs. compulsion and freedom vs. determinism. These interrelations are explored with reference to the development of notions of addiction, and their relation to shifting configurations of identity, subjectivity and governance. Finally, it suggests that the notion of 'addiction' has particular valence in advanced liberal societies, where an unprecedented emphasis on the values of freedom, autonomy and choice not only encourage the conditions for its proliferation into ever wider areas of social life, but also reveal deep tensions within the ideology of consumerism itself.     

Imaginandose Mexicano: The Symbolic Context of Mexican American Ethnicity Beyond the Second Generation

This study explores how third-plus-generation Mexican Americans are able to perpetuate Mexican ethnicity within the relatively integrated environments they occupy in and around Phoenix, Arizona and San Jose, California. By using an imaginary approach in this analysis, I seek to demonstrate the limited applicability of the symbolic ethnicity approach for this group, in particular, as well as to downplay thinking about culture as a set of traits or fixed characteristics that define an ethnic subgroup. I do this through an exploration of how the third-plus-generation Mexican Americans interviewed for this study utilize a range of relational resources—specifically, religion, Spanish-language television, and cross-national encounters—to reinforce and recreate Mexican ethnicity in their day-to-day lives.     

Elites and popular nationalism

Much current theory concerning nationalism holds that elites commonly create or cause popular nationalism. In part, that thesis may be due to an overwhelming emphasis in research on nationalism on positive cases: cases where nationalism has appeared, ignoring cases where it has not. In this article, I challenge the thesis by showing numerous historical cases in which elites have promoted nationalisms that ordinary people have not adopted, or in which ordinary people have adopted a nationalism before it was taken up by elites. Even if elites do not create popular nationalism, however, they can and do shape its expression in a variety of ways, such as organizing it, providing relevant information, or providing opportunity or incentive for it. I show this through historical examples.     

Identities Within Identities: Queering the Priestly Woman

It has been part of the Christian tradition that a convert is given a new name and thus a new identity when accepted into the faith. This new identity is meant to signify the overcoming of brokenness in a salvation event that unifies, celebrates, and reorients all the former selves under Christ. But for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people it is not the Christian identity but the Queer identity that brings wholeness. This discovery is traced in this essay through the journey of a lesbian Episcopal priest.     

《奥瑟罗》:一个西方"他者"的建构

莎士比亚的悲剧《奥瑟罗》是由意大利小说家钦齐奥的<故事百篇>改编而成的.但改编不仅是一个文体转换的过程,更涉及到政治文化权力与文本建构之间复杂的互动关系.原小说中无名的摩尔人被起名为"奥瑟罗"、故事场景从威尼斯到塞浦路斯的转换、主角命运从被判流放到刎剑自杀的安排等,体现了伊丽莎白时代后期英国社会主流意识形态对剧作家创作动机潜移默化的影响.通过复杂的操作过程,《奥瑟罗》既建构起一个西方的"他者"形象,迎合了主流意识形态,满足了观众的愿望;同时,也在一定程度上修正了当时流行于西方社会的有关黑人的刻板印象,体现了剧作家超越种族、肤色和文化差异及包容一切的人文主义精神.     

Gender and work orientations in conditions of job insecurity

This paper explores women's and men's work orientations in conditions of job insecurity, arguing that it is time to move beyond essentalist conceptions of work orientations and central life interests in order to understand the significance of paid work in people's lives. Data from a qualitative study are presented which show that the significance of paid work and the priority given to home and work are affected by experiences of job insecurity, changing domestic circumstances and stage in the life cycle and that this is the case for both women and men. Conversely, the significance of paid work can affect how job insecurity is experienced and its impact on individuals and their families. The assumption that men's work orientations are homogeneous and that work is their central life interest is not supported by the findings presented here and it is argued that the significance of work in men's and women's lives is more variable than has hitherto been recognized. To capture this variability it is time to move away from the acrimony of the debate over women's work orientations and notions of a central life interest which underpin it.     

Uncertain identities and health-risking behaviour: the case of young people and smoking in late modernity

This paper argues that 'uncertain identities' are a distinct contributing factor to the residual and intractable level of smoking among young people. Further, it argues that the significance of this factor is increased by the specific social/historical context of late modernity. Findings from research with 15 to 16 year olds in the East Midlands of England are used to explore the role that smoking is perceived to play in constructing a self identity. A voluntaristic perspective is adopted on the use of tobacco, reflecting both the focus on young people's motivation to smoke and the tendency for many young people to perceive smoking as a matter of personal choice. Smoking was found to have a symbolic significance not only in terms of the presentation of self to others but also in terms of the reflexive construction of the self by those involved. The paper analyses the role of smoking in relation to self-image, self-empowerment and self-affirmation and it is concluded that for many young people smoking has certain benefits in terms of coping with uncertain identities.