Thinking about biology and culture: can the natural and human sciences be integrated?

Genomic analyses have shown that only 1.2 per cent of the genome is devoted to protein coding sequences (the most commonly invoked definition of genes), and that much of the remaining sequences are employed in regulation – that is, in responding to signals, first, from the immediate environment of the DNA, but ultimately from the distal environment – from the cytoplasm, from the environment outside the cell, and finally, from the environment beyond the organism. Such signals are not restricted to the simple physical and chemical stimuli that impinge directly on the DNA, on the surface of the cell, or even on the body as a whole: organisms with central nervous systems have receptors for forms of perception that are not only more complex but far longer range. Humans have especially sophisticated perceptual capacities, enabling them to respond to a wide range of complex visual, auditory, linguistic and behavioural/emotional signals in their extended environment. Research has recently begun to show that responses to such signals can extend all the way down to the level of gene expression. The question is this: to what extent are we witnessing (at last) a rapprochement between the natural science of biology and the human sciences of sociology and anthropology, and to what extent do the new promises of synthesis merely reflect an expansion of older reductionist aims, threatening once again to marginalize rather than incorporate the insights of cultural analysis? As in my earlier discussion of the nature/nurture debate (2010), my focus will be restricted to the Anglo-American context.     

Explaining how unexploded ordnance clearance enhances livelihoods in the Lao PDR

BackgroundFollowing violent conflict, the continued presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance pose a barrier to rebuilding livelihoods. Mine action removes these explosive remnants of conflict to enable communities to safely return contaminated land to productive use. There is limited understanding, however, of how, why, in what context and in what respects mine action contributes to livelihoods. Yet, such information is required for effective resource allocation, checking underlying program assumptions, understanding benefits and potential harms.MethodsThe evaluation was undertaken in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. It used an interpretive case study design and applied the principles of realist evaluation. Program staff and local government authorities were interviewed (N = 37) and program beneficiaries. In total, 38 individual interviews with program beneficiaries were conducted and eighteen focus group interviews (9 with males, 9 with females), each with 6–9 participants.ResultsThe evaluation identified two main mechanisms through which the program ‘worked’: (1) communication pre- and post-clearance and (2) the delivery of the product (cleared land).ConclusionThe realist approach helped to refine the program theory, highlighted the role of self- and task-efficacy and community communication, assisted in identifying contextual factors that influence outcomes and suggested a revision of expected outcomes.     

The politics of the Digital Single Market: culture vs. competition vs. copyright

This paper examines the implications for European music culture of the European Union’s (EU) Digital Single Market strategy. It focuses on the regulatory framework being created for the management of copyright policy, and in particular the role played by collective management organisations (CMOs or collecting societies). One of the many new opportunities created by digitalisation has been the music streaming services. These depend on consumers being able to access music wherever they are, but such a system runs counter to the management of rights on a national basis and through collecting organisations which act as monopolies within their own territories. The result has been ‘geo-blocking’. The EU has attempted to resolve this problem in a variety of ways, most recently in a Directive designed to reform the CMOs. In this paper, we document these various efforts, showing them to be motivated by a deep-seated and persisting belief in the capacity of ‘competition’ to resolve problems that, we argue, actually lie elsewhere – in copyright policy itself. The result is that the EU’s intervention fails to address its core concern and threatens the diversity of European music culture by rewarding those who are already commercially successful.     

Is social partnership the way forward for Indian trade unions? Evidence from public services

Since the start of economic reforms in 1991, India's trade unions have found themselves increasingly excluded from the political process and marginalized in collective bargaining. Using survey and interview data from the Maharashtra affiliates of two national union federations, this article examines whether social partnership with employers is a viable option for Indian unions to regain influence and protect workers' interests, as some analysts have advocated. Its findings indicate that despite Maharashtra's supportive regulatory framework, which in theory should facilitate cooperative industrial relations, the realities of workplace employment relations – coupled with state indifference and adverse judicial interventions – weaken labour's prospects for meaningful social partnership.     

And I Still Love Them: On Touching Loss

In this article, the author performs a re‐membering practice that incorporates a relational materialist theory. It traces the disturbances that follow in the wake of three deaths in her family. Written in an autoethnographic voice, the article is a polyphonic composition of the narrative therapy approach of re‐membering entangled with the spacetimematter of silence, speaking, sitting, staying, presence, absence, loss of momentum, dreams, trees, books, cardiac pace‐makers, writing, breath, ashes, murmuring, suffering. Thus, the dispersed agencies of bodies, human and non‐human, reinvigorate a linguistic practice and the author's personal and professional life.     

From a ‘sort of Muslim’ to ‘proud to be Alevi’: the Alevi religion and identity project combatting the negative identity among second-generation Alevis in the UK

ABSTRACT

This article explains how the negative identity of second-generation Alevi-Kurds in the UK has been transmitted intergenerationally, linked to their history of persecuted exclusion in Turkey and to the transnational settlement of Alevi migrants in the UK, and how this sense of marginalization and invisibility in the receiving country can be addressed. Education is identified as a starting point for the underachievement and disaffection of Alevi pupils, which can lead them into more serious trouble and descent into the rainbow underclass. In the quest to tackle this identity issue, a unique collaborative action research project was set up between an Alevi community centre, local schools and a university to develop the world’s first Alevi lessons as part of the compulsory Religious Education curriculum in British schools. The Alevi Religion and Identity Project is described and evaluated in terms of its outcomes, especially its contribution towards a more positive Alevi identity as a reflection of a vibrant community.     

加拿大原住民自治政府:联邦主义下制度构建与政治文化相背离的困境

本文指出 ,加拿大原住民自治政府虽然具有道德正义性而且其合法性与加拿大联邦主义的原则不冲突 ,但其作为一个在联邦制度内的制度构建与加拿大的主导政治文化和政治权力结构却有一种背离矛盾关系。这种主导共同体与亚集体认同矛盾的现象在多民族国家的政治制度构建中是带有普遍性的问题 ,如何在宪政建设中解决这个问题对加拿大联邦制的前景至关重要 ,而且对中国这样的多民族国家将来的宪政建设也有很大的启示作用     

民事诉讼行政介入的程序规制研究

规制行政介入司法尤其是民事司法,除了深化司法体制改革的体制规制路径,将行政机关意见表达纳入民事诉讼程序是其另一程序规制路径.程序规制具有公正审判权请求权、论辩式民事诉讼对话逻辑、诉权制约行政权、民事审判实质公开的“武器支撑”.“法庭之友”制度对民事诉讼行政介入具有程序规制作用,中国行政机关可以“法庭之友”身份参与民事诉讼、进行意见表达.行政机关担当“法庭之友”不会损害独立审判,相反有利于司法公正公开.行政机关担当“法庭之友”以维护公共利益为限,是新型诉讼参与人,应明确其诉讼权利义务,构建行政机关作为“法庭之友”参诉的具体程序.     

农村集体建设用地流转中生态价值维度的法治考量

随着土地生态价值的凸显,农村集体建设用地流转过程中经济效益与生态效益的博弈逐渐引起关注.由于农村土地法律制度对生态价值观念的忽视、土地规划中生态价值效应的弱化、生态补偿制度在集体建设用地中的缺位、集体建设用地流转中执法监督的缺失、法律责任体系的滞后等原因,导致集体建设用地流转中生态价值维度出现失衡,需要在农村土地法律制度贯彻生态价值观念,加强土地规划中的生态效应,构建生态补偿制度,加大执法监督力度,并从法律责任体系上进行完善,最终实现农村集体建设用地流转中生态价值的均衡.     

集体林权纠纷解决的制度现状与对策研究--基于江西省某县个案的分析

化解集体林权纠纷是新一轮集体林权制度改革的重要工作,但林权纠纷解决难度大,影响了改革工作的深入开展。研究首先梳理了集体林权纠纷解决的制度安排;其次以江西省某县A、B两个村民小组因737号山场发生的林权纠纷案件作为研究对象,介绍了林权纠纷解决过程的特殊性;再次,探析了现行纠纷解决制度存在的低效问题及其成因。最后提出完善制度的顶层设计、重视非正式制度作用、加强调解机构能力建设、创新纠纷解决方法等对策建议。