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.     

Deliberative street politics and sacralized dissent: Morocco’s 20 February movement and the Jamaa Al Adl Wal Ihsane

During a wave of protest in 2011, Morocco was home to its own uprisings, spurred on by the 20 February movement. Unlike its neighbors to the east, the Moroccan regime was never dismantled. So, what was the sociopolitical significance of the 20 February movement? This profile examines the landscape at the time of uprisings and presents brief interview data to make the case that these protests facilitated a political articulation and a new deliberative street politics.     

克吕尼运动的性质及其与格列高利改革的关系

本文旨在考察克吕尼运动的性质及其与格列高利改革的关系。作为中世纪欧洲集权尝试的开端,克吕尼运动和格列高利改革分别指向集权的两个基本面,即道德方面和政治方面。克吕尼运动在本质上是一场道德革新运动,其成功关键在于将集权作为道德革新的基本手段。格列高利改革将克吕尼的经验拓展至政治领域,一反遁世离俗的本尼迪克式理想,要求按照基督教原则改造现实世界,从而奠定了12、13世纪政教斗争的基本逻辑。一方面,克吕尼运动为格列高利改革提供了思想条件和技术手段;另一方面,克吕尼运动始终将自己约束在道德革新领域。究其原因,它的理想本质上是本尼迪克式的。     

The politics of community arts: quilting the power and identity of women

This article attempts to articulate and re-validate the unique social contributions of marginalized and working women to their communities and to society-at-large, contributions which tend to be obscured if not forgotten, given the global dynamics of exclusion as they are at work in the capitalist society of Hong Kong. It looks at how a group of disenfranchised women workers renegotiate their identity, reclaim their dignity and regenerate social power through a community arts project ‘Quilting the Power and Identity’; that is, how through these creative but powerful actions, their transformation from a transient state of imposed victimhood into active agency could be made possible.     

Jamming the jamming: Brazilian protests as an illustration of a new politics of consumption

ABSTRACT

Based on a reflexive and critical analysis of the citizen protests that pervaded Brazilian cities in June 2013, in this article we argue that a significant part of the demonstrators’ dissatisfaction took the form of a new politics of consumption with particular characteristics, including the subversion of the culture jamming concept by citizens and by corporations. Our main contribution is to provide the Brazilian protests as an illustration of a new politics of consumption, where ‘citizen-consumers’ direct their dissatisfaction toward the government using tactics that, historically, were considered counter-hegemonic and directed to the market, as is the case of the culture jamming. Likewise, the corporations present themselves as partners of those citizen-consumers. Mobilizing a dialectical reasoning, our results invite readers to reflect on the ambiguities among politics of consumption and culture jamming, and the challenges they bring to organizations and society.     

论新时期电影中女性情欲的政治表述

在倡导生产伦理的主导政治的影响下，新时期电影中的女性情欲话语依然内含着某种变形后的政治动员机制，它们或以情欲展演完成政治神话的表述，或以情欲规划引导观众的利比多流向。然而，新时期电影所获得的半自律性生存空间，使得越轨的银幕女体情欲展演亦拥有其存活土壤，它们与主导政治文化之间既有共谋亦有背离。     

后现代语境下的"写文化"与"写文化之后"

80年代 ,人类学曾经出现了一个引人注目的“写文化”大论争 ,其代表就是《写文化 :民族志的诗学和政治学》与《作为文化批评的人类学 :一个人文学科的实验时代》。其核心问题就是民族志写作中的修辞、叙事的政治和策略等 ,对传统民族志提出反思和挑战。之后 ,一些人类学家鉴于“写文化”基本只是提出问题 ,却没有提供答案 ,于 1998年结集出版了《写文化之后 :当代人类学的认识论和实践》 ,试图提出一些可能的方案。反观“写文化”和“写文化之后” ,我们可以看到一些对人类学理论和实践发展具有深刻意义的方面。     

Engineering confederalism for Iraq

This article examines Iraqi political developments in the last few years. It argues that unless a constitutional mechanism for proper dispersal of political powers across Iraq's regions and branches of its government is developed quickly, it may become too late for defeating Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, stemming the sectarian and ethnic conflicts, overcoming its perpetual crises of governance or for keeping Iraq united. We suggest that a confederal structure is a better and lasting political solution for Iraq than federal or other structural configurations. We also argue that power-sharing and consensus must be intertwined directly into the constitutional fabric of the political structure.     

现代国家建构进程中的土地制度变动

从土地关系的角度来看,现代国家建构的进程中地权的内涵和结构都发生了深刻的变动。从西欧来看,在古代土地的政治权和经济权实际上是统一的,土地权力同时也是土地权利;在现代国家建构的过程中,领土主权成为国际秩序的基础,土地权力成为公法的客体,土地权利成为国家法律保护下的完整产权。当这一外生的逻辑框架套用到中国的时候,领土主权得以确立,但土地权力并没有完全撤出地权体系当中,而是直接地干预了土地权利的设立和分配,这成为理解近现代中国土地政治问题的一个基本线索。