Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape1

In Washington DC's newly gentrified Chinatown, recent commercial establishments, primarily non‐Chinese owned chains, use Chinese‐language signs as design features targeted towards people who neither read nor have ethnic ties to Chinese. Using this neighborhood as a case study, we advocate a contextualized, historicized and spatialized perspective on linguistic landscape which highlights that landscapes are not simply physical spaces but are instead ideologically charged constructions. Drawing from cultural geography and urban studies, we analyze how written language interacts with other features of the built environment to construct commodified urban places. Taking a contextually informed, qualitative approach, we link micro‐level analysis of individual Chinese‐language signs to the specific local socio‐geographic processes of spatial commodification. Such a qualitative approach to linguistic landscape, which emphasizes the importance of sociohistorical context, and which includes analysis of signage use, function, and history, leads to a greater understanding of the larger sociopolitical meanings of linguistic landscapes.     

“Post-Gay” Yet? The Relevance of the Lesbian and Gay Scene to Same-Sex Attracted Young People in Contemporary Australia

In recent years, the lesbian and gay “scene” of bars, nightclubs, and dance parties has been undergoing a structural decline in many Western cities. This article aimed to examine the relevance of the scene to same-sex attracted young adults amid these changes. An online survey was conducted with 572 same-sex attracted young women and men in Sydney. Only a minority of respondents participated in the scene at least weekly (16%), and the majority did not regard the scene as important to their leisure time (60%). However, respondents valued the scene as a space to connect with other same-sex attracted people and display same-sex affection without fear of hostility. Lesbian and gay identified respondents tended to be more socially engaged with the scene compared to other same-sex attracted respondents. The findings suggest that while the scene continues to be valued by many same-sex attracted young people, improved social attitudes have made participating in the scene less of an imperative.     

Symbolic violence and the Olympic Games: low-income youth,social legacy commitments,and urban exclusion in Olympic host cities

Drawing on a five-year qualitative study on the impacts of the Olympic Games on homeless and marginally housed youth in two host cities (Vancouver 2010 and London 2012), this paper explores the instances of ‘symbolic violence’ perpetuated by the institutional infrastructure associated with the Olympics. Following Pierre Bourdieu’s use of the term, symbolic violence refers to the manner in which the young people turned dominant notions of what the desirable Olympic city looks and feels like into a sense of their own non-belonging and/or inadequacy, experienced bodily and emotionally. Feeling pressured to vie for elusive Olympic jobs and volunteer positions, and to be less visible to the thousands of tourist-spectators for the Games, youth in both cities reported a defiant mix of frustrated indignation and resigned acceptance that they did not ‘fit’ the image of the global Olympic city that organizers were trying to convey. The paper argues that this social harm, difficult to measure yet real nonetheless, is an important though unintended legacy of the Olympic Games for homeless and marginally housed youth living in its shadows. The paper also calls for a more sustained engagement with Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence in youth studies as a discipline.     

A Mother's Value Lies in Her Sexuality: The Simpsons,Family Guy,and South Park and the Preservation of Traditional Sex Roles

This article examines the relationship between being a sexual woman and a good mother in The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park. Considering the sexual criticisms of women in the “Mommy Wars” which continue to be fought across the United States, we find that these three programs reproduce conservative assumptions about women's sexuality and motherhood. Through critical constructionist theories of humor and motherhood, mothers from each program are analyzed and the relationship between their sexuality and motherliness is examined in detail. We conclude with a discussion of the social constrictions of reality that humorous popular culture both exposes and reproduces.     

循环式国家：转型中国的符号式劳动治理机制探析

抗争政治与国家建设之间的关系是社会运动研究中的一个经典问题。本文通过对一组国有企业退休工人为维护退休金权益所展开的十年抗争进行过程事件分析,来勾勒国家在劳动治理过程中逐步形成的官僚场域。这个官僚场域由三个相互交叉的圈子所构成：信访办圈子、信访办与法院之间的圈子、中央与地方之间的圈子。这些交叉的圈子所构成的国家场域一方面通过对抗争的制度化循环而拉长了工人的斗争时间,分散了抗争的空间,从而有效遏止了抗争的激进化,另一方面则通过抗争工人与国家代理人之间的叙事化互动促进了国家资本的激活与流通,从而实现了对抗争者的象征性支配。     

箐口村哈尼族丧礼献祭礼物的象征性交换

不同于人类绝大部分交换所遵循的交换者二元对等、相异物品交换、延时交换等原则,箐口村哈尼族丧礼中即赠即还的献祭牺牲礼物,有赠与者与两类接受者共三方参与,同时涉及现实世界与超自然世界两大层面。这种象征性交换的形成,与当地哈尼族的文化观念、经济因素、社会互助等息息相关,其实质是借助一般交换的象征形式,建构多样化的再分配与互惠关系,有效实现当地社会关系的再生产。对于人类丰富多样的礼物交换方式,只有在整体性、多样性和变迁的视野中才能真正加以理解。     

象征型品牌的效应——从意义到忠诚

已有研究大都把品牌的象征形象视作一个单维的构念,并未对品牌代表的象征意义的丰富性及其性质的差异予以重点关注。从消费者的视角,以心理学和社会心理学的自我理论为基础,通过文献整理和归纳,将品牌的象征形象区分为个人形象、社会形象、关系形象和集体形象4个维度,通过问卷调查和回归分析研究这些不同性质的象征形象如何作用于消费者的品牌忠诚。研究结果表明,品牌的象征形象总体上可以通过品牌涉入、自我-品牌联结和品牌信任的中介作用对消费者的品牌忠诚产生积极的影响,品牌象征形象的4个维度均对消费者的自我-品牌联结有显著的正向作用,个人形象和集体形象对品牌涉入有显著的正向作用,个人形象、社会形象和关系形象对品牌信任也有显著的正向作用,品牌涉入、自我-品牌联结和品牌信任可以直接促进消费者的品牌忠诚。     

Bivariate symbolic regression models for interval-valued variables

Interval-valued variables have become very common in data analysis. Up until now, symbolic regression mostly approaches this type of data from an optimization point of view, considering neither the probabilistic aspects of the models nor the nonlinear relationships between the interval response and the interval predictors. In this article, we formulate interval-valued variables as bivariate random vectors and introduce the bivariate symbolic regression model based on the generalized linear models theory which provides much-needed exibility in practice. Important inferential aspects are investigated. Applications to synthetic and real data illustrate the usefulness of the proposed approach.     

易卜生诗歌中的“光”——以《易卜生文集》第8卷中收录的61首诗歌为例

无论是现代戏剧之父,还是诗人易卜生,都值得我们关注和学习,易卜生的诗歌在一定程度上能够更加直观地表达诗人内心丰富复杂的情感,并与其剧作有着千丝万缕的联系。本文以《易卜生文集》第8卷中收录的61首诗歌为研究对象,将易卜生诗歌中的光分为四种:生命之光、洗礼之光、希望之光和恐惧之光。阐释易卜生诗歌中四种光的内涵和象征意义,并联系易卜生的戏剧作品,探索光的来源和相互之间的联系。     

一种基于镜头聚类的视频场景分割方法

为了更好地进行视频信息检索和浏览,提出了一种利用视觉和运动特征来进行场景分割的方法,该方法在把镜头聚类到场景中时,不仅考虑同一场景内镜头的视觉特征相似性,而且还考虑了镜头的运动特征的一致性。此外,为避免过度分割,还提出了一种方法用来合并过度分割出的场景。实验结果表明,这种方法是有效的。