北宋中期宣抚使角色的转型

北宋前期,宣抚使沿袭唐代旧制,为中央临时派遣到地方主持赈灾、安抚民众的朝廷使臣,在任务完成后即回京复命,设置较为少见.而在北宋中期以后,为应付与西夏、金等少数民族政权长期而激烈的战争及平定内部叛乱等需求,宣抚使的角色发生了显著变化,逐渐由安抚百姓的临时朝廷遣使演变为指挥地方多个路分军事作战的军政长官.随着职能的增重,担任这一职位的官员资历也日益升高,多为朝廷副宰相、枢密副使等军政大员,其设置更趋频繁,地方化趋势日益明显.同时,这一转变也促进了宋朝前线军政权力集中,有利于作战指挥,对于平定地方叛乱,维护宋朝国防安全和国家统治的稳定也具有一定的积极意义.     

Doomed to Extinction? The Nature and Future of Volunteering for Meals-on-Wheels Services

Meals-on-wheels services in Ireland and elsewhere rely heavily on volunteers to operate. Meals-on-wheels services that draw extensively on volunteers’ contributions both benefit from and augment social capital within communities. Based on interviews with voluntary and paid meals-on-wheels coordinators and staff carried out in early 2007, this article examines: (1) the recruitment and retention of volunteers; (2) motivations for volunteering; (3) the nature of the contributions of volunteers; and, (4) the future role of volunteering within the service. The article argues that volunteerism in meals provision for older adults in Ireland is in crisis. The recruitment and retention of volunteers may be improved if service providers gain a better understanding of the motivations of volunteers and develop strategies to ensure that volunteers have an opportunity to engage in work that corresponds to their original motivations, which includes enhancing the social capital of their communities.

两汉魏晋南北朝正史西域传所见西域诸国的宗教、神话传说和东西文化交流

本文详细列举了两汉魏晋南北朝正史西域传中所见西域诸国的宗教、神话传说,揭示了西域地区成为汉文化、印度文化、波斯文化、希腊罗马文化及游牧文化荟萃之地的原因.     

Narratively framing emergent identities in post-agreement societies: patterns of the Northern Irish identity within the provincial media

The research analyses ‘Northern Irish’ identity narratives post-agreement, and examines the configuration of frame agendas in terms of individual narrative components. A content analysis utilised news published through 1997–2014 within Northern Ireland daily newspapers – the Belfast Telegraph, the Irish News and the News Letter. A process of manifest coding produced an emergent coding scheme displaying the relative stability of media frames surrounding the Northern Irish identity as broadly partisan; however, there is also a subtle narrative shift of Northern Irish identity across the time periods; and findings of a dominant framing paradigm of political and social conceptions of identification post-agreement.     

Figurational dynamics and parliamentary discourses of living standards in Ireland1

While the concept of living standards remains central to political debate, it has become marginal in sociological research compared to the burgeoning attention given to the topic of consumer culture in recent decades. However, they both concern how one does and should consume, and, indeed, behave at particular times. I use the theories of Norbert Elias to explain the unplanned but structured (ordered) changes in expected standards of living over time. This figurational approach is compared to other alternative explanations, particularly those advanced by Bourdieu, Veblen and Baudrillard. Though these offer some parallels with Elias's theories, I argue that consumption standards are produced and transformed through the changing dependencies and power relations between social classes. They cannot be reduced to the intentions, interests or ambitions of particular elites, nor to the needs of social systems. Using qualitative data from parliamentary debates in Ireland to trace changing norms and ideals of consumption, as well as historical data to reconstruct shifts in social interdependencies, I further contend that discourses of living standards and luxury are vital aspects of the growing identification and empathy between classes, which in turn encourages greater global integration in the face of emigration and national decline.     

Tom Glynn and ‘Pickhandle Mary’ Fitzgerald: Two Irish Syndicalists in Pre-World War One South Africa

Abstract

Paired in 1911 as Irish ‘rebels’ by Archie Crawford, their mutual mentor, Tom Glynn and Mary Fitzgerald were pioneers of transnational syndicalism, in South Africa. Arriving separately in the country in 1900, they had taken different routes into labour activism, and despite being close political allies, had markedly different outlooks. She was a feminist, whose syndicalism has been judged ‘eclectic’; he, while committed to gender and racial equality, became a proponent of the ‘virile syndicalism’ of the Chicago-line Industrial Workers of the World. This article discusses their journalism in Johannesburg’s Voice of Labour, their roles as leaders in a number of significant labour disputes, the significance of their ‘Irishness’ in a largely British-oriented milieu, their geographical separation in 1911, and the definitive parting of their political ways on the outbreak of the First World War.     

Escaping the Border,Debordering the Nature: Protected Areas,Participatory Management,and Environmental Security in Northern Patagonia (i.e. Chile and Argentina)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the management of protected areas in transboundary contexts and centres on the contemporary evolution of the border between Chile and Argentina in Northern Patagonia, which is a region that has witnessed the creation of numerous protected areas that are currently claimed by Mapuche organisations and communities as part of their customary territory. In response to these claims, both states have progressively integrated Mapuche communities into the management of protected areas through specific agreements. Many of these protected areas have also been included in a Transboundary Biosphere Reserve proposal for UNESCO. A new environmental governance model that includes the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights is under construction not only along but also across the border between Chile and Argentina. Therefore, we discuss how participatory management could be viewed as a tool for redefining borders by linking environmental security in protected areas to human security in Mapuche communities. The article seeks to understand the role of environmental governance in shaping and/or overcoming political boundaries, and analyse how strategic mobilisations of the environment can advance the achievement of competing territorial projects led by different actors in different periods.     

Exploring the Needs of Socially Excluded Young Men

In recent years, social exclusion has gained the attention of governments around the world. This paper reports on a qualitative study involving 27 young men aged 14–19 years experiencing particular forms of exclusion in the context of Northern Irish society. The study used a focus group methodology to elicit their views with the aim of exploring both emotional and psychological needs and the structural factors that may contribute to their experiences of social exclusion. The findings reveal a range of unmet social and psychological needs, the impact of sectarianism and segregation, and a paucity of support systems in place. The paper concludes by making recommendations about how policy‐makers and practitioners could find more imaginative ways of engaging such vulnerable young men to reduce social exclusion.     

略论北宋前期的制度革新

北宋建立后,唐末、五代以来社会动乱、政权不断更替的混乱局面得到了彻底改变。太祖兄弟及其继承人使国家趋于稳定之法,既不依靠杀功臣,也不依靠大肆镇压,而是吸取历史上的各种经验和教训,进行制度革新。宋太祖首先为赵宋政权确立了重文抑武的基本国策,在此基础上,针对前朝的各种弊政,进行了一系列的制度革新。北宋制度革新的意义重大:一是彻底结束了武人政治,保证了宋政权的长治久安;二是有利于统治集团的内部团结和稳定;三是开创了帝王与士大夫共治天下的局面,从而极大地巩固了赵宋政权;四是有助于两宋学术思想的繁荣,以民为本的儒家仁政思想获得了一定程度的贯彻,从而促进了社会的和谐和安定。当然,由于受到历史的局限,北宋的许多制度革新还存在着一些副作用。     

《东京梦华录》中的北宋女性民俗

孟元老所撰《东京梦华录》记述了北宋都城汴梁的社会风貌,各种女性群体的身影活跃其中。北宋时期的女性民俗主要表现在以成年、结婚、生育礼俗为代表的人生仪礼以及丰富多彩的女性节庆游艺等方面。妇女主动参与社会经济生活的独特女性民俗与当时开放、发达、宽松的社会环境密切相关。