“Who generates this city”? Socialist strategy in contemporary London

This essay, based on a “militant ethnography” of the attempts of the small radical grassroots activist group, Our London (a pseudonym), to mobilize a collective oppositional politics through activities around an election campaign, engages critically with E. Laclau and C. Mouffe's arguments on discourse and collectivity in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (London: Verso, 1985). I argue, on the basis of my findings, that while their model does provide insights that help describe the process of building collectivity from among disparate perspectives and identities, we need to go beyond a focus on discourse alone and consider the ways politics is shaped by material contexts. This is necessary if we are to understand the continued appeal of class politics as well as the difficulties in mobilizing collectivity in highly unequal and fragmented cities. From an activist perspective, the essay also highlights how developing a conception of collective interests and a critique of overarching systems of exploitation can be important in building political unity.     

神坛上的《白鲸》与神坛下的《海狼》——析两部作品不同的伦理学蕴含

梅尔维尔的《白鲸》和杰克.伦敦的《海狼》虽同为海洋小说,但两部作品却有着不同的伦理学蕴含。《白鲸》着力表现的是人与自然之子白鲸的斗争,而在人与人之间的关系上却体现为一种和谐;相比之下,《海狼》中直接描写猎捕海豹经历的篇幅却并不多,它以将近三分之二的篇幅描写了船长海狼拉尔森与其下属之间的矛盾冲突和船员自身之间的敌视争斗。《白鲸》具有一种形而上的意义,它在一个象征性的层面上表现了美国资本主义自由竞争时代末期人们内心的自由意志与宗教精神的矛盾冲突;《海狼》则是进入资本主义垄断阶段的美国社会生活的现实主义写照,它关注的是按自然法则进行生存竞争的人们之间的争斗,以及这种争斗的最终精神出路。     

杰克·伦敦文本中的意象特征

将人物放在尖锐的矛盾冲突中 ,用人物自己的行动来表现其性格是杰克·伦敦刻画人物的主要方法。该文拟通过分析杰克·伦敦的若干代表作 ,探索他作品中深刻的文学意义和社会意义 ,即 :在充满野性的大自然里 ,人物可凭借非凡的毅力、克服种种障碍取得成功 ;在充满弱肉强食、残酷无情的野性的资本主义社会中 ,则人沦为机器 ,甚至人不如狗     

解析《野性的呼唤》中的自然主义

杰克.伦敦是美国自然主义作家中的杰出代表,他的作品《野性的呼唤》则充分体现了战胜敌人后而存活所需的力量与勇气,表达了适者生存的原则。而巴克传奇经历及其主题思想的揭示对当今中国不能不说有其特定的社会教育意义。     

1517年伦敦五朔节骚乱原因初探

1517年发生的伦敦五朔节骚乱属于典型的群体性突发事件。它是在近代早期英国经济快速发展与城市社会关系日趋复杂的背景下发生的。因经济竞争而引发的民族排外情绪是骚乱发生的思想动力；学徒处境地位的恶化则是骚乱发生的主要原因；自负、偏狭的民族心理成为了骚乱的助推力；政府处置措施的不当则诱发了骚乱的发生。多种因素综合作用使得五朔节骚乱得以突然发生。     

The rise of chemsex: queering collective intimacy in neoliberal London

Since 2011, various public health organizations have observed the growth of the sexual practice ‘chemsex’ in the UK, primarily in London. The term chemsex refers to group sexual encounters between gay and bisexual men in which the recreational drugs GHB/GBL, mephedrone and crystallized methamphetamine are consumed. This article uses a conjunctural perspective to make sense of the rise of chemsex within the historical conditions in which it has emerged. Drawing on a document analysis as well as interviews with 15 gay and bisexual men, this article argues that the rise of chemsex can be interpreted as an embodied response to material conditions shaped by neoliberalism: specifically as a desire for an intimate mode of collectivity during a historical moment when collectivity itself is being superseded by competitive individualism as the privileged mode of being in the world (Gilbert, J. [2013]. Common ground: democracy and collectivity in an Age of individualism. London: Pluto Press). In doing so, this article provides a different account to pathologizing media and medical representations of chemsex that appeared in 2015, whilst also contributing to a growing literature that attempts to map the balance of forces of the present conjuncture.     

世界金融秩序变迁研究：基于国际政治经济学视角

现代世界金融秩序,是一个历史的动态过程,主要经历了以阿姆斯特丹为中心的荷兰世界金融秩序、以伦敦为中心的不列颠世界金融秩序、以纽约为中心的美国世界金融秩序。阿姆斯特丹—伦敦—纽约的更迭一直沿着中心化—去中心化—再中心化的路径。世界金融秩序的空间基础在于世界金融中心。世界金融中心崛起的关键在于它们各自的政治经济实力的相对上升、资本的积累和其货币作为世界货币。大规模战争在世界金融权力的转移、世界金融秩序的变迁中具有重大影响,甚至起着关键作用。市场在世界金融秩序和世界金融中心的形成、发展中起着基础性作用,政府干预的作用是有限的,但是政府在世界金融秩序的权力结构和治理结构的地位越来越大。     

Onward migration from Spain to London in times of crisis: the importance of life-course junctures in secondary migrations

This study examines one response of migrants to the challenging economic conditions caused by the 2008 financial crisis in Spain: onward migration. Focusing on Colombians and Ecuadorians who mobilise their newly acquired Spanish citizenship to migrate to London, I argue that their new migration is part of their migratory careers and that this process is different from that of Spain-born emigrants because it is marked by the first socioeconomic incorporation. Acknowledging that the crisis is the main driver of this new move, I draw a typology based on life-course junctures to show the differences in how onward migrants understand this new move and what their expectations are. There are three broad types of onward migrants: (1) mature, reluctant migrants, (2) mid-life, career advancement migrants and (3) young, independence-seeking migrants. What they do have in common is that, through their first migration, they have acquired a certain migratory knowledge of the process that shapes their paths and expectations.     

A body passes by: the flâneur and the senses in nineteenth-century London and Paris

Abstract

The flâneur is well-known for being the most emblematic nineteenth-century observer of urban life. Critics have often compared the flâneur to a camera eye which records everything and insisted on the predominance of sight over other senses in the cognitive process. This article emphasises the embodiedness of the flâneur’s vision, which is an experience of all the senses. Urban public space can be envisaged as a ‘metabolic space,’ in which “the links between background and figures are very unstable” (Augoyard 1991). The moving body of the flâneur, which can adapt to this changing space, seems to be in an ideal position to apprehend the metabolic body of the city. The flâneur is not only a “transparent eye-ball” (Emerson 2003), he is “a living eye” which communicates with all the other senses and captures the whole experience of moving through the city. By looking at texts by Balzac, Baudelaire, Dickens and Charlotte Brontë, the article shows that flânerie is a sensory activity that shapes our perception of the city as much as the city shapes our own flâneries by transforming our bodies into scribes who write the “thicks and thins of the urban text” (de Certeau, 1984).     

Strangers within? Russian-speakers’ migration from Latvia to London: a study in power geometry and intersectionality

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to contribute to debates on ethnic identification and migration through a focus on a specific group – Russian-speakers from the Baltic state of Latvia who have migrated to the UK. Twenty-six interviews with members of this group were gathered in London and the wider metropolitan area during 2012 and 2014. Russian-speakers represent uniquely combined configurations of ‘the other within’: in most cases, they are EU citizens with full rights; yet, some still hold non-citizens’ passports of Latvia. While in Latvian politics Russian-speakers are framed as ‘others’ whose identities are shaped by the influence of Russia, interview findings confirm that they do not display belonging to contemporary Russia. However, London is the ‘third space’ – a multicultural European metropolis – which provides new opportunities for negotiating ethnic identification. Against the background of triple ‘alienation’ (from Latvia, from Russia and from the UK), we analyse how ethnicity is narrated intersectionally with other categories such as age and class. The findings show that Russian-speaking migrants from Latvia mobilise their Europeanness and Russianness beyond alienating notions of (ethno)national identity. The paper also demonstrates that being open to ethnicity as a category of practice helps us towards a progressive conceptualisation of often overlooked dimensions of integration of intra-EU linguistic ‘others’.