What is Flint? Place,storytelling, and social media narrative reclamation during the Flint water crisis

ABSTRACT

The Flint Water Crisis became a national news story in January of 2016, when major publishers such as The New York Times began covering the story. In the same month, an influx of social media activism occurred in response to the crisis, with citizens developing hashtag campaigns such as #FlintFwd in order to disseminate news and stories from a citizen’s perspective; these campaigns often positioned Flint positively ? as a recovering community ? rather than a city in the middle of a public health crisis, and often addressed not a national public but a local audience. This paper considers Flint-based social media activity to investigate the emergence of place-based activism within the ostensibly global network of social media. In doing so, it identifies three key themes; 1) leveraging social media to forward a critique of deficient journalistic storytelling; 2) using the affective process of storytelling via social media to claim authority over their own material offline existence, and 3) using place-based storytelling to implicate others as witnesses via the global network of social media. These themes coalesce around a distinctly critical logic of connectivity. This logic extends the notion of connectivity articulated by Van Dijck and Poell [2013. Understanding social media logic. Media and Communication, 1(1), 2–14.] and the strategies of platform activism explored by Tufekci [2017. Twitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest. New Haven: Yale University Press.] to explain how social media works to expose discrepancies between the public story of the water crisis and material, lived conditions of Flint, rendering visible a discursive identity of Flint thus far unrecognized.     

Absent bodies and present memories: marking out the everyday and the future in Eastern Sri Lanka

Drawing from ethnographic work carried out between 2005 and 2007, this article considers the ways in which a women’s network has developed strategies to find meaning around the absences of loved ones, killed or ‘disappeared’ during the decades of conflict in Sri Lanka. For most of these women, the fate of their husbands, brothers, sons and fathers is not known and the lack of answers means that they are unable to fully grieve and find closure. In order to survive, they must find ways to deal with the absent bodies and present memories of those who may never be located and accounted for. These strategies include tree-planting ceremonies carried out as a way of not only remembering and mourning loved ones but also asking questions about how one makes sense of loss and what it means to carry the burden of unanswered absences through everyday life and into the future.     

“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.     

也谈"错案追究制"

错案追究制自运行以来存在着许多问题,其所具有的负面影响超过了其积极效应的一面.本文从多角度分析了错案追究制产生的影响,并对错案进行了科学的界定.在此基础上,本文倡导错案追究制应让位于全面的司法改革,并提出了具体的司法改革措施.     

Korean ethnic education in Japanese public schools

Korean ethnic education in Japanese public schools has played an important role in the persistence of Korean ethnicity in Japan. In Osaka Prefecture, it began as an educational movement at the end of the 1960s. Japanese and Korean activists who led the movement had different political commitments and developed two approaches. Those interested in Korean homeland politics stressed the importance of teaching the ethnic culture of the homeland and tried to develop an ethno-national identity among Korean children. Those involved in civil rights politics in the context of Japan focused on the problem of ethnic discrimination and facilitated the formation of a political subjectivity among Korean children. The old practice of Korean ethnic education is a form of multicultural education and provides many useful ideas for today's multiculturalist teachers in Japan, who are dealing with children of newcomer foreigners.     

中国出入境管理体制的抉择

近年来,出入中国边境口岸的人员和货物陡增,与国际社会出入境管理体制相比较,中国的出入境管理体制还欠完善.具体表现为专属中央管理的出入境事务由各级公安部门代为管理,公安部门的属地管辖、多层管理导致区域化壁垒、政令不畅;同时,公安、外交部门在护照管理上信息不通,多头执法,易产生管理漏洞.为与国际移民法接轨构建科学的出入境管理体制,中国应尽早出台<出入境法>;改革现有的多头管理体制,争取在北京奥运会前,逐步将全国出入境管理统一置于中央政府监管之下;利用<护照法>刚刚出台之契机,统一出入境证件种类和发放程序,增加并细化签证类别,简化出入境手续;重视人员素质提升,实现从管理职能向服务职能的目标转变.     

一种新的刑法解释学观点——以刑事政策为中心的分析

刑法解释远非一种单纯探寻刑法文本含义的学究式思维游戏,而且刑法解释的依据不应当是刑法文本.刑法解释本身是一种利益衡量的活动.在这个利益衡量游戏中,无论是刑法有权解释还是刑法适用解释,刑事政策通过各种组织化的力量起着决定性的作用.     

工程建设招投标的质疑与法律救济程序研究

工程建设招投标质疑对于监督招标采购实体的行为和决定,以及招标采购实体所依据的程序,保护承包商的合法权益有重要的意义。从政府采购这一较为宏观的框架对工程招投标质疑及其审查程序作理论与立法上的探索。     

对由普通法院实现宪法司法化的质疑

最高人民法院作出的 [2 0 0 1 ]法释 2 5号批复 ,被认为是“冒名上学事件引发宪法司法化第一案”。文章就此对宪法司法化的含义进行了界定 ,认为其应包含两个方面因素 ,即外在形式与内在意义。对于在我国可由普通法院实现宪法司法化的观点提出了法理上的三点质疑 :一是最高法院的司法解释不能认为是宪法司法化的第一案 ;二是我国由普通法院实现宪法司法化缺乏必要的法律依据 ;三是在技术操作上也存在难以克服的难题     

前秦法制初探

前秦是东晋十六国时期惟一统一了北方 ,且政治较为清明、最具有规模气度的一个政权。前秦统治者对儒学推崇备至 ,决定了其法律思想为 :德化为先、礼法并用和约法慎刑。在选官制度方面 ,前秦采取了多途径选贤求才之策 ,并通过推行一系列积极的经济法律措施 ,促进经济的发展 ,前秦统治者对法律的运行亦颇为重视 ,主要体现在司法机构比较健全 ,注重督励官吏公正和严格执法。前秦之所以能出现十六国时期仅见的盛世 ,与其法制建设不无关系