Center–periphery relations,local governance and conflicts in Ethiopia: the experience of Metekel province

In Ethiopia, the study and issue of center–periphery relations is not an easy task. It has remained complex and dynamics as it has been dictated and shaped by ever changing socio-economic relations, state ideology and structure. A case in point is Metekel region, which had been characterized by under development, lowland, hot climate and traditional way of life. Until post-1991developments, Metekel was peripheral in relation to the central state. It was an area of confrontation and conflict. Owing to the structural weakness of the centre, successive rulers of the area did not command effective control over it. Focusing on Gumuz, a Nilo-Saharan family, on one hand, and highlanders and new settlers, on the other, this essay examined the main features and dynamics of center–periphery relations, governance and conflicts in Metekel area. The sources, both primary and secondary, have been carefully examined based on the objectives of the study.     

Cultural History Between Structure And Contingency: the Manus example

Carrier, James and Achsah Carrier. Wage, trade, and exchange in Melanesia: a Manus society in the modern state. (Studies in Melanesian Anthropology, vol. 7, edited by G.H. Herdt, FJ. Porter Poole and D. Tuzin.) Berkeley: University of California Press. 1989. xvii, 257pp., tables, references, index. ISBN 0 520 06389 9.

Carrier, Achsah and James Carrier. Structure and process in a Melanesian society: Ponam's progress in the twentieth century. (Studies in Anthropology and History, vol. 1, edited by N. Thomas.) Chun Harwood Academic Publishers. 1991. xxii, 261pp., appendices, glossary, references, author and subject index. ISBN 3 7186 5149 1.     

边缘与中心:大学社会职能走向探析

人才培养、科学研究和社会服务是现代大学的三大社会职能。由于政府和大学对科学研究和社会服务的偏好,当前大学的科学研究职能越来越成为大学社会职能的中心;社会服务职能正努力向中心移动;人才培养职能有迎合与妥协于社会服务职能的趋势,其地位正在向边缘化发展。大学的社会职能应以人才培养为核心,大学的职能应体现时代特征和教育的内涵。     

文学的边缘化与精神价值的守望

从后现代主义对文学的影响人手,指出文学出现边缘化状态是后现代主义发展使然,在后现代主义的影响下,文学创作格局和研究视野都发生了重大变化。在创作格局上,接受主体对创作主体的中心地位进行了颠覆;在研究视野中,理论被偏置,而文化研究渐居上位。但是,处于边缘化的文学同样有其自身的机遇和活力,其出路就在于坚守文学的精神价值。     

中国与周边国家跨国界河流问题之分析

中国是跨国界河流数量比较丰富的国家,中国与周边国家之间出现的跨国界河流问题主要集中在水环境污染与保护、水资源分配与利用开发等方面。跨国界河流问题的产生与发展将对中国周边关系的良性发展构成消极影响,并为区域外国家插手中国周边事务创造时机。中国对跨国界河流问题的处理一贯持积极姿态,在主动与周边国家开展国际航道开发利用、水情预报与信息共享等合作的同时,联合周边国家建立一套涉及管理、开发、预防、应急内容在内的合作与协商机制,构建和谐的周边安全环境。     

Peripheries,suburbanisms and change in sub-Saharan African cities

The ‘revisionist’ view of South African history has an advantage in understanding the role of values in terms of class structures, as opposed to liberal orthodoxy that sees ‘race’ as an autonomous variable: a view that is both static and unhistorical. The problem of explaining these values, however remains for class analysis can be accused of economic determinism. Pluralism may, therefore, be of use as a supplement to class analysis by interpreting values in a subjective sense. Class becomes only one of a number of forms of political consciousness (i.e. religious, ‘tribal’ or ethnic) and the analysis shifts to a market of competing political ideologies. This view is explored empirically by the example of the rise of a segregationist ideology in South Africa in the twentieth century.     

《豆棚闲话》之历史叙事管窥

《豆棚闲话》的三篇历史题材文本皆对历史成说和经典文本作了解构和颠覆,作者保留了大概的历史事件点,而以现实的逻辑和细节来改编历史,从而使小说呈现出迥异于历史成说的新貌,这种颠覆和解构表明了艾衲对正史文献与传统道德的权威性与纯洁性的怀疑,透露出艾衲对传统道德所标榜的人格完美性的怀疑,并在对历史事功与道德伦理的不一致性的察觉中对道德至上的道德本体论表示了怀疑。这种怀疑的勇气和经世致用、通脱深刻的思想来源于他的边缘化生命状态和边缘意识。     

冷战时期中国对周边地区国际危机的处理

冷战期间由于各种各样错综复杂的原因,在中国周边地区曾经发生多次国际危机。它们对中国的内政外交、国家统一、国际地位乃至世界格局影响重大而深远。时至今日,一些问题仍悬而未决,并困扰着中国。进入后冷战时期,在中国周边地区又发生多次国际危机,其中一些危机不仅与冷战时期的危机有密切联系,而且与中国的国家利益攸关。汲取冷战时期中国应对国际危机的经验和教训,今后中国政府面对可能发生的国际危机,应该增强国家综合实力,促使解决国际危机手段的多样化,建立和完善国际危机预警和管理机制,重视军事手段在化解危机中的重要性。     

Methods for Studying the Structure of Social Representations: A Critical Review and Agenda for Future Research

This article deals with the methodologies commonly used in the framework of the structural approach to social representations. It concerns free and hierarchical evocations, the characterization questionnaire, the similarity analysis, the basic cognitive schemes model, the attribute‐challenge technique and the test of context independence. More than a simple review of these methodologies, it offers a critical approach concerning the problems encountered and related to: thresholds or “cutoff points” used to diagnose the structure (core vs. periphery) and the accuracy of the structural diagnosis, grouping methods employed to reduce the corpus of verbal associations, the dilemma between reliability and feasibility, especially in field research, the adequacy and number of modalities of response in the framework of the structural diagnosis. Following this evaluation, this article suggests potential solutions to overcome these methodological limitations. Moreover, as methodological issues are closely related to theoretical questions, the link between social representation theory and identity approaches is discussed.     

The dual-projection approach for two-mode networks

There have been two distinct approaches to two-mode data. The first approach is to project the data to one-mode and then analyze the projected network using standard single-mode techniques, also called the conversion method. The second approach has been to extend methods and concepts to the two-mode case and analyze the network directly with the two modes considered jointly. The direct approach in recent years has been the preferred method since it is assumed that the conversion method loses important structural information. Here we argue that this is not the case, provided both projections are used together in any analysis. We illustrate how this approach works using core/periphery, structural equivalence and centrality as examples.