Problematising international placements as a site of intercultural learning

This paper theorises some of the learning outcomes of a three-year project concerning student learning in international social work placements in Malaysia. The problematic issue of promoting cultural and intercultural competence through such placements is examined, where overlapping hegemonies are discussed in terms of isomorphism of social work models, that of the nation state, together with those relating to professional values and knowledge, and the tyrannies of received ideas. A critical discussion of cultural competence as the rationale for international placements is discussed in terms of the development of the graduating social worker as a self-reflexive practitioner. The development of sustainable international partnerships able to support student placement and the issue of non-symmetrical reciprocation, typical of wide socio-economic differentials across global regions, is additionally discussed.     

Regulating The Abject

In this paper, through an examination of mostly British make-over television programs we examine how the feminine has become a new site of limitless possibility and endless consumption, the fulcrum of intensifying processes of neo-liberal reinvention of continuously making over the self into successful, post-feminist bourgeois subjects. We argue that the central premise of contemporary make-over programs is the question: “Is the transformation of abject subjects possible?” We also suggest the focal object of transformation in many shows is the working class woman who fails both as subject/object of self-reflexivity, desire, and consumption. We argue it is her mind and body that represents a core site of abjection—a subjectivity designated as uninhabitable and therefore also a central site of regulation. It is upon the working class woman's mind and body that the drama of possibility and limitation of neo-liberal reinvention is played out. We also argue that it is perhaps in reference to that which is made abject and uninhabitable that it becomes possible to talk about class as a dynamic of identifying against what we must not be, and which fuels incessant attempts to refashion selves into generalized and normalized bourgeois feminine subjects.     

真实与嬉戏:评朱利安·巴恩思的《福楼拜的鹦鹉》

从主题和形式的角度,分析小说《福楼拜的鹦鹉》如何通过对再现的质疑来说明"真实"的多元性以及如何通过戏仿和自反叙事的策略来构建多重的文本世界,表明其充满多元性和游戏性的后现代的文本特征。     

从“上帝之声”到“自我指涉”内心之语——浅谈20世纪90年代中国独立纪录片的叙事模式及缺憾

中国独立纪录片作者在拍片之初呈现出一种游离于体制边缘的激进姿态,并借鉴＂真实电影＂或＂直接电影＂的叙事模式来对抗主流专题片中权威的＂上帝之声＂。然而,独立纪录片作者＂主体性＂的缺失以及过度依赖拍摄客体的＂言说＂却让中国独立纪录片面临着自身不可避免的缺憾。经过自我反省的中国独立纪录片作者,在20世纪90年代中期开始表现出对＂回到自身＂的渴望以及对＂个人化的写作、自由的表现＂的诉求。中国独立纪录片呈现出多样化、多声部的发展态势。中国纪录片的声音也由＂上帝之声＂演变为一种＂自我指涉＂的内心独白。