Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This essay discusses the ways in which an idealized image of classical Athens contributed towards the formation of a city in which the coexistence between the ancient and the modern, old and new convey a unique urban experience. This 'modern antiquity', or the socially constructed and aesthetically perceived image of the city's past as exclusively classical was promoted by a number of different actors, from German classicists who never visited Greece, English and French travellers, to Greek governments and communities of city dwellers. The essay focuses on the role of the latter two categories in the building of modern Athens and explores three spheres where the emphasis on antiquity redefined the city's past and hindered its modernization, namely royal decrees, local and national governmental obstructions to an organized city plan, and the various perceptions of the city's concrete apartment buildings.

The School Consolidation Policy in the 1990s significantly impacted Chinese rural compulsory education and Chinese rural communities. Although this policy has been involved in many negative news reports, there is a lack of scientific research on it. To address the research gap, this paper first delineates the evolution of this policy, which was formed to balance the disparity between urban and rural education, accelerated by rural financial reformation and aborted due to various emerging problems. It then discusses the educational problems caused by the policy including misallocated resources, poor quality, rising costs, student safety issues, high dropout rate, and lost rural culture heritage. Through the analyses, this paper provides a clear picture of the development of Chinese rural education, and offers implications for improving educational policy, promoting educational quality, and securing educational rights of students in rural China.

Like their larger counterparts, smaller cities use public funds to build facilities to host local sports franchises. One argument for doing so is the new economic activity and attendance new facilities generate. However, academic research examining both major league stadium/arenas and minor league baseball stadiums finds a novelty effect – a brief period of higher attendance – exists but not a long-term sustainable increase for new facilities. This paper extends the research on small cities and novelty effects of sports facilities by integrating and exploring how city size and proximity influences the novelty effect of new hockey arenas in smaller communities. Results show a novelty effect for new facilities built to host Canadian Hockey League franchises for the first five years. In small cities, the novelty effect occurs only in years three through five after opening.

AbstractWhile the territory of Afghanistan is widely connected in the popular and historical imagination to long-distance trade, Afghan society continues to be popularly represented as being made-up of 'tribes', who subscribe to static 'honour codes', and tenaciously cling to archaic tribal values. This article examines the significance of traders of Afghan background to commodity flows across a wide range of contexts in the former Soviet Union, especially in Russia and Ukraine and the Muslim-majority Central Asian Republics. It charts the social and political backgrounds of the merchants who make up this trading network, the nature of their connections to one another and the forms of mobility that make these connections possible, their complex relations with the communities amongst whom they live, and the types of moral value they attach to their work as traders.

One group of South Asians had become objects of fear and derision and targets of immigration enforcement and extra-legal violence. Another group of South Asians was being heralded for their social, economic, and cultural contributions to the United States. The aftermath of 9/11 had brought into relief a deep set of divisions within the South Asian American community. In some ways, these years called into question the very utility of "South Asian" as an identity marking the common experiences of Americans with roots in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.These were nations that shared colonial histories as different parts of British India and Ceylon, but they were now divided by military, religious, and ethnic conflicts on the subcontinent, and their diasporic communities had significantly different levels of power, income, and influence in the United States

Surfers have created their own subculture, which has been associated with concepts such as environmentalism, masculinity, place, and nonconformity, yet the increasing global reach of their sport has created transnational surf communities that bring into question the definition of what it means to be a "local" surfer. This ethnographic study examines identity construction in local Nicaraguan surfers, the ways in which their subculture has formed within a transnational context, how they accept/reject resident foreign surfers, and how foreign surfers see themselves in Nicaragua's globalized surf space. The findings indicate that Nicaraguan surfers have formed their own local surf subculture from globalized influences, and determining whether foreigners are accepted or rejected from this subculture depends on a complex set of factors related to their relationship with local surfers and the local indigenous community.

Summary Past social work studies on discrimination perceived by immigrants mainly concerned the negative impacts of social dislocation on the immigrants, such as their loss of social support, devaluation of education and work skills, and acculturative stress. Important features of family efficacy, notably the immigrant's perceived control over the work–care management and household conditions are yet to be considered in any conceptual model of perceived discrimination. Findings The present study tested both the social dislocation and family efficacy models for 372 Chinese migrant mothers living in low-income communities of Hong Kong. While path analyses supported both models, the family efficacy model had substantially higher power in explaining perceived discrimination. Application Implications for social service practitioners and policy advocates to promote the life chances of poor migrant mothers are discussed.

Based on qualitative research and a case study analysis, this article describes how a local conservation initiative grounded on the potential to trade carbon offsets in the voluntary market has triggered a multipurpose scheme for community conservation in the ejido of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Mexico. We describe how the Felipe Carrillo Puerto has engaged in the creation of two community-conserved areas, an ecotourism venture, and two projects of payment for environmental services. We show how creating a portfolio of conservation projects has allowed the ejido to diversify their sources of income in addition to creating an important number of jobs related to conservation. We discuss the implications of the community experiences with different conservation schemes, the market-based instruments that can trigger community conservation, and the importance of giving local communities the opportunity to define their own conservation paths.

This article attempts to understand the inclusion of citizens and other actors, the structure of incentives and accountability and service delivery outcomes in relation to participatory forms of urban governance in Indian cities. Under a decentralized set-up, the political nature and the poor attendance of people in participative forums seriously serve to undermine the constitutionally envisaged aim of ' deepening democracy'. New forms of participatory arrangements have been dominated by the middle classes and/or powerful local leaders, resulting in the disempowerment of poorer members of the communities concerned. Patronage politics were engraved in these new forms, where the targeted delivery of services yielded high dividends for the patrons. All these factors necessitate the effective engagement of the excluded and disadvantageous section of people with the policies, politics and processes of participatory governance in Indian cities.

This paper details Geza Teleki's contributions in the development of a wildlife conservation movement in Sierra Leonein the late 1970s to early 1980s. Teleki, a primatologist researcher and an animal rights activist, arrived in Sierra Leone in 1979to find an inactive government wildlife conservation program and a thriving primate export sector. Shocked by what he saw, heworked with local and international environmentalists to build a wildlife conservationist movement in Sierra Leone. From capriciousnegotiations with presidential dictator Siaka Stevens to theurgical conflicts with local communities, Teleki helped to lay thegroundwork for transforming wildlife conservation in the small West African nation. In this paper, I explore these contributions,reconstructing Teleki's position as a historical actor in Sierra Leone as well as providing some reflection on how the legacy of hiswork has been inscribed upon Sierra Leone's contemporary wildlife conservation landscape.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are a remarkably diverse community, comprising 48 different ethnic subgroups that speak over 300 different languages and represent a range of different immigration histories an extension to the 2008 reports, and in alignment with the continued efforts of AAPI communities advocating for data disaggregation across Washington State, this report offers a deeper and more nuanced perspective on the educational realities of AAPI students and reinforces the need for disaggregated data to unmask the hidden opportunity gaps of particular AAPI students. Given the continued efforts to make progress at all levels legislative, institutional and community Washington State is at a critical moment to utilize the findings from this report to advance the data disaggregation movement. ; National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE)

J. L. Austin's influential dissection of speech acts into locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts has given rise to much scholarly attention to illocutionary acts and forces. While the perlocutionary facet of speech acts has gone largely undiscussed by philosophers and linguists, folk theories of language often attend closely to the relation between speech and its consequences. In this article, I discuss one conception of perlocutions prominent in Yopno speaking communities in Papua New Guinea that emphasizes the agentive role of listeners in mediating between speech and its outcome. This cultural conception of perlocutions, I argue, is tied to a political sensibility that stresses the self-determination and equality of adult men. The article shows how cultural conceptions of perlocutions provide insight into political values and practices, and how political concerns inform folk models of perlocutions. ; Anthropology

This article examines the emergence of self-defense forces (autodefensas) in Michoacán (Mexico) in the context of relationships between drug trafficking and the state, concentrating on the recent history of fragmentation, disorder, and violence. It traces how these processes generated comprehensive criminal sovereignty projects, which then triggered the emergence of armed defense forces in both indigenous and mestizo communities. Recent developments in Michoacán are described in light of anthropological theorizing about the relations between sovereignty, state-making, and (dis)ordering. The analysis elucidates the triangular dynamics of sovereignty-making among organized crime, the state, and armed citizens. Special attention is given to state interventions to dismantle de facto self-defense sovereignties because these have created an unstable and violent situation. It is argued that sovereignty-making is territorial and historical, and that it is embedded in political, economic, and cultural identities.

Stakeholder engagement (SE), particularly with representatives of locally affected communities, is integral to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) processes, so critical evaluation of SE is necessary across a range of different socio-political contexts. EIA SE practice in the Sultanate of Oman is examined using Q-Methodology, a qualitative-quantitative discourse analysis technique, in order to evaluate key-actor perspectives and policy directions. Four discourses emerge, pertaining to (1) the institutionalisation of SE; (2) business as usual; (3) rights-centred engagement; and (4) decentralisation of EIA institutions. Consensus emerges that shows support for transparency and formalisation of SE; greater citizen-centred decision-making power; transparency in government guidelines; and the elimination of developer-led consultation processes. Policy options for reforming EIA policy are discussed, including a code of participation practice and a toolkit of suitable engagement methods.

This paper explores the role of argumentation within the debates on Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, that came into force in 2012. Through examining Hansard transcripts, this paper aims to investigate how argumentation on mandatory minimums was utilized in this political decision making setting to legitimize and accomplish this policy initiative. I draw upon the concepts of normative democratic deliberation, new right ideology and the punitive turn to explore the Harper government's use of argumentation strategies and discuss their implications for the Canadian political process and the current direction of the administration of justice in Canada. This paper's goal is to contribute to literature on mandatory minimums and policy making through an exploration of the political deliberative process through which the C-10 provisions on mandatory minimums were adopted.