Contested war remembrance and ethnopolitical identities in Kosovo

This paper examines the relationship between political power and war remembrance by considering the way war remembrance occurs in a divided society. The purpose of this paper is to explore memory of the violent past and its uses as an ongoing arena of disputes between former adversaries and within ethnopolitical groups pushing their distinct versions of memory. Moreover, this paper examines three key aspects of the politics of remembrance: prevalent narratives, arenas of commemoration, and agencies of war remembrance, based on the case study of Kosovo. The postwar narrative and commemoration in Kosovo have evolved along ethnic lines, perpetuating antagonism and conflicting identities. Memorialization in Kosovo raises serious challenges for comprehensive transitional justice and reconciliation between these ethnic groups. The paper concludes that through appropriate civic education, critical inquiry of commemoration practices, and especially through evidence-based adaptation of the history curriculum, there is a chance to promote a culture of shared memory and to establish inclusive politics of remembrance in Kosovo, as crucial components of reconciliation and peace-building.     

Nation-building projects through new capitals: from St. Petersburg to Yerevan and Astana

The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive explanation for the reasons behind governments’ decisions to relocate and build new capital cities. The process of capital-building is not a mere phenomenon of urbanization; rather it is a process of “text inventing” for nation-building projects. To emphasize implications for identity behind city constructions, the paper will discuss urbanization practices of Soviet Yerevan and post-Soviet Astana. However, to verify the validity and generalizability of the proposed argument, the article will also briefly provide historical analysis of relocation of capitals from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and from Istanbul to Ankara. The reconstruction of the capital of Soviet Armenia, Yerevan, in the 1920s is important in understanding the role of utopias in initiating identity transformations. The central conceptual premise of the article is Samuel Huntington’s theoretical concept of a “torn country” and the redefinition of civilizational identity. One reason capitals have been relocated and new capitals have been built throughout history is a need to initiate a long-term transformation of identity.     

Instrumental and cultural considerations in constructing European identity among ethnic minority groups in Lithuania in a generational perspective

Research on European identity focuses mainly on majority populations in Western European countries without differentiating among specific population groups and generations, and, above all, disregarding ethnic minority groups living in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper addresses this gap by investigating the development of European identity among three ethnic minority groups in Lithuania: Belarusians, Poles, and Russians. Theoretically, the project is based on the instrumental approach, which argues that European identity is closely related to perceived benefits from “being European,” and on the cultural approach, which holds a common history, ancestry, and culture responsible for the development of European identity. Existing research has, above all, emphasized the importance of instrumental considerations. Analyzing qualitative interviews collected in the FP7 research project “ENRI-East,” the paper compares how young and adult members of ethnic minority groups construct European identity due to “instrumental” and “cultural” considerations. The results show that both instrumental and cultural considerations are relevant and further development of European identity depends on which age group or ethnic minority group an individual belongs to.     

新时期海外侨情变化及侨务工作的发展与应对——评《世界侨情报告:2011—2012》

《世界侨情报告:2011—2012》是一部以反映当前海外侨情变化为主要内容的专题报告类出版物,力求及时研讨全球传统及最新华侨华人居住国侨情动态变化情况,并针对实际问题提出侨务政策建议。该报告具有涉及面广、时效性鲜明等特点,但也存在对个别国家和地区的侨情关注度不够等问题。     

清末民事诉讼法的演进

八国联军侵华后,统治阶层意识到以旧有方式延续其统治成为不可能,遂推动例律的修订。此外,西方国家在华享有的领事裁判权,一方面维护了本国国民的利益,另一方面也使华人了解到文明国家的先进诉讼法制。英美日三国与清政府约定以修律换取其领事裁判权的废除,成为修律的直接动机。沈家本等修律大臣先后奏进《刑事民事诉讼法草案》、《民事诉讼律草案》,两份草案各有特色,其中《刑事民事诉讼法草案》尤其特别,兼具英美国家的诉讼特点,而《民事诉讼律草案》则具有浓厚的日本民事诉讼法色彩。     

Escalon:

No abstract available for this article.     

村基层组织人员“以国家工作人员论”的司法认定

2000年4月29日,全国人大常委员会《关于<中华人民共和国刑法>第93条第2款的解释》确定了村基层组织人员"以国家工作人员论"的基调和范围,但至今村基层组织人员"以国家工作人员论"的认定仍然是司法实践的难点。村民委员会与村党支部属于村基层组织,村基层组织人员是指在村民委员会等村基层组织中管理集体公共事务的人员,不是泛指所有村民。村基层组织人员在具备法律性、公务性、协助性等实质条件时才能"以国家工作人员论"。村基层组织人员"以国家工作人员论"时只能构成贪污罪、挪用公款罪与受贿罪。     

When school meets the Other: intercultural policies in the Basque inclusive school

ABSTRACT

Gatti, Irazuzta and Martinez address the intercultural public policies implemented in the education system of the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country (Spain). Focusing on the education system allows them to reconstruct the historicity of identity-alterity production in a region in which language has been central for the establishment of ethnic frontiers. More specifically, they examine the implementation of these policies in three pre-school and primary educational institutions in a multicultural neighbourhood of the city of Bilbao. They look at Euskara—the Basque language—as a key element of the us-them distinction. The various education models regarding language and the teaching in/of Euskara or Spanish pave the way for the specialization and spatialization of the schools analysed. ‘Integration’ policies are implemented in ethnically marked schools only, based on a rhetoric of interculturality that assumes that any ‘racial or ethnic discrimination’ can be overcome through knowledge of the Other. Moreover, the assessment of public policies through ‘interculturality figures and best practice’ developed to address the so-called ‘immigration issue’ promotes a protectionist intervention on behalf of the assumed social vulnerabilities of immigrant schoolchildren and their families, which are read as ‘problematic characteristics’. The article argues that, as a result of the approach based on the social conditions of immigrant children and their families in the Basque Country, the race issue evaporates.     

附条件不起诉之进一步构建——基于我国《刑事诉讼法修正案》之思考

《中华人民共和国刑事诉讼法修正案》将附条件不起诉制度化是正确之选。但是相对于附条件不起诉所可能发挥的积极作用和空间相比,其规定却显得过于保守和谨慎。为此,应在现有的基础上从适用范围、考验期限和考验内容三个方面进一步加以构建。     

Call me Caitlyn: making and making over the ‘authentic’ transgender body in Anglo-American popular culture

A conception of transgender identity as an ‘authentic’ gendered core ‘trapped’ within a mismatched corporeality, and made tangible through corporeal transformations, has attained unprecedented legibility in contemporary Anglo-American media. Whilst pop-cultural articulations of this discourse have received some scholarly attention, the question of why this ‘wrong body’ paradigm has solidified as the normative explanation for gender transition within the popular media remains underexplored. This paper argues that this discourse has attained cultural pre-eminence through its convergence with a broader media and commercial zeitgeist, in which corporeal alteration and maintenance are perceived as means of accessing one’s ‘authentic’ self. I analyse the media representations of two transgender celebrities: Caitlyn Jenner and Nadia Almada, alongside the reality TV show TRANSform Me, exploring how these women’s gender transitions have been discursively aligned with a cultural imperative for all women, cisgender or trans, to display their authentic femininity through bodily work. This demonstrates how established tropes of authenticity-via-bodily transformation, have enabled transgender to become culturally legible through the wrong body trope. Problematically, I argue, this process has worked to demarcate ideals of ‘acceptable’ transgender subjectivity: self-sufficient, normatively feminine, and eager to embrace the possibilities for happiness and social integration provided by the commercial domain.