Expanding the Definition of Asian Diasporic Studies

Abstract

Korean and other Asian adoptees are increasingly becoming a part of the racial landscape in the United States, although their presence is omitted or minimally addressed in Asian diasporic studies. In 1999, after 45 years of “feeling shame and a sense of guilt” (Lee, 1999, para. 3) First Lady Hee-Ho Lee marked the South Korean government's official recognition of adoptees as overseas Koreans. As involuntary immigrants, this population has both shared and unique experiences with other Korean immigrants. Current literature on Asian American acculturation, assimilation, and identity does not capture the experiences of Asian adoptees (McDonald&Balgopal, 1998; Min&Kim, 2000; Oyserman&Sakamoto, 1997; Phinney et al., 2000; Tse, 1999). This article presents quantitative research that considered the constructs of ethnic and racial identity for Korean adoptees, their relationship to each other, and to the process of acculturation.

This study of adoptees (N = 69), ranging in age from early-adolescence to young adulthood, explored the relationships between racial identity, ethnic identity, and acculturation in transracial Korean adoptees. The research was exploratory in nature and entailed a quantitative design comprised of three objective instruments measuring racial identity, ethnic identity, and acculturation. Findings indicated that the group was characterized as embracing both their Korean heritage and white middle-class upbringing with a somewhat greater need for assimilation or inclusion into the Korean community than differentiation from it. While adoptees are highly acculturated into the mainstream, they seem to journey, as do other immigrants, through a process of defining what ethnicity and race means to them.     

Beyond Paternalism Towards Social Capital: Local Governance Reform in Portugal

An urge to reform local government in Portugal requires a sensitive approach to the role of social capital and, particularly, to the consequences of local governance arrangements in its formation. This research agenda, greatly influenced by the identification of positive externalities of social capital, has generated several claims regarding the need for proactive and objective top-down initiatives. Though assuming that institutions and public policies can have positive effects on social capital building, this article tries to contribute to the debate, focusing on the challenges met by local administration reform, arguing that it requires a four-fold approach: the identification of local government functions and the role of the State; a close look at institutional design and citizen engagement mechanisms; correct tools for allowing civil society reinforcement and social capital building; and recognizing political leadership as a fundamental aspect of a governance arrangement.     

"9.11"语境下的西方国际关系研究

9.11事件改变了美国的内政与外交,为塑造新的、至少是改造既有的世界政治秩序提供了可能性,因此将在相当长的时期内影响国际关系的实践.西方国际关系学界就此存在着各式各样的见解和主张,远没有达成共识,但某些课题似乎受到了普遍的重视,成为9.11语境下的研究热点.西方国际关系研究出现了两个基本走向.第一,多数国际关系研究学者和以学科研究为主的期刊,并没有对9.11给予特别的关注.第二,由于对权力和权力的道德方面的认识不同,美国与欧洲学者在世界观和国际关系研究理论方法上的分歧不断加深.     

Between Chaos and Diversity: Is Social Memory Studies a Field?

Is (or are) memory studies, social or otherwise, a field? If so, does anything hold it together beyond the mere use of the phrase “collective memory”? Memory studies is simultaneously still in its charismatic phase, though it no longer has a right to be, as well as highly resistant to efforts to escape from it, though it clearly needs to do so. To be a field, it needs a memory of its own.     

Power,Resistance and Development in the Global South: Notes Towards a Critical Research Agenda

This article engages with radical critiques of the Eurocentric grammar of development discourses. I start from a position of considerable sympathy with their appreciation of the discursive dimensions of power that attach to the idiom of development and their solidarity with the oppositional projects of subaltern groups. However, this sympathy combines with a considerable degree of disagreement in terms of how the discursive power of development is understood and how the dynamics of popular resistance are theorised. As an alternative to the relatively crude postulation of development as a discursive regime that enables the West to exercise power over the Rest, I develop an argument that emphasises the multivalent character of the idiom of development and trace this multivalence to situated contestations that take place between opposing political projects that strive to shape the form and direction of social change in specific ways. Furthermore, I will argue that this contentious dynamic becomes particularly evident in those world-historical conjunctures when subaltern groups mobilize around social movement projects that destabilise hegemonic power relations in the capitalist world-system. To illustrate this point, I will provide a broad-brushed outline of three distinct ‘development regimes’ that have shaped North–South relations from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century and discuss the ways in which these regimes have been destabilised by the articulation of oppositional meanings of development articulated from below by progressive social movement projects. Finally, I draw on my own fieldwork experiences to reflect on how critical scholars can engage with movement projects that challenge the dominant directions and meanings of development in ways that can contribute to democratic deliberations within social movements.     

低碳发展中的中国国际责任

气候变化引起的粮食安全、水资源稀缺、海平面升高、生态系统崩溃等诸多自然和社会危害,从根本上触及人类的生存,使得人类不得不对现有经济社会发展模式进行系统反思,以寻求未来的发展之道。2003年英国布莱尔政府发布能源白皮书《我们的能源未来——创建低碳经济》,标志着以减缓气候变化为主旨、减少温室气体排放为主要目的低碳经济,开始成为国际社会应对气候变化的主流选择。     

热话题与冷思考(二十一)--关于全球化的挑战与亚太地区的回应的对话

[编者按]亚太地区是当代世界政治、经济发展最活跃的热点地区之一.不断强化的全球化发展趋势对亚太地区的政治、经济、文化、社会等诸方面产生了深远的影响,既带来了新的机遇,也带来了严峻的挑战.探讨全球化的挑战与亚太地区的回应,无论是对全球化理论研究,还是对亚太问题的研究都是很有意义的.为此,本刊特约请中央编译局世界所亚太处许宝友副研究员和朱艳圣博士对北京大学国际关系学院博士生导师陈峰君教授进行了访谈,就有关问题进行了深入的探讨和交流.     

国际关系与国际法的学科结合——中国现状、存在问题及解决思路

国际法与国际关系之间关系紧密,国际法学与国际关系理论的研究相辅相成,这些特性决定了两个学科紧密联系的必要性。过去的十年是中国国际关系与国际法跨学科研究兴起的十年。然而,教学体系设置上的彼此隔离、学科研究本身的难度、对话机制的不畅通,以及跨学科合作平台的缺乏等,严重制约着跨学科研究的进一步发展。鉴于此,推动包括改进两个学科教学体系、建设跨学科的对话机制与研究平台等各个方面的改革措施势在必行。     

多种文明视角下的中东欧社会发展

从古到今,无论在地理位置上还是地缘政治上,处于西欧和东欧之间的中东欧地区都十分重要。由于受不同文明的影响和东西方大国的控制,该地区的民族和国家在很大程度上不能为自己做主,社会发展带有极强的被动性。这是观察正在集体回归西欧的中东欧社会发展的一个重要视角,有助于发现其历史发展逻辑和潜在的动因。文明归宿上的困惑和政治定位上的摇摆是中东欧社会发展的常态,而在其自身认同和同东西方大国对它们的认同上的矛盾会长久存在。     

德国社会市场经济的发展与变化

半个多世纪前,联邦德国基于历史的思考和现实的需要,选择了社会市场经济模式,走了一条既有别于高度集中管理的计划经济,也有别于当时由凯恩斯主义主导的英美市场经济的“第三条道路”,用含义广泛的“社会”二字向世人展示了这种经济模式的性质及其发展取向。对这一选择,社民党一度表示反对,国外政界和经济界人士也曾加以     

社区发展与公民参与--中国社会发展综合实验区建设概述

作为一种新的社区发展类型,中国社会发展综合实验区建立起了由政府部门、社会团体、社区居民共同参与社区发展的管理运行机制.在社会公众的有效参与下,实验区在区域可持续发展的若干重要领域积累了经验,形成了示范.     

No Colonial Working Class,No Post-Colonial Development: a Comparative-Historical Analysis of Two Oil-Rich Countries

Development sociologists generally agree that states play a critical role in promoting, as well as in impeding, development. However, far less scholarly consensus exists on the precise historical processes that lead either to strong or to weak states. This paper investigates the factors that shape varied state capacities through a comparative-historical analysis of two similar countries with divergent development outcomes—Trinidad and Tobago and Gabon. In the 1960s, both countries had comparably large amounts of oil wealth, minimal state involvement in the economy, and low levels of development. In the 1970s, state capacity in Trinidad and Tobago dramatically increased and the country went on to achieve high levels of development. The Gabonese state, on the other hand, remained weak resulting in persistent low levels of development. This paper traces the divergence in state capacity to variations in working class mobilization, specifically the particular type of working class movements in each country and the political opportunity contexts. In doing so, this paper reveals new agents and contingencies producing state capacity that are not predominantly discussed in the contemporary development literature, and the meso-level mechanics by which these agents are successful or constrained in doing so.     

Towards a political theory of public accountability in education

Local authority museums have experienced a rapidly changing competitive environment. Shifts in cultural policy at national and local level have led to more emphasis on plural funding, customer orientation and management for efficiency and effectiveness. This paper shows how knowledge of visitor demand can be of value in facing this challenge. The estimated demand equation is shown to yield useful information and insights on some key management issues, most notably the relationship between pricing policy and the achievement of objectives relating to visitor numbers and to revenue.     

为什么要研究“国际社会共生性”——兼议和平发展时代国际关系理论

国际社会共生性是普遍有效的理论命题,具有无可辩驳性。上世纪前半期发生的两次世界大战和大危机,都表明国际关系理论的变革已处于历史的转折点上,用国际社会共生性命题取代国际社会无政府状态命题势在必然,可惜至今没有实现。第二次世界大战后国际社会发展更加充分地为确立国际社会共生性命题在国际关系研究中的主导地位提供了丰富的资源,凭借这种发展势头,弘扬中华民族传统文化和谐哲学的智慧,科学认识国际社会共生性,是创立和平发展时代国际关系理论的需要,是中国坚持和平发展道路的需要,也会为建设持久和平、共同繁荣的和谐世界作出贡献。