Press Photography and Visual Censorship in the Australian Parliament

Still photography is an important medium for visually communicating — and scrutinising — the power of elected representatives. However, it has been severely restricted by parliaments. Surprisingly, the photographs taken by press photographers have been viewed as a larger threat to parliamentary dignity than other seemingly more powerful media, such as television. This article analyses parliaments’ “extraordinary sensitivity to photography” 1 by conducting a comparative, historical examination of press photography in five national parliaments — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The article discusses historical milestones in media access for each of these parliaments, but focuses particularly upon the unusual case of the Australian Parliament and its rules on still photography. The author draws upon interviews conducted with Australian press photographers, as well as an analysis of primary material — including parliamentary guidelines on media access, photographs, newspaper reports, parliamentary debates, inquiry reports and submissions.     

Hiroshima and the Historians: History as Relative Truth

As is clear from the historiography of the US decision to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the judgments of historians are relative to the time, place, and perspective from which they are writing. There are four major schools of historical interpretation of the decision. First is the orthodox view that was offered by the participants in the decision. Second is the revisionist view of historians writing during the era of the Vietnam war who adopted a much more critical interpretation. Third is an interpretive school that gives weight to the Japanese role and responsibility. Finally, the author's view is found in a more long-range perspective that finds the momentum created by President Roosevelt's unconditional surrender policy as the decisive factor. This policy provoked unconditional resistance in the Japanese military. By 1945 the legacy of Roosevelt's policy was firmly embedded in American public opinion. Historians have reached no consensus among these different interpretive schools.     

Truth,justice, and education: towards reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia

Key to the success of peacebuilding and social reconstruction in the former Yugoslavia are the attitudes of these young people. Our goal in this paper is to explore young people’s attitudes about the prospects of reconciliation vis-a-vis those with whom their nations were formerly at war. In particular, we examine three sets of factors. First, we contend that the level of contact among people engendered by the segregated educational systems affects the attitudes of the young about the possibility of reconciliation. We suggest that those who are able to interact more frequently with fellow students from other ethnic groups will be more likely to believe in the possibility of reconciliation. Second, we contend that attitudes of young people about which ethnic groups were responsible for the violence in the former Yugoslavia and the efforts of the international community to bring truth and justice will strongly influence attitudes. Finally, we examine other factors such as education and the influence of gender on reconciliation.     

The Sovereignty of Things: Nationalism and Its Materials in Mexican Photography (1920s–1940s)

The ubiquity of the artefact in Mexican photography needs to be understood as the locus of key originary concepts and as a point of purchase for metaphotographic reflexivity and not merely as an emblematic prop or decorative marginalia. The article discusses the way in which strategies of focus, composition and visualisation, along with the selection or ‘find’ of particular objects and materials, made palpable the abstractions of self‐hood and cultural singularity through the disclosure of form, light and texture. It considers how the practice of the close‐up itself became a cultural trope and how, paradoxically, the pursuit of sovereign objects and autochthonous production in modernist photography elicited a response that infringed visibility in favour of proximity.     

"We Came to Tell the Truth": Reflections On The Tokyo Women's Tribunal

This article analyzes the development agenda Western donors have been operating on over the past decade, particularly the agenda's focus on good governance. After analyzing the academic background of this agenda, which is most evident in so-called new institutional economics, the article discusses the change in the discourse on development assistance toward selectivity, and its implementation in the policies of the International Development Association, the United States, and the Netherlands. The analysis of the policies of these three donors, and of recent empirical studies demonstrates that the donors are biased in favor of rewarding certain policies—in particular, pro-market and trade-oriented policies—on the part of aid-receiving countries. The donors have, thus, introduced clearly ideological and political elements about the socioeconomic order into a seemingly technocratic discussion about the prerequisites of governance. Because of the emphasis on market orientation and trade openness as central criteria for the judging of “good governance,” the current development assistance agenda is located explicitly in the domain of the post-Washington consensus, which links the promotion of pro-market policies to the implementation of an agenda of political reform. The article concludes by pointing out several ambiguities in the current focus on good governance. In particular, the author argues that donors tend to emphasize the instrumental value of governance and overlook the underlying structural causes of bad governance in developing countries.     

Truth without reconciliation: An appraisal of the enquete commission on the SED dictatorship in Germany

One of the many difficult decisions confronting countries in transition is whether and how to reckon with the undemocratic past. Among post‐communist cases, transition justice has been pursued most vigorously in Germany. In this case, the accession of the GDR to the FRG in 1990 provided institutional, personnel and financial advantages. One of the tools for reckoning with the past has been the Investigatory Commission on the Working‐Through of the History and Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in Germany. This article examines the aims, structure and outcomes of the commission and considers its contribution to promoting inner unity in the new Germany.     

重建学术理想国--评《历史的真相》

自 2 0世纪六七十年代以来 ,美国历史学遭到来自两方面的挑战 :一是主张“自下向上看”的新社会史异军突起 ,挖掘出了与正统美国史 ② 众多相冲突的主题 ,使美国史呈现出支离破碎的状态 ;二是历史学的两大根基———科学性和现代性———受到后现代主义思潮的冲击 ,历史学的求真功能受到质疑。这两方面的挑战几乎同时发生 ,又具有一定的关联。于是 ,美国历史学处在了危机之中。由美国三位女历史学家合写的《历史的真相》一书针对史学界的这一危机做出了反思 ,并在此基础上提出了重建学术理想国的具体设想。一　对美国历史学发展的反思面对 2…