Diasporic citizenship and militarization: Punjabi soldiers in the world wars

This article delves into the uses of history and examines how the enlisting of Indian soldiers – particularly from Punjab – into the British Indian Army during the First and Second World Wars has been memorialized and remembered in contemporary Britain. This issue has become particularly salient in the light of the politics of the so-called ‘war on terror’ or ‘new imperialism’, which Paul Gilroy and Vron Ware argue has heightened tendencies towards militarism in British society. Using examples from the public sphere – remembrance day events, TV documentaries and army recruitment fairs – as well as interview material, I argue that Britain's Punjabi communities have been organizing in order to weave themselves into the national tapestry by memorializing role played by Punjabis in the First and Second World Wars – iconic to the national fantasy, using this forgotten history to demand recognition from the state and stake a claim for citizenship. In the ‘new imperialism’, however, it is not equally possible for Sikh and Muslim Punjabis to argue for their inclusion on the terms of militarized citizenship, and the various chords within the diaspora seem to be increasingly disharmonious, effacing their composite and shared colonial history.     

Incorporating immigrants as foreigners: multicultural politics in Japan

With the growth of immigrant population over the past couple of decades, a ‘multicultural’ discourse has emerged in Japan. A notable point is that immigrants are expected to be incorporated into the host society primarily as foreigners rather than as Japanese nationals with full citizenship rights. The purpose of this article is to understand this prevailing mode of immigrant incorporation and to consider the comparative implications. By examining the discursive aspects of claims-making on behalf of both old-timer and newcomer immigrants, I argue that the underlying opportunity structures have been reproduced in each phase of immigration-related development in Japan, facilitating the use of the ‘foreigner’ category in advocacy efforts. Official recognition of the category has also helped to further institutionalize it as the main target of immigrant policy. In comparative perspective, ‘incorporation as foreigners’ can be understood as a variant of the ethnic model of immigration regimes in that it tends to reinforce the dominant ethnocultural conception of Japanese nationhood.     

The confection of a nation: the social invention and social construction of the Pavlova

Both Australians and New Zealanders claim the Pavlova (a large meringue cake, covered in cream and fruit) as their national dish. The historical record does not settle its birthplace. On the contrary, published recipes reveal the complex process of social invention through the swapping of practical experience across both countries. The illusion of a singular creation can be explained by distinguishing a second, associated level of social construction. This applies to the more ideal processes through which cooks and eaters attached a name, meanings and myths, producing a widely-held concept that was deceptively distinct. The Pavlova evolved along with other social constructs, notably femininity and nationalism, which became ironic in tone. Typically consisting of a set of instructions (“take 1/2 lb sugar”) and an often figurative title (“Pavlova”), recipes are valuable historical sources for mapping the social invention of material items and the social construction of ideas about them.     

Just work it out amongst yourselves: the implications of the private mediation of religious freedom

In its much-heralded report of 2008, the Bouchard-Taylor Commission struck by the Quebec government divided the resolution of contests involving religion-based claims into two realms: those which are solved in the courts and before human rights tribunals and therefore enter into formal determinations based on ‘reasonable accommodation’ and those disputes which are settled in private, with the guiding principle being responsabilisation dans la sphère privée' or ‘concerted adjustment’. In the report it is clear that the Commission prefers the second alternative for the resolution of disputes or disagreements about such things as prayer space, kirpans in schoolyards, serving pork at maple sugar farms, and religious needs in employment contexts. In this article I argue that encouraging the private resolution of issues around religious freedom, particularly in a social, legal and political climate in which there is fear and anxiety about the religious other, is an alternative that renders already vulnerable groups and individuals even more vulnerable. This in turn contributes to a situation in which they risk being oppressed and disadvantaged in a society which promises equality. Such a situation can create tension which could easily have been avoided if clear guidelines based on a beginning place of citizen equality were publicly and clearly stated by legal and political institutions.     

微博实名制之思

作为网络社会的新型信息舆论平台,可以说近年来微博在众多的社会公共事件中扮演了重要的媒介角色,因此即将实行的微博实名制一经公布便引起了多方关注,这一政策的推出给微博平台带来了许多积极的影响,如更加稳定的运行环境、用户的言语自律等,同时也带来了一些无法忽视的问题。重点即在于对此政策利弊之处给予综合考量,并对实名制之后的微博管理提出合理的思考和建议。     

Postcolonial strangers in a cosmopolitan world: hybridity and citizenship in the Franco-Maghrebian borderland

Current critical theorizations within citizenship studies on the condition of migrants and refugees celebrate the nomadic dimension of the contemporary migrant/refugee figure and assign her the potential to disrupt hegemonic practices of capital and state-centric citizenship. However, such enthusiastic accounts need to exercise a sense of caution in conceptualizing the fragile and unstable condition of the migrant, and need to distinguish between various experiences of mobility, hybridity, and citizenship. Such a differentiation between these different lived experiences of citizenship echoes Aihwa Ong's critique of the ‘unified moralism attached to subaltern subjects [that] now also clings to diasporan ones, who are invariably assumed to be members of oppressed classes and therefore constitutionally opposed to capitalism and state power’. My analysis points to how class, race and language structure various experiences of mobility and citizenship and make tenuous easy celebrations of postcolonial hybridity within critical re-configurations of citizenship. I argue that practices of postcolonial mobility in the Franco-Maghrebian context have produced differentiated and unequal hybridities, and, consequently, asymmetrical experiences of citizenship. By distinguishing between various practices of mobility and hybridity, I indicate that postcolonial hybridity can also be employed to re-constitute the rigid boundaries of nation and citizenship.     

Re-thinking urban citizenship for immigrants from a policy perspective: the case of Barcelona

This article proposes that the role of cities in immigrant integration be reconsidered through the prism of urban citizenship, looking at how local policies co-regulate immigrants’ status, rights and identity. It argues that urban citizenship connects two dominant understandings of citizenship, as city governments are under pressure to reconcile the normative perspective of formal membership of the state with the claims for rights expressed by excluded parts of the urban citizenry. A case study of an inclusive way of regulating citizenship in Barcelona illustrates how a citizenship perspective can cast light on the specific ways in which cities regulate immigrant citizenship in interaction with higher levels of government, and highlights some of the levers cities possess to modify the boundaries between inclusion and exclusion of immigrants locally.     

Borders of emptiness: gender,migration and belonging

This article argues that we need to consider the question of ‘who belongs’ in terms of individuals' construction as market actors, workers and migrants as well as citizens. Using Hegel's theory of civil society, and Charles Mills' critique of the social contract, it argues for the significance of the process of self-government and the construction of a ‘hard inside’ for understanding migration and its relationship to embodiment, labour and belonging. This approach can take us beyond the distributional framework of the territorial state, and the assumption of stable membership, to interrogate the boundary-setting aspects of the political and the meanings of interdependence and vulnerability.     

日本人的国家同一性和对人种、民族的刻板印象探索性的讨论

通过对日本大学生的数据分析,探讨了日本人的国家同一性和对人种、民族的刻板印象的关系。结果表明,对民族的刻板印象和内群体偏爱效应显著。此外,国家同一性和对国民印象的交互作用明显。表明国家同一性强的人,对自己国民的肯定性评价显著高于国家同一性弱的人。需进一步探讨国家同一性概念的定义和测量刻板印象的妥当性。     

社会转型期中共优良传统的支撑作用

在发展社会主义市场经济的历史条件下,继承和发扬党的优良传统,是新时期党风建设面临的重要课题。本从维护社会政治稳定、促进社会主义市场经济的发展及增强民族凝聚力三个方面论证了在新形势下继承发扬党的优良传统的重要意义,阐述了党的优良传统在中国社会转型过程中的地位和作用。     

International Peacebuilding and the Politics of Identity: Lessons from Social Psychology using the Bosnian Case

This article argues that international peacebuilding efforts must be understood as identity-building projects and applies what we know from social psychology about identity processes to post-conflict peacebuilding. It argues that international peacebuilders must pay careful attention to the relationship between the multiple sources of identity from which individuals draw their self-concepts, such as their ethno-national belonging and their citizenship. Using qualitative evidence from field research on international interventions in post-conflict education reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the decade following Dayton, the article contends that the international community's efforts on the ground entrenched ethno-national group boundaries while simultaneously challenging the distinctiveness of these ethno-national identities. As a result, rather than being sites of peacebuilding, the schools of Bosnia-Herzegovina became sites of heightened tensions and controversy.     

对农民工社会保障问题的思考

随着金融危机的结束,大批农民工再次涌入城市,伴随着新生代农民工群体的出现,农民工群体不断壮大,他们为城市建设作出了巨大贡献,但自身的生活、工作条件却极为艰苦。应当通过广泛的社会保障解决农民工在工作和生活中的困难,保障农民工的合法权益。     

关于大学生参与社会实践的几点思考

社会实践是培养大学生专业技能及社会适应能力的重要环节。学校需从完善运行机制、注重基地建设、突出专业特色、强化社会服务等方面统筹考虑、扎实推进、确保实效。     

Distributive Justice and the Politics of Difference

Abstract

This essay identifies a point of convergence between economically oriented, distributive approaches to social justice and culturally oriented, identitarian ones. The primary problem of difference politics, I claim, is insuring that disadvantaged groups have equal abilities to participate in the social processes that construct and value identities. I argue that this is best accomplished through a conception of equality promoting human agency in both the cultural and economic spheres.     

论美国殖民时期烟草大种植园主的绅士身份——以弗吉尼亚为例

本文尝试结合美国研究和文化研究的方法，利用大量事件和书信廓清美国殖民时期弗吉尼亚烟草大种植园主的绅士身份之缘起、构建的大概过程与要素以及自身经历的和所受的挑战。同时，烟草种植文化与绅士身份问千丝万缕的关系得以多角度的梳理，殖民地社会文化的冰山一角也得以再现。     

美国汽车露营的符号消费性及对中国的启示

从让·鲍德里亚的符号消费理论来看,休闲已演变为一种符号消费的对象,而作为一种户外休闲活动的汽车露营也被赋予符号消费的价值,普通汽车露营与房车露营作为不同的消费符号界定了美国中产阶级与上层阶级的身份与社会地位。依美国汽车露营发展的历程看,房车露营在中国还是富人阶层的符号消费,中国目前更适合重点发展大众的普通汽车露营度假产业。     

Globalization and the future of the nation state

This article addresses the issue of whether the nation state has a future as a major locus of governance in an increasingly ‘globalized’ economic and social system. It begins by considering the development of the sovereign state and argues that international agreements between states were important in establishing the power of the state over society. It goes on to consider the changing capacities of the state in the modern world. Extreme versions of the 'globalization' thesis are then challenged, and it is argued that national-level economic processes remain central and that the international economy is far from ungovernable. Major nation states have a pivotal role to play in creating and sustaining such governance. However, their role is less than as autonomous national macro-economic managers, than as agencies that are representative of their populations and sources of legitimacy for new forms of governance. The central function of the nation state is that of distributing and rendering accountable powers of governance, upwards towards international agencies and trade blocs like the European Union, and downwards towards regional and other sub-national agencies of economic co-ordination and regulation.     

The emergence of ‘citizenship’ in popular discourse: the case of Scotland

ABSTRACT

The 2014 Scottish Referendum gauged public opinion on the possibility of Scotland leaving the United Kingdom, raising significant questions about the legitimacy of claims to citizenship in the event of independence. Through a mixed methods survey, this study explored the ways in which citizenship emerged in popular discourse in the lead up to the Scottish referendum. Findings point to an emphasis in public discourse on a commitment to and participation in society, instead of the more traditional citizenship markers of ancestry, birthplace or residency. Data indicates a view of citizenship encompassing status and practice, while identity was framed in terms of more static notions of birthplace and ancestry. The salience of social participation was noticeably greater in respondents’ assessment of others’ potential Scottish citizenship than their own. Specifically, the study highlights the salience of relational aspects of citizenship in popular discourse, with an emphasis on social citizenship in preference to legal citizenship. The study constitutes a significant contribution to ongoing discussions about ‘participatory citizenship’ in the field of Citizenship studies, by providing much needed empirical data on social conceptualizations of citizenship.     

和谐语境下社会公益权研究——公益诉讼中社会中间层角色考量

在建设和谐社会的背景下,对公共利益的救济成为关注的焦点问题。公共利益是公益诉讼的利益源头,以利益出发,对公共利益进行法权凝练,进而建构社会公益权这种新型的权利,并以此为权利契机,对公益诉讼的主体进行分析,赋予社会中间层组织以原告资格,是对现有权利体系与诉讼制度的完善与修正。