Habermas and the Holy Grail of reason: The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity between theatre and theory

A critical discourse analysis of The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity demonstrates that Habermas's discourse on modernity is theoretische Fiktion (a term Freud used to describe a given theory for which no evidence can be found and no arguments validated). Theatrical narrative strategies from drama are identified that not only organise the logic of the text, but also position readers. The choice of mise en scene—the Oedipal cross‐roads where older and younger protagonists meet in conflict—is seen to position readers as mere spectators. The choice of the narrative trope of the romance of lost opportunity (the road open but not taken) is not merely illustrative, but necessary for the claim that Habermas has redeemed the enlightenment project.

The paper critiques Habermas's theorising on discourse ethics because it distinguishes categories of discourse into scientific/analytical, moral/interpretive and aesthetic/expressive, which operate in three different spheres of value. In particular, it challenges the notion of an “inner logics” for what, in Habermas's stable of discourses, he labels the scientific/analytical. Readers of The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, the paper demonstrates, are not so much pulled along by the force of the better argument, but seduced by that unbridled beast: the aesthetic/expressive.     

劳动价值论:经济学语境中的现代性话语

对现代性进行理论探讨是现代西方思想运动的基本主题之一。亚当.斯密确立的劳动价值论,既从经济学层面对现代性的合法性进行了辩护,又从"历史深处"凸显了现代性的界限。马克思通过劳动价值论批判,把现代性视为自我否定、自我扬弃的过程,从而在经济学语境中完成了对"现代性"的实践批判和超越。     

Islamism,secularization, secularity: the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as a phenomenon of a secular age

The paper outlines parallels between the processes of secularization and secularity in the West, as interpreted by José Casanova and Charles Taylor, and Islamism as a modern social and political phenomenon. It focuses on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s history and ideas and specifically on a number of public documents detailing its social and political vision. I argue that if we define ‘secularization’ not only as the weakening of religious belief, but as the institutional differentiation of modern state structures and the marginalization of religion, and ‘secularity’ as the process whereby faith becomes one option among others and religion becomes an identifiable set of beliefs seen as guidelines for reform, the Brotherhood, similarly to other Islamist entities, is a phenomenon of a ‘secular age’.     

The World Bank as Knowledge Bank: Analyzing the Limits of a Legitimate Global Knowledge Actor

The World Bank has always sold ideas, not just loans. Starting in 1996, then president James Wolfensohn rebranded the Bank by articulating a formal vision of a “Knowledge Bank”—a provider of state‐of‐the‐art expertise on development. After a number of internal changes and assessments, the Bank is acknowledging that it needs to be more humble, pluralistic, and practical. Why do some regard the Bank as a legitimate knowledge actor, whereas others contest that authority? We offer an analytical framework that can explain stakeholders' uneven recognition of the Bank's knowledge role. When stakeholders define knowledge as products, the Bank generally obtains recognition for the quality and quantity of the information it generates. This is the output dimension of legitimacy. On the other hand, when knowledge only counts as such to users who have been part of the process of creating it, the Bank finds itself with limited recognition.     

马克思哲学主体间性思想的认识论意义

经过唯理论、经验论和德国古典哲学的发展,认识论研究出现了理论困境,面临着危机和转向。马克思实践哲学的主体间性思想,超越了近代哲学主客体分离思维方式的局限,克服了认识论研究上的"唯我论"与"独断论"的弊端。     

走向服务政府:洛克有限政府理论及其启示

随着国家治理现代化建设的推进,我国政府治理模式经历了管理型政府向服务型政府的转变。洛克有限政府理论在保护公民权利、实现政治国家与市民社会互动等方面具有积极的现实意义,但有限政府不一定等同于服务政府,在面对不同时期、不同国情下的市场失灵问题以及权衡德治与法治、自由与平等、作为与不作为等现实问题时,有限政府理论具有自身的局限性。而服务型政府必然是一个有限政府,洛克所提出的自然权利、社会契约以及权利让渡所构成的有限政府理论,对于新时代构建服务政府仍然有很强的借鉴意义。     

公共治理理论中国适用性:批判的理路与话语的构建

公共治理理论具有普遍的适用性。当代中国,公共治理理论的适用在理论上可以引导和规范政治学研究,在实践中可以推进多元主体分工共治,倒逼改革的前行。推进公共治理理论有效适用时需要注重将批判贯穿于借鉴与超越之中,在批判治理的新自由主义企图的同时,需要批判阻碍公共治理理论有效适用的关键因素,即在一定程度上存在的利益失衡,批判的基本抓手是对公共事件的理性认知与处理。根本的破解之道唯有全面深化改革,这同时也是公共治理理论有效适用话语构建的基本依托,此外,公共治理理论有效适用话语构建尚需明晰研究主体及其定位。     

《西游记》中的英雄原型横向、纵向分析

《西游记》是一部家喻户晓的经典之作,赢得了不同时代、不同读者的喜爱。这并不是因为它的故事情节吸引人,而是因为它塑造了孙悟空这个英雄形象。《西游记》是人类集体无意识的共同心声,即人类对英雄原型的崇拜心理。     

Morality,Law and the Place of Critique: Walter Benjamin's The Meaning of Time in the Moral World

Abstract

Critique as a philosophical concept needs to be recast once it is linked to the possibility of a productive opening. In such a context critique has an important affinity to destruction and forms of inauguration. Working through writings of Marx and Walter Benjamin, specifically Benjamin's "The Meaning of Time in the Moral World", destruction and inauguration are repositioned in terns of othering and the caesura of allowing.     

《寰有诠》第一卷及其哲学意义上的创造论

傅汎际与李之藻撰写的《寰有诠》(1628)主要翻译自亚里士多德《论天》的拉丁文评注,然而其第一卷加上了从哲学和圣经方面介绍的基督教创造论.在哲学论述方面,通过考证发现,《寰有诠》吸收了阿奎那在《争议问题集:论天主的德能》中的论点,把创造论放在形而上学的框架中去理解,揭示出作为第一本原的天主与万物之间最基本的关系.如此,《寰有诠》为会通创造论与宋明理学提供了非常恰当的基础.     

The Public Eye and the Citizen-Voyeur: Photography as a Performance of Power

This paper argues that photography is best grasped not as a medium of visual communication, but as a manifest performance of the power to make visible. As such, photographic practices are central to the experience and demarcation of private/public boundaries in advanced media cultures. In the private domain, photography is both a ritualized domestic activity and provides conventional and definitive representations of the domestic. These functions are ostensibly opposed to photography's role in the public realm: the same visual technology becomes, in the mass media, both the index and agent of publicness itself, with the paparazzi?especially in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death?symbolizing the violation of the private. The paper explores the ways in which photographic performance at the public/private boundary dramatizes power relations through forms of social transparency, voyeurism and memoralization. It also asks whether momentary crises in the dominant scopic regime can provide the basis for alternative ‘uncanny’ visual practices that are tenable and empowering.     

幼有所育:新时代我国儿童政策体制的转型

随着我国生育政策连续调整并取得积极成效,在"幼有所育"民生目标的指导下,婴幼儿照护服务、学前教育、儿童福利和家庭教育等四个儿童政策子领域发展显著.借鉴"政策体制"理论,对以上四个子领域的发展状况进行分析,发现我国儿童政策体系在进入新时代以来发生了三个方面的重要转型:政策范式上,儿童养育责任已由"家事"转向"国事";权力安排上,政府成为儿童政策的重要行动者,社会和家庭也逐渐发展壮大,责任被重新界定;组织架构上,儿童政策各子领域的行政主管部门的调整,进一步强化了新的政策范式和权力安排.在实施"三孩政策"、落实积极应对人口老龄化国家战略的背景下,完善国家—社会—家庭在儿童养育中的责任分担,集中力量促进重点领域发展,将是今后我国儿童政策努力的方向.     

Child protective intervention in the context of welfare reform: The effects of work and welfare on maltreatment reports

Recent changes in welfare policy have produced changes in parental work and welfare receipt. These factors are assessed in relation to investigated reports of child abuse and neglect using survey data on 1998 welfare recipients in nine Illinois counties, in conjunction with longitudinal administrative data on cash welfare benefits, employment, and child abuse and neglect reports. Trend analyses show that rates of child maltreatment reports among welfare recipients have risen since the passage of PRWORA in 1996. Findings from multivariate analyses indicate that parental employment has a protective effect on reports to child protection systems (CPS), that this effect is greatest when combined with welfare receipt, and that this effect becomes stronger over time. Those who receive welfare in the absence of employment face a significantly greater risk of CPS involvement, even compared with those who neither work nor receive welfare. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Societal Transformation and the Creation of a Regional Party: The PDS as a Regional Actor in Eastern Germany

This paper examines the position of the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) within unified Germany. The transformation of the GDR's political, economic and societal structures, coupled with the legacy of 40 years of state socialism, has created space for a regional party to establish itself on the territory of the former East Germany. The manner and means that the transformation has taken have enabled a process of separate identity-creation to begin in eastern Germany, and the PDS has mobilised territorial difference in order to carve a new niche as an eastern German interest party. The PDS, the heir to the SED dictatorship, has moulded itself into a strong regional actor on the basis of a reinvigorated societal cleavage along the former border ? and appears to have successfully secured a place in the German political landscape for at least the next generation.     

The politics of social assistance in South Africa: How protests and electoral politics shape the Child Support Grant

Since the 1990s, South Africa, like many other countries from the Global South, has provided extensive social assistance for the poor. The literature on these policies, however, is largely dominated by structuralist accounts, and it largely overlooks political factors. We conducted quantitative analyses regarding the South African flagship Child Support Grant (CSG) program and investigated how contentious and electoral political dynamics jointly shape the provision of this program. Based on a logistic regression analysis, we measured the effect of protest participation, voting preference, and their interaction on the likelihood of CSG receipt. Our analysis showed that CSG receipt is much higher among “uncontentious supporters” of ANC and “contentious nonsupporters,” as well as those who join violent protests. This lends support for our argument that CSG is being used as a tool for electoral politics and containment of unrest, providing fresh evidence for political mediation theories of social policy.     

Promoting good governance in Africa: The role of the civil society as a watchdog

Corruption, maladministration, nepotism, and poor accountability have reached unprecedented levels within the African continent. Consequently, this has impeded the successful and adequate provision of public services and by extension, hampered socio‐economic development and good governance. Undeniably, the entrenchment of civil society is vital for democratic purposes and the consolidation of good governance. For the purpose of this study, Africa is regarded as a unitary entity composed of synchronized autonomous states and governments. As a result, a strict examination of available and relevant literature on the provision of civil society in Africa was applied (were a systematic review of literature irtes was undertaken). The study was able to comprehensively understand the dynamics, challenges, and benefits related to the increasing rate at which is participating in Africa's governance related issues and their overall impact. The study was also able to understand how civil society in Africa has contributed to promoting good governance. It is, however, apparent that the increasing involvement of civil society in governance issues relates to transparency, upholding the rule of law, human rights, and the fight against corruption inter alia. The study also uncovered that the increase in the participation of civil society organizations will have a positive impact on governance as they will have the capacity to act as watchdogs to ensure that governments are effective and serving the needs of the public. Going forward, it will be imperative for civil society to work hand in hand with democratically elected governments in not only fighting corruption and promoting good governance but to also ensure that there is a socio‐economic and by extension political development within the African continent.     

Knowledge, Legitimation and the Politics of Risk: The Functions of Research in Public Debates on Migration

There is a striking lack of research on the utilisation of expert knowledge in public policy debates and party political mobilisation. Existing contributions in related fields of scholarship generate rather contradictory expectations. On the one hand, political communications literature points to the dumbing down of political debate, implying a limited role for expert knowledge. On the other hand, a number of prominent sociologists have noted the centrality of science in political debate on the politics of risk. This article suggests that the two theses are not necessarily incompatible. For knowledge to be reported in the media, it clearly needs to conform to criteria of novelty, drama and scandal, but scientific findings can and often do meet these criteria, especially in areas of risk, where there is enormous potential to scandalise government actions or omissions. The article illustrates these tendencies through an analysis of the use of expert knowledge in UK debates on migration from 2002 to 2004. It explores how research was used in parliamentary debates, speeches and newspaper coverage of three prominent episodes in the politics of migration. The examples demonstrate well how the mass media utilises research to expose political scandal. The analysis also suggests the ambivalence of political actors and especially incumbents in drawing on research. While governments are keen to utilise research to legitimise policies, they are also aware of the limitations of science in underpinning risky decisions. The article concludes with a discussion of how politics has responded to this dilemma.     

实践观的初次表述究竟在马克思的何文中? ——《1844年经济学哲学手稿》的实践观及其价值

马克思主义实践观的确立是唯物史观形成的重要标志.当前学界有一种流行见解,认为《关于费尔巴哈的提纲》是马克思主义实践观的奠基之作和初次表述.通过将《1844年经济学哲学手稿》实践观与《提纲》实践观的基本要点以及马克思主义"成熟著作"实践观的经典论述进行双重文本对照,可知《手稿》不仅先于《提纲》构建了马克思主义实践观的思想框架,而且包含着比《提纲》的实践观更为丰富的内容.恰如其分地说,《手稿》才是马克思主义实践观的初次表述.马克思主义实践观的理论架构在《手稿》中已接近形成,《提纲》是《手稿》中初步建构的马克思主义实践观的深化和运用.