Reconciliation and Political Legitimacy: The Old Australia and the New South Africa

In both Australia and South Africa a state-sponsored discourse of reconciliation has been deployed as a tool of national integration and state building. This usage has tended to encourage a politics of selective memory that runs contrary to the spirit of reconciliation as recognition of different views of the nation. This article seeks to recover (and promote) a more positive concept of reconciliation by treating it as a discursive, democratic space in which different versions of the national story can be acknowledged and negotiated. The cases of Australia and South Africa are used in a mutually illuminating way to explore what "telling the truth" about the past might mean and how such "truth-telling" might help restore legitimacy to liberal states confronted with a "broken moral order".     

The Totalisation of Human Social Practice: Open Marxists and Capitalist Social Relations, Foucauldians and Power Relations

This article critiques Open Marxism for an ontology which totalises human social practice—for Open Marxists, capitalist social relations are the singular constitutive source of human activity. Such a stance is superficially attractive yet ultimately inadequate, and I reinforce my case by demonstrating how other critical approaches—in this article, Foucauldian perspectives on power—suffer from similar deficiencies. Thus there is a need to resist the temptation of claiming to know how human social practice can be understood with recourse to a singular aspect (no matter how important) of such practice. I conclude that an excellent example of how to avoid such pitfalls is provided by Antonio Gramsci's writings, for they acknowledge the multifaceted yet nevertheless anchored existence lived by humans in capitalist societies.     

Mobilität,Wahlbeteiligung und Sozialkapital in Schweizer Gemeinden

This paper investigates the relationship between mobility and voting behavior at different spatial levels. To this end, voter turnout in local municipality issues is compared to that in national matters. We find that the difference between local and national turnout strongly correlates with the mobility of a municipality's population. An explanation for the observed negative relationship is that social networks and the sense of duty towards the local community are weaker in municipalities where people are more mobile. In addition to this core result, it is discussed how mobility affects turnout at the local and national level separately, and it is shown how the different measures might be used as proxies for local social capital in a municipality.     

“五微共享、五联共治”:基层党建引领社会治理的实践探索——以南京建邺区江心洲街道为例

基层党建在构建符合城市特色的基层社会治理体系中发挥着重要作用,是推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要任务。在基层党组织的引导下,南京市江心洲街道抓住“中新国际生态科技岛”建设的机遇,创造性地进行了具有江心洲特色的“五微共享、五联共治”基层党建引领社会治理的探索。系统阐述“五微”“五联”的基本内涵,总结出其在职能定位、结构优化、机制整合和赋权保障方面的经验做法,并进一步探索现代化社区建设中党建智能化与社会治理深度融合的启示,具有较强的现实意义和借鉴价值。     

The controversy over the delimitationof the Turco-Syrian frontier in the period between the two world wars

The main objective of this study is to analyze the effects of discourse in the production of designed landscapes within the urban environment. The study concentrates on the social construction of space within the framework of Lefebvre's spatialization trilogy and Foucault's approach to power in order to investigate a public park as a tool for studying the emergence of order and power relationships in society. In this work, Lefebvre's ‘spatial practice’ concept was considered a ‘discursive practice’ providing a conceptual ground for the discussion of the problem. Additionally, Lefebvre's definition of spatialization is reconceptualised along with Foucault's notions of power, knowledge and discourse. The problem is studied in reference to Atatürk Park in Bal?kesir, a small city and regional capital located in the western part of Turkey. Through the discourse of the modernization process, how Atatürk Park as an urban space been socially constructed has been described and analyzed.     

东亚经济一体化与中国的国家利益

冷战结束后,国际政治、经济环境发生了巨大的变化.在此背景下,实现区域经济一体化逐渐提上东亚各国的政治议程,特别是在东南亚金融危机爆发后,在东亚国家政府的推动下,东亚经济一体化进程明显加快.本文认为,国家利益具有复杂的内涵和结构,国家采取外部行动的时候,并不总是追求国家利益的最大化,国家利益的结构优化和合理化亦是国家的首要目标.东亚经济一体化有助于中国实现国家利益结构的优化,而只有逐步转变国家利益的传统观念,建立起合作的、注重区域整体利益的国家利益观,才能保障东亚经济一体化的顺利发展.     

Schweizer Welten des Sozialkapitals. Empirische Untersuchungen zum sozialen Leben in Regionen und Kantonen

To what extent do the Swiss Regions and Cantons differ with regard to their stock of social capital? Based on the data of the Swiss Household Panel this article presents the first empirical investigation of the accumulation of social capital in Swiss sub‐national units in a comparative perspective. Empirical evidence implies that the cantons of the German speaking region show more social capital than the French and Italian speaking parts of the country measured by the engagement in voluntary associations, or the interaction with colleagues and the neighbourhood. However, the Latin cantons show a greater stock of social interaction among family and close friends. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence for the existence of five Swiss worlds of social capital varying among the various types of social interaction.     

Does Associational Involvement Spur Political Integration? Political Interest and Participation of Three Immigrant Groups in Zurich

This article looks at the determinants of the political integration of migrants at the local level, focusing on two dimensions of political integration: political interest (attitudinal dimension) and political participation (behavioral dimension). Based on a representative survey among Italians, Kosovars, and Turks in the city of Zurich, we tested the thesis advanced by the social capital approach which posits a link between membership in voluntary associations and political integration. Our findings suggest that membership in voluntary associations favors the political integration of the three groups under investigation. Furthermore, we find an impact of both ethnic and cross‐ethnic membership. However, while the effect of associational involvement on the behavioral dimension of political integration is strong and consistent across national groups, the attitudinal dimension displays a weaker and differential impact. Political attitudes and socio‐demographic characteristics play a less important role, except for the effect of the former on political interest, and also tend to have a differential impact on the three groups.     

Plantation colonialism,capitalism, and critics

Scholars have variously described the development experience of the Indian state of Kerala as a “model” or a “paradox” or an “enigma” and posited different meanings and significance to its developmental trajectory. Rather than following the usual one-dimensional accounting of Kerala's achievements and shortcomings, we present a historically informed social and political analysis to reveal the meaning and significance of the “Kerala model” of development. This article, thus, critically appraises Kerala's development experience since decolonization to show how the discourse on development and the discursive practices of the dominant actors involved in governance of Kerala diverge in recent years, especially after the second round of economic liberalizations at the national level in 1991, which coincidently corresponds to the beginning of the newest phase of economic globalization. Old lessons are reviewed based on the notion of replicability of the “Kerala model” and new lessons are analyzed within the contexts of sustainability and economic globalization.     

日本社会教育的发展特点及对中国的启示

日本的社会教育经历了以科技教育为主要形式的学校教育依属阶段、以职业技能拓展为主要形式的发展阶段以及以终身学习为愿景的社会教育完善阶段的发展历程，总结出了完善以企业内部培训为平台的社会教育发展模式、形成以“学社融合”的社会教育发展模式、完善的社会教育学科研究以及注重民生为本的教育模式。总结日本的经验，从中获得启示，对中国的社区教育的整体发展具有一定的参考作用。     

¡Que se Vayan Todos! Popular Insurrection and the Asambleas Barriales in Argentina

In December 2001, Argentina experienced a decisive crisis. A financial collapse accelerated by the massive flight of capital and the IMF denial of a new loan was followed by a popular insurrection which, by putting forward the slogan ¡ que se vayan todos, que no quede ni uno solo ! forced the resignation of national authorities. Whilst Duhalde's provisional government is negotiating the conditions for international financial support, faced with inflation and the rise of the dollar exchange rate, social mobilisation is expanding in new forms. This paper argues that the popular insurrection of December 2001 opened a space for the reinvention of the political as negative politics, the asambleas barriales constituting one example of this.     

Democracy Beyond Secrecy: Assessing the Promises and Pitfalls of Collective Voting

This paper assesses collective voting as a specific mode of democratic decision‐making and compares it to secret voting. Under collective voting, voters gather in one place and decide by the show of hands. We theorise two potential advantages and two disadvantages of collective voting so defined. We then draw on original survey data from one of the largest polities practising collective voting, the citizen assembly of the Swiss canton of Glarus. We find that both the promises and pitfalls of non‐secret voting are exaggerated. Non‐secret voting’s suspected pitfalls – social pressure and abstention – do not generally materialise in our sample, although for women they do appear to be relevant to some extent. However, the promises of collective voting – enabling cue‐taking and discursive bridging and bonding – are equally realised to a limited extent only.     

Grenzsetzende Macht

Using a historical and comparative perspective, the present article argues that the politically most effective and strategically most enduring boundaries of modernity were not those between nation-states, but rather those whose orienting and identity building function were based on the maintenance of a power imbalance essentializing cultural, religious or economic differences. The main argument is that the historically unique power of definition, which has conferred validity to the different versions of the West/Rest or North/South explanatory models up to this day, can be traced back to two elements: on the one hand, to the constitutive relationship between Western notions of cultural difference and the global Western power (“Occidentalism”), on the other hand, to the universalizing perspective which in this power context was declared as the only valid scientific representation of space (“hubris of the zero point”). The historical and current impact of this discursive strategy for constructing essentialized spaces are shown using the examples of Latin America and Eastern Europe as typical products of asymmetric boundaries.     

Contemporary Left‐wing Populism in Latin America: Leadership,Horizontalism, and Postdemocracy in Chávez's Venezuela

Critical engagement with the case of Chavismo in Venezuela can offer valuable insights for a fuller understanding of contemporary populism in Latin America. While for some scholars Chávez's populism has fostered popular empowerment, others dwell on the newly confirmed tensions between populism, liberal rights, and democratic proceduralism. This article embraces both positions but moves beyond their one‐sidedness to cast Chavista populism as an inherently contradictory phenomenon that has constituted an ambivalent and transitory process in response to the gradual closure of liberal (post)democracy. Chavista “caesaro‐plebeian” populism is construed as a site of tension and contention, which entails both promises and dangers for democracy. To make these points, the article draws on the discursive analysis of populism and on a new, productive shift in the study of populism in Venezuela, which pursues ethnographic field research on social movements instead of focusing exclusively on the figure of the leader.     

Reshaping EU Attitudes? The Case of Social Democratic and Radical Left Parties in Spain and Italy

Since the beginning of the Great Recession, the issue of European integration has become increasingly salient in many European polities. The European left has adopted a different stance toward European integration, both in terms of economic and welfare‐state integration. On the one hand, radical left parties (RLPs) have always opposed a process of integration dominated by neoliberal logic; on the other hand, the social democratic parties (SDPs) have appeared as one of the main pro‐EU party families, identifying the EU as a privileged space in which to promote the building of a European social model. In this paper, we propose a binary comparison between RLPs and SDPs in Italy and Spain with a qualitative content analysis methodology. Our results show that albeit the crisis brought SDPs closer to a Eurocritical stance vis‐à‐vis the social‐Europe, this dimension along with the political integration are still dividing issues for the RLPs and SDPs families.     

Double-layered ethnic politics in Malaysia: national integration,ethnic unity and social stability

Each ethnic community has an ethnic-based political party both within the government coalition (Barisan Nasional: BN) and within the opposition coalition (Pakatan Rakyat and Pakatan Harapan). Therefore, Malaysia’s political structure can be described as double-layered ethnic politics. In this political structure, the BN government has been forced to adopt a fluctuating policy framework for nation building. As a result, double-layered ethnic politics impedes the development of national integration. Paradoxically, this phenomenon contributes to the maintenance of social stability as this political structure effectively prevents the establishment of a robust ethnic unity that may lead to ethnic conflicts.     

Against epistemic totalitarianism: the insurrectional politics of Bessie Head

This paper argues that South African writer, Bessie Head, crafted art that refuses discursive closure, or epistemic totalitarianism. The essay demonstrates this by examining Head's commitment to analysing power in the context of people's daily lives and her attention to the insurrectionary role of imagination in intervening in established dynamics of power. The first section draws connections between Head's practice of writing about ordinary people to her own experience and observations of living under South African apartheid. The second section focuses on the analytical links that Head makes between poverty, white privilege and institutional economic structures in order to demonstrate how her analysis of the rigidity of the system yielded an attentiveness to the need to be able to imagine other possibilities. The third section depicts Head's insurrectionary writing as part of a moral force that is, in part, a function of her analysis of the problem as an absence of imaginative possibilities. This, I suggest, indicates that – as with much critical African anti-colonial writing – Head's approach presents contemporary social theory with a challenge to epistemic totalitarianism that can be useful for addressing current issues.     

Social Capital and Political Support: A Reassessment of the Putnam Thesis in East and West Germany

A sizeable scholarly literature has generally uncovered weak, statistically trivial connections between social capital and political support, in spite of its logical appeal. Much of this research, however, has adopted an overly restrictive research design. It has overwhelmingly focused on the impact of social trust on political trust, from which broad inferences about the utility of the social capital perspective have been made. Rarely, however, has the impact of social capital been systematically assessed on indicators of political support which are more diffuse in character. Using data drawn from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS), the present study analyses the impact of different measures of social capital on political support in the Federal Republic of Germany. The results strongly support the conclusion that social capital influences diffuse support.     

Wildlife policy matters: inclusion and exclusion by means of organisational and discursive boundaries

As a result of shifting wildlife policy, approximately one-sixth of South Africa's total land has been ‘game-fenced’ and converted for wildlife-based production during the last three decades. The wildlife industry has thereby become a multibillion rand industry with an increasingly vocal political arena. Seeing nature and its production as an organised political project, this article sets out to give insight into the shifting power relations between wildlife utilisers, government officials and civil society in South Africa. It does so by examining the production of dominant narratives on wildlife in the emerging organisational field of wildlife policy. This article studies the Wildlife Forum, an important national discursive space in which government engages with non-governmental parties about wildlife policy. The article argues that by means of organisational and discursive restructuring, government and industry actors have promoted a discourse alliance that endorses both government's conservation interests and industry's development interests, while excluding dissenting voices.     

Uncounted Votes: Informal Voting in the House of Representatives as a Marker of Political Exclusion in Australia

This article examines the implications of high levels of informal (or invalid) voting in Australian national elections using a social exclusion framework. The rate of the informal vote is an indicator of social and political exclusion with particular groups of Australians experiencing inordinate electoral disadvantage. Poorer voters, voters from non‐English speaking backgrounds and those with low education levels are especially disadvantaged by factors peculiar to the Australian voting experience. We begin by exploring the character and pattern of informal voting and then canvass the technical and socio‐economic factors which explain it. We conclude by considering proposed options for reducing informality, some of which are: the abandonment of compulsory voting, major structural change to the voting system as well as ballot re‐design, electoral education and community information initiatives.