Chainmaking: A Note on Ornament, Intelligence, and Building

For the past fifteen-odd years, I’ve investigated the mutual influences of thinking and making, and their impact on design and learning. This article reflects on the traditional role of architectural ornament in equipping a mind with metaphors for wisdom and methods for learning. It then considers the reappearance of an ancient memory technique as an organizational metaphor in the design of a new, forward-looking university building, as foreshadowing to the companion article “Chainbuilding.”

Some Lessons from Using PFI for School Building Projects

This article describes some lessons gained from observing the developments of PFI projects for provision of school buildings. The research, which was primarily based on participant observation methodology, aims to identify key issues relevant to the effective management of such projects. It also attempts to investigate ways in which the PFI process may be changing in this area. Issues covered in the research include motivation, staffing, ownership of the asset, innovation, local democracy and various financial matters. It is observed that some changes in practice in employing the PFI in this area have tended to move it back in the direction of conventional procurement.     

试论中国特色外交理论建构的三大使命

未来十年既是中国与国际体系关系确立的关键十年,也是中国特色外交理论建构的关键十年。中国特色外交理论既要抓住当前国际体系转型的机遇创新发展,又要把握历史演进中的恒久因素合理坚持中国外交的既有理论成果或及时与时俱进地加以更新。这样,未来十年中国特色外交理论建构便具有三大使命,即理论传承、理论更新和理论创新。其中,理论传承很大程度上是对中国特色外交理论的总体思想的坚持;理论更新和理论创新则更多集中于中国特色外交理论的战略思想和政策思想。     

A New Paradigm for the Labor Movement: New Federalism's Unintended Consequences

In this article I review the history of New Federalism; examine the impact of the new economy on local economies and on the demand for development strategies that give workers the skills necessary for a rapidly changing service economy; and describe the new unionism that emerged at the time of John Sweeney's election to the presidency of the AFL-CIO. I explain why the New Deal view of the labor movement, which holds that the preeminent requirement for labor's success is a strong pro-labor national regime, is no longer valid, and I offer an alternative paradigm.     

New media and governance in conflict

The role of new media in shaping the interactions of formal and informal leaders with their audiences is frequently misunderstood and often narrowly focussed on electoral processes and political competition. By weaving together strands of scholarship on political communication and political settlement while engaging with concepts of hybrid governance and leadership more prevalent in the African studies literature, this article takes a different, wider focus. We attempt to knit a framework that challenges normative assumptions on institutional communicative practices and considers the role of power, leadership and communications in both exacerbating and mitigating violent conflict in emerging and consolidating democracies. By bringing together disparate strands of scholarship that are rarely in dialogue, we question a characterisation that contrasts vertical mainstream media with more horizontal and inclusive social media, arguing that a more nuanced view of the political significance of these spaces is required, one that highlights their interplay and blurs the boundaries between online and offline. In doing so, the article places power at the centre of analysis to examine how entrenched relations of patronage can be left unscathed, transformed or even reinforced by networked forms of communication.     

Pedagogy and deliberative democracy: insights from recent experiments in the United Kingdom

A growing body of research suggests the existence of a disconnection between citizens, politicians and representative politics in advanced industrial democracies. This has led to a literature on the emergence of post-democratic or post-representative politics that connects to a parallel seam of scholarship on the capacity of deliberative democratic innovations to ‘close the gap’. This latter body of work has delivered major insights in terms of democratic design in ways that traverse ‘politics as theory’ and ‘politics as practice’. And yet the main argument of this article is that this seam of scholarship has generally failed to explore the existence of numerous pedagogical relationships that exist within the very fibre of deliberative processes. As such, the core contribution of this article focuses around the explication of a ‘pedagogical pyramid’ that applies a micro-political lens to deliberative processes. This theoretical contribution is empirically assessed with reference to a recent project that sought to test different citizen assembly pilots around plans for English regional devolution. The proposition being tested is that a better understanding of relational pedagogy within innovations is vital, not just to increase levels of knowledge, but also to build the capacity, confidence and contribution of democratically active citizens.     

新起点新挑战新姿态新平台——记首届中欧政党高层论坛

5月的北京绿树满城、春意盎然,随气温一同日益升高的还有中欧党际交流的热度。24—25日,由中国共产党倡议并主办的首届中欧政党高层论坛在北京举行。欧洲政党对于中国共产党的高层政治对话倡议高度重视,回应积极。共有来自欧洲22个国家、35个政党及2个欧洲地区性政党、3个欧洲议会党团的高层领导人出席了论坛,     

Humanitarian interventions and the media: broadcasting against ethnic hate

Humanitarian interventions routinely come with media components, because of the media’s assumed ability to counter hate and support reconciliation. Radio programmes for peace should enable audiences to withstand manipulation and react non-violently in conflict situations. Based in the ideological tradition of modernisation theory, these programmes assume that violent conflict can be overcome by educating individuals. Based on original data from South Sudan, this paper argues that social structure and duty to leaders play a bigger role and that present media interventions are ill suited to the problem. Interventions need to be tailored to the situation instead of relying on generalised responses.     

对新形势下构建干警与未成年犯新型关系的思考

本文着重提出新形势下构建未成年犯管教工作干警与未成年犯新型关系的意义,新形势下未成年犯管教工作干警与未成年犯新型关系的特点以及如何构建未成年犯管教工作干警与未成年犯的新型关系。     

The Islamic State: A Clash within the Muslim Civilization for the New Caliphate

This study analyzes the political reasons that allowed the Islamic State to expand successfully in Syria and Iraq, by enabling to “franchise” worldwide, and the role of the regional governments in this issue. The article provides a different explanation from the classic approach of the “clash of civilizations” theorized by Samuel P. Huntington, ascribing responsibility for the growth and expansion of the Islamic State to the complex framework of geopolitical alliances within the Muslim civilization and the Arab world. The article highlights the attempt by Turkey to establish itself as a regional power and guidance of the Islamic world, by resurrecting the Caliphate, and, based on this, explains the contrast with the Islamic State, whose goal is the foundation of a globalized Caliphate. The plans of the Turkish President Erdo?an for a Great Turkey, allied with Egypt, have foundered with the coup that ousted the Muslim Brotherhood from power. The study relates the connection of Ankara with the Kurds, regarding the management of the crisis in Syria and Iraq, and the Turkish liaison with regional powers (Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel) and other powers (Russia, China, and the United States).     

Southern voices in peace education: interrogating race,marginalisation and cultural violence in the field

Three gaps seem to be present within the literature of peace education: relatively little self-critique of the internal workings of the field; a dearth of studies featuring the personal narratives of peace educators; and an underrepresentation of peace educators from the Global South. To address these three gaps, this qualitative investigation explores the personal narratives of Latin American, Asian and African peace educators and critiques certain assumptions and norms underlying the field. We primarily draw on Galtung’s concept of cultural violence, Bajaj’s critical peace education and Connell’s Southern Theory to make our critiques. We examine 13 semi-structured interviews using grounded theory analysis. Three themes relating to cultural and structural violence emerge from these interviews: discriminatory hurdles for Southern peace educators, intercultural tensions in the classroom and linguistic inequality in opportunities for professional mobility. These may or may not reflect the experiences of other peace educators from the Global South or minority practitioners working within the Global North. But by discussing these forms of violence, we hope to show the value of foregrounding the perspectives and lived experiences of underrepresented groups – not only in peace education but also in academia more broadly.     

Institutionalized Governance: The Case of the National College for School Leadership

The article is based on data from the Knowledge Production and Educational Leadership Project (funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council RES‐000-23-1192) where we investigated the relationship between the state and public policy and knowledge in England during the New Labor governments from 1997. The relationship between the state and civil society is one of institutionalized governance where the public institution in the form of the national ministry and the establishment of Non-Departmental Public Bodies remain important in policymaking but is increasingly inter dependent with networks of advisors and private consultants who “enter” government as policy designers and deliverers. We intend to develop this through using the National College for School Leadership as a case study based on primary documentation and interview data.     

金融危机之后世界政党建设新动向及特征

金融危机之后,包括西方发达国家在内的世界各国政党纷纷探讨自身的政党建设问题,保持政党的适应性,以寻求新的政党发展模式。本文拟对金融危机之后世界政党建设所面临的复杂形势作全面细致的俯视,     

The Effects of Media and their Logic on Legitimacy Sources within Local Governance Networks: A Three-Case Comparative Study

Although theoretical and empirical work on the democratic legitimacy of governance networks is growing, little attention has been paid to the impact of mediatisation on democracies. Media have their own logic of news-making led by the media’s rules, aims, production routines and constraints, which affect political decision-making processes. In this article, we specifically study how media and their logic affect three democratic legitimacy sources of political decision-making within governance networks: voice, due deliberation and accountability. We conducted a comparative case study of three local governance networks using a mixed method design, combining extensive qualitative case studies, interviews and a quantitative content analysis of media reports. In all three cases, media logic increased voice possibilities for citizen groups. Furthermore, it broadened the deliberation process, although this did not improve the quality of this process per se, because the media focus on drama and negativity. Finally, media logic often pushed political authorities into a reactive communication style as they had to fight against negative images in the media. Proactive communication about projects, such as public relation (PR) strategies and branding, is difficult in such a media landscape.