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.     

Driving South: The globalization of auto consumption and its social organization of space

ABSTRACT

Don Mitchell is one of the most influential contemporary cultural geographers and has long been at the forefront of scholarship on intersections of capital, nature and labor. His work engages the geo-historical processes of landscape co-production and discusses how social, political and labor struggles that formed landscapes have been hidden or erased. Mitchell’s research and work are informed by an urgency to uncover the forces shaping the human–land dialectic. It is difficult not to sense profound urgency at the current political–ecological conjuncture, which is why we turned to Don Mitchell to reflect on his research, intellectual practice and the state of academia and activism today. The first section of the interview centers on Mitchell’s research and the tools and methods he employs in his work. In the second section of the interview, we discuss strategies and tactics in resistance struggles, campus activism and radical scholarship. Infused throughout the interview are the influences that have shaped Mitchell’s unique approach to teaching, research and a critical academic life. We conclude with a section on current academic practice.     

Life space and social networks as political contexts

Based on data collected in the course of the September and November 1980 waves of the National Election Studies, this contextual analysis of interpersonal relations in social networks presents two major findings: First, the neighborhood as a geographical unit does not appear to be a perceptually salient environment for political behavior; and second,particular neighbors, individually linked to a voter, appear to constitute a social network that has an independent impact on partisan affect for the political parties and their candidates as well as on stability or change in vote preferences as the electoral season goes forward. Thus, although the neighborhood appears to be of minor importance as a politicalenvironment, social relations among particular neighbors result in an interpersonalcontext that has an impact on political behavior.This article is being published simultaneously as Chapter 12 in Heinz Eulau,Politics, Self and Society (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress). Copyright 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.     

中国政府在社区建设中的责任

在社会经济转型过程中,社区建设作为一项涉及方方面面的社会系统工程,日益引起社会各界的广泛关注,对此展开深入研究具有很强的现实意义.在社区建设中,政府应扮演极为重要的角色,应完成好规划、引导、协调的任务、同时建立健全社区建设的财力支撑体系从而推动社区建设健康有序的发展.     

The social construction of the participatory turn: The emergence of a norm in the European Union

At the beginning of the 1990s a new discourse emerged at the European Union level, insisting on the necessity of ‘civil society’ participation in decision‐making processes. Based on a ‘strategic‐constructivist’ research design, this article addresses the question of the emergence of this participatory turn in the official discourse and its transformation into a norm. It argues that the continued activism of an elite forum, consisting of political and administrative actors as well as academics, created the momentum that brought the concerned actors to accept the participatory norm and to play the roles required by it. However, due to internal competition amongst norm entrepreneurs, and a changed political situation, this norm is still contested, making it difficult to assess how its implementation will function.     

Exploring construction project design as multimodal social semiotic practice

ABSTRACT

The semiotic nature of design and engineering communications has often evaded direct interrogation; specifically the representation of requirements using multiple semiotic modes. This paper explores the semiotic character of requirement representation in the construction project design and engineering process by mobilising a social semiotic analytic framework to reveal how project artefacts (e.g. drawings; digital imagery; physical objects) are multimodal resources that critically affect stakeholder engagement and interpretation. The focused empirical study from a hospital construction project reveals the motivations and effects of multimodal and semiotic communicative choices of different parties (e.g. client; architect; engineer; design consultant) engaged on the same project; the representation (or not) of requirements via various semiotic modes being a social and political process. The contribution of the paper is in revealing the semiotic character of requirement representation and the relevance of semiotic-informed enquiry for an industry continuing to develop new technologies (e.g. virtual reality; BIM – building information modelling) for design and construction work.     

Campzenship: reimagining the camp as a social and political space

This article engages with current debates on the sociology of camps and camp-like institutions in contemporary society. Drawing on ethnographic material collected in Italy in ‘nomad camps’ where forcibly displaced Roma from former Yugoslavia were sheltered in the 1990s and 2000s, it argues that Agamben's conceptualisation of the camp as a space of exception, by constructing the camp as other to an idealised notion of citizenship and the rule of law, offers limited purchase for a sociological investigation of the complexity and ambivalence of social relations in and around camps as well as residents' everyday practices and experiences of political membership. Focusing on the resources, entitlements and ‘rights’ of camp residents and their interactions with state, regional and local authorities and non-governmental actors, this article invites to de-exceptionalise the camp and the experiences of its residents, and proposes the concept of ‘campzenship’ to capture the specific and situated form of political membership produced in and by the camp. Getting closer to the camp and its inhabitants through the adoption of an ethnographic gaze reveals the camp space as paradigmatic of the stratification and diversification of political membership in contemporary society, a social and political terrain where rights, entitlements and obligations are reshaped, bended, adjusted, neglected and activated by and through everyday interactions.     

哲学社会科学创新体系建设对甘肃发展的作用

哲学社会科学是建设文化强省的重要组成部分,是推动历史发展、社会进步和人类文明的巨大精神力量,是国家和各地区文化软实力的核心内容。加快推进甘肃省哲学社会科学创新体系建设是实现甘肃经济社会可持续发展的必由之路,是助推甘肃文化强省建设的关键所在。     

Exiled to Main Street: How government's use of social media diminishes public space

Public administrators have long treated their connections with citizens as tools for efficiently achieving results. As Dwight Waldo once commented, their key political concern has been, “How much democracy can we afford?” Increasing use of social media technologies appears to expand citizen input at greatly reduced cost. On the basis of phenomenological investigation of virtual citizen–government relationships, we argue that the political consequences of social media have yet to be noticed fully. Social media exile citizens to Main Street—everyday life—instead of fostering connections in public space.     

试论社会资本在建设社会主义新农村中的作用

社会资本是促进社会良性发展的一种积极因素,它在构建社会主义新农村中起着不可或缺的作用。具体来说,网络社会资本可以促进农村良好治理和管理民主局面的实现,互惠规范这种社会资本可以促进农村的团结互助和乡风文明的水平,信任社会资本可以促进农民的良性互动和农村的社会和谐的水平。     

论中国城市社区建设中的居民参与

社区居民参与问题是社区建设中深为人们关注的问题 ,在城市社区建设中处于重要的地位。从我国的实际情况来看 ,社区居民参与的现状不容乐观 ,作者认为为了改善这种情况 ,要在培育居民社区意识的基础上 ,激发居民参与热情 ,进而建立完善的社区居民参与机制     

The strategy of responsive space

This article explores the utility of responsive space in the context of the strategies of Sun Tzu, Mahan, Corbett and John Boyd. Responsive launch is important to applying military strategy to space for achieving space control and in protecting the space systems which are part of the United States's critical infrastructure. It follows that if responsive launch is important in achieving military strategic objectives and protecting the national critical infrastructure, implementing responsive launch must also drive changes in satellite design and operational concepts. The article discusses some of these possible changes resulting from the implementation of a doctrine of responsive launch.     

The space security index

This is an excerpt from “Space Security 2003,” published March 2004 by the International Security Research and Outreach Programme of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The views and positions stated in this paper are soley those of the contributors to this research project and are not intended to reflect the views and positions of the Department of Foreign Affairs or the Government of Canada. A review of the project was provided to the “Ensuring Space Security: Enhancing Stakeholder Cooperation” Conference by Dr. Robert Lawson, Senior Policy Advisor Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament Division, Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.     

The efficacy of electronic group meetings

Telephone conference calls could be used to extend participation in public decision-making. In order to clarify the involved problems and prospects we conducted 16 nine-member conference calls discussing and voting on a public issue. The discussions were recorded for analysis and a questionnaire was administered. The meetings worked well despite the isolation of the participants and the lack of visual contact. Access to the floor was easy, attention good, and participation was eager. The participants felt that the analysis of the topic had been effective. The chairman's guidance of the discussion was judged effective, and his actions legitimate. Additionally, the data suggest what we might call greater intellectual elbow room—less pressure to go along with the group opinion than in face-to-face meetings, and more ease in changing opinions and positions. The disagreements about the issue did not spill over into emotional hostility. The participants were quite pleased with the conduct and efficacy of the electronic meetings. These findings suggest that a mass participatory system, based upon such electronic meetings, can also be used to provide wider involvement in decision-making in our society.This study is part of a much larger project exploring the use of technology to extend political participation. The project is supported by the National Science Foundation, grant # GI-29940. Dr. Amitai Etzioni and Dr. Stephen Unger are Co-Principal Investigators for the MINERVA Project, which is being carried out at the Center for Policy Research in New York. The author is particularly indebted to Dr. Etzioni for many important contributions to the conception, design and analysis of the study reported in this paper. Dr. Unger also made significant contributions to the development of the study. Camille Gubello, Joshua Freeman and Nancy Gershon were of central importance in conducting the experiments, assembling the data and preparing this report.     

Contending discourses in the electric and magnetic fields controversy: The social construction of EMF risk as a public problem

The issue of adverse health effects from electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) has been brewing for the last decade or so. While the epidemiological evidence persists in linking proximity-to-powerlines to a few forms of cancer, exposure and dose remain undefined, and no clear mechanism of action has been identified. Despite this scientific ambiguity, there are frequent calls for governmental action; and yet, there is no unanimity on what action is appropriate, even among those asserting that something ought to be done. This article analyzes the various ways that the EMF problem has been socially constructed through distinctive forms of public discourse and the sources of contention among these different forms. It should appeal to interpretive policy analysts and to those interested in the valuative assumptions behind policy claims. Those oriented exclusively to the technical side of EMF may find the interpretation offered here somewhat unsettling, however, since it relativizes many of the factual claims surrounding the issue. Attention is also given to the ways that multiple EMF discourses are accommodated in the absence of scientifically conclusive evidence.