Doing Work. Atypische Arbeit in der Film- und der Automobilbranche im Vergleich

Current analyses of labour market transformations focus on two groups: creative and precarious workers. While the first group is typically seen as particularly good at coping with flexibility requirements, the latter appear to lag behind in their ability to compensate for uncertain employment prospects. This paper compares the perceptions and accounts of work experience and employment prospects for low qualified precarious workers and project workers in the film industry. The comparison shows that both groups are far more similar to each other regarding the structural aspects of their jobs and with respect to their interpretations of their work situation than expected. In both cases, the “setting” of the industry and the production process, and a specific view of the qualifications required—under the structural conditions of the labour market segment—are key for interpretations of the work situation. On the basis of these findings, the study suggests that the prevailing foci on labour-market and labour-supply structures could usefully be complemented with the perspective of “doing work” for the analysis of “good” and “bad” work.     

The Silent Reform of Swiss Federalism: The New Constitutional Articles on Education

This article examines the decision‐making process leading to the new constitutional articles on education in Switzerland. It analyzes how actors from both state levels (Confederation and cantons) could reach consensus in a process that was prone to a “joint‐decision trap”. To that end, we hypothesize which factors may be conducive to a “problem‐solving” style of policy‐making in a compulsory negotiation system. Rich empirical material from various sources supports our theoretical arguments: We show that shared beliefs and a common frame of reference, the procedural separation between constitutional and distributional issues, neutral brokers, and informal structures were all beneficial to the success of the reform project.     

China’s Phantom Urbanisation and the Pathology of Ghost Cities

This article examines the production of China’s “ghost cities” and constant urban expansion to challenge the dominant conceptual narrative of rural-to-urban migration as the driver of urbanisation. It argues that behind China’s “miraculous” urbanisation story is a powerful ideological commitment to urban growth as the “royal road” to modernity and assessment of political performance. Local governments have a wide-ranging “tool-kit” for pursuing urbanisation, ranging from administrative border-drawing to expropriation of rural land and investment in expanding urban infrastructures. Urbanisation is the destination to which all paths seem to lead. Indeed, local states pursue the construction of new urban space, even when doing so harms them financially. But why? The concept of phantom urbanisation names the process whereby constructing the aesthetic form of the urban is even more important to local state actors than economic, demographic or environmental repercussions.     

Institutional Abuse: A Long History

ABSTRACT

This article explores the long history of institutions for children in Australia and of the existence of abuse within them. By examining the function that such institutions were designed to perform, and the forms and structures that were devised to best achieve such purposes, the article argues that abuse was all too often not simply inherent in, but essential to, institutional operation. It pays particular attention to the classification of children deemed to be in need of institutional “care” and shows how, through a process of “othering”, their institutionalisation too often rendered them vulnerable to abuse.     

The securitization of cyberspace governance in Singapore

ABSTRACT

Drawing from securitization theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this article examines how the Singaporean government has “securitized” cyberspace governance. It contributes value-add to the existing literature on securitization theory by evaluating the specific backgrounds and preexisting beliefs that securitizing actors bring with them to the securitization process. Taking the case of Singapore, this paper focuses on the military elites turned civilian politicans and policymakers that have been tasked with cyberspace governance. A discourse analysis shows how terminologies describing cyberspace as an “existential” issue and key personnel appointments with significant military backgrounds reflect the prevalance of military elites, terminologies, strategies that have become embedded within domestic cybersecurity governance structures. The use of military-style concepts such as “digital ranges” and “war games” in Singapore mirrors global financial industry trends where military-derived terminology has become widespread in preparing for cyber-attacks on critical information infrastructure. Two key focus areas of cyberspace governance are evaluated: online content regulation of Internet and social media networks, and legislation to protect critical information infrastructure. The paper concludes by discussing a range of concerns raised by the target “audience” of securitization processes, such as civil society and information infrastructure providers.     

The second path to capitalism: A model of international development

This article examines debates about the industrialisation of parts of the periphery (in particular East Asia) in the context of the impasse in development theory. It is argued that neo-classical theory, regulation theory and the theory of the new international division of labour, all fail to adequately explain the rise of the newly industrialising countries, and indeed all share a methodology which reads off events in the “periphery” from the actions of metropolitan countries. An alternative approach is suggested, which combines analysis of the “global” and the “local.” This analysis suggests that there are competitive disadvantages for late developers in the global political economy, and in putting forward this view a brief critique of flexible specialisation is made. Finally, it is argued that these competitive disadvantages are dealt with in different ways by different nations in the periphery. The main factors shaping this process will be indigenous classes and state structures.     

“Hybrid Governance” and the Politics of Legitimacy in the Myanmar Peace Process

This article examines competing claims to political legitimacy and sovereignty in Myanmar’s conflict-affected areas of “limited statehood.” In the context of ceasefires and an emerging peace process since 2012, non-state-controlled “liberated zones” and areas of mixed insurgent and government authority constitute new political spaces, where multiple state and para-state actors demonstrate governance authority, extract resources and provide services to local communities. This article explores the dynamics and implications of these developments with reference to the emerging literatures on “rebel rulers” and “hybrid governance,” and examines the practices of donors and aid agencies operating in these areas. I argue that external actors seeking to “think and work politically” should move beyond standard peace-building and development packages based on strengthening the state, and adopt more conflict and context-sensitive approaches. Effective state building should take account of governance structures and service delivery functions established by ethnic armed organisations, which although under-resourced enjoy significant political legitimacy.     

World Market Regionalism at the Asian Development Bank

Accounts of the “new regionalism” two decades ago identified a growing trend towards co-ordinated state action at the regional level in pursuit of both security and political economy concerns – new in terms of its “bottom-up” character, post-Cold War logic, heterogeneous focus, and relation to globalisation. More recently, proponents of “regulatory regionalism” have suggested that regional projects reshape and transform states themselves. This article identifies an emerging “world market regionalism,” within which regions are addressed in terms of their position within the world market, and regional projects are strategically oriented towards the “completion of the world market” in its dual aspect as expansion of trade and transformation of social relations of production. The focus is on the purposive transformation of the region in pursuit of global competitiveness. A detailed account is given of such a project of world market regionalism developed over the last two decades at the Asian Development Bank. It is aimed at transforming the region, and individual states within it, into a space contributory to a wider global project aimed at “completing the world market” and transforming both the social relations of production and individual attitudes and behaviour.     

Varieties of Sharing. Handlungsorientierungen,Strukturen und Arbeitsbedingungen eines neuartigen Feldes

The paper deals with a segment of the digitization of work: It examines the forms and conditions of work in the so-called sharing economy (SE). Based on the analysis of 67 internet platforms, three segments – the “exchange and gift economy”, the “niche and side job economy” as well as the “platform economy” – are distinguished as separate institutional spheres of the SE. On this basis, five dimensions of work in these segments are comparatively analyzed. It is shown that patterns of work differ among the three segments with view to activity patterns, gratification, qualification requirements, the role of technology and control mechanisms. The paper then discusses a shift in the determinants of work: it is argued that classical factors no longer prevail, but are partly supplemented, partly replaced by “internet communities” and the socio-technical structures and strategies of the platform providers. Not least, the absence of formal employment contracts in platform-user-relationships stands out.     

唯物史观深化与社会主义市场经济历史定位

唯物史观提供了社会主义历史必然性证明,所擘画的未来蓝图是公有制计划经济。中国改革推出社会主义市场经济,表明生产力第一致动要素已经从"物质生产力"转移至"劳动生产力",进而表明生产力发展重心已经从侧重"生存需要"转移至侧重"发展需要";社会主义市场经济历史定位将经由唯物史观这一转变完成。     

媒体与战后日本民主主义——以《朝日新闻》社论为中心

民主主义社会中的媒体,应当承担统合民意、引导舆论与监督政治权利并同其抗衡的双重责任。然而,综观战后日本民主主义发展轨迹,尽管不能否认新闻媒体对民主主义的发展起了某种程度推波助澜的积极作用,但也应该看到,作为民主主义旗手的新闻媒体,事实上从未真正反映民意,而是仅仅将国民视为"观众"。这不但加剧了政治与民意之间距离的扩大,而且也引发了民主主义的危机。文章以《朝日新闻》社论为中心,对战后日本民主主义发展过程中媒体的作用与局限进行探讨。     

Hirohito Redux-- Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix

ABSTRACT

The American Anthropological Association's Code of Ethics does not sufficiently acknowledge the challenges posed for anthropologists who “study up” and “across” rather than “down” the partly imagined power hierarchy within which the researcher and her host members position themselves. The Code proves inadequate for the ethical dilemmas that emerged from the four projects presented in this volume on the worlds of urban feminists and right-wing conservatives, activists and policy-makers of a local community revitalization project, an indigenous minority in the process of reclaiming its present, and corporate soccer functionaries. Several features distinguish these articles from previous work on the subject of ethics in anthropology: It is no longer necessarily nor exclusively the ethnographer who does the writing. The contested claims to ethnographic authority, access, and representation are closely related to the importance of the production and circulation of texts. The will to be loyal to one's consultants does not in all projects appear as the most ethical manner to pursue fieldwork. The power relations that anthropologists engage mirror the fluidity and flexibility of power relations among their research subjects that appear exacerbated in study-up projects. As anthropology's focus has become increasingly urban, cosmopolitan, and Western, conventional understandings of ethnographic authority, access, and power relations are contested and problematized in new, more complex ways.     

The question of “the black lesbian”: monstrous,ideal and fictitious postapartheid citizen

This paper calls attention to how “the black lesbian”—as a figure and an idea—is emerging as a model of the ideal postapartheid citizen. I argue that this figure is both instituted and undermined at the point at which the nation becomes vexed by its own limits. Within this symbolic politics, “the black lesbian” is staged as a traumatized victim. To track how black lesbians have become enmeshed in debates about defining citizenship, I revisit the rape trial that was initiated when the pseudonymous “Khwezi” made a rape complaint against Jacob Zuma. I examine how “Khwezi” and Zuma came to represent competing ideas about citizenship. Drawing on Berlant’s analysis of the crucial role that “official sexual underclasses” play in the production of “national symbolic and political coherence,” I argue that the trial evidences how “the black lesbian,” a simultaneously abjected and idealized figure, is produced and mobilized as a political resource in South Africa’s citizenship politics.     

My Business Pays Me: Labourers and Entrepreneurs Among the Self–Employed Poor in Latin America

Are the independent economic activities of poor people “petty commodity production”—an informal way to earn a subsistence wage? Or are they “microentrepreneurship”, a launching point for capital accumulation and growth? This paper draws on fieldwork in Bolivia, Peru and Guatemala, focusing specifically on the poorest businesses. In–depth interviews indicate that even the smallest–scale producers, merchants and service providers have goals of “improving” their business and “growing” their capital, not unlike their capitalist counterparts. Yet, while growth is desirable, maintaining one's business as a steady source of income is a sufficient achievement for many. Poor self–employed people are both “labourers” and “entrepreneurs”; the key macro–level question becomes, not “Do petty–commodity producers have different goals than capitalist entrepreneurs”, but “What resources are lacking, and what obstacles exist, that keep many microentrepreneurs in low–yield activities, with little opportunity to grow their resources?”     

Transcending the National / Asserting the National: How Stateless Nations like Scotland, Wales and Catalonia React to European Integration

How can minority nations, how can minority nationalists who assert their national identity not only accept, but in some cases even actively fight for a process of European integration which may have started to “transcend the national”? The article discusses what Europe has to offer them, and in what ways that offer may be “flawed”. It will compare nationalist strategies (Europe of the Regions, Independence in Europe), and establish relations between the choice of an European strategy and the consolidation of minority nationalism at home.     

INHERITING “JAPANESE-NESS” DIVERSELY

The late twentieth century saw a rise of global discourse about heritage. Research on heritage politics, however, has shed little light on heritage practices in schools, especially regarding language, that is, how heritage language is constructed and how it is “inherited” by students of various backgrounds. Heritage language education is often viewed as a means to empower heritage language speakers or to address the diverse needs of students in language classes. In existing works, the individual’s link to “heritage” is assumed as given and stable. More recent works show that the processes and effects of heritage language education are complex and nuanced due to diverse personal backgrounds and changing political economy and cultural politics. The role of schooling in the process of “inheriting” language, however, has not attracted much attention: how students are grouped or tracked into a particular class, for example. After ethnographically investigating various views and practices at a weekend Japanese language school in the northeastern United States throughout 2007 and 2008, the authors of this article argue that heritage language school is not merely a place to reproduce “heritage” by passing it on to students, but it is also a productive site where ways to imagine “heritage” and “inherit” it proliferate. The article analyzes the processes by which what would be considered as merely “speaking Japanese” and “being Japanese” outside heritage language school are differentiated into diverse ways of being Japanese. It suggests a need to investigate school as a site of heritage politics as well as a need for researchers and practitioners to view heritage language education not only as a way to teach language but also as a means to gain an understanding of heritage politics.     

历史叙述与逻辑叙述:“从站起来、富起来到强起来”

"从东亚病夫到站起来的伟大历史飞跃"包括:新民主主义革命的成功,建立了新中国,确立了中国共产党的领导和执政地位,确立了人民民主专政,"中国人从此站立起来了";社会主义革命和建设的成功,确立了社会主义制度,中国人不但"在世界上站起来,而且站住了"。改革开放新时期,我国以经济建设为中心,大力发展社会主义生产力,实现"富起来"。中国特色社会主义新时代,我国将建设成为社会主义现代化强国,实现中华民族伟大复兴,实现"强起来",社会主义初级阶段结束。党在社会主义初级阶段的基本路线,既是对党的奋斗历程的历史叙述,又是逻辑叙述。"从站起来、富起来到强起来"是历史叙述,也是逻辑叙述,可以说是对党的基本路线的形象概括。     

On Fascist Terror in West Bengal — An appeal to the World Press,Calcutta, 23/3/72

Six models of DEMOCRATS (in capital letters) were introduced in this paper: democrat (in italics); “democrat” (in quotation marks); democrat→ “democrat;” democrat→ “democrat”→ democrat; “democrat”→ democrat; and “democrat”→ democrat→ “democrat.” This paper then attempts to explicate which model(s) of DEMOCRATS do Presidents Chiang Ching-kuo and Lee Teng-hui belong to. It was found that Chiang could be regarded as a “democrat,” and Lee, both “democrat” “and democrat”→ democrat. Both of them have to make sure that democratization in Island China can assure its survival as well as create an impact on Mainland China.     

Towards a “Trilateral Alliance?” Understanding the Role of Expediency and Values in American–Japanese–Australian Relations

Abstract

The emerging US–Japan–Australia trilateral alignment is representative of a new archetype of “alliance” calibrated to the changed post-Cold War, post-9/11 security environment. This article considers how we might account for this new alliance formation and how we might conceptualize it. To accomplish this the article formulates an “intra-alliance politics” framework for analysis that juxtaposes competing “Realist” and “Pluralist” images of allied behavior in International Relations theory. This framework is then employed to uncover the motivations and behavioral dynamics driving the trilateral alliance seeking to reveal whether the alignment is predicated upon common “values” or sheer “expediency.” It concludes that though the two different International Relations schools offer ostensibly competitive interpretations, the evidence suggests that they are in many ways complementary and mutually reinforcing. We must therefore consider the trilateral alliance an amalgam of both “expediency” and “values.” The application of the intra-alliance politics framework expounded here thus enhances our understanding of this particular “alliance” and the phenomenon of “alignment” in general.     

Relationale Soziologie – Theoretische und methodologische Positionierungen zwischen Strukturalismus und Pragmatismus

Nowadays, relational sociology is represented by sociological approaches from the US and from France. These approaches share the aim of recombining the two “mega-paradigms” in the social sciences, structuralism and pragmatism. Relational sociology is thereby conceived as a project integrating the analysis of different forms of social practices and structures. The article aims to identify the specific properties of relational sociology beyond this common basis. Starting with the “New York school of relational sociology”, it is shown that this school can on the one side be regarded as a contemporary approach of relational sociology, having introduced innovative contributions, but also shows deficient developments on the other side. Thereupon “actor-network theory” and “economics of convention” in particular are presented as examples of the “new pragmatic sociologies” in France, which can also be regarded as modern versions of relational sociology. After characterizing and comparing these three versions of relational sociology, their metatheoretical and particularly methodological commonalities are presented. Finally, the article tries to define positively what constitutes relational sociology.