Global Sociology: Towards an Alternative Southern Paradigm

The project to (re)construct a global sociology is one where there is no agreed paradigm or even a shared understanding of the main issues that would be needed to secure a new robust and credible paradigm. What I seek to do here is to simply clarify the terms of the debate so as to establish whether we might pursue the quest for an alternative paradigm with some conviction. I first consider the ‘strong case’ for a global sociology based on the assumptions of globalisation theory which, overall, seems to suffer from economism in my view. Next I present a postcolonial perspective which posits a fundamental division between the global South and the North, an enterprise I find to be marked by a certain culturalism. I then present elements for an alternative approach towards a new paradigm based on an understanding of complexity, uneven development and the politics of scale. A brief Latin American excursus at the end seeks to provide some texture to the overall argument that a new global sociology could develop through a critical Southern lens and a focus on cultural political economy.     

Collaborative Sociological Practice: the Case of Nine Urban Biotopes

This paper examines the socially engaged art project Nine Urban Biotopes (9UB), an international exchange between European and South African cultural organisations. Two artist residencies offer case studies of collaborative arts and research practice. The ways that these case studies are read as ‘failures’ and ‘successes’ illustrate the complexities of North-South collaborations. This project, the partnership that sustained it and the residencies that were central to it, exemplify, in modest ways, how public sociology can be realised in modest ways in a global context. This paper shows, with examples, that whilst partnership and collaboration are emphasised in institutional and policy discourse, in practice these arrangements are filled with tension and unequal power relations between partners. An evaluative methodology premised on sociological practice allows the tensions that are inherent in partnership and collaboration to be recognised and productively interrogated. It also allows us to reimagine what ‘success’ and ‘failure’ looks like in research partnerships by working with the antagonisms that are integral to collaboration.     

Caste System and Resistance: The Case of Untouchable Hindu Sweepers in Bangladesh

This paper studies Hindu untouchable sweepers of Bangladesh, using a case study of two sweeper communities in Dhaka city. Due to their untouchability, Hindu sweepers in Bangladesh have historically been subjected to discrimination and marginalisation, and are deprived of choices such as free selection of occupation, access to housing, education and other benefits. Contending with the conventional notion that Hinduism maintains social order by caste hierarchies and divisions of labour, this shows how the sweepers of Dhaka city respond to the notion of untouchability and show resistance to caste discrimination. This paper also argues that it is not only a Hindu religious ideology but also historical, colonial, economic, political and social aspects of caste-based discrimination that can explain construction of the notion of Dalit and the marginalisation and resistance of Bangladeshi sweepers.     

From Communal Patriotism To City-State Chauvinism: Transformation of Collective Identities in Northern Italy, 1050–1500

At the turn of the first millennium, the rise of autonomous communes and city-states in northern Italy coincided with the development of a particular sense of attachment to land and city, which is widely labeled as civic patriotism. Neither the transformation of these collective identities across time nor the macrostructural dynamics behind this transformation has received much attention. Through an examination of these communes and city-states from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, this paper unpacks different forms of collective identities that prevailed in northern Italy in different periods of time, all of which have previously been labeled as “patriotism” in the literature. The differentiation I propose between “communal patriotism,” “civic nationalism,” and “city-state chauvinism” presents a more nuanced picture which highlights the differences in the ways these collective identities are produced, reproduced, and transformed. My analysis also discusses the role played by macrostructural dynamics (e.g., changing climate in the macropolitical economy as well as inter-city-state system in the peninsula) in transforming these collective identities. Alongside a longue durée evolutionary transformation, there were two conjunctural moments which created ruptures in the transformation of collective identities in northern Italy: The first took place during the territorialization of the communes and the conquest of the contado in the mid-twelfth century and the second occurred in the aftermath of the crisis of the fourteenth century.     

“独立工人”视角下共享经济就业特征及其影响机制

共享经济中形成了"平台+履约人"的新就业模式,催生了一个全新的就业群体——"独立工人"。"独立工人"与平台之间没有传统意义上的劳动关系,仅根据平台要求向客户提供劳务或服务。研究显示:我国共享经济从业人员以"独立工人"为主,吸纳的劳动力主要是受教育程度较低、技术等级较低、外地农业户籍的青壮年男性。在共享经济中有四至五成的从业人员属于专职"独立工人"。研究发现:选择从事兼职独立工作的群体有长期从业的倾向,而选择从事专职独立工作的群体则不希望继续从事独立工作。为进一步规范共享经济发展、保护"独立工人"的合法权益,可以从重新审视"独立工人"的法律身份入手,探索建立适合"独立工人"的"可携式福利"体系,尝试总结具有权威性的共享经济劳动标准,以推动该领域的劳动立法。     

区域协同对我国企业创新和经济发展影响及完善路径探讨--以沪港通为例的研究

区域协同是新时代具有标志性意义的重大国家战略,加快推进区域协同创新发展,不但关系到我国经济能否平稳发展,而且对于实现区域充分平衡发展以及构建新常态语境下具有可持续发展动能的区域"增长极"大有裨益,并影响着我国创新型国家建设进程以及经济增长方式转变的有效探索。基于区域协同创新和"增长极"的理论视角,在阐释区域协同发展对企业创新和国家经济发展的影响基础上,以沪港通为例进行回顾和总结,分析了大力发展沪港通对于推动我国企业创新和经济发展产生了哪些积极影响,未来又面临哪些挑战,并提出有针对性的对策建议。