The Present's Historical Task: Kracauer as Reader of Collingwood

Siegfried Kracauer's reading of the work of R.G. Collingwood illuminates the crisis point in the relation between philosophy, history and how the present is thought. In this paper I argue that Kracauer's dismissal of Collingwood illuminates a misunderstanding of the latter's philosophical project, and takes no account of a certain affinity between the two thinkers. Collingwood not only shared Kracauer's view that a philosophically oriented historical investigation of the past might offer some hope for the present, but also had a fuller grasp of the philosophical implications of the ambivalent relation between historical time and the present than Kracauer gave him credit for.     

After the Truth Commission: Gender and Citizenship in Timor-Leste

This article explores the relationship between truth commissions and gendered citizenship through a case study of Timor-Leste. It examines how, 10 years after the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) has completed its work, women’s citizenship remains constrained by, and negotiated within, deeply gendered narratives of nation-building that are informed by historical experiences of the resistance struggle. The power of these narratives—which foreground heroism rather than victimisation—underscores the need to situate truth commissions as part of an ongoing politics of memory. Despite the power of political elites to shape this politics, the continued marginalisation of sections of society within official narratives is also providing an impetus for alternative truth-telling efforts that seek to broaden public perspectives on the past. By promoting new narratives of women’s experiences of the conflict, these projects might be understood as attempts to negotiate and transform gendered conceptions of citizenship in the present and for the future.     

Rethinking Political Science: An Interview with Mark Kesselman

Abstract

While numerous studies show the corporatist style of governance to be on the decline in many western European democracies, Austria, for most analysts, continues to be governed by relatively harmonious practices of institutionalized corporatist concertation. In contrast to the currently popular mainstream assumption that the stability of Austrian corporatism can be traced in large part to Austria's unique and historically well‐established “culture of consensus,” this essay argues that the persistence of corporatism in Austria is attributable largely to the fact that market forces have yet to assume corporatism's functional role of securing labor discipline and wage demand moderation. As such, Austrian capitalists, in contrast to their counterparts in Europe's other postwar corporatist societies, remain reluctant to disassociate themselves entirely from corporatist political structures and to move toward more market‐based forms of industrial relations and economic decisionmaking.     

Preliminary investigations into tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) ruthenium III as a chemiluminescent reagent for the detection of 3,6-diacetylmorphine (heroin) on surfaces

The use of tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) ruthenium (III) as a chemiluminescent spray reagent spot-test for heroin is discussed. Two forms of the reagent are investigated an aqueous and an anhydrous where both were found to give vastly different results. The aqueous reagent giving slow, low intensity chemiluminescence whilst the anhydrous reagent gave a fast, bright response in the presence of 3,6-diacetylmorphine. The anhydrous reagent is less sensitive the slow, intensity response is characteristic of only two opiates tested 3,6-diacetylmorphine and 3-monoacetylmorphine.     

Perceptions of Injustice in the Chinese Countryside

Concepts associated with theories of relative deprivation and distributive injustice are used to examine beliefs about overprivilege and underprivilege in the Chinese countryside. The data consist of interviews conducted with a probability sample of villagers residing in four counties. Open-ended questions were used to ascertain the magnitude and nature of felt injustices. Local officials are widely seen as unfairly advantaged and common people as widely disadvantaged, results that depart from those observed in western studies. The presence of personal problems and contextual features influence beliefs about local injustice. Even after controlling for other powerful predictors, perceptions of injustice continue to have a positive impact on local political activity. These results are interpreted in terms of the spheres and standards of justice and the relationship between distributive and procedural justice.