Managing the People: Art Programs in the American Depression

How do “classical” big art institutions (museums, the ballet, the opera, symphony orchestras) react to phenomena of globalization such as migration flows, the “denationalization” of artistic movements, the enormous growth of the number of artists, the trend of a global cultural branding of cities, etc.? And which cultural policies do governments develop to interfere in the relationship between those art institutions and their changing environments? Those were the central questions I asked while doing research about the position of art institutions in society today. The research concentrated on a very diverse sample of big art institutions in Europe. The research begins with the insights of Actor Network Theory and the political philosophy of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt and leads to an ideal typical two-dimensional model to classify the possible strategies that such institutions and their responsible governments can use on the local, national and international level.     

The Intellectual and Cultural Dimensions of International Relations: Present Ironies and Future Possibilities

Reported is a study that focused on the Millennial Generation and potential differences in viewing an exhibition in person versus online. The exhibition featured the artwork of Paul-Henri Bourguignon, whose extensive body of work includes a variety of paintings and drawings that employ a wide range of styles. Some viewers traveled to the physical space of a museum gallery, while others viewed reproductions of the same works on the Internet. Informants engaged in reflexive self-interviews using Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology. The authors compare viewers’ responses to works experienced in person versus online and discuss implications.     

Cultural Policy and Values: Intrinsic versus Instrumental? The Case of Romania

This article addresses cultural policy in post-Communist Romania, focusing on the justifications for support of culture and the arts. The objectives are to clarify values legitimizing public support and to determine their effect on the meaning and impact of cultural policy. The author argues that justifications of public funding—instrumental or intrinsic—depend on how successive governments represent the roles conferred to culture and the arts, as well as on the particular ideas of culture and art they promote. Policy discourse after 1989 has been characterized by its nourishment of a persistent instrumental ideology that gradually connected to the international debate and has been dominated by a traditional, narrow conception of culture and art, which conflicts with a modern conception. Until recently, the fluctuations and conflicts between different values and ideas of culture and art have worked to constrain cultural policy, disrupting its implementation and altering its effects.     

Radical exclusions,empty signifiers and an anti-war genre

Ernesto Laclau argues that Saussurean structural linguistics is one framework necessary for a post-Marxist understanding of political identities and new social movements. Disrupting the distinction between the discursive and the political, he provides insight into the formal properties of identity, difference, universality and particularity. However, this disruption means that his work is relevant not only to political theory per se but has retroactive value for understanding semiotics and signification. By considering methodological problems encountered during an analysis of an anti-war poster genre, this essay suggests that Laclau's concept of empty signifiers enables a novel understanding of genre. His schema complements approaches that emphasize the analysis of content and the analysis of audience reception, broadly conceived. Between the poles of content and reception, there are structural or relational properties enabling the contingent stability and meaningfulness of genre. These properties include the differential nature of a genre's identity, and a genre's discursive reliance on a radical exclusion.     

Philosophy and the History of Art

Abstract

Schelling’s philosophy of art between 1801 and 1807 can be defined as metaphysics of art. The object of that metaphysics is to deploy the absolute as the being of art and of the arts. Schelling has been criticized on the basis that this metaphysics of art represses the infinite diversity of existing works of art, while overlooking concrete aesthetic experience. Based on Schelling’s definition of the “philosophical construction” of art as an inseparably speculative and historical construction, the aim of this paper is to challenge such assertions. It will show that “historical construction” has to be understood in a twofold manner: first, as a transcendental history of the absolute’s artistic individuation and second, as a cultural history of both the ancient and modern worlds of art. Working within this twofold setting the paper argues that Schelling’s systematic approach, while exhibiting a unifying force, still remains open to the otherness of the real.     

Drawing maps: history and geography in contemporary black British art

For contemporary black British artists, history is a recurring and significant concept in their lives. This is the imperial and colonial history of the enslavement, exploitation, and oppression of non-white populations. Geography is conceptually twinned with history. European colonial enterprises necessitated the movement of people as well as goods across oceans and between continents. Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Americas were conquered, carved up, and mapped out by European powers. This geography is a legacy for those people whose ancestors and relatives were enslaved and/or displaced. It is equally important to those people directly affected by economic and political instability in their homelands, immigration, and/or racism. Artists Yinka Shonibare, Godfried Donkor, and Lubaina Himid appropriate centuries-old images and cultural as well as racial stereotypes to question accepted historical narratives with regards to black populations. Zarina Bhimji, Sonia Boyce, and Sokari Douglas Camp are more concerned with how history impinges upon them personally.     

民间法司法适用的作用与价值

民间法是在一定区域内,由习惯风俗长久演变而来的逐步制度化的规则,具有地域性、非正式性和内生权威性等特点。虽然民间法与正式的国家法有所不同,但它在维护乡土社会的稳定和解决婚姻家庭矛盾方面具有重要的意义。因此,国家应当重视并有效地利用在社会中起实际调整作用的民间法。在我国社会转型时期,分析民间法与国家法的关系,解决民间法与国家法的冲突,探索民间法司法适用的合理性,对我国法律继承和法律的完善起着重要的作用。     

优秀传统民俗文化与推进农村社会治理能力现代化——以江西优秀传统民俗文化为例

当前我国农村社会治理出现了一些新情况、新问题,党中央已经做出了推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要决策。优秀传统文化是中华民族共有的精神家园,作为中华优秀传统文化重要组成部分的优秀传统民俗文化,根植于绵延数千年的中华民族精神之中,最贴近百姓生活,最具生命活力。在新的形势下推进农村治理能力现代化,必须弘扬优秀传统民俗文化,努力探索我国现代农村社会治理的新途径。     

法律、民生与民间规则——兼论两岸交流制度中民间规则的作用

法律是社会交往和社会需要的产物,因之,法律也是主体交往中日常生活的公共产品。它不仅作用于人们日常的物质生活,而且也作用于人们的精神生活。更重要的是,法律作为正式制度,还缔造着人们的制度生活。但法律的规定并不是完全自足的,一方面,需要关注作为非正式制度的民间规则的作用,另一方面,当法律规定有所遗漏,或者法律规定对公民的日常生活不能调整、规范时,民间规则对救济法律的不足,就可能会派上用场。甚至即使法律对相关社会关系有所规定,在实践中也免不了法律和民间规范相互交叠地发挥作用。基于这种认识,在两岸有关民生的交流中,应当把民间规则纳入保障两岸民生、促进两岸往来的重要社会因素中。     

民俗习惯的司法功能

站在司法中心主义的立场认识民俗习惯的法源地位,民俗习惯是作为法官法源存在,但是,如何判断民俗习惯的法律属性存在着理论困惑。对此,我们应该对民俗习惯的司法功能在法律和事实两个层面上进行分别分析,在法律层面上,民俗习惯作为“法官法”存在,需要法官从司法判决中对民俗习惯进行法律发现;在事实层面上,民俗习惯作为经验法则或者事实证据存在,法官可以将其作为经验法则进行认定,在民俗习惯合理性存有争议时,可以通过当事人的举证责任分配予以解决。可见,民俗习惯司法适用的问题是一个诉讼法或者证据法的问题,而不是一个法律方法论的问题。