Bole to Harlem via Tel Aviv: networks of Ethiopia's musical diaspora

ABSTRACT

One of the fastest growing sources of domestic labor in the Global North is Ethiopia, whose female population travels to North America, Europe, and the developed Middle East to work for remittances to send home. Once these migrants settle in cities such as London, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, Rome, or Toronto, they organize themselves into cultural enclaves that navigate their positionality, namely the state, religious practice, and their bodies. While scholars are occasionally interested in the explicit security ramifications of absorbing these migrant workforces, they pay less attention to the cultural forces propelling citizenship, and to migrants' relationship with their home culture. This gap in knowledge is counterproductive, because scholars and policy-makers will have trouble assessing the Ethiopian migrant population's perspective through interview material alone. The Ethiopian values of honor and respect for authority dictate a hesitance to criticize explicitly, so the population's feelings about marginality rarely emerge in discussion about labor. This taboo curtails the effectiveness of typical ethnographic methods (e.g. interviewing). Rather, this article examines Ethiopian music as a prism through which migrant musicians navigate the complex web of religious, ethnic, national, and embodied identities in their new surroundings. In this article, I present findings based on participant-observation of Ethiopian live music in North American and Middle Eastern diaspora cities (New York, Washington, DC, Tel Aviv, and Dubai), and argue that the populations are linked through the multidirectional cultural influences of Ethiopian diasporic popular music. I will argue that Ethiopian migrants' music offers a stable, alternative form of political discussion to more overt discussions of contested identities, and that these discussions reshape cultural boundaries. By considering performance techniques such as choice of language for lyrics, and the incorporation of Ethiopian or local dance style into music videos that are distributed over the Internet, one begins to understand how the rapidly expanding transnational network of Ethiopian migrants conceptualizes itself as an emerging global source of labor in cosmopolitan urban centers.     

Social media and political communication in the 2014 elections to the European Parliament

Social media play an increasingly important part in the communication strategies of political campaigns by reflecting information about the policy preferences and opinions of political actors and their public followers. In addition, the content of the messages provides rich information about the political issues and the framing of those issues during elections, such as whether contested issues concern Europe or rather extend pre-existing national debates. In this study, we survey the European landscape of social media using tweets originating from and referring to political actors during the 2014 European Parliament election campaign. We describe the language and national distribution of the messages, the relative volume of different types of communications, and the factors that determine the adoption and use of social media by the candidates. We also analyze the dynamics of the volume and content of the communications over the duration of the campaign with reference to both the EU integration dimension of the debate and the prominence of the most visible list-leading candidates. Our findings indicate that the lead candidates and their televised debate had a prominent influence on the volume and content of communications, and that the content and emotional tone of communications more reflects preferences along the EU dimension of political contestation rather than classic national issues relating to left-right differences.     

日本金融监管体系的重建及启示

1998年以来,日本系统地重建了金融监管体系。其主要内容包括金融监管机构改革和提高金融监管效能,事前金融监管制度重建与提高金融机构经营健全性,事后金融安全网建设和防范系统性风险等三个方面。日本的经验表明,金融监管体制都具有时效性特征。将金融自由化与金融监管对立关系对立起来缺乏合理性,金融监管的作用是评估和检查金融机构的风险控制程序,而不是代替金融机构决策和进行风险控制。     

Exclusive Safeguards and Technology Transfer: Subcontracting Agreements in Eastern Europe's Car Component Industry

We study the rationale for the use of exclusivity to protect transfer of technology in subcontracting agreements. The legal possibility arises through the EU Notice on Subcontracting. Empirically, the link between exclusive agreements and technology transfer among firms in the automotive supply industry in EU candidate countries is surprisingly weak, although with exclusive-supply or exclusive-buying clauses in subcontracting agreements upstream transfer of technology is more likely. Exclusive agreements are often reciprocal, and are typically passed on. Downstream firms are more likely to face and use vertical restraints. Technology trickles upstream: Multinational final assemblers transfer more technology than lower-tier suppliers.     

社会网络的动态过程及理论探索

本论文关注社会网络研究经常被忽视的一个层面,即社会网络的动态过程。在对相关理论的批判性回顾基础上,提出了一个整合结构、文化与个人能动性的理论框架以全面洞察个人的社会网络在社会文化脉络下的动态变化。     

Political and social networks in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan: ‘clan’, region and beyond

A major debate among scholars studying Central Asian societies concerns the structure of social and political networks in the region. Still unresolved is the issue of whether to define such networks in terms of ‘clans’, ‘regionalism’, or personal networks. This article, based on data collected during fieldwork in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, attempts to understand these social and political networks. It suggests that networks are very complex. The networks in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan draw on various loyalties including ties of family, friendship, work, education, and patron-client relationships. They are neither purely regional nor purely clan-based. Personal networks, factions, and self-interest play important roles. At the elite level, networks more closely resemble patron-client networks, which may or may not include regional or kinship ties. Among ordinary people, such ties tend to be based on localism, kinship, and/or patronage relationships.     

警务英语实习企业（PEVE）训练法

Virtual Enterprise Networks，是目前欧美及香港特别行政区非常流行的虚拟实习企业网络。基于该基本理论构架，文章提出了二一种能够同时提高参与者专业知识和英语能力的网络虚拟实习模式——实用英语实习企业训练法（PEVE），深入阐述了其建构的必要性和可行性，并辅之以英语实习警务网络（VPIE）为例，论述了该项方法的构成要素、活动内容及功能等，最后对这一新型理念所面临的诸多问题与弊端提出了相应的对策。     

Unauthorised access to wireless local area networks: The limitations of the present Australian laws

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) have enjoyed a rapid increase in usage in recent years. WLANs serve to connect users to the Internet by means of radio or infrared frequencies. The rise in WLAN usage has however served to highlight some of the inadequacies of the present laws governing unauthorised access to WLANs. At present, the legislation serves to make unauthorised access, modification or impairment of electronic communications illegal. It is clear that the provisions prohibit the hacking of computer systems and denial of service attacks. However, it is unclear whether the legislation extends to additional forms of unauthorised access such as wardriving (using software to identify and map freely available WLAN) and joyriding (accessing a network with no further damage to the connection). The liability of Internet Service Providers and those engaged in unauthorised access in public places also remains unclear. Finally, the relationship of the offence of unauthorised access to the tort of trespass and the laws of copyright remain untested. The objective of this paper is to consider the measures necessary to increase the effectiveness of WLAN laws. The paper will begin by considering the nature of WLAN technology and the policy discourse to date. This will be followed by an examination of the present Australian law and an identification of areas of uncertainty. Finally, the paper will consider the measures required to enhance the certainty and effectiveness of the laws governing unauthorised access to WLAN.     

Towards a new generation of CCTV networks: Erosion of data protection safeguards?

CCTV networks are progressively being replaced by more flexible and adaptable video surveillance systems based on internet protocol (IP) technologies. The use of wireless IP systems allows for the emergence of flexible networks and for their customization, while at the same time video analytics is easing the retrieval of the most relevant information. These technological advances, however, bring with them threats of a new kind for fundamental freedoms that cannot always be properly assessed by current legal safeguards. This paper analyses the ability of current data protection laws in providing an adequate answer to these new risks.     

网络问政常态化是大势所趋

网络问政是社会发展进步的产物。网络特有的广泛性和交互性是传统媒体不可企及的。正因为如此，网络问政才能以其特有的强大生命力不断地向前发展，成为现代人们参政议政的重要平台。网络是当今领导干部了解民情、集中民智，实现科学决策、民主决策的重要渠道。面对日益增多的网民参与，推动网络问政常态化已是大势所趋。