论环境侵权之公共赔偿救济制度的构建

环境侵权本身的特殊性 ,决定了适用传统普通民事救济制度和国家赔偿救济制度的局限性 ,在普通民事救济乏力和国家赔偿请求无据的情形下 ,启动具有填补功能的公共赔偿救济制度 ,对于完善现有环境侵权救济制度 ,切实保障环境人权 ,无疑具有极为重要的法律意义。     

新发展理念的历史超越与新时代意义

经典现代化理论、依附论、世界体系论是比较典型且在特定时期影响较大的发展理论,但由于各自的局限而日渐褪色。马克思主义发展理论具有独特的理论特质,在中国特色社会主义发展进程中,从"发展是硬道理"到科学发展观再到新发展理念,中国化的马克思主义发展理论越来越高度浓缩,也越来越完善。新发展理念彰显了中国化的马克思主义发展理论新境界,克服了西方发展理论的种种弊端,实现了发展理论的历史超越,为人类社会整体未来现代化的生成提供了无限可能,新时代坚持和落实新发展理念意义重大。     

新媒介赋权与网络政治"悖论"

网络技术革新与网络媒介发展,让契合网络社会的网络政治应运而生,并成为治国理政的最大变量.这可能是正能量、"乌托邦",也可能是负能量、"遭托邦".如此"悖论"与媒介和政治的一般关系相似,但更主要源于网络新媒介的互动性、自主性特征,及其解放话语权、关系赋权机能.网络空间有效治理与网络政治有序发展,需遵循合价值性与合规律性的统一,深刻认识并化解"悖论",即扩大其正功能、减少负效应,让这个最大变量成为最强增量.     

新时代我国基层政权建设的实践难题及路径选择

基层政权作为国家政权极为重要的组成部分,在整个国家政权体系中发挥着基础性作用,是党和政府联系群众的桥梁和纽带,是国家各项工作的重要落脚点。当前,我国基层政权建设存在的实践难题主要表现在四个层面:基层政权的财权与事权不对等、基层政权公共性与自利性的冲突、基层政权与群众自治组织关系有待理顺、基层政权与人民群众关系发生变化。而要科学解决基层政权建设中存在的这些问题,就需要在坚持党的领导下,理顺基层政权的财权与事权关系,重构基层政权的公共性,构建多元化的基层社会治理格局,构建新型和谐政民关系。     

“Industrial Defence Against the Whole World”: Deakinite New Protection as Narrative of Global Modernity

As it evolved towards the New Protection program from 1906, Deakinite protectionism manifested as a historicised narrative of modernity: an attempt to impose a rationale of nation-building over the heterogeneous and unstable impact of new economic relations and technologies, and the tense dynamics of competition between nations. History was invoked by actors fashioning the nation-building task in post Federation Australia as they claimed to make decisive breaks with past practice, reflected in innovative government strategies and social reforms. The anxieties and opportunities stimulated by global industrial modernity defined New Protection policy, evident in the formation of political narrative and parliamentary legislation, and government intervention in the conduct of business enterprise and industrial relations. The objectives and contradictions of New Protection were clarified in the political narratives and policy interventions constructed to secure the future of the Sunshine Harvester enterprise and its workforce.     

The Italian Welfare State in the Crisis: Learning to Adjust?

Abstract

After a decade of inertia, that left it unprepared to withstand the blow of the great recession, the Italian welfare state has witnessed significant changes since 2012. Externally driven consolidation in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis spurred yet another wave of social policy reforms after that of the 1990s. These reforms did not however invariably entail retrenchment. Both the Monti and the Renzi governments combined liberalisation with expansion of social rights, particularly in income support. As a result, the Italian welfare state looks more comprehensive than it was before the crisis. At the same time, there was no overall strategy of welfare modernisation based on coordinated social investment measures. The changes in Italian social policy since the outburst of the great recession highlight the importance of domestic politics interacting with external drivers of change. They also facilitate an assessment of the opportunity structures for further reforms in a political system that appears to be veering again towards consensus democracy.     

The emergence of prophetic ministries in Botswana: self-positioning and appropriation of new media

ABSTRACT

In the past two decades or so, Botswana has witnessed a spectacular growth of prophetic Christianity and experienced a media revolution through the emerging use of new media. While studies have generally focused on either the growth of Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity or the new media revolution, little attention has been paid to the characteristics of emerging prophetic ministries, entailing the appropriation of new media and how this has accelerated the development of religious practices in Botswana. In light of positioning and mediatisation theories, this paper examines the ways in which prophetic ministries position themselves and shape the religious landscape of Botswana and how prophetic ministries have adopted and appropriated the use of new media technologies. It argues that the synergy between prophetic ministries and technological developments of new media opens a new space for cultural production of religious practices and experiences as well as religious imagination, experience and identity.     

Religious Innovation and Competition in Contemporary African Christianity

ABSTRACT

This introductory essay lays out the main themes of a special issue of Journal of Contemporary African Studies which brings together six empirically grounded papers by African social scientists of different disciplinary backgrounds. These works touch on various aspects of the social impact of religious innovation and competition in present day African Christianity. They represent the first fruits on the social science side of an interdisciplinary initiative that made 23 research grants for theologians and social scientists to study Christianity and social change in contemporary Africa. These articles focus on a variety of dynamics in contemporary African religion (mostly Christianity), including gender, health and healing, social media, entrepreneurship, and inter-religious borrowing and accommodation. The editors conclude that the research and learning reflected in this volume will enhance understanding of religion’s vital entanglement in contemporary African society. The articles reveal problematic ethical and psychological dynamics in some of these new movements, particularly among some of the neo-Pentecostal groups. Yet the authors are determined to go beyond perspectives that are overly fixated with African problems and victimisation. They are keen to explore opportunities for understanding African agency and African wellsprings of hope. The editors conclude that scholars of religion and religiosity in Africa need to invest new conceptual and methodological energy in researching what it means to be actively religious in Africa today.     

Piercing the Incumbency Syndrome: Ghana’s Democratic Transition in 2017

Ghana’s political landscape changed dramatically in 2017, with the election of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo as president. Ghana’s political transition in 2017 raises new insights into presidential recruitment and politics in Ghana. The purpose of this article is to examine the 2016 elections within the spectrum of the politics of Ghana’s presidential recruitment. This article discusses the hurdles that were surmounted by the opposition New Patriotic Party party, in unseating the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) party. The author coins the term ‘the John Syndrome’ to highlight the mythology held by some commentators that Akufo Addo could not be elected president, because his name is not ‘John’. Discussions about intra-party squabbles that resulted in the loss of NDC’s incumbency are provided. The article concludes that Akufo Addo’s presidency symbolises a de-mythologisation of ‘the John Syndrome’. The perception that Akufo Addo saved the nation in 2012 was his major weapon in piercing John Mahama’s incumbency. The demise of the NDC is likely to create an intra-party shift in favour of the party’s founder.     

Governing Domestic Worker Migration in Southeast Asia: Public–Private Partnerships,Regulatory Grey Zones and the Household

ABSTRACT

Focussing on the example of domestic worker migration, this article seeks to explore the regulatory regimes that control the flow of migrants across Southeast Asia. Although at first glance this appears to be a deeply statist regime, the aim of this article is to complicate this picture and to look at the role that private power and authority places in shaping migration governance. The article focusses on three interrelated issues: (i) how states have increasingly come to regulate migration via partnership arrangements with private sector actors; (ii) how these partnership arrangements are emblematic of broader processes of state transformation that take shape within the complex governance practices surrounding domestic worker migration in Southeast Asia; (iii) how a focus on the micro-processes of domestic worker governance (that is, how migrant worker bodies are constructed and disciplined) also highlights the significance of private actors in this aspect of governance.