A project of destruction,peace, or techno-science? Untangling the relationship between the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) and the Kurdish question in Turkey

The Southeastern Anatolia Project (Güneydo?u Anadolu Projesi, GAP) was initiated in the 1970s to produce energy and irrigate arid lands through constructing dams and hydroelectric power plants on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and extensive irrigation networks in southeastern Turkey. Over time, the project was expanded to achieve a wider range of goals in different fields and radically transform Southeastern Anatolia Region. It is also widely claimed that GAP was initiated to address the root causes of the Kurdish question in Turkey and that security considerations and political calculations were actually the raison d’être of GAP. However, this supposed link between GAP and the Kurdish question was often established in a simplistic manner and the question how these two have been related – or not – remained largely untangled. This article aims to fill this research gap and examine the complex and multi-dimensional nature of the interrelationship between GAP and the Kurdish question based on diverse primary and secondary data sources. Accordingly, the article identifies and discusses major narratives in which GAP was conceived as a political and strategic ‘anti-Kurdish’ plot; remedy for the conflict; and totally technical non-political project and presents an alternative and more accurate perspective on how to interpret this relationship.     

Trajectories of land acquisition and enclosure: development schemes,virtual land grabs,and green acquisitions in Indonesia's Outer Islands

While the size and speculative nature of land transactions in the wake of energy, food and climate crises have surprised observers, the reasons for partial implementation of many land developments remain largely unexamined. This contribution investigates trajectories of land acquisition and enclosure by analyzing four acquisition processes in Indonesia – those associated with rice, oil palm, Jatropha and carbon sequestration – considering their implications for comparative studies elsewhere. The paper finds that current patterns of land usechange represent a continuation of ongoing land transformation processes. Itdescribes the logic leading to partial realization of large-scale schemes. Highlighting the importance of interactions between formal and vernacular rural land development processes, the essay concludes that many large-scale schemes are better understood as virtual land acquisitions.     

发展哲学扬弃和超越实践哲学思考

发展哲学必然能够扬弃和超越实践哲学,成为马克思主义哲学当代化、中国化的合理形式,准确地反映时代精神。发展哲学的核心内容和基本矛盾是发展主体与发展客体、发展理想与生存现实、发展理论与发展实践的相互作用。只有发展哲学才能实现当代哲学的转型与发展。     

Extractive peasants: reframing informal artisanal and small-scale mining debates

This paper explores the ongoing reconfiguration of peasant labour processes from agriculture to informal mineral extraction, outlining the motivations of the rural poor in adopting mining and quarrying, and discusses how social sciences can best account for this significant shift towards extractive livelihoods. It argues that the ‘extractive peasants’ best explain the contemporary changes in rural, mineral-rich tracts throughout the Global South, and peasant mining practices are part of the informal economies. The extractive peasants return intellectual attention to practices that disrupt contemporary global mineral production and place the politics of the poor within broader debates on resource politics.     

Pre-capitalist Reproduction on the Nepal Tarai: Semi-feudal Agriculture in an Era of Globalisation

This article highlights the continued significance of pre-capitalist formations in shaping the trajectory of economic transition in peripheral regions, even in an era of neo-liberal globalisation. There is a tendency for Marxist scholars to assume the inevitable “dominance” of capitalism over older modes of production. Using a case study from Nepal's far eastern Tarai, this paper seeks to understand the reproduction of feudal social relations in a region which is both accessible and integrated into regional and global markets. The paper traces the early subordination of indigenous groups to feudalism from the eighteenth century onwards, and the political and ideological processes through which these social relations were reinforced. Through examining the historical role of feudal-colonial alliances, however, the paper notes that pre-capitalist reproduction in Nepal is a dynamic process, actively negotiated and reinforced by the external imperatives of capitalist expansion itself as well as through the entrenched political power of landed classes. Today feudal and capitalist formations co-exist and articulate, with surplus divided between landlords and non-farm employers. Understanding the complex dynamics of feudal or “semi-feudal” reproduction in an era of globalisation is crucial if one is to identify avenues for collective mobilisation against inequitable pre-capitalist and capitalist class relations.     

从公共职责理论看我国官员问责制的优化

从西方的公共职责理论看,我国近年来实施的官员问责制离真正的民主问责制还有相当的距离。要使我国的官员问责制达到促使官员忠实履行职责、对其行动负责的根本目的,应在问责对象、问责范围、问责主体和问责程序等方面加以规范。     

走出建设社会主义新农村的几个误区

建设社会主义新农村是党的十六届五中全会明确提出来的一项重大历史任务,它有深刻的时代内涵和现实意义,有明确的基本内容和指导思想、目标措施。因此,新农村建设需要全面理解,准确把握,精心部署,扎实推进,长期奋斗。任何简单、急功近利的做法都是错误的,都是需要要注意克服和纠正的。     

怎样构建和谐网络社会

网络活动产生了大量的病症并对现实世界造成非常巨大的危害,网络病症引发了大量的网络不文明行为,这些行为基本上都是有悖于传统的道德、伦理和法制观念的。应该全面认识网络的积极作用,才能有利于正确使用网络科技,只有正确认识网络交往的利与弊,才能构建和谐网络社会,目前我们国家专门研究、治疗网络病症的机构和人员比较少,研究主要停留在理论上,实际应用少,不适应治疗大量患者的需要,构建和谐网络社会必须趋利避害,疏堵结合。     

比较法视野下的盘查制度研究

盘查是世界各国警察为预防犯罪或进行初步侦查所普遍采用的一种措施,英美法系国家与大陆法系国家的盘查制度虽然在立法体例上有所不同,但均对盘查制度在适用标准、条件以及程序上进行严格规制,以防盘查权过度滥用。我国盘查制度在立法上存在疏漏,盘查措施在实践中则常作为刑事强制措施的替代,故有必要对盘查措施加以明确,对盘查标准及条件加以严格规定,对具体程序加以规范实施,从而完善我国的盘查制度。     

当代中国马克思主义大众化过程中存在的主要问题

十六大以来，我国在推动马克思主义大众化工作中取得了一定的成效，但也存在一些不容忽视的问题。在社会转型期，理论与实际相脱离，宣传、做法与现实不符，一些广大人民群众关心的重大理论问题得不到有说服力的解答，削弱了党的基本理论的吸引力，越来越多的社会成员更多地关注实际利益，对于马克思主义理论的兴趣不浓、学习热情不高。