Facts,power and global evidence: a new empire of truth

Abstract

What are the epistemological and political contours of evidence today? This introduction to the special issue lays out key shifts in the contemporary politics of knowledge and describes the collective contribution of the six papers as an articulation of what we describe as a ‘new empiricism’, exploring how earlier historical appeals to evidence to defend political power and decision-making both chime with and differ from those of the contemporary era. We outline some emerging empirical frontiers in the study of instruments of calculation, from the evolution of the randomized controlled trial (RCT) to the growing importance of big data, and explore how these methodological transformations intersect with the alleged crisis of expertise in the ‘post-truth’ era. In so doing, we suggest that the ambiguity of evidence can be a powerful tool in itself, and we relate this ambiguity to the ideological commitment and moral fervour that is elicited through appeals to, and the performance of, evaluation.     

Of ‘Strong’ Leadership,Crisis Communication,and Pooper Scoopers: Change in the Queensland Public Service Under Newman

Governments have historically offered their workforce a public service bargain founded on stable pay and conditions and job security. However, while the Westminster system aims for public service employment to be protected from the whims of government, public servants are nonetheless affected by the political environment in which they operate and changes to this bargain can occur with a new government. This paper focuses on a Queensland public service change process that resulted in large‐scale forced redundancies, non‐renewal of temporary contracts, and legislative changes that nullified the provisions in job security, organisational change, and redundancy policies. Using communication as a lens through which to understand leadership, it examines how the government communicated with the public service about this organisational change, immediately before and after the 2012 election. In particular, through analysis of public and media commentary, speeches and Hansard records, it examines Premier Newman's change leadership and communication by contrasting pre‐election messages to the public service with post‐election messages about the public service and the justifications for change during this period of downsizing. This analysis is used to reflect on political leadership, communication, fair treatment, and trust in public service change.     

创建中国发展的新模式

该文分析了人类的生俘与社会发展的关系、社会的发展与人类文明的关系以及人类文明的演替与转折进程,并针对中国工业化历程的分析,提出要在科学发展观的统领下,创建中国发展的新模式。     

农村图书馆发展与新农村建设

农村图书馆是农村文化建设的重要内容,也是新农村建设的重要组成部分。中国农村图书馆事业发展虽然取得了显著的成绩,但是,在改革开放后也出现了政府财政投入不足,社会各界办图书馆的积极性没有根本调动起来,图书馆人才队伍建设滞后等新的问题。新农村建设为农村图书馆事业的发展提供了历史性机遇,为此该文提出了相应的对策建议,以将农村图书馆建设事业推向新的发展阶段。     

Transatlantic Institutions: Can Partnership be Engineered?

The transatlantic alliance is widely viewed as being in a state of decline. Conflict over the war in Iraq highlighted a growing divergence between the Bush administration and European Union governments in their attitudes towards multilateralism. The rift severely tested institutions created to manage bilateral EU–US relations in the aftermath of the cold war. This article examines how well this institutional architecture has held up. It scrutinises the limitations of networked governance in transatlantic relations and acknowledges the quandary of trying to manufacture partnership using imperfect institutions. The Brussels–Washington channel is only one among many through which transatlantic relations flow, but we argue that it continues to gain in importance. Despite the limits of institutional engineering, we conclude that the US and the EU remain each other's most important ally.     

‘Feel what I feel’: making da(r)ta with teen girls for creative activisms on how sexual violence matters

Abstract

Inspired by feminist new materialist and posthuman activist philosophy, this paper speculates on what happens when data entangles with arts-based methodologies in a school-based participatory activist project with six teen girls (age 15) on gender-based and sexual violence. Mapping the journey of how data become da(r)ta and how da(r)ta become d/artaphacts, the paper follows how the Runway of Disrespect, the Shame Chain, the Ruler-Skirt and the Tagged Heart ripple through peer cultures, school assemblies and national policy landscapes. Each journey provides a small glimpse into how bodies, space, objects, affects and discourse ‘intra-act’ in dynamic assemblages to produce d/artaphacts crafted from and carrying experience. The paper concludes to consider the ethical-political affordances of how participatory arts-based methodologies and the im/personal vitality of objects might support young people to safely and creatively communicate and potentially transform oppressive sexual cultures and practices.     

产业转型中内部劳动力市场的优化对新生代农民工人力资本提升的影响研究

在经济发展新常态背景下,我国产业转型升级和经济增长质量都要求劳动力具备转型所需的创造性、技能性等特征。新生代农民工作为农村劳动力转移的主体,同时也是承担产业转型的直接参与者,这部分劳动力的质量对我国产业转型升级以及广大中小企业的可持续发展有重要的影响作用。但目前,新生代农民工较低的人力资本水平已经明显成为阻碍产业转型、技术创新、企业发展的主要障碍。因此,在分析产业转型过程中新生代农民工人力资本提升效应的基础上,着重从企业内部劳动力市场的机理进行分析,构建内部劳动力市场效率模型,并基于调查数据的实证分析,以探究内部劳动力市场优化对新生代农民工人力资本提升的影响路径。     

Big change,little change? Punctuation,increments and multi-layer institutional change for English local authorities under austerity

This paper draws on new institutionalist theories to consider how we might characterise the process and outcomes of change occurring in English local government as a result of the UK’s austerity policies. It uses national and local empirical data to argue that changes are best understood as multi-layer processes, whereby radical ‘punctuated’ shifts in national funding can be mitigated to incremental adjustments in service delivery at a local level. However, the paper also suggests that the incremental appearance of change may be temporary, and that diminishing institutional resilience and emergent discursive shifts potentially prefigure a paradigm change in local governance.     

新生代农民工及其市民化研究述评与展望

新生代农民工及其市民化是学界重点关注的问题之一。现有研究内容丰富,研究方法趋于全面,实证调研分析显著增加。然而,有关新生代农民工及其市民化的研究也存在不足,研究内容有待进一步拓展,研究方法有待进一步完善。今后应从更广的学科范围、充分利用定性与定量相结合的综合性研究方法研究新生代农民工问题,研究重点包括:结合新生代农民工融入城市的宏观背景进行深入、综合性的理论研究;对于新生代农民工相关的现行政策进行评估研究;农民工市民化的战略定位和制度设计的前瞻性、统一性问题研究;新生代农民工与其他群体之间及新生代农民工内部的比较研究。     

论工会在推进新生代农民工城市融入中的作用

与老一代农民工相比,新生代农民工城市融入愿望更为强烈。然而,受到城乡二元结构的限制与自身文化、技能的制约,新生代农民工城市融入水平较低。工会作为党联系职工群众的纽带和桥梁,作为职工利益的代表者和维护者,理应发挥组织优势,加快推进新生代农民工城市融入。