‘My private kingdom and sometimes my private jail’ The meaning of home in the lives of Bedouin women: changes in the home and social spaces and their implications for Bedouin women

Home has always been significant in the lives of Bedouin women. At times it has been considered a ‘private kingdom’ – an intimate space, a jurisdiction, a sphere of influence and a space of creativity and well-being. In other periods it has been perceived as a ‘private jail’ – suffocating and limiting. The Bedouin communities in southern Israel, which are part of the country’s Arab-Palestinian population, are undergoing major changes – cultural and social, as well as in the form of settlement – imposed largely by the state. The external form of the Bedouin home has changed too, from a tent to a cement-block house, from an open structure to a closed one, from being part of the open space of the desert to being a limited space in a neighbourhood. To understand the changing meaning of home for Bedouin women during this transition, I conducted a narrative study with 30 women who live today in permanent settlements, but who represent three generations that correspond to three periods of settlement and three housing types. I found that each generation ascribes different meanings to the home.     

从欧债危机看未来欧盟的走向

一场欧债危机让世界上唯一能够在经济上抗衡超级大国美国的经济体陷入空前危机。如何解决目前的危局,欧洲人还未能达成一致意见,这暴露了欧洲人在走向联合过程当中的困境,即是做自己的欧洲还是欧洲的自己。欧债危机也让欧盟的政治前景蒙上了一层阴影。在一个仍然是主权国家为主体的国际秩序里,国家利益和共同体利益的博弈一直是阻碍共同体发展的一个绊脚石。欧债危机让这个绊脚石再一次显示出它的威力。未来的欧盟将走向何方,这是欧盟人也是全世界关注的焦点。     

Trends in the proportion of married women of reproductive age in Spain, 1887–1991

Using the Princeton nuptiality index I_m, we analyzed historical developments in the proportion of married women of reproductive age in Spain. We show the internal diversity in nuptiality patterns and offer an explanatory statistical model based on panel data analysis to identify the main variables influencing these changes over more than a century (1887–1991). We found that Spain has been the developed country with the greatest contrasts in its provincial nuptiality patterns (measured by I_m), although this diversity has lessened over the course of time. We also found that some socioeconomic variables (the gross domestic product per capita and the percentage of population living in cities) do not have a linear relationship with female nuptiality but rather have a U shape or an inverted U shape. This may partly account for some of the controversy that has raged on this topic over the past few decades on an international level.     

西方竞争性政党体制下的政党共识及思考

西方竞争性政党体制下，政党之间除了激烈的竞争外，也存在着共识。共识是西方政党之间关系的一个重要方面。政党共识的出现是由多方面因素造成的，其中政治、社会、文化、政党自身因素起决定性作用。西方政党的共识政治对我国具有重要的启示。     

The Neglected Nation: The CSU and the Territorial Cleavage in Bavarian Party Politics

This article examines the continuing salience of the territorial cleavage in Bavarian party politics. It does so through an exploration of the Christian Social Union's (CSU) mobilisation of Bavarian identity as part of its political project, which has forced other parties in Bavaria to strengthen their territorial goals and identities. Parties have articulated different constructions of ‘Bavaria’ to rival the CSU's dominant nation-building project. However, they have been unable to portray themselves as ‘standing up for Bavarian interests’ due to the constraints of the state-wide parties to which they belong. As an exclusively Bavarian party, the CSU has no such constraints. Indeed, the CSU's core aim of strengthening Bavaria's position vis-à-vis the German federation may be viewed as akin to that of the Convergència i Unió in Catalonia, Spirit in Flanders or Plaid Cymru in Wales. Like these parties, the case of the CSU in Bavaria demonstrates that sub-state territorial mobilisation has as much to do with negotiating autonomy within the state as seceding from it. To that end, the CSU provides a valuable case of how a regionalist party operating within a multi-level political system has sought to influence the regional, state and European levels to obtain a comparative territorial advantage.     

欧盟过境货物知识产权保护最新态势——兼评欧洲法院“NOKIA”案和“PHILLIPS”案

自2008年10月以来,在欧盟一些海关屡屡发生过境货物遭到扣押的事件,尤其是荷兰海关屡次扣押印度等国的过境药品,引起国际社会的极大关注.英国和比利时法院分别在审理“NOKIA”案和“PHIILIPS”案过程中对过境货物是否扣押产生疑问,并向欧洲法院提出咨询.近期欧洲法院对两案合并审理,做出一项里程碑意义的判决,厘清了过境货物、 “虚拟制造”理论等基本问题,对欧盟海关的知识产权执法和法院司法都有很好的指导作用,对于我国政府和企业也不无裨益.     

欧债危机对欧洲华裔青少年华文教育的影响及其对策

本文分析了欧债危机对欧洲华裔青少年华文教育的主要影响及分析其造成影响的主要原因,从政府、华文学校和华人家庭的视角,为欧洲华裔青少年华文教育的问题提出相应的对策建议。     

对中国企业实施"走出去"战略主要观点的评析

近年来,我国企业实施“走出去”战略具有必要性和可能性。应当加强对实施主体、实施对象以及怎样实施等相关问题在理论上进行有针对性的分析。     

Fiscal Decentralization Policies in the EU: A Comparative Analysis through a Club Convergence Analysis

Abstract

We study the degree of convergence or divergence in fiscal decentralization in the European Union over the period 1995–2015 using a club convergence approach. First, we analyze non-central expenditure and revenue as percentages of GDP, of total expenditure and of total revenue. The results for the EU-15 countries indicate some clustering, with three clubs formed when using GDP and four to five when using total revenue or expenditure. Second, we study the gap between expenditure and revenue as a proxy of fiscal responsibility. This results in three and two clubs respectively, with Denmark as the divergent country with the highest gap. Finally, we analyze potential unions of clubs and transitions. We also interpret our results taking into account variables found in the literature as determinants of fiscal decentralization. These results show how European countries are quite heterogeneous in terms of fiscal federalism and decentralization, with greater convergence in fiscal responsibility than in the other magnitudes.     

Making a Place for Alternative Technologies: The Case of Agricultural Bio‐Inputs in Argentina

This article characterizes the ways in which the actors in charge of designing and implementing public policies intervene to promote the emergence of alternatives to problematic technologies. It is based on a case study conducted in Argentina that focuses on initiatives to promote the development of biological agricultural inputs in the context of increasingly controversial chemical inputs. The study spotlights the political, institutional, and semantic efforts made by policy makers and public administrations to ensure these new inputs find their way into organizations and onto their agendas. Their work consists in attenuating the boundaries between chemical and biological inputs, and reducing opposition by creating categories and organizations that downplay potential dissension and highlight the possible coexistence of technological paradigms. Contrary to what the injunctions of technological substitution suggest, we show that putting alternative technologies on the public agenda depends largely on their inclusion in institutional and regulatory infrastructures originally designed for technologies that are likely to decline. More broadly, it relies on the construction of continuity between the two types of technologies.