The British Empire in India,the Gulf pearl and the making of the Middle East

Abstract

Genealogies of the term ‘Middle East’ conventionally focus on a juncture around the 1890s, when it gained new geopolitical currency, promoted by various European and American officials with reference to a space centred around the Arabo-Persian Gulf. This article argues instead that the ‘Middle East’ label should be seen as the culmination of a longer process, led less from London than from India. Over the previous century, this consolidation of ‘British’ India as a distinct regional actor was accompanied by the conceptualisation of its borderlands, including that Gulf-centred space. This space become a theatre for economic and political monitoring strategised from India, seeking to transform what was represented as a pirate-infested margin into a pacified buffer zone. Control and exploitation of pearl fisheries, the main economic activity for Gulf populations, was central to these efforts. Imperial strategy around the Gulf pearl was a key tool in founding an informal Indian empire in the Gulf and its hinterlands, in that very space to which the name ‘Middle East’ would subsequently be given.     

Shifting the Risk: New Employment Patterns, Informalization, and Women's Work

The paper argues that the processes of informalization of jobs observed during the past decades have affected both high and low income countries. Starting at the micro level of the firm, the emphasis is on how economic restructuring and globalization have generated the growth of informal activities—resulting in the vicious circle of poverty and economic insecurity for an important proportion of the population. The second part of the paper analyzes the growth of women's participation in informal activities, emphasizing that there are contradictory forces at work regarding women's employment. Despite a stubborn persistence of gender discrimination and obstacles to women's advancement, progress has taken place on several fronts, such as in the education field and in the absorption of female labor in many production processes. The paper concludes by pointing out that poverty eradication programs must emphasize the need to generate decent jobs without which these programs will continue to be ineffective. In addition, re-distributive mechanisms and different forms of social protection are needed to counteract the forces and policies generating economic insecurity.     

知识经济三题

本认为,知识是商品,但知识又具有不同于一般商品的特殊商品属性;在发展知识经济过程中,教育居于基础性的地位;知识经济的发展改变了那种将现代化等同于工业化的传统认识。在知识经济时代,现代化不仅意味着要实现工业化,更要实现信息化和知识化。     

试论鸦片对近代云南社会经济的影响

鸦片经济是近代云南社会经济商品化过程中的一个重要问题 ,它曾对云南地方经济产生过巨大影响。清朝道光年间 ,云南开始种植鸦片 ,且种植面广。到唐继尧和龙云统治云南时期 ,鸦片一度成为云南的重要财政支柱之一 ,无论是地方权贵还是商家行号都明里暗里争相逐利 ,从事鸦片生意 ,商业投机活动十分猖獗 ,金融危机频繁发生 ,地区经济遭到重大损失。同时种植鸦片致使云南农村经济日益衰败 ,首先是使农村产业结构单一化 ,其次是因吸食鸦片人口众多 ,致使农村劳动力人口锐减。因此 ,鸦片问题自始至终是近代云南社会经济中的一个令人关注的焦点     

Writing women on the verge of individuality … Citizen subject,consumption and power in the nineteenth-century Swedish novel

ABSTRACT

Three letter-writing nineteenth-century heroines lay out domestic worlds to their fictional readers in which moral sentiment and norms of citizenship versus individual desire are at stake. In an era of nascent capitalism and nation building, these are aspects of significance. But what role does writing letters play? And what impact do epistolary novels have on citizenship and gender at the time? With Michel Foucault and Étienne Balibar as theoretical framework, this article discusses three epistolary novels—The Illusions (1836) by Sophie von Knorring in connection to Grannarne (1837) by Fredrika Bremer and Araminta May (1838) by Carl Jonas Love Almqvist—in order to discern how female writing produces the gendered citizen.     

试论资本范畴

依据马克思的商品经济方法论 ,阐明资本属于商品经济、市场经济的范畴 ,并非资本主义特有的范畴 ,着重从方法论上阐述资本一般与资本特殊、资本属性与资本归属 ,进而说明是否肯定资本范畴对社会主义经济建设具有重要影响。     

A Shared Path While all concerned countries hope to benefit from the Silk Road Economic Belt,China needs to take on the role of coordinator

正Though trains have replaced camels as the primary mode of transport,and oil and gas have supplanted silk as the major commodity,the Silk Road has risen once again after Chinese President Xi Jinping first put forth the strategic conception of the Silk Road Economic Belt during his visit to four Central Asian countries in September 2013.The proposed belt traverses 18countries in the Eurasian region and has a population of about 3 billion.     

开放型经济高质量发展:动能维度与制度型开放

我国开放型经济高质量发展已经具备了经济效率动能、结构转换动能、创新动能、制度动能和数字化新动能。通过深化体制机制改革和主动推进新一轮国际经贸规则体系构建,将自由贸易试验区、自由贸易港、进出口贸易展会等打造成为新时代改革开放重要的前沿阵地和新高地,推进国家标准国际化,完善创新驱动发展模式匹配的体制机制和营商环境等,以全面的制度型开放大力推动我国开放型经济高质量发展向纵深推进。     

浅议我国电子商务发展中存在的问题及对策

电子商务是 21世纪国际贸易发展的必然趋势,当前,我国电子商务在发展中存在着许多问题,主要的发展对策是：建设高速信息公路,扩大网络社会密度,加快电子化进程等几个方面开展工作。     

宋代东南与西北市场差异性析论--以陕西和两浙为中心的历史考察

宋代,在特定的历史、自然环境条件下,形成了四大区域性市场,其中东南市场与西北市场是两类差异明显的市场。西北市场是在大量输入军需物资基础上发展起来的,它的繁荣主要依靠发达的贩运性商业;东南市场的发展和繁荣,则是由当地粮食及经济作物种植的专业化及在近海市场网络拉动作用下形成的。