Exceptions to Authoritarianism? Variegated sovereignty and ethno-nationalism in a Siberian resource frontier

This paper explores how the governance of culture and nationalism in Russia is far from uniform but rather, characterized by exceptions and diffuse sovereignty. It responds to a literature exploring the use of culture and identity in the Kremlin’s governing practices through the idiom of “exceptions to authoritarianism.” The dominant conception that culture is strictly instrumentalized by the Kremlin for regime legitimation and the maintenance of the so-called power vertikal is countered by anthropologically examining cultural institutions and identity politics in the Altai Republic. More specifically, the Gazprom-sponsored renovation of a museum celebrating Altaian indigenous culture is explored. This contribution highlights the agendas, interests, and players defining the culture-political fields of practice in authoritarianstates by analyzing how Gazprom enables the blossoming of indigenous cultural institutions. It repositions Gazprom, which successfully enabled a temporary exception to centrist policies, as a parastatal company, located between the global market and authoritarian state.     

Literary Journey from North to South: The Reception of Nordic Women Writers,Their Books and Ideas in the Slovenian Literary System

This article discusses the previously unresearched reception of Nordic women writers in the Slovenian cultural space. The first part presents the early reception of Nordic women writers in the nineteenth century up until the First World War. It analyses both the passive reception (the presence of books by Nordic women writers in library catalogues, references in the press and in egodocuments) as well as the active reception (literary influence). The second part of the article details the case study of Sigrid Undset’s reception, which is very intense and is still ongoing today (the most recent translation is from 2015). Through the methods and approaches of translation, intercultural, polysystem, and gender studies, this article explores the impact of Nordic women writers in the Slovenian literary polysystem and the influence of gender in the reception process. The article concludes that the writings of Nordic women writers brought representations of women’s lives to the Slovenian cultural space. Moreover, this has been of great interest for the Slovenian reading audience since female characters rarely serve as protagonists in Slovenian literature (except in some works written by Slovenian women writers). Slovenian feminists regarded Nordic women writers as role models and legitimized their own feminist demands by quoting the works of Nordic women writers and by referring to their successful writing careers. Therefore, the writings of Nordic women writers fill in a gap in Slovenian literature and supplement and enrich it.     

Modernity and the Politics of Identity in an Amazonian Society

Abstract— Recent work in the anthropology of practice shows that cultural transmission is a complex and active process rooted in everyday activity. It follows that cultural continuity depends more on understanding in practice than on the internalisation of collective representations. These insights are used to examine critically the provision of state bilingual education to the Huaorani, a small group of Amazonian hunter-gatherers. It is generally hoped that bilingual programmes for indigenous minorities will protect their linguistic and cultural rights. However, by neglecting ‘culture in practice’ and reducing culture to language, these programmes foster the emergence of a discursive identity at odds with the cultural continuity of nomadic and egalitarian indigenous groups. This case study is used to discuss some recent analyses of the politics of cultural identity and difference. It is argued that current thinking fails to recognise that culture is acquired and transmitted within communities of practice. 01997 Society for Latin American Studies.     

A Portrait of Failure: Ongoing Funding Cuts to Australia's Cultural Institutions

Three decades of government budget cuts have placed significant financial pressure on Australia's cultural institutions. Institutions are increasingly trying to attract non‐government funding to fulfil their legislative mandates to collect, maintain, and exhibit Australian and international art, to educate and inform the public, and preserve Australia's political, social, and cultural history. Evidence suggests that, despite these efforts, sources of funding have not changed significantly. Budget cuts are impacting a range of areas including acquisitions, preservation, digitisation, as well as limiting access to researchers and the public. This paper concludes that a public review of the roles played by cultural institutions is required, including consideration of the level of public funding provided. To do otherwise is to ignore the importance of Australia's cultural heritage.     

Class,Politics and the Progressive Dilemma

This article considers contemporary class inequalities and how they might shape a progressive politics in the UK. Drawing on findings from the BBC Class Survey, it outlines changes in the class structure, class mobility and class identities. It is argued that the class structure is increasingly polarised and fragmented, with a wealthy elite, a vulnerable precariat and fragmented middle and working classes in between. Declining upward social mobility is a source of anxiety for middle‐class and working‐class parents alike. Class identification, especially working‐class identification, has weakened over time, although class snobbery is far from dead. Class has changed and the class basis of politics is changing now too. A progressive politics is possible if the political parties of the centre‐left appeal to the majority of the electorate rather than one class, acknowledge common concerns and worries and appeal to shared hopes and dreams that straddle class boundaries.     

Group Structure and Intergroup Relations in Global Terror Networks: Further Explorations

Studies have begun to look at the potentially crucial impacts of group decentralization and inter-group global networking in accounting for the extent and severity of violence in insurgencies and terrorism. Groups may be able to survive more effectively, evade anti-terror or counter-insurgency strategies, and inflict greater damage or more civilian attacks by operating under more or less centralized leadership, or by making use of the resources of other like-minded groups scattered across borders. While some analysts have examined each of these possibilities, few if any have done so simultaneously with both structural and networking indicators or examined the joint effects of these indicators. We propose to do so in this study by combining existing datasets on terrorist structure and networks. Hypotheses and findings in prior studies have indicated that structural decentralization may lead to more civilian attacks if not more destruction since local cells are freer to act on their own, and that group size and centrality in the global terror networks lead to greater lethality and group survival rates. We re-examine such assumptions here with OLS and logit models combining these effects, and find that in addition to group size, network reach (eigenvalue centrality) rather than group interconnections per se (number of allies) appears to have primary impacts on group lethality, targeting, and survival, sometimes in conjunction with decentralized organizational structure.     

我国证券投资基金契约结构设计之检讨

证券投资基金契约结构是证券投资基金法制的核心。我国证券投资基金法律中存在有关基金契约结构的条款相互矛盾, 基金契约订约方间法律责任不明, 基金发起人充当基金契约订约方违反代理法理、并可能损害投资人权益等弊端, 我国基金契约结构设计应在明确投资基金和基金契约独特的法律地位和性质前提下, 通过修改完善相关规定, 采纳三位一体的二元投资基金契约结构模式, 即以基金管理人、托管人为订约方, 投资者为相关受益方的三位一体型态, 从而形成基金管理人、托管人为实质受托人, 受益人为实质委托人的二元结构。     

中国传统官本位思想生发的文化生态根源

官本位思想是中国传统政治文化和政治实践的集中体现:农耕社会对权威的服从是官本位思想滋生繁衍的社会生活基础;血缘宗法制度和家国一体的社会结构进一步固化了社会尊卑等级关系;以等级特权为核心的官僚体制为官本位思想提供了体制上的安排和制度上的保障;官僚阶层对社会政治、经济资源的垄断和控制,形成了凭借官职等级控制、支配社会资源的利益驱动和价值导向;科举制度把社会各阶层特别是社会精英阶层的价值取向引导到追求功名利禄上来;中国传统文化对礼治的尊崇为官本位思想的发展提供了理论基石。     

浅谈大学英语教学中的文化教育

语言与文化相互依存,大学英语的讲授同时也应该是外国文化的传授,文化教育应贯穿于英语教学的各个方面。由于种种原因当前英语教学缺失文化教育,教师应用各种方式进行文化教育并注意由此可能产生的问题。     

广西中小型企业资本结构与融资决策

广西中小型企业的发展在广西的国民经济中占有十分重要的地位,但广西中小型企业发展面临的严重问题之一是金融支持力度不足。文章通过对中小型企业的资本结构分析,特别是对现代企业资本结构理论的阐述,试图在融资的决策上找出科学的依据,为广西中小型企业的发展寻求金融支持。