‘On the outskirts of the Empire’: Joseph Brodsky and Lithuania

This article explores the role of Lithuania in Joseph Brodsky’s life and works before and after his exile from Russia in 1972. As a former Soviet republic, Lithuania represented an intermediary space for Brodsky both culturally and geographically, contributing to his realization that it was a ‘rehearsal’ for his actual emigration. However, Brodsky’s notion of Lithuania changes when, after 1972, instead of representing a simulacrum of the ‘abroad,’ the poet sees Lithuania as a ‘home’ from afar. Emigration, in Brodsky’s case, thus became a realization of the myth of exile implicit in his earlier texts about Lithuania.     

法律地理学论纲

法律地理学不是“陡然出世”的研究领域。其沿着关联性脉络与辩证性脉络发展,核心是研究“人—法律—地”的学问。法律地理学有着反思空间排斥现象的制度原因、阐释“城市与乡村”“省域与市域、县域”等具体空间的规范性意涵、深化地方法治建设等功能。法律地理学的关键范畴是空间正义、城市权利、尺度、身份和边界,研究方法主要是“行为—结构”分析与“双重想象”。     

Nowhere to go? Why do some civil wars generate more refugees than others?

Civil wars greatly vary in the number of refugees they generate, ranging from zero to over six millions in a given conflict. Work on this variation has largely focused on “push” factors – deleterious attributes of the home country that lead to refugee flows, such as violence and repression. Yet, few have studied the importance of “pull” factors – attractive features of the potential host countries. Here we show in particular the importance of the expected quality of life in possible destinations. Using data on civil wars from 1951 to 2008, we find that the proximity of democratic and wealthy potential hosts accounts for much of the variation in the number of refugees. Out-of-sample validation methods show that these “pull” factors account for nearly as much predictive power as all the main variables previously identified in the literature combined.     

Hunger strikes,detainee protest,and the relationality of political subjectivization

This paper attends to the relationships and spatialities through which immigration detention centers, though isolating and constraining spaces, are shaped by detainees. I approach the problematic of detainee resistance and agency through both Critical Citizenship Studies and feminist relational frameworks. I do so through a case study of one particular rupture – the 2014 hunger strikes at the Northwest Detention Center. My analysis of the 2014 hunger strikes at the NWDC directs me to conceptualize detainee activism as a process of political subjectivization, though one that is fraught with physical and political risk to both detainees and the order of sovereignty and citizenship. This process is undergirded by and productive of a series of interpersonal and political relations that mediate detainee actions and statements, and constitute them as a rupture in the order of sovereignty and citizenship.     

WarViews: Visualizing and Animating Geographic Data on Civil War

In the recent years, the field of conflict research has produced new findings on the relation between conflict and geography. In doing so, new data sets have been created with the help of GIS software. These data sets include variables relevant for the study of conflict with a spatial component. However, the use of geographic data requires specialized software and substantial training and therefore involves high entry costs for researchers and practitioners. This paper introduces the WarViews project whose aim is to create an easy-to-use front end for the exploration of GIS data on conflict. It takes advantage of the recent proliferation of Internet-based geographic software and makes geographic data on conflict available for these tools. With WarViews, geographic data on conflict can be accessed, browsed, and time-animated in a few mouse clicks, using only standard software. As a result, a wider audience can take advantage of the valuable data contained in these databases, for example, as supplementary data for conflict case studies or for classroom demonstrations. We present two versions of WarViews. The static version runs in a web browser and allows the user to switch between different data sets. The dynamic version is based on Google Earth and can time-animate geographic data such that the development over time can be monitored. The WarViews website can be freely accessed at http://www.icr.ethz.ch/research/warviews .     

Mapping Utopias: A Voyage to Placelessness

I have a map which indicates clearly and beyond any doubt the way to Utopia. I start the journey with a survival kit of paradigmatic egalities, noumenal legalities, and nervous ideals. However, the more I move into the uncartographied space, the more I realise that my survival kit is changing, to the point of becoming porous and permeable. The journey to Utopia is condensed to a log of phenomenological bracketing, where the immersion to the Lebenswelt equals the loss of oneself, and where the descent from the Transcendental to the Natural proves to be as meaningful as the escalating bracketing from the Natural to the Transcendental. The negation of Utopia (ou-topos) displaces not only my Utopia but also my egocentric quest for identity: the ‘I’ becomes ‘me’ before it vanishes, space becomes place, intentionality turns back to itself and retraces its path. The more I approach my destination, the more negation devours distance. When I finally arrive to the designated point, where, according to the map, lies Utopia, the only thing I discover is a map, identical to the one I hold, that indicates, clearly and beyond any doubt, the way to Utopia. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

关联性要素与地理标志法的构造

产品与产地的关联性是地理标志的核心要素,其重要性好比独创性之于作品、新颖性之于专利、显著性之于商标,是构建地理标志独立理论的基础。对于关联性要素存在主、客观两种理解,分别构成反不正当竞争等一般法保护和专门法保护的理念基础。主、客观关联性塑造了不同的地理标志概念,其各自构建的地理标志制度在适用产品范围、产地划定、关联性证明、专家审查、监控和保护等方面均存在明显差异,体现了地理标志保护公、私权之分野和不同政策取向。我国存在地理标志保护多重立法,其地理标志定义逻辑混乱,制度设计扭曲,彼此缺乏配合支持。应根据关联性要素并结合我国的政策导向进行制度重构,整合建立统一的地理标志专门法,删除商标法之地理标志定义中的“自然因素或者人文因素”之表述,采取专门法保护为主、商标法保护为辅,彼此协调共存的模式。     

刍议我国刑事法律面对“SARS”挑战的应对策略

2003年4月中旬,SARS疫情在我国部分地区蔓延,为了预防、控制疫情及打击相关犯罪,国务院、最高司法机关相继出台了有关规定、司法解释。但该规定、司法解释存在许多不足,文章从立法的完善、加强司法解释、协调相关法律、法规等方面进行理论探讨,意在为今后抗击其他突发灾害事件,维护社会秩序提供理论支持及司法保障。     

东盟的地理整体与利益整体意识--东盟意识与东盟的发展(Ⅱ)

东盟从其成立之初就具有一种强烈的地理整体意识和利益整体意识.正是由于其具有强烈的地理整体意识,东盟才能够克服内部的分歧和排除外部的各种阻力,吸收越南、缅甸、老挝和柬埔寨加入东盟,使其成为一个包括所有东南亚国家的国际组织.正是由于其具有强烈的利益整体意识,东盟才能够争取到其单个成员所无法得到的利益,而且在面对西方大国的压力时,能够采取一种强硬的立场,很好地维护其成员或准成员的利益和尊严.     

Searching for Affordability and Opportunity: A Framework for the Housing Choice Voucher Program

Abstract

Affordability, a key factor in the housing search process, becomes critical when locating rental housing in opportunity-rich areas. The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program accommodates low-income households searching for housing and encourages recipients to reside in low-poverty areas. Affordable neighborhoods that are accessible to public transportation are often found in distressed areas, and not all HCV recipients succeed in locating qualified housing. To address these challenges, a housing search framework is developed to assist HCV households in the housing search process. This framework builds on the methodology of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the Location Affordability Index and Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing assessment tool by creating multivariate indices that incorporate housing supply, accessibility to opportunity, and neighborhood conditions. The framework serves as a foundation for an online housing search application for public housing authorities to further fair housing goals, HCV recipients to locate qualified housing units, and local governments to assess affordability and opportunity.