Diamond signs: generic stones and particular gems

Analysis of narratives from ethnographic research with diamond consumers representing the target market (largely middle-class white women between 20 and 50 years of age) reveals how symbolic associations promoted by industry are refracted through interpretations of both adverts and diamonds in general, but shows that local contingencies (basic attitudes and knowledge about diamonds and their production, circumstances of acquisition, and personal histories) are significant in determining meanings of people's own specific diamonds. Far from being batch absorbers of advert discourse, consumers are idiosyncratic, creative, and sometimes playful interpreters, and furthermore may distinguish between these strategies and those suggested by adverts or as performed by others. These findings are in part explicable on introducing for diamond consumption an important distinction between type and token, whereby a token is a specific instantiation of a generic type. This approach contributes to developing methods supple enough to capture consumers’ multi-dimensional interpretive strategies.     

Opposition and Dissent in Soviet Type Regimes: Civil Society and its Limitations

Abstract

Following the collapse of Communist regimes in 1989, academics and dissidents alike were quick to claim that agents of ‘civil society’ had played an integral role in the 1989 ‘Velvet Revolutions’. However, the appropriation of civil society to explain events in Eastern Europe is highly problematic. In arguing that civil society offers an inappropriate framework in which to study opposition and dissent in Soviet type regimes, this article recommends dismissing the typology for this particular scenario. Instead, a new typology, the totalitarian public sphere, is introduced. This article concludes by elaborating on why the totalitarian public sphere serves as a more comprehensive typology by which to explain dissent and opposition in Soviet type regimes.     

人格与权利能力的平等性辨析

大陆法系民法经历了一个由人格到权利能力再到人格和权利能力并存互用的发展过程。人格和权利能力也经历了一个由不平等到逐步趋于平等的发展过程。学术界有学者将权利能力区分为一般权利能力和特别权利能力,并据此认为权利能力具有不平等性。该观点没有看到权利能力与人格的历史继承性,也没有看到权利能力与人格在功能以及本质属性上具有同质性,更没有注意到权利能力的抽象性与权利的具体性的差别。在现代市民社会,我们应力倡:世界人民人权平等,人格平等,权利能力一律平等。     

The Burglar Alarm That Just Keeps Ringing: A Response to Zaller

American journalists filter the world of politics through a set of presuppositions about what politics is and should be. Listing seven presuppositions that undergird political reporting, this article illustrates the “Progressive Era” framework through which U.S. journalists understand politics. The article concludes by identifying several alternative visions of politics and suggests that in practice journalism is sometimes broader in its understanding of politics than a Progressive Era vision would anticipate.     

《特殊痕迹检验》课程考核模式的改革与实践

考核模式改革是我校＂教学重心转变＂工作中教学模式改革的重点和核心内容之一。本文通过对《特殊痕迹检验》课程考核模式的改革与实践,提出了适应本专业学生教学练战一体化的考核模式。     

论刑事和解对刑罚功能发挥的影响——基于双重预防的反思

刑事和解对刑罚功能发挥的影响一直是引人关注的话题,新（《刑事诉讼法》对于刑事和解程序的相关规定一定程度上缓解了两者之间的紧张关系,但是在剥夺犯罪人再犯能力、完善个别威慑实际效果、降低改造难度、提高一般鉴别等刑罚具体功能的发挥上,刑事和解的消极影响仍然存在,努力将这些消极影响控制在合理范围之内将是刑事和解实践中的重点工作。     

社会主义协商民主的一个好实例、好范本——解读辜胜阻来武汉专题协商调研“城中村”改造案

撷取民建中央副主席辜胜阻到武汉做＂城中村＂改造工作的专题考察调研及协商座谈这一典型个案,基于中国特定的政治场境,按照协商民主（Consultative democracy）的内涵及外延,＂解剖麻雀＂,从下列五个维度及路向作出自己的解读：一是这次协商的主体,即谁来协商,谁主导、谁组织、谁参与了这场协商;二是这次协商的平台和场域,即是在哪里开展协商的;三是这次协商的内容,即协商的主题是什么,协商了哪些＂重大问题＂或＂实际问题＂;四是这次协商的程序性规范,即是怎样有序展开协商活动的;五是这次协商的目的,即协商的质量和成效如何,有什么特别值得称道的收获。     

合理构建特殊病犯强制医疗的路径简

修改后的《刑法》、《刑诉法》等法律规定,对监狱在押患有精神疾病丧失服刑能力和患有恶性传染病的罪犯均可以采取强制医疗,但规定过于原则,监狱在具体的执法过程中,面对如何申请、执行和解除强制医疗等问题时,深感困惑.为此,从建立特殊病犯强制医疗程序,并从特殊病犯的强制医疗申请程序、裁决条件、案件管辖、执行期限、终止程序等五个方面,深入研究特殊病犯的强制医疗问题.     

高职院校“双师型”教师培养与文秘专业课程改革简

高职文秘专业建设虽然取得了一些成绩,但也存在一些基本问题亟待解决,其中课程设置问题比较突出,它直接关系到人才培养是否适应市场需要,是否符合用人单位要求,毕业生能否顺利就业.课程的设置与实施主导者是教师,我们认为,高职院校和各级教育主管部门要引导教师在重视理论进修的同时重视实际应用的研究,重视将科研成果转化为生产力,要发挥“双师型”教师的潜质和潜力,充分利用自身的教育资源、实训基地和社会影响,建立良好的“产学研”创业机制,培养适应社会发展需要的集“高等性”、“职业性”于一身的复合型人才.     

政治内容的生成过程

政治内容的确立并不在于它的自我宣称,而是取决于由发出、运作以及反馈等因素和环节构成的生成过程。这个问题对于政治学研究和政治运作都具有重要的现实意义。一方面,政治内容的生成同时也是一种功能实施的过程,预先设计的政治需要通过相应功能的运作和反馈才能获得、并体现出真实的或具体的内容含义;另一方面,功能实施需要相应的载体形式,不同载体承担着不同的职能或功能,并由相应的功能关系维系着政治的一般或常态运作机制。在政治内容生成的过程中,各种转换的主要根据都在于相应的实效反馈,也就是发出预设与运作效果的相互作用;然而从普遍性来讲,各种实效反馈对于政治内容生成的作用根据或运作机制,都在于专门政治与一般政治的转化。