Conclusion: Getting It All Together

Abstract

As the aticles of the symposium present a wide variety of conclusions on whether public administration has “grown up,” this overview article does not attempt a unified synthesis of the authors’ views but rather makes a composite analysis of contrasts and patterns among them. Attention is then shifted to the organizing metaphor itself, that of maturation. Following a review of how each article employs it, some general reflections are offered on its usefulness.     

"Connecting" and "Disconnecting" With Civic Life: Patterns of Internet Use and the Production of Social Capital

This article explores the relationship between Internet use and the individual-level production of social capital. To do so, the authors adopt a motivational perspective to distinguish among types of Internet use when examining the factors predicting civic engagement, interpersonal trust, and life contentment. The predictive power of new media use is then analyzed relative to key demographic, contextual, and traditional media use variables using the 1999 DDB Life Style Study. Although the size of associations is generally small, the data suggest that informational uses of the Internet are positively related to individual differences in the production of social capital, whereas social-recreational uses are negatively related to these civic indicators. Analyses within subsamples defined by generational age breaks further suggest that social capital production is related to Internet use among Generation X, while it is tied to television use among Baby Boomers and newspaper use among members of the Civic Generation. The possibility of life cycle and cohort effects is discussed.     

The Karoo and eco-inflections of fracking: preliminary notes on literary imagination

The awareness of the “planet in peril” has never been more acute in a South African context than today, when the imminent extraction of shale gas through the process of hydraulic fracturing (known as “fracking”) in the Karoo has gained traction in the public mind. At least two broad dimensions are involved. The first, based on the logic of petro-modernity and its profligate culture, is framed within a seductive, neoliberal narrative of industrial progress and economic development. The second is framed as outright resistance to the inevitable environmental damage caused by this petro-industrial venture. This study reflects on how literature might intervene in this bipolar debate. Alfred Jackson’s Manna in the Desert, Pauline Smith’s The Little Karoo, and Etienne van Heerden’s “Poison Karoo” employ the trope of water to stimulate an ethical vision. Materially, water is imagined in its apparent scarcity as a feature of the delicate ecosystem of the Karoo, a vast arid landscape of drudgery, where life forms compete for the limited resource. Allegorically, water signifies as safely concealed, subterranean abundance. The Karoo, possessing more than its external features account for, is a place of beauty and mystical presence where life is sustained and preserved. It is within these significations that the environmental and social repercussion of fracking is inflected. Literature can bridge the divide between the narrative of progress and the counternarrative of ecological consciousness by way of highlighting their contradictions. But it also complicates these contradictions by valorizing their ethical potentiality.     

从认知角度看隐喻和转喻的功能差异

隐喻和转喻不仅是两种修辞格,而且是人类重要的两种思维方式;同时也是人类认识客观世界的认知方式。两者在修辞、认知、语义及社会功能上都有着区别。隐喻是以事物间的相似联想为心理基础,从一个领域投射到另一个领域的认知方式,其主要功能是对事物的描述;转喻是以事物间的邻近联想为基础,在同一认知域内用突显、易感知、易记忆、易辨认的部分代替整体或整体的其他部分,或用具有完形感知的整体代替部分,其主要功能是对事物的指称。     

越南的人际信任价值观与国家政制

人际信任价值观被越来越多学者认为与国家政制有着密切的关系,特别是社会资本等理论,甚至认为人际信任与现代民主社会政制是正相关关系,是影响现代民主社会政制的重要变量之一。然而,现实的数据表明,虽然越南的国家政制民主指数并不高,但是,越南的人际信任价值观却非常高。为此,本文试图以越南为例,对人际信任价值观做出具体的分析,指出人际信任价值观不应该一概而论,其中的熟人信任和陌生人信任会对国家政制产生不同的影响,因而要对人际信任价值观与国家政制之间的关系做出更为细致的界定,才能提高理论的适用性。     

文化视角下的英汉时问隐喻比较研究

时间隐喻作为一种重要的语言现象,承载着浓重的文化信息。中西文化存在共同性,也存在差异性,而文化的多样性反映在具体的时间隐喻表达中,体现民族文化的独特性。本文以文化视角审视英汉时间隐喻的异同点,并分析形成这一现象的深层原因。最后,揭示语言隐喻现象及其文化特征在历史与社会进程中的时代意义,从而为我们提供认识自身文化,学习和借鉴西方文化,顺应时代潮流的一个新视角。     

咏月诗比喻研究

在咏月诗中,比喻句俯拾即是。研究其类型、喻体、审美功用,我们可以看出,咏月诗比喻的类型呈现出多种式样,经过世代不息的文化积淀,喻体包含着丰富的情感和复杂的思想内容。在“言不尽意”时,诗人运用比喻“立象以尽意”,塑造了鲜明生动可感可触的艺术形象,产生出“言有尽而意无穷”的艺术效果,同时形成了含蓄的审美特征。     

隐喻的深度：对恩格斯“历史合力论”的多维审视

恩格斯巧妙地运用隐喻，形象地说明了历史进程的实现方式，形成了著名的历史合力论。从合力构成要素、作用过程及作用结果对恩格斯的“历史合力论”进行多维视角审视。     

思想/表达二分法的检讨

直到19世纪末,“思想”与“表达”才作为对立的范畴加以使用。作为版权法的一项基本制度,思想/表达二分法反映了私法上的机会平等要求,它给所有的人提供了独立创作的机会。同时,它还缓解了版权与信息自由之间的紧张关系。并不是所有的表达在任何时候都能够进入私权领域。“思想”与“表达”之间的界限是模糊的,隐喻性的,它并不是一个预先将某个作品王于公共领域或者作者专有权之内的原理,而是一种事后描述。在实践中,不应把思想/表达二分法视为一个教条。