符号之境中的消费社会——读鲍德里亚的《消费社会》

消费社会理论是鲍德里亚早期思想的重要组成部分，理论的产生是以社会从生产社会向以符号为中介的消费社会的结构性转变为基础的。鲍德里亚揭示了消费社会的双重变化：即物品的使用价值的没落和符号价值的凸显；作为消费主体的人的主体性的丧失和异化。同时，鲍德里亚探讨了当今以广告为代表的技术媒介在消费社会中的支配作用及其与符号逻辑的共谋性。消费社会理论的现实语境决定其理论具有极其重要的当代价值，其理论对于正确认识、评价渗透于当今社会各个方面的媒介技术也有一定的启示意义。     

关于中国个人信用制度的构建

个人信用制度作为整个信用制度的重要内容,对我国启动消费、扩大内需、刺激经济的发展具有重大意义。鉴于目前我国建立个人信用制度的紧迫性和必要性以及我国目前个人信用制度的起步状况、存在的问题,发展个人信用制度需要解决五方面的问题。     

“Consuming” national identity in Western Ukraine

This paper represents an attempt to study national identity in the post-Soviet context through the lens of everyday life practices. Building on ideas of banal nationalism and consumer citizenship, and with support of empirical evidence collected in L'viv, Ukraine, this paper demonstrates how national identity becomes materialized in everyday life through consumption practices and objects of consumption. While exploring objects and practices that are not originally national in scope but infused with national meanings by ordinary people, it will be shown how consumption becomes an arena for the expression and renegotiation of national self-portraits. Differences in national meanings among residents of L’viv belonging to two different language groups will highlight the diversity of ways and means by which people express their national sensibilities. By exploring national meanings in everyday consumption practices of Ukrainian citizens, this study aims to provide an alternative perspective on post-Soviet nation-building and contribute to the current debate on the position and identity of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine.     

Moving Policy Theory Forward: Connecting Multiple Stream and Advocacy Coalition Frameworks to Policy Cycle Models of Analysis

The stages/policy cycle, multiple streams, and Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) approaches to understanding policy processes, all have analytical value although also attracting substantive criticism. An obvious direction for research is to determine whether the multiple streams framework and the ACF can be refined and applied to other dimensions of policy‐making set out in the policy cycle model. This article argues that extending and modifying Kingdon's framework beyond the agenda‐setting stage is best suited to this endeavour. Doing so makes it possible to bring these three approaches into alignment and enhances our understanding, although retaining the core insights of each.     

Advocating within and outside the shadow of hierarchy: local government responses to Melbourne’s outer suburban deficits

Where urban and regional development processes create deficits in infrastructure, services or employment, governments are expected to respond. One specific dimension is local government advocacy within a multi-tiered state. Although democratically proximate to residents, local government represents a creature of higher government tiers and is subject to the centralist ‘shadow of hierarchy’. To interpret whether advocacy is stunted by hierarchical influences, a distinction is drawn between passive, active and aggressive advocacy. Using interviews conducted with outer Melbourne’s growth area councils, the paper evidences the multidimensional and evolving nature of local and regional advocacy within the shadow. Illustrative of intra-sector variation, some peripheral councils have stepped beyond the metaphoric shadows and adopted politically confrontational or aggressive advocacy. Overarching conceptual framings must be appreciative of spatial and temporal variation in local government advocacy, and the local embeddedness of all government tiers through representative structures.     

日本消费者团体诉讼制度评析

为了保护消费者合法权益、防止经营者使用的不当格式条款或不当经营行为对消费者造成损害,日本的消费者团体可以向法院提起禁令请求诉讼。这一具有强烈公益色彩的诉讼制度提高了消费者保护的实效性,减轻了消费者个人维权负担。但这一新制度所存问题尚多,需继续给予完善。     

保证保险二元性思辨及其法律适用

从一种抽象概念演变为我国消费领域中较为普遍的商业动作行为,保证保险的出现及其发展仅仅经历了短暂的近十年时间,然而对于保证保险性质的混乱认识及立法上的空白,直接导致对保证保险关系当事人之行为无法进行统一规范和调整,笔者认为,保险公司以其保险人身份介入消费信贷关系中与保证人身份进行兼容,从而为各方当事人及司法实践提供了对信贷风险可选择的两种救济模式,并以此区别并优越于单一保证模式,并本着私法自治、司法权被动性之精神为保证保险纠纷公正合理地解决对保证、保险双重模救济模式进行了理性选择。     

Thoughts on building a just market society

This paper explores the tensions that exist in contemporary society between the individual as citizen and the individual as consumer. The power of the global market place can potentially drive the polity, so it is necessary to raise questions about the means to secure a healthy civic and political life. Financial capitalism, knowledge capitalism and social capitalism are explored as a means of understanding the nature of modern market capitalism. Can financial knowledge and social capitalism be turned into a virtuous circle of innovation, growth and social progress? The paper suggests that trust is the glue, the cement of a just society, and the dimensions of this trust are explored. Finally, the paper examines the nature of stakeholder society. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications