Silent citizenship among Asian Americans and Latinos: opting out or left out?

In his classic study, Who Governs?, Robert Dahl interpreted the patterns of political assimilation of ‘white ethnic’ immigrants and their children during the mid-twentieth century as a hopeful sign of the potential of democratic pluralism in the USA. While acknowledging that immigrant groups faced discrimination and structural barriers that might lead them to be silent, Dahl predicted that social mobility and assimilation would eventually erase these deficits in political participation among immigrants. Building from Dahl's analysis, we investigate the extent to which pluralism in the USA can and does work the same way for immigrants who are also racial minorities. We highlight factors that can lead these groups to become silent citizens, including lack of legal status, lower levels of political mobilization by institutions, and discrimination as structural impediments to minority participation. Our findings suggest that both resources as well as structural impediments structure the political behavior of Asian Americans and Latinos, determining whether they are vocal citizens or silent citizens.     

Vernacular rights cultures and the ‘Right to Have Rights’

We use a case study of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil and the Via Campesina network of which they are part to develop the concept of ‘vernacular rights cultures’. Vernacular rights cultures calls attention to the way in which demands for the right to have rights call on particular cultures, histories and political contexts in a manner that can transform the rights inscribed in constitutions and political imaginaries. What Ranciere (1999) and Balibar (2002) call the democratisation of democracy, we therefore argue, does not just involve a logic of equality and inclusion through which dispossessed groups demand already existing rights. Rather, it also occurs as mobilisations alter the means through which rights are delivered and transform the content and meaning of the rights demanded.     

我国应当尽快确立电子商务证据的法律地位

随着电子商务的普及推广,电子商务证据与现行法律规定发生冲突,已在司法实践中显现出来。在我国,这种冲突主要体现在电子商务证据的种类、形式等方面,借鉴世界各国和国际社会的不同做法,我国应对其合法地位作出相应的法律规定,以适应电子商务发展的需要。     

Strengthening Citizenship in Brazil's Democracy: Local Participatory Governance in Porto Alegre

In Latin America, and particularly Brazil, inequality and social exclusion continue to plague the quality of democracy despite two decades of transition and consolidation. Still, in Brazil, the Workers' Party has been remarkably successful over the past decade, explicitly addressing the problem of social exclusion and 'incomplete citizenship'. This paper provides an analysis of the case of Porto Alegre covering the four Workers' Party municipal administrations from 1989 to the present in order to assess the significance of social incorporation and citizenship for the quality of democracy in Brazil. The paper discusses some conceptual notions that are relevant for the question of democracy in Brazil, particularly the role of citizenship and civil society in 'deepening' democracy. Then the paper goes into the evolution and dynamics of Porto Alegre's system of 'participatory budgeting'. The paper's assessment of this experience with respect to its performance, depth and robustness shows that 'participatory budgeting' has had positive effects with respect to the provision of public goods services, the quality of governance, and citizens' participation in what is seen as a new 'public space' shared by the local state and grass roots organisations. The paper concludes by relating the case experience to the question of citizenship, civil society and democracy and by reflecting upon its wider implications for the current and future quality of democracy in Brazil.     

略论高科技对电影文化的影响

进入90年代以来，以数字化为代表的电影艺术的技术性革命对电影化产生至关重要的影响。电影本体、电影机制、影像的美学意义、电影接受心理等理论课题都必须放置在崭新的技术语境中讨论才有意义。面对日新月异的数字化技术的迅速发展，我们既要考虑到以数字化技术为代表的科技发展对电影的促进作用，又要清醒地认识到高科技对电影艺术的负面影响，从而完成电影化对物质化的整合和超越。     

Monopoly defeating mechanisms: Will they function in the digital world?

History reveals that ‘copyright’ was originally monopolistic (in the early fifteenth century) and remained so until the enactment of the Statute of Anne in 1709. Since then copyright has striven to maintain a delicate balance between incentive to authors and avoiding monopolistic stagnation. To achieve these goals, certain monopoly-defeating mechanisms have been adopted such as: fair use, public domain, the idea/expression dichotomy and the exhaustion doctrine. Recently, however, with the implementation of new laws: for instance the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1988), the EU Copyright Directive (2001), and the implementation of the EU Copyright and Related Rights Regulation amending the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988, there is a growing concern that the mechanisms which were enacted to defeat the monopoly will not work in the digital medium. With the provision of affixing technological measures to copyrighted works and the non-application of the exhaustion doctrine in the digital world, arguably the monopoly defeating mechanisms have been disabled. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the way monopoly defeating mechanisms are becoming non-functional in the digital world. Furthermore, the study also demonstrates how the European Copyright Directive and the UK implementation of the Directive has transgressed the boundary of exclusive rights set by the two World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties – the World Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) – and copyright law, thereby strengthening the copyright owner's rights in a way that was never intended by the WIPO treaties or by copyright law. Consequently, the new laws have also shifted copyright's attention from commercial pirates to non-commercial individual users. The study aims to demonstrate how the shift took place and finally, trace the recurrence of the monopoly; giving rise to a situation where there is no fair use/dealing, no public domain, no idea/expression distinction and no exhaustion doctrine.     

Reduction of postmortem angiography-induced tissue edema by using polyethylene glycol as a contrast agent dissolver

Postmortem investigation is increasingly supported by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging, in which postmortem minimal invasive angiography has become important. The newly introduced approach using an aqueous contrast agent solution provided excellent vessel visualization but was suspected to possibly cause tissue edema artifacts in histological investigations. The aim of this study was to investigate on a porcine heart model whether it is possible to influence the contrast agent distribution within the soft tissue by changing its viscosity by dissolving the contrast agent in polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a matrix medium. High-resolution CT scans after injection showed that viscosities above c. 15 mPa s (65% PEG) prevented a contrast agent distribution within the capillary bed of the left ventricular myocardium. Thereby, the precondition of edema artifacts could be reduced. Its minimal invasive application on human corpses needs to be further adapted as the flow resistance is expected to differ between different tissues.     

Constructions of migrant rights in Canada: is subnational citizenship possible?

Devolutionary trends in immigration and social welfare policy have enabled different levels of government to define membership and confer rights to people residing within the political boundary of a province or municipality in ways that may contradict federal legal status. Drawing upon theories of postnational and deterritorialized citizenship, we examined the legal construction of social rights within federal, provincial, and municipal law in Toronto, Ontario. The study of these different policy arenas focuses on rights related to education, access to safety and police protection, and income assistance. Our analysis suggests that the interplay of intra-governmental laws produces an uneven terrain of social rights for people with precarious status. We argue that while provincial and municipal governments may rhetorically seek to advance the social rights of all people living within their territorial boundaries, program and funding guidelines ensure that national practices of market citizenship and the policing of non-citizen subjects are reproduced at local levels.     

Citizenship and capability? Amartya Sen's capabilities approach from a citizenship perspective

This article deals with the potential contribution of Amartya Sen's capabilities approach (CA) for studying citizenship. Although the CA cannot be described as a genuine citizenship theory it has informed recent attempts to reformulate social citizenship. Moreover, it shares important aims and assumptions with radical citizenship approaches, which emphasise democracy, voice, and difference. Especially, Sen's ideas can help formulate positive notions of equality. However, a fruitful dialogue between those perspectives has to lead over some controversial issues. In this context, this article suggests more substantive notions of agency and interaction as well as integrating rights and rights language.