Generational discourse in urban youth images

The history of generations is often researched in the light of ego-documents, including diaries or letters. These sources of communication between young and old require methods of literary criticism, as this article suggests in exemplary cases. Popular (and in some cases popular forms of learned) literature show how stereotypes dominated letters between Nuremberg fathers and sons fom the 16th century. Reading these letters as witnesses of direct emotional expression, as has been done so far, would be problematic on a theoretical level of the concept of autobiography (according the Ricoeur ‘an other’ of the self), but also an empirical level. Letters were cultural artefacts that were considered well-formed only when they met the standards set by the urban youth image. This included a conglomerate of religious discourses, psychological assumption about the nature of emotions, the urban system of values and honour relating to merchant education more specifically. In letters of this intergenerational context, even information could be put into the context of a situational self-representation of the person writing. Writing a letter as an apprentice or a student was not at all confined to convey factual information. Rather than that, writing letters meant to participate in the generation of norms and to act on a meta-level of communication, as well. Negative images of youth were rhetorically implemented in letters to maintain and reaffirm the hierarchy within the family. Letter exchanges secured economic stability of family firms and the subsequent social rise.     

Household-level predictors of the presence of servants in Northern Orkney,Scotland, 1851–1901

Servants were an important part of the northwestern European household economy in the preindustrial past. This study examines household-level characteristics that are predictive of the presence of rural servants using data from Orkney, Scotland. The number of servants present in a household is related to household composition, landholding size, and the marital status of the household head. In addition, the sex of the particular servant hired reveals that the labor of male and female servants is not fungible. The sex of the servant hired is related to the ratio of male and female household members of working age, the occupation of the head, household composition, and the size of the household's landholding.     

Growing up on Different Sides of the Wall – A Quasi-Experimental Test: Applying the Left–Right Dimension to the German Mass Public

This paper utilises survey data from the 1999 European Value Study to conduct a quasi-experimental analysis of the relationship between the left–right self-identification and policy preferences of Germany's electorate. Given the German division until 1990 it is plausible that citizens from East and West Germany had different ideological socialisation experiences swayed by the political discourse of their times. This paper models the influence of this diverse experience on ideological thinking, and examines the effects on the understanding of political issues. The findings suggest that differences do exist in the ideological consistency and attitude structuring of respondents. Compared to respondents in the West, East Germans are more likely to understand the term ‘left’ in socio-economic terms. On the other hand, they seem to connect the term ‘right’ rather to xenophobic issues. These results have crucial implications for political communication in representative democracies, as they question the one-level dimensionality of the left–right concept.     

Party Competition and Reforms of Unemployment Benefits in Germany: How a Small Change in Electoral Demand Can Make a Big Difference

This article shows how party competition has influenced reforms of unemployment benefits in Germany. The existing literature on German labour market policy emphasises institutional factors and predicts policy stability. Consequently, the recent fundamental reforms (‘Hartz reforms’) pose a challenge to previous research. By looking at the spatial configuration of the party system and at policy demand, this article argues that the incremental retrenchments of the 1980s and 1990s were conditioned by centripetal competition and a high degree of welfare consensus, whereas the more radical Hartz reforms were made possible by a limited shift in public opinion in favour of restructuring and the lack of a left-wing counterweight in the party system. Thus, the structure of the party system exacerbated the effect of a demand shift that was only moderate. The analysis is not meant to discard other explanatory factors, rather it intends to demonstrate the relevance of party competition to the study of labour market reforms in Germany and, more generally, to comparative welfare state research.     

Material Things

In “Positive Bleeding,” I argue that allusions to blood in contemporary South African art and literature fruitfully link myriad stigmatized experiences and embodiments of self usually considered taboo, including HIV/AIDS, female sexuality, menstruation, and sexual violence. Through Mlu Zondi’s and Ntando Cele’s dance performance piece Silhouette (2005), Zanele Muholi’s mischievous and haunting photographic Period series (2006), and Makhosozana Xaba’s revisionist short story “Inside” (2008), blood is defiantly transformed from a remnant of personal and historic trauma into that which incites female–female pleasure and eroticism. I contend that the politics of visibility operate uncomfortably within all four texts; blood serves as both a reminder of and departure from sensationalized images of violence against lesbians.     

Club apples: a biology of markets built on the social life of variety

Abstract

Club apples are patented apple varieties, often grown by members of a co-operative who plan the production and marketing of the apples. Drawing on ethnographic work, this paper will use club apples as a case to demonstrate that varieties have shaped the development of the apple industry in ways that resist institutional pressures to commodify the biological features of the apple. Club apples extend social boundaries around varieties in ways that grant growers more control over the market life of the apple and more economic power. The productive opportunities availed in the aliveness of biological materials can be seen to shape competition and the contours of economic markets.     

试论闽西苏区青少年思想政治工作的历史经验

青少年是推动社会前进的最活跃力量。在苏区时期,闽西苏区党、政府注重发挥青少年在革命中的作用,将青少年的思想政治工作作为党的重要工作来抓,各县的少先队、儿童团在党团组织领导下,围绕党的中心工作,立足当时实际,扎实有效地开展思想政治工作,支援了革命战争,促进了苏区革命根据地建设。总结闽西苏区青少年思想政治工作的宝贵历史经验,对于做好当前青少年工作有着重要的借鉴作用。     

论威廉姆·肖的技术决定论对马克思历史唯物主义的坚持与误读

分析的马克思主义者威廉姆·肖对马克思的历史唯物主义做出了"技术决定论"的解读,认为生产力是历史发展的动力。威廉姆·肖的这种解读坚持了马克思最根本的"生产力动力学"的学术立场。但威廉姆·肖在宏观层面缺失了对资本主义的人的自身发展和社会文化价值的社会批判,在微观层面对马克思的阶级分析等具体问题的反思有所误读。     

党的十九届六中全会决议中的法治要义

十九届六中全会通过的《中共中央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就和历史经验的决议》是党关于历史问题的第三个专门性决议。该《决议》全面总结了新中国成立以后社会主义革命和建设的历史经验,对一些重大历史事件和重要历史人物作出了实事求是的评价。该《决议》对我们党尊重法律、遵守法律、依靠法律和捍卫法律的百年奋斗历史作了全面系统的概括和总结,对党依法执政的历史成就和重要经验进行了系统性地归纳,为中国特色社会主义法治建设指明了继续前进的方向。该《决议》关于我们党依法办事、依法执政重大成就和历史经验的全面系统归纳和总结是通过决议文本中的139个“法”字以及由“法”构成的词组来科学地加以表述的。对十九届六中全会通过的《决议》中的“法”字进行系统性的归纳和总结,可以提炼出十九届六中全会决议中的法治要义,全面和系统地呈现中国共产党依法执政、依法治国、依法办事的百年奋斗的历史脉络。     

青年马克思哲学思想发展的逻辑解读

青年马克思哲学的出发点是自我意识哲学,黑格尔的“否定性辩证法”是其哲学发展的直接推动原则,而费尔巴哈的客体性原则是其哲学的立足点,青年马克思哲学制高点是实践的唯物主义。主客体的统一是青年马克思自我超越的基本原则,也是我们今后哲学发展的原则要求。