Running the Blockade: Information Technology,Terrorism, and the Transformation of Islamic Mass Culture

Arab media is no longer limited to state-sponsored sources, opening a door of opportunity to the Muslim world. Islamic terrorist groups leverage information technology to form resilient, networked organizations that influence how many Muslims perceive events and U.S. political goals. This article looks at the connection between information technology and cultural transformation in the Middle East. It focuses on how information technology—as the major weapon system in the battle of ideas—has been used effectively by Islamic extremists and less so by the U.S. Important conclusions are drawn regarding the necessity of culturally-attuned uses of information technology.     

Expert systems and the law

ABSTRACT

The project discussed here involved an online debating activity between intellectual property (IP) law students in Egypt and the UK, using a closed group on Facebook. The aim was to harness freely available online social media technology to create a space in which valuable discussions and learning could take place. We showed that Facebook can be a powerful educational tool to encourage active learning and usefully connect learners across continents. In enabling the exchange of views between students in different jurisdictions, Facebook provides exposure to different cultures and different perspectives as well as different legal cultures and different legal systems, while also, importantly, enabling participants to identify commonalities. This debate focused on IP law, which is of increasing international importance, and specifically on the topic of access to medicines, which is highly contentious. Through the activity, students learned that they need not only to learn the law, but also to appreciate the socio-cultural and political complexity underlying policy issues in different jurisdictions. On reflection, the Facebook debate definitely enhanced the study of IP law through an interesting and enjoyable international, intercultural activity, led by staff and students, which successfully extended the classroom experience.     

简析中西文化差异对商务英语教学的影响

商务英语有很强的专业性,它不仅应注重英语语言知识的讲授,也应注重英语国家文化背景的讲解。中西方文化差异体现在寒暄问候、商务谈判、商务宴请、时间观念和商标语言及产品的包装设计。针对以上差异提出高职商务英语教学应采取的教学方法。     

论社会主义核心价值观的思想文化渊源——谈对高技能型职业人才培养的积极作用

社会主义核心价值观既是马克思主义科学价值观的当代体现,同时也秉承了中华优秀传统文化的精神源泉和文化基因。它对职业人才培养具有精神引领、人格塑造和效能提升的积极作用。课堂教育、日常管理和社会实践是以社会主义核心价值观提升和引领高技能型职业人才培养的三个主要途径。     

Normalization of antisemitism, 1880–1900: the case of a Jesuit community in Rome

The significance of the political antisemitism of the 1880s and 1890s for developments in the twentieth century remains controversial. Researchers have been divided as to whether the antisemitism of the nineteenth century, or even earlier, was one of the factors that made the Holocaust possible, or whether it was a phenomenon with little or no relevance for subsequent events. The decline of most antisemitic political parties at the beginning of the twentieth century appears to support the latter point of view. Yet some commentators, such as Shulamit Volkov and Peter Pulzer, have convincingly suggested that the importance of nineteenth-century antisemitism lies less in the political fortunes of antisemitic parties than in the way antisemitism came to penetrate civil society. Thus, they have argued, antisemitism came to form a component of a widespread conservative and anti-liberal world-view. Following Pulzer and Volkov, it might be desirable to investigate the processes by which antisemitism could have been transformed from an extremist political position into a common element in the outlook of broad portions of European society: mechanisms that have remained largely unexplored. Dahl's article studies the normalization of antisemitism in the two last decades of the nineteenth century through a scrutiny of shifts in the attitudes to Jews of a restricted group of Italian Jesuits. The analysis is based on a detailed study of La Civiltà Cattolica, a Jesuit community in Rome that published a journal of the same name. Since its foundation in 1850 this institution has been an authoritative exponent of Catholic policy and is generally perceived as having been a protagonist in the formulation of a Catholic stance towards the ‘Jewish question’ in the later nineteenth century. Dahl shows that, while in the early 1880s, most members resisted or opposed the use of antisemitic propaganda, through the following two decades the attitudes of virtually all of them became tinged with antisemitism, supporting the hypothesis that antisemitism became part of a widespread ‘culture’. In his analysis, Dahl does not focus on the wider circulation of ideas that influenced the Roman Jesuits, but on the dynamics within the institution that made possible the gradual acceptance of antisemitism, arguing that a debate over antisemitism among the Jesuits in the early 1880s was a crucial moment in this development. As they failed at this early stage to formulate an anti-antisemitic response, they allowed antisemitism to become part of the culture of their institution, and rendered its later rejection practically impossible.     

高校馆藏资源服务地方文化建设管窥——以安徽科技学院图书馆为例

高校馆藏资源提供利用是建设地方文化的重要保障条件之一。高校图书馆在弘扬和促进地方文化建设方面要充分发挥丰富的馆藏资源优势并定位好服务角色。2006年起安徽科技学院图书馆主动对接地方文化建设,面向社会读者陆续开放其馆藏资源。总结安徽科技学院馆藏资源服务地方文化建设的经验如下:转变思想,树立服务社会的理念;利用馆藏资源主动对接地方文化发展的需要;面向社会开放馆藏资源;实现了高校馆藏资源与地方文化建设的良性循环与互动。     

监狱建筑功能的深层解读

监狱建筑是监狱的物质样态,它不仅是一种文化标志和刑罚符号,而且体现了监狱的惩罚、教化。对于监狱建筑功能的解读,一是物理功能,包括囚居、隔离和改善;二是教化功能,是现代监狱的主要功能,包括教育警示和规训引导。特别是在规训引导方面,更加注重监狱建筑的基本样式和监狱环境的修饰和改善。     

论遗址类文化遗产的法律保护

遗址类文化遗产是我国文化遗产的重要组成部分,承载着中华五千年辉煌文明,是中华文明曾经高度发达并对世界文明产生过巨大影响的历史见证。随着我国经济的高速发展,遗址作为不可移动文物受到来自各方面的威胁,在数量和范围上不断缩小。只有通过明确概念、完善专业立法、加强地方立法、制定配套措施的综合模式,才能够防止"遗址"的独特价值受到进一步的损害。     

新形势下提高反腐倡廉建设科学化水平的途径初探

目前在我国要防治腐败,提高反腐倡廉建设科学化水平,关键是要构建三位一体的腐败防治防线,即加强廉政文化建设,从根本上使人不想腐败;完善反腐倡廉制度建设,从体制上使人不能腐败;强化监督机制,从力度上使人不敢腐败。新形势下提高反腐倡廉建设科学化水平必须"以教育引领,加强廉政文化建设;以制度保障,完善反腐倡廉制度建设;以监督约束,强化反腐倡廉监督机制"。     

马克思历史唯物主义实践观及其中国化进程

马克思使辩证法走向历史的深处,以实践观更新了以往哲学家观察历史和现实的方式,指出社会存在决定社会意识。历史唯物主义对中国知识界的思想启蒙,更新了中国人的政治观念,形成了百余年来中国社会发展的生动图景。改革开放为中国社会发展提供了新的历史契机,形成了灵活运用历史唯物主义的实践自觉。推动改革进一步走向深入,必须深入研究历史唯物主义实践观及其中国化进程,形成与当今中国经济和政治发展相适应的文化气象,这是推动中国改革的实际需要,也是在新的时代条件下实现中国梦的必由之路。