Food riots and the politics of provisions from early modern Europe and China to the food crisis of 2008

The food riots of 2007–2008 jolted authoritarian regimes and international agencies into action. The riots also began to crack neoliberal hegemony over the global food system. Food riots have often driven a politics of provisions, sometimes winning relief, sometimes merely bloody repression, depending on a particular country’s political economy. Such bargaining in the politics of provisions is made possible by existing networks – of solidarity among the common people and reciprocity between them and their rulers – that extend elements of ‘normal’ politics into crises. This paper explores how riotous extensions of such sociopolitical networks shaped food politics in early modern England and China, Famine Ireland, the ‘IMF (International Monetary Fund) austerity riots’ of the 1980s and 1990s, and the food riots of 2007–2008.     

The goals and reality of the water–food–energy security nexus: the case of China and its southern neighbours

The so-called ‘nexus’ approach has recently been promoted as addressing externalities across the water, food and energy sectors, thus helping to achieve ‘water/energy/food security for all’, ‘equitable and sustainable growth’ and a ‘resilient and productive environment’. While these are noble goals, this article argues that the reality on the ground appears to be taking a different direction, at least when it comes to China and its neighbours in South and Southeast Asia. There, a new era of large-scale water infrastructure development is creating several security-related problems, which represent serious challenges to the nexus goals. These challenges include food–energy tensions, human security threats and ecological risks. These challenges can also be linked to rising friction surrounding the management of water, food and energy resources in the region. The article argues that, in order for the nexus goals to be achieved in China and the countries on its southern periphery, there must first be increased awareness of this nexus among policy-making elites.     

Under construction and highly contested: Islam in the post-Soviet Caucasus

While scholarship on Islam in the Caucasus has focused on the late Soviet religious revival – the rise of Salafi jihadism and religious radicalisation in the northern part of these strategic crossroads – no study to date has addressed the discursive struggle over the social functions of regional Islam. This article deconstructs these discourses in order to examine the very varying, and often conflicting, representations of Islam advocated by various actors across the region and within particular republics. The article highlights the contested functions of regional Islam against the background of a religious revival that is still a work in progress.     

Real and unreal masculinities: the celebrity image in anti-trafficking campaigns

Numerous scholars note the highly gendered nature of anti-trafficking responses. Much of the literature exploring anti-trafficking campaigns, however, focuses on the objectification of women and their placement as abject bodies, objects of violence, in pain and to be pitied. Nevertheless, few scholars explore how these campaigns portray men and shape masculinities. Using as example a highly publicised online anti-trafficking campaign, ‘Real Men Don't Buy Girls’, this article responds to this gap in the literature by exploring depictions of masculinities through this prominent anti-trafficking public service announcement. The article observes that this announcement serves not to reshape gender performance around trafficking, but instead further reproduces existing gender structures and power relations underpinning trafficking and child exploitation. It observes that the campaign re-instantiates hegemonic masculinities – framing men enacting this masculine form as ‘real men’ – while encouraging men to embody a virile, successful, consumerist, controlling, and patriarchal manliness. We observe that these characteristics are notably assigned to celebrity men. Meanwhile, it is noted that men who buy girls are set in binary opposition to these real men, being shaped as faceless, un-described, deviant, and ‘unreal’. The result is that the campaign not only patterns masculinities, but also objectifies the objectifier as well as women, recreating a gender ordering in which women and girls remain disempowered, and buyers of girls are ultimately denied subjecthood and thus the ability to change. This article, therefore, uses this one case study to call for anti-traffickers, researchers, and scholars to urgently consider, research, and reshape portrayals of masculinities in anti-trafficking literatures. It calls for greater diversity and fuller account for a broader spectrum of gender representations in the visual representations of those involved in, and responding to, human and child trafficking, in both our scholarly work and public action.     

贝克的风险社会理论及其启示——评《风险社会》和《世界风险社会》

乌尔里希·贝克的风险社会理论是一种重视制度面向的社会学批判理论,其认识论基础是反思的现实主义,其理论预设是等级秩序的存在.中国以一种特殊的方式开始进入风险社会.风险社会理论透视出中国在现代化反思能力、法律系统、科学理性和社会理性的互动、环境法基本原则方面存在一些问题.     

汉英对比与英语教学

不论从教学过程,还是交际功能讲,英语都与汉语言、汉文化有着千丝万缕的联系。因此英语教师不仅要有过硬的专业水平,而且要有较高的汉语言修养和汉文化修养。在英语教学中通过对两种语言的对比分析,加快学生学习和掌握英语的进程。     

从明代滇、黔移民特点比较看贵州屯堡文化形成的原因

对贵州屯堡文化的研究,近年来硕果累累。本文通过明代滇、黔移民特点的比较,从不同的视野和角度对屯堡人及其文化形成的原因作出新的探讨和补充。     

少数民族传统法文化与西部新农村法治建设

少数民族传统法文化是中华法系的重要组成部分,它具有悠久的历史,而且许多好的传统至今还存活并发挥着重要作用,我们应该诊视、保护、开发和利用。这对西部法治建设、建设社会主义新农村意义极大。     

试论贵州农耕文化可持续发展问题

历史上贵州各民族创造了多种农耕经济文化类型,贵州的传统农耕文化因其诸多可持续发展因素而能够传承至今。时至今日由于生态环境恶化等原因,贵州农耕文化的发展面临巨大的挑战。但是由于科学技术的进步、产业结构的调整、生态环境的重建,将为贵州农耕文化的发展带来广阔前景。     

谈对贵州历史与民族文化资源的创造性解读

任何文化资源的价值都是解读出来的,是不同的人对之加以不同的介入、选择、改造、重构的结果。本文以贵州著名的历史与民族文化事实为例,作一番探索。