Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities: the social inheritance of adultery

Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-232
Author(s):  
Barry Sautman ◽  
Xinyi Xie

Many in Hong Kong voice concerns about the fate of Cantonese, including nativists (“localists”) and the general public. Guangzhou is seen as a harbinger of diminishing Cantonese in Hong Kong. News and commentaries paint a gloomy picture of Cantonese in Guangzhou. Yet rarely do we read about surveys on the range of Cantonese use and identity in Guangzhou. Neither do we see analyses on how the social context differences between Hong Kong and Guangzhou may have contributed to the two cities’ unique language situations. Our study delineates the Guangzhou and Hong Kong language situations, comparing mother tongues, ordinary languages, and language attitudes. Cantonese is unrivalled in Hong Kong and remains vital in Guangzhou. We put the two cities’ different use frequency and proficiency of Cantonese and Putonghua (“Mandarin”) in the sociocultural context of motivation and migration. We conclude that some claims of diminishing Cantonese are unsupported. We also address how likely it is that Cantonese will diminish or even be replaced in Hong Kong.


Author(s):  
Elahe Mohadesi

This research aims to examine the relationship between social intelligence (SI) and organisational commitment (OC) among male and female managers of boys’ and girls’ schools in the two Iranian cities of Kashmar and Khalilabad. The statistical population of the study included all the managers of the aforementioned schools in two cities, with a total of 204 people based on the information received from the local education bureaus. The study is based on the correlation method. Pearson’s correlation coefficient, multiple regressions and independent t-test were carried out using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software for data analysis. The results revealed that there was a relationship between SI and OC; meanwhile, SI could somehow predict and explain the alterations in OC. Also, there was a meaningful association between the subscale of patience and OC where patience had an impact on OC and its dimensions.   Keywords: Organisational commitment, affective commitment, continuance commitment, normative commitment, social intelligence.


2010 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Jones

ABSTRACTUnder the general title, ‘French Crossings’, the presidential addresses over the next four years will explore intersections and relationships between cultures, periods, disciplines, approaches, historiographies and problems, all within the general field of early modern and modern French history. ‘Tales of Two Cities’ takes as its approach both comparative history andl'histoire croisée. It compares and contrasts the very differing cultural impact on each side of the Channel of one of the most influential British novels about Franco-British political culture, namely, Charles Dickens'sA Tale of Two Cities(1859). The novel has been conventionally hailed in England, especially from the end of the nineteenth century, as a parable unfavourably contrasting France's revolutionary tradition with the allegedly more humane political evolutionism of England. In France, the novel has been largely ignored or else viewed as a Burkean rant. Yet Dickens's personal attitudes towards France and in particular Paris suggests a more ambiguous and complicated history. For Dickens, modern Paris, as regenerated under Haussmann, was a brilliant success story against which he contrasted both Paris in the 1790s and the social and political circumstances he claimed to detect within English metropolitan culture in the recent past and present. Dickens views the radical and disinherited workers’ suburb of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine less, it is suggested, as quintessentially French than as quintessentially plebeian, and the prospect of a slide into revolutionary politics as a lurking threat within England as well as France.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 196-217
Author(s):  
Svetlana A. Mulina

Diaspora studies penetrating into the Polish-Siberian theme since the late 1990s focused as a rule on the study of stable institutions, social organizations created by migrants for the preservation and development of ethnic community, and articulation of ethnic interests. However, such organizations among the Siberian Poles appeared only in the late XIX-early XX centuries. To understand the ethnic processes that took place among Polish migrants in the earlier period, the study of informal social ties of Polish migrants, various elements of group solidarity and communication systems becomes of paramount importance. The purpose of this study is to reconstruct, on the basis of office documentation and correspondence, the communication strategies of exiled participants in the revolts of the 1863-1864 on the example of two cities of Tobolsk province, namely, Kurgan and Tara. As a result of the study, we recorded the existence of a fraternity in Tara, covering most of the Poles who lived in the city. The self-organization of the exiles was facilitated by the presence of ready-made social structures – large traditional families and the system of communication between them that has developed at home. The emersion of the community in Kurgan was the result of the efforts of a group of exiled nobles who had a good education. In the conditions of a limited social status, and the absence of rich compatriots, the social value of this community turned out to be insufficient to become the center of attraction for Poles.


Author(s):  
Frank Fischer

Can contemporary democratic governments tackle climate crisis? Some say that democracy has to be a central part of a strategy to deal with climate change. Others say that experience shows it not to be up to the challenge in the time frame available—that it will require a stronger hand, even a form of eco-authoritarianism. This work seeks to sort out and assess the competing answers to a question that is not easily resolved. While the book supports the case for environmental democracy, it argues that establishing and sustaining democratic practices will be difficult during the global climate turmoil ahead, especially if confronted with permanent states of emergency. This inquiry undertakes a search for an appropriate political-ecological strategy capable of preserving a measure of democratic governance during hard times. Without ignoring the global dimensions of the crisis, the analysis finds an alternative path in the theory and practices of participatory environmental governance embodied in a growing relocalization movement, and a form of global eco-localism. Although these movements largely operate under the radar of the social sciences, the media, and the political realm generally, such vibrant socio-ecological movements not only speak to the crisis ahead, but are already well established and thriving on the ground, including ecovillages, eco-communes, eco-neighborhoods, and local transition initiatives. With the help of these ideas and projects, the task is to shift the discourse of environmental political theory in ways that can assist those who will face the climate crisis in its full magnitude in real terms.


1981 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson W. S. Chow

ABSTRACTSingapore and Hong Kong are two of the most advanced industrial countries in east and south-east Asia. Comparisons between them have often been made, and this article takes their social security systems as a subject for examination. It begins with a brief discussion of the social, economic and political structures of Singapore and Hong Kong, identifying their similarities and differences; this is followed by a comparison of their existing social security provisions and the functions they perform in the two societies. It is found that, while Singapore and Hong Kong are now both affluent enough to provide their workers with comprehensive income protection, industrialization in the two cities has not brought a corresponding development in their social security systems. Other considerations seem to be more important than the need for such measures.


Author(s):  
Adrian Ducu Matei

The article highlights the characteristics of a phenomenon that tends to directly attack the wellbeing of large amounts of the population in a manner that jeopardizes the development of the individuals, diffuses the leisure and damages the social equilibrium of a nation. This phenomenon also pairs well with other phenomena common these days such as corruption and underground economy. We are living in hard times when the shameless triumph or the abusers are admired, a society without guiding principles, and the opportunism wins, the insolents set the tone while the population tolerates it, everything becomes corruptible while the majority remains silent. This picture of today’s world is very often complemented by the indifference taking the form of lack of action, ultimately giving birth to thoughts on whether it is high time to hide, to back down, analyze our activity to take a firm grip on oneself and reevaluate those around us. When the abuse of power for personal gains manifests from post to pillar, the corruption is systemic, the harmful perception that impunity exists should be destroyed. Unless we do it by uniting our forces in fighting this critical issue, the idea that money can be earned without effort or work will be disseminated and ultimately their value cannot be other but zero.It would be very helpful to look back in history while reconsidering out attitude towards work, moral and ethical values, well promoted by religion. There is an attractive link between religion and economy, but without understanding it in broad sense, as if religion should be linked to the evolution of an economic indicator. Beyond the attribute of being an economic performer the believer possesses, this attribute can be outwardly disseminated only through work, as it is the only that adds value. Isn’t the economic growth measured precisely by the value added? Where does this new value comes from which has its roots exclusively in lively work carried out by the people – creation of the Divinity – with and on the materiality? To better understand this, I suggest we should imagine a peasant in spring going with a basket full of corn seeds to seed a plot of land that he had previously ploughed and cared so as to be ready for a new crop. If he carefully seeds the corn from his basket on the plot formerly looked after and through his effort, his work, attends for the shoots coming out from the ground to be irrigated on time and the pests to be removed, there is no doubt that the results will not be late in coming. Following the faithful effort and work put into the cultivation of the corn, the harvesting will bring out ten folds more corn seeds. Isn’t this added value? Is this peasant respect-worthy? Are his effort and work true and clean?


1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Calliinicos

AbstractThe Marxist theory of crisis has fallen on hard times. Marx's ‘law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall’ (TRPF), generally seen, at least in recent times, as the basis of the theory, is now widely rejected by economists who regard themselves as broadly working in his tradition. This state of affairs is in large part a consequence on the larger assault on mounted on the theoretical structure of Capital by self-proclaimed supporters of Piero Sraffa during the 1970s. Analytical Marxism, during its brief efflorescence in the 1980s, took for granted the validity of the Sraffian critique. One of this school's more vulgar advocates published an ‘obituary’ of the TRPF which dismissed Marxists' attachment to the theory as a result of the influence of ‘“extra-scientific” considerations’ on them. The editors of a dictionary of Marxian economics expressed the hope not long ago that the resolution of the debate provoked by the Sraffian critique would be to ‘release Marxian ideas on crises, growth, imperialism, the social and economic evolution of forms of production, and so on, into the mainstream of economics’.


Author(s):  
Katherina Kuschel ◽  
Manuel Méndez Pinzón

This multiple case study of nine entrepreneurial ventures with social emphasis operating in Colombia, Peru, and Chile identifies vital elements that make these firms impactful in three dimensions: economic, environmental, and social. The results found that the founder's proximity to the social/ecological problem is a trigger to start up a business. The “purpose” is a motivational factor to both start up a business and keep the business during hard times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose is the fuel, but it does not guarantee the success of the company. The value proposition is the critical factor for success. These companies are continually re-inventing and changing their value proposition while keeping the purpose of the organization as a keystone. The authors shed light on a model for social entrepreneurship in South America.


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