‘We all eat the same bread’: the roots and limits of cosmopolitan bridging ties developed by Romanians in London

This paper investigates the social ties forged by Romanians in London with migrants of different origins in work and non-work contexts to offer a more nuanced view of ‘bridging’ social ties and related discussions of ‘everyday’ cosmopolitanism. Contrary to the overemphasis on ethnic ties seen as a form of bonding in migration research, the paper shows how Romanians bridge informally with many other migrants based on shared ‘non-native’ status. Alongside non-ethnically marked commonalities, ethnicity emerges as an important ingredient of cosmopolitan socialization, yet without necessarily signalling coexisting ethnic identities, as commonly assumed. Romanians' experiences further show that despite providing significant social and cultural capital, bridging ties with migrants, rather than natives, rarely accrue effective resources for social mobility. The findings suggest the need to disaggregate and qualify current understandings of ‘bridging’ social ties usually depicted in positive terms and uniformly as cross-ethnic relationships, or only linked with the ‘mainstream’ population.     

‘Culture shock’: Black students account for their distinctiveness at an elite college

Previous research on black students attending predominantly white colleges has emphasized race-based differences with white students while downplaying differences in social class. This research indicates that class-based differences are an important component of many black students’ discomfort at ‘Northern College’, a school that has traditionally served wealthy white students. Drawing on interviews and participant observation done on campus, I apply cultural capital theory to explain how differences in class-specific cultural styles make campus life difficult for non-affluent blacks and discuss the implications of the findings for future research on black college experiences.     

Online mediations in transnational spaces: cosmopolitan (re)formations of belonging and identity in the Turkish diaspora

Abstract

The lives of transnational groups and individuals are marked by a spatial and imaginary split: a phenomenon wherein identity, belonging and representation have become increasingly elusive concepts, and the realm of the ‘cultural’ vastly important. And, the theoretical compasses of cosmopolitanism and transnationalism are particularly relevant and illuminating in considering social space, mediated communication and belonging in relation to urban diasporic communities and gendered subjectivities. The aim of this paper is to address expressions of identity and belonging at the intersection of online communicative practice and offline spatial formations, with a focus on the specificities of gendered constructions of sociality and subjectivity in the diaspora.     

From Feasting to Cuisine: Implications of Archaeological Research in an Early Honduran Village

Research at the site of Puerto Escondido in northern Honduras produced evidence of foodways in one of the earliest known villages in Central America. Much of the material recovered is related directly or indirectly to the production, preparation, and consumption of food. In everyday practice, the organization of food consumption in villages like this would have been central to the reproduction of social relations. In other early villages in Central America, the use of food for political ends has been given a causal role in the development of social stratification. Drawing on evidence for one particular food practice, the preparation and consumption of fermented and unfermented cacao beverages, we argue that it is through the elaboration of cuisine—regimes of taste and presentation—that food production, serving, and consumption played both of these roles.     

耦合生态资本和社会资本的生态资源价值化体系分析

运用实地调研和理论分析的方法对中国生态资源价值化体系的变迁进行分析,并进一步提出耦合生态资本和社会资本的生态资源价值化理论框架。按照价值化的逻辑总结出价值化两条路径：流量价值化和存量价值化,并通过梳理科技文献指出现有研究的不足：流量价值化缺乏\"生态视角\"和存量价值化缺乏\"整体视角\"。对比分析了不同时期中国生态资源价值化变迁的特点,发现计划经济时期国家通过生态资源的公有和单要素管理,实现流量、存量的管控和生态资源收益的合理分配;在市场化改革前期,生态资源使用权与所有权的收益逐步分离,激励了社会资本带动生产力发展,但也造成了生态危机和贫富差距拉大等问题;在市场化后期,各地不断实践探索全生态要素治理,通过政府市场社会多方位联动追求共同富裕和生态文明目标的实现。指出生态资源价值体系与社会历史进程的关系,揭示了其背后社会资本与生态资本的耦合关系。最后,提出在市场化改革后期需要坚持\"公共性\"政党的领导,并在耦合社会资本与生态资本这一思想指导下构建的县镇村三级联动的生态资源价值化框架。研究结论为乡村振兴背景下中国生态资源价值化体系提供理论指导,为中国共产党领导下生态文明思想的人民性提供政治经济学的解释。