Aesthetics of disaster as decolonial aesthetics: making sense of the effects of Hurricane María through Puerto Rican contemporary art

ABSTRACT

On 20 September 2017, Hurricane María made landfall on Puerto Rico causing unprecedented disaster. From that day onwards, the Puerto Rican multi-layered colonial, social and political context was further complicated by the traumatic acceleration of a human disaster via this natural disaster. This crystalized the urgency of using art as vehicle for (social) catharsis, a practice that continues to be used by individual artists, collectives, community organizations, art projects, and other art institutions on the island and abroad, through mural art, community paintings, art exhibitions, literature, music, and many other aesthetic expressions. This article examines, from a decolonial and critical cultural studies perspective, post-Hurricane María artistic expressions in contemporary art as decolonial aesthetics through the cathartic use of the frame of an aesthetics of disaster. It is argued that, an aesthetics of disaster aims to re-assert an artistic form that is able to accelerate the discursive nullification of a deeply rooted colonial, social and cultural problem by way of art as catharsis inspired by the way that Hurricane María unveiled these problems. The piece briefly contextualizes Puerto Rico, and it examines the idea of Puerto Rican contemporary art as catharsis. Then, it describes how Puerto Rican contemporary art exhibitions and associated aesthetic production are processing urgent post-hurricane issues through three illustrative pieces in exhibitions in PR and abroad in the United States (US). Lastly, decolonial aesthetics is reexamined and re-understood, informed by Édouard Glissant's view expressed in Poetics of Relation which aids to the conclusion that Puerto Rican contemporary art using the frame of an aesthetics of disaster functions as a powerful form of decolonial aesthetics.     

多元互动对农户参与农产品区域品牌共建意愿的影响:心理契约的中介效应

围绕农户主体,引入心理契约作为中介变量,探讨多元互动对农户参与农产品区域品牌共建意愿的影响机理.以湖北省张港镇、孝昌县及武汉市五个"一村一品"重点建设村落的355户农户为研究对象,采用验证性因子分析、层级回归等方法实证分析多元互动对农户参与农产品区域品牌共建意愿的影响.结果表明:多元互动对农户参与农产品区域品牌共建意愿具有显著的正向影响;心理契约在多元互动和农户参与农产品区域品牌共建意愿之间起中介作用.该研究结论对调动农户积极性、推动农产品区域品牌建设具有重要的启示和借鉴意义.     

“一带一路”相关文件政策强度与省域经济开放度关系研究——“一带一路”沿线18个省份实证分析

文章的特色和理论意义在于,尝试量化"一带一路"沿线18个省份"一带一路"相关政策文件,以设计政策效力、政策措施与政策保障的评判要点为基础,确定政策措施强度和政策保障强度.细致讨论"一带一路"文件的政策强度与经济开放度提升之间的关系,并讨论该关系在东西部地区的差异以及政策保障强度在政策措施强度与经济开放度关系之中的调节效应.研究发现:政策措施强度能够正向促进省域经济开放度的提升;在经济开放度高于10％的省份中,政策保障强度正向调节政策措施强度与经济开放度提升之间的关系,政策措施强度和政策保障强度之间存在互补关系;政策措施强度中资金融通强度对于沿线省域经济开放度的提升有着最显著的正向影响,政策沟通强度对于沿线省域经济开放度的提升影响不显著;政策措施强度对省域经济开放度的提升存在地区差别,西部地区更注重"一带一路"倡议所带来的机会.建议:"一带一路"沿线省份在政策设计上,不仅要对政策沟通、设施联通、贸易畅通、资金融通和民心相通等内容作出合理规划和布局,还应对保障机制作出可操作性的安排.     

技术创新加剧了企业技能短缺吗?

随着劳动力价格上涨,制造业企业人口红利逐渐消失,以互联网、人工智能提升改造传统产业的同时,推动“技术红利”替代“人口红利”,成为制造业企业优化升级的必然选择。技术创新在促进经济发展的同时是否加剧了技能短缺?考察技术创新对技能短缺的影响作用,结果表明:技术创新对企业技能短缺产生了显著的正效应,研发支出增加了对技能劳动力的需求,并且伴随企业规模扩大、技能劳动力比例上升,技能短缺程度加剧。同时,技术创新对技能短缺在区域和产业上存在显著异质性。在超大城市中,技术创新对技能短缺的拉动作用更为显著。在中小城市,技术进步效应并不显著;而技术创新对制造业技能缺口的影响效应也显著强于服务业,进一步验证了技术创新水平的快速提升使现有技能水平无法与之相匹配,加剧了企业技能结构性短缺。     

国际贸易中心指标体系构建及对上海国际贸易竞争力的评估和建议

随着长三角区域、亚洲区域市场一体化加快推进,上海国际贸易中心建设可充分利用长三角区域枢纽区位优势,从提升总部功能发力,从点上政策突破到面上统筹,对外汇、人才、贸易便利化、数据跨境流动进行系统安排,集聚跨国公司总部;从结算、采购、营销、物流、分拨等功能层面进行分类施策,推动贸易主体营运功能衍生;发挥金融、保险、咨询等专业服务优势,使上海成为长三角区域、国内企业国际营销网络的开拓通道.     

Intergenerational cooperation within the household: a Public Good game with three generations

We analyze cooperation of individuals in a family context, using a Public Good game. In a lab experiment, 165 individuals from 55 three-generation families (youth, parent, and grandparent) play a repeated Public Good game in three different treatments: one in which three members of the same family play each other (family), a second with the youth and two non-family members, while preserving the previous generational structure (inter-generational), and a third in which three randomly-selected players play each other (random). We find that all the age groups cooperate more when playing with relatives, indicating that family ties may have a positive relationship to contributions to the Public Good. We also find that this trend is more evident for the youths and the parents than for the grandparents. Furthermore, young individuals tend to cooperate less than older generations, especially in non-family treatments. Our results serve as evidence of the relationship between family ties and inter-generational cooperative behaviors.

     

Emerging Genetic and Epigenetic Mechanisms Underlying Pubertal Maturation in Adolescence

The adolescent transition begins with the onset of puberty which, upstream in the brain, is initiated by the gonadotropin‐releasing hormone (GnRH) pulse generator that activates the release of peripheral sex hormones. Substantial research in human and animal models has revealed a myriad of cellular networks and heritable genes that control the GnRH pulse generator allowing the individual to begin the process of reproductive competence and sexual maturation. Here, we review the latest knowledge in neuroendocrine pubertal research with emphasis on genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying the pubertal transition.     

Participatory Art as a Social Practice of Commoning to Reinvent the Right to the City

The right to the city is a concept that helps rethink spatial–social dynamics, which has recently reinvigorated the field of organization studies. Following Lefebvre and considering the failure of both the market and the state, other scholars pinpoint the need to rethink social–spatial and geographical–historical relations. They do so by theorizing the city as a host for urban commons. Collective and non-commodified, these spatial–social experiences need to be constantly reproduced and preserved through commoning practices in the struggle against spatial injustice. A case study shows that a civil society organization (CSO) uses participatory art to (re)produce urban commons at the level of a local community and to redress partially spatial injustice. We theorize participatory art-making as a social practice of commoning, i.e., a process of organizing for the commons—collective art-based activities to serve a community—and of the common—to (re)produce a community while performing them. Such commoning practices are not only about sharing urban resources but also about using and experiencing differently urban spaces. By making participatory artworks in public spaces and co-designing street furniture with residents of poor areas, TDA helps to better cope with the tensions between residents and local authorities and between amateurs and professional artists. By negotiating the long-term implementation of these creative artworks in the public space with public authorities, TDA has fostered the empowerment of inhabitants as they have experienced citizens’ reappropriation of some public spaces in Marseille.