Justifying Collaboration between Chinese Literati and 'Subjects from Afar': The Paratexts of the Taixi shuifa 泰西水法 (Hydromethods of the Great West; 1612)

EnPrefaces and other paratexts can serve as platforms not only for advertising the work to which they are attached, but also for self-promotion and the articulation of ulterior aspirations of their authors. The Chinese language treatises on Western sciences and technology written during the Jesuit China mission from the late 16th century onwards were no exception in this regard. This essay takes the altogether five prefaces to the Taixi shuifa 泰西水法 (Hydromethods of the Great West; 1612) (hereafter TXSF), composed by the Italian Jesuit Sabatino de Ursis with the support of the Chinese official Xu Guangqi 徐光啟, as an example for typical rhetorical strategies implemented in such endeavours at that time. On the Chinese side, these strategies aimed at the introduction of the transmitted knowledge to a learned and in large part sinocentric audience in the Middle Kingdom, and at a justification of the collaboration with these foreign "vassals". The comparison with de Ursis' preface shows that the Jesuit's intentions, however, went in a completely different direction.ItLe prefazioni e altri paratesti possono servire come piattaforme non solo per pubblicizzare l'opera a cui fanno riferimento, ma anche per l'autopromozione e l'articolazione di ulteriori aspirazioni da parte dei loro autori. I trattati in lingua cinese sulle scienze e la tecnologia occidentali, scritti durante la missione dei gesuiti in Cina dalla fine del XVI secolo in poi, non fecero eccezione a questo riguardo. Il presente saggio prende in considerazione tutte e cinque le prefazioni del Taixi shuifa (Hydromethods of the Great West; 1612) (di seguito TXSF), composto dal gesuita italiano Sabatino de Ursis con l'apporto del funzionario cinese Xu Guangqi, come esempio delle tipiche strategie retoriche messe in atto in questi tentativi. Da parte cinese, queste strategie erano finalizzate all'introduzione della conoscenza trasmessa ad un pubblico erudito e in larga parte sinocentrico nel Regno di Mezzo, e fornivano nel contempo una giustificazione della collaborazione con i "vassalli" stranieri. Il confronto con la prefazione di de Ursis mostra che le intenzioni del gesuita, invece, andavano in tutt'altra direzione

The global distribution of trademarks - some stylized facts

Trademarks are words, signs, symbols, or combinations thereof that identify goods as manufactured by a particular person or a company, therefore allowing consumers to distinguish between goods originating in different sources. Trademarks belong to the wider family of intellectual property rights (IPRs), and once registered benefit from legal protection against unauthorized use by entities other than the legal owner. While some suggest that cross-border registrations of IPRs may be associated with welfare transfers from developing to industrial countries, surprisingly little is known about an important component of the global IPR system, namely, the worldwide distribution of trademark registrations. This study provides the first step in filling this gap in the literature. Its purpose is to present some new stylized facts which emerge from the analysis of a dataset compiled by the authors based on the statistical information published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Questions of interest include the distribution of trademarks between countries of different income levels, the share of trademark registrations accounted for by foreign residents and its variation across different income groups, the extent to which poor countries participate in the international trademark system, and the distribution of registrations across different sectors of the economy.Environmental Economics&Policies,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Income,Economic Theory&Research,Income,Environmental Economics&Policies,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Health Economics&Finance

Steering towards more cycling in Tallinn Assessing policy’s role in promoting urban cycling in “new cycle cities”

A growing trend in cities around the word is to promote cycling to make them a more livable place to live in. Many big cities in Europe such as London, Paris, and Vienna have started to consider cycling not only as a mode of transport but also as a way to reduce pollution and congestion problems. Cities with long cycling culture such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam started decades ago a shift from a car dependent mobility culture towards more urban cycling, and they have now high quality cycling infrastructures in place and a modal share of cycling of 36 –38 %. On the other hand, the rapid growth of private car ownership in Western Europe in 60s and 70s, was in the Eastern European cities such as in Tallinn postponed until the end of 90s, resulting in a high use of cars but also of public transport, the latter a mode of transport inherent to the Soviet Union. In Tallinn, where the cycling culture is weak and the modal share of cycling is as low as 1 %, politicians are reluctant to promote bicycling at the expense of private car accessibility. As a consequence, car traffic is increasing in the city and Tallinn suffers from lack of space, traffic congestion, as well as air and noise pollution. However, the city has a high cycling potential mainly due to frequent traffic congestion, lack of space in the city centre, high levels of noise and air pollution. A major challenge is to carefully plan cycling policies in Tallinn, containing the necessary policy instruments and including both soft and hard measures. Such measures should advocate utility cycling but also provide safe and comfortable cycling infrastructure for its residents. In addition to the ‘old cycling cities’, knowledge and policy transfer from so-called cycling ‘starter cities’ are becoming increasingly common. Successful policy transfer requires an understanding of the current situation in the receiving city and evaluating the transferrable policy, which helps to identify policy implementation process barriers and expected benefits. The key to more cycling in Tallinn is a well-designed policy package that integrates all stakeholders in overcoming the various barriers. Keywords: Utility Cycling, Policy Instruments, Cycling Policies, Policy Evaluation, Policy Transfe

Charity Financial Reporting Regulation: a Comparison of the United Kingdom and Her Former Colony, New Zealand

Charities are becoming more highly regulated worldwide and yet they are subject to diverse, country-specific, financial reporting standards. New Zealand is a jurisdiction that has treated all sectors alike in its approach to the financial regulation of charities, whilst the United Kingdom has, for some time, separated the regulation of charities from other entities. This paper provides a comparison of the histories of the evolution of regulation for charity reporting in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The current process of international harmonization in both jurisdictions is premised on the principle that accounting conceptual frameworks should not be jurisdiction-specific, but charities have proved to be an exception. We suggest in this study that this exception is attributed to different drivers resulting in regulatory distinctions in two otherwise similar jurisdictions. Without persisting in the maintenance of sectorneutrality, the inevitable divergence increases the load on preparers, attesters, and users and may lead to lower levels of accountability and transparency

Analytical Strategy for Dealing with Neutrality Claims and Implicit Masculinity Constructions: Methodological Challenges for Gender Studies in Science and Technology

On the basis of an empirical example, we offer in this article a methodological discussion of the challenges and pitfalls gender studies scholars face when analyzing how gender norms are attributed to epistemic cultures in science and engineering. Faced with actors who claim neutrality and objectivity for themselves and their work, the challenge is to analyze gender norms that are mostly implicit without reifying gender differences. Committed to the goal of opening this black box, we propose an analytical strategy for qualitative empirical research to unveil these subtle, highly normalized, discursive practices of attributing gender norms to the epistemic subjects, objects and activities in science and engineering, and exemplify it with reference to our own empirical study. By comparing the patterns of distinction with respect to epistemic boundaries and to gender differentiations, it is possible to trace connections between the symbolic gender order and epistemic cultures within the data. The allegedly neutral scientist as well as the engineering scholar is then shown to be the androcentric construction of a masculine coded epistemic subject.Auf Basis eines empirischen Beispiels diskutieren wir in diesem Beitrag methodologische Herausforderungen für die Untersuchung geschlechtlicher Zuschreibungen in epistemischen Kulturen in Technik- und Naturwissenschaften. Konfrontiert mit Akteur_innen, die für sich selbst wie für ihre Arbeit Neutralität und Objektivität beanspruchen, sind Untersuchungen der Geschlechterforschung damit konfrontiert, Geschlechternormen zu rekonstruieren, die überwiegend implizit bleiben, ohne dabei selbst Geschlechterdifferenzen zu reifizieren. Mit dem Ziel, diese "Blackbox" zu öffnen, schlagen wir in diesem Beitrag eine Analysestrategie vor, um diesen subtilen, hochgradig normativen, diskursiven Praktiken der Zuschreibung von Geschlecht an epistemische Subjekte, Objekte und Tätigkeiten nachzugehen und exemplifizieren dies anhand einer eigenen empirischen Studie. Indem im qualitativen Datenmaterial Distinktionsmuster, einmal mit Bezug auf epistemische Grenzziehungen und einmal mit Bezug auf Geschlechterdifferenzierungen, miteinander verglichen werden, ist es möglich, die in den Daten existierenden Bezüge zwischen symbolischer Geschlechterordnung und epistemischen Kulturen aufzuspüren. Der vorgeblich neutrale "Wissenschaftler" bzw. "Ingenieur" wird dann als androzentrische Konstruktion eines männlich verfassten epistemischen Subjekts sichtbar

Analysis of Public Transport of Passengers with Proposal for Optimization of Public Transport of Ličko-senjska County

Javni prijevoz putnika sve je zastupljeniji u svijetu jer putnici otkrivaju sve benefite koje pruža javni prijevoz, od manje cijene putovanja do kraćeg trajanja. U Republici Hrvatskoj novim zakonom nastoji se potaknuti javni prijevoz putnika kako bi nastavljali zadovoljavati kriterije Europske Unije. Neki gradovi u Hrvatskoj prate svjetske trendove u javnom prijevozu u smislu tehnike i tehnologije te pružaju kvalitetan primjer smjera u kojem se mora kretati. Javni prijevoz putnika u Ličko – senjskoj županiji, kao i gospodarsko stanje županije, nije na visokoj razini, međutim kvalitetnim ulaganjima u infrastrukturu i suprastrukturu može se postić veliko poboljšanje koje će biti od koristi državi i stanovnicima.Public transport of passengers is increasingly represented in the world as travelers discover all benefits offered by public transport, from less travel costs to shorter travel time. In the Republic of Croatia, a new law seeks to encourage public transport of passengers in order to continue to meet the criteria of the European Union. Some cities in Croatia follow world trends in public transport in terms of technology and technology and provide a good example of a direction in which to move. The public transport of passengers in the Ličko – senjska County as well as the economic situation of the County is not high, but good investments in infrastructure and superstructure can be achieved with great improvements that will benefit the state and residents

Med akademijo in šolo: refleksija o habitusu kot eden izmed načinov reševanja napetosti med teorijo in prakso v izobraževanju učiteljev

Teacher education’s primary goal is to train prospective teachers, which differs from study programmes, such as philosophy or mathematics, that do not cater to defined professions. This traditional understanding of the teaching profession becomes apparent when students ask: \u27How is this content, topic, method, task, or question relevant to school work?\u27 It is also reflected in the inclusion of practical school training in teacher education curricula. In Austria’s teacher training, these practical elements are accompanied by theoretical and methodological teaching foundations. However, students often question the applicability of theoretical knowledge to the teaching profession, which creates tension between the academic and pedagogical orientations. This paper discusses these very theory-practice tensions in teacher education based on findings from the project Habitus.Power.Education, which involved student teachers at an Austrian university. The authors argue that teacher training at universities is neither merely a place for producing a future workforce nor a self-growth space without purpose. Teacher training, rather, combines both (sometimes ambivalent) elements: education in its broadest sense and professional training. Using their empirical material, the authors show that the theory-praxis gap manifests in the tension between academic and pedagogical orientation. To address and mediate this tension, they propose the concept of habitus reflexivity. Promoting such a form of reflexivity among students makes it possible to bridge the gap between the different logics of university and school. Furthermore, it helps to comprehend inequality and power imbalances in the education system and develop agency, which is essential for navigating the ever-changing and complex world of modern schools. (DIPF/Orig.

Sabatino de Ursis' Preface to the Taixi shuifa 泰西水法 (Hydromethods of the Great West; 1612): The 'Basic Discourse on Hydromethods' (Shuifa benlun 水法本論)

EnThis is the first complete translation into a Western language of Sabatino de Ursis' preface to the Taixi shuifa1. After a short summary of its contents and some remarks about the origin of this translation, the annotated text, accompanied by the Chinese transcription of the original, will be presented.ItQuesta è la prima traduzione completa in una lingua occidentale della prefazione di Sabatino de Ursis al Taixi shuifa1. Dopo un breve riassunto del suo contenuto e alcune osservazioni sull'origine di questa traduzione, viene presentato il testo annotato, accompagnato dalla trascrizione cinese dell'originale