Cultural policy and place promotion: Swansea and Dylan Thomas

As former industrial cities have experienced radical changes to the bases of their economies, the imperatives of finding new roles and functions has often led to the adoption of cultural policies. These are diverse and partial but have become part of place promotion policies designed to attract visitors and investors. The connection with a literary figure offers one exploitable quality and this paper explores the adoption of Dylan Thomas, poet and writer, as an icon for Swansea. What emerges is the existence of a diversity of interested individuals and groups, who start from different positions but work towards a common goal. The tensions about the life and works of the poet, evident over the 50 years since his death are still there but the key players, including the City and County of Swansea, are finding ways of reconciling their differences in the ‘production’ of Dylan Thomas. This use of a writer and his local connections forms part of the more general process of making a cultural policy for the city.     

清代顺、康、雍、乾时期文字狱的地域分异研究

文化和思想的专制统治在中国乃至世界历史上都是一种常见的专制统治手段。文字狱作为其典型产物,具有重大的学术研究价值。研究选取具有代表意义的清代顺治、康熙、雍正、乾隆时期(1644~1795年)发生的文字狱作为分析样本,力图从区域差异的角度进行探讨。研究发现区域人文、经济、政治等因素对文字狱的地域分异影响具有决定性作用,人文环境决定了文人群体必然直接影响到文字狱的分布,而经济环境则通过影响教育水平和社会环境从而间接影响了文字狱的分布,政治事件、统治者性格、统治方式、政治地位等政治因素对文字狱的地域分异的影响则充满了偶然性。随着时间的推移文字狱分布呈现出由"离散型"分布向集中度较高的"背弓型"分布演变的规律,这是人文、经济、政治等历史地理要素对文字狱地域分异综合影响的反映。研究弥补了历史学、社会学等其它学科研究方法的局限性,试图从地理学的视角探索中国古代文化专制的规律,不仅具有历史文化地理方面填补空白的价值,同时对现今自由文化之发展也具有警示意义。