An empirical analysis of political activity in Hollywood

Film plays an important role in the American political system, and forms an important branch of the mass media. I analyze the political contributions of a sample of 996 top film actors, directors, producers, and writers, correlating them with demographic, family, and career success variables. I find that contributions flow overwhelmingly to left-of-center parties and organizations. I theorize about the causes of this bias, and argue empirically that, while demographic variables are not completely irrelevant, Hollywood liberalism is primarily a function of high, publicly visible incomes, and family connections. Neither religion nor birthplace effects seem to affect political activity in the film business.

Character and organization

In recent years, questions of ‘character’ have become increasingly prominent in a range of policy contexts, from education to social welfare and from business to healthcare. What unites these various contemporary paens is an assumption that building ‘character’ is a crucial component of ethics and that it holds the key to establishing and maintaining virtuous conduct; moreover, that the cultivation of ‘character’ is at best under-valued and at worst actively undermined and denigrated in any number of contemporary economic and organizational practices. In this paper, we seek to interrogate key aspects of this upsurge of interest in ‘character’ as it has been articulated in particular recent and on-going debates about the reform of organizational life. We argue that this ‘turn’ suffers precisely from an abstraction and lack of contextual specificity – not simply in relation to questions of ‘character formation,’ but also in regard to matters of organization, and indeed the relationship of the one to the other – that severely curtails both its ethical reach and explanatory power.     

Movie Stars and the Distribution of Financially Successful Films in the Motion Picture Industry

Audiences choose to see films using information from previous films. A stochastic consumer choice process based on this assumption generates a particular distribution of financially successful films among film types. Movie stars can be used to mark these successful film types. Thus, their star power originates not only from box-office appeal but also from marking power. Evidence of 960 top 20 films released in the United States and Canada between 1940–1955 and 1960–1995 is consistent with this model.     

Cultural entrepreneurship and the Banff Television Festival

Cultural entrepreneurship involves a conception, an initial launch, and a transition to an established event. Each stage generates wicked coordination and financial challenges. We explore this important process by examining the history of the Banff Television Festival, an annual event featuring a competition, workshops, and providing a forum for developing projects. The documentation indicates that the anticipated problems of nonprofit activities — inefficient administration, crude management systems, slow adaptation and little innovation — were not characteristic of the Banff experience. Well informed industry customers and patrons have established an environment which generally encouraged managerial competence and creativity. This benign result may not generalize to other cultural initiatives, in particular to those that serve the public directly and draw patronage from diverse sources.The paper was presented at the 9th international conference of the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Boston, May 8–11, 1996.     

中国城市管理工作方针的演变与发展趋势

中华人民共和国成立以来,党和政府十分重视城市管理工作,伴随着城市建设和发展的需要,根据不同历史时期城市管理工作的形势和任务的不同,采取了不同的城市管理体制,确定了相应的城市管理方针政策.城市管理体制是建立在经济体制基础上的,与经济体制和政府职能相适应.有什么样的经济体制,就有什么样的城市管理体制.根据1949年以来不同...     

Facing future uncertainties and risks through personal finance: conventions in financial education

ABSTRACT

A crucial component of the neoliberal regime is the shift of responsibility for individuals’ financial well-being and security from the state and other public bodies to the individuals themselves, who are required to take responsibility for their own financial decisions and their current and future economic situation. This project of responsibilization presumes a world in which calculative subjects can estimate and manage future risks. Nonetheless, compelled to engage with the financial sphere as a key means of assuring their economic security, individuals are exposed in fact to the fundamental uncertainty of financial markets. In this article, we examine conventions formulated and communicated by financial education programs as cognitive devices geared to prompt individuals to imagine and engage with finance as a site of knowable, calculable and manageable risks, rather than as a site of fundamental uncertainty. Aiming to instill among the general public a particular cognitive frame based on the idea that possible futures are assessable and the risks that they carry can be managed through engagement with financial products and services, these conventions contribute to the normalization of financial logics in everyday life and the incorporation of the general population into the process of financialization.     

Humor and heuristics: culture,genre, and economic thought in The Big Short

This article uses the 2015 film, The Big Short, to explore the limits of representing and critiquing Wall Street culture on film. Critics have praised the film, suggesting that it offers an account of the 2007–2008 financial crisis that both critiques Wall Street culture and democratizes financial knowledge. I argue that the film is an early representative example of a public narrative based on behavioral economics. A popular movie informed by this discipline has a good deal of political potential for challenging injustices produced by neoliberal approaches to the financial services industry. However, I also argue that despite this political potential, The Big Short is unable to fundamentally challenge the belief in efficient markets that justify many of Wall Street’s practices. I also argue that the film uses unexamined and problematic understandings of both class and gender in characterizing the film’s protagonists.     

Monetary organization and national identity: a review and considerations

This article develops a detailed overview of literature on the relationship between monetary organization, understood as currencies and central banks, and issues of national identity and nationalism. It demonstrates how the literature on this subject for the past 20 years has developed into a distinct research field and the article sketches a set of different methodological approaches as well as geographical and thematical variations within the field. In particular, the overview points to a recent shift in focus from a preoccupation with the identity-cultivating qualities of monetary organization to an emphasis on how collective identities legitimize monetary organization. Based on the literature review, the article points to two underdeveloped themes for future research to investigate: (1) further studies on the interrelation between the legitimacy of monetary organization and national identity, (2) an increased focus on central banks and monetary authorities, as well as the historical development in which monetary organization evolved in concert with ideas of the national identity and nationalism.     

Iran: archaeological heritage in crisis: Developing an effective management system for archaeology

The dynamic social development in Iran over the last decades provided the acknowledgement of the archaeological heritage on the one hand, and a confrontation to the current managing system of archaeology on the other. This situation makes it necessary for archaeologists to formulate and implement a systematic regulation in the sphere of protection and management of the archaeological heritage. The fact is that, as the international conventions warn, the archaeological heritage is constantly under threat of destruction, and while in Iran the problem is not new, the destruction is on the increase. The constructions under the developmental projects and at the same time the increase of population are accompanied by the expansion of the new settled areas threaten large areas of archaeological sites. The deep economic crises of the country as well as a pauperization of majority of society, and a low degree of respect for the law, lead to an increase in looting and considerable damage to the archaeological heritage. The goals of this paper are (1) to identify problems that hinder the effectiveness of the Iranian national protection acts, and to suggest some way in which these problems could be remedied, (2) to promote further academic discussions of problems and solutions within archaeology and related fields, and (3) to encourage official authorities and other interest groups to press for changes needed in the Iranian national protection policies, to make it better serve the public interest.     

气候变化适应型城市发展战略研究

世界上大部分经济活动和温室气体排放集中在城市,城市应该承担减缓气候变化的责任。城市人口与财产聚集使得气候变化及自然灾害的影响具有放大效应,城市必须在与之共存中做到趋利避害。为减缓和适应气候变化,建设气候变化适应型城市就成为可持续发展的客观要求。气候变化适应型城市以减缓与适应战略应对气候变化,即通过低碳发展战略减缓气候变化和适应战略来应对气候变化带来的极端事件以及气象灾害频度和强度日益提高的趋势,尽可能减轻气候变化所造成的各种不利影响。气候变化最不利的影响是气象及其衍生灾害,气候适应型城市通过灾害风险管理更好地减缓和适应气候变化及各种灾害风险。     

Museums in the U.K.: Some Evidence on Scale and Activities

This paper reviews the availability and quality of statistical evidence on the structure, visitor patterns and funding of the museum sector in the U.K. The policy context is discussed and the implications for cultural economics are reviewed.     

Situating Oneself in a Racialized World: Understanding Student Reactions to Crash through Standpoint Theory and Context-Positionality Frames

Abstract

Through a thematic analysis of 136 student reactions to the movie Crash, this study examines how individuals situate themselves in terms of race, racism, and race relations in the film and how their racial locations inform this situatedness. We utilize principles of standpoint theories as the theoretical framework for the analysis. We first describe this situatedness in terms of six emergent genres of responses that varied across positionality and contextual focus. Then, we discuss how the patterns of responses may be explained through standpoint theories and conversely how the emergent organizing framework may complement standpoint theories.     

Contingent Valuation of a Cultural Public Good and Policy Design: The Case of ``Napoli Musei Aperti'

The aim of the paper is twofold: to report on theapplication of a contingent valuation survey todetermine the value to the Naples population ofmaintaining ``Napoli Musei Aperti', a cultural publicgood provided by the city of Naples, and to exploresome alternative schemes of cultural policy. The paperis divided in two parts. The first presents someresults of the contingent valuation study. The seconddiscusses the use of the contingent valuation as apolicy instrument in the public cultural sector.     

历史文化风貌区保护的地方实践与思考——基于规划文本、地方法规与技术导则的分析

通过多个历史文化名城的相关保护规划文本、地方保护条例(办法)以及地方规划编制技术导则的分析,对历史文化风貌区的地方实践进行总结。"历史文化风貌区"较历史文化街区具有更丰富内涵与复杂性特征,保护规划过程中应注意识别"历史文化风貌区"中出现的新类型与内部价值要素,在探索和完善地方历史文化遗产保护体系的前提下,秉承不同于历史文化街区的保护思路,探索差异化的、量体裁衣式的历史文化风貌区保护方法。