Understanding Chinese identity in international relations : a critique of Western approaches.

In international relations in the West, two main approaches to Chinese identity have emerged: the capability and the culture approaches. Though each takes a different view of China, they share common epistemological ground. positivism. This paper provides an overview of these two influential schools of thought and attempts to challenge their positivistic and ethnocentric assumptions about the identities of both China and the West. While they endeavour to make sense of China, particularly in the post-Cold War era, they fail to understand identity as a form of representation. From a critical perspective, both ’China’ and the ‘West’ are social constructs: each in part constitutes the other. The relationship between them is always relational and fluid. Posing Chinese identity in positivist terms is not only misleading analytically, but potentially dangerous in practice. It is important, therefore, that alternative critical approaches to the complexities of Chinese identity be further explored.

Global positioning systems: Middle Eastern & Australian landscapes

A solo exhibition held at the Australian Embassy Kuwait in 2009, explores the similarities and differences of interior and exterior landscapes of Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, Jordan and Australia. The work makes reference to the GPS coordinates of each location as a means of interrogating the position of the artist within each realm.

Refractive errors in students from Middle Eastern backgrounds living and undertaking schooling in Australia

Background:  Environmental factors associated with schooling systems in various countries have been implicated in the rising prevalence of myopia, making the comparison of prevalence of refractive errors in migrant populations of interest. This study aims to determine the prevalence of refractive errors in children of Middle Eastern descent, raised and living in urban Australia but actively maintaining strong ties to their ethnic culture, and to compare them with those in the Middle East where myopia prevalence is generally low.Methods:  A total of 354 out of a possible 384 late primary/early secondary schoolchildren attending a private school attracting children of Middle Eastern background in Melbourne were assessed for refractive error and visual acuity. A Shin Nippon open-field NVision-K5001 autorefractor was used to carry out non-cycloplegic autorefraction while viewing a distant target. For statistical analyses students were divided into three age groups: 10–11 years (n = 93); 12–13 years (n = 158); and 14–15 years (n = 102).Results:  All children were bilingual and classified as of Middle Eastern (96.3 per cent) or Egyptian (3.7 per cent) origin. Ages ranged from 10 to 15 years, with a mean of 13.17 ± 0.8 (SEM) years. Mean spherical equivalent refraction (SER) for the right eye was +0.09 ± 0.07 D (SEM) with a range from -7.77 D to +5.85 D. The prevalence of myopia, defined as a spherical equivalent refraction 0.50 D or more of myopia, was 14.7 per cent. The prevalence of hyperopia, defined as a spherical equivalent refraction of +0.75 D or greater, was 16.4 per cent, while hyperopia of +1.50 D or greater was 5.4 per cent. A significant difference in SER was seen as a function of age; however, no significant gender difference was seen.Conclusions:  This is the first study to report the prevalence of refractive errors for second-generation Australian schoolchildren coming from a predominantly Lebanese Middle Eastern Arabic background, who endeavour to maintain their ethnic ties. The relatively low prevalence of myopia is similar to that found for other metropolitan Australian school children but higher than that reported in the Middle East. These results suggest that lifestyle and educational practices may be a significant influence in the progression of myopic refractive errors.

Brazil & Lusphone Africa: a study of history, international relations, & international trade

This report was inspired by a personal motivation to acquire more in depth knowledge about Brazil and Lusophone (Portuguese speaking) African nations and how they interact with each other in relation to their common colonial histories, cultures, and on matters of international relations, international development, and international trade. The countries selected for purpose and focus of this report are Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique; reference will also be made with respect to other Lusophone African countries such as Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé e Príncipe. Some of the research methodologies used to gather information about Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, and other Lusophone African nations in relation to their respective histories, international relations, international trade relations, and roles in the global economy as emerging market nations.

Environmental factor, crisis in the centres and change in international relations of the peripheral countries

Includes bibliography

Tradução de termos simples, expressões fixas e semifixas em ciência política e economia política: um estudo baseado em corpus

This study discusses translations in English concerning the areas of Political Science and Political Economy, written by Fernando Henrique Cardoso & Enzo Falleto; and Antonio Carlos Bresser-Pereira. Our research project draws on CorpusBased Translation Studies (BAKER, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2000; CAMARGO, 2005, 2007), Corpus Linguistics (BERBER SARDINHA, 2004; TOGNINI-BONELLI, 2001) and on some concepts of Terminology (BARROS, 2004; KRIEGER & FINATTO, 2004). For compiling the comparable corpora in Portuguese and in English, we selected articles from Brazilian journals and from international journals of Political Science and Political Economy. We also present four samples of bilingual glossaries with the terms of these subareas in their cotexts.