one Internet café or four homeowner associations

"As in any edited volume, some chapters are stronger than others, though the overall level of quality is quite high. Although the contributors come from a variety of disciplines, the majority are anthropologists, as are the two editors. As a sociologist, I felt less than impressed by the methodology of many of the studies. The problem may lay more in disciplinary habits than in actual research rigor; anthropologists tend to say very little about methodology in articles, while sociologists tend to say a lot. Of course the real constraints of conducting research in China, where statistics are unreliable and authorities are suspicious of foreign social scientists, mean that qualitative methods and small samples are the only data available. Even so, it is reasonable to wonder how much stock to put into a study of one Internet café or four homeowner associations."

from Carolyn Hsu's book review on Privatizing China: Socialism from Afar. Edited by Li Zhang and Aihwa Ong. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press

파리 3일째...

런던 1박을 거쳐 파리에서 세밤째를 맞고 있다.

아직 건너온지 오래되지 않았기 때문에 길고 충실한 감상은 아직 못 적겠고

몇 가지 가벼운 인상비평을 하자면...

먼저 런던:

- 얘네가 예전에 진짜 전세계 최고(깡패)였구나...하는 느낌이 건물들을 보면서 느껴짐;; 특히 부촌을 지날때는 후덜덜했음;

- 사람들이 미국(동부)사람들보다 나이스함. 사람들이 좀 더 얌전하고 civilized된 느낌ㅎ 역시 개인주의는 미국이 짱임. 옷도 미국보다 훨씬 더 스타일리시하고 미남미녀들이 많음. (파리지앵들이 더 옷 잘 입는다고 얘기를 들었는데 꼭 그런것 같지도 않음)

- 도시가 생각보다 깨끗. 그리고 파리도 그렇지만 natural food, organic food 이런 건강한 음식 먹는게 더 정착된 듯.

- 우리 학과에 런던에서 공부한 친구가 런던 가면, 유럽가면 진짜 좋다고, 하버드 있는 캠브리지를 가리키며 This is nothing..이랬는데 진짜 맞는 말임을 느꼈음;

파리:

- 더러운 곳 많고 노숙자 많고 (예전에 주거권 통과시키려던건 어떻게 되었는지..) 이민자 인구(사회계층 밑바닥 구성)가 큰 게 느껴짐. 샤르코지 이후 가장 유력후보가 최근 극우정당의 마린 르펜으로 떠올랐다는데 이 이민문제가 진짜 심각해져서인듯. 인구 10%가 이민 온 무슬림이 되면서... (남부 지역 어디가면 10명 중 한명이 프랑스인이라고...)

- 아직 도시라기 보다는 관광지 같은 느낌이 들어서 '도시'로서의, 사람 사는 곳으로서의 매력은 잘 못느끼겠음. 한참 더 지나야지 그런 단계로 넘어갈 수 있을 듯. 지금은 뭘해도 '파리'에서 하고 있다는 생각 때문에 뭘해도 상징적 행위로 스스로 소비하는 듯한 느낌. 어쨌든 분명한건 엄청난 문화유산이 그냥 그대로 감당하기 힘들 정도로 쌓여있는 곳이란 점...

- 역시나 ㅎㄷㄷ한 미남미녀들 많음ㅋ

- 스타벅스 많고 맥도날드도 많고 항상 사람 많음ㅎ 헐리웃 영화도 많이 걸려있고... 프랑스 자존심 어쩌고 하는 것도 아주 옛날 얘기가 된 듯.. 사르트르랑 보부아르가 자주왔다는 cafe de flore에 갔는데 길건너 맞은편으로 까르띠에 매장과 아르마니 카페가 성업 중... 맑시스트였던 사르트르가 여기와서 앉아있으면 무슨 생각을 할지?

- 내가 실제로 그런 느낌을 받은건지 아니면 머릿속 정보들 때문에 그렇게 보이는건지 암튼 파리도 프랑스가 전후 30년간 기똥차게 잘 나갈때나 사랑과 낭만과 문학과 철학과 예술과 안정된 사회보장과 똘레랑스와 등등이지, 21세기 들어서는 뭐 실업과, 특히 청년실업과, 사회갈등과, 이념 대립과, 빈부격차와, 철학의 쇠퇴와, 이민/인종 문제와 줄어든 똘레랑스와 미국화 등등이 표면에 두드러지게 난 공간이 되고 있는 것 같다.

- 3일밖에 안있은 주제에...;;

복지관련 경향 기사들

[복지국가를 말한다]“스웨덴 모델 튼튼해지고 있다”
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201106072123095&code=940702&s_code=as071


[복지국가를 말한다]스웨덴, 신자유주의 미국도 “다시 보자”
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201106072122115&code=940702&s_code=as071

[복지국가를 말한다](4) 스웨덴, 가족과 국가의 ‘함께 복지’

스톡홀름 | 유정인 기자 jeongin@kyunghyang.com

http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201106072127135&code=940702

[복지국가를 말한다](3부) ② 시장논리를 넘어서

http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201106162126505&code=940702

구두 한켤레당 6,500원

http://media.daum.net/society/others/view.html?cateid=1067&newsid=20110527105710695&p=ohmynews&RIGHT_COMM=R4

착취

"Don't Believe Facebook; You Only Have 150 Friends"

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/04/136723316/dont-believe-facebook-you-only-have-150-friends?sc=tw#commentBlock

"GORE-TEX, the company that makes wetsuits, hiking boots and ponchos, is the subject of a famous anecdote in the world of sociology. It centers on the guy who founded the company, Bill Gore.

"When Bill Gore set the company up, he set it up in his backyard," Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at the University of Oxford, tells NPR's Rachel Martin.

From its modest beginnings, GORE-TEX grew and grew, Dunbar says, until Gore opened up a large factory. That, too, continued to grow.

Then one day, Dunbar says, Gore walked into his factory.

"And he simply didn't know who everybody was."

Gore wondered why this was. "It was his gut instinct," Dunbar says, "that the bigger a company got, people working for the company were much less likely to work hard and help each other out."

Gore did some counting, and realized that after putting about 150 people in the same building, things at GORE-TEX just did not run smoothly. People couldn't keep track of each other. Any sense of community was gone.

So Gore made the decision to cap his factories at 150 employees.

"Whenever they needed to expand the company," Dunbar says, "he would just build a new factory. Sometimes right on the parking lot next door."

Things ran better this way, Gore realized. In smaller factories, Dunbar says, "everybody knew who was who. Who was the manager, who was the accountant, who made the sandwiches for lunch."

Business was never better. One-hundred fifty, it seemed, was a magic number."

"Most of Dunbar's research has focused on why the GORE-TEX model was a success. That model is based on the idea that human beings can hold only about 150 meaningful relationships in their heads. Dunbar has researched the idea so deeply, the number 150 has been dubbed "Dunbar's Number."

Ironically, the term was coined on Facebook, where 150 friends may seem like precious few.

"There was a discussion by people saying 'I've got too many friends — I don't know who half these people are,'" Dunbar says. "Somebody apparently said, 'Look, there's this guy in England who says you can't have more than 150.'"

Dunbar has found 150 to be the sweet spot for hunter-gatherer societies all over the world. From the Bushmen of Southern Africa to Native American tribes, a typical community is about 150 people. Amish and Hutterite communities — even most military companies around the world — seem to follow the same rule.

The reason 150 is the optimal number for a community comes from our primate ancestors, Dunbar says. In smaller groups, primates could work together to solve problems and evade predators. Today, 150 seems to be the number at which our brains just max out on memory.

But what does this all mean if you're not Amish — or the CEO of GORE-TEX?"

Nietzsche on Hardship

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pilLBcdSMI&feature=related


"To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities - I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, the wretchedness of the vanquished: I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not - that one endures."

가장 큰 기쁨

사람이 느낄 수 있는 가장 크고 근본적인, 뿌리를 흔드는 기쁨 중 하나는
Becoming oneself


Becoming myself is fun.