Habermas, China und die "halbierte Moderne" : im Gespräch mit dem chinesischen Sozialphilosophen und Übersetzer Cao Weidong

Seit den 1980er Jahren erfreut sich die kritische Theorie im intellektuellen Diskurs Chinas großer Beliebtheit. Dank der chinesischen Reformpolitik wird die Sozialphilosophie der Frankfurter Schule zunehmend als Methode verwendet, um den politischen Alltag und den gesellschaftlichen Wandel kritisch zu analysieren. Hierbei spielen die Schriften von Jürgen Habermas und besonders seine Ansichten zur Zivilgesellschaft, Öffentlichkeit und zur Schlüsselrolle der Kommunikation eine wichtige Rolle. Im Rahmen der vom Interdisziplinären Zentrum für Ostasienwissenschaften der Goethe-Universität veranstalteten Konferenz »Kritik – Theorie – Kritische Theorie. Die Frankfurter Schule in China« gab der Habermas-Experte und Übersetzer Cao Weidong Einblick in das chinesische »Habermas-Fieber«

Chlorophyll a reconstruction from in situ measurements: 1. Method description

Understanding the development of primary production is essential for projections of the global carbon cycle in the context of climate change. A chlorophyll a hindcast that serves as a primary production indicator was obtained by fitting in situ measurements of nitrate, chlorophyll a, and temperature. The resulting fitting functions were adapted to a modeled temperature field. The method was applied to observations from the Madeira Basin, in the northeastern part of the oligotrophic North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre and yielded a chlorophyll a field from 1989 to 2008 with a monthly resolution validated with remotely measured surface chlorophyll a data by SeaWiFS. The chlorophyll a hindcast determined with our method resolved the seasonal and interannual variability in the phytoplankton biomass of the euphotic zone as well as the deep chlorophyll maximum. Moreover, it will allow estimation of carbon uptake over long time scales

Nitrification and the ammonia-oxidizing communities in the central Baltic Sea water column

The redoxclines that form between the oxic and anoxic water layers in the central Baltic Sea are sites of intensive nitrogen cycling. To gain better understanding of nitrification, we measured the biogeochemical properties along with potential nitrification rates and analyzed the assemblages of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and archaea using functional gene microarrays. To estimate nitrification in the entire water column, we constructed a regression model for the nitrification rates and applied it to the conditions prevailing in the area in 2008-2012. The highest ammonia oxidation rates were found in a thin layer at the top of the redoxcline and the rates quickly decreased below detection limit when oxygen was exhausted. This is probably because extensive suboxic layers, which are known to harbor pelagic nitrification, are formed only for short periods after inflows in the Baltic Sea. The nitrification rates were some of the highest measured in the water columns, but the thickness of the layer where conditions were favorable for nitrification, was very small and it remained fairly stable between years. However, the depth of the nitrification layer varied substantially between years, particularly in the eastern Gotland Basin (EGB) due to turbulence in the water column. The ammonia oxidizer communities clustered differently between the eastern and western Gotland Basin (WGB) and the composition of ammonia oxidizing assemblages correlated with the environmental variables. The ammonia oxidizer community composition was more even in the EGB, which may be related to physical instability of the redoxcline that does not allow predominance of a single archetype, whereas in the WGB, where the position of the redoxcline is more constant, the ammonia-oxidizing community was less even. Overall the ammonia oxidizing communities in the Baltic Sea redoxclines were very evenly distributed compared to other marine environments where microarrays have been applied previously. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

A Model for the Prediction of Harmful Algae Blooms in the Vietnamese Upwelling Area

Satellite pictures and in situ observations indicate strong phytoplankton blooms including harmful algae blooms (HABs) during southwest (SW) summer monsoon in the Vietnamese upwelling area. In this period, nutrients are provided by coastal upwelling and by the very high river runoff from the Mekong River. During SW monsoon, in general two circulation patterns exist which allow the prediction of advection and diffusion of HAB patches. A Lagrangian HAB model that is driven by a circulation model and applied to HABs in Vietnamese waters is presented. Advection which is the most complicated part in modelling transport of passive substances is validated with a Lagrangian sediment trap experiment. The model produces realistic results compared to in situ observations and satellite images and might be used for real time forecast in the future

How Much Is My Face Worth? Neoliberal Subjectification, the Beauty Economy, and the Internet Celebrity Culture in China

Since 2015 a new category of media star has come to public awareness and sparked controversial discussion in China: internet celebrity (Wanghong). Wanghongs build their fame and fandom mostly on their eye-catching and hyperfeminine appearance, which they present extensively on social media platforms to gain public attention and to acquire followers and fans. The stereotypical so-called internet celebrity face (Wanghong lian) became the most discussed buzzword of the year 2016, and led to a society-wide discussion about new beauty ideals and the growing popularity of cosmetic surgery, the objectification and commercialization of the body, as well as the increasing importance of presenting an appropriate appearance for the individual’s social and economic success since the turn of the millennium. To address these key emerging issues, the article analyzes the development and characteristics of this new group of celebrities and locates them within the booming “beauty economy.” By literally selling their beautiful face, Wanghongs convert symbolic capital through ecommerce and online advertising into real economic advantage. The utilization of “body capital” has stoked the public discourse about yanzhi (value of a pretty face) in China’s status-conscious society. With an analysis of the internet celebrity phenomenon, this paper looks behind the sparkling social media façade and reveals the social and economic conditions that have led to this new ideology of “beauty as capital” in China

Beauty in East Asia: Introduction

In recent years, reports about the new “beauty craze” in China and South Korea have been piling up in Western newspapers and media outlets. They reveal details about the Chinese high-school graduates who get a nose job first thing after graduation, about double eyelid surgery special offers for couples on Valentine’s Day, and about Korean girl bands who collectively have a makeover. They echo popular fake news stories in East Asian media, for instance the one about the husband who sued his wife over their ugly children after discovering she had cosmetic surgery, and gossip about bizarre incidences of medical tourism, like the one about two Chinese patients who were not allowed to pass border control when trying to reenter their native country because their facial features had changed so fundamentally after cosmetic surgery in South Korea that they could not be recognized from their passports. Of course, most of these stories are motivated by a sensationalist curiosity and do not dig deeper into these phenomena, how they could be interpreted from a sociological perspective, and what they might be able to tell us about current transformation processes occurring in relation to modernization, neoliberalization, and negotiations of gender relations, class affiliation, and individual subject positions in East Asian societies.In fact, examining bodily practices and discourses on beauty can be a rich source of understanding vis-à-vis the ongoing societal changes unfolding in East Asia in recent decades. On the one hand, if we view beautification practices as a kind of skillful performance or practical intentionality then this can tell us a lot about incorporated and embodied structures of social knowledge and norms of action (Csordas 1994). On the other, we can identify underlying mechanisms behind the formation and stabilization of social orders through the human body — and thus identify the order itself. Thus the body, and its modification and beautification, act as a symbolic canvas on which social change and modernization processes are captured: through the prism of the body as both producing and being produced by social structures and norms, it hence exists as the literal embodiment of societal phenomena. An analysis of body representations, physical routines, and beauty practices can, then, help to capture and explain these very processes

Biological processes and links to the physics

Analysis of the temporal and spatial variability of biological processes and identification of the main variables that drive the dynamic regime of marine ecosystems is complex. Correlation between physical variables and long-term changes in ecosystems has routinely been identified, but the specific mechanisms involved remain often unclear. Reasons for this could be various: the ecosystem can be very sensitive to the seasonal timing of the anomalous physical forcing; the ecosystem can be contemporaneously influenced by many physical variables and the ecosystem can generate intrinsic variability on climate time scales. Marine ecosystems are influenced by a variety of physical factors, e.g., light, temperature, transport, turbulence. Temperature has a fundamental forcing function in biology, with direct influences on rate processes of organisms and on the distribution of mobile species that have preferred temperature ranges. Light and transport also affect the physiology and distribution of marine organisms. Small-scale turbulence determines encounter between larval fish and their prey and additionally influences the probability of successful pursuit and ingestion. The impact of physical forcing variations on biological processes is studied through long-term observations, process studies, laboratory experiments, retrospective analysis of existing data sets and modelling. This manuscript reviews the diversity of physical influences on biological processes, marine organisms and ecosystems and their variety of responses to physical forcing with special emphasis on the dynamics of zooplankton and fish stocks

Impact of climate variability of the Western Tropical Pacific on maximum salinity water in the South China Sea

Salinity observations in the Vietnamese upwelling area in June 2016 indicated a significant increase in the salinity of the maximum salinity water (MSW). The source of MSW inflow into the South China Sea (SCS) is a mixture of the Western North Pacific Central Water and the North Pacific Equatorial Water. Although the East Asian winter monsoon is correlated with both the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), the mean salinity of MSW is only spuriously lag correlated to the PDO, but highly correlated to all tropical climate modes (except El Niño Modoki) with a time lag up to 7 months. Composite analyses indicate that the modulation of ENSO by a PDO in a positive phase results in optimal inflow conditions. A comparison of two post-El Niño years with different PDO polarity (negative in 2003 and positive in 2016) shows that the dominant driver is the variability in outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR) and in zonal wind in the tropics. In 2003, enhanced convective activity over the West Pacific warm pool resulted in a cyclonic circulation. In 2016, convective activity was weak and an anticyclonic circulation was intensified, which transported the saltier North Pacific Equatorial Water into the SCS. This observed increase in the salinity of MSW requires a modification of the previous definitions of characteristic water masses, which is presented here. The question of whether or not the increase in MSW salinity is a transient phenomenon cannot be answered. It might be possible that the increase in salinity is related to global warming.</p