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The article discusses the Forschungsgruppe Poetik und Hermeneutik, a German research group whose proceedings have been documented in series of 17 huge volumes in monumental white covers. It states that the group is the first to collect results or remain of a conference and practice theory as regular routine. It mentions that the group practice on thematically-focused theory.

The article examines the sources of China's rapid economic growth since the introduction of free market reforms in 1978 and the effects of this growth on China's gross domestic product (GDP). The wide disparities in growth and productivity between different regions of the country are described. Particular attention is paid to China's coastal region, which is more technologically advanced than the rest of the country. The article asks questions relative to growth of the coastal region compared to other regions in China and the global economy. The article addresses these catch-up questions within China and within the global economy and speculates as to what institutional and political reforms will directly bear on China's ability to close its international and internal productivity gaps.

This article presents information about two books. One book is "Critical Genealogies: Historical Situations for Postmodern Literary Studies," by Jonathan Arac. The preoccupation with both history and culture characteristic of intellectuals, among others, appears in the three-part structure of Arac's book. Another book is "Criticism Without Boundaries: Directions and Crosscurrents in Postmodern Critical Theory," edited by Joseph A. Buttigieg. Like many volumes of conference proceedings, Joseph Buttigieg's book offers a mixed collection of presentations that display varying degrees of quality as well as shifting foci.

The article reports on the activities of the new International Forum for Democratic Studies of the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In September, the Johns Hopkins University Press published NED's book "Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and Democracy." The International Forum for Democratic Studies also sponsored a number of conferences in various countries including the meeting that evaluated the prospects for political change in China held in October 1994 and the December 1994 conference on the troubled situation in Nigeria.