From sustainable development through green growth to sustainable development plus

Abstract

From sustainable development (SD) through green growth to sustainable development plus (SD+)! Does the ‘+’ really matter? This is the question that brings life to this article and the answer is: YES, it does. The ‘+’ makes a huge difference especially for developing countries such as those from Africa that for a long time have not been fully brought on board in shaping global discourses and the preferred future global development agenda. This article argues that the time has come for globally privileged countries of the North to realise that operationalising ‘The Future We Want’ after Rio+20 demands that developing countries be accorded unpolluted space to contribute to providing answers to difficult and elusive questions on the unsustainable ways of the past development paradigms. Among such questions are: When will the issue of resource intensive development and overconsumption be finally answered? Can green growth transition be part of the solution? How will a post 2015 framework best address the needs of developing countries? The conclusion is that SD+ signals a deeper, wider and knowledge-based understanding of global (un) sustainable perspectives that result in global citizens understanding The Future We Do Not Want.     

Defending the organisation,not the members: Unions and the reform of job security legislation in Western Europe

European labour markets are often described as rigid with comparatively high levels of job protection that do not allow for the flexible adjustment of employment to economic fluctuations. This interpretation overlooks important sources of flexibility, however. Research has shown that recent labour market policy reforms have allowed for the creation of two‐tier labour markets consisting of insiders in standard employment relationships and outsiders in non‐standard employment. This outcome has typically been explained by pointing to the representational interests of unions or social‐democratic parties. It has been argued that rather than protecting all labour market participants, unions and social‐democratic parties focus on the interests of their members and their core constituency, respectively, most of whom are in standard employment relationships. In contrast, it is argued here that unions' institutional power resources are the crucial variable explaining this outcome. In difficult economic times, when unions are asked to make concessions, they will assent to labour market reforms, but only to those that do not fundamentally threaten to undermine their organisational interests. In the context of job security legislation, this means that unions defend the protection of permanent contracts while they compromise on the regulation of temporary employment. This ‘second best solution’ allows them to protect their organisational interests, both by retaining their institutional role in the administration of dismissals and by living up to their institutional role as one of the organisations responsible for the direction of labour market policy reform. Using fsQCA this article shows that unions' institutional power resources are more apt to explain the observed two‐tier reform pattern than the unions' or the social‐democratic parties' representational interests.     

Innovations in Constructing the Framework of China's Environmental Code —Referencing the Framework of China's Civil Code

The success in compiling China's Civil Code benefits from factors such as China's complete system of civil law statutes, the methodology of the Pandekten System, and the private-law attributes of civil laws, etc. To construct the framework of China's environmental code, it is necessary to reference that success for theoretical and structural innovations. In addition, the fundamental features and inherent issues of China's existing environmental law system, such as its breadth, the extensiveness of origins of environmental law, the multiple implication of environmental legal relations, and the compound nature of the environmental legal liability system, should be taken into account. The layout structure of General—Specifics should be adopted for compiling China's environmental code, while moderate codification and extraction of the common factor (vor die Klammer zu ziehen) for connection with applicable rules of specific laws should serve as construction principles and methods for compiling the framework of China's environmental code. The environmental code should have five parts: General ; Pollution Prevention and Control ; Nature Conservation ; Green and Low-Carbon Development ; and Ecological and Environmental Responsibility.     

Evaluation of six presumptive tests for blood, their specificity, sensitivity, and effect on high molecular-weight DNA

Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, Hemident, and Bluestar are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, and Bluestar, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident.     

Human genomic DNA quantitation system, H-Quant: development and validation for use in forensic casework

The human DNA quantification (H-Quant) system, developed for use in human identification, enables quantitation of human genomic DNA in biological samples. The assay is based on real-time amplification of AluYb8 insertions in hominoid primates. The relatively high copy number of subfamily-specific Alu repeats in the human genome enables quantification of very small amounts of human DNA. The oligonucleotide primers present in H-Quant are specific for human DNA and closely related great apes. During the real-time PCR, the SYBR Green I dye binds to the DNA that is synthesized by the human-specific AluYb8 oligonucleotide primers. The fluorescence of the bound SYBR Green I dye is measured at the end of each PCR cycle. The cycle at which the fluorescence crosses the chosen threshold correlates to the quantity of amplifiable DNA in that sample. The minimal sensitivity of the H-Quant system is 7.6 pg/microL of human DNA. The amplicon generated in the H-Quant assay is 216 bp, which is within the same range of the common amplifiable short tandem repeat (STR) amplicons. This size amplicon enables quantitation of amplifiable DNA as opposed to a quantitation of degraded or nonamplifiable DNA of smaller sizes. Development and validation studies were performed on the 7500 real-time PCR system following the Quality Assurance Standards for Forensic DNA Testing Laboratories.     

日韩解雇制度比较分析——解雇中的法律和经济问题

采取有效措施保护雇员免受不公正解雇，确保被解雇者获得合理补偿，是保护劳动者工作权利的重要内容。本文从法律和经济角度比较了日韩两国不同的解雇保护制度，以及雇用制度实践的变化，分析了其有关解雇保护的基本理念和主要观点，认为放松经营性解雇（裁员）和临时用工的限制，已成为日韩两国解雇制度的一个共同趋向。     

基于绿色城市模式的两型社会构建

该文对两型社会中绿色城市模式进行了定位，并分析其对于两型社会构建的重要意义，对绿色城市模式的层次构成、发展策略与运作机制进行了探讨。     

政协提案工作的理论与实践

进入新世纪政协提案工作取得了新的成效,在促进社会主义经济建设、政治建设、文化建设中发挥了重要作用,作出了重要贡献.如何写好政协提案,要抓住"六个环节",要注重"审时、务实、坦诚、求效",注意"四个视角",要具备"严肃性、科学性和可行性",要充分认识政协提案作为人民政协政治协商、民主监督、参政议政职能的重要方式.     

高校“青马工程”培养路径研究——基于对大学生创业教育视角的思考

高校“青马工程”的培养,旨在帮助高校大学生骨干学习和掌握党的理论创新成果,了解国情,认识社会,提高思想政治素质,坚定理想信念.但是,高校“青马工程”的开展,在培养实践过程应该更好的总结经验,采取多层次、立体化、互动学习的培训模式,要立足于高校创业教育的视角,立足于大学生全面成才发展的需要,将理论和实践相融合,设置符合“青马工程”培养需求的创业教育机制,建立“青马工程”创业教育评价标准,从而完善“青马工程”的教育体系.