Communicating South Africa’s soft power: Agents,instruments and recipients

New scholarly literature that focuses on the currency of soft power is emerging in the analysis of South Africa’s foreign policy. This nascent strand of discourse seeks to capture the nexus between the ideational value of soft power and Pretoria’s foreign policy. Despite pockets of literature in this regard, there has been little analysis of the communicative settings and adaptations of soft power in the South African context. Within this analytical context, this article aims to contribute to existing discourse on South Africa’s soft power by probing the agents, sources and subjects involved in its cultivation and unpacking the links between these communicative environments. These issues are critical, given the recent emphasis on the role and utility of soft power for achieving South Africa’s foreign policy ambitions. The article stresses that, in the long term, the deepening of South Africa’s soft power capability and influence will depend largely on the extent of the strategic calibration between the communicative realms of actors, instruments and recipients.     

Expressed attachment to Russia and social integration: the case of young Russian speakers in Latvia, 2004–2010

The aim of this article is to establish if expressed attachment to Russia, amongst surveyed Russian-speaking youths in 2004 and 2010 in Latvia, demonstrates any noteworthy correlations with factors promoting integration and feelings of belonging to Latvia. The correlation analysis shows that a sense of belonging to Russia and a sense of belonging to Latvia are not mutually exclusive. However, those Russian speakers in Latvia expressing a closer sense of belonging to Russia are also more likely to prefer an all-Russian environment, are skeptical of their rights and influence in Latvia, and are more likely to perceive discrimination in terms of citizenship status and ethnicity. These preferences suggest either a lack of integration or an “external homeland” influence.     

Designing tools for ‘joined up’ homelessness prevention: Insights from one case study

Homelessness is a complex social problem with significant health and economic consequences. Prevention-based responses seek to reduce the number of people who go on to experience homelessness, but effective homelessness prevention is challenging to implement and can require service integration across mainstream referral organisations and specialist homelessness service agencies. The ‘At-Risk Screening Tool’ was piloted over August 2018 to March 2019 to enable such mainstream and specialist organisations to coordinate their screening and referral process in the context of homelessness prevention. The tool was used by mainstream referral agencies to assess a client's risk of homelessness, and a tailored referral pathway to a specialist homelessness agency was produced based on this assessment. This article discusses the evaluation of the pilot, exploring three key insights around service integration in a community service context. These insights emphasise the importance of embedding an awareness of staff needs and organisational constraints into the design and application of similar tools.     

双重互构逻辑下中国城乡关系的演进规律与时代抉择--基于马克思恩格斯城乡融合思想的分析

新中国成立70余年来,城乡关系从分离、差别到二元结构的固化,再至城乡关系的融合发展,这个历史进程部分地践行了马克思恩格斯的城乡融合思想,二者在理论与实践层面实现了首次互构。新时代的城乡关系已然出现了新的变化,而新马克思主义学派也继承更新了马克思主义的理论和方法,重构了空间理论,进一步延展了马克思恩格斯的城乡融合思想,城乡关系的新变化与马克思恩格斯城乡融合思想的动态演进之间实现了二次互构。基于二者双重互构的逻辑,城乡关系的融合与创新发展应汲取马克思恩格斯城乡融合思想的时代精髓:尊重城乡发展的基本规律,规范资本与“人本”的界域;彻底翻转城乡不对等的理念,积极促成城乡资源要素的自由流动;变革城乡融合发展的相关体制与机制,致力于城乡公共服务的均等化及向乡村领域的延伸;实现乡村振兴战略、巩固脱贫攻坚成果及城乡融合发展的三元共振,推进城乡融合发展迈入新阶段。     

An overview of the content and historical context of the international freshwater agreements that South Africa has entered into with neighbouring countries

Southern Africa is at a pivotal point in time for transboundary water cooperation. The number and extent of coverage of existing international water agreements and joint management institutions merits cautious optimism about future water management in the region. Yet, taken alone, a numerical account of water treaties reveals little about the context in which the agreements were negotiated, the nature of the rules and regulations adopted, or the influence of the agreements in addressing problems or enhancing joint governance. Drawing on a database containing all the international freshwater agreements entered into between South Africa and its neighbours since 1910, this article examines trends in the articulation of these treaties and discusses the implications of the rules and regulations they embody. Specific consideration is given to issues of information sharing, water allocation and organizations. This analysis is a first step towards understanding the impact of existing agreements, identifying opportunities for the negotiation of new treaties and enhancing existing systems.

宪法权利视角下的被征地农民社会保障制度研究

随着城市化进程的加快,被征地农民的大量增加似乎不可避免。虽然中央明确要求要“确保被征地农民原有生活水平不降低、长远生计有保障”,但目前被征地农民的现实状况仍不容乐观。在合法权益缺乏有效保障的情形下,被征地农民整体生活状况日益陷入贫困,被征地农民的社会保障问题越来越迫切。从保障被征地农民的宪法权利着眼,按城乡一体化的基本思路来构建公平、有效、可持续的社会保障制度是确保被征地农民的基本生存权与发展权的关键所在。     

新时期中国共产党社会整合的内在机制

新时期,执政的中国共产党综合运用意识形态整合、制度整合、组织整合、职业和专业共同体整合等途径和方式,使之相互配合,逐步构建中国社会整合新的内在机制。     

Social Integration, Self-control, and Conformity

Evidence relevant to claims of self-control theory concerning the connection between social integration and crime/deviance is offered. Using data from a survey of the population of a southwestern city that permit measurement of two types of social integration, including socially supportive networks, we (1) investigate the association between self-control and social integration, and (2) attempt to ascertain if social integration is associated with misbehavior independently of self-control. Results suggest that self-control is a persistent predictor of misconduct that operates independently of social integration. Although interpersonal social integration appears to stand alone in its association with deviance, community integration shows no relationship with self-control or misbehavior.

Regionalization in East Asia

Institutional regionalization has come very late to East Asia compared with Europe, but its pace has dramatically increased since the mid-1990s. Many agreements, including bilateral ones such as those signed between Japan and Singapore, or pluri-lateral ones such as those between ASEAN countries, cover an ever increasing number of countries of the East Asian region, including Japan, India, and China. We first analyze Asian integration as a de facto, spontaneous, development of trade. Trade specialization in Asia has often been described as guided by the different levels of development of the countries participating in the regional integration. It constitutes a vertical division of labor between poor countries exporting natural resources and/or labor-intensive products to developed countries exporting machinery, sophisticated parts and components, and high-tech products. This trade structure is radically different from the European horizontal division of labor (exchange of different varieties of similar goods). Then we look at the micro-economic level how Japanese firms tend to integrate Asia into their international network, with Japanese partners being used as relays for Japanese export of semi-manufactured products. Last we present a simulation with the MIRAGE model of a scenario of general regionalization in which all the regions of the world develop preferential treatment for neighboring countries. These agreements are limited to industrial products with particular attention to the automotive sector. The main results are that Asia is the main winner in such a scenario, and within Asia it is Japan and Korea that will be the main winners. In fact, because developing Asia is one of the most protected regions of the world, the impact of liberalization is also the highest. Second, Japan and Korea are best placed to profit from these regional agreements, because other developed countries are excluded from the market of developing Asia. They also have superiority in manufacturing goods whereas countries like China might have problems upscaling their industrial production. Nevertheless our model did not take into account the voluntary pace of development chosen by China and that she will use her powerful state system to avoid being locked into low-tech, low-value-added products.

论美国贸易自由化进程中贸易调整援助制度

当今世界,以区域贸易协定（RTA）和自由贸易协定（FTA）为代表的区域经济一体化和自由化的发展日趋迅猛,发达国家在实施贸易自由化、区域经济一体化乃至经济全球化过程中,对旨在因此进程而受到牺牲的产业、企业、工人和农民的利益实施补偿和援助的配套制度建设高度重视。而发端于欧洲经济共同体、而后被美国发扬光大的贸易调整援助（TAA）制度,正是上述贸易自由化和区域经济一体化配套制度的支柱之一。在进一步推进贸易自由化过程中,我国一方面应大胆借鉴欧美的TAA制度,另一方面也应当汲取发达国家在实施TAA项目过程中的教训,在保留TAA制度合理内核的基础上注意扬弃和克服这一制度的缺陷和弊端。