From Dialectic of Nature to the Asian Mode: A Pre-history of North Korean Environmental Approach

North Korea is not a nation or field that attracts a great deal of critically minded analysis which would address the processes and moments of its ideological history. This is especially true when it comes to matters of North Korea’s relationship with nature and the environment, and the ideologies which underpin developmental and productive strategies within that nation. The routes which Marxist analysis in general took to connect to the Korean Peninsula are themselves fairly obscure and rarely considered. This paper therefore seeks an examination of the generation of Marxist analysis of nature and of those modes of production which encounter, transform and interact with natural and environmental forms. It considers the work of both Engels and Marx on the subject before tracing the journey those theorisations took into the practices and articulations of later Marxists, communists and socialists tasked with applying Marxist principles more widely in the processes of nation building and governance. In particular, it analyses notions of an Asian Mode of Production and the debate in Marxist circles as to that mode’s veracity and utility. It also encounters briefly the work of Karl Wittfogel, a counter-Marxist theoretician, and his notion of Hydraulic Economy. Finally, the paper traces the journey made by these theoretical structures into the intellectual world of the Korean Peninsula, navigating the debates it generated among early Korean Marxist intellectuals and their embedding or otherwise within the ideological structures and processes of North Korea.     

发展中不平等问题的中韩比较

韩国在1970—1984年与中国1992-2006年间有着十分相似的经济状况并且几乎以相同的轨迹增长。数据比较显示：中韩在经济发展过程中,中国的基尼系数、城乡人均收入差距等都呈逐渐增加并不断高于韩国的趋势;但是在教育支出、中高等教育入学率等方面都远不及韩国的增长速度。韩国的新农村建设、教育制度、社保制度保证是韩国缩小城乡差距,实现一元化经济的三大重要因素,而中国在这几方面都存在不同程度的不足与政策缺失。全面推进新农村建设、大力发展教育事业、完善社保制度是解决当前中国收入差距不断扩大、经济发展中的收入分配不平等问题的重要举措。     

威权政体转型中的政党与民主--印尼与韩国比较研究

政党是现代政治的产物,现代政党理论一般认为从政党政治里会自然生长出民主政治来.但是对于后发展国家来说,历史使其没有足够的时间重复西方发达国家渐进发展的道路,威权政体中政党活动对民主政治的影响要根据不同国家的具体情况.政党政治能否带来民主政治与这些国家的政党成熟程度、对法治的尊重、军队的改革特别是市民社会的发育程度有关.     

The Ethical Dilemma of Cross-Race Marriage: A Review of William Gardner Smith's South Street

Through the depiction of the tragedy of cross-race marriage in South Street, William Gardner Smith reveals the conflicts between marital ethics and ethnic passing in American society, making invectives against the repression and destruction of humanity in racial discrimination and prejudice. The racial complex, negative acculturation and judicial injustice combined together greatly do harm to the legal rights of cross-race marriage and result in the loss of social marital ethics, widening the gap between whites and blacks. The racist situational field leads black and white people into a terrific trap of marital ethics. Any of white people's restriction on or deprivation of blacks' marital freedom is a violation of social ethics. Family members as well as friends' well-meaning interference in cross-race marriage is unfavorable to the people pursuing happy marriages. This novel expands the themes of African American urban naturalistic fiction, blaming the systematic power and situational power, which are caused by white racism and black internalization of racism, for the hindrance, repression and destruction of the marriage based upon true love, and thus highlighting the greatness and limitation of human nature.     

CAFTA价值链演进与“南南竞争”价值链发展战略构架

企业+产业+国家是全球价值链基本的三维发展战略构架。随着中国—东盟自由贸易区(CAFTA)等南南竞争型价值链的演进与生成,以南北互补型价值链为研究载体的全球价值链三维发展战略构架面临不足,需要进一步拓展。本文认为,CAFTA 价值链演进背景下南南竞争价值链发展战略构架,由产业网络组织价值创造评价,企业价值链动力扩散的分解、重组与极化,以及国家区位战略引力培育三大部分组成。这一新战略构架能创新和落实作为国家战略层面的广西北部湾经济区的开放与开发战略选择。     

2011年韩国经济展望

韩国经济预计在2010年取得5.9%的增长率的基础上,2011年有望取得3.8%的经济增长。但是,由于中国和美国的经济复苏势头有回落的趋势,欧洲的财政危机仍有可能持续,使得韩国主要产业的出口和投资增幅预计都将回落,民间消费也因政策效果和资产效果的萎缩等原因很难期待继续保持上升势头。因此,韩国经济要在2011年复苏到金融危机以前的水平比较困难,这就要求韩国政府在制订经济刺激计划退出战略时更加慎重。     

冷战后印韩关系的迅速发展及其影响

与冷战时期的相互淡漠相比,冷战后印韩关系迅速发展,21世纪以来急剧升温。促成两国关系迅速发展的因素包括两国的相互认知、两国的亚洲战略、美国的亚太战略部署以及亚太局势的变化。印韩关系的迅速发展已经并将继续影响亚洲的政治安全局势和亚洲经济共同体的构建前景。有鉴于此,中国应该将全球战略的重点转向亚洲,重新思考亚洲国际秩序的建构。     

The need for international search and rescue (SAR) teams during an earthquake: Nepal case study

On 25 April 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, causing huge damage. Many countries and international organisations such as the United Nations started monitoring the situation and offered support to the Nepali government. This article raises points that must be examined by decision-makers before implementing delegations; these include cost effectiveness, whether it improves morale and resilience, international relations, and experience, and promotes good relationships between the two countries, and assisting their own citizens who were affected by the disaster.     

State narratives of ‘foreignness’ and ‘criminality’ in South Africa

This article brings the notion of transfiguration to bear on the study of the ‘unspeakable’ identity of African migrants living in South Africa, in the context of state language games on violence perpetrated against these migrants. The significance of these discourses is explored, in particular how official and not-so-unofficial discourses on violence in South African media combine to make migrants simultaneously visible and invisible. Speaking about violence involving black non-South Africans, state functionaries tend to downplay the ‘xenophobic’ element while overplaying the link with motiveless crime. Nevertheless, the sense that the migrant, labelled ‘foreigner’, is to blame for all the problems is never far from the surface of these language games. The migrant is therefore enlisted into a discourse where s/he is transformed and subsequently forced to recognise him/herself as subject. As a victim of violence, the migrants find themselves inhabiting zones of discursive indistinction, where they are both victim and victimiser, criminal and crime victim.     

Food sovereignty and agro-ecology in Karnataka: interplay of discourses,identities, and practices

Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), a farmers’ movement, and a member of La Via Campesina, has been encouraging zero-budget natural farming in Karnataka, India, within the framework of food sovereignty and agro-ecology. Using the experiences of KRRS, this article addresses the question of the extent of pluralism within the discourse of food sovereignty. Focusing on the interplay of local and global practices, discourses and identities, the article throws light upon contradictions and negotiations between “necessary abstractions” and “particularisms”, spaces and places of resistance and implications it may have on struggles at both local and global levels.