Constructing the homeland: Kazakhstan's discourse and policies surrounding its ethnic return-migration policy

A new political development that emerged after the disintegration of the Soviet Union was the adoption of ‘homeland stances’ by the newly independent states. Through the construction of the homeland image, the states of the region claimed responsibility not only for their own citizens, but also for a diaspora community of co-ethnics. Kazakhstan became one of these states and its leadership portrayed Kazakhstan as the homeland of the Kazakh diaspora. Furthermore, Kazakhstan's leadership developed far more active homeland rhetoric and initiated an ethnic return-migration policy as early as 1992. This paper will explore the discourse of Kazakhstan's leadership on the repatriation of its co-ethnics as well as the legal and political context that it created to achieve their smooth absorption into domestic society.     

基于绿色财税政策的湘江流域治理生态补偿机制研究

由于历史和现实原因,湘江流域的生态环境问题日渐突显,影响到该流域的社会、经济、文化的发展。湘江流域生态问题是多方面的,湘江流域的治理也需要多种政策的支撑,其中绿色财税政策是重要组成部分之一。而现行的财税政策存在着许多弊端,需要从生态环境财政政策、相关税费制度与政策、市场相关机制等角度加以完善。     

试析社会稳定的范畴

维持社会稳定与经济发展、人权保障一样,是政治的重要目标之一.在当代社会,社会稳定与宪法自由、经济发展及社会共识密切相关.社会稳定同时是一种深刻的文化要求或政治思维方式,在某一文化中被认为是有助于社会稳定的行为,在另一文化中可能被视为对稳定的巨大威胁.     

Power and dispossession in the neoliberal food regime: oil palm expansion in Guatemala

ABSTRACT

Guatemala’s palm oil production has surged in line with the global demand for biodiesel and vegetable oil production. While corporate land grabs have been a popular concept in agrarian studies, we emphasize the integral roles of the state and racially-charged political power relations, enhanced by the neoliberal food regime. These power relations, with racism at their core, foster land control grabs occurring alongside the rise of the palm oil industry. Their effects extend beyond merely the dispossession of land. The oil palm expansion and related dispossessions mostly benefit the international markets and the wealthy ruling class comprised of creole descendants and affluent ladinos. The soaring industry has given rise to human rights violations and a lack of access to or control of various resources, such as food and water. Based on fieldwork, we show that dispossessed Guatemalans, especially the indigenous, experience rising poverty, domestic food shortages and an influx of foreign foodstuffs as the meagrely paid work in the oil palm sector is only available for the few.     

Resource Sovereignties in Bolivia: Re‐Conceptualising the Relationship between Indigenous Identities and the Environment during the TIPNIS Conflict

This paper examines the active re‐construction of indigenous identities within the Plurinational State of Bolivia through the case study of a resource conflict that arose with the government's announcement of its intention to build a road through a national park and indigenous territory, the Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS; Indigenous Territory and Isiboro Sécure National Park). Ethnographic fieldwork shows that both the state and the lowland indigenous movement have fashioned essentialised understandings of an indigenous identity linked to the environment in order to legitimise competing resource sovereignty claims.     

On the margins of soy farms: traditional populations and selective environmental policies in the Brazilian Cerrado

In the Cerrado, the expansion of soybean cultivation since the 1990s has coincided with the strengthening of environmental regulations. We analyze how the two main environmental policies – Protected Areas and the Forest Code – have played out at the ground level in western Bahia state. These policies in Cerrado have not been designed to curb the expansion of this agricultural frontier. These norms have, on the contrary, accommodated this expansion because the way environmental managers selectively choose environmental problems and publicize them through specific information systems depreciates traditional fire-dependent production systems. These ‘politics of selection’ are likely to increase competition for resources in the margins of soybean agriculture, which is where traditional populations have now become confined.     

海峡两岸警务合作规律研究

海峡两岸警务合作大致经历了相互试探、间接联系、直接协作、制度建构等发展阶段,集中反映了双方警务合作必须因应两岸政治互动基本态势,必须适应两岸经济社会整体趋势,必须呼应两岸认知心理大致走势等内在规律,因此,推进跨海峡警务合作应着重落实“一个中国”原则,建构预警网络,消弥误解隔阂。     

The rationale for and potential role of the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement

This article examines the potential role the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) could play in stabilising countries experiencing a high degree of economic volatility. The CRA is a US$100 billion pooled reserve fund that has its origins in the fifth BRICS Summit hosted in Durban. The CRA was set up to help emerging nations deal with liquidity shortages and to strengthen financial systems during crisis. The article examines the debate on the effect of capital market liberalisation and collates some relevant macroeconomic data on the BRICS economies in order to explore the case for a contingent reserve facility. It is found that emerging economies that rapidly liberalised their capital accounts experienced increased economic volatility, creating an uncertain macroeconomic environment and hampering the ability of policymakers to conduct appropriate stabilisation policy. The article takes the position that the CRA could play an important role in providing liquidity to distressed emerging economies. However it concludes that the CRA facility does not signal a significant break from the Bretton Woods institutions on the part of the BRICS countries.     

The development path of rooibos tea – a review of patterns and lessons learnt for the commercialisation of other indigenous teas in South Africa

ABSTRACT

The commercial value of indigenous South African animal and plant resources can add significantly to the nation's socioeconomic development and contribute towards the achievement of the goals of the African Renaissance. However, very few of the country's many indigenous plants have been successfully commercialised. This article reviews the development phases of one success story: rooibos tea. Its development trajectory offers a useful lesson in the commercialisation of other South African indigenous animal and plant resources. Constraints that hindered the effective commercialisation of the beverage are highlighted, notably the initial over-reliance on a local market and the lack of coordinated broad marketing and quality assurance. These constraints were compounded by international trade restrictions imposed on South Africa prior to the 1994 transition to democracy. While the world moved forward, the rooibos tea sector lagged behind in the development of niche markets. It was only in the late 1990s when a seemingly perfect match between the health-giving properties of rooibos and consumer needs was achieved, thus creating a vibrant niche market for the tea. Since then, production and sales of rooibos tea have increased markedly. Adherence to national and international codes of good manufacturing practice, together with the recognition of the importance of fair trade principles regarding the participation of small-scale cooperatives, are becoming increasingly important parameters for product acceptance.     

台湾民意调查之过去、现在与未来

通过民意调查结果的分析,能够解读民众对于公共事务的偏好、态度、评价或选择,可以作为政策规划制定、执行及评估时的参考。台湾民意调查最早源自《台湾新生报》在1952年2月进行的对日合约民意调查。此后,《联合报》、《中国时报》、TVBS等媒体也相继在20世纪八九十年代成立民意调查部门,适时针对重要的公共议题进行调查。1987年解严后,言论更加自由开放,民意调查不仅更加频繁,范围也持续扩大。除大众媒体外,学术机构如中央研究院、政治大学选举研究中心、台北大学民意调查中心、金门大学民意调查中心等,政府单位如研考会、国科会,以及各县市政府,每年都执行各种议题的民意调查。本文从民意调查之方法讨论起,对台湾民意调查发展及民调机构进行概述与介绍;讨论台湾近几年较重要之公共议题民意测验结果;最后,以2012年大选各种民意调查结果与选举结果进行比对,以分析台湾民意调查的发展趋势及对公共事务之影响。