The 2015 Catalan Election: The Independence Bid at the Polls

This paper examines the context, campaign and main determinants of how Catalans voted in the 2015 regional election. The elections were exceptional because the incumbent and the remaining Catalan nationalist parties framed the contest as a de facto referendum on secession. In this paper we scrutinise whether attitudes towards independence affected vote choice and whether they eclipsed other traditional significant vote-driving factors such as the state of the economy or government performance. Results show that, although the independence issue became a major determinant of vote choice, the elections did not become a pure plebiscite on secession, since voters also used their vote to hold the regional government accountable for its past performance.     

Kenya's foreign policy in context (1963–2015)

Kenya matters regionally and globally. It is the economic powerhouse of East Africa and a long-standing hub for multilateral diplomacy; its positioning in a turbulent region has fashioned its profile as an anchor state in African peace and security. Until recently, Kenya's foreign policy orientation has situated it as a benign regional leader, but pressing developments in the regional and international environments have edged it towards a more assertive foreign policy position. This study constitutes a multilevel review of Kenya's foreign policy in the period 1963–2015, beginning with Jomo Kenyatta through to the current president, Uhuru Kenyatta. After evaluating contexts pertinent to the analysis of Kenya’s foreign policy, the fundamental principles, objectives and pillars of the current foreign policy are unpacked.     

The patriarchy index: a comparative study of power relations across historical Europe

This article stands at the confluence of three streams of historical social science analysis: the sociological study of power relations within the family, the regional demography of historical Europe, and the study of spatial patterning of historical family forms in Europe. It is a first exercise in the design and application of a new ‘master variable’ for cross-cultural studies of family organization and relations. This indexed composite measure, which the authors call the Index of Patriarchy, incorporates a range of variables related to familial behaviour, including nuptiality and age at marriage, living arrangements, post-marital residence, power relations within domestic groups, the position of the aged, and the sex of the offspring. The index combines all these items, with each being given equal weight in the calculation of the final score, which represents the varying degrees of sex- and age-related social inequality (‘patriarchal bias’) in different societal and familial settings. In order to explore the comparative advantages of the index, the authors use information from census and census-like microdata for 91 regions of historical Europe covering more than 700,000 individuals living in 143,000 domestic groups, from the Atlantic to the Urals. The index allows the authors to identify regions with different degrees of patriarchy within a single country, across the regions of a single country, or across and within many broader zones of historical Europe. The unprecedented patterning of the many elements of power relations and agency contained in the index generates new ways of accounting for both the geographies and the histories of family organization across the European landmass.     

Mosaic: recovering surviving census records and reconstructing the familial history of Europe

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the demand for global data on historical family systems, both in the social sciences and in the humanities. Until lately, however, scholars interested in historical global family variation had to rely on simplified and often ahistorical world-scale classifications of family systems by world geographic regions. This article communicates Mosaic to the scholarly community – one of the largest infrastructural projects in the history of historical demography and family sociology. The article provides a brief history of the project, a discussion of the main issues involved in creating the database (including sampling and representativeness), and Mosaic's data structure and coverage. In the remainder of the article, the authors provide an overview of methodological and research opportunities that the project can offer to scholars, showing how the most pertinent problems of historical family demography can be tackled in more systematic ways than previously.     

论农村土地征收中的公平补偿

在农村土地征收中确立公平补偿制度对于保护农民权益、规范政府行为、优化资源配置、维护社会稳定等具有重要意义。落实公平补偿应做到重塑以市场价格为基础的完全补偿原则,逐步扩大农地征收的补偿范围、合理拓展农地征收的补偿方式、完善征地补偿的程序与救济途径。     

区域道路交通事故紧急救援服务体系的构建

近年我国道路交通安全的总体趋势虽然在转好,但仍然呈现出交通事故总量大、死亡人数多的特点。为切实改善这种状况,应借鉴国外经验,在我国构建区域道路交通事故紧急救援服务体系,提高交通事故信息传递、现场急救和急救转运等方面的综合反应和处理能力。     

干旱区绿洲农业可持续发展的制约因素与对策——以对张掖绿洲的分析为例

在分析张掖绿洲农业生态环境特点的基础上,探讨了张掖绿洲农业可持续发展的主要制约因素,提出核定生态环境承载力,严格控制人口数量;建立节水型农业,增加生态用水比例;推进农业产业化经营,提高农业经济效益;发展生态农业模式,实现生态和经济效益耦合等绿洲农业可持续发展的措施。     

王朝阴影下的纷争：明初广西土司制度研究

明代是广西土司制度发展、完善的重要历史阶段。本文在地方社会发展的脉络下细致地考察明初广西两江地区土司制度建立、发展的过程,揭示地方土司如何利用国家制度实现自身在地方社会的利益,并影口向地方社会的变迁。     

区域创新网络结构、功能与实证研究

区域创新网络的结构是创新主体和创新环境。区域创新网络可以为网络成员提供一种相互作用和互动的平台,不同创新主体资源通过创新网络,实现相互合作,优势互补,资源共享,产生协同效应。改革开放以来,山东省的网络技术创新能力有了显著提高,但是同发达省相比,仍然存在一定差距。提高山东创新网络绩效,需要加大激励力度,鼓励企业提高自主创新能力;努力提高高校和研究院所的自主创新能力;加强区域内创新主体之间合作创新,提高区域信息流强度。     

农业产业化：欠发达农业主产区经济发展的战略选择

区域经济能否发展和赶超,主要取决于是否制定和实施了恰到好处的经济发展战略。欠发达农业主产区经济发展不仅可以通过走工业化之路来推进,还可以通过走农业产业化之路来实现。农业产业化具有市场化、工业化和休闲化等体现方式,已经具有推动区域经济发展的许多成功案例。农业产业化本质上是农业综合化。我国欠发达农业主产区农业产业化有一定发展但存在较大问题。欠发达农业主产区应该审时度势,将农业产业化作为欠发达农业主产区经济发展的战略选择,并制定和实施相应的配套措施。