Re-animating a radioactive landscape: informal life politics in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster

The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident of 11 March 2011 posed massive and continuing social challenges to communities in the affected areas. People from wide areas around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant received vastly conflicting information about the levels of radiation released and about the likely health effects. They were left facing agonising decisions whether to remain and face possible (but uncertain) long-term health risks, or whether to move away, leaving behind homes, friends, jobs, schools and communities. Focusing on the case of the small farming community of Tōwa in Nihonmatsu City, this article examines self-help activities that have emerged in the affected areas in the wake of 3/11. The activities have included community monitoring of radiation levels and collaborative research with academic scientists to explore ways to reduce radioactive contamination in forests, farm soil and crops. The self-help activities of Tōwa residents can be seen as an example of “informal life politics” – that is, of the way in which grassroots groups respond to challenges to their livelihood or way of life by organising themselves and taking actions outside the sphere of formal governmental structures. It is argued here that the residents of Tōwa were able to respond rapidly to the challenges of the Fukushima disaster because they had already developed informal life politics practices in response to earlier challenges of local economic decline and depopulation. I also suggest that, in responding to the Fukushima disaster, the relationship between the people of Tōwa and their landscape has been profoundly changed, and that this change has implications not just for the community itself but also for the wider world.     

评析“三鹿奶粉系列案”中田文华等人犯罪行为

分析三鹿集团原董事长田文华等人生产销售伪劣产品罪一案,从被告行为时的主观内心来看,以田文华为代表的三鹿集团高层管理人员的行为还具有生产、销售有毒有害食品罪的性质.无论在案件的定罪方面如何把握,对三鹿案件的承办工作,应当遵循"当严从严""严中有宽"的量刑标准,放弃"当宽从宽"的指导思想.     

关于“谷贱伤农”问题及其防范——以甘肃省天水市为例

＂谷贱伤农＂作为一种特殊经济现象,在我们这样一个农业大国时有发生,形成农产品＂卖难买贵＂,造成经济资源的巨大浪费,给整个农业经济的平稳发展带来巨大危害。本文从甘肃省天水市具体实际出发,对其进行了客观、理性的分析,就＂谷贱伤农＂的防范提出了相应的对策建议。     

Deepening,and repairing,the metabolic rift

This paper critically assesses the metabolic rift as a social, ecological, and historical concept describing the disruption of natural cycles and processes and ruptures in material human-nature relations under capitalism. As a social concept, the metabolic rift presumes that metabolism is understood in relation to the labour process. This conception, however, privileges the organisation of labour to the exclusion of the practice of labour, which we argue challenges its utility for analysing contemporary socio-environmental crises. As an ecological concept, the metabolic rift is based on outmoded understandings of (agro) ecosystems and inadequately describes relations and interactions between labour and ecological processes. Historically, the metabolic rift is integral to debates about the definitions and relations of capitalism, industrialism, and modernity as historical concepts. At the same time, it gives rise to an epistemic rift, insofar as the separation of the natural and social worlds comes to be expressed in social thought and critical theory, which have one-sidedly focused on the social. We argue that a reunification of the social and the ecological, in historical practice and in historical thought, is the key to repairing the metabolic rift, both conceptually and practically. The food sovereignty movement in this respect is exemplary.     

The land question,land grabbing and agriculture in Africa

Abstract

Land grabbing has emerged as a form of production and export of food and biofuels in the Third World by enterprises owned by foreign governments and business entities. Large tracts of land are either leased or sold to these enterprises cheaply by the state, usually with the argument that such land is empty and needs to be put to good use. But land grabbing dates back to colonial times, thus substantially shaping the political economy of such countries as South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. It is therefore fitting at this conjuncture to discuss land grabbing in its holistic and historical context, noting that smallholding agriculture juxtaposed against large scale commercial farming will for a long time define agrarian class struggles, the character of the state and the project of nation building.

Over the last decade or so land distribution in Zimbabwe by the Mugabe government was assumed to be heading for disaster. Recent information, however, reveals that productivity has improved, tobacco exports are improving and smallholders accessing affordable farm input and markets while getting a fair reward for their labour behave no differently from large scale commercial farmers. In the final analysis the issue of equity and poverty elimination needs to be central in addressing the land and agriculture question in Africa.     

Rural Transformation

正Key goals for rural work set by the Central Government Adozen shipments of corn imported from the United States containing unapproved and genetically modified ingredients were denied entry by China in December 2013.Since China relies heavily on imported grain to guarantee its supplies,the     

适应现代市场经济必须取消农业税——我国农村税制改革的出路思考之一

我国农村税制改革的第一步是取消农业税,认清我国农业税的性质和取消农业税的原因是一个重要理论前提.我国的农业税名义上(法定的)是收益税,形式上是资源税,本质上是对农业生产行为征税,是行为税.在当代工业化市场经济国家,免征农业税是通例,而且征收农业税违背税收公平和效率原则.为了保持我国农业部门的可持续发展和增强我国农产品的国内、国际竞争力,"支农"措施必须从取消农业税开始.     

农耕他者的制造--重新审视广东"疍民歧视"

"疍民歧视"对于我们理解疍民和汉人社会具有双重的意义.基于田野调查和文献资料,借助福柯的思想方法和人类学从边缘反观中心的研究角度,从追溯这个水上群体在3个不同时代的不同称谓及相关话语的演变出发,可以重新解释"疍民歧视"的形成机制、性质及其对于中国社会的政治、经济尤其是主流文化的意义.在中国传统农耕文化语境下,"疍民"遭受了被边缘化的命运,而这正是中国传统农耕文化建构的必然产物.     

我国的农地制度与改革

新中国成立以来,农地制度变革经历了土地改革、农业合作化、"人民公社化"、农民家庭联产承包责任制四个阶段。 实践证明,现阶段的农地制度基本上是适合生产力发展的,但在土地所有制度、土地产权制度、对农地征收税赋制度、国家征收和 征用农地制度、村级自治组织制度等方面还存在不少问题亟待解决。为此必须实行农地所有权国有化;农地产权家庭化,同时,国 家应及时调整对农村的财政、征用农地和税收政策;制止村民自治组织政权化,大力精简县、乡(镇)、村的机构与人员;逐步取消城 乡隔离的各种制度。     

唐代小农经济的发展与乡村社会控制的转型

唐前期承继了北魏以来的均田制,这一保护小农经济的措施为整个社会变革提供了制度保障。在均田制下,小农经济独立性日益增强,乡村市场日趋繁荣。唐中叶商品经济的发展,导致了社会阶层出现结构性调整,由身份等级分层向贫富分层转化。富民阶层的崛起,租佃制的盛行,不仅导致了国家政策、制度的调整,而且为乡村控制的转型提供了基础,其中一个显著的变化是乡村控制方式开始由乡官制向职役制转化。