Japan's foreign aid: old and new contests

Abstract

Domestic and international contests explain the transformation of Japan's foreign aid programme begun in the early 1950s. Through contests between domestic players, Japan has streamlined its aid processes by introducing institutional innovations, accommodating new actors in aid policy and delivery, and responding more sensitively to public opinion and independent advice. At the international level, contests have come from the Development Assistance Committee/Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (DAC/OECD), the USA, and China. Through these contests, Japan has emerged as a more rounded aid donor. Its new aid model blends Western principles with concepts of ‘self-help’, favouring large infrastructure projects that serve both Japan's and recipient countries’ interests.     

新世纪以来我国女大学生就业研究领域计量分析

对 CNKI 数据库中2000年至2015年女大学生就业研究领域的1440篇文章进行计量分析的结果表明,新世纪以来对我国女大学生研究领域关注度日益增强,2012年研究热度有所降低;高产作者主要分布在华东、华北、华中地区,且作者更倾向于独自发表文章;高产研究机构主要分布在江苏、湖北、山东、新疆、北京等地区;该领域的合作广度、深度都较低;来源期刊具有明显的女性研究、就业及教育研究的特征;研究热点主要集中在性别歧视、就业困境、对策、就业指导、就业现状、就业心理、就业能力上。     

The Future of Northern Ireland: the Role of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement Institutions

Since the 2016 Brexit referendum a series of crises has gripped Northern Ireland's politics. This has had a destabilising effect across society, which has arguably been felt most acutely by political unionism. The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (B/GFA) of 1998 created a series of institutions to deal with political conflict in Northern Ireland, manage cross-border cooperation and normalise relations between the UK and Ireland. However, many aspects of it have been sparingly and ineffectually deployed, most notably the second and third strands dealing with north/south and east/west relations respectively. In this article, the authors argue that regular use of the institutional arrangements created by the Agreement would help to deal with the challenges currently facing Northern Ireland and help address unionist anxieties over the Protocol. Use of the North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC), the British Irish Council (BIC) and the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC) should be prioritised. The unresolved issues arising from Brexit require a recommitment to the intergovernmental logic at the heart of the 1998 Agreement, despite the obstacles.     

CLOSE‐UPS AND THE SCALE OF ECOLOGY: LAND USES AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF SOCIAL CONTEXT AND CRIME

Whereas one line of recent neighborhood research has placed an emphasis on zooming into smaller units of analysis such as street blocks, another line of research has suggested that even the meso‐area of neighborhoods is too narrow and that the area surrounding the neighborhood is also important. Thus, there is a need to examine the scale at which the social ecology impacts crime. We use data from seven cities from around the year 2000 to test our research questions using multilevel negative binomial regression models (N = 73,010 blocks and 8,231 block groups). Our results suggest that although many neighborhood factors seem to operate on the microscale of blocks, others seem to have a much broader impact. In addition, we find that racially and ethnically homogenous blocks within heterogeneous block groups have the most crime. Our findings also show the strongest results for a multitude of land‐use measures and that these measures sharpen some of the associations from social characteristics. Thus, we find that accounting for multiple scales simultaneously is important in ecological studies of crime.     

空间美学的理论生成与合法性建构

美学作为一门系统研究主体“感性之学”的学科形态,其获得自身的场域伦理和知识体系是一项重要的现代性事件,从维柯的“诗性思维”理论到鲍姆嘉通对美学学科的界定,都体现出主体感性能力对美学合法性存在价值的承担。与此同时,主体对“空间”的诗性审美能力是先验存在的,并成为主体感性能力的重要组成部分。所以,美学、感性和空间三者便相互融合,生发出崭新的“空间美学”话语。在前现代时期,主体对空间审美的朴素认知构成空间美学的理论萌芽;现代美学的“感性革命”清晰地凸显出主体与空间之间的诗性伦理,比如海德格尔的“空间栖居”和梅洛 庞蒂的“视知觉空间”便进一步延展空间美学的理论脉络;现代文学的空间审美实践和话语流变再次推动空间美学的场域自律,并最终形成既关注主体生存,又充满文化批判的现代美学形态。空间美学将持续给未来美学的发展提供有益的知识学资源和价值承担。     

Spatial analysis of violent crimes in Metro Manila,Philippines

Spatial patterns of murder and physical injury in Metro Manila, Philippines were visualised through conditional choropleth maps. Relationship of both crime rates with some demographic variables were investigated while accounting for possible spatial autocorrelation using spatial lag models. Results show that both crime rates tend to cluster in the northern cities of Metro Manila. Furthermore, significant spatial lag coefficients were found only for physical injury rates, with values ranging from 0.49 to 0.62, signifying a positive city-level spatial dependence of physical injury rates in Metro Manila. Moreover, some demographic covariates, such as population density, percentage of young males, education, marriage, and immigration were found to be associated with both crime rates. These results could serve as useful indicators of crime incidence; thus it is recommended that crime monitoring systems include them to aid in resource allocation and program planning for better crime prevention and security management.     

Crime-Reduction Effects of Open-street CCTV: Conditionality Considerations

This study addresses the conditional nature of the effectiveness of open-street CCTV (closed circuit television) by examining the differences in the effects (1) between daytime and nighttime crime, (2) between weekday and weekend crime, (3) across specific-crime offenses, and (4) depending on CCTV site characteristics, including location type (e.g. downtown, business district, school/university, or residential area) and the site’s base rate of crime. This study used HLM (hierarchical linear modeling) with 84 repeated measures across 34 camera locations in Cincinnati, Ohio, while also accounting for overlapping camera areas. Overall, the findings provided minimal evidence of the effectiveness of CCTV in reducing crime, though some types of crime were reduced in residential areas especially, and effectiveness was clearly interdependent with an area’s base rate of crime. Finally, WDQ analyses showed that diffusion of benefits occurred much more often than displacement in cases where there was a crime reduction, post-CCTV.     

Global Energy Governance: Trade,Infrastructure, and the Diffusion of International Organizations

Why do states choose to join and form international governmental organizations (IGOs) that regulate energy policy? In this article we make three specific contributions to the literature on international cooperation and diffusion. First, we show that countries form and join energy IGOs in response to memberships previously gained by direct competitors among oil and gas producers and consumers. Moreover, we demonstrate that energy IGOs diffuse among countries that share oil and gas pipelines. Finally, we provide evidence that the institutional design of established energy IGOs impacts the development of their membership network. To test these hypotheses, we rely on original data on oil and gas pipelines and the design of energy IGOs as well as on a newly compiled dataset that includes 152 countries and covers 38 years (1970–2007). We employ both network analysis and spatial econometrics.     

Knowledge Management and Open Innovation in United Kingdom Local Authorities

The article examines the performance of UK local authorities in relation to knowledge management and open innovation. Data were acquired using a mail survey of non-metropolitan local authorities in England and Wales. The results indicate that certain factors influence the effectiveness of the knowledge management process. Authorities engaged in open innovation have developed more effective knowledge management processes. Hence, of instead of implementing a strategy solely based upon cutting services and reducing staffing levels, local authorities seeking to survive in the face of government spending cuts might also consider the benefit from optimizing the effectiveness of their knowledge management processes and participation in open innovation.