Climate change: the risks of stranded fossil fuel assets and resources to the developing world

Under the Paris Agreement, 80% of all proven fossil fuel reserves become stranded resources and investments already made in such resources turn into stranded assets. Much of the existing literature focuses on equitable burden sharing; only a few articles examine the risks for developing countries that invest in new fossil fuels. Hence, this paper addresses the question: What are the risks of investing in fossil fuels for developing countries? In doing so, it examines Kenya, a prospective fossil fuel producer, and China, an investor in fossil fuels. In terms of short- to long-term risks, ignoring new fossil fuels and investing in renewables is favourable and politically, socially, ecologically and economically more rewarding, not least because latecomers to development run the risk of having to compensate investors when new fossil fuel assets strand prematurely and become unrecoverable.     

When school meets the Other: intercultural policies in the Basque inclusive school

ABSTRACT

Gatti, Irazuzta and Martinez address the intercultural public policies implemented in the education system of the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country (Spain). Focusing on the education system allows them to reconstruct the historicity of identity-alterity production in a region in which language has been central for the establishment of ethnic frontiers. More specifically, they examine the implementation of these policies in three pre-school and primary educational institutions in a multicultural neighbourhood of the city of Bilbao. They look at Euskara—the Basque language—as a key element of the us-them distinction. The various education models regarding language and the teaching in/of Euskara or Spanish pave the way for the specialization and spatialization of the schools analysed. ‘Integration’ policies are implemented in ethnically marked schools only, based on a rhetoric of interculturality that assumes that any ‘racial or ethnic discrimination’ can be overcome through knowledge of the Other. Moreover, the assessment of public policies through ‘interculturality figures and best practice’ developed to address the so-called ‘immigration issue’ promotes a protectionist intervention on behalf of the assumed social vulnerabilities of immigrant schoolchildren and their families, which are read as ‘problematic characteristics’. The article argues that, as a result of the approach based on the social conditions of immigrant children and their families in the Basque Country, the race issue evaporates.     

Contested narratives of encounter from a bridge-building project in northern England

ABSTRACT

Recent years of community engagement under the war on terror in the UK have seen the co-option of bridge-building initiatives into wider narratives of securing communities. Through ethnographic insights into a peace building inter-faith initiative that made it onto the news as a ‘deradicalization’ workshop, I show how encounters in such projects are susceptible to being reframed into the very narrative in which encounters are sought after in the first place as a political settlement to growing inter-ethnic tension and conflict. This paper contributes to the growing geographies of encounter literature by making more explicit the narratives that shape how encounters function.     

On the political and democratic preconditions of equal recognition

Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition is a compelling justification of a liberal, procedural conception of recognition. This conception is built upon a convincing conception of moral equality, but it does not offer a full theoretical discussion of recognition. I argue that the liberal recognition provided by Patten is too formal and narrow to address all relevant issues regarding conflicts of recognition in democratic societies. In particular, it does not consider the political and democratic preconditions that should be granted to minority groups or immigrants in order to provide them fair opportunities to effectively (and not only formally) reach equal recognition.     

Multiculturalism and trust in Japan: educational policies and schooling practices

Abstract

Japan's foreign population is growing, and policy-makers need to address the manifold challenges of an emerging multicultural society. Most importantly, this concerns the task to prevent societal frictions from occurring. This article puts Japan's preparedness to face the challenge of trust-building between members of different ethnic groups to test. The realm of educational policies and schooling practices will stand at the center of interest. It will be argued that the Japanese approach of an integration policy, with its strong focus on the concept of multiculturalism on a national level of policy-making, falls short of creating opportunities for trust-learning among the members of the societal majority and various minority groups. On a subnational level, however, e.g. in Kanagawa Prefecture, some best-practice examples of trust-learning across ethnic boundaries can nevertheless be identified, and may serve as starting points for future policy reforms.     

论闭路电视监控系统信息资料在侦查中的运用

近年来,随着我国经济的飞速发展以及人民群众防范意识的不断提高,闭路电视监控系统越来越普及,并得到了广泛运用。为了使闭路电视监控系统信息资料能够更好地运用到侦查破案中去,文章从闭路电视监控系统信息资料概述、信息资料在侦查破案中的运用、如何提高信息资料的使用效率以及使用中应注意的问题四个方面进行了论述,并提出了运用闭路电视监控系统信息资料的新理念、新方法。     

侦审合一后的预审工作研究

我国的预审制度起源于1931年12月中华苏维埃共和国临时中央政府颁布的训令,立法于1979年7月我国颁布的第一部《刑事诉讼法》中,它在公安机关办理刑事案件中发挥了重要作用。1997年6月公安部作出侦审合一的刑侦体制改革,但目前侦审合一呈现多元化的格局,它既有改革相配套的制度和措施跟不上的原因,又有侦查人员破案任务重和素质能力弱,无法适应改革要求的原因。未来的预审工作,除了允许侦审合一的多种形式存在外,应当继续推进侦审合一;提高现有侦查人员侦查、预审素质;实行受过专门训练的公安、政法院校侦查学专业或者相近专业毕业的学生准入侦查部门的制度。     

数字图书馆版权问题解读：资源·传播·服务

随着互联网延伸广度和深度的不断发展,数字图书馆版权纠纷案件日益增多。文献数字化、数据库建设、网络传播、网络信息链接、下载、检索等各方面都涉及到版权问题。这些问题可以归结到三个方面：资源建设中的版权问题、信息传播中的版权问题和信息服务中的版权问题。我们应加强版权适度保护,推行公益性图书馆网络传播豁免权,健全著作权集体管理制度,完善相关法律规范。