The maquiladora electronics industry on Mexico’s northern border and the environment

The electronic sector, in particular, the computing industry, has become an increasing concern because of the environmental impact of its products throughout their life cycle. The United States, Europe and Japan as the greatest consumers of electronic goods have given special attention to this issue. The fast computer obsolescence and its difficult confinement, because of the hazardous substances contained, have required a special effort of technical innovation. Nevertheless, this effort seems to respond mainly to the standards required by the countries in which these goods are produced, consumed and confined, which are radically different in developed and developing countries. Though an important part of the production process (assembling) is done in developing countries, little attention has been paid to the environmental quality at this production stage. This study examines the environmental problems and strategy of the electronic assembly industry in the three northern border cities of Mexico. Almost half of 200 electronic maquiladora enterprises surveyed had not undertaken any active environmental policy and there was a limited environmental standards enforcement. Evidence was found that the firms that had operated for a longer period of time had better chances of taking better care of the environment. Environmental firm policies became weaker as one descended from the head office to the subsidiaries and then to their suppliers. It is also found that some transnational corporations operate with double standards in Mexico and thus strong national policies on environmental standards in Mexico are required to change this practice.

3g运营商的法律风险分析——以3g产业链为视角

随着3g通信技术的深度发展,3g产业链呈现出多维互动格局.运营商将在更多环节、更广泛区域内与更多主体形成复杂和敏感的法律关系,从而增大了运营商所承担的法律风险.运营商必须强化对3g产业链的控制、协调、整合,合理有效地防范3g运营的法律风险.     

关于东北老工业基地振兴目标体系的现实论证

东北地区作为新中国工业摇篮和粮食主产区,曾经在计划经济年代为社会主义建设事业起到了奠基性作用,并为新时期改革开放大业的战略推进创造了前提条件。但是,随着社会主义市场经济体制的逐步确立,东北地区的工业经济逐渐滞后,出现了特有的“东北现象”。与此同时,东北粮食主产区也陷入了以“农民卖粮难”为主要特征的发展困境。面对这一综合性的经济危机,党中央及时调整发展策略,在党的十六大上首次做出了振兴东北老工业基地的战略决策,随后又采取了加快体制创新和产业结构调整的有效措施,大力推动老工业基地质变为新型工业基地,裂变为现代装备基地,提升为科技产业基地,成长为生态农业基地,发展为农畜产品出口加工基地,从而形成东北老工业基地振兴的目标体系,并将进一步拉动和规范区域经济协调发展的现实进程。     

Airbnb,technological change and disruption in Barbadian tourism: a theoretical framework

This paper focuses on how Airbnb, an internet platform which has created the possibility for mass participation in the tourism market, is resulting in class conflict between new entrants and the ‘traditional’ tourism industry. Specifically, it studies how traditional tourism interests in Barbados have responded to Airbnb by seeking to restrict participation in the industry and presents this as a microcosm of broader class transitions and conflicts associated with new technologies. The paper utilises a Marxist theoretical perspective buttressed by Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of ‘creative destruction’ – places emphasis on the process of destroying productive systems to understand how specific industries expand and survive – and Clayton Christensen’s notion of ‘disruptive innovation’ – a process by which a disruptive product transforms a market – for studying how transformations in technology are impacting the tourism industry in Barbados. Its aim is to provide an account of how the process of disruption is unfolding in Barbados by highlighting the reactions of the main hotel lobby group to Airbnb, while also applying the ideas of Marx, Schumpeter and Christensen as useful theoretical lenses through which to examine the unfolding of the process of disruption of settled class and historical control of a dominant economic sector by new technologies.     

农业现代化与国家种业安全

农业现代化的基础是种业现代化。位于农业产业链最上游的种业是农业现代化进程中基础性、战略性核心产业,是保证国家粮食安全的根本。我国必须高度重视农业现代化进程中的种业安全,积极应对种业安全面临的挑战。提升种业竞争力,主体是企业,核心是品种,关键是创新。应加强政策引导,健全法规体系,转变发展方式,着力提升种业科技创新能力、企业竞争能力、供种保障能力和市场监管能力。通过体制机制创新加快构建“育繁推一体化”的商业化育种体系,做大做强民族种业。     

陕西文化旅游产业可持续发展研究

陕西是我国文化旅游资源最富集的省份之一,但文化旅游产业对陕西GDP的贡献并不高,与其他经济发达的兄弟省份还存在着较大的差距。陕西文化旅游产业开发经营过程中暴露出文化内涵挖掘不足、体制建设不到位、创新后劲不足、缺乏长效机制等问题。要实现陕西文化旅游产业的可持续发展,必须加强文化与旅游的深度融合,在创新中延长产业链,使沉寂的历史活过来。     

Economic status,religion, and demography in an Ulster town in the early twentieth century

The paper offers an analysis of the demography of the confessionally-divided and heavily industrialized northern Irish town of Lurgan in the early twentieth century. Its main source is the individual household forms of the Irish population census of 1911. This was the first Irish census to provide household-level data on the number of children born—and the number still surviving—to married couples co-resident at the time of the census. The paper begins by producing standard cross-tabulations of socio-economic status, as represented by literacy, numeracy, occupation, and the labour force participation of married women, by religion. It then presents econometric analyses of female labour force participation, marital fertility, and infant and child mortality. The greater poverty of Catholic households forced a higher proportion of mothers to work outside the home, mainly as unskilled workers in the town's linen mills. The analysis of the marital fertility suggests that confessional affiliation did not influence family size much at this juncture. The analysis of infant and child mortality suggests that religious affiliation was to a significant extent a cloak for living standards and socio-economic advantage.     

China's dualist model on technological catching up: a comparative perspective

Abstract

The central question of this paper is whether China can go beyond simple technological transfer and toward innovation in this age of globalization. By adopting an institutionalist perspective, this paper argues that China has developed a dualist model during its economic transitional period in which the foreign sector has been isolated from domestic firms, while the domestic industrial sectors have also failed to develop organic linkages among themselves to facilitate technological learning and generate innovation. This paper discusses four major institutional arrangements that deeply influence China's technological development – the institutional logic of economic reform, the state's industrial policy, the financial system and the industrial structure. It suggests that, owing to these institutional elements, China has neither developed economies of scale, as compared with the South Korean case, nor has it built up a network-type of economy similar to its Taiwanese counterpart in order to generate the mechanisms needed for technological innovation.     

Nano‐Industry Operationalizations of “Responsibility”: Charting Diversity in the Enactment of Responsibility

The Collingridge dilemma—the problem of reacting to emerging technology either “too early” or “too late”—is one that is readily recognized by developers and promoters of nanotechnologies. One response can be found in the rise of a discourse of “responsible development” in the science and innovation policy landscape. While a number of commentators have discussed the potential of such initiatives, it remains unclear how responsible development is actually being configured “on the ground,” in private sector nanotechnology. This paper addresses this question by analyzing empirical engagements in Europe and the United States in order to map industry operationalizations of “responsibility” in these contexts. We show that a number of different articulations of “responsibility” are present, including as a response to public lack of trust and perceived public pressure, and as the management of risk. We close by relating these findings to the theoretical literature on responsibility, other contemporary accounts of the ways in which responsible development can be operationalized, and the possibilities that these articulations of responsibility may open up.     

贵州产业低碳化发展研究

文章分析了资源环境承载力下贵州高碳产业走低碳化道路的必要性,指出实行产业组织创新、发展循环产业集群是贵州高碳产业发展的必然选择。最后,从加大基础设施建设、营造产业生态氛围、建设不同类型的循环产业集群、加强政府政策扶持四个方面提出了贵州发展循环产业集群的对策建议。