Environmental Stressors and Food Security in China

This article considers the immediate forces influencing China’s food system and food security. By immediate is meant events of the reform period, from the late 1970s to 2008. It begins by asking the question that has preoccupied specialists since the publication of Lester Brown’s Who Will Feed China? in 1995: How much arable land does China have? Is that land area sufficient to insure grain sufficiency? To insure food security? The article focuses on the human pressures on the food production environment, and then treats the effects of socioeconomic change: land, air, and water degradation. The core of the article examines six responses of the state to both perceived and actual environmental stressors: policy restricting arable land conversion, China’s one-child policy, investment in irrigation systems, the South–North Water Diversion Project, large-scale afforestation and reforestation campaigns, and the program to convert marginal agricultural lands to forests and grasslands.     

吉林省生态农村建设的思考

生态农村建设作为生态省建设的重要组成部分,对吉林省的持续发展有着重要的作用。从国务院以环函〔1999〕436号文批准吉林省为全国生态省建设试点至今已有十年时间,系统回顾生态农村建设情况对吉林省未来发展有着重要的现实意义。本文系统分析了吉林省生态农村建设的现状及存在的问题,提出了相应的对策。     

以科学发展观为指导深化高职教育改革与建设

本文总结了学校坚持以科学发展观为指导,在专业建设、课程改革、教学科研、实训基地建设、师资队伍建设、校园文化、校企合作等方面所进行的探索和取得的成绩。为今后的学校的建设和发展提供参考。     

论桂林在“泛珠三角”区域合作中的借势发展

“泛珠三角”区域的合作发展战略,是促进本区域经济社会全面、协调、可持续发展的有力举措。“泛珠三角”合作正面临着国际金融危机的挑战,但也蕴含着难得的机遇。参与“泛珠三角”区域合作,是桂林市经济社会建设的又一次发展契机,充分发挥区域合作优势是桂林借势发展的最佳选择。     

中国的区域经济发展与新加坡在华投资

近年来,新加坡在中国的直接投资迅速发展.目前,新加坡已成为中国吸引外资的第六大来源地.随着中国区域经济的发展,新加坡企业积极调整投资与经营战略,新加坡对华投资呈现出新的格局.     

区域合作、利益协调与机制设计——基于泛珠三角与东盟跨边界次区域经济合作的研究

在区域经济利益协调机制的建设进程中,政府是推动区域合作的组织机制,具有内生动力功能的是市场机制.在泛珠三角和东盟区域经济合作处于初始阶段的约束条件下,评价和激励机制对象应该主要针对区域合作中的地方政府,如果缺乏政府间的协调机制,市场经济的利益最大化和资源配置规律决定双方区域经济合作的发展结局可能是差异性发展和掠夺性竞争.促进泛珠三角与东盟的区域经济合作,必须注意避免无序竞争,扩大区域市场范围,确立利益协调机制与政府规制的边界,从而降低区域交易成本.与此同时,尤其需要制定与实施带有路径依赖性质的制度安排:规则约束机制、信息合作机制、绩效激励机制、利益补偿机制.     

Conditioned Networking: Swiss–EU Relations in Transport

This article addresses the structural characteristics of the interactions between Switzerland and the EU in the transport sector, i.e. transport by air and land. More precisely, it is focused on two different aspects of this relationship: first the modes of coordination between Switzerland and the EU according to the concept of external governance and, second, those conditions that make inclusive patterns of interaction more likely. The central finding of this case study is an expansion of both the regulatory and organisational boundary in both cases. This shift finds expression in the incorporation of Swiss actors into a variety of networks that, at least in some cases, allow Swiss actors to shape EU policy making. The actual patterns of interaction are influenced by a number of factors, including the type of governance inside the EU that facilitates the inclusion of third parties in EU external governance and the problem structure that is characterized by coordination rather than enforcement problems.     

Promising more to give less: international disputes between core and periphery around European posted labor, 1955–2018

ABSTRACT

The posting of workers from the European periphery has generated the longest and most tumultuous series of labor disputes in the history of European Integration. On the basis of relevant archives, this article conducts the first historical review of posting rules in the European Union, from the first negotiation in 1955 until the latest directive in 2018. This historical review enables to discard the idea of a neoliberal turn in posting rules from the 1980s onward. It also leads to reject the explanation of disputes by the movement out of the European periphery under posting rules of a Lumpenproletariat insensitive to class struggle. Instead, the article identifies the increasing regulation of the labor market at the expense of posting opportunities since thirty years. It reveals the dominant role played by governments and their invariable support for their workers. It highlights the constant asymmetry of power between core richer countries and the Southern and Eastern periphery of the European Union. Eventually, this article locates the long-term problem in the contradictions between the interests of workers and firms in richer destination countries and the enlargements of the Single Market to poorer countries.     

Socio-political tensions in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) development in low-income Asian cities

International development agencies, with the help of the central government, support building state of art Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in low-income Asian cities. However, BRT investment over indigenous modes of mobility is creating socio-political tensions at the local level. This article uses multi-level governance as a theoretical lens to examine the relationships among actors in BRT investment decisions in Bandung and Surabaya, Indonesia. The research finds that local stakeholders can distort national and supranational policy initiatives totally or in a way that while projects are delivered, they are of limited use to the local communities they intended to help.     

Reproductive health services: “Business-in-a-Box” as a model social innovation

Access to reproductive health services and products in remote and rural communities is a critical area of concern for developing countries. This article considers a pilot intervention in three districts of Pakistan where “Business-in-a-Box” as a model of place-based social innovation is used to improve the socio-economic conditions of women in remote rural settings through socially responsible micro-franchising. It finds that such programmes help build a sense of community, ownership and grassroots capabilities and skills. The article also discusses the impacts of such actions on the individual and community life, and the need to upscale and sustain these initiatives.