Commonwealth Small States,Education and Environmental Uncertainty: Learning from the Sharp End

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the Commonwealth’s inclusive role in engaging with the distinctive challenges of education provision in small states, an agenda that is often neglected elsewhere. We examine the origins of Commonwealth work on education in small states, the nature of its comparative advantage, its role in facilitating small states’ engagement with international education dialogue and regional co-operation, and the demand and potential for ongoing Commonwealth support for education. Particular attention is given to experience within the Caribbean region and to the potential for the Commonwealth and the wider international community to learn from small states in the light of their distinctive educational challenges, achievements and priorities – and, most notably, their experience at the ‘sharp end’ of environmental uncertainty and climate change.     

加快农业结构调整步伐促进贵州民族地区经济跨越式发展

党的十六大报告高举邓小平理论伟大旗帜,全面贯彻"三个代表"重要思想,确立了经济、政治、文化等各项建设任务,把农业结构调整放在优先位置.这是今后贵州农村工作特别是贵州少数民族地区农村工作的重要指导方针和行动纲领,是贵州民族地区经济跨越式发展的必由之路.     

The Evolving Structure of the Environmental Justice Movement in the United States: New Models for Democratic Decision-Making

Over the last two decades in the United States, mainstream environmental organizations have reduced, rather than increased, democratic participation by citizens in environmental problem-solving. The environmental justice movement, on the other hand, has served to enlarge the constituency of the environmental movement by incorporating poorer communities and oppressed people of color into environmental decision making process; build community capacity by developing campaigns and projects that address the common links between various social and environmental problems; and facilitate community empowerment by emphasizing grassroots organizing over advocacy. This paper outlines the different components in the environmental justice movement. It is our contention that if researchers and policymakers continue to conceive of the ecological crisis as a collection of unrelated problems, then it is possible that some combination of regulations, incentives, and technical innovations can keep pollution and resource destruction at tolerable levels for more affluent socioeconomic populations. However, poor working class communities and people of color which lack the political–economic resources to defend themselves will continue to suffer the worst abuses. However, if the interdependency of issues is emphasized as advocated by the environmental justice movement, then a transformative environmental politics can be invented.     

环境社会系统发展学发轫

叶文虎教授在研究可持续发展基本理论的基础上,于1999年提出了"环境社会系统发展学"的思想和概念[1],并指出这将是一门划时代的新学科.本文论述了环境社会系统发展学创立的学术和时代背景,以及这门学科的现状,提出了它的基本问题、基本内容和研究方法.     

国有经济结构调整与制度创新

随着WTO的临近,国有经济结构调整与制度创新的问题已迫在眉睫."国退民进"应该说是国有经济结构调整的关键,同时要大力发展私有性质的民有民营经济,使广大职工成为国有经济结构调整制度的主体和真正的主人.     

盗窃虚拟财产的刑法规制

当前,虚拟财产的被盗现象比较普遍,由于刑法中对其规定的空白,导致了这种纠纷得不到及时有效的解决,一定程度上已经影响到了人们的学习、工作和生活。应当从盗窃虚拟财产国内外的立法现状入手,吸取国外的先进立法经验,弥补我国法律的空白的同时,在立法途径和司法途径两个层面做出具体完善,维护法律的统一性。     

不动产征收行为中“公共利益”的实现

我国现行法律法规中涉及到与不动产征收有关的内容,必然会阐明需要＂以公共利益为目的＂,然而,所谓的＂公共利益＂标准却无据可依。实践中,应将立法机关、执法者、听证程序三者结合来承担公共利益界定的任务,并充分发挥政府、市场和个人的优势,以保证公共利益的实现。     

网络化行政生态的理论审视

网络时代的到来向实体政府施加了不容回避的影响力,＂网络化生存＂的政府只有顺应时代转型的内在要求,实施政府再造,方能在网络时代维系其合法性和权威性。在网络时代面临再造重任的政府,必须对其所处的全新环境做出理性认知与判断。本文对网络化行政生态的描述集中于四个方面：网络政治的勃兴、网络经济的崛起、网络社会的成型、网络文化的繁盛。     

Overview of: “Crime Place and Pollution: Expanding Crime Reduction Options Through a Regulatory Approach”

Research Summary Crime reduction policy has focused almost exclusively on offenders. Recent studies and evaluations show that expanding our policy portfolio to include places may be highly productive. We show that there is considerable research showing that crime is concentrated at a relatively few locations, that high-crime places are stable, that changing places can reduce crime, that displacement is not only far from inevitable but also less likely than the diffusion of crime prevention benefits, and that owners of high-crime places can be held accountable for the criminogenic conditions of their locations. We link these findings to environmental policy, where environmental scientists, economists, and regulators have developed a broad set of regulatory options. The core of this article describes a portfolio of environmental policy instruments directly applicable to crime places. We also discuss major decisions local governments will need to make to implement various forms of regulation, and we list challenges that governments must anticipate in planning for such implementation. We argue that a regulatory approach to crime places has the potential to lower the cost to taxpayers of reducing crime by shifting costs from governments to the relatively few place owners whose actions create crime-facilitating conditions. Policy Implications Taking a regulatory approach to crime places substantially expands the crime policy options under consideration. Regulatory options may increase local governments’ effectiveness at reducing crime while reducing governments’ costs. This is because regulatory approaches have the potential to shift some portion of the financial burden for crime fighting to owners of criminogenic locations. Policy makers can select between means-based anticrime regulations that focus on how place owners manage their locations and ends-based regulations that focus on the number of crimes allowed at places. Both of these approaches contain several alternative regulatory instruments, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Experimenting with various regulatory instruments could lead to the development of a range of new crime reduction policies. In addition, a regulatory approach has implications for the funding of policy research. Means-based regulatory instruments require governments to develop evidence that the means they regulate have the desired impact on crime. Ends-based regulatory instruments shift this burden to the regulated places.