Environmental migrations in Central Asia: a multifaceted approach to the issue

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, studies are considering Central Asia a ‘hot spot’ of climate change and a region prone to environmental migrations. Growing aridity and the shrinking of glaciers may have important impacts on food security, health, human security and infrastructure in the region and compel people to move. Drawing on the literature on environmental issues in Central Asia and on interviews conducted in the Kuhistoni-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan, this article provides a literature survey on environmental migrations in the region and positions Central Asia in the current debates within the broad environmental migrations literature. The article shows that environmental issues can stand out as an important push factor for out-migration in Central Asia, highlights the important role of the Soviet heritage of environmental management as well as of post-Soviet socio-economic transformations in understanding these issues, and discusses possible adaptation strategies.     

Dispossession and displacement of migrant workers: the impact of state terror and economic development on Uyghurs in urban Xinjiang

ABSTRACT

The media often focuses on the visible aspects of state violence. However, the invisible aspects of everyday struggle often go under-reported. How does dispossession and displacement occur for Uyghurs in Xinjiang? What is the role of their dispossession in securing state territorial control? Some Uyghurs from rural areas in Xinjiang, China have experienced a triple dispossession: displacement from the countryside, alienation in the city, and eviction from the city. The stories concern the agony people feel as they move from rural to urban settings and back again, pain caused by severe hardship in the economic, political and cultural senses. This case shows how economic development works together with interventionist state power to violently dispossess and displace the most vulnerable poor minorities from their homes and livelihoods.     

西方“技术联盟”组建的战略背景、目标与困境

美国因战略背景变化不断进行战略工具调试,其主导的西方"技术联盟"作为关键的战略遏制工具,曾经成功地限制了战略竞争对手的经济与技术进步。面对新历史环境下的战略博弈,美国再次谋求联合西方盟友组建新的排他性"技术联盟",并加大与战略对手在新技术维度的战略竞争与博弈力度。目前的全球技术结构特征、全球价值链的结构制约、欧美技术治理结构等多重矛盾因素,给"技术联盟"的建立及其战略有效性带来了新困境,但"技术联盟"作为一种战略工具,依旧可能是未来美国政府在"战略安全"语境下的优先战略选项。"技术联盟"扩散的"战略安全"逻辑阻碍了全球技术进步,并将催生全球技术格局的"隔离"状态,同时其外溢效应还可能包括瓦解全球价值链的潜在风险。     

开放的"全球化观"与"主体性"中国的建构

立基于对中国法学近二十年"全球化论辩"的详尽分析和反思,不仅批判了中国法学论者在研究全球化问题时所持有的那种完全丢失中国自身立场或视界的封闭且被动的"全球化观",同时还阐发或建构了一种以中国"主体性"为基础的开放而非封闭的"全球化观"或"全球化图景"。这一开放的"全球化观"的建构,为中国能够以一种"主体性"的姿态积极参与对全球化进程及其方向的审查和决策提供一种认识论上的可能通道,而要真正建构中国与全球化在本体论上可能关系,我们有必要在本体论层面上引入"全球治理"的问题,并追问在全球治理框架中,中国究竟根据什么样的中国理想图景或世界理想图景去参与重构或重塑全球化进程及其方向的进程这一更为根本的问题。     

Participatory culture in an emerging information ecosystem: Lessons from Ushahidi

Abstract

The activities surrounding new communication technologies (NCTs), more than the technology itself, have introduced new perspectives in the field of media studies, especially with the intensification of audience participation. This participation is imbued with the potential to challenge dominant voices and national myths, alter the representation and meaning of symbols and vocabulary, and redefine politico-social structures into which the luminal rituals of the national have been interwoven, for the sole purpose of fostering national cohesion. But it is the universal nature of NCTs that has significantly imbued local cultures with a global consciousness, thus altering the previous global flow of information. By using Ushahidi – open source software for information gathering and interactive mapping, which started as a blog in Kenya and is now used across the globe – the study demonstrates NCTs’ efficacy in engendering multiplicity of alternative voices which do not necessarily flow from the global North.     

The Birth of a 'Discipline': From Refugee to Forced Migration Studies

This essay seeks to understand and explain the birth of ForcedMigration Studies. It argues that the turn from Refugee Studiesto Forced Migration Studies must be viewed against the backdropof the history and relationship of colonialism and humanitarianism,as a certain commonality binds the past and present eras. Themove to Forced Migration Studies accompanies the inaugurationof a phase of political humanitarianism with a distinct accent,albeit encapsulated in new forms and issues, on ‘civilizing’the Other. In making this contention the paper distances itselffrom both the defenders and critics of the turn to Forced MigrationStudies. It inter alia contends that Refugee Studies, like ForcedMigration Studies, has served the geopolitics of hegemonic states.But since all knowledge is dual use, both have also had humanitarianeffects. But a greater degree of disciplinary reflexivity wouldgo a long way to ensure that the genuinely humanitarian strandin Forced Migration Studies prevails.     

International Migration and the European Union, Trends and Consequences

Member States of the European Union (EU) have undoubtedly changed into de facto countries of immigration. Since the upswing in migration in the late 1980s, net migration for the 15 EU Member States together has not been below 500,000. This article first focuses on trends in international migration (such as migration from former colonies, recruitment of temporary workers, and East-West migration) and special groups of immigrants (such as ethnic Germans, asylum seekers, and clandestine migrants). The second part of the article pays attention to immigrant settlement and migration policies, especially focusing on the European Union (trafficking and smuggling of humans, and the integration of migrants on the labour market). Detailed comparison of international migration flows is seriously hindered by a complexity of different national registration systems, and different countries display differences with regard to type and history of migration, country of origin, size of migration flows and immigrant populations.     

Assuring Real Freedom of Movement in EU Direct Taxation

The decisions of the European Court of Justice in applying the Treaty principles of freedom of movement to the direct taxation of individuals have been strongly criticised as taking an overly simplistic view of the interactions between national tax systems. The interactions often make non-discrimination an inappropriate criterion. This article proposes a framework, grounded in economic analysis, for understanding the implications of the interactions for freedom of movement. First, I establish a precise definition of obstacles to freedom of movement of individuals as costs of migration, as distinguished from incentives to migration (such as mere differences in national tax levels). Incentives can encourage economic distortions in migration, but they are not obstacles to migration (or free movement). Secondly, I develop the cross-migration test to distinguish costs of migration from incentives. I apply the test to show that two commonly used schemes of double tax relief, including exemption with progression, create unjustified obstacles to free movement.     

Hybridity and Change: Gamonales,Montoneros and Young Politicos in South‐Central Peru

The article provides an analysis of three historical forms of political subjectivity in South‐Central Peru: the montoneros, the gamonales and the post‐conflict politicos. Based upon a historical sociology of puna–valley relations, the article suggests that subjectivities should be read not as emanating from either side of the racialised misti–Indio divide, but instead as fractals of this.     

"和谐世界":中国的全球治理理论

“和谐世界”理论的提出顺应了全球化时代的历史潮流,是中国的全球治理理论,它经历了一个从“和谐的世界”理念到“和谐世界”理论的发展过程。从理论的定位来看,“和谐世界”理论与全球治理都是规范理论,都把整个世界作为解释范畴,都强调权威的作用;从理论的构成要素来看,“和谐世界”理论与全球治理在价值、规则、主体、客体、绩效方面既有相当的一致性,也有所差异。