China and Africa: economic growth and a non-transformative political elite

Prevailing narratives in the discourse on China-Africa engagement are that China is developing Africa. This paper departs from those narratives because they disregard the agency of Africa's political elite. Basing its argument on the nature of the African political elite, the paper analyses their role in determining the impact of China's economic and trade engagement on economic development in their respective countries. To do that, it first discusses the nature and identity of African political elites, and examines how they control their states and scarce resources. Having done that, the paper then analyses their role in determining the nature and extent of development emanating from their countries’ economic engagement with China. It then concludes that it is not how much foreign states invest in African countries that determines Africa's rise, but rather political elites who influence the direction of their states’ development.     

The use of 3D visualization for sustainable tourism planning

This paper describes the results of using 3D visualization (3DV) in sustainable tourism planning (STP) during the Comcot project in Estonia. Organizers were interviewed on the characteristics of 3DV for STP and on how participants were involved in discourse using 3DV. The study describes experiences from the Setu, Maidla, and Võrtsjärv lake regions of Estonia. The content analysis of the interviews suggested that the precise selection of visualization objects, detalization levels, and user interface characteristics may significantly influence the quality of STP sessions and help to optimize time, financial, and human resources allocated for a project. The coherent design of the 3DV tool and the neutral moderator positively affect the level of participant involvement in STP and support a trusted platform for community decision making.     

妇女和发展的范式:全球性与地方性的实践张力——基于中国和坦桑尼亚实践的反思

妇女和发展的范式是西方女性主义与发展主义在建构和实践中结合而形成的,是针对发展中国家在发展中赋权的理论体系和实践框架。这一范式本身对于充分发挥妇女的能动性、提升妇女的地位有着积极的意义,但由于其在本质上存在着西方女性主义思潮和发展主义的建构性,虽然针对了发展中国家妇女的现实,但在不同的发展社会文化语境下依然出现了一系列实践困境。在中国和非洲坦桑尼亚的实践显示了这一框架与当地社会文化可能产生的不适应性。在中国,应用妇女和发展范式的干预在技术层面出现了不适应性,在结果上出现了"机会和福利异化"的现象;而在坦桑尼亚推广非国际主流妇女和发展范式的中国玉米密植增产项目,却使当地妇女提升了收入,产生了"逆向赋权"现象。这都显示出妇女和发展范式遭遇到发展中国家性别社会关系的复杂性景观。     

The development and pilot testing of a family treatment court best practices assessment: The model standards implementation scale

In 2019, the family treatment court (FTC) best practice standards (the Standards) were published to clarify attributes of FTC programs associated with superior child, parent, and family outcomes. The Standards cover the breadth of FTC operations including program structure and leadership, substance use treatment and complementary services, and behavioral responses to participants. This study aimed to develop an instrument (the Model Standards Implementation Scale; “MSIS”) that stakeholders can use to assess implementation of the Standards by individual FTCs. The MSIS balances usability with scientific validity. Interrater reliability (IRR), internal consistency, and several types of validity were assessed. Results indicated moderate to strong IRR, high internal consistency, mixed known groups validity depending on Standard, and high convergent and divergent validity. Initial findings suggest good validity and usability of the MSIS for evaluating FTC Standards' implementation. Notably, the process of using the tool functioned to educate FTC team members on the Standards. Although implementation of the MSIS is a resource-intensive process, the opportunity to receive constructive feedback proved to be an effective incentive for initial and subsequent participation in the evaluation among FTCs. Future research is needed to examine predictive validity, including association between Standards' implementation and family outcomes in FTCs.     

我国生态系统服务价值研究进展及现实问题探析

生态系统有价和有偿使用已成共识。通过对生态系统服务价值研究方法和主要几类生态系统的服务价值研究结果进行梳理,发现生态系统服务价值相关评估方法的科学性、数据选取的可信度和研究结果的准确性以及研究结果应用的可行性等几个方面面临一些现实问题,影响到评估结果的采纳和应用。随着可持续发展战略的深入实施,迫切需要对生态系统服务价值评估方法和现实问题进行深入探讨,重新定位生态系统的价值和价格。     

Pathways of democratisation to human development in post‐communist countries

The article investigates the consequences of post‐Cold War regime transitions on human development in the former Soviet bloc. Relying on a mixed‐methods research strategy that combines econometric and qualitative comparative analysis, it proceeds through three consecutive steps. First, there is a discussion of how democratic institutions may solicit governments’ attention toward social issues. Second, the relationship between democratisation and human development in 21 post‐communist countries is tested. Third, democracy in its core attributes is unpacked, and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to identify a few alternative institutional configurations favouring human development. The analysis reveals that not only full democracies, but also some hybrid regimes, have been successful in this task.     

Offensive for defensive: the belt and road initiative and China's new grand strategy

China's Belt and Road initiative came from the combined pressure of slowing down of Chinese economy, US pivot to Asia and deterioration of the relations with neighboring countries after weathering the storm of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. It also symbolizes a more proactive approach of Chinese new leader Xi Jinping in meeting the expectation on China's international obligation and leadership. Aimed to link Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania, the initiative provides tremendous opportunities of international economic cooperation. The paper argues that as China's contribution to international public goods, it is in the line of economic liberalism; as China's grand strategy, it is more of defensive than offensive by nature. Despite risks and uncertainties exist, the enforcement will boost China's influence and position in regional and international institutions. US should consider making more strategic space to the rising China, and a better coordinated China–US relations will make Asia Pacific a safer and more promising region.     

The Development of College Students’ Willpower and its Impact on Career

Recently, Non-intelligence factors of students'ability, especially transferable ability as willpower receives wide attention from the academic circles. Psychological means , represented by Five Adult Personality Scale and Grit Scale, has been able to carry out scientific subjective evaluation of the level of personal willpower. Using a simplified Grit Scale, we made a measurement and research on college students' Willpower level in Beijing. Our research found (1) college students'willpower play an important role in various stages of university life. The developmet of college students' willpower has a significant impact on adaptation of freshmen, turning of sophemores and career maturity of juniors. (2)College factors, represented by types of colleges and universities, types of majors and interpersonal interaction have significant impact on the development of college students' willpower. (3)As transferable ability, willpower not only will affect the students' academic achievement, but also affect the career development after graduation.     

Financial Development,Entrepreneurship and Urban-rural Inequality

Based on the panel data of prefecture-level city over 2000—2012, this article shows that financial development can reduce urban-rural inequality through entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the above relationship is related to the degree of marketization. Among the three major regions of China, it is the most remarkable in the east area where degree of marketization is the highest, the least remarkable in the western area where degree of marketization is the lowest.     

Globalization and Divergent Paths of Industrial Development: Mobile Phone Manufacturing in China,Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

Globalisation has challenged the way industrial development takes place. Fragmented and decentralised global production and the rapid growth of consumer markets in emerging economies demand a more sophisticated framework to analyse development paths than does the dichotomy of export orientation and import substitution. This article proposes a typology based on (a) specialisation in the global value chain and (b) market orientation to distinguish different development trajectories and then applies the typology to mobile phone manufacturing in four East Asian countries. This study finds that globalisation does not lead to the convergence of development paths, but promotes cross-national divergence depending on countries’ positions in the value chain and market niches. Both Korea and Taiwan emerge as key players in global markets, yet in different parts of the global value chain. Their common orientation toward global markets strikingly contrasts the inability of Japanese firms to translate their domestic success overseas. Finally, Chinese firms concurrently engage in different development paths, making the country’s multi-path approach unique. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of industrial development in East Asia in an era of globalisation.