Development Thinking—Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice

Theoretically, Development Studies has been claimed to be moving out of its previous impasse. However, its policy implication has traditionally been rather weak, and on this account no large improvements are presently visible. A strong call for relevancy has emerged in the middle of the 1990s, from the same writers who claim that we are now moving beyond the impasse in development theory. Somehow this opens up a niche for development geography, if its strong background in field work can be combined in a dialogue based on theoretical issues. This paper illustrates how the teaching of development in the field can bring up new issues, to be discussed thoroughly within some kind of a dialectical dialogue. The teaching of development finds itself trapped in a controversy, that could be termed as a development crisis. However, existing contradictions in the debate can nurture the more intense probing into the nature of development. Combined with field work experience, this paves the way for a dialogue in which many of the axiomatic truths are turned upside-down. Matters—such as the conflict between modernization and traditional values, the meaning of development, and the role of various actors in the development process—are all focused in an intensive discussion.     

西方分析的历史哲学与中国近代史学理论的构建

20世纪初,中国近代学人从译述日本的西方哲学史著述开始,初步介绍了分析的历史哲学的代表人物及观点,而后梁启超、李大钊等人又有更进一步的阐释。自20年代中期起,一批史学家、哲学家不满足于二手材料,强调从原著入手加以研究,这推动了西方哲学在国内传播高潮的到来。由此可见,西方分析的历史哲学俨然成为西学东渐中不可或缺的一道风景。因它与实证主义史学理论等存在差异甚至是对立,故其传播对当时占主导地位的进化史观、史学性质科学说等关键命题都有相当多的回应,这引发了时人的深入反思,推动了中国近代史学理论的深化。     

Bridging the old and new worlds

Chester S. Chard. Northeast Asia In Prehistory. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1974. xvi + 214 pp. Tables, illustrations, maps, chapter bibliographies, and index. $12.50 (cloth).     

Oil in the Arctic 2. The Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program

Abstract

Organic chemists are qualified by their knowledge of reaction mechanisms to attempt to predict outlines of biosynthetic sequences leading to natural molecules. The subject is an art, rather than a science, involving several interwoven strands of creative thinking. The evolutions of ideas, distinct from the discovery of facts, are difficult to elucidate from the published literature, and are explored in connection with alkaloids, flavonoids polyketides, and some terpenoids. The advantages and limitations of the chemists' type of thinking are examined with some of the reasons why biochemists have tended to ignore their hypotheses.     

Bridge the Gap: From Spatial Planning to Strategic Projects

This paper introduces one of the largest single research projects ever granted in the field of spatial planning. It presents the context the project has to work in and the challenges it has to face. It further gives a broad outline of the research project, with three horizontal and three vertical tracks and some success indicators.