Traditional Fijian Apology as a Political Strategy

This paper is a reflection upon tradition in Fiji, taking up the question of a controversial ceremony of apology during the 2000 Fijian crisis. A subject of dispute, as much for the social actors as for anthropologists, the notion of tradition that I piece together appears as just such an object of negotiation — between interlocutors but equally between they and the anthropologist. While stressing articulations between customary and constitutional rights, it also highlights the personal and collective strategies that are hidden behind a conflict said to be ethnic, and in the construction of Fijian nationalism.     

真实性视角下乡村旅游经济可持续开发研究

作为推进新农村建设的重要经济力量,乡村旅游经济如何在快速发展过程中实现可持续竞争力的维持与提升已经成为地方政府经济管理过程中关注的焦点。本文基于对旅游真实性文献的回顾与分析,认为保持与宏扬真实性是旅游体验的根源与旅游开发的要义,据此,从多元层面,着重探讨了真实性在乡村可持续旅游经济开发中的作用机理,从真实性出发,有针对性地提出了促进乡村旅游经济发展的若干管理策略。     

Pollapese Catholicism as Strategy

Indigenous groups creatively incorporate outside institutions, including Christianity, for local purposes. Furthermore, people who see themselves as observing tradition may also construe themselves as being Christian and citizens of a nation. Despite the original external origins of Christianity, meaning becomes locally constructed and asserted for local purposes so that religion as practiced is about local, regional, or national concerns rather than commitment to particular dogmas, institutions, and hierarchy. A case in point are the people of Pollap in the Caroline Islands of Micronesia, who converted to Christianity in the middle of the twentieth century through the efforts of a Catholic catechist. Today the islanders practice a vibrant version of Catholicism in which local symbols and beliefs infuse imported Catholic ritual, and in which biblical verses and imagery support secular, political strategies. Pollapese seem less concerned with theology and more with behavior that demonstrates good character. As they attempt to exploit and reconcile potentially conflicting guides for behavior from the realms of religion, tradition, and government, they make strategic use of their understandings of Catholicism's dictates for political and social purposes.     

开发区:立创新驱动战略 促高新技术发展(上)

正创新是推动一个国家和民族向前发展的重要力量,也是推动整个人类社会向前发展的重要力量。面对全球新一轮科技革命与产业变革的重大机遇和挑战,面对经济发展新常态下的趋势变化和特点,面对实现"两个一百年"奋斗目标的历史任务和要求,必须深化体制机制改革,加快实施创新驱动发展战略。——中共中央国务院关于深化体制机制改革加快实施创新驱动发展战略的若干意见     

开发区 立创新驱动战略 促高新技术发展(下)

正以创新驱动为引领,着力打造全国"智慧城市"示范基地;以创新驱动为引领,着力打造全国超高分子新材料生产基地……近段时间以来,"创新"成为了开发区最火热的字眼,一场新的蝶变正在开发区揭开帷幕。创新始终是推动国家、民族向前发展的重要力量。我国是一个发展中大国,正在大力推进经济发展方式转变和经济结构调整,必须把创新驱动发展战略实施好。实施创新驱动发展战略,就是要推动以科技创新为核心的全面创     

Rethinking on Sustainable Rural Development

Abstract

In many countries, rural areas have shown a new spatial-economic dynamics that have meant a contrast with the traditional urban-rural dichotomy. In particular, the need to use economic-ecological sustainability as a guiding principle for new rural development is a prominent feature. But how will rural areas, sometimes suffering from lack of economic development, peripheral positions and relatively low social well-being be able to face new challenges? Can they be attractive, innovative and developed (“hot spots”) while maintaining their sustainability and continuity? This question was the background in conducting our research. Hence, this study aims to answer this question in three steps, namely (i) offering a contemporary overview, (ii) identifying the critical factors for and (iii) developing a set of sustainable development scenarios. In order to reach our aims, we applied the so-called pentagon model and used multi-criteria analysis, namely regime analysis. The data and information deployed in this study were obtained from field surveys conducted in 60 European and 17 Turkish rural areas. The results show that future choices are different among rural users and between European and Turkish villages. European users seem more consistent about their future and their will while the will of Turkish villages are still more concentrated on economic development rather than sustainable development itself.     

Transport Costs and Rural Development

Innovations that reduce costs of transport from rural locations may also reduce transport costs to rural areas. As transport costs fall, producers can afford to concentrate and achieve economies of scale. This paper explains an initially negative, but ultimately positive, relationship between reductions in transport costs and rural development. A two-region general equilibrium model with firm and worker spatial mobility highlights the firm and household location implications of costly transport-service use by both industry and agriculture in the context of scale economies and product differentiation. The computable general equilibrium model is initialized and verified with a bi-regional social accounting matrix and then used for simulations. Changes in relative transport costs are shown to affect relative regional wage rates, thus also determining the location of "production-cost-oriented" firms.     

Reconceptualizing Participation for Sustainable Rural Development: Towards a Negotiation Approach

In many popular intervention methodologies aimed at stimulating sustainable rural development (in the widest possible sense) the idea of ‘participation’ is a leading principle. This article will demonstrate that the process in which actors are supposed to participate is often thought of as being a process of planning, decision‐making and/or social learning. It will be argued that such an operationalization of development processes is based on inconsistent theoretical assumptions, and can easily lead to unproductive development interventions due to an inability to handle conflicts. As an alternative it is proposed to use negotiation theory as a basis for organizing participatory development efforts. The implications of such a shift in thinking about participation are far‐reaching: it requires new modes of analysis, and different roles, tasks and skills for facilitators of participatory processes.     

Trade Fairs as an Export Marketing and Research Strategy: Results from a Study of Korean Advanced Machinery Firms

Manufacturers pursuing information on potential customers in distant, dynamic markets confront myriad obstacles. To address this, many firms attend international trade fairs in order to market their products, to meet with prospective customers, and to tap into buzz related to potential international opportunities. In many ways, moreover, such exhibitions can serve as short‐term agglomerations of same‐industry activity, particularly important for producer–user interface geared towards innovation. The goal of this paper is to explore how Korean machine tool manufacturers utilise a major global trade show in Seoul to minimise the difficulties associated with accessing a global customer base, inclusive of their activity at this show geared towards innovation. Evidence from firm‐level surveys and interviews suggest that the amount of importance placed on trade fair attendance as part of a firm's internationalisation strategies is related to export growth. Additionally, a new insight generated is that firms that participate in trade shows as part of their innovation process also demonstrate higher rates of export intensity. Finally, we may be witnessing newly discovered, technology‐driven, symbiotic relationships between online portal sites, vendors, and potential customers at these trade fairs, where virtual services are nonetheless augmented by a need for a continued onsite presence at these exhibitions.     

'Internal Frontiers' as a Hindrance to Development

This paper analyses the socio-economic implications of the imposition of 'zone under surveillance' status upon an area along the northern borders of Greece, throughout most of the twentieth century. This zone was enclosed to the north by a border separating Greece from other countries and to the south by a frontier separating the Greeks in the zone from the rest of their country. This state of affairs has created many problems within the surveillance zone (such as a feeling among the population that their area is under threat, less developed than and only partially assimilated to the rest of Greece). The paper focuses on the function of the surveillance zone as an 'internal frontier', and not on its earlier function as a defence mechanism, and on one particular part of the zone, in the prefecture of Xanthi, which is inhabited by Pomaks.