Editorial: Culture matters

In this paper, I examine the notion of privilege as it relates to whiteness. The argument that racial privilege is actively constructed in the micro-geographies of everyday life is based on a case study conducted in Buffalo, New York. In this study, I analyze the narrated experiences of white elderly, primarily female, residents of a changing urban neighborhood. To capture the interrelationships between racial privilege and place, I used multi-methods research which included surveys, mental maps, travel diaries, interviews, and participation observation. The stories told are detailed accounts of the ways in which these white elderly residents cope with a slipping away of their white privilege through learning new boundaries of privilege, devising strategies for coping with their changed neighborhood, and reclaiming, in part, their previously held privileges. I propose that whiteness and its attendant privilege is not just about who you are, but where you are.     

Indeed,space matters in processes of subjectivation

The commentary focuses on the role of space and spatio-historic contexts in processes of subjectivation highlighted in Bernd Belina's plenary lecture. While applauding to his general argument, the commentary argues for diving deeper into the question how neoliberalism including neoliberal subject formation has been implemented through certain places and practices that aim at positioning subjects in a specific way, e.g. through youth and educational institutions or health and pension policies. It pleas for taking up again Doreen Massey's progressive sense of place.     

How Japan matters in the evolving East Asian security order

This article argues that Japan matters crucially in the evolving East Asian security order because it is embedded both in the structural transition and the ongoing regional strategies to manage it. The post‐Cold War East Asian order transition centres on the disintegration of the post‐Second World War Great Power bargain that saw Japan subjecting itself to extraordinary strategic constraint under the US alliance, leaving the conundrum of how to negotiate a new bargain that would keep the peace between Japan and China. To manage the uncertainties of this transition, East Asian states have adopted a three‐pronged strategy of: maintaining US military preponderance; socializing China as a responsible regional great power; and cultivating regionalism as the basis for a long‐term East Asian security community. Japan provides essential public goods for each of these three elements: it keeps the US anchored in East Asia with its security treaty; it is the one major regional power that can and has helped to constrain the potential excesses of growing Chinese power while at the same time crucially engaging with and helping to socialize China; and its economic and political participation is critical for meaningful regionalism and regional integration. It does not need to be a fully fledged, ‘normal’ Great Power in order to carry out these roles. As the region tries to mediate the growing security dilemma among the three great powers, Japan's importance to regional security will only grow.     

Mobility matters: women's livelihood strategies in Porto Novo,Benin

This article examines the importance of mobility in the creation of profitable livelihood strategies for women in Porto Novo, Benin. Drawing on surveys and interviews conducted in the late 1990s with over 500 women who use a wide array of strategies, I demonstrate that the importance of mobility to women's livelihood strategies is variable depending on the types of activities in which women are engaged. Specifically, where trade is a central part of a livelihood strategy the type of goods sold mediates the relative importance of mobility. The article also considers the ways in which socio‐economic settings differentially shape women's ability to be mobile. The research further contributes to feminist scholarship by examining the spatialities of social and economic processes in the creation of women's livelihood strategies.     

中国民营经济发展若干问题研究

民营经济是一种以民为本的民本经济;生产劳动是满足人民群众日苴增长的物质和化需要的直接的经济活劝;保护私有财产权是大国兴起之路;构建和谐社会必须正确看待当前收分配差距;必须给民营经济发展创造良好的社会环境,所有这些都是中国民营经济发展中的重要理论和政策问题。为此,我们很有必要从理论上加深对民营经济的认识,在实践中进一步促进民营经济的发展．