Resisting and Reconciling Big Wind: Middle Landscape Politics in the New American West

Abstract: While critical geographers have addressed how place politics impacts rural landscapes, less attention has been paid to the particular ways in which rural landscape identities are being impacted by the new energy economy. The nascent US wind energy opposition movement is evidence of broad, organized resistance to the landscape impacts associated with the re‐sculpting of rural energy geographies. Drawing from cultural landscape and place theory, this article examines the shifting terrain of wind opposition in the “New American West”. The article argues that wind energy opposition is fundamentally about who speaks for and negotiates conflicting social commitments to technology, economic values and an imagined American pastoral identity. By examining a case study of wind development in Nevada, this article considers how renewable energy development can constructively acknowledge the important role the “middle landscape” continues to play in American constructions of rural space.     

Calibration of an Advanced Constitutive Model for Babolsar Sand Accompanied by Liquefaction Analysis

In our research, we apply numerical modeling for prediction of liquefaction of sands during and after dynamic loading. In numerical modeling, to properly simulate the generation, redistribution, and dissipation of excess pore water pressure during and after dynamic loading, it is important to use a suitable constitutive model for soil. In this article, Dafalias and Manzari’s model [2004] (a critical state bounding surface plasticity model) was used to model the behavior of saturated sand due to relatively simple of formulations and a unique set of input parameters for a wide range of initial stress and void ratio. The attention in this article is on Babolsar sand. After calibration model parameters for Babolsar sand, the analysis of liquefaction using the modeling of a centrifuge test and predictions of model was carried out. The results indicate a reasonable performance of the model for prediction of behavior of types of sands. Also, Babolsar sand has more prone to dilatancy than Nevada and Toyoura sands.     

日军在河北农村的碉堡生活(1941—1945)

1941年至1945年,日军操纵伪政权征发驻地附近民众在河北农村修筑了大量碉堡。碉堡作为一种工事,除军事功能之外,还配备有日常生活起居设施。由于处境孤立危险,物资补给困难,心理与情感扭曲等因素,碉堡内的日军生活难以为继,最终随着中共领导的河北抗日武装的反攻而趋于崩塌。有关日军(包括伪军)在农村碉堡的生活研究,为抗日战争史研究提供了一种新视角。     

Voices From This Long Brown Land: Oral Recollections of Owens Valley Lives and Manzanar Pasts

Nestled between the Sierra Nevada and the White-Inyo mountainranges in eastern California, the Owens Valley is geographicallyisolated and spatially bound. Yet this secluded sliver of Californiapossesses a history that blatantly transcends the local. Asa major site of the well-known water wars, the Owens Valleybecame a significant, albeit controversial source of water,enabled Los Angeles’ burgeoning development in the earlytwentieth century. Conceived of in 1904 and completed by 1913,the Los Angeles aqueduct literally bound the Owens Valley tothe demands of the growing metropolis. Several decades later,in the wake of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the agriculturallyand economically floundering Owens Valley was chosen as     

Groundwater Quality in Rural Cambodia: Measures and Perceptions

Two studies of domestic water quality were undertaken in rural Cambodia. The first was a programme of quantitative groundwater quality testing and modelling. The second was a qualitative study of perceptions of groundwater quality. This research aimed to compare and contrast findings of these studies in two communes in rural Cambodia. The quantitative study found that in both communes, there is a high risk of encountering bore water with levels of chemical contamination that are detrimental to human health. The qualitative study found that messages from water users is mixed – 60% of bore water users thought their groundwater was of good quality, but 97% treated their water at the point of use before drinking. Results suggest that villages in rural Cambodia would benefit from a better community understanding of groundwater quality and safe water, and the development of more informed domestic water options.     

中国西南贫困地区乡村韧性研究——以重庆市为例

文章聚焦于我国西南贫困地区乡村韧性，以重庆市 120 个抽样村为研究对象，采用熵值法，从经济韧性、社会韧性、工程韧性多维度视角评价重庆市乡村韧性水平。研究发现：①重庆市抽样村庄的乡村韧性平均值为0.46（满分为1），处于中等偏下水平。②重庆市北部地区的乡村韧性水平较高，交通不便、少数民族聚居的东南部地区乡村韧性水平相对较低。③经济韧性水平偏低限制了抽样村的韧性水平，体现在生产资本投入不足、人力资本水平偏低、土地资源禀赋不优。④相较于乡村状态韧性，抽样乡村的响应韧性水平较低，主要原因在于乡村经济子系统与基础设施（减灾防灾）子系统的响应韧性值较低。文章基于研究结果提出了旨在提升我国西南地区乡村韧性的建议。     

20世纪60年代初国家财政支援农业的历史考察

由于"左"的错误和自然灾害,中国在1959～1961年出现了三年经济困难,当时最突出的问题是农业生产遭遇严重挫折,粮食极度短缺。为加快农业生产的恢复,20世纪60年代初,国家制定了"吃饭第一"的方针,要求各行各业支援农业。利用财政手段增加对农业的投入是贯彻这一方针的重要举措。国家财政支援农业的措施主要有两方面:一是减少提取农业剩余;二是直接增加对农业和农村的财政投入。     

On the targeting and cost-effectiveness of anti-poverty programmes in rural India

This article is motivated by a concern for the cost‐effectiveness of anti‐poverty outlays; much of its focus is on the targeting of Rural Public Works (RPW) and the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) over the period 1987–93. It is argued that benefits to the rural poor of larger outlays on these two major anti‐poverty programmes are likely to be limited, given their mistargeting. Large sections of the rural poor were not covered in 1987. Worse, the non‐poor were in a majority among the participants. Although the evidence is mixed, there was a worsening of the targeting of both RPW and IRDP, with RPW maintaining a slight superiority, over the period 1987–93. Yet IRDP was more cost‐effective in both years, using a somewhat limited measure of cost‐effectiveness. Large unspent balances due largely to slow disbursal of allocations and bunching of expenditure in a few months are linked to changes in cost‐effectiveness. Wastage and diversion of funds are unavoidable, in a context of corrupt bureaucracy and capture of locally elected bodies such as Panchayats by a few influential persons. Short of drastic changes in the design and implementation of RPW and IRDP, substantially larger outlays may thus accomplish little in terms of poverty alleviation.     

空间视角下农村社会关系变迁研究——以山东省枣庄市L村“村改居”为例

以空间为视角,以"村改居"为案例,说明了农村居住空间改观对农村社会关系嬗变的影响。首先,农民集中居住后,公寓楼的阶梯设置造成了垂直方向上行走的高差区分。由于楼梯对身体的规训以及安全性差,导致高差间交往的不便;其次,公寓楼单元化的"门-房"一体结构导致公共空间与私人空间的界限明朗化,缺少了半私密性空间的过渡,空间闭合与开放的矛盾变得不可调和,农村居民户内交往意愿降低;再次,公共空间相对于私人生活区的外设与远离,导致公共空间使用率下降。农村居民间规模化和混合型交往缺失,公共空间没有承担起公共交往的功能。农村社会关系因此从"分散的不规则集中"变为"集中的均匀分散"。     

TEMPORAL ORDERING OF SURFACE-COLLECTED OBSIDIAN ARTIFACTS BY HYDRATION MEASUREMENT

Two samples of obsidian projectile points from northwestern Nevada, one surface collected and the other excavated, were subjected to obsidian hydration measurement. The temporal ordering of the three projectile-point types in each of the two samples was demonstrated to be the same on the basis of their hydration measurements. The validity of this temporal ordering of the projectile-point types in the two samples was confirmed by the stratigraphic sequence of the types in the excavated sample. We have found that surface-collected obsidian artifacts can be relatively dated by hydration measurement. In northwestern Nevada they hydrate at a rate almost double that of their excavated typological counterparts, but their relative ordering remains the same.     

Does Agricultural Growth Matter in Poverty Alleviation?

This article uses a panel survey of households in the Indian state of Maharashtra to demonstrate that agricultural growth takes too long to trickle down to the rural poor. Unanticipated inflation, on the other hand, aggravates rural poverty, as does domination of the agricultural growth process by large landholders. This affects the poor through the oligopsonistic influence of the landholders in rural labour markets, dampening employment and wages (as compared with the outcome in a competitive market). In the context of structural adjustment, while the emphasis on allocative efficiency through withdrawal of input subsidies and remunerative prices for output is justified, acceleration in agricultural growth by itself is unlikely to make a dent in rural poverty. Measures designed to accelerate agricultural growth must therefore be supplemented by direct anti-poverty interventions. Consumer price stabilization is particularly important, and would be assisted by an overhaul of the Public Distribution System. Major reforms would include improved flexibility in the scale of the PDS, better targeting through alternative distribution networks when private trade channels are weak or non-existent, and simplification of registration procedures. The oligopsonistic role of large landholders could be curbed through market-mediated land redistribution, scrapping of all tenancy regulations when tenancy markets function efficiently, and through large-scale intervention in rural labour markets along the lines of the Employment Guarantee Scheme.     

城镇可持续生活供水价格研究--以陕西省关中地区为例

本分析了关中地区城镇生活水价现状和问题,得出了城镇生活水价是不可持续的结论,即水价低于供水生产成本,水价结构不合理。在探讨可持续水价的调整原则的基础上,提出了价格杠杆调节关中生活水价的措施,包括：逐步把水价调整到成本水价以上的水平,并调整水价结构,使之能反映供水成本和水资源价值;实行累进加价制度,对超定额用水征收高水价;实施季节性水价等。     

General housing characteristics of Poland

Poland has a relatively higher proportion of households as compared to number of housing units available. The distortions in housing stock have increased in Poland since the 1960s and 1970s as deficits remained very high and the demand increased in Poland while other socialist nations of eastern Europe reduced their housing deficits. Housing is important irrespective of the economic system of the country, whether socialist or non‐socialist In a socialist economy, housing is heavily subsidized to meet the minimal requirements of all the people. Though the expressed policy of the socialist country is to minimize the differences between the rural and urban areas there are still basic socio‐economic differences in existence between the rural and urban housing stock. This study found that there were distinct differences between the different macro‐regions: the buildings varied in their age, condition, uses and composition. In Warsaw or Central Poland, roofs are constructed of tar boards and the buildings are used for subsidiary uses. In the eastern and southern regions of Poland, it was found that the majority of buildings are used as single‐family buildings. Many of the dwellings in the south are single family, with roofs constructed of tin plate and sheet metal. The walls of the buildings in this area were constructed of logs and boards. Endemic to the north‐western portion of Poland are roofs constructed of tile. Many of the characteristics found within the regions of Poland stem from the cultural influences.     

Leaving children behind: a win-win household strategy or a path to pauperization?

ABSTRACT

There has been a scholarly debate on the impact of cityward labor migration on the children left behind in rural China. The present article explains why the attempt by some scholars to normalize the separation of parent and child as a “win-win” household strategy is problematic. Based on scholarly insights into China’s rural–urban dual system, this article clarifies that the emergence of left-behind children in rural China is one of the direct consequences of the dual system imposed upon migrant parents instead of a “voluntary” choice by them. This article contends that even though many rural households benefit from incomes generated through parental migration for the time being, constrained by the dual system, the cost of their children’s lack of secure parent–child bonding, low-quality education, kinship care, and rampant delinquency will eventually outstrip that economic gain in the long run. In particular, in an era that requires ever-updating knowledge and skills, poorly educated left-behind children are likely trapped in the lowest rung of society’s ladder and, therefore, are prone to continue on the path to pauperization.     

Bridging Top Down and Bottom Up: Modelling Community Preferences for a Dispersed Rural Settlement Pattern

This paper explores the scope to bridge top-down and bottom-up perspectives on spatial planning by drawing on EU-funded action research in relation to rural settlement planning in Northern Ireland. The empirical work is located within a review of planning theory that exposes a long running tension between the technocratic stances of government planners and the aspirations of engaged citizens. It demonstrates the operation of a large group planning methodology that delivers community preference with environmental responsibility as a participatory input into planning policy formulation. Transferable insights into the dynamics of spatial planning are identified.     

The Impact of Agglomeration Economies on Estimated Demand Thresholds: An Extension of Wensley and Stabler

Central place theory predicts that geographic markets located in rural areas have lower demand thresholds, and, therefore, a higher frequency of business establishments relative to areas that are more proximate to urban centers, other things equal. Wensley and Stabler (1998) confirm this prediction using data on the location and frequency of business activities in rural Saskatchewan. We demonstrate that this relationship may not always hold true depending on the existence and magnitude of agglomeration economies. If average cost differences associated with being located in an urbanized area are sufficiently large, then the relationship between urban proximity and number of establishments may be reversed. We provide evidence of this reversal using 1996 cross-sectional data on hospital services in Texas.     

Marginal Cost Estimates of the Water Resources of the USSR

A water-management regionalization and determination of marginal cost estimates of water resources over the next three decades (to about 2000) outlines a set of priorities for the construction of dams and interbasin diversion projects. The predicted water requirements are based on the assumption that irrigation needs will increase at a moderate rate (30 million hectares by the end of the forecast period). The resulting marginal cost estimates are expected to affect long-term plans for the location of water-intensive activities (irrigation, water transport, thermal power generation, chemicals, pulp and paper) for which water costs may represent 40 to 50 percent of the total cost difference between alternate locations.     

Rural drinking water governance politics in China: Governmentality schemes and negotiations from below

This paper examines the politics of rural water governance in China through a governmentality lens and village water intervention case. The China Rural Drinking Water Safety Project (RDWSP) was an attempt to control water, while also serving as a tool of power to impel the rural population towards national development goals. The authors analyzed official documents and conducted interviews in a village in Shandong Province to investigate the RDWSP's rationale and practices, as well as how water access and management were negotiated by rural water users. The paper argues that (1) confronted with a decline in local governance capacity and in an effort to rectify the mistakes of the supply-driven, technocratic paradigm, the RDWSP attempted to integrate social, environmental and economic concerns but did not achieve that goal; (2) the decline in local governance capacity and people's pragmatic everyday strategies contributed to an individualized approach to solving water problems, reflected in people's disengagement from the government project and local participation, an effect that may sustain people's marginalization and exclusion from good-quality water access and management. Using the Chinese water project as an example, the paper contributes to the debate on state-induced water control versus civil society “counter-conduct” formed by daily interactions. Furthermore, it enriches the study of politics in general by presenting the state as a site of contested institutionalization and ongoing negotiations, confronted by everyday narratives and encounters with marginalized citizens that go far beyond and are far more complex than overt resistance or covert weapons of the weak.     

Environmental Risk and Uncertainty: Insights from Yucca Mountain

Abstract This study examines the effects of the risk from transporting high–level radioactive waste to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository on housing location decisions in Southern Nevada. Using data from a survey of southern Nevada households, we develop a model–based subjective risk estimate for each household. We then explore different factors that may influence the household's location decisions if the proposed transportation route is ultimately chosen for nuclear waste transport. We extend the conventional expected utility model to allow for uncertainty surrounding the actual risks borne by the household. Finally, we examine the impact of federal government compensation on households' location decisions. The findings indicate that residents currently living near the proposed transportation route express subjective risk estimates much larger than those reported by the Department of Energy. In general, households that are uncertain about the future risks are more likely to relocate than those expressing certainty. When everything is considered, the model predicts that between one and three percent of households living near the transportation route are likely to relocate. Compensation can influence some households to remain at their present location and bear the transport risk.     

中国村镇主体空间行为博弈及对策分析

我国进入快速城市化发展时期以来,在城市化和工业化的推动下,各类村镇主体的空间行为能力逐步增强,在其追求自身利益最大化的过程中,往往出现不理性的空间行为,在农村地区引发出诸多的空间问题。本文以各类村镇主体(农村居民、企业、农村基层自治组织、地方政府)的空间行为为研究对象,运用博弈理论深入分析各类不良空间行为产生的根源,有针对性地提出相关公共政策建议,以期改变其博弈规则,从而有效引导和规范各类村镇主体的空间行为,优化村镇空间。