THEORIZING GLOBAL BUSINESS SPACES

Over the last decade, geographers have paid a great deal of attention to transnational firms (TNCs) and global production networks (GPNs) in the global economy, to the emergence of a mobile transnational business class and also to the development of global or globalizing cities. All three literatures have made important contributions to understanding the spatiality of global economic activity, but each adopts a fairly discreet theoretical and empirical focus. This article aims to outline a number of theoretical dimensions for thinking about how these key strands to the globalization debate can be brought together through the concept of global business spaces. It will propose a framework for understanding the spatialities of global economic activity that seeks to capture the complex interaction of material, social, organizational and virtual spaces that form the context through which it is constituted. With reference to business travel as a key form of economic practice which plays a central role in (re)producing these spaces, it assesses how these emerging spaces of global economic activity present problems for the conceptual categories commonly used by both urban and economic geographers. In so doing, it proposes a series of ways in which a different research agenda can produce new insight into the complex forms of social practice at the centre of global economic activity.     

THE BUSINESS OF WELFARE

A common narrative in welfare state research is that Sweden exemplifies a specific model of welfare, ‘the Swedish model’, or ‘the Social democratic welfare regime’. From this perspective the emerging welfare state left little room for private initiatives – the stage was set for the development of an encompassing welfare state in the 1950s. In this article I argue that this, virtually hegemonic, perspective has hindered an analysis of how private insurance co-existed and thrived within the emerging Swedish welfare state. As an alternative approach to ‘modelling’ – the concept of welfare-formation is developed to analyse mutually sustaining practices of welfare. I show how the insurance business and its protagonists influenced the settings of public pension schemes in a way that underpinned their own interests. A close cooperation with the state apparatus was fundamental for creating a trustworthy insurance market and legitimizing the business claim of fulfilling a social mission. The business adaptability in the shifting landscape of social policy also influenced perceptions of security and welfare in general. Commercial ideals became an essential dimension of the welfare state. By exploring this marginalized history – the business of welfare – the study deepens our understanding of modern welfare societies.     

WHAT DO PLANNING ANALYSTS DO? PLANNING AND POLICY ANALYSIS AS ORGANIZING*

Analysts do more than work to solve problems or process information; they organize others' attention to possibilities of action and thus shape expectations, working relationships, participation, political support and opposition, hopefulness and resignation. This analysis suggests a communicative ethics illuminating the practical choices that planning analysts routinely confront: to spread or withhold information, to raise or lower expectations, to encourage and inform citizen action and project review or to discourage them.     

女人们得多普峨扎

“虽然登顶是每个登山者的梦想,但对我来说,安全下撤回到亲人身边,才是最大的成功。毕竟,山永远在那儿!”作为孩子的母亲,女登山者张焱是理智的,也是明智的,在山的面前,攀登者的随性才是最致命的危险。伺况,这是一只由三位看似柔弱的女孩组成的女子登山队——张焱与公司职员高洋、为攀登梦想而辞去工作的马姗姗,三个女人作为第八届“体验无止境——戈尔特斯TM户外梦想实现”活动首支出发团队、活动成立以来的第一支“女子登山队”,8月19日从成都出发,重装向海拔6119米的多普峨扎峰一路攀登。多普峨扎峰位于青藏高原东南缘,属于高海拔冰岩混合型雪山,是中国最美的山峰之一。这里冰川连绵、裂缝密布,地形非常艰险。据资料显示其难度系数已经超过了主峰,对攀登者的技术、经验、体能方面都要求非常高。这座山峰之前只有一次美国人登顶的记录,中国人还没有成功征服过它。     

WOMEN AS SECONDARY EARNERS

This paper addresses the issue of the gender gap in young people's work preferences and intentions within the context of changing gender relations in urban Indonesia. A survey of senior university students in Jakarta and Makassar in 2004 provided evidence on the interplay between labour market and marriage role preferences among the young educated elite in Indonesia (n = 1761). Along with ongoing demographic transitions and socio-economic change, the study hypothesised that shifting gender norms have created a preference for a more egalitarian, dual-earner marriage among the target population. However, findings indicate that neo-traditional ideals placing men as the breadwinner and women as secondary earners are widely prevalent. Qualitative insights highlight how the universality of marriage and having children entail women to assume a role to satisfy increasing economic needs without relegating their noble role to maintain family harmony.     

WOMEN IN RELIEF WORK

This article suggests that it could be fruitful to approach women's employment in the context of the labour market rather than the household. In Finland until World War II, the public‐work schemes and relief work were the preferred policies concerning unemployed men and women. Women eligible to relief work were taken to work in mainly textiles in non‐residential workhouses. The difficulties faced in applying the ‘workfare’ policy to unemployed women paved the way for cash benefits in post‐war Finland. It is suggested that the Finnish case opens up a wider perspective on the relationship between the ideology of workfare and the rise and fall of the hegemony of wage labour.     

不要再来伤害鸟

<正>一个关于承诺的故事当冬雪消融,田野里拔翠生绿,候鸟们开始向北迁徙。睡梦中惊醒的男孩目送灰鹅的飞过,割断了河塘里唯一一只剩下来的候鸟的脚索。飞过青灰优雅欧洲,飞过钢筋水泥纽约,飞过白桦在云层下闪着银光的俄罗斯,飞过红色海洋绿的湖泊,飞越白皑雪峰,从四面八方,它们来了。     

TELECOM BUSINESS BOOMS IN GARZE

Garze lies at the "ancient tea-horse trading route" that links Tianquan County in Sichuan with Tibet. However, the prefecture was late in the development of telecom business. FIRST POST OFFICE. Garze set up its first post office in 1902 in Dajianlu (present-day Kangding). The post office, then called the Luding Post Office," signifies the beginning of the postal service in the area inhabited by the Tibetans in Garze.By 1950 when the former Xikang Province won peaceful liberation, t…     

细节打动心灵:2011年度女摄影家作品欣赏(四)

<正>2011年是中国女摄影家协会持续快速发展的一年,协会为会员积极搭建创作平台,精心组织形式多样的摄影活动,充分发挥协会作用,通过采风活动、影展观赏、专家讲座等方式,为全国的女摄影家会员们服务。而会员们积极参与、创作、交流的热情也是协会发展的动力。经过对会员一年所发来作品的整理,我们惊喜地发现,协会藏龙卧虎,好片佳作比比皆是。     

2011年度女摄影家摄影作品欣赏

<正>2011年是中国女摄影家协会持续快速发展的一年,协会为会员积极搭建创作平台,精心组织形式多样的摄影活动,充分发挥协会作用,通过采风活动、影展观赏、专家讲座等方式,为全国的女摄影家会员们服务。而会员们积极参与、创作、交流的热情也是协会发展的动力。经过对     

女摄影家2011年度摄影作品展示

<正>2011年是中国女摄影家协会持续快速发展的一年。协会为会员积极搭建创作平台,精心组织形式多样的摄影活动,充分发挥协会作用,通过采风活动、影展观赏、专家讲座等方式,为全国的女摄影家会员们服务。而会员们积极参与、创作、交流的热情也是协会发展的动力。经过对会员一年所发来作品的整理,我们惊喜地发现,协会藏龙卧虎,好片佳作比比皆是。     

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TRAVEL: SOME EXPLORATIONS

International business travel is now an omnipresent feature of working life for many millions of people around the globe. Whatever the organizational reason, it is now the likelihood that many individuals are engaged in undertaking work outside of the formal workplace in an irregular pattern which has become an almost ordinary aspect of their working-life. Such is the magnitude of international business travel that it is now highly significant for bringing multi-million dollar expenditure to countries and the global airline and hotel sectors, and supporting an international business travel management industry. Yet, surprisingly, little has been written on the agency of international business travel, beyond vignettes of the organizational requirement for physical proximity. In this introduction (and special issue) we consider what further academic analyses of business travel must do to extend knowledge and understanding of the growth and use of travel in the twenty-first century. The article is in five parts. First, we consider the function of international business travel in firms as part of strategies to tie-together spatially distributed subsidiaries. Second, we unpack the modes and spaces of business travel. Third, we discuss the impacts of business travel on both the traveller, but also the environment. Fourth, we introduce the major arguments and contributions of the four articles in this special issue. Finally, we identify future research agendas that should develop existing theory and understanding of the compulsion for international business travel.     

你有温柔的枕头吗

<正>题记:出门在外、离开故土,我们更需要枕心而眠。我是一个没有故乡的人。父亲老早就离开了祖籍,他在锦州结婚,于沈阳有了我,后又举家迁辽西。