Governance at community level: Small towns in rural Victoria

The ‘blurring’ of the boundaries between and within public and private sectors has led to new styles of governing that affect the way that rural communities organise themselves. Some have called this a shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’ where there has been a convergence of neo-liberal and communitarian ideologies to form the basis of a new relationship between the state, the market and civil society. We analyse the impact of these converging ideologies using a survey of development groups in 35 towns in rural Victoria and explore the types of community governance that have emerged as a response to changes in those towns that lost their local government authorities in the last decade of the twentieth century.     

Frames of extractivism: Small-scale goldmining formalization and state violence in Colombia

Colombia's economy largely relies on an extractivist logic that increasingly focuses on industrial mineral extraction. The industry is regularly depicted as a means to bring economic development, to severe the ties of illegally armed groups to mineral extraction, and to bring peace and prosperity to mining regions in a period of macro-political transition. Yet, contrary to this plan, mining-related violence, and more specifically state-sanctioned violence, has intensified in mining regions. This article interrogates this state of affairs, drawing on Judith Butler's notion of the ‘frame’, which helps us apprehend the political work that forms of Artisanal Small-scale Mining (ASM) stigmatization set in motion in terms of legitimizing state violence. Based on a combination of ethnographic data from two mining towns in Northeastern Antioquia, interviews with state agents at different administrative scales, and the analysis of legal and policy documents, we bring out two frames pertaining ASM that help shine a new light on the violence-extraction nexus in Colombia. The first consists of a progressive conflation of ASM with informality, and of informality with criminality, and the second posits ASM in contradistinction with a more desirable large-scale industrial mining industry. We argue that these frames are part of the (re)definition of legitimate state violence, which seems to have intensified over time, which we find particularly striking in the Colombian post-demobilization context. We find these to also echo dynamics in mining contexts not usually considered as “conflict contexts” and propose that they are useful for rethinking the relationship between extractive agendas and development more widely.     

Commodification and Creative Destruction in the Australian Rural Landscape: The Case of Bridgetown,Western Australia

This paper examines the destructive tendencies associated with the commodification of rurality in some of Australia’s more scenic and accessible rural areas. While development based on the consumption of idealised rural landscapes and cultures can contribute to the accumulation of capital in rural areas, it can also result in the destruction of those aspects which consumers find attractive. These attributes include traditional farming landscapes, picturesque country towns, scenic rural environments, and perceptions of congenial and cohesive local communities. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the processes that lead to the degradation of these attributes. The discussion is set within the context of the ‘commodification of rurality’ and ‘creative destruction’ perspectives, and uses the case of Bridgetown in the south‐west of Western Australia to illustrate how an almost unfettered pattern of development is leading to the gradual destruction of the countryside ideal.     

Evaluation of the spatial and economic effectiveness of industrial land policies in northwest Europe

This article stems from the discrepancy between the lack of attention paid to industrial land policy by academics and the predominant thought among elected representatives and development agencies, i.e. that industrial land policy plays a key role in the creation of growth and new jobs. The article begins with a reflection on the literature, which stresses the need to develop knowledge on industrial land policies. To help fill this research gap, we have developed an exploratory piece of research on the theme of their ‘spatial’ and ‘economic effectiveness’, on the basis of statistical analyses dedicated to seven countries. As regards ‘spatial effectiveness’, the results underline significant national differentials in terms of land consumption on the one hand, while highlighting the economic sprawl that affects France and Belgium on the other hand. As regards ‘economic effectiveness’, our results show that the impact of the development of economic estates on growth depends largely on regional contexts. In particular, the ‘intermediate regions’ in western Germany stand out as belonging to a specific context where land policies seem particularly effective from an economic standpoint. By contrast, the ‘economic effectiveness’ of industrial land policies requires readjustments in the Netherlands as well as in most ‘predominantly rural regions, close to a city’.     

生产范式变革下集群企业的去地方化研究

在全球化和地方化共同作用下,经济活动的去地方化现象越来越受到关注。与一般的产业转移概念不同,去地方化着重强调企业受到某种作用脱离地方生产网络,进而对地方生产网络产生的影响。目前关于去地方化的研究多集中在欧美国家,且多是基于全球生产网络的视角,而由企业生产范式变革引起的去地方化没有得到应有重视。实际上,在中国沿海地区,集群内创新型企业进行生产范式变革,引起企业去地方化现象十分明显,对地方经济社会产生深刻影响。在此背景下,本文建立生产范式变革、组织协同与企业去地方化的理论架构,分别以东莞鞋业集群和华宏鞋业公司为例,分析鞋业集群和企业在生产范式变革下的去地方化现象,为地方政府更好地制定实施集群政策和产业转移提供理论依据。     

Structural Adjustment and Structural Change in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some Provisional Conclusions

This article reviews discussions concerning some of the main methodological difficulties surrounding the evaluation of structural adjustment policies, before suggesting a procedure to ‘save’ empirical discussion about new patterns of economic and social relations. In this light it proceeds to examine evidence gathered by the structural adjustment research programme of Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (Scandinavian Institute of African Studies) on the changing character of the ‘private sector’ and of the voluntary development sphere in contemporary Africa. The main conclusions are that, in what can be called ‘adjustment situations’, the main tendencies in these spheres are for a rise of trading capitals enjoying illicit relations to the state and for a privatization of local development. The article concludes with an argument that, had adjustment been implemented in a fuller and more consistent way, these tendencies would probably have been still more pronounced.     

国内外城市功能疏解研究进展

由于城市聚集效益的存在,城市功能不断向中心城区集聚,过多的功能集聚带来了一系列城市问题,城市功能疏解的研究亟待开展。文章首先从人口疏解和产业疏解两大模块以及土地利用变化方面对功能疏解的测度方法进行述评,并简要分析了功能疏解的必要性和动力机制;其次对国内外功能疏解的经验进行梳理;再次对功能疏解的成效进行评价;最后对国内外功能疏解研究内容进行述评。总体而言,与国外研究相比,国内研究起步较晚,但内容上与国外研究基本相似;然而在方法上国内研究目前仍以数量分析为主,缺乏相关测度模型的构建。随着国内城市功能疏解实践的推进,以及在中国特殊的土地和户籍等政策影响下,功能疏解的方法和理论研究将不断完善。     

The industrial district: A stage of a diffuse industrialization process—the case of Roanne

The industrial district is an important element of the theoretical debates concerning the appearance of original features of regional development in Europe. Issuing from Marshallion theory, this concept was ‘reinvented’ in the late 1970s in order to interpret a series of ‘regional success stories’ of industrial development that occurred in middle Italy. Thus, for some economists and geographers, the industrial district has become a new ‘standard’ of regional development, appearing as an autonomous integrated system, whose functions are based on the principle of ‘automation’. This system represents an optimal structure in terms of economic efficiency and resource allocation, and owns its proper mechanisms of reproduction related to specific territorial regulations. A crisis for such a system can only be related to exogenous factors. Rejecting this static vision of economic structures, which reintroduces the ‘growth/crisis’ divide in the analysis of economic development, it seems necessary to promote a more dynamic approach in terms of ‘change through continuity’. This approach was initially developed by some Italian authors who tried to analyze the original features of regional development in the Third Italy in terms of ‘industrialization without fracture’. This approach does not deny the existence of industrial districts, but refuses to accept that they are static: districts can evolve, change, develop . . . Thus, they appear as a particular stage of development in a diffuse industrialization process. Their evolution is no longer simply related to exogenous variables but also to endogenous ones; and this evolution does not necessarily lead to an implosion or a complete transformation of space but can also lead, through the continuity of the industrial district's mechanisms, to a post‐district organizational configuration.     

中国专业村研究的新近进展

专业村是近年来得到学术界普遍关注的领域,其对农区经济发展有着重要的促进作用。本文基于对国内专业村文献的梳理,论述了专业村的概念以及专业村形成的影响因素,总结了专业村研究中出现的一些新动向:基于社会网络联系的专业村研究、农户自主发展能力的研究、专业村和金融地理研究等。在以下领域尚需加强:专业村研究适当关注地域广阔的中西部地区;除加强专业村经济效益评估外,应注重专业村对农区经济、政治、文化建设的整体推进;加强多尺度综合研究,如微观的农户,中尺度的农区,宏观尺度的国家和国际层面等。     

The Female Mortality Advantage in the Seventeenth-Century Rural Low Countries

Data from famines from the nineteenth century onward suggest that women hold a mortality advantage during times of acute malnutrition, while modern laboratory research suggests that women are more resilient to most pathogens causing epidemic diseases. There is, however, a paucity of sex-disaggregated mortality data for the period prior to the Industrial Revolution to test this view across a broader span of history. We offer a newly compiled database of adult burial information for 293 rural localities and small towns in the seventeenth-century Low Countries, explicitly comparing mortality crises against ‘normal’ years. In contrast to expected results, we find no clear female mortality advantage during mortality spikes and, more to the point, women tended to die more frequently than men when only taking into account those years with very severe raised mortality. Gender-related differences in levels of protection, but also exposure to vectors and points of contagion, meant that some of these female advantages were ‘lost’ during food crises or epidemic disease outbreaks. Responses to mortality crises such as epidemics may shine new light on gender-based inequalities perhaps hidden from view in ‘normal times’ – with relevance for recent work asserting ‘female agency’ in the early modern Low Countries context.     

Cluster policy in the Basque country (1991–2002): constructing ‘industry–government’ collaboration through cluster‐associations

In this article the industrial cluster policy in the Basque Region (Spain) since the early 1990s is analysed as a social process, where public and private organizations and institutions have interplayed and fostered two interrelated outcomes: (a) the construction of cluster‐associations, contributing to the development of inter‐firm interactions and a more inclusive industrial associationism in the weak Basque industrial and business associative system; and (b) the construction of an industry–government collaboration dynamic within a traditional lack of industry–government interactive relations. These outcomes present some strengths and weaknesses, and indicate some potentials to improve the initiated regional ‘industry–government’ collaboration.     

苏州工业园区旅游发展的问题及对策研究

近年来,随着国内外环境的变化,开发区已经从单一经济功能的产业园区向具有综合城市功能的新城转型。旅游业作为产业链较长、容纳就业人口较多的第三产业,在开发区转型发展中起着重要作用。本文对苏州工业园区旅游发展现状进行了研究,指出其现阶段存在的主要问题有旅游新品牌形象难以树立、旅游服务倾向高端群体、旅游项目收益不理想和企业参与旅游业发展的热情不高等,并尝试针对这些问题提出相应的对策措施,以期为研究区及其它处于相似境地的开发区旅游业发展提供借鉴和参考。     

长三角新城区资源利用效率与环境可持续性评估研究

目前全国新城区已经处于严重的失控阶段,如何更加合理的规划全国的新城区布局,思考其可持续发展的方向成为重要研究课题。本研究基于生态经济学理论及新城区空间尺度从资源利用效率与环境可持续性两方面构建可持续性评估指标体系,应用多准则模糊评价方法NAIADE及PROMETHEE排序方法评估新城区资源利用效率与环境可持续性水平,探讨影响新城区可持续性的短板因素。结果表明：①鄞州新城、宝山新城、闵行新城发展的可持续性最优,嘉定新城、苏州工业园区、滨江新城及下沙新城的可持续性偏低;②建设用地开发强度、人口密度、二氧化氮浓度、人均公共绿地面积、5公里半径内三甲医院数量五个指标是目前制约新城区可持续发展的短板因素;③距离主城远近及用地规模对新城区的可持续性有一定的影响。     

近代苏北市镇工业兴起及对市镇发展的影响

苏北市镇工业的兴起改变了市镇经济结构,工业逐渐在市镇经济中占据重要地位,同时刺激了市镇手工业的发展,促进了苏北一批市镇的产生和发展,推动了近代市镇经济的转型。具有一定的典型意义。     

Resource Development and Aborigines: The Case of Roebourne 1960–1980

The pervasive and dynamic influence of economic restructuring on political and social relations is highlighted in many aspects of Australian daily life. The effect of economic restructuring on already marginalised and disempowered groups in society is often overlooked Development of iron ore mines and associated new towns, railways and ports transformed the regional economy of Western Australia's Pilbara region in the 1960s and 1970s. For Aborigines in Roebourne, this restructuring represented a new phase in their relations with ‘White Australia’. Interacting historical legacies, corporate strategies, government policies and economic processes further marginalised the region's Aboriginal population and linked the region to the global economy in ways which created significant barriers to the development of Aboriginal self-management strategies. This paper reviews this period with particular emphasis on the social impact of the iron ore ‘boom’ on local Aboriginal people. In the current climate of renewed economic and political crisis in Western Australia, this review provides a timely reminder that such processes occur in a broader context than is often recognised in regional planning processes.     

基于集群创导的关中城镇化发展探讨

当前,我国中西部较落后地区城镇化发展的关键问题是城镇非农产业特别是工业增长缓慢,城镇化发展的产业支持薄弱,缺乏对农村富余劳动力的吸引,因而导致了城镇化低质推进现象。有鉴于此,本文以陕西关中地区为例,借鉴国外集群创导和沿海地区产业集群推动城镇化发展的经验,通过对产业集群与城镇化之间互动关系和关中地区实施集群创导的条件和优势进行分析,提出了以集群创导推动产业集群发展,以产业集群发展推动区域工业化和城镇化健康快速发展的陕西关中地区城镇化发展思路。     

A Framework for Sustainable Heritage Management: A Study of UK Industrial Heritage Sites

In 2002, the World Heritage Committee declared heritage to be ‘an instrument for the sustainable development of all societies’. The term ‘sustainable development’, however, is inscribed with a complex economic, environmental and social agenda that challenges contemporary World Heritage management practice. This paper draws on a content analysis of six industrial UK World Heritage Site management plans. The analysis focuses on the extent that each plan integrates four key sustainability dimensions. Findings indicate that the planning frameworks and collaboration processes in operation at each site ensure conservation of the historical physical fabric but limit the development of a sustainable local cultural economy. A sustainable heritage management framework is presented based on the adoption of a long‐term strategic orientation and extensive local community participation in decision making. The framework is relevant to other complex heritage sites such as historic towns and cultural landscapes.     

Environmentalism and Chinese urban order: The ecological control line policy in Shenzhen,China

There has been growing research interest in processes of selective ‘ecological gentrification’ and ‘environmental enclosure’ in cities where environmental controls are used to attract and retain more affluent residents and attract higher value economic development. This dimension of urban policy might be increasingly relevant to major Chinese cities, which are facing increasing competitive pressures to reorient modes of growth and development around ecological security and quality of life in social and environmental domains. In that context, we examine the development and implementation of the ‘basic ecological control line’ policy (BECL) in the fast-growing city of Shenzhen. In essence the BECL marks a rezoning of the city to enhance ecology and reverse previous environmental degradation, but in doing so it also does political work in reordering space in line with changing economic and social priorities. The question we ask is how the BECL might be read in the context of ecological gentrification and the wider political context of Chinese urban policy. Through detailed empirical investigation, we trace the political economy of the BECL and draw out the insights it offers on transitional urban economy-ecology relations in China and theories of urban environmentalism more generally.     

Bringing Development Back into Development Studies

This article challenges Horner and Hulme's call to move from ‘international development’ to ‘global development’ with a reaffirmation of the classical traditions of development studies. With some adaptation to fit the changing contemporary context, these traditions not only remain relevant but also recover vital insights that have been obscured in the various fashionable re‐imaginings of development. In particular, development thinking and agendas in the past were much more radical and ambitious in addressing the imperatives of redistribution and progressive forms of transformation in the context of stark asymmetries of wealth and power. Such ambition is still needed to address the nature and scale of challenges that continue to face the bulk of countries in the world, particularly given the persistence if not deepening of asymmetries. This reaffirmation is elaborated by addressing three major weaknesses in Horner and Hulme's arguments. First, they do not actually define development, but instead treat it as simply poverty and inequality dynamics, which are better understood as outcomes rather than causes. Second, despite their assertion that the study of (international) development was primarily concerned with between‐country inequalities, this is not true. Domestic inequality was in fact central to both development theory and policy since the origins of the field. Third, the authors ignore the rise of neoliberalism from the late 1970s onwards and the profound crisis that this caused to development outside of East Asia and perhaps India, which the jargon of ‘global’ implicitly obfuscates and even condones. Rather, the experiences of East Asia and in particular China arguably vindicate classical approaches in development studies.