Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Development in China: A Review

Hydrogen and fuel cells may have a major role in the future energy market if governments give a high priority to reduction of CO₂ emissions with associated R&D investment in efficient hydrogen technologies. It is predicted that China would have the highest share of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 2050 if their ambitious climate and energy security policies are adopted (OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)/IEA (International Energy Agency) (2005) Prospects for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells (Paris: OECD Publications)). R&D in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in China has been pushed by the central government's commitment to reduce air pollution emissions from transportation, to enhance energy security and improve national competitiveness. The paper focuses on current policies and progress on hydrogen and fuel cell development in China. Development prospects and challenges are discussed with a view to achieving better understanding of the emerging hydrogen economy.     

Book reviews

Regions Reconsidered: Economic Networks, Innovation and Local Department in Industrial Countries. Edward Bergman, Gunter Maier and Franz Tödtling (Eds), London: Mansell Publishing Limited, 1991, 312pp.

Travel Sickness: The Need for a Sustainable Transport Policy for Britain. J. Roberts, J. Cleary, K. Hamilton and J. Hanna (Eds), London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1992, 358pp.

Endogenous Development and Southern Europe. G. Garofoli (Ed.), Aldershot: Avebury Press, 1992, ISBN 1 85628 1310, 250pp., £37.50.     

Book reviews

Technology and Work in German Industry. N. Altmann, C. Köhler and P. Meil (Eds), London, Routledge, 1992, 466pp., £45 hb.

Retraining — Not Redundancy: Innovative Approaches to Industrial Restructuring in Germany and France. G. Bosch, Geneva, International Institute for Labour Studies, 1992, 183pp., 30 Swiss Francs pb.

Conflict in Urban Development. A. Dekker, H. Goverde, T. Markowski and M. Ptaszynska‐Woloczkowicz, Aldershot, Ashgate, 1992, 181pp.

The Global Region: Production, State Policies and Uneven Development. David Sadler, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1992, 274pp.     

Italy at War 1935–2005: Report on the 2005 ASMI Annual Conference,Edinburgh, 25–26 November

‘Addiopizzo’ (Goodbye protection money) is a grassroots anti-mafia movement based in Palermo that stresses the individual consumer's responsibility for maintaining the Sicilian mafia's pizzo system. If you purchase products from a business that pays the pizzo you are indirectly supporting the mafia. By encouraging Palermitans to buy from ‘pizzo-free’ businesses, Addiopizzo uses the purchasing power of the consumer to fight organised crime. The community of ‘pizzo-free’ businesses is small but steadily growing whilst the number of critical consumers pledging to buy their products appears to have peaked. This article aims to investigate the reasons why consumers may be reluctant to support ‘pizzo-free’ businesses by asking those who have already made public their decision to do so. Whilst critical consumers cannot fully explain why the majority of Palermo's citizens continue to tolerate the pizzo system their attitudes towards them do highlight differences that may help to account for wider non-participation in Addiopizzo's campaign.     

Viking woollen square-sails and fabric cover factor

The discovery of the five scuttled Viking ships of Roskilde Fjord in Denmark and the subsequent excavation, preservation and analysis of the remains has initiated a programme of reconstructive archaeology led by the Viking Ship Museum of Roskilde in which four of the five hulls have now been reconstructed together with their rigs and square-sails. The reconstruction of the sails has been based on fragments of heavy woollen cloth found within the roof of Trondenes church in Norway dating to the mid-13th century. This paper uses the'cover-factor' modelling methods of modern textile engineering to analyse the'Viking' sail fabrics and assess their strength, resilience and performance in comparison with the linen sails from the wreck of the Vasa .     

Global Production Networks and Global Innovation Networks: Stability Versus Growth

This paper works with global production network (GPN) as compared to global innovation network (GIN) theory and focuses on the global information and communication technologies (ICT), specifically the hard disk drive (HDD) aspects of that system. In this respect it has a double distinction to examine: it concerns complex socio-economic and political governance processes focused upon innovation, argued by many to be the guiding principle of the construction of economic advantage in the contemporary era and it utilizes theory to capture important contrasts in the condition of key and changing building blocks in the global ICT industry. Methodologically, it is qualitative and necessarily so, based in this instance on much secondary information interpretation and some interviews. The larger project of which these findings are a small part had a balance of the two methods of inquiry. Empirically, the paper finds that GPN set-ups are not particularly innovation-inducing, tend to stabilizing over the long term and firm growth is largely by acquisition. The contemporary global ICT system is, by contrast, endogenously innovative, far from stable and has greater developmental potential because of its key GIN characteristic, which is its capacity for novelty.     

Regional knowledge capabilities,embeddedness of firms and industry organisation: Bioscience megacentres and economic geography

Changes in epistemology in biosciences are generating important spatial effects. The most notable of these is the emergence of a few 'Bioscience Megacentres' for basic and applied bioscience medical and clinical research (molecular, post-genomic, proteomics, etc.), biotechnology research, training in these and related fields, academic entrepreneurship and commercial exploitation by clusters of 'drug discovery' start-up and spin-off companies, along with specialist venture capital and other innovation system support services. Large pharmaceutical firms that used to lead such knowledge generation and exploitation processes are becoming increasingly dependent upon innovative drug solutions produced in such clusters, and megacentres are now the predominant source of such commercial knowledge. 'Big pharma' is seldom at the heart of megacentres such as those the paper will argue are found in about four locations each in the USA and Europe, but remains important for some risk capital ('milestone payments'), marketing, and distribution of drugs discovered. The embedding of these processes also creates major new regional disparities, which some regional governances have recognised, causing them to develop responsibilities for regional science policy and funding to offset spatial biases intrinsic in traditional national (and in the EU, supranational) research funding regimes. Responses follow a variety of models ranging from market-following to both regionalised (decentralising by the centre) and 'regionalist' (ground-up); in each case, the role of megacentres is justified in health terms. But their role in assisting fulfilment of regional economic growth visions is also clearly perceived and pronounced in policy terms.