Multinational Knowledge Strategies,Policy and the Upgrading Process of Regions: Revisiting the Automotive Industry in Ostrava and Shanghai

This paper revisits how and why new multinational knowledge-based strategies and multi-level governmental policies influence the upgrading process of regions in developing economies. Automotive multinationals traditionally exploited local asset conditions, but it is shown that they have also been contributing to knowledge-generation systems via investments in R&D centres and cooperation with regional knowledge producers. We discern three elements of the upgrading process of regions—upgrading of domestic firms, subsidiary evolution and establishment of strategic relations with local knowledge institutes—to analyse two case studies: Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Shanghai (China). The cases show that all types of upgrading—product, process, chain and functional—have taken place in the last years, and that follow sourcing may have a positive impact on regional upgrading. These observations provide lessons for governments in developing economies which aim to strengthen innovation-based regional development.     

Retail Development in The Netherlands: Evaluating the Effects of Radical Changes in Planning Policy

After long years of a protective national retail planning policy, the Dutch national government decided in 2004 on a radical shift with respect to this policy, by abolishing restrictive retail regulations. The provinces have recently responded by reinstalling the main elements of the national retail planning model at the regional level. This article shows that nevertheless unintended structural changes in the Dutch retail landscape have occurred. Building on theoretical perspectives on institutional change and normative approaches to planning, the article evaluates the rationale behind the shifts in the planning regime and the extent to which the “new” planning regime meets the conditions for a collaborative planning approach. Additionally, regional differences in the effectiveness of retail planning are analysed and related to regional differences in the planning regime.     

Exploiting Sino-US Geostrategic Competition: The View from Seoul and Singapore

The mainstream literature on weak status quo states’ diplomacy tends to identify their regional security roles in terms of dealing with non-traditional security issues. This article argues that such a limited approach is not sufficient to explain the current security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific. This article reviews the literature on weak status quo states’ influence on regional order. It then identifies a security environment in which they are more likely to exert some impact on maintaining and building a regional order. After contextualising these discussions in the Asia-Pacific setting, the article examines the experience of South Korea and Singapore as secondary powers in the East Asian region. Although both countries enjoy high levels of security cooperation with the US, both have also been able to exercise a certain amount of influence in advancing their own geostrategic interests amidst the growing Sino-US geostrategic competition. Yet their exploitation of Sino-US geostrategic competition is neither a simple balancing strategy against China nor a simple bandwagoning with the US, since both South Korea and Singapore have been increasing bilateral and multilateral security cooperation with China.     

古代纺织品的世界——来自于古代绘画及雕塑品上的彩绘装饰

在众多的遗物中,真正的纺织品在不同范围被保存并且作为考古出土文物被保护。在埃及,中亚和欧洲（北方）地区,由于这些地方有利于有机物的保存因此可以非常频繁发现纺织品。古代（石质）雕塑如希腊瓶饰画或亚洲陶质雕塑都详细的描绘着衣物,往往辅以详细削减和图案表现。与此相比,比较少见的是古代雕塑彩绘装饰上手绘图案或装饰仍然可以认出或保存完好。被保护的纺织技术作为另一种技术用于制作纺织品,将被介绍并与古代以往的绘画和彩绘装饰保护实例作比较。图案与技术的表现将会用于说明并与真正的纺织品发现物的图案与技术作比较,同时与纺织技术的重建相结合。发现物的样品来自于欧洲,地中海东部和中东。这将表明从古代遗物的绘画上区分独立的纺织技术,并且图案也可以用于证实真正的纺织生产工艺的结论。