High-Tech Centre in the Periphery: The Political,Economic and Cultural Factors behind the Emergence and Development of the Oulu ICT Phenomenon in Northern Finland

The Oulu region in Northern Finland has witnessed a remarkable growth of ICT industries since the 1980s. A town near the Arctic Circle with only 140,000 people (2012) created a high-tech business that employed at its best nearly 16,000 people in the region at the millennium. This article investigates the historical background of this phenomenon, which is not so much an imitation of Silicon Valley, but rather a result of special Finnish and northern characteristics. The most important contributing factors were the University of Oulu, governmental support and the success of the Nokia Corporation. Oulu's strength was the early clustering of the focal actors. Oulu established the first Technology Park in the Nordic countries in 1982. The northern mental environment, Oulu's traditions and many exceptionally active persons also contributed to the phenomenon. The case of Oulu is presented in a larger international context with the help of studies on regional high-tech clusters and the development of the information society. Present and future challenges are also addressed.     

中国海外劳务移民的发展变迁与管理保护——以移民工人维权和争议处理为中心的分析

论文从移民工人维权和劳动争议处理这一新视角,较为系统地分析中国海外劳务移民的历史发展与管理体制,深入剖析中国劳务移民管理的法律政策框架及维权和争议处理机制,比较借鉴劳务移民典型国家的经验做法,并对实现中国劳务移民有效管理的对策与措施,提出了四点建议:一是完善相关国内立法,构建多边合作协议框架;二是确立劳动行政部门主管,建立多部门政策协调机制;三是强化政府公共服务职能,加强海外劳务移民监管;四是加大工会组建、培训和维权力度,充分发挥工会组织的作用。     

菲律宾政府的海外菲律宾人政策探析

近三十年来,菲律宾向世界各地输送了大量海外移民,尤其是劳工移民。菲律宾政府为此实施了诸多积极有效的海外移民政策。如实施《移民劳工和海外菲律宾人法》等政策法规,维护劳工移民和海外菲律宾人的权益;设立高效协作的移民管理机构,为海外菲律宾人提供全方位保护和服务;实行双重国籍政策,赋予海外菲律宾人公民权;设立"海外菲律宾人月"等节日和"总统奖"等奖项,表彰海外菲律宾人的杰出贡献等。这些政策的实施,加强了海外菲律宾人对祖籍国的向心力和凝聚力,他们在菲律宾的社会经济发展中发挥着重要作用。     

The Impact and Compensation of Offshore Wind Farm Development: Analysing the Institutional Discourse from a French Case Study

Abstract

In France, the public acceptability of marine renewable energies and their impacts on ecosystem services (ES) involves questions about compensation for stakeholders, who may perceive some of their activities and interests to be modified. This paper seeks to understand how impacts on ES are perceived by institutional stakeholders and what is expected in terms of compensation. It also seeks to identify the communities of practice affected. We focus our study on the planned offshore wind farm in the bay of Saint-Brieuc. Our results show that institutional discourse is heterogeneous, depending on sensitivities, interests, and who or what the stakeholders surveyed represent or defend. Stakeholders' discourse can be interpreted on various gradients of perception. Six distinct communities of practice have been identified, based on the impacts perceived by institutional stakeholders. Lastly, we show that the community of practice seems to be a proper level at which to study perceptions and assess the no-net-loss goal.     

Indigenous peoples,local communities,and Payments for Ecosystem Services

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs are reshaping the governance of ecosystems and natural resources around the world. These programs often occur in spaces that are unceded, contested, or otherwise not legally recognized as Indigenous homelands, customary areas, and territories. Building on the discourses of Indigenous self‐determination, nationhood, and cultural responsibilities, this paper examines how PES programs produce unique outcomes for Indigenous peoples as ecosystem services providers. Our findings demonstrate and substantiate three themes that impact Indigenous ecosystem services providers uniquely: (1) the internationally recognized right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous peoples; (2) the reinforcement of settler colonial jurisdiction; and (3) mismatches between Indigenous knowledges and PES‐type approaches. The ways that PES programs run the risk of reifying and reducing Indigenous knowledges have not yet been adequately considered within current PES approaches. Our findings enable a conceptualization of PES as a new conservation tool within ongoing histories of land management and dispossession by settler colonial governments. We assess the strengths and challenges of PES programs as a departure from previous conservation modalities.     

The Semantics of Corruption: Political Science Perspectives on Imperial and Post-Imperial Methods of State-Building

Although imperial historians concentrate on regions and periods with abundant documentation, it is worth considering how another discipline copes with the political fate of post-colonial societies whose records are not so easily accessible. The nine works reviewed below cover problems of misgovernment in new states in several regions. This article concentrates on their methods and conclusions for states in sub-Saharan Africa and more especially West Africa. Authors and editors have made considerable use of patron-client (or clientelistic) explanations in their interpretations of the aims and performance of African leaders under post-independence constitutions. Techniques of patronage have a long history; colonial rulers applied them to find useful intermediaries between administrators and African ethnic groups; and there is ample evidence for their existence in the politics of new states under the label of ‘corruption’.

Despite accepted definitions of patronage, the terminology of clientelism contains ambiguities when employed to denote historical cases in a large number of cultural contexts with poor economic management and dictatorial governance. The collective conclusion of the books reviewed charges African civil and military leaders with corruption in appropriation of public resources for private gains. All the authors comment on that generic term; one of them supplies a detailed analysis of its ramifications. Most have drawn, too, on imperial works and records as background to their explanation for the policies of civil and military leaders in independent states in coping with debt management, risk of territorial fragmentation, use of parastatals and misuse of resources. It is concluded here, however, that input from the late colonial period has been misunderstood; second, that anthropologists’ knowledge of the institution of chieftainship, its survival or disappearance, throws light on the ‘indeterminacy’ of leadership succession in Africa, unless overcome by the mechanisms of constitutional elections; and, third, that political science has not investigated the reasons for the lack of competent judicial and civil service institutions to safeguard the working of Africa's constitutions.     

A Framework for the Integration of DVD Technology in Geography Teaching and Learning

This article discusses the results when integrating digital versatile disc (DVD) technology in full-time second-year geography for BEd degree students at a university in South Africa, a developing country. It proposes a framework for the integration of the DVD in geography teaching and learning, steered by students’ needs, feedback and observations by the lecturer. The proposed framework recommends clear guidelines on how to integrate the DVD, as well as the interactions between the role players/resources. It also explains how the DVD was compiled, what was included and how it was effectively applied in conjunction with seminars, as an alternative to traditional lectures. An action research design was utilized and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected.     

Drifting Along or Dropping into Homelessness: A Class Analysis of Responses to Homelessness

Abstract: Prominent assumptions about street homelessness and how it should be addressed originate primarily from middle class domiciled worldviews. This article draws on interviews with 58 street homeless people to develop a typology for explaining different forms of homelessness resulting from differences in class of origin. The concepts of social distance and abjection are used to illustrate how class politics manifests in street homelessness and in responses to this issue. Many of our homeless participants referred to two broad groupings of homeless people who display distinct experiences and cultures in their daily lives on the streets. Drifters are people who do not experience homelessness as a sharp disjuncture from their previously housed life. Street homelessness is a continuation of the hardships of their lower class backgrounds. Droppers are people who have “fallen” on hard times and aspire to return to mainstream middle class lifeworlds. Differentiating between these two groups provides a space for defamiliarizing dominant understandings of, and current generic responses to, homelessness and foregrounds the need for reorienting services to better meet the needs of drifters.     

Changing places: investigating the cultural terrain of village pubs in south Northamptonshire

The village pub has traditionally held an important ‘place’ in British economy and society and as such is an interesting site for social and cultural analysis. At one level, it is a site with pronounced mythic qualities. Yet on another level, the place of the village pub is highly unstable and contested, with many reportedly facing closure. Adopting an avowedly ‘production-centred’ approach, this paper presents exploratory survey findings from two case study villages in south Northamptonshire. This includes an examination of each pub's input supply network, including links with brewers and other suppliers. The paper attempts to move beyond viewing the village pub simply as a declining rural service and focuses in particular on the ways in which pubs commodify ‘local culture’ as an economic resource. It concludes by introducing the concept of ‘cultural terrain’ and its application to the study of village pubs and rural services more generally.

Changement de décor: examiner le champ culturel des pubs de village dans le sud du Northamptonshire

Le pub de village a conservé depuis longtemps une «place» importante dans l'économie et la société de l'Angleterre. Il est un lieu qui présente un grand intérêt pour analyser les dimensions sociales et culturelles. Le pub de village est d'emblée un lieu ayant acquis d'importantes qualités mythiques, mais occupe à un autre niveau une place très instable et contestée. Selon les informations disponibles, plusieurs auraient déclaré faillite. Partant d'une approche ouvertement «centrée sur la production», cet article présente des conclusions d'une étude de cas exploratoire réalisée sur deux villages dans le sud du Northamptonshire. Il est proposé un examen du réseau d'approvisionnement de chaque pub, y compris les partenariats avec les brasseurs et fournisseurs. L'article tente de dépasser l'idée que le pub de village est un service rural en voie de disparition. Il porte principalement sur les façons dont les pubs commercialise la «culture locale» pour en faire une ressource économique. L'article se termine par un survol de la notion de «champ culturel» et de son application dans la présente étude sur les pubs de village et les services ruraux en général.

Cambiar de lugar: una investigación del terreno cultural de los bares de pueblos en el sur de Northamptonshire

Tradicionalmente el bar de un pueblo ha ocupado un lugar importante en la economía y la sociedad británicas y por eso es un sitio interesante donde hacer análisis social y cultural. A un nivel es un sitio de cualidades míticas pero a otro nivel el lugar del bar del pueblo es muy inestable, ya que muchos corren el peligro de que los cierren. Con un enfoque centrado en la producción, este papel presenta los resultados de estudios preliminares realizados en dos pueblos del sur de Northamptonshire. Incluye un examen de la red de proveedores de cada bar, incluyendo los vínculos con cervecerías y otros proveedores. El papel pretende ir más allá de la idea que hay del bar del pueblo como un servicio rural en declive y se centra en particular en las maneras en que los bares hacen mercancía de ‘la cultura local’ como recurso económico. Concluye por introducir el concepto de ‘terreno cultural’ y la aplicación de ello al estudio de los bares de pueblos y servicios en zonas rurales en general.