Geographies of mediation: Market development and the rural broker in Maharashtra, India

This paper explicates the role of community-level intermediaries in post-liberalized economic sectors. Focusing on nascent commercial markets for improved, smokeless cookstoves in southwestern Maharashtra, I describe how development is encountered by three analytic groups – artisans, female stove users and NGO field officers. This study highlights patterns of strategic intermediary action, or forms of brokering, used to negotiate the commercialization process for individuals involved in the fabrication, distribution and use of improved cookstoves. A close analysis of the mediating agent can strengthen theories on how individuals and communities encounter sector privatization and state retrenchment. This study reveals a diverse set of brokering activities and actors, and shows how intermediaries combine tasks associated with traditional conceptions of the political fixer and market broker by working within and between groups of market, village and state operatives to transform market supply chains. Mediating agents coordinate counter regulating activities within civil society in the absence of heavy state intervention and play a crucial role in activating and connecting community interests to latent neoliberal state resources.     

通勤时间的幸福绩效——基于中国家庭追踪调查的实证研究

幸福不仅是个人的心愿,也是城市管理者的执政目标之一,因此,对于城市中普遍存在的通勤时间过长所带来的心理影响研究十分必要。本文采用中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,考察了通勤时间对于个人主观幸福感的影响。实证结果显示,通勤时间对于个人幸福感存在显著的负向影响,随着个人通勤时间的增加,个人幸福感也随之降低。通勤时间与生活满意度也同样呈现显著的负相关,这也证明了结论的稳健性。通过进一步考察通勤时间负面影响的异质性发现,通勤时间对幸福感的影响在不同社会群体间存在差异,对于个人收入高、教育程度高、家庭收入高的居民而言,通勤时间所造成的负面心理影响更大。因此,政府应重视通勤对居民幸福感的影响,并致力于提高交通效率。     

快速工业化城市职住空间平衡与过剩通勤研究——以中山为例

过剩通勤是衡量城市居民职住空间组织和通勤效率的重要指标。本文以快速工业化城市中山市为例,采用2012年中山市交通调查数据,分析中山市职住空间平衡与过剩通勤状况。通过线性规划模型计算发现,中山市居民的通勤距离、过剩通勤率(E)、通勤容量(C_u)使用率均普遍小于国内大城市和西方城市。城市空间结构与土地利用、产业结构与就业结构对中山市的通勤特征的形成有重要的影响。过剩通勤各项指标与户籍、职业类型和家庭收入有显著的相关性。表现为家庭收入越高,过剩通勤率相对较高。机关事业单位和企业行政办公人员通勤效率较低,而产业工人通勤效率较高。非本市户籍人口通勤效率高于本市户籍人口。     

争夺中国东北:1900至1903年的美国对俄外交

190 0年至 190 3年俄国占据中国东北期间 ,美国为了维护其在中国东北的利益 ,与俄国展开了一场激烈的外交争夺。美国积极利用英国和日本施加于俄国的压力 ,与俄国暗中展开谈判。其间 ,美国以牺牲中国权益包括“中国完整”为诱饵 ,诱使俄国同意美国在东北“利益均沾”。由于列强争夺态势的复杂性及利益的不可调和性 ,美俄谈判无果。最后美国逐渐转向支持日本对俄开战的政策。整个过程说明了美国对华“门户开放”政策的实用主义的特点     

心理地理学视角下空难暴露人群心理应激机制分析及其理论延伸

跟踪心理地理学相关网站信息和心理地理学情境主义“漂移”论代表性研究成果,开发一个二维的心理应激主观评测方法,通过情境下的深度访谈旨在从情境再现时空难暴露人群心理活动视角揭示其心理应激作用机制,将其具体概括为一个由时间过程特征和空间接近特征、个体心理应激行为和群体心理应激行为、消极心理反应和积极心理反应组成的相对应与互转化的组合范式,进而进行风险感知水平、心理意识力、区域差异的讨论,以说明情境“漂移”论对心理应激研究的支持。这项研究的特色在于将空难暴露人群心理应激机制研究建立在心理地理学情境“漂移”论的基础上,从而体现心理地理学的学科意义。     

Japan’s role conception in multilateral initiatives: the evolution from Hatoyama to Abe

This article examines Japan’s role conception in its multilateral commitments to the Asia-Pacific after the global financial crisis in 2008. The Hatoyama government launched an East Asian Community initiative, which aimed to assume a kingmaker role in creating a new order in East Asia. However, the East Asian Community initiative did not develop due to stress on self-reliance and distance from partnership with the USA. The Abe government sought to play a dual role in its major multilateral commitments. On the one hand, the government sought to play a follower role in enhancing the position of the East Asia Summit with an eye to consolidating the US-based institutional framework. On the other, Abe’s new multilateral initiative of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific represented Japan’s kingmaker role in maintaining a free and open maritime regime, and to keep a liberal and open economic regime under the emergence of the Trump administration.     

The archaeology of World War II karst defences in the Pacific

During World War II, the Japanese military, using either their own or civilian labour, excavated tunnels into the limestone of many Pacific islands and modified natural caves for use as command posts, hospitals, combat positions, storage, and shelter. Civilians also used caves to shelter themselves during the war. This article introduces the archaeology of WWII caves and tunnels referred to collectively as ‘karst defences.’ While karst defences exist across the Pacific, little is known about these sites both historically and archaeologically. Based on a study in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and analysis of karst defence construction and function, this article demonstrates that karst defence use extends beyond what has been described in historical accounts. The authors find that the sites in Saipan were used by three different groups of people and identifies distinct Japanese military and civilian sites and evidence of post-war use by the United States.     

Spatial distribution of US employment in an urban efficiency wage setting

We analyze whether efficiency wages operate in urban labor markets, within the framework proposed by Ross and Zenou, in which shirking at work and leisure are assumed to be substitutes. We use unique data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) that allow us to analyze the relationships between leisure, shirking, commuting, employment, and earnings. We confirm that shirking and leisure are substitutes, and present an estimate of this relationship, representing the only empirical test of the relationship between a worker's time endowment and shirking at work. Our findings point to the existence of efficiency wages in labor markets.     

Soft Transport Policies and Ground‐Level Ozone: An Evaluation of the “Clear the Air Challenge” in Salt Lake City

In recent years, communities have begun to implement both “soft” and mandatory policies designed to address worsening air quality. Voluntary or soft transportation policies have included air quality alert systems that encourage people not to drive on days when the air quality index is above a specified threshold and public education/action campaigns that focus on reducing automobile related travel. In this article, we evaluate the effectiveness of one such soft policy, the Clear the Air Challenge (CAC), in reducing ground‐level ozone during the Wasatch Front's summer ozone season. Using daily ozone data and color‐coded daily air quality designations from 2006 through 2012, we estimate a range of nonequivalent control group models. In only one of the models does the CAC generate a statistically significant but small reduction in ground‐level ozone. Future research should assess the full range of costs and benefits to the public associated with such soft transport policies.