Factor Decomposition of Rural Income Inequalities in China

A Chinese geographer explores changes in inter-provincial rural income inequality in China since the late-1970s economic reforms by decomposing it into different component factors based on the Gini index (more specifically, into contributions by different income sources: wages, household operations, properties, and transfers). The influence of each factor on inequality changes is further decomposed into its structure effects and its real inequality effects. Quantitative analysis then makes it possible to determine the relative influence of each component on changes in rural provincial inequality over time.     

中国传统工商业城市在近代的衰落

Resulted from different causes, the majority of traditional cities in modern China underwent a decline in various degrees. The causes of the decline of Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou which have started to develop their new industry and commerce since mid-Qing Dynasty lies in such aspects as: the lose of transportation superiority in modern China; the fatal destruction caused by Taiping Revolution; the affects of the rising of Shanghai; the recession of traditional economy and slowed development of new economy; and the conservatism in thinking and ideas etc. Translated by Huang Bangfu from Xinan Minzu Daxue Xuebao 西南民族大学学报 (Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities), 2007, (4): 1–11     

完善青海省农牧区社会保障制度促进社会和谐发展

完善社会保障制度,是社会安定的重要保证,是关注民生、构建和谐社会的首要问题。加快富裕、文明、和谐新青海建设进程,必须切实解决青海省农牧区社会保障制度中存在的问题,制定相应的对策。     

要重视土地改革对乡村社会的深远影响——读《土地制度变动与中国乡村社会变革》有感

最近10年来,随着解决三农问题成为中国共产党和政府工作的重中之重,追溯和研究三农历史的论著也层出不穷,最近读了当代中国研究所王瑞芳研究员以考察新中国成立初期土地改革运动为中心写成的《土地制度变动与中国乡村社会变革》(社会科学文献出版社2010年版),感到作者运用历史唯物主义的基本原理和方法,通过透视生产关系的变革来研     

城镇化对农业农村的多维度影响——基于省际面板数据实证研究

基于面板数据，从综合系统-子系统-要素等三方面定量测度省域人口、土地与产业城镇化对农业农村发展的影响程度，深入剖析城镇化不同要素对农业与农村系统发展的作用机理。研究结果表明：①人口城镇化与产业城镇化对农业农村的影响更加明显，对农村生活系统影响的弹性系数大于1的地区比重分别为58.06%和64.52%；土地与产业城镇化对农业生产系统产生负向影响较为明显，弹性系数小于0的地区比重分别为29.03%和38.71%；②城镇化率、产业结构和建成区比重对人均耕地面积、乡村劳动力比重和人均粮食产量呈显著负相关，与农民人均纯收入、人均农业产值和单位面积机械动力呈显著正相关；③通过深入分析近30年省域城镇化对各地区农业农村发展的作用机理，对于新时期新型城镇化、农业农村转型发展等战略的贯彻落实具有重大的现实意义。     

Quality, imagery and marketing: producer perspectives on quality products and services in the lagging rural regions of the European Union

A range of factors, including consumer concerns about food safety, the growing popularity of rural tourism and policy initiatives to promote endogenous rural development, is converging to promote a relocalization of food production and service provision, especially in those regions marginalized by the globalization of the food supply system. The recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the UK has starkly illustrated the fragility of localized systems which depend heavily on consumers travelling to them. Within such a context, the importance of successful marketing strategies has become even more apparent. This paper reports on a questionnaire survey which investigated promotional and marketing strategies among a diverse range of producers and service providers in marginal agricultural areas of the EU. The findings suggest that many producers are situated towards the "formal" end of a marketing continuum, whereby ability to promote quality products and services (QPS) lies with a range of intermediaries. This raises doubts about the future economic benefits of QPS, should current marketing structures persist. The discussion offers critical reflections on interdisciplinary and international research of this nature, and advocates further theoretical and methodological development in order to explore in more depth many of the aspects raised in this exploratory investigation.     

晋中平原地区农村聚落扩展分析

在实地考察的基础上，章从规模、速度、形态和类型等方面分析了晋中平原地区农村聚落扩展的特点，并深入探讨了影响农村聚落扩展的因素，认为聚落扩展主要是人口增长和家庭规模变化、社会经济发展与收入增加、交通条件改善、农村地区工业化及其他因素共同作用的结果。最后指出了由于聚落扩展而带来的许多难以解决的问题。     

(Un)related variety,urban milieu and tourism-company differentiation

High tourism growth in single-asset tourism cities is often associated with a standardization of supply of products and services by tourism entrepreneurs. However, and in contrast to this common-sense view, tourism growth in specific urban tourism milieus in the ‘sun-sea-sand’ tourism city of Antalya has stimulated tourism entrepreneurs to differentiate their products. Contrary to most economic-geography literature on spatial clusters, evolutionary economic geographers argue that inter-industry relations of (un)related variety are crucial in inter-firm differentiation. The aim of the paper is to define the factors that influence tourism-firm differentiation in the single-asset tourism city of Antalya. The empirical research is theoretically informed by evolutionary economic-geography literature, and pays much attention to the role different urban sub-milieus play in tourism-firm differentiation. It is the first research on the relation between (un)related variety and tourism-firm differentiation in tourism studies. The empirical research is based on primary data collected by a firm-level survey (hotels, restaurants, jewellery- and retail-trade firms) in the city of Antalya. The factors that influence tourism-firm differentiation are explored by using quantitative methods of analysis (an econometric logit-regression model and a correspondence analysis). The main result of the empirical research is that investments in firms in related sectors, in our case jewellery companies and hotels, are positively and significantly related to tourism-firm differentiation. In addition, the location tourism firms in areas visited by a mix of consumers (tourists and locals) also is positively and significantly related to inter-firm differentiation whereas urban milieus visited by locals only have a negative effect.     

Beyond convention: reimagining indigenous tourism

As a knowledge domain, contemporary indigenous tourism is framed in reference to cultures conventionally recognized as ‘indigenous,’ and engages this almost exclusively from a supply-side perspective. This paper reimagines indigeneity and indigenous tourism as embracing also the other 94% of global population. From a utilitarian perspective, this inclusion of ‘nonconventional indigenous people’ harbors opportunities to advance the sustainability agenda by reconnecting modern mainstream cultures, through personal exposure in dispersed settings, with ancestral roots and associated sustainable livelihoods. Such reconnections are framed as a form of re-indigenization that may be especially attractive to ‘travel promiscuous’ diasporic populations such as those found in the ‘settler’ countries of Canada, United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Articulation of this concept could be facilitated by existing knowledge domains and products in heritage tourism, rural tourism, and urban tourism, as well as sustainable tourism. Rather than usurping conventional indigenous efforts to re-indigenize and re-empower, it is contended that the nonconventional dimension can coexist with and even reinforce the latter, while enriching the dimensions of indigenous tourism as a dynamic knowledge domain.     

Parading urban togetherness: a video record of Brussels' Zinneke Parade

This article introduces the concept of urban togetherness to parade research. We suggest that some parades are practices that establish urban relations and not community, carnival or consumerist relations. We develop this new perspective on the basis of a literature review and an analysis of a parade in Brussels, the Zinneke Parade. In the literature review, we distinguish between three existing perspectives on parades. Research has argued that parades serve to build community and claim identity, to suspend social positions and to enable tourist/consumerist relations. In our analysis, we focus on concrete features of the Zinneke Parade obtained through video recording showing the costumes and objects carried along, the rhythm and sounds, and the borders and interactions established during the parade. We argue that the Zinneke Parade should be understood as a form of urban togetherness in which participants and spectators are exposed to each other in a practice that does not necessarily lead to identification and shared meaning.