Regional paths towards Europe 2020 targets: a spatial approach

Europe 2020 is a 10-year EU strategy, promoting smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Despite ambitious goals, its spatially blinded approach might seriously threaten its success. Actually, large territorial disparities still affect the EU, being the basis for a strong EU-wide cohesion policy and suggesting a general re-framing of sectoral policies on a regional basis. In this respect, the paper tackles the issue of regional disparities in achieving Europe 2020 Strategy targets. As the Strategy involves different targets, principal component analysis is applied to disentangle Europe 2020 domains and to describe major differences in EU-27 NUTS 2 regional performances. In particular, two components are returned: high-employment inclusive growth and smart growth. Territorial patterns of both components are analysed, by jointly considering some geographical features that may affect them. Both a rural and a spatial effect occur: rural and remote regions show poor performances whilst the presence of spatial autocorrelation may actually lock-in negative outcomes. When considering urban rural divides, also within-regions disparities matter. Results strengthen the idea that Europe 2020, as other sectoral policies, should be translated into a regional setting according to a place-based approach: although requiring large efforts, this represents the only way to fully achieve its own targets.     

Perceptions of trekking tourism and social and environmental change in Nepal's Himalayas

The Himalayas are among the world's youngest mountain ranges. In addition to the geologic processes of mountain building and erosion, they are also highly vulnerable to human influenced change, occurring at local, national, regional, and international scales. A photo-elicitation methodology is employed to show how residents perceive those changes from historical perspectives, as well as their current conditions and impacts on their daily lives. Nepal's Khumbu region has undergone major social and environmental transformations since the 1960s when international trekking first began to influence the area's economy. The current perceptions of Khumbu residents of these changes are assessed through photo-elicitation interviews. Their responses are placed in the historical context of: (1) institutional and political changes, most of which have been driven by national government policies; (2) social and economic changes, for which the tourism economy has been central; and (3) environmental changes, reflecting the impacts of resource management and climate change. The mostly positive perceptions of Khumbu residents toward how their region has changed reflects general improvements in the physical and cultural landscapes of the Khumbu over time, as well as its continuing geographic isolation, which has helped to slow the rate of globalization, while also keeping the region a dynamic and popular tourist destination.     

商王朝疆域探索

商王朝的疆域 ,是一个有待深入研究的课题。随着考古发掘的日益增多 ,可以与文献相互参照并结合甲骨文资料 ,逐步找出解决这一问题的途径。从目前掌握的文献与考古资料 ,可以明确看到 ,对商王朝的疆域可以分三个层次来探讨 :一是商王朝的直接辖区即王畿 ;二是商王朝行政、信息所达 ,基本上能够管理的地区 ;三是商王朝影响所及的地域。在三个层次中 ,惟有第二个层次才是商王朝的疆域。据此 ,《汉书·贾捐之传》所言之“东不过江黄 ,西不过氐羌 ,南不过蛮荆 ,北不过朔方” ,正是商王朝的疆域所至     

Can Voluntary Environmental Regulation Work in Developing Countries? Lessons from Case Studies

Hamstrung by weak institutions that undermine conventional environmental regulatory tools, policymakers in developing countries are increasingly turning to voluntary approaches. To date, however, there have appeared few evaluations of these policy experiments. To help fill this gap, we summarize arguments for and against the use of voluntary regulation in developing countries, review the nascent literature on the topic, and present case studies of agreements negotiated between regulators and leather tanners in an industrial city in Mexico, a national environmental audit program in Mexico, and a national public disclosure program in India. Admittedly few in number, these three case studies nevertheless suggest that although voluntary environmental regulation in developing countries is a risky endeavor, it is by no means doomed to failure. The risks can be minimized by emphasizing the dissemination of information about pollution and pollution abatement options and by avoiding voluntary approaches in certain situations—those where regulatory and nonregulatory pressures for improved environmental performance are weak and where polluters can block quantified targets, individual sanctions for noncompliance, and other widely accepted prerequisites of effective voluntary initiatives.     

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.     

生态关系视角下国家高新区的演进机制与发展路径

基于对国外文献的综合分析,借助网络对国家重点高新区的历史演变和发展动态进行了理论审视。在对国家高新区进行抽样调查的基础上,迁移运用协同进化理论、复杂性理论和演进经济理论,采取自上而下的方法,对国家高新区的演进机制和发展路径进行了理论抽象,构建了"技术创新过程及成果产业化"、"高新区演进机制"、"技术极功能组织"以及"高新区发展路径"等概念模型;对高新区的创新、创业环境(生境结构)、孵化器体系以及产业集群的组织结构等,进行了深入的生态学解析。     

辽墓出土金属面具与网络起源的再探讨

在众多辽代墓葬中发现的随葬金属面具与网络极大地激起了人们研究的兴趣。目前学界关于契丹族金属面具与网络的随葬这种葬俗的起源还没有统一的定论,主要有以下六种学说,它们分别是萨满教说,下嫁到萧氏皇家女子专用说,佛教说,金缕玉衣说,树葬说以及东胡说。同时,笔者认为唐代西域胡人覆面缠裹的习俗对契丹葬俗形成是起了很大作用的。综上所述,辽代的金属面具与网络正是这些因素共同碰撞的产物。     

World Geography: Organizational and Teaching Strategies

Teaching students to develop an appreciation and understanding of World Geography is a difficult task. This article presents a number of approaches to design effective teaching methods and strategies to stimulate student learning and to develop spatial interconnections. A suggested framework for organization and study of geographic regions of the world is suggested in the article. Atlas exercises, written assignments, course objectives, and seminar projects are designed to improve the understanding of geographic relationships and spatial concepts in World Geography.     

THE GOVERNMENT’S BUSINESS?

The engagement of Swedish industry in the Liberian American–Swedish Minerals Company (LAMCO), which mined iron in Liberia between 1963 and 1989, was the largest Swedish commercial investment in Africa during the Cold War. In this paper I investigate how political and administrative actors of the Swedish government conceptualized the link between private and public interests in the context of LAMCO’s operations, and how this shaped Swedish government policy towards the company and Liberia. I identify two phases: a phase of almost unanimous political support for LAMCO and close Swedish–Liberian relations from ca. 1955 to 1965, and a more fragmented phase following 1965, during which LAMCO was increasingly understood as a political liability. My findings show how business interests could figure into Swedish foreign policy during the Cold War, highlighting the coherence with which Swedish industry and government acted in relation to the commercial interests in Liberia before ca. 1965, but also the lack of coherence – between government and industry as well as within the state apparatus – that followed the turn to a more activist policy after the mid-1960s.     

公共性旅游资源开发与保护的政府规制研究

公共性旅游资源的公益性特征决定了其既要注重资源配置效率,又要兼顾社会福利。目前公共性旅游资源在市场调节机制失灵的情况下,发挥资源保护职能的政府规制显得至关重要。本文运用政府规制理论,通过剖析政府在公共性旅游资源开发与保护中的重要作用以及目前存在的问题,探索性提出价格、进入、环境、税费和信息补偿方面的规制内容体系和管理体制、法律法规、监督约束机制方面的规制执行体系,以期有效实现公共性旅游资源的保护性目标和可持续利用。