Building local nodes in a global sector: Clustering within the aeronautics industry in Montreal

This article analyzes the mechanisms through which metropolitan governance is established in Montreal's aeronautics sector, one of the most important and innovative industries in the region. The article also examines the role of lead firms, socio‐economic actors, and public agencies from a territorial point of view. It is established that on the one hand the existence of a small number of prime producers at the local level facilitates productive linkages among businesses through subcontracting, and on the other hand, the intensive participation of intermediate socio‐economic agencies and organizations ensures a metropolitan anchoring of the sector and creates a strong territorial identity among the players.     

从灾害治理视角透视政府合法性

灾害中止社会生活的和平进程、瓦解社会秩序的正常运转。政府作为公共权力的执行者,集中一切力量将灾害降低到最低限度,履行＂以人为本＂和＂科学发展＂的战略选择,在维护国家安全、社会秩序、保障个体生命的生存权与发展权的同时,也增强了民族的凝聚力和政府的合法性,充分体现了人本政府的良好形象和我国社会主义制度的优越性。因此,进一步完善灾害预警机制、信息输入和公开机制以及资金管理制度等灾害治理体制,能够进一步推进合法性政府的构建。     

后金融危机视角下对资本主义、马克思主义与社会主义的反思

席卷全球的金融危机既对资本主义社会造成很大破坏,影响十分恶劣,却也彰显出马克思主义的价值和魅力,更让社会主义透现出光明的发展前景。但这并不等于资本主义行将灭亡、社会主义取得胜利的时机已经来临。金融危机给人们提出了一系列需要更加深入反思和认识的有关资本主义与社会主义的理论与实践问题,需要确立理性看待资本主义的态度,坚定马克思主义、社会主义的信念与信心。     

The Service Sector in the Chinese Economy: A Geographic Appraisal

A U.S.-based economic geographer and observer of China's economy examines the rapid expansion of the country's largely overlooked service sector, at both the national and regional levels. A particular focus of the author's research is on identifying regional variations in the development of services within the country and exploring some of the more important contributing factors. Based on the findings, the paper also discusses structural shifts that occurred in China's regional economies, disclosing inter alia that inequality in the contribution of services to GDP did not follow the same trajectory as that of employment in services. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L800, O180, P230. 6 figures, 4 tables, 82 references.     

Bank Liquidity Creation in Russia

Two EU-based senior economists analyze the contribution of bank liquidity creation to the Russian economy, as well as changes in creation of liquidity occurring during the global financial crisis. Applying the methodology of Berger and Bouwman's (2009) study of U.S. banking to a rich panel dataset for Russian banks for the period 1999-2009, the authors compute three alternative measures of bank liquidity creation. They find evidence of increased creation of liquidity in real terms over the period and also determine that state-controlled (versus private) banks and Russia's largest banks (versus intermediate-size and small banks) contributed most to liquidity creation (lower in Russia than in the U.S.). Their findings suggest that consolidation of the Russian banking sector may prove more instrumental in increasing liquidity creation than privatization per se.     

盛世隐忧：从乾嘉文治看清朝由盛而衰

以盛世光环载入史册的乾隆朝在文治领域潜伏着重重隐忧。当时朝廷重视经学,而思想上却不认同民间汉学;虽然承袭庙堂理学,却对其内圣外王鲜有心得,并且压制朝野理学的发展。同时,统治者的信仰世界混乱、迷茫。嘉庆朝的经学政策略有调整,重新重视理学,又强调以勤简为政,但总体上缺少新意,无济于事,清中期遂成武功彰显而文治偏失的格局。这也是清朝由盛而衰的重要根源。     

Governing the inner “periphery.” Spatial security governance of the Highlands in Papua New Guinea since the colonial period

Specific regions and places are considered particular threatening and dangerous by state authorities. There, the state regularly enacts security in harsh and violent ways. In this article, I develop a pragmatic spatial framework, inspired by and combining elements from post-statist geography and Critical Security Studies, to explain patterns of spatial security governance in regions with competing local authorities and regular violence. I particularly argue for more historical analysis on the emergence and legacies of spatial security governance to understand its persistence and consequences. I illustrate the framework with an empirical investigation of the spatial security governance of the Highland regions in Papua New Guinea, and its role as a dangerous inner “periphery” for the central state since the late colonial period. The patterns of security governance in the Highlands, like the declaration of emergency zones in case of regional warfare, the use of violent punitive expeditions by mobile forces, accompanied by a securitizing discourse, have remained remarkably similar. While the post-colonial state aimed at a break with the colonial past, the spatial security governance of the Highlands has remained an important source for the legitimization of state rule and state formation. Governing the inner “periphery” is constructed as the responsibility of the state, which has been historically entangled in the “violent geographies” in the Highlands.     

The politics of discretion: Authority and influence in asylum dispersal

This paper considers how discretion, understood as both a capacity to make decisions and a form of influence that is often hidden, operates within the accommodation and support of asylum seekers. Combining critical discussions of discretion with accounts of a ‘local turn’ in migration policy, I argue that discretion plays a key role in shaping how policy is implemented and offers insight into the changing governance of asylum at national and local levels. Drawing on empirical material examining the development of the UK's asylum dispersal system, the paper extends accounts of discretion beyond ‘street-level’ to argue for a focus on how discretion reflects different claims to institutional authority. Addressing four accounts of discretion in dispersal, I argue that tracing discretion can offer insights into how ‘implementation gaps’ in asylum policy are negotiated and how tensions between national and local governments are contained. Tracing discretion in this way may advance critical interrogations of power relations in welfare bureaucracies and develop understandings of institutional agency and influence within liberal democracies.     

The socio-ecological fix by multi-scalar states: The development of ‘Greenways of Paradise’ in Chengdu

This paper examines the recent green turn in China by investigating a large-scale urban greenway project. Using the perspective of the socio-ecological fix, we demonstrate that multi-scalar states strive to upgrade environmental quality. Specifically, the local state seizes the opportunity for ‘ecological civilisation’ envisioned by the central state to carry out green infrastructure development. We reveal complex motivations to incorporate ecological changes into entrepreneurial urban governance instead of encroaching greenspace for economic growth. Our state-centred analysis reveals that such an environmental strategy, the making of Chinese green urbanism, is promoted like a political mission, despite its operation by the development corporation. We argue that, while the socio-ecological fix facilitates capital accumulation, its deployment must be understood through state politics and actors.     

Staking claims: Hybrid governance and state-making on the North Kosovo frontier

This article examines how state and non-state actors claim public authority in areas of contested sovereignty. It develops the concept of the frontier as a point of departure. As zonal spaces of weakly established or overlapping authority, frontiers have historically been sites of collaboration between state and non-state actors. Extending the concept to shed light on contemporary forms of state and non-state governing arrangements, I argue that frontiers can be can also be analysed across specific domains of public authority. I highlight three domains in particular: the symbolic domain, where the state is imagined as a collective actor; the contractual domain, which depends on the use of public services to establish a social contract; and the protective domain, the classic Hobbesian justification for the state as a provider of security. Applying the frontier framework to North Kosovo, I argue that Serbia has sustained a near monopoly over the symbolic and contractual domains in the contested region yet is severely constrained in the protective domain. As a result, Belgrade has relied on outsourcing authority to local illicit actors to maintain leverage. However, these actors have also carved out their own autonomous forms of authority and actively manipulate the ambiguous political boundaries in North Kosovo to their advantage.