Development for Whom? Rural to Urban Resettlement at the Three Gorges Dam,China

When farmers are dispossessed of their lands to make way for a development project it is often inevitable that there will not be enough land to go around. It is unlikely that parcels of fertile land are lying vacant in the surrounding areas awaiting distribution. It therefore becomes necessary for people who previously derived their livelihoods from the land to move into cities. This research explores what happens to a sample of such people and whether they are able to restore their livelihoods. It examines the Three Gorges Dam resettlement in China's Hubei province and discovers that while the Chinese government has devised an inspired toolbox of benefit-sharing initiatives, the gains accrue to a minority who live in the most amenable location of the Three Gorges area. It concludes that the availability of capital through benefit-sharing initiatives does not guarantee its productive use.     

试说甲骨中的异代使用问题

通过对几版藏于卡内基博物馆的甲骨的分析,发现它们反面的钻凿与正面刻辞的时代相异,提出殷墟甲骨中可能确实存在异代使用的现象。只是这些后刻的刻辞并非真正的卜辞,而是后来习刻者练习契刻的作品。这一问题的探讨对我们了解当时的甲骨保存制度、甲骨契刻技术的传承都是有益的。     

农村宅基地管理：问题与对策

随着我国社会经济的快速发展和城市化、城镇化进程的加快,涉及农村宅基地的矛盾日益突出,已成为影响农村社会安定的重要因素。当前农村宅基地管理上存在着人均宅基地面积超标、村庄建设缺乏合理化规划、＂空心村＂、制度设计有重大缺陷等一系列问题,在此背景下,需要采取如下措施,即：加强宅基地立法体系建设,规范宅基地管理;严格宅基地规划、审批管理;完善农村宅基地流转制度;加强土地执法。     

1952年《中苏橡胶协定》与20世纪50年代的云南农垦

1952年9月15日,中苏两国在莫斯科签署《中华人民共和国中央人民政府、苏维埃社会主义共和国联盟政府关于帮助中华人民共和国植胶、割胶、制胶及售与苏联橡胶的协定》。该协定在扩大中国橡胶生产、派遣苏联专家到中国担任顾问、贷款和还款、售与苏联橡胶、移民云南等方面对20世纪50年代云南农垦系统的发展产生了重要影响。     

中尼边界谈判的历史进程和基本经验

中尼边界是继中缅边界后通过外交谈判正式划定、勘定的第二条明晰的陆地边界线。通过谈判,中尼边界正式划定、勘定,包括双方争议较大的珠穆朗玛峰的归属问题,也以中方大体平分、边界线划在蜂顶的建议方案为基础达成基本共识。中尼边界谈判与中缅边界谈判的成功,为新中国有计划、有步骤地以和平共处五项原则为基础,通过外交谈判、互谅互让和友好协商,全面彻底地和平解决与陆地邻国的边界问题提供了成功范例。     

Land Tenures as Policy Instruments: Transitions on Cape York Peninsula

Over the last four decades, Australia's most remote marginal lands have provided an expansive space towards realisation of emergent national goals, involving recognition of Aboriginal land rights together with protection of ‘wilderness’ and semi‐natural ecosystems. This has been achieved by the revival of land tenures as instruments for the delivery of public policy, requiring innovative federal and state legislation, often driven by judicial determinations. More so than any other bioregion, Cape York Peninsula has experienced radical shifts in landownership, land titles, and property rights, reflecting its pivotal role as an arena in which emerging national goals are contested. The most immediately visible evidence of these changes is depicted in the tenure maps for 1970, 1990, and 2010. However, these maps provide an incomplete account of tenure changes, including new titles such as non‐transferable communal freehold and common‐law recognition of traditional native title, requiring belated responses by state and federal governments. The three benchmark maps provide a starting point for an examination of the currently resurrected role of land titles and land rights as policy instruments. The time‐specific attributes of each tenure category are discussed and linked to the policies underpinning each tenure and to the communities, political constituencies, resources, enterprises, and national values engaged with each tenure. Land titles and land rights are pivotal in political contests about regional futures, with the peninsula acting as a crucible in shaping wider national directions.     

Vulnerability to Bushfire Risk at Melbourne's Urban Fringe: The Failure of Regulatory Land Use Planning

The 7 February 2009 bushfires in the peri‐urban region to the north of metropolitan Melbourne heralded what many have called an entirely new epoch in terms of weather‐related disasters in Australia. A total of 173 people and 2000 properties were destroyed and, as with the 1939 fires in Victoria, a Royal Commission was subsequently instituted to inquire into the causes and responses to the fire. The Royal Commission has heard much evidence about alleged failings of fire response, communication and administration. It also considered land use planning issues and the associated regulatory framework. Using the Shire of Murrindindi as a case study, this paper argues that the location of population growth, and associated regulatory failure, are contributory, yet under‐researched, factors associated with life and property losses. The adoption of more robust planning tools which incorporate climate change considerations, we argue, is essential to anticipate and minimise the impacts of disastrous natural events such as bushfires. In the latter part of the paper, attention is drawn to a recent Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision which is groundbreaking in its use of the precautionary principle to prevent dwelling construction in an ‘inappropriate’ location as well as to some major inconsistencies between planning for flood and bushfire threats.     

Multiproxy environmental archaeology of Neolithic settlements at Osłonki,Poland, 5500–4000 BC

Abstract

Archaeological research on Neolithic settlements (ca. 5500–4000 cal BC) at and near Os?onki, Poland, is complemented by palaeoenvironmental investigations in three basins with biogenic sediments adjacent to the archaeological sites. Research included sedimentology, palynology, malacology and cladoceran analysis. Complementary lines of evidence indicate that Linear Pottery pioneer farmers of the late 6th millennium BC caused minimal environmental impact, but intensive settlement and land use by the Brze?? Kujawski Group during the 5th millennium BC triggered pronounced human-induced effects on the local landscape. Of particular significance is the evidence for erosion and aeolian ablation of exposed soil in the vicinity of the Neolithic settlements, presumably reflecting widespread land clearance, agricultural activity and settlement construction.     

Historical Perspectives on Pre-Colonial Irrigation in Southern Africa

Abstract

One of the basic areas of interaction between water as natural resource and human societies as agents of cultural transformation is the technology of irrigation. In Africa at least 66 per cent of the available water is used for purposes of irrigation. For more than 4 000 years irrigation has secured food supplies for humans on a continent that is noted for its relative shortage of sufficient natural water supplies.

There is a remarkable hidden power of water in the history of southern Africa. This is particularly the case when we consider the development of early irrigation technologies of Iron Age farmers. The small irrigation furrow of the subsistence farmer was just as important to an insular community of Bantu-speaking people in pre-colonial times, as is the sophisticated irrigation technology in present-day South Africa. Currently there is a paucity of information about pre-colonial indigenous irrigation technology. This can be ascribed to a number of factors of which the invasion of modern Western traditions in the nineteenth century is perhaps the most important. A number of other factors for the apparent blind-spot is also presented in this study.

In southern Africa there are traces of indigenous pre-colonial irrigation works at sites such as Nyanga in Zimbabwe; the Limpopo River Valley; Mpumalanga; and South Africa's eastern Highveld. Reference is also made in this article to specific strategies of irrigation used by Iron Age communities, prior to the advent of a colonial presence. Finally, attention is also drawn to pre-colonial land tenure and state formation against the backdrop of Wittfogel's theories on hydraulic society.     

Scotland's wartime airfields: Conflict and legacy

Prior to the outbreak of World War 2 there were very few active military airfields in Scotland but with the end of Appeasement in 1938 a major programme of expansion was underway. This paper traces the origins of the airfields used in World War 2 and discusses wartime roles and duties undertaken. Spatial distribution and socio‐economic effects are considered along with post‐war uses of this substantial legacy.