Scale, causality, complexity and emergence: rethinking scale's ontological significance

Scale remains a pivotal yet highly contentious concept in geography. I survey the lively discussions engaged in recently by many critical/radical geographers regarding the theoretical status of scale. While these discussions have been intellectually fruitful, I argue that much more needs to be said. Drawing from complex systems theory, I argue that scale should be understood as an ontological category essential to understanding causality. Revalorising Aristotle's four categories of cause – formal, final, material and efficient – from two centuries of positivist thinking facilitates this endeavour. Research on the relationship between university-based poultry scientists and the poultry industry illustrates the explanatory potential of poly-scalar analysis.     

李四光与辛亥革命

在近代中国仁人志士探索国家出路的大背景下,李四光作为一位新式知识分子,在时代的号召下亦曾投入到革命洪流之中,参与辛亥革命。这充分体现了时代与个人的互动关系。在时代的号召下,他接触革命党人,接触革命思想,实现思想转变,走上革命救国道路,而革命党人的思想也对李四光的一生产生了深远影响：在辛亥革命后,面对辛亥革命的失败,他积极参与实业建设,力图实业救国,走上了科学救国之路。     

Hypermobility and the governance of global production networks: The case of the Canadian cycle industry and its links with China and Taiwan

Western firms engaged in mass retailing and in product assembly make frequent changes to their global production networks (GPNs). Indeed, some GPNs show a tendency to hypermobility, which we define as a rapid switching of economic links among manufacturers, importers, and retailers. This theme is explored in the context of the Canadian bicycle industry where domestic production collapsed between 1980 and 2008, following a century of remarkable stability. After a period of flux when Taiwan was the key player, China has emerged as the dominant original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of bicycles sold in Canada, with big‐box stores accounting for the great majority of sales. We connect this increasing fluidity in supply arrangements and in the global organization of the industry with the governance of these GPNs. Several aspects of governance are considered, including the Sloanist practices of the largest Canadian retailers, and the activist role of the Chinese state in directing regional patterns of manufacturing in China.     

Contemporary Social Change as the Context for Geographical Enquiry: Towards a Reinvigoration of the Concept of Place

The nature of contemporary social change is explored by posing questions about the implications of neoliberalism, the character of leisure, the perils of materialism, and the shift from consumption to consumerism. Momentum is a powerful force in human affairs. Investigating its nature illustrates how the concept of equilibrium has been given undue emphasis in models of human behaviour. Momentum encourages ‘more of the same’ and is implicated in the way people fail to use leisure fully or effectively and in the way they subscribe to an emphasis on materialism and consumption as a path to happiness. Geography needs to engage with popular social scientific writing if it is to have a place in public intellectual debate. In many ways contemporary social change promises a reinvigoration of the concept of place and therefore challenges to both the substance and nature of geographical inquiry.     

20世纪30年代国民政府对鲁豫皖手工卷烟业的“整理”

20世纪30年代,鲁豫皖手工卷烟业迅速发展,增加了农民收入,繁荣了地方经济,满足了社会需求,促进了农村经济发展。但其对机制卷烟业也造成极大冲击,并严重影响国家税收。出于维护机制卷烟业正常发展和国家税收考虑,国民政府着手对三省手工卷烟业进行"整理",采取了一系列措施,但收效不甚明显;便又采取了取缔手工卷烟的措施。由于手工卷烟户的抗拒,地方政府的不配合,地方税务机关查禁无力,取缔工作难以展开。1937年抗日战争爆发,打断了国民政府对手工卷烟业的"整理"。     

青海出版业集团化发展模式略论

改革开放使青海出版业得到了长足发展。但随着改革步伐的不断深入,人们日益增长的对文化的需求,使得青海出版业自身存在的诸多问题不断显现出来。文章从整合优势资源的视角,提出青海出版业应走集团化发展模式之路,并就相关内容进行了论述。     

Resource nationalism or resource liberalism? Explaining Australia's approach to Chinese investment in its minerals sector

Since 2005, a burgeoning wave of Chinese investments has set off a new ‘minerals boom’ in the Australian iron ore and coal mining sectors. While normally a welcome development, the state-owned and strategic nature of the investors has raised concerns in Australia about how these should be regulated. As a result, in February 2008 the Australian government declared an intention to more closely screen foreign direct investment (FDI) from state-owned sources, which both supporters and detractors alike have claimed is evidence of ‘resource nationalism’ in Australia's approach towards its trade and investment relationships with China. This article challenges this understanding through an examination of the characteristics of Chinese mining FDI, the dilemmas these present to the Australian government, and the relatively restrained nature of its response. Through this, Australia's FDI policy is explained as a defensive move against the potential for strategic behaviour by Chinese investors resulting from their state ownership, rather than any national program to subject minerals trade and investment to political control. On this basis, the article argues that Australian government policy instead evidences a ‘resource liberalism’ approach, which intends to ensure that the governance of Australia's minerals trade and investment with China remain market-based processes.     

60年代初工业支援农业的历史考察

在三年困难时期(1959—1961),由于政策上"左"的失误以及严重自然灾害的破坏,我国农业生产遭遇严重挫折,粮食产量连年大幅减少,给人民生活带来严重影响。为了促进农业生产的恢复,国家提出各行各业支援农业。其中,工业对农业的支援是其中一个重要组成部分。工业支援农业的内容主要有:压缩工业规模,增加生产农机、农具、化肥等。通过工业支援农业,农业生产得到一定程度的恢复。     

The Aral Sea Crisis and Its Future: An Assessment in 2006

An American geographer and noted international authority on water management problems in Russia and Central Asia presents an account of an expedition, in late 2005 (under the sponsorship of the National Geographic Society) to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, focused on the Aral Sea. The steadily drying inland sea, with a surface area of 67,500 km² in 1960, had split into two parts and shrunk to 17,380 km2 in 2006. The paper provides an up-to-date overview of the crisis and presents an optimistic scenario of the sea's future, noting development of economic activities (particularly fisheries) in its surrounding settlements. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O13, Q15, Q25. 6 figures, 1 table, 55 references.