The 2012 acid mine drainage (AMD) crisis in Carolina's municipal water supply

ABSTRACT

There are growing concerns in South Africa about the threat that acid mine drainage (AMD) poses to local natural water resources in many of the country's mining areas. Since the beginning of the 21^st century, the toxic water has been responsible for pollution in parts of the country. Government and operators in the country's water sector have actively been working in recent years at addressing the problem. This article deals with a contemporary history of an AMD crisis in the coalmining town of Carolina, in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa, and explains how the matter was eventually resolved. The discourse focuses on how people of Carolina responded to the contamination of the municipality's water supply system and eventually chose to follow the path of active protest. The water crisis even made a detour to the high court, with a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) actively supporting the cause of local residents. Although by September 2012 the town's water supply was restored, the community remained distrustful of the local authority's ability to secure a consistent supply of good quality water. The authorities took some measures to restore trust. People had been traumatised and sound relations had to be restored in the aftermath of the crisis. The Carolina crisis of 2012 is contemplated from the perspective of the current threat that AMD poses to South Africa's finite water resources and the danger of mining in sensitive areas.     

Irrational amusements,theatre law,and moral reformers in nineteenth-century America: implications for later popular music study

This paper considers several case studies of conflicts between moral reformers active in US cities and venues catering to working-class audiences from the 1860s to 1880s. For moral reformers, theatrical entertainments, particularly forms with no educational or moral purpose, were deeply corrupting and threatened not only the well-being of the individual, but also that of the nation. These case studies show that tensions emerged when popular styles sought to expand their audience beyond their traditional patrons or to move into respectable areas of the city – in other words, when they did not stay in their traditional place. This is also true of the many hybrid musical forms that combined European-based folk or religious styles with African-American music. Forms such as jazz and rock ‘n’ roll did not elicit significant protest until they began to find an audience in northern cities among middle- and lower-middle-class youth. Exploring how laws were changed in response to earlier conflicts adds a crucial historical perspective to popular music studies, which tends to remain firmly focused on music from the mid-twentieth century onwards.     

Servants and Bourgeois Life in Urban Sweden in the Early 20th Century

By 1900, most Swedish servants had a rural background. They had migrated to the city from the countryside to perform domestic service in private households. Here they met bourgeois ideals of the comfortable home where the masters could demand home-cooked meals, clean clothes and pleasant surroundings. Servants were needed in order to fulfil this ideal. Yet, the number of domestic servants declined strongly in urban Sweden during the first half of the 20th century. This problem is often called ‘the servant crisis’. We explore the background to the scarcity of servants, the relationships between masters and servants and the role of servants in creating economic and cultural distinctions. We analyse the various adaptations of bourgeois households to the decline of domestic servants. Qualitative sources from private letters, diaries and autobiographies are combined with quantitative evidence from censuses.     

解说:源起、概念、研究内容和方法

解说是旅游休闲研究中相当重要的一个概念,但关于解说的研究却只是近50年以来的事情。从20世纪60年代至今,解说研究经历了形成期、寻找最佳媒介期、探求正当性阶段,到1990年代初期初步走向成熟。目前,国际上的解说研究借助更多社会学和心理学理论,以及应用社会科学如营销、消费行为、应用行为分析及教育分析方法等,通过理性行为理论、计划行为理论、规范焦点理论、阐述可能性模式、基模理论、防御动机理论以及其他认知和社会认知理论得到理论架构,并逐渐走向成熟。与此相应,解说的理论研究在国内大陆尚未得到应有的重视,研究水平也与国际上存在较大的差距。本文从文献综述的角度,梳理了国际解说研究的最新进展,对解说的源起、概念、研究内容和方法等问题进行了探讨,并针对我国解说研究的现状分析了我国解说研究发展的前景,通过研究发现,我国的解说研究主要集中在台湾地区,研究的案例地选择较单一,对解说效果的评估缺乏定量的评估等等,另外也看到中国大陆地区,有关解说研究的论文曾逐年增多的态势,解说研究在中国也会越来越得到重视,解说也会被用到旅游的各个方面。     

城市群对外服务功能量化解析——以山东半岛、中原和关中三城市群为例

城市流强度描述了城市对外联系的强弱。是表征城市对外服务功能的量化指标。三个省份的实证检验明显地揭示出城市流与城市中心性具有特别强的相关性。本文以山东半岛、中原和关中城市群为研究区域,通过城市流强度的计算与结构的分析,从城市流视角探讨城市群发展演化机理,揭示出城市群空间结构由简单的单核心结构到复杂的多核心结构的演化过程。文章根据城市流大小和及其产业分布情况,分析了城市群及其中心城市的二、三产业城市流强度与结构,得出城市群整体的对外服务特征,并据此提出改善和提高城市对外服务功能的措施。     

中国城市社区公共服务设施配置现状与规划实施研究

城市社区服务设施分为生活服务设施、市政设施和公共服务设施三大类。在统计分析了全国城市社区建设基本情况抽样调查数据之后,重点考察了全国城市社区服务设施的覆盖率、配建规模和居民的需求现状,得出我国城市社区公共服务设施相对其它两类设施更加供不应求的结论,参照建设部和北京市、上海市、武汉市等地的城市居住区公共服务设施的设计规范,结合各种相关因素,提出了我国城市社区公共服务设施规划指标和实施建议。     

我国服务业发展的基本特征与空间差异研究

改革开放以来,我国服务业发展迅速。服务业在经济增长方式转变、产业结构优化升级和吸纳就业人口等方面发挥着越来越重要的作用。本文从服务业的演进阶段、增长行为、内部结构、地区发展不平衡等方面对我国服务业发展的基本特征进行了分析。在此基础上探讨三大地带间、三大地带内和31个省(市)间服务业发展的区域差异,从空间上将我国服务业发展水平划分成发达、次发达、较发达、欠发达和不发达五个基本类型,旨在对未来我国服务业的发展,尤其是不同类型区服务业的差异化发展提供理论依据。     

城市居民休闲度假旅游需求实证研究——以南京为例

我国旅游业正在从观光游览型向休闲度假型转变。运用数理统计分析方法,以南京为例探析对城市居民休闲度假旅游需求进行研究。研究发现偏爱休闲度假的居民在旅游资源喜好、旅游活动偏好、购买行为、信息来源渠道、出游方式等方面与一般居民有着明显差异。据此探讨休闲度假产品的开发,分析未来的休闲度假旅游发展趋势,并提出相应的休闲度假旅游产品开发对策与建议。     

深圳居民服务性消费行为的偏好与空间特征

服务性消费在深圳居民消费结构这一在居民消费结构中的重要性日益增加,本文首先对深圳居民的服务性消费偏好进行了分析,其次将服务性消费行为大致分为餐饮消费、美容美发消费、体育健身消费及酒吧消费等四种类型,分别研究了各种消费行为的空间特征。     

三维度服务体验实证研究

服务体验是顾客对服务遭遇所作出的感觉和评价。顾客每次消费都追求相应的利益,比如,追求产品或服务的实用功能、享乐性情感或增进与同伴的友谊等。不同的消费目的决定了顾客的服务体验应当是一个多维的概念。本文在文献回顾的基础上,提出服务体验包含功能体验、情感体验和社会体验3个维度,并以餐馆为调研行业,用问卷调研方法验证了这3个维度的合理性。最后,文章提出对旅游体验作进一步研究的几点思考。