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.     

Contract-Workers in Swedish Agriculture,c. 1890s–1930s: a comparative study of standard of living and social status 1

In the political and medial discourse of the 1930s the contract-work system (stat/ar/systemet) was depicted as a relic of pre-modern society and contract-workers (statare) as the highly exploited lower class with no legal rights, low incomes, miserable housing conditions and a chaotic family life. This picture has dominated Swedish social history ever since, and the main argument of this article is that it has to be modified. With regard to the material standard of living, for example, employment terms, working conditions, wage levels and housing conditions, contract-workers were no worse off than other worker groups in the countryside. On the contrary, the contract-work system had its own rationality and advantages. It made it possible for young couples without land or a croft to marry and establish their own household since housing was included in the payment, and the yearly employment and large proportion of in-kind payments provided income security. However, the political discourse of the 20th century was based on the growing importance of the town and industry. The more regulated employment conditions, higher wages and better housing for industrial and urban workers became the yardstick by which the contract-workers' situation was judged. Agriculture was an economic sector in decline and the contract-work system appeared to be outdated. The abolition of the contract-work system in 1945 was definitive confirmation of the victory of modernity.     

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.     

Book reviews

Abstract

This paper explores the decision-making process for heritage management at the monastic community of Mount Athos, a World Heritage Site in Northern Greece, in relation to the concept of living religious heritage and the pursuit to balance the heritage values of both the experts (heritage professionals) and the non-experts. The function and impact of a specific heritage agency — KEDAK (Centre for the Preservation of Athonite Heritage) — designed to establish the decision-making power of the Athonite monasteries will be critically discussed. A range of interesting compromising solutions and some challenges and problems raised by the function of this agency will serve as the background for examining the extent to which different perceptions on heritage management can coexist, particularly when heritage professionals find themselves on the bottom of a top-down decision-making process.     

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。     

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。     

服务蓝图：国际上最新旅游服务设计方法

服务设计是服务质量管理的重要环节,良好的服务设计是保障服务质量的先决条件。服务蓝图是现今国际上极为流行的服务设计方法,本针对旅行社的具体情况,以案例形式介绍这种先进方法。