Land-Use Planning in Norwegian Mountain Areas: Local Development or Nature Protection?

This article discusses how land-use planning and management can combine the aim of local development with the protection of mountain areas. The basis for this double approach comprises protected areas and the land-use element of the Municipal Master Plan according to the Nature Diversity Act and the Planning and Building Act (PBA), respectively. Case studies performed in six mountain municipalities show that the planning processes in general are performed by a combination of rationalistic and communicative rationality based on consensus and with little awareness of power structures. Today's two-part system is dominated by the interests backing protection, not only in the protected areas, but also in the buffer-zones. Though the conflicts are rather few, they nevertheless often seem deep-set and rooted in national–local power relations. We argue that a more agonistic and decentralized approach where the protection-area management is transferred to the PBA will, to a larger extent, be able to combine both use and protection and to stimulate local development in mountain municipalities.     

Tailored polities in the shadow of the state’s hierarchy. The CLLD implementation and a future research agenda

The paper provides a theoretical contribution to the multi-level governance debate, discussing the role of the policy instruments in tailoring polities for local development strategies. To this purpose, it examines the Community-Led Local Development (CLLD), a policy tool of the EU Cohesion Policy 2014–2020, which has generated more than 3000 local initiatives across the EU. An institutionalist perspective enables a reflection on the multi-level normative dimensions of these local initiatives. A combination of the post-functionalist governance theory, the soft space debate, state-theory and strategic-relational approach provides an interpretative framework to be deployed for a dedicated research agenda. The interpretative challenge is about whether the CLLD enables spatial-temporal fixes in which a deliberative polity pursues a spatial imaginary for an ad-hoc territory. The consequent analytical dimensions can be found in (a) the relationship between attendant ad-hoc polity, policy agenda, territorial design and societal processes; and (b) the meta-governance dimensions that locate the bottom-up constituency of this institutional technology in the shadow of state’s hierarchy. An overview of the CLLD implementation across the EU provides evidence on the latter.     

Circular cities: exploring local government strategies to facilitate a circular economy

ABSTRACT

Cities are growing rapidly, and the systems of production and consumption that support this growth are contributing to the depletion of natural resources and pollution of the environment. The circular economy model offers an alternative to the predominant take-make-dispose economic system. Local municipalities are seen to have the capacity to encourage sustainable development of the built environment. This paper aims to explore the role of strategic planning in facilitating a circular economy in urban settings. In particular, this research asks: How are local governments facilitating circular economy initiatives through strategic planning? What are the opportunities and barriers when applying circular economy principles through local strategic planning? The research approach used for this paper is a comparative case study of two international municipalities: the City of Melbourne, Australia and the City of Malmö, Sweden. Current strategic planning practice was examined with a focus on circular economy themes. The findings reveal that strategic urban planning can translate circular economy objectives into actions within specific urban areas, although barriers still exist to fully integrating the circular economy model.     

Gender relations in Bedouin communities in Israel: local government as a site of ambivalent modernity

In this article, we examine the perceptions towards women and gender relations maintained by male, local authority officials within two Bedouin towns in Israel. As such, the current research lies at the intersection of local politics, gender, space and culture. We argue that analysis of these perspectives provides insights into the ambivalent nature of modernity: into the tension between the desire to preserve the traditional role of women in maintaining the family, and the recognition of the powerful potential of women to act as agents of change. Based on an analysis of personal interviews, the study traces the ways in which both power and vulnerability impact the attitudes and perspectives of these men officials. By applying narrative analysis, gendered power structures are examined within Bedouin society in the context of the local authority – zooming in on the narratives provided by the male authority officials. The findings reveal that the officials maintain a series of ambivalent and conflictual attitudes towards the role of women. Bearing in mind their potential impact on the quality of women's daily lives in local public spaces, it seems vitally important to account for the entire matrix of tensions and vulnerabilities that impact the municipal policy instruments at their disposal. The findings are relevant beyond the Bedouin communities in Israel and may serve as a platform for a wider discussion of the dilemmas of minority women in rapidly changing cultural environments, and ambivalent modernity.     

全球—地方视角下西安市软件产业集群的创新效应研究

全球—地方关系为产业创新研究提供了新的视角。本文基于全球（通道）—本地（蜂鸣）关系视角构建了软件产业集群创新效应研究的理论框架。以西安市软件产业集群为例,采用Stata13定量分析不同尺度创新合作的创新效应及其影响因素。研究发现,本地和国际创新合作均对集群创新具有积极的影响,且后者比前者的创新效应更强,说明搭建外部通道对集群创新的必要性;本地与国际创新合作交互对不同规模的软件企业产生的创新效应不同,对小型软件企业存在减法效应,对中型软件企业存在加法效应,对大型软件企业具有乘法效应。建立领先软件企业带动的开放创新系统,是西安市软件产业集群提升创新效应的有效路径。     

Polarization and the growth of low‐skill service jobs in Spanish local labor markets

This paper analyzes the long‐term transformations of the occupational structure in 50 provinces of Spain with a view to ascertain the existence and assess the extent of employment polarization. The peculiar characteristics of this country, namely rigid labor markets and the relatively recent transition to democracy, make for an interesting addition to existing studies on this topic. In line with previous literature on other countries, we find a strong association between the decline of “routine” mid‐skill jobs and the expansion of low‐skill service employment as well as differential labor market outcomes by levels of formal education. Results are robust to various controls and instrumental variables that account for long‐term industry specialization. We also find a positive local multiplier effect of high‐skilled workers on the demand for nontradable service jobs.     

The Subsumption of Space and the Spatiality of Subsumption: Primitive Accumulation and the Transition to Capitalism in Shanghai,China

Abstract: Based on extensive interviews, this study is the first systematic attempt to map the spatio‐temporal evolution of production networks linking urban, state‐owned enterprises and rural, township and village‐owned enterprises in reform‐era China. It identifies two distinct regimes of urban‐to‐rural subcontracting patterns and conventions. The first, which developed and prospered from the mid‐1980s until the mid‐1990s, brought rural workers and the countryside into a relatively extensive relationship with urban capital, and thus represented a partial transition to capitalism. Its violent reconfiguration in the wake of a series of sectoral crises in the late 1990s led to the widespread privatisation of rural enterprises, and the emergence and consolidation of a second regime that simultaneously constituted a significant intensification of relations, the capture of the rural by the urban, and a new stage in this region's transition. This paper argues that these regimes are analogous to the formal and real subsumption of labor to capital, respectively, and that subsumption may be a more useful analytic for understanding the process of capture and transition than primitive accumulation: the latter concept alone, without reference to the dynamics of the social/spatial division of labor, risks missing other ways that exploitive connections can be constructed between places. This paper thus seeks to recast the relationship between these two concepts, and to develop a larger vocabulary in which subsumption, like primitive accumulation, is both spatial and ongoing and internal to capitalist accumulation.     

Local Institutions and Environmental Outcomes: Evidence from Wetlands Protection in Massachusetts

Community‐based efforts to address environmental problems occupy an increasingly large space on the environmental policy landscape. Advocates argue that local environmental institutions (LEIs) can deliver both procedural and environmental quality benefits. Yet, despite over a decade of expansive support, the performance of LEIs remains largely unknown, particularly with regard to environmental outcomes. In this article, we consider new environmental outcome data we compiled from local efforts to implement the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act. We find that stronger forms of LEIs generate both quantitatively and qualitatively better environmental outcomes, which suggests that LEIs may live up to their advocates’ expectations.     

清宫大白伞盖佛母信仰探析

清代宫廷对白伞盖佛母的崇拜出现了显著的发展,特别在乾隆时期,除在宫中大量制作白伞盖佛母像外,还在北京及其周边地区的各大寺庙制作供奉精美的绘画和雕塑,甚至专门兴建寺院来供奉白伞盖佛母像。其信奉目的和崇拜方式等方面的特点,目前尚很少有专门的论述见诸文献。本文借助清宫档案及现存清代原状佛堂内白伞盖佛母的陈设情况,试图说明清代宫廷是将白伞盖佛母作为重要的福寿保护神来供奉的,并不是简单地继承元代的信仰传统而是另有传承和发展。     

《钦定宪法大纲》与清末政治博弈

《钦定宪法大纲》是清末一个重要的宪法性文件,是各方政治势力博弈的结果。大纲的产生自有其合理的一面。虽然大纲带有浓厚的封建性,但诸多条文仍不乏合理性、进步性和民主性。大纲在中国宪政史上确立了根本法的地位,确立了二元制君主立宪政体,初步确立了分权模式,初步确立了权利义务观念,与西方宪政初步实现了形式上的对接。