Left-behind and Vulnerable? Conceptualising Development and Older Women’s Agency in Rural China

Abstract:

Concern has been growing recently in China about the well-being of children, women and the elderly “left behind” on the farm when family members leave the village in search of waged work. Increasingly, the left-behind are portrayed in academic and policy discourse as a “vulnerable group” of passive dependants, sidelined by modernisation and abandoned by their families. This paper challenges this discourse, arguing that while attention to the well-being of the left-behind is vital, there is an urgent need for a shift in focus from their vulnerability to their agency. The paper focuses on the agency of left-behind women between the ages of 50 and 80. It aims, first of all, to point the way toward an empirically richer understanding of the social construction of older women’s agency and well-being. The second aim of the paper is to suggest how different conceptualisations of “agency” and “older women” might contribute to more ethical and politically effective strategies for development and the improvement of women’s well-being. To further these two aims, the paper draws on fieldwork conducted in rural Ningxia, north-western China, and on critiques of the “capability approach” to development expounded by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum.     

前景化的“新装”

前景化手法给现代文学创作带来了叙事手法的新颖和阅读认知的革新。弗吉尼亚．伍尔夫的短篇小说“新装”将其手法成功地引进其意识流创作,为揭示语篇的整体效果和作者意图带来了不同的阅读思路和文体的多维效应,并用其展示了第一次世界大战后英国中产阶层所特有的社会心态,即构成了作者所寻求的个体心灵的真实及历史的真实的合一。     

现代学术批判对马克思主义中国化的双重影响——以20世纪50年代胡适思想批判为个案

建国初期党对胡适思想的批判涉及改造旧社会的意识形态、奠基新中国的意识形态这样一个思想文化领域的重大原则问题。对胡适思想的批判有其深刻的历史必然性,以胡适为代表的资产阶级学术思想体系在整体上与20世纪50年代初中国的社会转型和主流思潮是格格不入的。这场批判运动从总体上是比较健康的,比较全面系统地清理了资产阶级唯心主义在学术研究领域中的影响,从而确立了马克思主义在意识形态领域中的指导地位。但不容否认的是,理论界也存在着一些教条化的倾向,从而在一定程度上限制了批判所能达到的学术深度和科学性。     

The spatial extent of agglomeration economies across the wage earnings distribution

We investigate the spatial extent of agglomeration economies across the wage earnings distribution using economic mass (total employment) in four distance bands around each individual’s establishment in a quantile regression framework. We control for observable and unobservable individual and establishment characteristics. Remaining endogeneity in the model is assessed with a set of instrumental variables. Results indicate a positive effect of economic mass on wage earnings up to 25 km away from the establishment. The spatial extent of agglomeration economies is similar across the wage earnings distribution. However, increases in economic mass shift the wage earnings distribution in a nonsymmetric way.     

Whose Permits? The Tenacity of Permissive Development Control in Flanders

This paper explains how a permissive planning permit system is embedded in Belgian/Flemish society and how this contributes to urban sprawl. We base our analysis on an institutionalist approach as developed in previous and current research and analyse the Flemish planning permit system since 1962 as one of different interacting planning systems, all (re)produced, maintained, transformed and struggled over by specific individual and collective actors and shaped by a range of institutional dynamics. The analysis shows how in the dynamics of the Flemish planning permit system, a general struggle between actors defending property-based private initiative and actors arguing for collective action in space is especially apparent. In this struggle, property ownership expressed through a permissive planning permit system and limited enforcement of regulations is seen to be predominant, especially in the 1960s, 1980s and 2000s. Changes in the 1990s, making the planning permit system more strict, have partly and momentarily challenged the institutional frame which structures the predominant planning permit practice, but left the logic of individual property largely untouched. Today, the Flemish planning permit system has again been reoriented towards the protection of private property, which hampers the capacity of government to implement a coherent spatial policy.     

SEISMIC WAVE ATTENUATION FOR VRANCEA EVENTS REVISITED

New aspects of the frequency-dependent attenuation of the seismic waves travelling from Vrancea subcrustal sources toward NW (Transylvanian Basin) and SE (Romanian Plain) are evidenced by the recent experimental data made available by the CALIXTO'99 tomography experiment. The observations validate the previous theoretical computations performed for the assessment, by means of a deterministic approach, of the seismic hazard in Romania. They reveal an essential aspect of the seismic ground motion attenuation that has important implications on the probabilistic assessment of seismic hazard from Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes. The attenuation toward NW is shown to be a much stronger frequency-dependent effect than the attenuation toward SE and the seismic hazard computed by the deterministic approach fits satisfactorily well the observed ground motion distribution in the low-frequency band (<1Hz). The apparent contradiction with the historically-based intensity maps arises mainly from a systematic difference in the eigenperiods (type and size) of the buildings in the intra- and extra-Carpathians regions, thus the existing macroseismic data, based on buildings of small dimensions, i.e. with high eigenfrequency (5–10 Hz), can hardly be representative of the real hazard for new and large dimension, tall buildings, with eigenfrequency above 1 Hz.     

‘Broad but not deep’: regional food hubs and rural development in the United States

Abstract

As organizations that aggregate, market, and distribute locally and regionally sourced food within wholesale, retail, and institutional markets, regional food hubs (RFHs) are increasingly promoted in the United States as rural development tools. Connections between RFHs and rural development, however, remain mostly untested and unclear. Motivated by prolonged declines in rural, agricultural communities and limited investigation to date, this paper adopts the capability approach to comprehensively test for the first time the rural development rhetoric surrounding RFHs. In-depth interviews in a rural, poor setting contribute empirical, noneconomic evidence to assess if, how, how much, and for whom RFHs advance rural opportunities and improve upon highly localized food systems. Though not to the purported degree, RFHs facilitate rural development, and do so in previously unexplored though substantial ways. Contrary to what proponents might anticipate, the study simultaneously highlights negative outcomes and areas that – albeit key to rural development narratives – remain unchanged. Grounding assumptions, highlighting alternative spaces of impact, and uncovering barriers with a novel evaluative approach, this paper draws on community voices to fill gaps between theory and reality and offer insights for those hoping to harness the transformative capacities of food.     

从“三位一体”到“四位一体”——中国特色社会主义事业总体布局的历史演变

改革开放以来,中国特色社会主义事业总体布局在理论上经历了由经济建设、政治建设、文化建设三位一体的初步形成到逐步明确,再到经济建设、政治建设、文化建设、社会建设四位一体的渐进发展过程。在工作安排上,社会建设的具体内容一直不同程度地体现在总体布局之中,越来越为党和国家所重视。随着我国经济社会的发展,三位一体总体布局中社会建设具体内容的边缘性和模糊性,客观上要求突破总体布局原有的框架。四位一体总体布局是对我国社会主义初级阶段社会主要矛盾认识深化的必然结果,是应对社会变革和发展新特征的理论创新,是解决经济社会发展不协调问题的必然要求。     

Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS): challenges of implementation in Churchill,Manitoba

Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) increasingly are utilized in geographic research, yet researchers rarely are provided with guidance on how to implement PPGIS in an appropriate and effective manner. This article reports on the process of research that explores responses to current and future local tourism development offered by a sample of residents using a modified PPGIS approach called ‘community action geographic information system’ (CAGIS). The conceptual development of CAGIS is reported and the challenges encountered during its implementation in Churchill, Manitoba during 2005–2007 are reviewed. It is suggested that researchers wishing to conduct similar research should undertake thorough preliminary fieldwork to assess the likelihood of finding agreement on a common problem; acquiring adequate resources; establishing collective responsibility for the project's outcome; attaining stakeholder support; developing trust and meaningful relationships; and incorporating indigenous knowledge appropriately. Feedback of results to community members also should be an integral part of the research process. A number of feedback mechanisms are reported, including an interactive weblog, which helped facilitate communication between heterogeneous groups in Churchill. Although ambitions for a truly participatory GIS approach to this project have been set aside, it is held that PPGIS can yield positive outcomes for communities and academia. Sharing this research experience will be useful to others who venture into PPGIS research, especially in northern communities.     

区域旅游规划的创新思考

区域旅游规划在指导区域旅游产业发展中发挥着十分重要的作用,然而受各种因素的影响,区域旅游规划中的一些方面已经显得不合时宜,正面临着诸多挑战,存在着一些问题,这些都影响了区域旅游规划对地区旅游产业指导作用的发挥.因此,对区域旅游规划的创新研究显得迫在眉睫.本文分析了当前我国区域旅游规划存在的问题以及这些问题背后深层次的原因,并提出了区域旅游规划创新的一些具体建议.