United States–Mexico: The Convergence of Public Policy Views in the Post‐9/11 World

This article explores the state of public policy preferences between the United States and Mexico in the realm of foreign policy in the context of the post‐9/11 world, democratic change within Mexico, and the immigration protests within the United States. Specifically, we will analyze the differences and possible convergence of public policy views on the issues of terrorism, immigration, free trade agreements, drug trafficking, and foreign policy. We find that although there are differences of opinion, particularly in the application of force in Iraq and on the benefits of free trade, there still remains a significant degree of positive convergence within the policy issues of terrorism, immigration, and drug trafficking. Although there are institutional impediments to progressive policy change, future relations between the United States and Mexico do not need to be contentious as long as the focus is on the similarities, rather than the differences, in public preferences between the populations of the two states.     

Yeats,Samhain, and the aesthetics of cultural nationalism: ‘a supreme moment in the life of a nation’

Together, in the plays and essays published in the 1903 issue of Samhain, William Butler Yeats assembled writings that endorse his vision of cultural nationalism in that they stress the possibilities of an artistic regeneration that that has the power to reconcile perceived exclusive strata within Irish society and also to herald a new age not only for Irish culture but for the Irish nation. Yeats, in his cultural nationalism, ultimately vested faith in an Ascendancy tradition, defined not by birth as much as by a willingness to surrender not just political ambitions but all ambition to that of the artist.     

“夜郎王印”刍论

夜郎王印与滇王印同是西汉＂郡县与封国并行＂制度的产物,但对西汉王朝而言,两枚王印颁赐的政治考虑是有区别的。在夜郎问题研究中,夜郎王印的重要性,在于它是还原夜郎古国历史必不可少的条件,有助于判定古夜郎的中心区域、夜郎国首府、传承世系、历代夜郎统治者的墓地位置等,在开发利用文化资源热潮中,＂夜郎＂成为一块炙手可热的文化品牌,出现了民间屡屡发现夜郎王印的现象。要判定某些民间发现的夜郎王印的真伪,首先必须对汉代赐边方国印授的形制、质地、印文格式等有所分析。夜郎与滇同于西汉武帝时获赐王印,因而,滇王印应是夜郎王印的很好参照。破解夜郎王印之谜的途径,是以严谨的学风、科学的精神、持之以恒的态度去寻求答案。     

Evaluating Ethnopedological Knowledge Systems for Classifying Soil Quality. A Case Study in Bo Hamlet with Muong People of Northern Vietnam

Ethnopedological knowledge is incorporated in a case study for sustainable land management of mountain karst areas in Vietnam. The research is based on a multidisciplinary approach, including participation of local inhabitants for identifying and classifying local indicators of soil quality, next to scientifically sound approaches to soil quality assessment based on analytical soil data and a statistical treatment of the results. The case study focuses on Bo hamlet, located in the Ngo Luong commune of the Tan Lac district, Hoa Binh province. The participatory approach reveals that local people of the Muong ethnic group distinguish seven land use types and six soil types. They also identified nine local indicators of soil quality: presence of earthworms; crop productivity; topsoil colour; presence of a humus layer; soil surface compaction; erosion; slope gradient; surface water, and soil moisture status. Based on this indigenous knowledge, 19 soil samples from nine soil profiles in Bo hamlet were analysed for fertility indicators. Laboratory results confirmed the validity of indigenous knowledge for identifying and classifying local indicators of soil fertility, compared to scientific standards of soil quality.     

The production, symbolization and socialization of gentrification: impressions from two Berkshire villages

Gentrification has long been the subject of considerable interest and debate amongst geographers. A range of differing ontological and epistemological conceptions of gentrification have been advanced, with attempts often being made to legislate between them to establish some definitive categorizations of gentrification. The majority of gentrification studies are also highly urbanized: gentrification is seen explicitly or implicitly as a phenomenon that occurs in urban space. This paper questions both the legislative and urban foci of gentrification studies, by outlining an interpretative study of material, social and symbolic dimensions of gentrification within two villages in rural Berkshire.     

论柯文的"中国中心观"

柯文《在中国发现历史》一书所提倡的“中国中心观”,不仅仅是一个史学方法论问题,更是一个深层次的史学理论问题;尽管它仍存在着明显的缺陷,但对于克服美国中国史研究领域中的“西方中心主义”弊端,具有重要的意义。     

A few “big players”: Systems approach to immigrant employment in a mid-sized city

Canada's immigration policy is regarded globally as a best practice model for selecting highly skilled migrants. Yet, upon arrival many immigrants face challenges integrating into employment. Where immigrants settle is one factor that has been shown to impact on employment integration. In Canada, regionalization policies have resulted in more immigrants settling in small to mid-sized cities. It is important to understand how these local systems are organized to promote immigrant integration into employment. Using a systems approach, this paper presents a case study of immigrant employment in a mid-sized city in Ontario, Canada. Through a document review and stakeholder interviews, a systems map was developed, and local perspectives were analyzed. Results demonstrate that in a mid-sized city, few organizations play a large role in immigrant employment. The connections between these core organizations and the local labour market are complex. Any potential challenges to the system that interfere with these connections can cause a delay for newcomers seeking employment. As cities begin to experience growth driven by immigration, there is a need to ensure local services are not only available but also working effectively within the larger employment system.     

What kind of region reaps the benefits of a currency union?

What is the economic impact of joining a currency union? Is this impact heterogeneous across regions? And how does it change in case of a recession? We answer these questions by investigating the economic impact of joining the euro area for the latecomers, that is, the eastern European countries that adopted the euro after 2002. Differently from previous literature, we use NUTS-2 regions as units of analysis. This novelty allows us to investigate the theoretical predictions of a currency union impact at a more appropriate geographical level. Using a recently developed counterfactual approach, we estimate the overall as well as the disaggregated impact of joining the euro area. We find that the adoption of the euro brought about a small positive effect, which was, however, dampened by the Great Recession. Individual regional estimates suggest heterogeneous returns with benefits accruing mostly to core regions.     

Mortgage finance and culture

Using a nationally representative sample of 12,344 immigrants from 41 different countries of ancestry living in Spain in 2007, we find that the higher the housing‐loan penetration in the country of ancestry, the higher the likelihood of having a mortgage in Spain. Similarly, the higher the mortgage depth in the country of ancestry, the higher the present value of the monthly mortgage payments. Our results suggest that social norms regarding mortgage finance in the country of ancestry matter in determining immigrants’ mortgage finance in the host country. More specifically, the effect of social norms on the decision to have a mortgage (the extensive margin) and the amount of the mortgage payments (the intensive margin) is about one third and tenth the size of the effect of having a college degree on mortgage debt, respectively. Evidence of strong persistence of culture among those with longer tenure in the host country, those who immigrated as children or young adults, and second‐generation immigrants suggests that vertical transmission of beliefs (from parents to children) is a plausible channel of transmission. Perhaps most importantly, we find that cultural attitudes regarding property rights are most relevant when explaining individuals’ decision to get a mortgage, but those regarding credit information matter most when explaining the amount of the mortgage debt.     

Delivering a national spatial development strategy: a success story?

The Slovenian national planning policy has been in a renewal process since 2014. The process required an evaluation to reveal to which level the defined measures have been delivered and discuss the policy’s future role. The mixed-methods evaluation approach consisted of a document analysis, a questionnaire with local communities and interviews with representatives of the ministries. Implementation of measures depends on multiple factors: capacity, personal priorities of actors, interpretation skills, financial support, political will for co-operation, etc. The potential to mitigate the influence of factors on implementation through a co-evolutionary trend of planning is elaborated in the light of Europeanization.