Premature exit from and delayed entrance into the less developed status: An empirical appraisal of the structural funds allocation criterion

This paper investigates the impact of the main criterion employed by the European Commission for the allocation of the largest portion of Structural Funds, based on the threshold of the 75% of European Union (EU) average gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. We focus on the 2014–2020 programming period and on EU-15 regions to analyze if this criterion has penalized some of them, as a consequence of the 2004 EU enlargement, which has represented an exogenous shock in the allocation process, due to the economic backwardness of new member states. Through the application of Synthetic Control Methods and Difference-in-Differences estimators at different geographical scales, we show that regions that did not obtain the less developed status in both the programming period 2007–2013 and 2014–2020, but that would have obtained it in the period 2014–2020 without the 2004 EU enlargement, experienced a significantly lower GDP per capita growth between −10.5% and −5.7%. Conversely, territories that in the period 2014–2020 lost the less developed status, previously obtained in the time frame 2007–2013, were not characterized by a significantly lower economic growth, providing some evidence of the effectiveness of the safety net.     

Environmentalism and Chinese urban order: The ecological control line policy in Shenzhen,China

There has been growing research interest in processes of selective ‘ecological gentrification’ and ‘environmental enclosure’ in cities where environmental controls are used to attract and retain more affluent residents and attract higher value economic development. This dimension of urban policy might be increasingly relevant to major Chinese cities, which are facing increasing competitive pressures to reorient modes of growth and development around ecological security and quality of life in social and environmental domains. In that context, we examine the development and implementation of the ‘basic ecological control line’ policy (BECL) in the fast-growing city of Shenzhen. In essence the BECL marks a rezoning of the city to enhance ecology and reverse previous environmental degradation, but in doing so it also does political work in reordering space in line with changing economic and social priorities. The question we ask is how the BECL might be read in the context of ecological gentrification and the wider political context of Chinese urban policy. Through detailed empirical investigation, we trace the political economy of the BECL and draw out the insights it offers on transitional urban economy-ecology relations in China and theories of urban environmentalism more generally.     

清代科布多官学考

乾隆三十二年,清廷在漠北乌里雅苏台和科布多两地设立官学,要求蒙古王公按季入班学习,后改为一年六班,每年选取二十余人,学习内容为满蒙文翻译、法令、办事程式和礼仪等。该官学不在清朝学校系统内,不分等级,不考核,不参加科举,无专门教习和统一教材。乌里雅苏台—科布多官学脱胎于蒙古王公在衙门的值班制度,是值班制度的副产品。清朝在科布多设立官学的目的是让各部王公入班帮助参赞大臣处理事务,顺便学习满蒙文翻译和起草文件,以更好地协助参赞大臣,进一步在中央边疆治理中发挥作用。至清末,因清政府财力吃紧,再加上官学未能达到预期效果而被裁撤。     

Multiculturalism in taiwan

This study explores the contradictions and challenges in the development of multiculturalism in cultural policy in Taiwan. The approach used involves an exposition and critique of the two dominant models of multiculturalism in Western theory – namely, liberal multiculturalism and postmodern multiculturalism. From the perspective of liberal multiculturalism, I argue that ignorance of multicultural citizenship limits the scope and impact of multicultural policy. I then go on to suggest that postmodern multiculturalism addresses problems related to the visibility of cultural differences and shifting identities. Through analysing the various contradictions and challenges inherent in these two approaches, this study hopes to identify appropriate forms of multiculturalism capable of taking into account both multicultural citizenship and the dynamics of cultural diversity.     

THE AMBIVALENCE OF POSTCOLONIAL MAURITIUS

At the independence of Mauritius, multiculturalism policy, as part of the decolonisation agenda of “Mauritianisation”, was instituted in education. The official English language, through the curriculum, was buttressed to police the population according to the moral standards of multiculturalism. In this article, popular culture as manifested through ethnographic research into students’ negotiations of official multiculturalism implemented through school textbooks, will be shown to flout policy. It will be demonstrated that resistive cultural practices of Mauritian students, embodied by vernacular Creole, contest the cultural essentialism promoted by the government. Creole language, in particular, and various in‐between cultural experiences articulate the hybrid, diasporic and global dimensions of the lives of ordinary postcolonial Mauritians.     

Why a resale royalty was rejected in Australia

In 2004 the Australian Opposition party introduced to Parliament a private member’s bill proposing the amendment of Australian copyright law to include an artist’s resale royalty. In response to the bill the Government released the Proposed Resale Royalty Arrangement Discussion Paper, which successfully provided a tangible foundation for discussions and stimulated the first strong academic debate regarding a resale royalty within Australia. Despite overwhelming support from respondents, in May 2006 the Government announced it would not support the adoption of a resale royalty right and the Resale Royalty Bill 2004 failed to pass through Parliament. The rejection of a resale royalty by the Australian Government illustrates the ongoing difficulty of incorporating civil law notions of creative rights, and moral rights in particular, into common law – particularly as the Australian Government’s approach to policy making is increasingly underpinned by economic rationalism.     

A study of social‐market interventions in the shaping of the field of cultural production

A social analysis based on extensive evaluation of the Dance and Drama Awards programme reveals the social‐market political paradigm underpinning the formation of cultural policy in the UK underthe New Labour government. This specific intervention in the field of cultural production is placed in the context of broader government interventions in the cultural domain that seek to give respect to undervalued social and cultural groups. There is a political analysis of the characteristics of the social‐market political formation that underpin New Labour’s “affirmative” actions, and the political strategies informing the government’s “access” and “inclusion” agendas and their impact on the cultural and creative industries. The authors argue that the construction of a “social‐market” position in New Labour’s cultural policy represents an attempt to bridge or “hyphenate” the contradictory claims of social democracy, on the one hand, and economic fatalism, on the other. Despite the rhetoric of social and cultural “transformation”, the authors argue that a “faith” in the market prevents New Labour from transforming the political‐economic and cultural structures that generate economic and cultural injustices.     

SOVEREIGNTY AND SOFTWARE

This article will critically appraise two approaches to cultural policy. The first focuses upon the need for a national cultural policy in order to establish a national “common culture” among its citizens, through measures to promote the arts and popular media sectors, and set limits to the flow of imported materials into the nation. This is what has been termed the “sovereignty” model, and has historically been the driver of cultural policy debates. The second approach, which is called the “software” approach, aims to create cultural infrastructure and other environmental factors to promote a creative economy, whether at local, regional, national or supra‐national levels. It questions the historical divides between “culture” and “industry”, and between “creativity” and “innovation”, and is focused upon the development of future ideas and creative concepts. It draws upon the very different conditions associated with the development of software to those of established arts and media sectors, and aims to extend the “software” model more widely into cultural and creative industries policy.     

Independent creative subcultures and why they matter

Independent creative subcultures, in their various hybrids of music, theatre, art, and new and old media, are the primordial soup of cultural evolution. They have the capacity for a highly definitive influence on their participants – catalysing the transition from consumer to producer for instance – often conferring much broader cultural and social benefit. Creative subcultures make continuing, well-documented, contributions to established city cultures for relatively low outlay. Indie creative activities in particular do not make much money and they do not cost much to set-up. They tend to cluster in areas characterised by low rents and non-residential uses such as retail and industrial areas, but as third wave gentrification reaches into the dark pockets of many cities, cheap rental properties are becoming scarce. This article uses time-series maps of inner Melbourne to show a pattern of tighter and tighter clustering of indie cultural activities as alternative spaces disappear. It looks at where they are going and why, considers the implications of this pattern for the ‘creative city’, and suggests some policy initiatives to help maintain and nurture independent creative scenes. As Melbourne’s live music scene is particularly vulnerable to displacement from increasingly dense and contested inner-urban space, the article focuses on interventions relating to music venues.