How Neoliberal Is China's Reform? The Origins of Change during Transition

A UK-based geographer and specialist on China's urbanization reviews changes occuring in China during its market transition through the prism of neoliberalism. More specifically, by reviewing the recent literature on neoliberalism, the author searches for parallels between that approach and the political-economic, historical, and social developments associated with market transition in China (e.g., land and housing commodification, rural to urban migration, changes in access to education and health care). The question of to what extent (and in what ways) China's reforms— featuring an expanding role for the market—can be considered neoliberal is conditioned by the continuing importance and involvement of the state in all spheres of activity.     

Overpressure and petroleum generation and accumulation in the Dongying Depression of the Bohaiwan Basin, China

The occurrence of abnormally high formation pressures in the Dongying Depression of the Bohaiwan Basin, a prolific oil‐producing province in China, is controlled by rapid sedimentation and the distribution of centres of active petroleum generation. Abnormally high pressures, demonstrated by drill stem test (DST) and well log data, occur in the third and fourth members (Es3 and Es4) of the Eocene Shahejie Formation. Pressure gradients in these members commonly fall in the range 0.012–0.016 MPa m^?1, although gradients as high as 0.018 MPa m^?1 have been encountered. The zone of strongest overpressuring coincides with the areas in the central basin where the principal lacustrine source rocks, which comprise types I and II kerogen and have a high organic carbon content (>2%, ranging to 7.3%), are actively generating petroleum at the present day. The magnitude of overpressuring is related not only to the burial depth of the source rocks, but to the types of kerogen they contain. In the central basin, the pressure gradient within submember Es32, which contains predominantly type II kerogen, falls in the range 0.013–0.014 MPa m^?1. Larger gradients of 0.014–0.016 MPa m^?1 occur in submember Es33 and member Es4, which contain mixed type I and II kerogen. Numerical modelling indicates that, although overpressures are influenced by hydrocarbon generation, the primary control on overpressure in the basin comes from the effects of sediment compaction disequilibrium. A large number of oil pools have been discovered in the domes and faulted anticlines of the normally pressured strata overlying the overpressured sediments; the results of this study suggest that isolated sandstone reservoirs within the overpressured zone itself offer significant hydrocarbon potential.     

历史视野下的"三农问题"--"中国农村问题的历史积淀与现代趋向"会议综述

20世纪90年代以来,“三农”问题已成为中国社会经济发展的主要滞障。出于对现实问题的强烈关怀,南开大学历史学院主办了“中国农村问题的历史积淀及现代趋向”学术研讨会,与会学者从历史发展进程中的农村经济、农村市场、农村城市化道路、农村政治及农村历史发展总趋势等多方面进行广泛的讨论,追溯“三农问题根源,并试图对这一重大课题提出历史学家的锐见。     

Healing,Entertaining, and Accumulating Merit: The Circulation of Medical Recipes from the Late Ming through the Qing

This article examines the circulation of medical recipes through vernacular literature and personal networks from the late Ming through the Qing. During this period, vernacular texts played a leading role in circulating practical instructions for everyday healing techniques, especially in the form of recipes. Recipes became a versatile textual form for recording and transmitting experience in quotidian practice. They moved among different genres of texts, providing information about healing, offering advice for entertainment, and delivering moral lessons. Literati sociability as well as philanthropic and religious commitments motivated people of varied social means to distribute vernacular texts bearing healing information to a broad audience. Recipes acquired legitimacy and authority by clearly marking their provenance and thus its relationship to particular social networks and, sometimes, a religious purpose as well.     

Privatizing Social Reproduction: The Primitive Accumulation of Water in an Era of Neoliberalism

Abstract: Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of critical works seeking to extend Karl Marx's radical understanding of “primitive accumulation” in order to describe the increasing penetration of capital into new spaces and social relations in the contemporary era of neoliberal globalization. This paper will argue that the intensification of the commodification of water may be understood as an ongoing mechanism of primitive accumulation and that this process generates contradictions and tensions not solely for capitalist relations of production, but more crucially, for relations of social reproduction. Further, while recent years have witnessed the emergence of a new discourse on water governance that advocates a more active role for governments in the water sector and for the incorporation of the “voices” of women and the poor in the development of sustainable and equitable water policies, this new discourse ultimately remains informed by neoliberalism's individualist ontology and its material and discursive dedication to economic growth above broader social considerations.     

商周印纹硬陶与原始瓷器研究

本文讨论了中国古代高温釉器物的起源、基本特征、产地 ,以及陶瓷器族群不同种类的界定与命名等问题。作者认为 ,陶器和瓷器从商周时期开始形成两个不同的发展序列 ,二者各自发展 ,互有影响 ,且时代越晚 ,其关系越疏远。二者的联结点是特殊的陶器———印纹硬陶。     

Wooly mammoth mass accumulation next to the Paleolithic Yana RHS site,Arctic Siberia: its geology,age, and relation to past human activity

In 2001, the Yana RHS archaeological site was discovered in the lower Yana river valley, Arctic Siberia. Its radiocarbon age is about 28 000 BP. While enormous amount of Pleistocene mammal bones was excavated from the site, the mammoth bones occurred at an unexpectedly low frequency. That was interpreted as an indication of the limited role of mammoths in the subsistence economy of the Pleistocene Yana people. In 2008, next to the excavation local ivory miners opened a mass accumulation of mammoth accompanied by the artifacts. About one thousand mammoth bones from at least 26 individuals, and few wooly rhinoceros, bison, horse, reindeer, and bear bones have been unearthed there. Stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating provide evidence for cultural layer of Yana RHS and the mass accumulation of mammoth to be coeval. The geology and taphonomy of Yana mass accumulation of mammoth indicate its anthropogenic nature. Discovery of the anthropogenic mass accumulation of mammoth next to the Yana site suggests a greater role of mammoth in the subsistence practices of the Pleistocene Yana people than previously thought.     

Nature,Capital and Neighborhoods: “Dispossession without Accumulation”?

Abstract: The ongoing economic crisis, which originated in the USA and has since spread rapidly to capital markets worldwide, is massive, complex, and many times contradictory. One could say the same for responses to the crisis as governments, firms and multi‐national institutions struggle to grasp the full magnitude of the event. This article interrogates the key commodities involved—land, labor and money—and the always‐uneasy relations between spaces of social reproduction and capital. Such ambivalence is critical to understanding how new economic realities are formed in light of retreating neoliberalism as markets become destabilized. The analysis provided suggests the commodities involved in the housing crisis are the basis for a countermovement against dispossession.     

The Political Economy of the Three Gorges Project

This paper examines the debates over the decision to build the Three Gorges Dam, the subsequent flows of income to the firms involved in its construction, and the continuing implications of the dam for the Chinese space economy. The paper makes and justifies three claims. First, the construction project has been responsible for both dispossession and the formation of capital (primitive accumulation). But it is too simple to interpret the project as merely the face of modernity or development: proponents were reflecting traditional attitudes to bureaucracy and environmental management, whereas opponents sought liberalisation, marketisation, and opening up. It turns out that the concept of modernity, as a western programme introduced into China after the formation of the People's Republic, is of remarkably little value in understanding the construction of this dam. Secondly, the decision to build the dam reflects both structure and happenstance – particular political events and individuals were critical. Notably, the project shows few signs of having come into being to absorb over‐accumulated capital: mega‐projects like this do not have to satisfy any capitalist logic. Finally, I emphasise that such huge projects have long run effects on the structure of power in China – indeed, events at Three Gorges underpinned much of the later debate and struggle over dams on the Mekong, Salween, and Changjiang above Three Gorges.