New challenges for old commons: The role of historical common land in contemporary rural spaces

In Scotland, as elsewhere in Western Europe, many examples of historical common land have endured to the present day, but are under major pressure from the economic restructuring, socio-cultural recomposition and changing policy context that characterise contemporary rural change. For the crofting common grazings of Scotland, two particular challenges have arisen in the form of: (1) the growing difficulty of gaining sufficient livelihood contributions from traditional agriculturally-based activities; and (2) the increasing heterogeneity of rights-holders. This paper elaborates the findings of a recent survey, which sought to identify the main implications of these challenges for common grazings use and governance. An overall decline in levels of use of common grazings was identified, as well as decreasing involvement and investment in associated local institutions. This informs a discussion of the factors shaping the role of historical common land in contemporary rural spaces, an area neglected in the common property literature.     

Miami's Little Havana: Yard Shrines,Cult Religion and Landscape

The urban square has been a distinguishing characteristic of European cities for millennia. However, in the context of small towns, where the square is often the sole identifier of their physical urbanity, its role differs from that of large towns. This fact is substantial within national administrative systems that endorse desirable urban status to rural settlements endowed with urban morphology. It is also important in times of extensive EU-subsidized actions aimed at improving the quality of public space in small underresourced towns. However, many projects fail to draw from and respond to the specifics of the local context, and, by focusing on the details and disregarding the basics, they may defeat their purpose. Departing from extensive field observations in Poland, this paper puts theoretical framework and current trends in urban design into relation to various elements of a square's spatial configuration in order to arrive at degrees of their urban significance. By interpreting the fundamental values embedded in the morphology of market squares, this paper attempts to isolate the cultural archetypes that shape our perception of such places as urban. The proposed analysis could be used to meet the main goal of market square revitalization, namely to visually articulate urbanity.     

Sign Geography

Signs are significant elements of cultural landscapes throughout the world. Through their form and content, signs reveal a variety of information about places ranging from locational and physical geographic data through social, economic and political characteristics. Signs, which tell of past events, current conditions and future expectations, are landscape notes on the geography of change. Signs are frequently evidence of cultural diffusion and convergence. Many signs give direction to human activity and symbolize societal quest for order. Others reflect tastes, values and attitudes, in concert with prevailing belief systems. Signs are both cultural phenomena and landscape statements that attest to the way of life in a place.     

‘The land and its people’: reflections on artistic identification in an age of nations and nationalism

From the late eighteenth century onwards, increasing numbers of visual artists came to identify with their nations and with the homeland and its people. This development was strongly influenced by growing national cultural support and regulation of the arts by academies, art schools, museums and art markets in Western Europe. On a subjective level, the Rousseauan movement of a ‘return to Nature’, Herder's espousal of vernacular cultural self‐expression and, above all, the widespread Romantic cult of authenticity, were potent influences on the inner self‐identification of visual artists after 1800, and were manifested in the novel importance accorded to landscape and rural genre painting in Western Europe. Here I consider the role of national sentiment, the ‘return to Nature’ and the cult of authenticity, first in landscape paintings by Paul Sandby, J. M. W. Turner and John Constable in early nineteenth‐century Britain, and then in the rural genre paintings of Jean‐Francois Millet and Jules Breton in nineteenth‐century France and Josef Israels, Anton Mauve and Vincent Van Gogh in the later nineteenth‐century Netherlands. Their work reveals how nineteenth‐century visual artists became inwardly identified with the ‘land and its people’, and how they in turn contributed, especially through prints and engravings, to the dissemination of national imagery and a cultural nationalism.     

中国乡村城市化研究:起源、概念、进展与展望

本文回顾了20世纪80年代以来我国乡村城市化研究的起源,对乡村城市化和自下而上城市化两个概念进行了辨析,对近20年来乡村城市化研究的内容、进展以及存在的主要问题进行了评述,并对未来乡村城市化研究的方向作出了展望。     

秦汉时期的农业和农村经济管理措施

秦汉统治者为加强对农业和农村经济的管理 ,采取了一系列发展农业和农村经济的重要措施。这些措施在一定程度上促进了农业和农村经济的持续和稳定发展 ,为秦汉统治政权的长治久安奠定了坚实的经济基础     

管窥张闻天从个体农业经新民主主义走向社会主义的构想

张闻天关于农村合作经济的思想是他为我们党留下的精神遗产的一部分。张闻天所说的供销合作社与生产合作社 ,是以私有制为基础的各种类型的劳动互助组织 ,发展供销合作社与劳动互助组织 ,为农业集体化准备条件 ,经过长期的说服教育 ,在经济上必须实行一条无产阶级的领导路线 ,以最终引导农民走向社会主义。搞新民主主义建设 ,张闻天提出发展合作社的道路 ,是从供销合作到生产合作。在这条道路中 ,发展农村供销合作社占有重要的地位和作用。供销合作社是把小生产者与国营经济结合起来的桥梁和纽带 ,担负着改造小生产者社会制度的历史任务。需要坚持自愿互利原则 ,反对强迫命令 ;保护农民的私有权 ;正确处理和资本主义的关系     

国内外农村居民点区位研究评述

随着人类经济社会的发展,居民点的外在特征和空间结构也在不断的演化与变迁,居住地点的选址和布局最能反映出人类活动与地理环境之间的相互影响与作用机制。目前国内外在城市居住区位研究方面已经形成大量研究成果,相比之下,农村居民点相关研究还存在一定滞后。文章从居民点区位影响因素、区位演变、居民点分布和等级结构四方面对国外相关研究进行了评述,梳理了国内农村居民点区位研究的相关内容,在此基础上对存在的问题进行了讨论和总结,并对今后研究内容进行了展望。     

发达地区的乡村集镇空间扩展差异与模型研究——以锡山市为例

长江三角洲是我国经济发展最迅速、乡镇企业成长最快的地域。从1970到1998近30年的时间中,尤其是从1978到1998年,锡山市域乡村集镇发生了巨大变化,其发展经历了数量由多到少,规模由小到大的过程。数量的变化本身体现了无锡市区空间和集镇规模的扩大和功能的增强。本文首先从1970年的地形图和1984、1991、1998三年的遥感影像上提取锡山市乡村集镇的空间扩展变化信息,在地理信息系统软件中进行叠置分析,然后建立乡村集镇扩展的模型,为乡村集镇空间扩展趋势的预测、规划提供依据。论文提供了三种乡村集镇扩展的模型:线型模型、幂函数模型和指数函数模型,而幂函数模型是预测今后集镇发展规模较理想的模型。     

无锡市城乡系统耦合测度与耦合度变化规律研究

经济发达地区大城市城乡系统耦合程度随着国家经济社会转型而不断变化,测度城乡系统耦合(以耦合度表示)旨在揭示不同时期城乡相互作用和影响程度,从而为进一步调控城乡互动关系提供科学依据。本文以无锡市为案例,以系统科学理论为基础,构建城乡系统耦合测度模型,对无锡市1979至2008年8个时期的城乡系统耦合程度进行测度,并分析耦合度变化原因和规律。结果表明:无锡市城乡系统耦合度变化过程明显分为三个阶段,呈现拉平"S"型。在1990s初期以前耦合度较低,反映城乡系统较为独立发展;1990s初期以后耦合度快速提高,城乡互动关系加强;进入21世纪耦合度缓慢上升趋于停滞,城市系统在持续加速发展的同时,乡村系统发展趋缓并呈下降趋势。伴随乡村系统发展速度的下降,城乡系统潜伏着二者不协调的危机,为保证其可持续发展,国家公共政策需要加强对乡村发展的扶持和引导,以促进城乡系统良性互动。