THE LOGIC OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF RURAL POLITICS: POLITICAL DISCOURSES ON RURALITY IN NORWAY

Two competing discourses emerge from a careful reading of parliamentary debates in Norway on rural development. One regards rural values as intrinsic, while the other regards the rural as an actor in a play about economic growth. The 'growth' discourse has economic growth as its nodal point and fo-cuses on the freedom of an individual to establish a business wherever he or she wishes, and to migrate to any preferred destination. The 'intrinsic value' discourse places the value of rural settlements and cultures as its nodal point and focuses on allegedly forced migration, a nature-based economy, and local freedom of action. During the neoliberal period, starting about 1980 the strength of the intrinsic value discourse has been increasingly displaced by the growth discourse. The latter seems to match general social changes such as neoliberalism and globalization more than the former. However, analysing the fight between these two discourses is not exhaustive. A broader analytic perspective is needed if we want to understand the logic of how the meaning of rurality comes about. The meaning of rurality in Norwegian politics is made through the way the competing discourses link up to 'nondiscursive' topics that originate and evolve outside the discourses on Norwegian rural politics. We claim that topics which include economic safety and national identity/nation-state are more or less fundamental to understanding the logic of the production of the concrete discourses of rurality in Norwegian politics. We provide evidence that rural change is contingent not only on the meaning-making process in parliamentary debates, but on the way truth claims made by politicians are linked to general national and global issues.     

城乡一体化进程中的社会认同问题研究

我国已经进入统筹城乡一体化发展的重要时期。要实现城乡全面协调可持续发展的胃标,仅仅建立城乡统一的社会制度体系还远远不够,必须在此基础上促进城市和乡村真正深层次的融合,重塑城乡之间积极的社会认同,包括身份认同、制度认同和文化认同,建立城市居民和外来群体在身份、制度和文化层面上的相互认可、融合和整合,保障城乡居民获得平等的生存和发展权利,实现真正意义上的城乡一体化发展。     

The Interview Hurdle to Postgraduate Studies and the Job Market

Abstract

This paper explores the educational value of a rural trail—a field visit on foot—using as an example a trail in a small area of countryside near Lancaster in northern England. This trail provides those teaching rural geography in higher education with a means of developing their students’ skills of informed observation and interpretation of field evidence based on study and discussion on‐site. A trail can enhance the appreciation and teaching of conceptual matters such as cultural approaches to rural geography. It also encourages the integration of diverse theoretical approaches to rural studies (based on culture, planning and management) and the simultaneous consideration by students of both local (often personal) details and national (or even global) pressures for change. The paper concludes that the rural trail has considerable pedagogical and academic merit for rural geographers.     

Evolutionary Perspectives on Rural Australia

An enduring concern within Australian rural geography has been to understand the nature and implications of change. Much of the intellectual effort has been focused on interpreting how rural economies, populations, social institutions, cultures, and land uses have been transformed through processes operating across a range of spatial and temporal scales. This paper offers a critical appraisal of recent rural research in Australia and how this body of work has attempted to make sense of change. It argues that despite an ongoing focus on the nature of change, it is often reduced to a relatively simple historical narrative. We suggest that some of the emerging ideas in ‘evolutionary economic geography’ might offer an alternative means of conceptualising the trajectories of rural economies, institutions, and communities. The paper outlines the contours of evolutionary economic geography and the ways in which some of its key conceptual foundations might offer a means of understanding not only rural change, but also continuity.     

20世纪安徽两次农村改革不同命运解析

在当代中国农村改革的历史进程中,安徽具有特殊的地位和影响,先后于20世纪60年代初和70年代末推行了"责任田"和"大包干"的改革。但是,由于政治背景、群众基础、两代领导人态度的不同,两次改革出现了完全不同的命运,"责任田"试行失败,"大包干"推广成功。     

Development for Whom? Rural to Urban Resettlement at the Three Gorges Dam,China

When farmers are dispossessed of their lands to make way for a development project it is often inevitable that there will not be enough land to go around. It is unlikely that parcels of fertile land are lying vacant in the surrounding areas awaiting distribution. It therefore becomes necessary for people who previously derived their livelihoods from the land to move into cities. This research explores what happens to a sample of such people and whether they are able to restore their livelihoods. It examines the Three Gorges Dam resettlement in China's Hubei province and discovers that while the Chinese government has devised an inspired toolbox of benefit-sharing initiatives, the gains accrue to a minority who live in the most amenable location of the Three Gorges area. It concludes that the availability of capital through benefit-sharing initiatives does not guarantee its productive use.     

指引小农经济通向现代化的灯塔——中国共产党农民合作经济的四大理论成果

中国共产党成立90年来,在农民合作经济方面形成了四大理论成果。毛泽东关于组织起来是必由之路的论断,指明了方向,解决了如何根据汪洋大海的小农经济的状况选择什么样的路径引导农民通向现代化的问题;邓小平关于农业两个飞跃的论断,明确了阶段,解决了如何适应生产力发展要求选择什么样的战略阶段推进组织化的问题;多种类型农民合作经济组织共同发展及规模经营形式多样化认识的形成,明晰了形式,解决了如何适应国情及农情选择什么样的模式推进组织化的问题;以民办、民有、民管、民受益为内核的原则及其相应制度的形成,探明了制度,解决了如何尊重农民意愿选择什么样的制度推进组织化的问题。     

无边界学习、多媒体技术运用与远程教育

教学中社会与学校、教师与学生、课程与生活、知识与经验等二元结构是客观存在的,也是无法从根本上剔除的。一位优秀的教师是要承认二元的存在,同时又协调二元的关系,也就是我们时常讲的“对立统一”。借助信息技术（多媒体教学）做到“对立统一”是一个极好的方法。无论运用何种手段。只要能够打破教学中的时间、地点、人物、任务和结果的单一性,真正做到“社会即学校”、“以学生为师”、“生活即学习,学习即生活”,这就叫“无边界学习”。“多媒体技术运用”和“远程教育”都不能讲是“无边界学习”。