Rural China in ruins: The rush to urbanize China's countryside is opening a moral battleground (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

China has officially become a predominantly urban country, with over 50% of the population now registered as urban residents. Its urbanization process has been described as the most managed in human history. The Chinese government manages the building of new cities, regulates the housing of displaced people and controls squatters. As an historically poorer area, the west of China has been the target of ongoing efforts at infrastructural development. Describing urbanization as managed however masks the conflicts and contradictions involved in a process which is far from smooth. Although villagers are usually seen to be largely the powerless victims of these initiatives, it is clear that many try to take advantage of the situation, while others are unable to do so. Based on recent fieldwork and eight years of visits to one village undergoing urbanization, this article looks at the complex dynamics involved and at the moral battleground which they lay bare.     

THE SPATIAL MONOPSONY: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS*

ABSTRACT. In this paper some of the most important properties of the behavior of a spatial monopsonist are derived. Many results are mirror images of corresponding results for the spatial monopolist. A few results are, however, genuinely new. A lot of effort is spent in comparing the properties of the profit function under three different pricing policies, f.o.b. (mill)-pricing, uniform delivered pricing, and spatial price discrimination. It is shown, for example, how the profitability and welfare consequences of the different policies are related to the shapes of the supply and demand functions. It is argued that the theory may have important applications in economic analyses of renewable natural resources such as forests, where total transportation costs are nonnegligible.     

Amateurs and the Rise of Astrophysics 1840–1910

This essay examines the role of amateurs in founding the astronomical subdiscipline of astrophysics. During 1840–1870, they initiated many of the observing programs that came to comprise the new specialty. And during 1870–1910, they participated both in the ongoing research of the field and the campaign to provide it with an institutional base. These general trends are illustrated by examples from the lives of ten prominent amateur solar physicists.