China’s services sector: the new engine of economic growth

This paper presents a review of services sector development in China. It is found that China’s services have recently emerged as the dominant contributor to economic growth and job creation. Trade in services has also increased dramatically, although China maintains a huge deficit. In comparison with economies at a similar stage of development, however, China’s services sector is lagging behind. Both GDP and employment shares of the services sector are relatively small. Services trade also accounts for a relatively small share of China’s total trade. In particular, China’s new services are underdeveloped. As per capita income rises and resultant urbanization accelerates, the country’s services sector is expected to expand further and hence play a key role in rebalancing China’s economy away from its over-reliance on manufacturing and exporting. To reach this goal, further reforms and prudent government policies are needed.     

Cultural Heritage and Ecosystem Services: A Literature Review

During the last decade, we have witnessed an increased interest in Ecosystem Services (ES), including the so-called ‘cultural ecosystem services’ and its subcategory of ‘cultural heritage’. In this article, a review of academic literature of ES and cultural heritage is carried out. ES has primarily been developed by scholars from the ecological and economic disciplines, and in this article, we discuss how this impacts the way in which cultural heritage is used and conceptualised in ES literature. Based on the conceptual review, we initiate a discussion of what the implications for cultural heritage management could be if the heritage sector adopts the rationales in the ES framework.     

国内外服务业地理研究进展

服务业地理学是以服务业活动的地域系统为核心、探索服务业空间活动规律的一门学科,它是经济地理学的重要分支。围绕服务业地理学研究对象对相关文献进行梳理,文章认为:目前服务业地理学尚未形成一套完善的理论体系和研究框架,在理论上需要吸收服务业经济学、地理学及社会学等多学科的理论来丰富和完善;在研究方法上应加强质性研究和定量分析的结合;在研究内容上应深化服务业与区域经济可持续发展、信息技术影响下的服务业区位选择、服务业微区位、服务业贸易对区域产业结构及产业空间组织的影响、服务业地域综合体等议题的研究。     

Folder 5, box 92

This short paper is concerned with a map of central Japan that the later University of Chicago Professor of Geography, Chauncy Harris, drew in September 1944, when he was assigned as an US Army Private to work at the headquarters of the Research and Analysis Branch, Office of Strategic Services. The map provided a functional classification of Central Japanese cities, highlighting those that specialized in manufacturing. It was precisely these set of cities that were targeted for firebombing by the US Airforce from March 1945.     

The Life of the Law in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Beyond the esoteric deliberations of Islamic jurists and their exegesis of criminal and private law doctrines, Iranian law lives a life of its own. It is a life of routine practices of judges, court clerks, lawyers and clients, each of whom is striving to turn the law to their own advantage. It is also a life of contested legality, a relentless struggle over the right to determine the law in a juridical field which is infused with strife and hostility. These conflicts are reproduced daily as two competing conceptions of law, and their corresponding perceptions of legality clash in pursuit of justice. The Iranian judiciary’s concept of law, its reconstruction of Islamic jurisprudence and methods of dispensing justice, which on the surface are reminiscent of Max Weber’s “qādi-justice,” collide with the legal profession’s formal rational understanding thereof. However, Iranian judges are not Weberian qādis, and the legal profession is not a homogenous group of attorneys driven by a collective commitment to the rule of law. To understand their conflict, we need to explore the mundane workings of the legal system in the context of the transformation of Iranian society and the unresolved disputes over the direction of its modernity.     

景观生态系统及其要素的理论分析

景观生态学是个新兴且发展迅速的学科领域。对其基本概念、原理和理论的研究探索与规范是目前该学科的重要方向。本文即是在前人工作基础上并结合论文作者的理解,比较系统地讨论了景观生态系统及其要素、要素结构等问题。以期对正在形成的学科"范式"提供一定参考。     

Cultural policy‐making in the free trade era: an evaluation of the impact of current world trade organisation negotiations on audio‐visual industries

The delicate compromise concerning the regulation of world trade in audio‐visual materials is about to be upset. Ongoing negotiations under the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) are seeking to establish, in the words of US negotiators, “clear, dependable and predictable trade rules” for transnational media exchanges. This article evaluates the impact of the GATS on audio‐visual industries and considers the extent to which cultural industries fit into the framework of multilateral trade talks. Based on interviews with trade officials in the WTO and the UK Department of Trade and Industry, the article concludes that liberalising and deregulatory policy shifts are more likely to emanate from corporate and state environments than from the slow and detailed negotiations in WTO headquarters in Geneva where “defensive” interests appear to be dominating over “offensive” ones.     

Ecosystemic politics: Analyzing the consequences of speaking for adjacent nature on the global stage

This article introduces a conceptual framework for analysing and comparing the broader or unintended effects of cooperation anchored in border-crossing ecosystems. The importance of addressing this lacuna in our scholarship on such sub-global cooperation is underscored by research in political geography that has demonstrated how the creation of scale is an important expression of power relations and how interaction with the materiality of different kinds of spaces necessitates distinct political technologies (and thus may have distinct effects). The article introduces three key analytical angles central to policy field studies in international sociology and demonstrates their utility through a case of the Arctic/Arctic Council. These analytical angles – networks (what are the relationships shaping the field?), hierarchies (who leads and how does leadership work?), and norms for political behavior – capture key consequences and dynamics of ecosystemic politics in a concise fashion that lends itself to cross-case comparison. The Arctic case focuses on the changing network positions and roles of non-Arctic actors over time, as an initial exploration of the broader ordering effects of such forms of cooperation. The findings suggest that most non-Arctic actors have experienced a decline in their centrality in Arctic cooperation, even as the Arctic has received intensified global interest and the number of participants in Arctic Council work has increased. Further comparative work along these lines would leave us better equipped to assess whether states speaking for their own immediate environs is better – and if so, in which ways – than seeking common solutions to global challenges.     

Perceived socio‐economic and environmental costs and benefits of ICZM in Scotland

ICZM in Scotland has followed a voluntary approach to date through local coastal fora. The socio‐economic costs and benefits of these fora are assessed based on a two‐track approach. Much of the information is based on analysis of questionnaire returns from the individual fora, while the ecosystem services approach was adopted to model economic impacts of the fora activities at two scenario levels: low and high level ICZM. Key features of the fora are presented, as is their perceived impact on the economy. The value of Scotland's coastal zone is presented in the form of the annual value of ecosystem services.     

美国技术移民政策综述

论文从美国移民政策的历史沿革、机构设置、特点,尤其是以技术移民政策方面美国吸引外国人才的制度优势为着眼点,综合梳理了美国技术移民政策的相关研究成果,包括最新的调查报告及统计数据等。认为美国的移民政策始终基于国家利益和经济发展的需要,经历了自由开放、限制移民和高度选择三个阶段。美国虽然是世界上最大的移民接受国和技术人才引进国,但它的移民构成特点仍以家庭关系移民为主。它通过永久居留类职业签证、临时居留类职业签证、临时居留类的留学生和学者签证等三种签证类型吸引人才,并且建立了劳工证制度、配额制、担保制、优越的科研条件等多制度配合的吸纳人才体系。