Improvised Hybridity in the “Fixing” of Chinese Infrastructure Capital: The Case of Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway

The article explores the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the globalisation of China's infrastructure capital. Examining how accumulation strategies of Chinese SOEs are driven by a complex set of political and economic, state and private, interests, it foregrounds the inherently hybrid nature of China's state capitalism. We use Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) as a case study to analyse how state infrastructure capital traverses borders, and the specific ways that contradictions of accumulation in China are relocated through the improvised hybridity of SOEs. In Kenya, China Road and Bridge Corporation, the main SGR contractor, shifted and adapted its strategies as the pursuit of economic productivity gave way to political priorities in China, simultaneously responding to changing socio-political circumstances in Kenya and across East Africa. Analysing these dynamics, we highlight the contingencies of, and limitations to, structural reorganisation of actually existing forms of state capitalism in China and beyond.     

Borders,planning and policy transfer: historical transformation of development discourses in the Finnish Torne Valley

European Union spatial policies have become a key institutional context in which to study policy transfer processes in European border areas. These policies are, however, only the most recent part of these transformation processes which raises a need for more historically sensitive approaches. An historical perspective is important, since border regions are historical processes with particular path-dependent development trajectories and power structures. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion concerning the transformation of European border regions by looking at the policy transfer of regional development discourses in the Finnish Torne Valley. The study material consists of strategic development documents produced by the Finnish border municipalities and the municipal-based co-operation organizations from the 1930s to 2013. The examination, based on critical discourse analysis, shows that the transformation process is driven by national trends and the dominant planning discourse. Nevertheless, the particular border setting and local discourse on ‘united Torne Valley’ have also intertwined with political and economic processes during different time periods.     

抗战时期陕甘宁边区代耕问题研究

抗日根据地的代耕是根据地政权实行的帮助没有劳动力或劳动力不足的抗工属和退伍军人代耕、代种、代管、代收的制度。在陕甘宁边区,它是诸多优抗措施中最中心的方式。边区政府颁布了一系列相关条例和细则,制定了代耕原则、代耕办法、代耕方式及加强代耕的组织领导和思想教育等措施。代耕的实施,对改善抗工属及退伍军人的生活,稳定军心,激励士气乃至抗战的胜利起到了重要作用。边区的代耕充分体现了统一战线的政治特征和全民性、长期性等时代特色。     

Linking Bone Changes in the Distal Femur to Functional Deficits

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a condition that leads to functional deficits in the afflicted. Quantifying these deficits in a clinical population and relating them to bone changes in the distal femur is crucial to identifying potential impairment in archaeological populations. This study provides a hybrid knee OA grading system linking MRI observations of clinical populations and direct bone observations on skeletal populations. This system is then related to 28 pain, disability, and activity limitation outcome variables provided by the OA Initiative through frequency distributions, probability profiles, and Spearman's rank correlations. The results suggest that while the five outcome variables with the highest probabilities were common to males and females, bone changes in knee OA impact males and females differently. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

抗战时期陕甘宁边区的国民教育

陕甘宁边区的教育经历了曲折的探索过程,从旧教育模式到创立自己的教育模式,由强迫教育到尊重群众的自愿与需要,由包办到民办公助,形成了具有鲜明时代特色的教育体制。、国民教育培养出的毕业生成为社会的有用之才,提高了陕甘宁边区文化程度,培养了大量专门人才。抗战时期陕甘宁边区的教育从抗战的环境和边区的实际出发,坚持教育同抗战、同社会、同生产劳动相结合的方针,为抗战培养人才,消除了群众中的文盲、迷信、不卫生的习惯,解决了群众生产和生活中的实际问题,既推动了边区教育事业的发展,也但排了边区经济、社会的进步,为抗战作出了重要贡献。     

Archaeology of the Border Fort Achiras,Córdoba (1832–1869)

During the nineteenth century, the existence of a southern border in the Córdoba province resulted from a complex situation where an expanding national state was inserted into a global economic system and into an environment occupied by various Indian groups. This situation created a mixed society on the borderlands. The military line was defended by forts, with one of them being the Achiras Fort (1832–1869). The fort was situated at the end of the mountain range of Comechingones. This paper considers the archaeological investigation of this fort. The most important and consistent part of the archaeological record is the Command. The Command was formed by two rooms. This work also presents the results of the excavations into the fort and describes the archaeological remains found. Finally, a general model for archaeology in the South Córdoba Border is presented.     

China and the “culture and trade” debate: a holistic approach

ABSTRACT

Over the past century, the ‘culture and trade’ debate has constantly evolved, particularly in the wake of rapid and still accelerating technological and scientific advances. These changes, manifest in an increasing convergence of many new technologies and industries, meant that the strict separation of culture from trade by means, for instance, of general or special exceptions in international trade agreements, such as the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) or the 1988 Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA), can no longer be sustained. It means that in light of the emergence of oxymoronic concepts like ‘the cultural and creative industries’, the debate can no longer be framed along binary modes of thinking that oppose the liberalization of international trade and the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultures. Instead a more holistic approach seems to be needed, which appears to coincide with the approach taken by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which joined the WTO in 2001. The present paper examines the holistic approach by the PRC, which seeks to combine rather than separate culture and trade in its domestic, regional and global law and policymaking.     

美术学水彩画专业方向教与学解析

从分析水彩画教学的教育理念和影响水彩画教与学的二个方面,来培养学生的创新精神与绘画能力为重点来全面实施水彩画教与学。     

“80／20促进会”与美国华人参政新策略

“8 0/2 0促进会”是以华人为主导的一个美国亚裔参政组织 ,它是针对 2 0 0 0年美国总统大选而成立的。本文拟就该组织成立的原因、目的和宗旨 ,总统候选人的确定、行动与争议 ,在大选中的影响力及其发展前景作一简单介绍 ,并对当代美国华人及亚裔参政这一新策略作一评价和深入思考。     

肃顺和中俄边界交涉

咸丰八年(1858),俄国逼使黑龙江将军奕山签订了《瑷珲条约》,欲将黑龙江北岸和乌苏里江东岸60多万平方公里的领土据为己有。在1859—1860年的中俄边界交涉中,肃顺据理力争,才使俄国没有实现初期的欲望。将肃顺与曾纪泽西北边界的谈判交涉作对比分析,不仅有利于认识肃顺在中俄边界交涉中的外交贡献,更能突出其在整个中国近代外交史上的地位。