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.     

Railway Architecture: The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) at Dundalk

ABSTRACT

This article is adapted from the dissertation ‘Railway Architecture: The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) at Dundalk’, completed by Siobhan Osgood for the MPhil in Art History: Art + Ireland, where it was awarded a distinction. The study provides an historical analysis in the context of architectural development and broader railway culture in Ireland to provide an interpretation and understanding of the use of polychromatic yellow, red and black brickwork to create a visual identity for railway architecture. The use of accented colours to pick out key features is repeated across a series of buildings, thus creating a distinctive style of ‘brick-branding’. These are most prominent in the town of Dundalk, where the GNRI had its central engineering works at the halfway point on the Dublin to Belfast mainline and at the point where the Irish North line extended west and north. The buildings were each intricately designed by the GNRI's first chief engineer, William Hemingway Mills, a second-generation railway engineer who merged the roles of architect and engineer using an amalgamation of architectural designs from his earlier career in Derby, Scotland, Mexico and Spain. Mills thus created his own ‘Millsian’ style of industrial architectural design.     

浙江临安余村五代墓发掘报告

2001年9月浙江省临安市文物馆组织清理了一座唐五代时期墓葬。墓葬平面略呈船形,为多耳室、多壁龛的券顶砖室石门单室墓。随葬器物以越窑青瓷器为主,有少量的银器和铜钱。墓葬年代早于临安青柯五代墓、晚于临安晚唐钱宽水丘氏夫妇墓。墓主人应为五代钱氏王室成员或功臣,很有可能为钱镠第二子钱元玑墓。该墓的发现为研究五代十国时期墓葬形制、越窑瓷等提供了珍贵的实物资料。     

Wissenschaftsstädte – Zur Bedeutung des Topos der ‘kreativen Stadt’ für die Wissensproduktion

Science Cities: What the Concept of the Creative City Means for Knowledge Production. – The article aims to show that the relationship of science and the city has changed since the 1970s in the context of the knowledgeable society. While cities have principally been regarded as the typical space of science, of new ideas and innovation for centuries, since the 1960s and 1970s universities, research institutes as well as industrial research institutes have relocated to the periphery of cities. There, however, these sites of knowledge have been organized in an ‘urban mode’. That means that the concept of the city as a place of science and innovation has determined the architectural, spatial, and social organization of these sites on the periphery of cities. Certain features of the city have been copied, such as social infrastructures, places of communication, restaurants, cafes etc., while others have been left out – housing, cinema, theatre etc. An ‘urban mode of knowledge production’ in the sense of a very stylized model of the city has become a tool to enhance the production of scientific and technological knowledge. – The article exemplifies this by focusing on a case study, namely of the so‐called ‘Science City’ of the Siemens Company in Munich‐Neuperlach.     

当前浙江华侨回国定居现象探析

针对近年来移民回流现象,用抽样调查的定量方法,对回浙定居华侨的人口社会学特征进行了归纳;对影响华侨回国定居的经济、政治因素进行了分析;认为当前华侨回国定居主要是为了恢复国内户口,方便经商、读书和生活等,其本身还具有很强的国际流动性。我国政府有关主管部门应当实施积极的华侨回国定居政策,以顺应经济全球化和人权保障的时代潮流。     

浙江省区域创新中心空间格局及其驱动机制研究

区域创新中心建设对区域创新资源整合优化,发挥区域创新优势意义重大。研究运用最邻近距离、核密度估计、探索性空间分析等方法,分析浙江省区域创新中心空间分布、聚类特征及影响因素,得出以下结论:2013年浙江省区域创新中心空间分布整体呈现"周边少,中心多"的态势,空间点分布呈现凝聚特征,空间核分布存在明显不均衡现象;各县市区域创新中心空间分布同样呈现集聚特征,且存在明显的高值与低值集聚;区域创新中心的建设与发展需要市场各级主体的共同合作,同时还受到区域创新能力、经济发展水平、产业集群优势、政府政策因素以及空间邻近效应的影响。     

吉黑两省铁路交涉局的“嬗变”——1898—1917年中东铁路附属地行政管理权研究

清末,在俄国中东铁路管理局的要求下,中东铁路途经的黑、吉两省将军衙门分别设置了相应的交涉机构——"铁路交涉局"。在中东铁路建设、经营、管理过程中,它负责中俄之间有关铁路事务的交涉,同清朝的其他涉外机构有较大区别。它一度成为中方在中东铁路属地及其影响下地区的"准行政机构"。时事变迁,该机构的名称及功能也不断演变。由于它同时接受中俄双方影响,功能也复杂,所以其地位和作用难定,争议至今。从初设时被打上沙俄扩张的烙印,到后来成为制衡沙俄侵略的重要力量,"铁路交涉局"机构的嬗变体现了哈尔滨作为一座现代城市的独特发展史和基本特征。     

1932年《铁道法》形成的历史路径及其实施阻力

1932年中国历史上第一部铁路基本法——《铁道法》正式颁布。《铁道法》的诞生,既迎合了近代国人对铁路国有化的产业发展路径,也符合了铁路法制由简至繁、由缺至全的演进路径。《铁道法》是国民政府推行铁路产业政策的根本性立法,但在实施过程中受到了阻力,在不断的外耗与内耗中效力有限。     

Coping with parallel authorities: the early diplomatic negotiations of Soviet Russia and China on the Chinese Eastern Railway, 1917–1925

This article explores the evolution of Soviet diplomatic policies with respect to the disputed ownership of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the responses of the three Chinese political authorities in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Fengtian from 1917 to 1925. It unveils a “parallel diplomacy” on the Soviet side and the roles the three Chinese authorities played in this grand diplomatic game. From the October Revolution in 1917 until the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925, Moscow’s contacts with Beijing, Guangzhou, and Fengtian were initiated almost simultaneously with a different purpose in each case, namely political legitimacy, justification of ideology, and practical leverage, respectively. In response, the Beijing Government took a relatively active approach toward reclaiming the ownership of the railway, whereas Sun in Guangzhou was somewhat passive in dealing with Soviet claims. Fengtian warlord Zhang Zuolin’s responses were quite ambiguous, as he was suspicious of Moscow yet willing to cooperate with it. In general, this study reveals a balance between propaganda and national interests in Soviet diplomatic policy making, and it evaluates the effectiveness of Chinese politicians’ responses to Soviet Russia.     

晚清铁路外债观初探——以芦汉铁路为中心

在晚清铁路外债举借过程中,洋务官员逐步有了成型的、带有明显思想倾向的外债观,芦汉比国债款交涉是典型的蓝本。其核心是在依赖心理驱动下生成路权与债权交换的主导思想。在体现外资合理性的同时,也暴露出排斥商股、模糊抵押权限、利用外资形式偏执等诸多偏差,表现出近代国人在利用外资上排拒与依赖并存的矛盾心态。