In pursuit of productive conflict in strategic planning: project identification

This paper discusses three normative standpoints on conflict in strategic spatial planning: no conflict, conflict for consensus and conflict for meta-consensus on the validity of dispute. These views apply to the questions of whether and why projects, as a major source of conflict, should be identified in the process of strategic planning. In their approaches to these questions, the performance school advocates the production of general guidelines to avoid conflict, the collaborative perspective supports the identification of projects in strategic planning in order to utilize their potential in a conflict-to-consensus journey and the conflict-oriented perspective favours the identification of projects in strategic planning in order to arrive at meta-consensus on the immediate disputability of robust agreements. Reflecting on the collaborative perspective, this paper tests a hypothetical model of how conflicts created in the face of project identification can feed in making consensual strategies. Findings in the North West region of England support the model and suggest some difficulties with reviewing such consensus around which a resistance network forms. The paper puts forward some recommendations for overcoming the review challenge.     

中国南方十一座旅游名城避寒疗养气候旅游资源评估

文章对人体健康与气候环境作了分析,阐明寒冷气候与呼吸道系统、心血管系统、消化道系统疾病发病率、死亡率的对应关系。运用生理气候舒适度指数,对中国南方11座旅游名城的避寒气候作了横向分析比较,得出中国最佳避寒疗养地的区域格局,为开展中国冬季避寒疗养旅游提供了发展基础。     

美国众议院关于“慰安妇”问题的H．Res．121议案

2007年1月31日,关国众议员迈克·本田（Mike Honda）向关国众议院提交了H．Res．121议案,表达众议院在“慰安妇”问题上的关切,要求日本对“慰安妇”问题正式做出明白和明确的道歉。随之在美国国会历史上第一次举行了由三名“慰安妇”幸存者组成的听证会,几经波折后H．Res．121议案终于在7月30日被美国众议院一致通过。正是借助H．Res．121议案不仅使得“慰安妇”问题迅速地引起世人注意,而且得以在美国众议院这个平台上以及从美-日同盟角度来探讨“慰安妇”问题,这些对于“慰安妇”问题发展的影响意义深远。     

Thermal range of coastal tourism resort microclimates

With considerable evidence demonstrating the intrinsic importance of weather and climate for tourist decision-making, the projected redistribution of climatic resources as a result of climate change is anticipated to have important consequences for temporal and spatial patterns of tourism demand. Some of the world's leading coastal tourism destinations (Mediterranean and Caribbean) have been identified as becoming ‘too hot’ for tourism. However, the microclimates of coastal tourism areas have not been considered by such assessments. With a focus on thermo-physiologically relevant climatic parameters, this paper examines the adaptive range of microclimatic conditions available in two coastal resort settings in the Caribbean islands of Barbados and Tobago. Recorded weather parameters include air temperature, black globe temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. The microclimatic results, which are presented using the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), show that hourly thermal conditions can range up to 4 °C in different outdoor areas of the resort property (beach, garden, pool, cabana). This is salient in terms of characterizing tourism destinations for climate change assessments, as the results reveal that thermal conditions can vary at the micro-scale of a coastal resort, with the ability for tourists to attain thermally comfortable conditions within a single resort property. When a location becomes thermally uncomfortable (i.e. too hot), tourists can change their location (e.g. move from the pool to the beach), providing an onsite adaptive range between 1 °C and 4 °C. The results also demonstrate that thermo-physiologically relevant climatic parameters provide a more precise estimate of the available range of thermal comfort than is inferred from ambient temperature alone. The findings are discussed in the context of tourists’ climatic preferences and reveal that the microclimatic conditions recorded in this study (UTCI 29–36 °C) are well within tourists’ preferred thermal conditions and do not exceed tourists’ thermal thresholds for coastal tourism.     

明代陕西行都司及其卫所建置考实

辖有十二卫三所的陕西行都司,是明朝控制河西走廊及湟水流域的重要军事建置。本文在将地方卫所建置置于明朝整体战略格局背景下的同时,依据正史和地方志资料,详细考证了明朝陕西行都司诸卫所的建置背景及地域特征。本文指出,明朝对河西走廊的控制,并非象通常认为完成于洪武五年(1372年)冯胜西征,而是以洪武二十六年(1393年)陕西行都司徙置甘州(今甘肃张掖)以及其卫所体系的完成为标志。在"隔断羌戎"的战略思想指导下,明朝初年在西北地区军事中心也经历了从河州(今甘肃临夏)到甘州的变迁。     

“Have You Considered My Servant Job?” A Reflection on the Book of Job

Abstract

The Book of Job is often viewed as a story of unnecessary and undeserved suffering. A man who is “blameless” in the eyes of God is put through senseless anguish and misery simply because God and the Adversary have a wager. It is a story of a whimsical God who does not understand or care about human beings and their sufferings, and of an insignificant and yet defiant being who epitomizes human dignity and fortitude. This and other similar accounts make God villainous and human sufferings mysterious and incomprehensible. This article seeks to cast these issues in a different light by exploring some of the key terms in the Prologue and the speeches of God in the Theophany. The exploration ends with some reflections on Job in the Epilogue of the Book.     

Climate change and our heritage of low carbon comfort

This paper examines the viability of maintaining a heritage of low carbon comfort as an alternative to the energy intensive comfort regime of mechanical air conditioning. In many parts of the world, the carbon footprint of buildings is increasing significantly due to the widespread adoption of air conditioning. Current trends around indoor comfort are unsustainable, and alternative, less energy intensive comfort regimes need to be maintained or cultivated. To date, studies on this topic in heritage and preservation studies have focused on the architectural designs of ‘passive cooling’. This paper seeks to expand this conceptualisation of ‘cool living heritage’ to incorporate other forms of material culture and comfort practice.     

Getting comfortable to feel at home: clothing practices of black muslim women in Britain

This article explores the role of comfort as an affective encounter across bodies, objects (namely clothing) and spaces. I focus on how bodies that are marked as strange and a source of society’s discomfort negotiate this positioning through the presentation of one’s body. What does it mean for these bodies to be comfortable or uncomfortable? This question is answered through work done with Black Muslim women in Britain. By exploring how comfort is felt in relation to racially marked bodies, this article develops work on emotional geographies. Comfort is understood as both an emotional product and process that changes as bodies move across different spaces. In noting this movement, I also explore how boundaries around the body (enacted through e.g. the multi-dimensional hijab) presents a particular form of territorialisation that facilitates comfort as we present our bodies across different spaces. These boundaries can be both a source of comfort and discomfort through their positioning as deviant from social norms. In understanding the different roles of boundaries, I explore the social processes that construct comfort (or discomfort) as we move through different spaces. This is intertwined with furthering work on Muslim geographies by challenging the overwhelming focus placed on ‘public’ facing garments like the headscarf and abaya. Such a focus limits an understanding of the fluidity of Black Muslim women’s identities, and how these changes in our clothing practices affect and are affected by the relationships built across spaces.     

旅游者饮食舒适度构成要素及影响机制研究

旅游者饮食舒适度对旅游消费体验具有重要影响。文章基于访谈资料,运用扎根理论方法,探索识别饮食舒适度的构成要素及其影响机制。结论表明：①旅游者饮食舒适度是旅游者在饮食活动中,对宏观环境、微观氛围和美食产生心理、生理相互协调的综合评价,包含9个主范畴、26个次范畴和60个概念。②旅游者饮食舒适度由环境基础、氛围营造、感知实体和感知主体4个要素构成,环境基础、氛围营造和感知实体由感知主体进行主客观串联。③旅游者饮食舒适度存在舒适唤起、舒适实现和舒适评价三个阶段,不同阶段的影响因素存在差异,并综合影响旅游者饮食舒适体验。文章丰富了旅游饮食消费和舒适度的研究领域,为促进地方餐饮发展和提升旅游者饮食满意度提供理论借鉴。     

Reconceptualising comfort as part of local belonging: the use of confidence,commitment and irony

Abstract

This paper offers a theoretical framework for the analysis of belonging in local communities. To do so it draws on a broad existing literature which argues that comfort is a key dimension of our attachments to place. The argument that experiences of local belonging (or otherwise) are related to a person’s sense of comfort is a persuasive one, though current conceptualisations do not always adequately reflect this contention. As a consequence, our ability as geographers to adequately theorise our relationship to local places remains limited. This paper presents an empirical examination of comfort and local belonging amongst residents of a social housing estate in the North-east of England, and explores comfort as it is expressed through acts of confidence, commitment and irony. It concludes by arguing that taking comfort more seriously might lead us to a more agentic and reflexive understanding of local belonging and attachment.