COVID-19 is expanding global consciousness and the sustainability of travel and tourism

Abstract

The sustainable development model has largely failed to address the social and environmental challenges of the 21^st century. True sustainability will only occur when it is valued as a part of the taken-for-granted daily life of individuals and cultures across the globe. This has not yet happened because humanity has not evolved a global consciousness quickly enough to match the global advances in telecommunications and transportation technologies that have created a socially and economically ever-shrinking planet. Travel and tourism contributes to the expansion of global consciousness, although only in a haphazard and unintentional manner. The COVID-19 pandemic is a result of planetary time-space compression and is forcing an expansion in human consciousness that will make humankind better able to address global problems. There will still be considerable diversity on the planet, as now, but the pandemic will stimulate growing numbers of people, businesses and governments to adopt new ways of thinking, behaving and operating that are more closely aligned with the goals of sustainable development. This could be further enhanced if travel and tourism were to adopt the expansion and awakening of global conscious as a fundamental and transformational value in the products and experiences that it offers.     

Exploring trade globalization in the long run: The RICardo project

Initiated in 2004, the RICardo project focuses on bilateral trade data of all the world's countries from the early nineteenth century to the eve of the Second World War. The project includes the construction of a database and the creation of a website. It is a pioneering work in the field of historical trade statistics that aims at providing easy-to-access research material to the scientific community and at attracting a wider public to the history of trade relationships. The article emphasizes the originality of the project and sums up its various aspects by reviewing previous trade databases, clarifying the main features of historical trade statistics, and describing the construction and use of the RICardo website.     

新世纪以来中德世界城市全球化模式对比分析

城市全球化逐渐从跨国资本主导下的单一化模式向国家特性作用下的多元化发展转变。本文对比分析了新世纪以来中国和德国世界城市全球化的过程、格局、规模、产业和动力,揭示出国家特性作用下的差异化城市全球化模式。结果表明：①中国城市全球化起步较晚但发展迅速。②中国世界城市呈现“大分散,小集聚”的格局,全球化要素具有分散化趋势。③中国世界城市经济的总量大但平均规模小,企业总部集中分布于北京。④中国世界城市一、二次产业产值比重大,金融地产、社会公共服务业和总部经济发展滞后。⑤中国城市全球化是国家政府主导下依托跨国投资生产并出口初级工业品的被动全球化,未来须发挥高级生产者服务、研发服务和社会服务的动力作用。     

China's Shoe Manufacturing and the Wenzhou Model: Perspectives on the World's Leading Producer and Exporter of Footwear

A U.S.-based geographer and specialist on China advances his research on industrial districts and regional development by presenting a 2008 study of shoe manufacturing in Wenzhou (a major center in the world's largest footwear producing and exporting country). More specifically, the author examines how the model of economic development pioneered in Wenzhou (the Wenzhou model) has been transformed in an effort to meet the challenges posed by the global economy. He argues that the scaling up of Wenzhou's footwear industry, through the expansion of sales networks and factories across China and abroad, indicates that other adaptable city regions can overcome similar obstacles. The author challenges both the New Regionalism literature focused on local institutions and assets, as well as perspectives that overemphasize the benefits of globalization and global production networks. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O100, O140, O180. 2 figures, 3 tables, 60 references.     

城市职能演变的回顾与展望

全球化是当前世界发展的主流,全球化对城市的发展已经产生了深远的影响,一方面生产要素在城市之间的流动加强。另一方面城市主导权力扩大。加剧了城市之间的竞争。由此带来城市产业结构和产业布局的变化,促进了城市化、郊区化、绅士化等的发展。在此背景之下,全球城市在人类社会发展中的职能不断演变。其基本趋势是由生产性职能转向服务性职能。并且这种演变会伴随着全球信息化的发展逐步由多元服务向单一的人居服务发展。本在对全球城市职能演变简单回顾的基础上。根据全球化发展的趋势。探讨了全球化对城市职能演变的影响,并预测未来城市职能的变化趋势。     

世界史研究发展的当代背景

整体的“世界史”概念是在地区国别史研究的基础上逐步形成的,对“世界体系”认知的热情从来也没有像第二次世界大战以后这样高涨。这种学术现象的出现是以经济发展全球化、生活模式单一化、价值观念趋同的趋势为大背景的。可以认为,真正意义的世界史观念是全球经济一体化不断深化和不同文化交流日益频繁这一形势在历史研究领域引起的反应。作为全球化的逆向思维,强调对话反对对抗,强调联系和交流反对封锁,对各个民族原创文明的探讨成为文化知识界的共识。对多元文明,特别是不同文明之间“联系”的探讨是整体世界史研究发展的又一种深层动力。整体的宏观的世界史研究与地区国别史研究相辅相成、互相促进。现代科技水平和新科技观念迅猛发展,促进了地区国别史、专门史、断代史学者的交流,加强了世界各地学者之间的联系,打破了历史学和其他哲学社会科学学科、甚至自然科学学科之间的壁垒,交叉与对比研究为世界史研究的新发展开辟出无限广阔的空间。     

经济全球化背景下的中国政治发展战略

经济全球化已经成为当代世界的发展潮流,它不仅改变着整个世界经济和文化的格局,而且也深刻地影响着每一个国家的政治发展进程。在这一背蓄下,确定符合当代中国实际和发展阶段的政治发展战略,就是要在价值取向上发展社会主义民主政治,在发展模式上遵循渐进式发展。     

Global finance and the German model: German corporations, market incentives, and the management of employer-sponsored pension institutions

Where there was a settled political geography of state power and responsibilities, the remarkable growth of global finance has put enormous pressure on national economic, political and social institutions. Furthermore, the looming crisis facing many continental European social security systems has raised many doubts about the long-term viability of the German model compared to its Anglo-American rivals. In this context, large German corporations have sought ways of sustaining their global competitiveness by, in part, restructuring their national and regional commitments. To illustrate, in this paper we concentrate on the nature and organization of German employer-sponsored pension institutions in relation to Anglo-American management practice. Two issues drive the analysis. One has to do with an emerging coalition between corporate management and shareholders with respect to the market value of the firm. The second issue has to do with the allocation of risk and uncertainty between the social partners when negotiating the financing and final value of promised retirement income. The institutional framework of collective decision-making common to many of Germany's largest firms is under pressure; three models of investment decision making relevant to pension assets and liabilities are used to illustrate this point. In doing so, we suggest that the German model is more fragile than commonly realized. We also suggest that Anglo-American management practices have penetrated and affected German corporate (national and regional) institutions and regulations. The social market lauded by advocates of stakeholder capitalism is changing rapidly, at least in the sphere of large firms and global finance.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Cyberspace: The World in WiresRob Kitchin
Mike Crang, Phil Crang and Jon May, (eds.) Virtual Geographies: Bodies, Space and Relations
Joanne P. Sharp, Paul Routledge, Chris Philo and Ronan Paddison, (eds.) Entanglements of Power: Geographies of domination/resistance
Steven Daniels, Humphrey Repton: Landscape Gardening and the Geography of Georgian England
David Harvey, Spaces of Hope
Robert J. Mayhew, Enlightenment geography: the political languages of British geography 1650-1850
Felix Driver, Geography Militant: Cultures of Exploration and Empire
Eric Sheppard and Trevor Barnes, (eds.) A Companion to Economic Geography
Gordon L. Clark, Maryann P. Feldman and Meric S. Gertler, (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography