Globalisation, Regionalisation and Local Voices: The Asian Development Bank and Rescaled Politics of Environment in the Mekong Region

Globalisation is manifested in the Mekong Region both through processes and discourses that reflect the ideology of a borderless world allowing easy passage of capital and commodities, and through resistance to such processes in an increasingly transnationalised civil society movement. However, more immediately significant supranational integrative agendas take the form of regionalisation, a process that has received less attention but which raises analogous concerns of re-scaled governance. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been a catalysing force for regionalisation amidst a host of regional processes and initiatives; as such it has found itself the object of critique as an institution and through the specific projects it has supported that have impacted on local communities and ecosystems. Meanwhile, local and NGO voices associated with the emergence of a vibrant civil society in Thailand and nascent civil society responses in neighbouring countries have challenged claims on resources made in the name of national development and regional integration.
This paper considers some key issues of re-scaling resource and environmental politics in the Mekong Region, and the extent to which challenges have been recast from national to regional development agendas. Politics of environment are shown to exist as a general rather than exceptional response to the region's development direction, and it is suggested that equitable and sustainable development increasingly needs to address simultaneously the re-scaling and reconfigurations of power in both environmental politics and the "infrapolitics" of environment. The paper is illustrated with case studies of dams in Laos and Thailand.     

中国西部山地可持续发展的一些思考

世纪之交中国重大发展战略的标志之一是西部大开发，西部的地理位置、区位条件、环境现状、国际关系及人文环境等决定了西部大开发在国家安全、环境保护、可持续发展战略的实施、民族团结、综合国力的提高等方面的重要意义，也是历史的必然。西部是以山地为其基本特征的，因此山地的可持续发展在西部的开发占有重要地位.西部山地的可持续发展应该考虑下列问题：1）西部是丰富的资源与贫困的现实的矛盾体，西部地区的资源在过去主要用于国家的发展和建议，但未能得到应有的回报，因此，应该制定相应的政策，使西部地区得到过去所作贡献应有的回报；另一方面，西部地区现在和将来主要作为我国可持续发展的生态屏障，为了东西部地区的共同发展，应该制定相应的政策，使受到生态屏障服务的地区支付应有的费用，用于西部地区生态建设投资，以使我国更好、更快地走上可持续发展道路；2）在西部的可持续发展可，水土流失问题是一个重要的切入口，而水土流失能否有效治理，与坡耕地和荒山荒坡的水土流失的治理技术密切相关，在这方面等高固氮植物篱技术是一个重要的技术；3）随着基础设施的日益改善，经济全球化的发展，西部多样性的自然资源应该得到更充分合理的应用和开发，粮食生产并不一定是山区最恰当的出路，应大力发展真正意义上的特色产业，将目前对特色产业的理论和普遍认识变成具体的、可操作的措施；4）在发展西部的特色产业开发中，最重要的是对一个地区最充分的认识，如在农业发展方向，许多地区热衷于对外来东西的引种，包括粮食作物和经济作物，但却往往忽视了对本地资源的正确和充分认识和开发；5）我国的作物品种选育工作，基本上是以现在的环境作背景的，较少将全球变化考虑进去。由于全球变化在相当长的时间内不会停止，作物育种应该研究如何适应全球变化，加强环境与农业研究的结合。     

Context and contingency: the coffee crisis for conventional small-scale coffee farmers in Brazil

Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America and the world's leading producer and exporter of coffee. Smallholders are the predominant producers of Brazilian coffee and have been significantly impacted by post-ISI (import substitution industrialisation) neoliberal reforms that swept the nation's agricultural sector beginning in the 1980s. These reforms stimulated increased coffee production while simultaneously diminishing state interventions, including agricultural subsidies, farmer credits, research and development programmes, extension services, and rural development initiatives. These changes were closely followed by major restructuring of the global coffee market and the elimination of international coffee export quotas. Our research joins a growing body of recent literature exploring how changes related to market liberalisation and globalisation affect localities and regions where producers supply coffee for conventional markets. Through a case study, we describe the impacts of neoliberal globalisation on the lives, livelihoods, and environment of small-scale coffee producers in Minas Gerais, Brazil. We explore how neoliberal reform, reflected in the specific historical, geographical, and environmental context of Brazilian coffee production, has resulted in the increased marginalisation of small-scale farmers, the degradation of soils, and overall rural decline.     

'In the shadow of hierarchy': meta-governance, policy reform and urban regeneration in the West Midlands

This paper explores the relationship between political hierarchy and the complex webs of political organization associated with urban governance. Deploying the concept of meta-governance and a study of urban policy reform in the West Midlands region of England, this paper claims that state and governmental hierarchies continue to have a crucial role in coordinating the activities of governance regimes in the UK. This paper concludes by considering the effects of hierarchical power on the systems of political participation and representation that are associated with urban governance.     

京津冀城市群水资源开发利用的时空特征与政策启示

京津冀城市群是中国在国际经济体系中具有最强竞争力的支撑平台之一,也是中国乃至全世界水安全保障难度最大的地区之一。本文主要以2000-2014年数据为基础,采用泰尔系数、变异系数、曲线分析和空间分级分类分析等方法,揭示了京津冀城市群水资源与用水变化的时空特征。结果显示：①绝大多数城市多年平均水资源总量显著减少,干旱化的长期趋势明显,而且北部、西部城市减少幅度更大;②京津冀城市群水资源极度短缺,空间不均衡性呈现先减小后增大的趋势,而且中部和南部城市水资源开发利用潜力更低,缺水更甚;③绝大多数城市用水总量零增长或缓慢负增长,用水结构以工农业用水比重下降为主要特征,各类用水的空间不均衡性保持相对稳定;④用水效率普遍快速提升,空间分布差异呈现先增大后减小的总体趋势。基于此,建议京津冀城市群实施“以水量城”的城镇化政策和“以水定产”的产业政策,完善水生态补偿政策,落实水资源管理红线政策,实现水资源约束下各城市间经济社会与生态环境的协同发展。     

Globalisation and the Livestock Industry in Botswana

The expansion of Botswana's livestock industry in recent years is partly a result of moves towards integration into the global economy. In the colonial period, livestock raising was the backbone of the national economy and in the post-colonial period remains the mainstay of the rural economy. Botswana's export-driven cattle industry has led to the establishment of a well-equipped infrastructure such as marketing and veterinary services, which rank among the most developed in Africa. The industry has much support from the government; hence, the cattle population continues to grow. Even though globalisation has generally had positive impacts on the development of Botswana's economy through beef exports, it has also generated some socioeconomic and environmental problems. Most serious are the continuing skewness of livestock holdings, increasing income disparities between the rich and poor, and accelerated overgrazing of rangelands due to overstocking of cattle by both communal and commercial farmers. The erection of veterinary cordon fences associated with the prevention of diseases and expansion of the cattle industry to meet export demands have decimated large numbers of migratory wildlife species in the country, with deleterious effects on the burgeoning tourist industry. As a result, globalisation is having both positive and negative impacts on the economy of Botswana.     

Resource economies and neoliberal experimentation: the reform of industry and community in rural British Columbia

This paper argues that the current literature on neoliberalism in advanced capitalist societies has concentrated primarily on urban issues, and has thus failed to see resource economies and regions as theoretically significant sites of neoliberal reform. Using research from British Columbia, Canada, we argue that resource regions are often targets of intense neoliberal experimentation. The neoliberal project in British Columbia involves an extreme shift in state policy from a strong Fordist-Keynesian programme to recent efforts to 'liberate' corporate actors from non-market social and spatial obligations (to environment, labour and community). We argue that such policy shifts have exceptional consequences in resource regions due to strong and direct state influence in corporate-resource and community-level economies. We draw several theoretical lessons from this research for the mainstream literature on neoliberal reform.     

中国城乡建设占用耕地的时空格局及形成机制

描绘了1996-2006年间中国城乡建设用地增长及其占用耕地的时空特征,探讨了城乡建设占用耕地的驱动机制。研究发现：人口流动为主的城镇化模式导致农业转移人口在城乡“两头占地”,这是中国城乡建设用地持续扩张的主要根源;各类开发区的设立和扩张都以占用耕地为主,对城乡建设占用耕地的贡献超过一半;而城市和镇的扩张速度更慢、土地来源更为多元。实证结果表明,投资和产出增长的差异性对城乡建设及其耕地占用的时空格局起到了关键作用;中西部地区的基础设施建设占用了大量耕地,但对区域经济发展和人口集聚的带动作用有限;以开发区为载体的产业集聚发展模式有利于中西部地区的土地集约利用和耕地保护,而东部沿海地区的省级开发区则容易成为地方政府的圈地运动。土地集约利用和耕地保护政策应重点解决农业转移人口城乡同时占地的问题,发挥城镇化的节地效应,并强化政策的区域差异性和针对性。     

台北健身俱乐部的演变与都市发展

都市不但是本土与跨国健身俱乐部聚集之所在,也是其宣传和散布生活美学的流行文化中心,更是其主要的市场,现今最新、规模最大且最具代表性的健身俱乐部旗舰店无不想尽办法挤身首要都市,其中选择性的在新兴消费中心掀起卡位战。都市不仅是地理空间,也是现代资本主义和消费主义的汇集地点,这个权力场驱动了健身产业的发展与转型,建构了健身意义内涵与实践的框架,以及健身地景的文化形式。本篇文章企图将健身产业的地景和都市发展之间的关系进行讨论,说明随着台北城市由戒严时期的战时首都、工业城市、投机城市、全球化城市,健身如何由都市空间上和以生产为主流的社会伦理中的双重边陲,成为进占都市中心的「企业」,并取代工业城市地景,成为全球化台北的生活风格地景。     

The Asian Development Bank and the production of poverty: Neoliberalism,technocratic modernization and land dispossession in the Greater Mekong Subregion

In 1992 the Asian Development Bank coordinated a meeting between government representatives from China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to discuss regional economic integration. From that meeting the Greater Mekong Subregion was formed to promote peace and prosperity within the Mekong countries. Yet, despite more than more than USD 14 billion being spent on facilitating trade, development and infrastructural ties between these nations, poverty remains widespread. This article provides a critical analysis of the Asian Development Bank and its approach to development and poverty alleviation within the Greater Mekong Subregion. It suggests that the institution's technocratic neoliberal development ideology provides a discursive legitimation to processes of displacement and dispossession that has seen the production of new forms of poverty. To make this argument, the article draws on an ethnographic study of the local‐scale implications of forced resettlement at the Luang Prabang Airport. It conducts an analysis of how the Asian Development Bank defines and measures poverty, and critiques the institution's resettlement guidelines for the airport project.     

知识经济背景下西部大开发的基本思路

在知识经济背景下，西部大开发的基本思路可概括为坚持两种思想；即可持续发展思想和动态协调的思想，实现三大目标；即效率与公平相兼顾的目标，经济发展、社会进步与环境改善相协调的目标，国家整体利益与西部地区自身发展相统一的目标；正确处理六大关系，即发挥比较优势与后发优势的关系，重点产业（地区）与非重点产业（地区）的关系，三次产业之间的关系，投资结构与建设项目布局的关系，区域“硬”环境与“软”环境的关系，西部地区与基本法部地区之间的关系。     

城市人工地貌过程对城市化的响应——以大连市为例

城市人工地貌是城市中由人类活动作用形成的各种高低起伏的人工建筑体的组合形态,随着城市化进程的不断推进,城市人工地貌的发育表现出了一定的规律。本文以大连市为例,建立了城市人工地貌发育过程对城市化的响应模型,同时,研究了城市人工地貌发育与城市化进程变化的耦合系数,在此基础上分析了城市人工地貌过程对城市化进程变化的响应,最后得出了大连城市人工地貌在城市化作用下的发育规律。     

Good, bad or 'necessary evil'? Reinterpreting the colonial burning experiments in the savanna landscapes of West Africa

A simple ecological model underlies contemporary fire policy in many West African countries. The model holds that the timing (or seasonality) of annual savanna fires is a principal determinant of vegetation cover. The model's origin can be traced to the ideas held by influential colonial scientists who viewed anthropogenic fire as a prime force of regional environmental degradation. The main evidence in support of the model derives from the results of a series of long-term burning experiments carried out during last century. The experimental results have been repeatedly mapped onto fire policy often taking the form of a three-tiered model in which fire exclusion is considered the ultimate management objective, late dry-season fire is discouraged and early dry-season fire is allowed but only under specific, often state-controlled circumstances. This paper provides a critique of contemporary fire policy in the region and the fire ecology model on which it is based. Through an analysis of burn scars for the 2002–3 fire season generated from ETM+ imagery, the study documents the spatiotemporal pattern of burning for an area in southern Mali. It argues that current policy, which is informed by an a-spatial model, cannot adequately account for the critical pattern of burning that is characteristic of the region. A reinterpretation of the burning experiments is presented in light of four factors: empirical data; recent developments in patch-mosaic theory; historical evidence on the effects of fire suppression; and data on indigenous burning strategies, all of which suggest a need to reconsider current fire policy.     

高质量发展下的生态城市评价 ——以长江三角洲城市群为例

以长江三角洲城市群为案例区,运用熵值-TOPSIS模型评价城市生态化水平的变化及差异,运用障碍度模型探究影响城市生态化水平的主要障碍因子。结果表明:长三角城市群生态化水平在稳步提升,城市间生态化水平差异显著并呈扩大趋势;长三角城市群生态化水平在空间上呈现“中心-外围”结构,城市生态化水平与城市规模等级成正比,直辖市、省会城市和经济强市生态化水平要显著优于其他城市;城市在经济、生态环境和社会3个层面指标上的评价得分具有不平衡性,各城市优劣势有所差异,并且经济和社会层面的生态化水平差异大于生态环境层面的差异;对大多数城市而言,经济层面及基础设施、公共服务要素是主要障碍因子。未来生态城市建设应立足城市自身发展状况,因地制宜地提升城市生态化水平,建设高质量生态城市。     

长江三角洲区域开放开发政策的内涵与演变

以改革开放以来长江三角洲实施的区域开放开发政策为样本,将开放开发政策分为宏观开放开发政策、经济特区与综合配套改革试验区政策、开发区政策3个能级,从政策内容、工具、作用强度3个维度分析了区域开放开发政策演变的过程。长江三角洲国家级/省级宏观区域开放开发政策的目标从对外开放转为综合开发,对外开放在空间演化上呈从点到面、从沿海到内地、从中心城区到农村的梯度开放特征,政策工具从财税政策和行政控制转为发展社会资本与改善发展环境,前期的财税优惠政策和开放政策逐渐削弱甚至消亡,一些区域规划上升为国家战略而得到增强。上海浦东经历了从经济特区向综合配套改革试验区的转变,政策工具从优惠政策转向全方位的优先探试权。开发区政策集中在经济领域,省级开发区政策效应较国家级开发区弱,不同开发区间的政策逐渐趋同,强度在不断弱化。     

Chocolate in China: the cadbury experience

Since 1979, China's Open Door policy has attracted increasing foreign investment. To maintain global competitiveness, the British confectioner, Cadbury, authorised its Australian subsidiary to develop a chocolate plant in China. This paper details the decision‐making processes that eventually led to a new factory on a greenfield site near Beijing. It also illustrates some of the adaptations that Cadbury has had to make in its product and production procedures in order to match its own standards for dairy milk chocolate and yet accommodate guo qing (the special situation in China).     

Changes in the Indonesian Clothing Industry: Trade and Regulation

Policy frameworks at national and international levels have significant influence on the growth performance and industrialisation of developing economies. This paper aims to explore the influence of such regulatory policy frameworks on the development of the Indonesian clothing industry since the mid‐1980s based on an analysis of national clothing trade statistics provided by the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics. Although the Indonesian policy framework had a general export‐orientation, protectionist measures for the domestic market proved to be important in facilitating the growth of the Indonesian clothing industry. This paper also shows how the existing international clothing trade regulatory framework of the Multi‐Fibre Arrangement (MFA) influenced the integration of Indonesian clothing firms into global production and trade networks. Finally, the future policy changes and potential impacts for Indonesian clothing firms are discussed.     

Sustainable Development of the Catering Industry in China: Policy and Food Waste

The catering industry is an important industry related to the growth of the national economy and the needs of daily life. After 2012, the central government has successively introduced and implemented a series of policies to limit the official consumption and catering waste. These policies have had a huge impact on China's catering industry, especially the development of high-end catering. Based on expert scoring and interviews with government managers, the catering industry organizations, catering enterprises, researchers and consumers, this paper studies the impacts of the policies before and after 2012 on the sustainable development of the catering industry. The results show that: (1) Policies after 2012 have been very strong in their strength and duration, and this can ensure that the policies can effectively perform their restraint and management functions in the long term. (2) As affected by policies after 2012, the frequency and amounts of public expenditures in China have dropped significantly, and mass consumption is developing faster. (3) The impact of policies on income is quite controversial. On the whole, the policies have continued to promote the increasing of catering income after 2012, and have played a significant role in optimizing the catering structure and reducing food waste. However, the policies have had little effect on the improvement of industry standards and environmental protection. (4) The sustainable development of the catering industry requires the efforts of the government, industry organizations, restaurants and consumers. Steady income growth, a reasonable and healthy industry structure, sound industry standards, and low food waste are important standards and goals for the sustainable development of the catering industry.     

“双循环”新格局与京津冀高质量协同发展——基于价值链分工和要素流动视角

京津冀地区经历了从竞争、合作到迈向高质量协同发展的过程,在“双循环”新发展格局下,京津冀协同发展面临着新挑战和新目标,亟需实现创新驱动经济转型。本文从价值链分工和要素流动等方面入手,系统梳理了京津冀在“外循环”和“国内大循环”中的价值链地位和辐射能力,以及以“京津冀小循环”为表现的京津冀协同发展现状。结果发现,京津冀在“外循环”中没有形成世界级城市群相对应的技术分工和知识生产能力,处于价值链较低附加值环节;在“国内大循环”中,京津冀占据价值链高附加值环节,并向外输出技术和资本,但吸引和辐射力有限。进一步探究发现,京津冀在“外循环”中相对边缘化的重要原因之一是“京津冀小循环”尚未打通,创新成果难以在城市群内部转化,从而未能实现“创新驱动经济增长新引擎”的城市群定位目标。下一阶段京津冀城市群应以水平知识链、梯度创新链为驱动,构建城市群垂直产业链。具体来说,“内循环”中应着力打造“北京研发—天津高端制造—河北物流服务”协同格局,“外循环”中构建以知识转移和市场突破为核心的“北京创新集聚溢出—河北综合制造—天津研发、航运”分工模式,逐步实现“内循环”反哺“外循环”。