An assessment of land degradation in the Save catchment of Zimbabwe

The lack of reliable baseline information on land degradation is a hindrance towards its monitoring and mitigation. Of particular interest is the identification of areas susceptible to degradation. In this study, remote sensing and GIS technologies were applied to detect and map susceptibility to land degradation in Buhera district, in Save catchment, Zimbabwe. Data used included Landsat TM and ETM imagery for 1992 and 2002, agro-ecological zones, vegetation cover and population density. The study identified five preliminary categories of degradation susceptibility ranging from very high to low.     

Analysis of Spatial Voting Patterns: An Approach in Political Socialization

Abstract

Passage of the 26th Amendment gave young adults the right to vote. Along with this privilege, new voters assumed responsibility for conducting themselves as knowledgeable citizens concerning issues, candidates, and the electoral process. This study attempts to further student understanding of the electoral process by presenting a method for analyzing spatial voting patterns. The spatial emphasis adds another dimension to the temporal and behavioral - structural approaches in studying the American electoral system. Inclusion of spatial analysis of voting patterns increases understanding and political socialization of young people.     

Rural Self-Reliance in Bondolfi, Zimbabwe: the role of beekeeping

Community-based economic self-reliance has become critical in many African countries because of the severity of prevailing soci-economic and environmental constraints. Concerns over food security have encouraged a re-evaluation of the importance of indigenous technical knowledge. This study examines a rural area in Zimbabwe where members of the local community have established a successful beekeeping association to improve their livelihoods. The history of the initiative, its broader impact on the community and the role played by external facilitation feature in the study.     

建设海洋强国的政治学解释——基于注意力配置的分析

基于注意力政治学的领导人注意力分析框架,对自2012年以来建设海洋强国这一国家级海洋战略的启动和实施进行分析,探讨建设海洋强国的作用机制。文章提出：1）领导人与政府有限的注意力是国际体系结构变化与国家行为产生之间的中介变量。2）国际局势变化、地方政府竞争、突发事件刺激和以往的从政经历是建设海洋强国的触发因素,驱使领导人和政府的注意力发生转移。3）领导人通过讲话、批示、视察等活动推动政策实施,这是测量领导人及政府对于建设海洋强国的注意力依据。注意力对建设海洋强国的作用机制体现在：1）国家海洋战略重置后,领导人与政府的注意力继续作用于新海洋战略的实施过程;2）领导人通过自身一系列的活动,如视察、批示,加快海洋战略的运行;3）通过设立高级别机构,高位推动建设海洋强国;4）通过国家媒体对海洋事务的持续议程设置,固定公众和社会注意力。上述作用机制有效地引导并锁定了中国对海洋事务的关注方向与重点,改变了传统中国“重陆轻海”的战略文化与社会认知。     

Feeling the pulse of the city: racial liberalism and the political geographies of tension in postwar Detroit

Recent work in urban and political geography has explored how affective life is becoming intertwined with security apparatuses. This paper situates this interest within a longer history by exploring how affect–specifically “tension”–emerged as an object of political concern and intervention in US cities during the postwar era. Focusing on Detroit, we trace how northern liberals responded to an escalation in racial unrest by developing programs that sought to detect and locate a change in the city’s atmospheric charge. They also created various measures to try and combat a rise in tension or aggression before it led to violence. However, while these efforts were framed in terms of collective security, we argue that they actually reproduced racialized differences across the city. They also helped to construct material and ideological support at the local-level for the national backlash against racial liberalism marked by the election of Nixon in the late-1960s     

Immigration and slow-growth economies: the experience of South Australia and Tasmania

"This paper examines national immigration processes and demographic change in South Australia and Tasmania over the last four decades. Particular attention is paid to the inter-censal period 1986-1991.... The paper investigates the impact of the historic make-up of immigrant flows on settlement patterns, and examines the impact on policies intended to increase immigrant settlement in these states. It argues that the policies being pursued by state and federal governments are unlikely to add to the numbers settling in these states, because they pay too little attention to migration processes, and especially the attraction of others from the source country."     

Determination of Lg-wave attenuation using single-station seismograms: a case study for Zimbabwe

In this paper we show how the quality factor Q may be calculated using a single seismograph station and a number of events recorded on analogue seismograms. We followed Nuttli's (1973) method and extended it to one seismograph station. Using the single station Bulawayo (BUL), we determined a mean Q value of 650 for Zimbabwe. Furthermore, we considered different propagation paths over Zimbabwe as the seismic waves travelled to BUL and found a low Q value of 350 for the Deka fault zone. the Q value of 650 obtained in this study agrees well within error with that of 603 reported by Chow et al. (1980) using the multistation, multi-event method, and lies within the range of Q values (454–759) reported by Xie & Mitchell (1990) using a 'back-project'method to image large-scale lateral variations of Lg coda Q . the results obtained are important as the Q value constitutes part of the input data in seismic hazard calculations. the method may be used to determine Q in regions where there may be only one station with reliable analogue seismogram data.     

中国发展中国家地位的论证——基于190个经济体多维发展水平分类的实证分析

科学判断一个国家在全球体系中的地位是制定外交政策的基础。目前中国的发展中国家地位遭到了西方国家的质疑,国内学者从国别比较等视角出发论证了中国的发展中国家地位,但缺乏从全球尺度分类视角的回应。论文基于多面体法、洛伦兹曲线分类法等方法,从经济、社会、环境、治理等方面构建经济体的多维发展水平分类指标体系和测度模型,将全球190个经济体划分成发达经济体Ⅰ~Ⅲ型、发展中经济体Ⅰ~Ⅴ型和过渡型经济体共9种类型,并探讨了不同类型经济体的发展水平特征、中国在全球经济体分类体系中的地位等问题。研究发现：① 不同类型经济体在经济、社会、环境、治理等分维度发展水平方面具有显著的差异性。② 发达经济体各维度发展水平排名普遍较高,总体呈现“并驾齐驱”特征;过渡型经济体在很多维度的发展指标与发达经济体Ⅲ型接近,多数经济体处于逐渐向发达经济体过渡的发展阶段;发展中经济体在分维度发展水平方面存在显著的结构性差异。③ 中国属于发展中经济体Ⅰ型类别,在全球190个经济体中排在第64位,在139个发展中经济体中排在第13位。④ 中国在全球经济体多维发展水平排序、各维度发展水平差异等方面具备发展中国家的普遍特征。该研究洛伦兹曲线分类法等方法的应用可丰富区域发展分类理论,相关结论可为回击西方国家对中国发展中国家地位的质疑提供借鉴。     

Radiometric dating of recent sediments: beyond the boundary conditions

Most mathematical models for radiometric dating of recent sediments are particular solutions of a unique physical problem: the advective?Cdiffusive transport of a particle-bound radiotracer within a sediment profile that undergoes accretion. Regardless of the particular assumptions about fluxes, sedimentation rates and the diffusion term, all models assume ideal deposition as a boundary condition at the sediment water interface, i.e. new radioactive input will be deposited above the previously existing material. In sediments with very high porosities, this assumption may be unrealistic, because a fraction of the incoming flux may penetrate rapidly through the connected pore spaces. This process will be referred to as non-ideal deposition. This paper reviews evidence from literature data, discusses the basic processes involved, and establishes the mathematical basis to incorporate non-ideal deposition into one-phase radiometric dating models, as depth-distributed local sources. Through analytical and numerical solutions, this work demonstrates that such penetration patterns can explain excess ²¹⁰Pb subsurface maxima, often observed in sediment cores, as well as penetration of ¹³⁷Cs to depths greater than expected from sedimentation rates and diffusion. These ideas are illustrated using examples from the literature in which sediment porosities were >90?%. Implications for radiometric dating include: (1) spurious accelerations in sedimentation rate inferred when applying the constant rate of supply model, and (2) erroneous chronologies, developed when using the maximum depth at which ¹³⁷Cs can be measured as a chronostratigraphic marker.     

政治性民意集团及其利益博弈：缅甸国内长期冲突的一个分析视角

文章首先提出了一个国内政治性行为主体影响国家政局的分析框架,然后从“民意”“民意政治”“政治性民意”的视角,依据各民意集团的构成主体、利益诉求、行为方式等要素对缅甸国内的政治性民意集团进行梳理和划分,分析了缅甸政治性民意集团形成的时空环境,并对其形成的过程与机制进行探讨。。研究发现,在缅甸特殊的历史和地理环境背景下,形成了基于利益诉求而相互博弈的六大主要的政治性民意集团。各政治性民意集团或采取平等协商签订协议,或软硬兼施诱使妥协,或使用强力打击迫使接受等手段、方式进行权利博弈,成为缅甸国内主要的政治性行为主体。各政治性民意集团的借力博弈对缅甸政局产生了深远的影响,民意集团之间冲突的实质是其集团利益超越国家利益,这是缅甸国内长期冲突的主要致因。从“民意”“民意政治”的视域来研究一国内部的民主问题、民族问题、宗教问题和冲突问题是富有尝试性和探索性的,缅甸的实证研究也为研究特定国家的相关问题提供一个新的视野和参考借鉴。     

The impact of slow growth policies on local economies: Through housing boom and bust

This case study considers the economic implications of various growth policies in the Sacramento region over the last decade. Counties and cities throughout the Sacramento region have varying policies and attitudes toward residential and commercial growth. Over the last decade we have seen extremes in development in the region, from the Roseville area which experienced a residential and retail explosion, to Davis, which has restricted growth to relatively few projects. Growth has impacted property and sales tax revenue, and city and county expenditures. Changes in the housing market and the economy over the past few years have had a large impact on new construction activity. This paper examines how cities and counties in the Sacramento region have weathered the housing boom and bust, based on their growth policies during the past decade. The relationship between growth policies, measured by building permits, local government revenue, housing markets, and employment is assessed. Comparisons are presented through charts and panel data regression. Rapid development leads to higher levels of sales tax revenue, coupled with greater volatility in sales tax revenue. Employment rises more quickly in areas that have a high level of non-residential construction relative to residential construction.     

An elephant in the planning room: Political demography and its influence on sustainable land-use planning in drylands

Two distinct, conflicting, land-use planning paradigms affect drylands: one seeking environmentally sustainable outcomes and one addressing political-demographic concerns. The environmental paradigm is relatively new and is couched in the lexicon of sustainable development, combating desertification and biodiversity conservation. These concerns proscribe planning principles that allow for human settlement in drylands while minimizing its environmental impact. The latter paradigm has a longer history, born in central governments’ desire to secure sovereignty over outlying regions. These concerns result in planning goals that conflict with environmental goals. The environmental paradigm encourages compact development and efficient land-use, while the political-demographic one encourages in-migration of ‘friendly’ populations and the establishment of a physical presence on a maximum amount of land. Using Israel’s Negev Desert and China’s Xinjiang region as case studies, we suggest that successful implementation of sustainable dryland management depends on recognizing the challenge presented by political-demographic planning motivations. As such, successful implementation of environmental planning requires resolution of existing political conflicts. Since drylands are characteristically geographic and demographic frontiers, they are ideal settings in which to study the conflict between environmental and political-demographic goals and they provide an opportunity to better understand how this conflict creates a barrier to sustainable development.     

Economic development in tropical Africa from a geographical perspective: a comparative study of African economies

Tropical Africa is often seen to have problem economies that are very much alike and suffer from the same development problems. This view is questioned in exploratory analyses of levels of wealth, spatial productivity, the structure of the economy and aspects of the openness of economies and the way they have changed between 1965 and 1995. The analyses reveal differences between economies in both degree and kind. Change to economies was not unidirectional so that they became more disparate and differentiated. The exploratory analyses were extended using factor analysis as a diagnostic tool on a 19-variable by 25 country data set for 1985, 1990 and 1995. This confirmed the findings of the exploratory analyses and revealed changes in the structure of the factors reflecting development in the period. The results are discussed in the context of the literature in a search for explanation and policy formulation.     

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.     

Far beyond the Gulf: the implications of warfare for Asian labour migration

The implications of the Gulf War are assessed for the countries in Asia that send labor migrants to the Middle East. "This paper seeks to examine the effects of...the loss of remittances (and related issues, including return migration), primarily in terms of the long-term implications of the War for the future of contract labour migration in the Asian region...."     

Farmer–herder conflicts, pastoral marginalisation and corruption: a case study from the inland Niger delta of Mali

This study aims to explain a farmer–herder conflict in the inland Niger delta of Mali. We focus on the interests and motivations of the actors involved in the conflict and the rent seeking of the local administration in handling the conflict. Since independence, the customary pastoral leaders (the jowros ) have gradually lost power and wealth to the benefit of previously underprivileged farmers (the rimaybé ). We argue that this process is mainly the result of national policies and laws giving priority to agricultural development at the expense of pastoralism. The result has been large-scale conversions of dry season pastures to rice fields. This pastoral marginalisation also results in increased land use conflicts between herders and farmers. In addition, rent seeking by local officials is perpetuating land use conflicts in the area. Hence, officials are benefiting from conflicts, while especially pastoralists, but also farmers, are losing out. The droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, leading to a more rapid encroachment of rice fields on pastures, as well as the power vacuum that emerged in the early days of the decentralisation process, further aggravated land disputes. Finally, we use this case study to call for an inclusion of issues of rent seeking and corruption more centrally in political ecology.