Re-orientation of the city plan: Strategic planning and design competition in China

Rather than being abandoned along with the demise of the centrally planned economy, city planning as a profession is flourishing in China. New hybrid plans such as strategic development plans (concept plans) have been invented, and the planning procedure has become more flexible. Design competition and planning consultancy are widespread. This paper examines the development of new strategic development plans and design competition. It is argued that city planning has been re-orientated from a technical rationale, i.e. allocating state development projects to the city, to the imperative derived from market-oriented development, i.e. consolidating competitiveness during inter-city competition. The contradiction between market and planning is that while the status of city planning has been raised and its approach is becoming more strategic, the actual functionality of city planning has become more instrumental.     

Re-reading remittances through solidarity: Mexican hometown associations in New York City

This paper analyzes how Mexican hometown associations in New York City practice solidarity so that they might best meet the needs of the transnational communities that they serve. Commonly formed by immigrants in the United States, hometown associations are organizations which send money collectively to their home countries, supporting public infrastructure and community projects. Scholars have debated both the merits of remittance programs that channel migrant funds as economic development and the agency of immigrant economies in neoliberal development structures. Through primary data collected from interviews in New York City, I review the frustrations that hometown associations have with one such program: Mexico's programa tres por uno para migrantes. Concurrently, I examine how the same hometown associations engage ethical economic practices of collective remittance sending and community service provision in New York City. Drawing on feminist literature on diverse economies, I argue that the solidarity work of hometown associations disrupts the dominant remittance as development discourse. Migrants are not content to participate in tres por uno and through practicing solidarity they distance themselves from this neoliberal policy.     

The co-production of land use and livelihoods change: Implications for development interventions

In a previous paper [McCusker, B., Carr, E.R., 2006. The co-production of livelihoods and land use change: Case studies from South Africa and Ghana. Geoforum 37 (5), 790–804], we argued that land use and livelihoods could best be understood as co-produced, where land use and livelihoods are not separate objects of knowledge related to one another through abstract processes, but different manifestations of social processes through which individuals and groups come to understand the challenges facing their everyday lives, the various resources available to them to negotiate these challenges, and the strategies by which they can conduct that negotiation. In this paper, we examine the theoretical basis for “co-production” with the goal of using this approach to inform development interventions.     

Escape to victory: Development,youth entrepreneurship and the migration of Ghanaian footballers

This article contributes to contemporary debates over the resourcefulness and entrepreneurialism of young people in the Global South by exploring the relationship between development and the migration of male youth within the football industry. Drawing on fieldwork in Accra, the paper reveals how young Ghanaians attempt to enact development as freedom through spatial mobility. Significantly, this is coupled with an awareness that their desired spatial mobility is difficult to attain, thereby inducing a sense of involuntary immobility. For some male youth, the solution to this predicament is to invest in their sporting bodily capital and become Foucauldian ‘entrepreneurs of self’ in the form of a professional footballer. Meanwhile for others, the solution to prevailing economic pressures is to embrace financial risk by becoming entrepreneurs in the form of football club owners, and attempting to profit from the movement of players. The interests of these two sets of entrepreneurs coalesce around the fact that the mobility of footballers is crucial to generating a return on their respective investments. It is argued that the construction of young Ghanaians as responsible for their future life chances, and the growing dissonance between aspirations and the ability to migrate, is a key reason why youth are trying to migrate through football. Problematically, this can foster conditions favourable for irregular migration.     

Planning for Tsunami-Resilient Communities

The National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP) Steering Committee consists of representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. The program addresses three major components: hazard assessment, warning guidance, and mitigation. The first two components, hazard assessment and warning guidance, are led by physical scientists who, using research and modeling methods, develop products that allow communities to identify their tsunami hazard areas and receive more accurate and timely warning information. The third component, mitigation, is led by the emergency managers who use their experience and networks to translate science and technology into user-friendly planning and education products. Mitigation activities focus on assisting federal, state, and local officials who must plan for and respond to disasters, and for the public that is deeply affected by the impacts of both the disaster and the pre-event planning efforts. The division between the three components softened as NTHMP scientists and emergency managers worked together to develop the best possible products for the users given the best available science, technology, and planning methods using available funds.     

北美非开挖技术发展近况-水平定向钻进应用方面

2010年5月北美非开挖技术协会（NASTT）在美国芝加哥举办了一年一度年会,同时庆祝协会成立20周年,来自美国和加拿大的几百位学者对非开挖技术的各个方面进行了为期一个星期的探讨。本文主要从136篇会议论文中遴选了有关水平定向钻进技术在北美地区的应用近况进行了描述,包括水平定向钻进中的窜浆问题、入海口的钻进技术、敷设管道的推进技术、钻杆失效的管理、地表变形检测等方面进行了阐述,笔者希望通过这些技术介绍,能够对国内广大非开挖业内人士的设计、施工、研究有所借鉴。     

吉林省矿产资源“十二五”规划战略构想

总结了吉林省“十一五”期间地质勘查、矿产资源领域取得的成就和存在的问题,研究了“十二五”地质矿产供需形势,提出了全省“十二五”矿产资源规划指导思想、规划目标、主要任务和保证措施.     

湖南氧化金矿资源特征及其利用现状存在问题与对策

本文阐述了湖南氧化金矿资源的分布、矿床类型及其地质特征,总结了近年来我省氧化金矿资源勘查和利用方面所取得的成就,找出了其中存在的主要问题,探讨了加速勘查和开发氧化金矿资源的对策与措施。     

从对立统一观论人—地关系动力学

人－地关系动力学将成为新工纪的地球科学的前沿学科。环境与发展已成为今日国际社会的共识。从对立统一观分析,人－地关系动力学具有整体性与局部性、缓变性与突发性、可再生性与不可再生性、因果性、不可逆性与避防性、线性变化与指数变化等特性。人类社会经济发展与资源、生态环境之间相互制约,要在现代科学技术的有效支持下,保持、发扬优化条件,减少、防止恶化条件,使人类社会经济保持健康的持续发展。     

我国城市地下空间规划现状、问题与对策

地下空间规划是城市地下空间开发利用有序开展的重要保障。随着我国轨道交通建设的全面展开以及相关政策的陆续出台,我国城市地下空间开发利用必将迎来更大的发展。城市地下空间规划也在近年越来越得到重视。从目前各城市的地下空间规划实践来看,我国城市地下空间规划的技术体系已基本成型,但其中仍然存在着各种各样的问题。在摸清我国城市地下空间规划编制现状和实施效果的基础上,掌握我国城市地下空间规划所面临的问题,并结合未来地下空间发展趋势提出我国城市地下空间规划解决问题的对策,有助于城市地下空间规划理论和方法进一步完善,更好地保障我国城市地下空间事业的可持续发展。