LAW AND THE INTERPRETIVE TURN IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Legal cases are increasingly used in the social sciences as the raw material for social analysis. While this is entirely laudable as a research strategy, the analytical methods used in the social sciences to study cases are too often simplistic and reductionist. Positivism is too often the preferred analytical mode. I argue that the legal texture of cases ought to be retained by social scientists, just as we ought to be more aware of the problematic nature of interpretation, an issue embedded within legal discourse. In contrast to those who contend that the interpretive turn in the social sciences is nihilistic and subjective, I suggest reasons for understanding the interpretive turn as an organized social practice dependent upon social standards of right and wrong. These issues are illustrated by reference to a recent court case involving a corporation that secretly and illegally relocated production so as to avoid its pension obligations.     

市场分割与中国城市出口差异

出口贸易是中国经济增长的引擎,也是影响城市经济发展的重要因素。中国城市出口活动强度呈现由东向西逐渐递减的趋势,东部沿海地区的城市群表现最为优异。经济转型背景下地方政府采取的市场分割政策对中国城市出口差异有显著影响。基于新经济地理理论,在企业微观层面使用Heckman选择模型分析的结果表明：① 短期内,国内市场分割程度加剧导致企业因国内市场受限而替代性地进入国际市场以追求规模经济效益,从而通过增加出口企业数量提升城市出口表现;长期来看,市场分割限制了企业的规模经济效益和专业化分工能力,降低了出口企业的生产率和国际竞争力,从而损害城市出口贸易的可持续发展;这一机制还受到企业所有制及地理区位的影响。② 市场分割对企业出口行为的扭曲程度依外资企业、国有企业、私营企业的顺序递增。③ 在中国中部地区,改善省际交通条件有助于缓解国内市场分割对企业出口行为的扭曲作用,在东部和西部地区则不明显。     

城市和城市群可持续发展指数研究进展

21世纪是城市的世纪,城市的高质量发展对区域和全球可持续发展至关重要。中国城市化发展迅速,城市化率从1978年的17.9%增加到2019年的60.6%,2030年将达到70%,大部分人口居住在城市。城市是中国经济发展的引擎,以全国近7%的土地面积生产了70%的国内生产总值(GDP),而城市群更是集聚了全国大部分城镇人口和GDP。因此,城市和城市群的健康与可持续性将决定中国未来发展的质量与进程。识别城市和城市群发展的程度、存在的问题以及国内外差距,亟需进行城市可持续发展的评价。本研究系统综述了城市可持续发展评价的思想与指标体系的发展历程,重点基于联合国可持续发展目标(SDG)框架考察了开展城市可持续发展评价的方法,提出了构建城市和城市群可持续发展指数的途径,并从平台构建、大数据基础、跟踪发布等方面提出了推进城市可持续发展指数评价建立城市发展“仪表盘”的思路。基于联合国SDG框架的城市和城市群可持续发展指数可为目标城市对标其他城市、开展不同区域城市的对比、找准发展目标与识别存在问题等方面提供重要支撑。     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Boundary Control and Legal Priniciples . Curtis M. Brown , Walter G. Robillard and Donald A. Wilson . Lost Initiatives: Canada's Forest Industries, Forest Policy, and Forest Conservation . R. Peter Gillis and Thomas R. Roach . The Navajo Atlas: Resources, People, and History of the Dine Bikeyah . James M. Goodman . The City and the Sign . M. Gottdiener AND Alexandros Ph . Lagopoulos , EDS. The Comfortable House: North American Suburban Architecture 1890–1930 . Alan Gowans . Arabic-Islamic Cities. Building and Planning Principles . Besim Salim Hakim . Contemporary Climatology . Ann Henderson -Sellers and Peter J. Robinson . A Trace of Desert Waters . Samuel G. Houghton . Geography, Resources and Environment. Vol. 1: Selected Writings of Gilbert F. White. Vol. 2: Themes from the Work of Gilbert F. White . Robert W. Kates AND Ian Burton , ED. Spatial Dimensions of Unemployment and Underemployment (A Case Study of Rural Punjab) . Gopal Krishan . Maps of the Holy Land: Cartobibliography of Printed Maps, 1475–1900 . Compiled by Eran Laor , assisted by Shoshana Klein . The Geography of Third World Cities . Stella Lowder . A Perspective on U.S. Farm Problems and Agricultural Policy . Lance Mc Kinzie , Timothy G. Baker AND Wallace E. Tyner . Soil Erosion and Its Control. R.P.C . Morgan , ED Geopolitics . Patrick O'Sullivan . Landscape, Meanings and Values . Edmund C. Penning -Rowsell AND David Lowenthal , EDS.     

The difference of economic function and the trends of industrial development in central cities along the Xijiang River

TheXijiangRiveristhemainwaterwayacrosseastandwestinSouthernChina.ItsmaincoursebacksontothewestofGuangdongandthesouthwestofChina,withitsexitthroughHongKong,MacaoandSoutheasternAsia.Ithasawidehinterlandandconvenientwatertransportation.AlongtheXijiangRiver,thecentralcitiesarethecities,whichspreadalongtheXijiangRiver'smaincourse,theZhujiangRiver'sdeltaandoutlet,andBosehasbeenselectedasarepresentativecityintheupperreachesoftheXijiangRiver.Theytotal12cities,includingGuangzhou,Shenzhen,Zhuh…     

Beyond world cities: Central America in a global space of flows

Central America is a region without a world city. Traditionally, the region's national projects have been based upon openness to the world economy: how do the region's contemporary transnational projects connect to the world economy under the new conditions of openness that is contemporary globalization? Focusing upon advanced producer services, three connections into the world city network are identified: global service firms operating directly in Central American cities, local service firms operating indirectly through extra-regional world cities and global service firms operating through Latin American regional offices. Miami is confirmed as the primary world city through which Central America connects into the world economy     

GROWTH OF NEW ECONOMIC SECTORS IN SECOND-TIER EXTENDED CITIES IN THE CHANGJIANG RIVER DELTA——Case of Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou

1INTRODUCTIONUrbanrelationshipaswellasurbansystemhas beenthemostimportantandlastingdirectioninthestudyofur-bangeographysinceCHRISTALLER(1933)putfor-wardthecentralplacetheory.Alongwiththepaceofglobalizationinthe1980s,somepioneer researchessen-sitivelyexpoundedaworldcitysystem,includingworldcity,internationalcity,nationalcity,regionalcityandlocalcity(FRIEDMAN,1986).Lotsofresearchesfo-cusedonthedevelopingmechanismofthebigcitiesandurbansystemnetwork(GU,2000;ZHOU,1997;CUI,1992;HUeta…     

Black Holes and Loose Connections in a Global Urban Network

This paper introduces the concept of black holes and loose connections in a global urban hierarchy. Black holes are defined as large cities, with a population of over 3 million, that are not classified as world cities. The paper draws upon a classification that uses advanced producer services as an indicator of world city status. Large, nonworld cities are identified, and provisional ideas about explaining their position are outlined. Connectivity and population data are used in a simple regression analysis to identify loose connections: cities whose connectivity is less than that predicted by their population.     

黑龙江省三江平原垦区中心城市选择

黑龙江省三江平原垦区是中国耕地规模最大的连片农垦区和第三大区际商品粮供应基地。近年来,随着这一地区工业化和城镇化进程的加快,如何科学的选择和建设区域的中心城市成为该区完善区域城镇体系和推进城镇化进程的紧迫任务和现实课题。基于此,应用改进的引力模型来计算县级单位与农场间的空间联系强度,界定出各县级单位的腹地范围,明确三江平原垦区的中心城市;以各农垦分局为研究单元,研究各农垦分局的碎化程度;通过明确县级单位拥有农场腹地数目,确定各农垦分局的中心城市;结果发现建三江、虎林、富锦、友谊和密山等宜作为三江平原垦区的中心城市;提出通过壮大中心城市的综合实力、推动场县共建和深化对外合作等措施来推动三江平原垦区城镇化进程。     

Archaeoseismological investigation of the ancient Ayla site in the city of Aqaba,Jordan

Many tens of severe earthquake damage patterns were revealed at the ancient city of Ayla. The seismic deformation patterns are of various types, including systematic tilting of walls, systematic shifting and rotation of wall fragments and individual stones, arch deformations and joints crossing two or more stones. Features of later repair, supporting walls and secondary use of building stones suggest that the damage patterns can be explained by two historical devastating earthquakes: (I) revealed in the constructions built during the late Rashidun period (644–656 A.D.); (II) revealed in the structures restored and/or built during the Fatimid period (1050–1116 A.D.). The maximum observed intensity of both earthquakes at the studied site was not less than IX (EMS98 scale). The sources of the seismic events were probably the Dead Sea Transform and Wadi Araba Faults that cross the site obliquely. The last 1995 Nuweiba earthquake with maximum observed intensity VIII has also left its clear traces in the excavated ancient Ayla buildings. The severity of the destruction was significantly increased because of site effects.