Exploring the asylum-migration nexus in the context of health professional migration

The current global migration regime is extremely complex and characterised by a polarisation of flows. Increasing numbers of individuals fleeing conflict regimes and seeking asylum are faced with restrictive immigration regimes whilst at the same time, highly skilled migrants are welcomed and encouraged to contribute to developed economies. This paper explores the asylum-migration nexus that has emerged as a result of restrictive immigration policy by drawing upon a survey of 300 health professionals in the UK. First, the empirical lens of health professionals fleeing conflict regions is employed to map the contours of the asylum-migration nexus. Second, the implications of highly selective asylum flows to Europe, in terms of economic and social characteristics, are considered. The paper concludes by highlighting concerns that Western refugee policy regimes are worryingly failing to fully meet moral obligations to protect individuals seeking asylum whilst also inadvertently supporting brain drain flows.     

A note on India’s water budget and evapotranspiration

Some recent analyses of India’s water budget are based on information attributed to the Ministry of Water Resources. An examination of the budget components indicates that they imply an evapotranspiration estimate that is significantly lower than what one may expect based on information from other sources. If such is the case, India’s water resources situation may be more dire than is otherwise perceived. For, higher evapotranspiration implies correspondingly reduced availability of water for human use. It should be worthwhile to investigate and reconcile the apparent discrepancy between water budget and evapotranspiration, considering the importance of water in the national context.     

浅谈亚行移民监督政策在山东黄河亚行贷款项目移民安置过程中的作用

通过对亚行移民监督政策的介绍并就其在山东黄河亚行贷款项目建设过程中发挥的作用进行了分析,提出亚行移民监督政策在山东黄河亚行贷款项目建设过程中发挥了积极的作用,并为今后水利水电工程建设项目移民政策的执行积累经验。     

政府规制下生态发展区精细化工产业 生态化发展路径——以韶关市涂料产业为例

基于产业链和产业生态化的理论视角,以粤北山区国家重点生态发展区县（市）涂料化工产业为例,研究广东省产业转移政策下转移到生态发展区的污染性产业生态化发展路径。结果发现,在污染性产业环境管制和生态发展区产业准入负面清单双重政策规制下,韶关市涂料化工企业普遍面临改造升级或淘汰关闭的命运。文章从政府、园区和企业3个层次构建产业可持续发展的生态化路径,强调产业生态化进程中政府的主体地位,提出改革和完善生态政策规制体系,实施生态化激励机制和产业准入负面清单的精细化管理机制,规范和引导企业/园区行为并主动参与产业生态化实践,推动生态发展区产业生态化发展等建议。     

Community resources for small city creativity? Rethinking creative economy narratives at the Blue Mountains Music Festival

ABSTRACT

Limitations in scale, infrastructure and business opportunities in combination with a greater sense of community in small centres require a more diverse understanding of the small city creative economy. Entrepreneurship and business development builds on non-capitalist resources, creative community initiatives, volunteers and community networks. Fostering the creative economy in small cities requires a rethinking of creative narratives that iterate the key role of non-capitalist community resources. I illustrate this argument via a case study of the Blue Mountains Music Festival, in New South Wales, Australia. It examines the gap between creative economy aspirations of a small city government and the reality of creativity ‘on the ground’. The City of the Blue Mountains is a small urban centre on the fringes of metropolitan Sydney and regional New South Wales. Its council has recently adopted a creative industries approach to enhance local employment in line with national and metropolitan creative agendas. The Blue Mountains Music Festival was launched in response to creative economy policy more than 20 years ago, but has now lost this connection as it fails to fit current policy aspirations. The festival is, however, an effective example of how creativity in a small city unfolds, demonstrating that beyond jobs and growth are key matters of non-capitalist community networks and resources.     

城市土地利用—交通集成模型的构建与应用

中国目前正经历着城市化转型,科学合理的空间政策是城市可持续发展的重要保障,因此开展政策情景实验、辅助空间决策具有重要现实意义。本文构建了土地利用—交通集成模型,模拟城市活动空间分布,称作SDA（Spatial Distribution of Activities）模型。该模型主要包含4个子模型：交通模型、家庭区位模型、经济活动区位模型、房租模型;并以北京市为例模拟土地利用政策对城市空间发展的影响。研究表明,延续过去5年（2009-2013年）房地产开发模式至2030年,则由于周边房地产开发数量较高、房租较低,越来越多的人口和企业将向郊区聚集（增长速度更大）。该趋势与目前疏解北京社会经济活动、缓解交通拥堵的规划目标相一致,模型可以很好地检验土地利用政策情景影响。而“基于活动”的模型被认为是模型发展趋势,因此,本文构建的SDA模型不仅可以检验不同政策对城市空间影响、辅助城市空间决策,也有助于推动LUTI模型的发展及其在国内的应用,丰富和发展国内城市空间模拟分析的研究内容。     

“All transport problems are essentially mathematical”: The uneven resonance of academic transport and mobility knowledge in Brussels

This paper presents an inquiry into the capacity of transport and mobility studies to critically engage with contemporary policies. Drawing on the conceptualization of circuits of knowledge, the paper scrutinizes the extent to which transport policy agendas are framed around various approaches within academia. An extensive literature review reveals that the academic field of transport and mobility is organized around a hegemonic core of “neoclassical” and “sustainable” approaches. Meanwhile, a critique of these dominant approaches is emerging in an attempt to (re)embed mobility issues in urban political economy. This threefold knowledge typology visibly resonates within transport policy agendas in Brussels, where we detect a growth-oriented and largely depoliticized dual hegemony of neoclassical and sustainable narratives, with critical academic voices rarely entering official agendas. The paper concludes with a reflection on the difficulties, yet also the need to mobilize critical academic knowledge in the field of transport and mobility.     

Accessing Flexibility: A Historical Institutional Analysis of Water Use for Oil and Gas Development in Colorado

US Mountain West Water access and allocation institutions have a history of adapting policy and practice to increase flexibility for diverse water uses. We examine how flexible access has developed over time and space by operationalizing the historical institutional (HI) theoretical and methodological framework. We trace historical water access for oil and gas (OG) development in Colorado, working from contemporary water right data to examine historical critical events, policies, and political contexts. OG water use has iteratively shaped water governance institutions in the top OG producing regions of Colorado, Weld, and Garfield Counties. The analysis suggests that to more accurately capture institutional change and continuity in resource allocation systems, an analysis of informal institutions is an essential theoretical contribution to the HI framework. While increased flexibility makes multiple uses easier, policies favor the most economically lucrative beneficial uses and generate issues of transparency, an important consideration for the public’s resource. Future practices of flexibility are contingent on market structures and institutional access mechanisms shaped during previous government policy processes, illuminating the value of the HI framework to inform future water policy.     

Urban growth simulation by incorporating planning policies into a CA-based future land-use simulation model

Urban land-use change is affected by urban planning and government decision-making. Previous urban simulation methods focused only on planning constraints that prevent urban growth from developing in specific regions. However, regional planning produces planning policies that drive urban development, such as traffic planning and development zones, which have rarely been considered in previous studies. This study aims to design two mechanisms based on a cellular automata-based future land-use simulation model to integrate different planning drivers into simulations. The first update mechanism considers the influence of traffic planning, while the second mechanism can model the guiding effect of planning development zones. The proposed mechanisms are applied to the Pearl River Delta region, which is one of the fastest growing areas in China. The first mechanism is validated using simulations from 2000–2013 and demonstrates that simulation accuracy is improved by the consideration of traffic planning. In the simulation from 2013–2052, the two mechanisms are implemented and yield more realistic urban spatial patterns. The simulation outcomes can be employed to identify potential urban expansion inside the master plan. The proposed methods can serve as a useful tool that assists planners in their evaluation of urban evolvement under the impact of different planning policies.     

The participation of core stakeholders in the design of,and challenges to,the US Clean Power Plan

We examine the participation of stakeholders in the rule-making process leading to the design of the US Clean Power Plan (CPP), which was the cornerstone regulation developed during the Obama administration to lower GHG emissions from power plants in the US. Using publicly available information, we identify the core stakeholders that participated in the different stages of the rulemaking process, from the early draft of the rule to its publication in final form, and examine variables that could help explain their decisions to litigate, either against or in favour of the final version of the rule. We show that the ‘pro-CPP’ stakeholders were (a) more likely to participate during the early stages of the rule-making process, attending meetings with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff to discuss rule content, and (b) less likely to get involved during the litigation process. ‘Anti-CPP’ stakeholders, on the other hand, did the opposite, being in general less active during the rulemaking stages, and more active during the litigation stage. However, we also find that the ‘anti-CPP’ stakeholders were more tightly organized as a coalition when compared to the ‘pro-CPP’ stakeholders throughout the process (even in the early stages when they participated less). Our results shed new light on the way advocacy coalitions operate in the climate policy subsystem in the US, and help inform debates about the likelihood of conflict and cooperation across a variety of environmental policy topics.

Key policy insights

• The design of the Clean Power Plan was a long and contentious process in which ‘Pro’ and ‘Anti-CPP’ coalitions operated to support and undermine the rule, respectively.

• ‘Pro-CPP’ stakeholders were more active in meetings organized to discuss the CPP with EPA staff, and in submitting written comments.

• ‘Anti-CPP’ stakeholders were more active during litigation, in response to perceived EPA overreach in designing the rule and negative financial impacts on states’ economies.

• Joint participation by ‘Anti-CPP’ stakeholders in meetings conveyed by the EPA to discuss the potential content of the rule helps explain their joint litigation efforts, which hints at their considerable capacity to self-organize as a coalition throughout the process.