Localising privatisation, disconnecting locales - Mechanisms of disintegration in post-socialist rural Russia

Soviet collectives in general and especially the kolkhozes in rural areas were much more than merely production units. They regulated a significant part of everyday life in the villages and thus have to be seen as all-embracing social institutions, constituting the bedrock for rural communities. Relying on the homogenising effect of the kolkhoz-mechanism most authors who analyse the process of transformation in the Post-Soviet Russian countryside highlight the failures of privatisation and consequently presume continuity and not change. This paper argues, first, that in view of the weakness of the central state in the 90s a considerable leeway existed at the local level for different ways and degrees to implement the reform legislation and, second, that the concrete outcomes of the restructuring can only be adequately understood focusing on interests and power relations on the micro level rather than dealing with farms as such as the ‘acting units’.The common vantage point for most of the kolkhozes was an “alliance for the locale” between management and workers. It had its roots in the fear to become “slaves on one’s own land” if non-local investors would be allowed to buy agricultural land, to remain without infrastructure like streets, water supply and kindergartens if the kolkhoz would be divided up and to lack the machinery to work the private plots without the support of the farms. But beyond this consensus the chairmen of the collective farms could rely on a bulk of different allocative and authoritative resources to stage-manage privatisation. This introduced a highly ‘individual’ moment in the process and led to rising disparities and an increasing disintegration of rural Russia in the 1990s. Using a farm in southern Russia as an example the closer look at these resources and the “failed privatisation” unveils, that not continuity, but hybrid amalgamations of old and new characterise the Post-Soviet Russian countryside.     

Social Cohesion; Is it sufficient? Migrant communities in two disadvantaged neighborhoods in Istanbul

Planners assume that old neighbourhoods have an atmosphere in which social relations can easily flourish. They also regard the strong social ties within a neighborhood as the guarantee for the success of housing rehabilitation. This article argues that existence of social cohesion in a neighbourhood is not necessarily an advantage in a process of modernisation and rehabilitation. In some cases the community may constitute a closed `island' especially in places where communities have historically inherited an hierarchical character. The article is based on a recent research project dealing with urban communities in inner city areas of Istanbul, especially those containing migrant populations which seemingly have strong community ties. The historical background of the community from the Ottoman period is examined in the first part of the article. The roots of the community as a territorial administrative unit (mahalle) and its modification in contemporary migrant communities are analysed. The second part of the article presents the results of two case studies. One of the case studies is a social housing district where the migrant community is mixed and social relations with the rest of the city are relatively well developed. The other case study area is an historical district where strong social ties create an introverted character of the community in spite of its central location. The result of the study reveals that urban `communities' in a city like Istanbul have both negative and positive aspects. Primarily it is important to assess and understand the degree of `opennes' of the community to the outer world. In any action to be taken planners should look not only inside the community, but also at its 'outer' relations.     

法国阿尔卑斯山(Mt.Alps,France) 溪流型喀斯特瀑布水生苔藓植物群落生态研究

对法国阿尔卑斯山(M t. Alps, France) 6个溪流型喀斯特瀑布水生苔藓植物群落进行了研究。报道典型瀑布水生苔藓群落14个,苔藓植物种类由11科16属20种(含变种亚种) 组成; 生殖系统由雌雄异株( Dio ecious, 95% )和雌雄同株异苞( Auto ecious, 5% )两种类型构成,无性繁殖是繁殖的主要方式; 区系地理成分含北温带分布( 60% ) 、欧洲- 北美分布( 10% )、旧世界温带分布( 5% )和世界广泛分布( 25% ) 等4种成分; 生活型含高丛集型( 20% )、矮丛集型( 10% )、交织型( 60% )和平铺型( 10% ) 4种类型。根据喀斯特沉积环境特征, 划分瀑布水生苔藓群落为峡谷瀑布苔藓群落、温泉瀑布苔藓群落、瀑布水帘洞苔藓群落、悬崖瀑布苔藓群落和悬崖季节性瀑布苔藓群落等5种生态类型。法国阿尔卑斯山溪流型瀑布生物喀斯特沉积物具有分布广泛,但沉积规模较小的特点。      

Indicators of Great Basin rangeland health

Early-warning indicators of rangeland health can be used to estimate the functional integrity of a site and may allow sustainable management of desert rangelands. The utility of several vegetation canopy-based indicators of rangeland health at 32 Great Basin rangeland locations was investigated. The indicators were originally developed in rangelands of the Chihuahuan Desert. Soil resources are lost through wind and water-driven erosion mainly from areas unprotected by plant canopies (i.e. bare soil). Study sites in Idaho had the smallest bare patches, followed by sites in Oregon. The more arid Great Basin Sagebrush Zone sites in Utah had the largest bare patches. Several vegetational indicators including percent cover by vegetation, percent cover by life-form, percent cover by sagebrush, and percent cover by resilient species were negatively related to mean bare patch size and are potential indicators of Great Basin rangeland condition. Plant community composition and the range of bare patch sizes were different at sites in the three locations in Idaho, Oregon and Utah. Therefore, expected indicator values are location specific and should not be extrapolated to other locations. The condition of study sites were often ranked differently by different indicators. Therefore, the condition of rangeland sites should be evaluated using several indicators.     

法国阿尔卑斯— 罗讷(Rhone-Alps)岩溶洞穴弱光带苔藓植物群落研究

报道了法国阿尔卑斯-罗讷( Rhone-Alps )地区3个岩溶洞穴苔藓植物群落研究结果。记载典型洞穴苔藓群落11个,苔藓植物种类8科12属15种(含变种); 区系地理成分含北温带分布(46. 66%)、温带欧洲分布(6. 67% )、欧洲-亚洲分布(6. 67%)、欧洲-北美分布(13. 33%)和世界广泛分布(26. 67%) 5种成分; 生活型含高丛集型(20%)、矮丛集型(33. 33%)、交织型(40%)和平铺型(6. 67%) 4种类型。根据岩溶沉积环境特征,划分洞穴苔藓群落为钟乳石苔藓群落、洞壁钙华苔藓群落、洞底泉华苔藓群落和石灰土苔藓群落等4种生态类型。      

The Community Economic Impacts of Large Wildfires: A Case Study from Trinity County,California

Wildfires are increasing in severity and frequency in the American West, but there is limited understanding of their economic effects at the community level. We conducted a case study of the impacts of large wildfires in 2008 in Trinity County, California, by examining labor market, suppression spending, and qualitative interview data. We found that the 2008 fires had interrelated effects on several economic sectors in the county. Labor market data indicated a decrease in total private-sector employment and wages and an increase in public-sector employment and wages during the summer of 2008 compared to the previous year, while interviews captured more nuanced impacts for individual businesses.     

基于GIS的城市空间格局要素研究与表达

城市的空间格局与社会生活各个方面息息相关,若利用GIS卓越的技术能力,探索城市空间格局的结构性特征、要素关联,挖掘其中的空间关系或其他有意义的结构模式,将为城市经济发展、资源分配、交通规划等社会问题提供知识支撑。此外若将城市空间格局与GIS空间分析相融合,将有助于架起图形与文本之间的桥梁与纽带,提升GIS空间数据挖掘水平。本文总结了城市空间格局的要素体系,并利用RCC8模型和区间代数使之与GIS中的空间关系建立对应关联,实现了由城市规划文本生成城市空间格局意向图。丰富了城市空间格局的规律性、本质性知识,弥补了多种空间关系集成研究的不足,为图形和文本的关联性知识挖掘奠定了基础。     

The occurrence and depth penetration of macroalgae along environmental gradients in the northern Baltic Sea

Eutrophication is known to affect the community structure of macroalgae by e.g. decreasing the depth penetration of species and by shifting dominance from perennial to annual species. However, there is substantial lack of knowledge in the Baltic Sea regarding the distribution of many of the macroalgal species, how natural environmental factors affect their occurrence and how they respond to eutrophication. As macroalgae are used as indicators of the quality of the sea areas in the EU legislation (Water Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive), this kind of knowledge is essential. The aim of this study was to determine which variables were related to variation in species occurrence and their lower limit of occurrence in the Finnish marine area. The study was carried out on data from five study areas along the Finnish coastline and included about 30 taxa. Our results showed that both the macroalgal communities and the occurrence (presence/absence) of most of the species differed between the study areas and that the differences were mainly related to salinity and exposure, although also eutrophication related factors played a role. Of the perennial species, eutrophied conditions seemed to favour only the occurrence of Sphacelaria arctica and Polysiphonia fucoides. Secchi depth was important in determining the lower limit of occurrence of brown and red algal species. However, Secchi depth was rarely the only factor causing variation in the lower limit of occurrence as also exposure, salinity and slope of the shore affected it. We conclude that in the northern Baltic Sea, the taxonomic composition of the macroalgal communities is not a very useful indicator of eutrophication as perennial species seem to tolerate rather eutrophied conditions, when suitable substrate is available. The lower limit of occurrence of many of the brown and red algal species is a good indicator of eutrophication but due to lack of suitable substrate in more eutrophied areas, especially in the depths where light becomes limiting, it is only applicable in the middle and outer archipelago areas. Furthermore, when planning monitoring programmes or setting thresholds for evaluating the ecological status of the sea, the natural variation in the lower limit of occurrence of macroalgae across sea areas is problematic and should carefully be taken into account.     

中国城市新移民的“乡缘社区”：特征、机制与空间性——以广州“湖北村”为例

运用质性研究方法,以广州＂湖北村＂为例,对中国快速城市化下＂乡缘社区＂的演进过程、特征、形成机制与空间性进行研究。研究表明：＂湖北村＂总体上呈现产业结构专业化、族群构成同质化和阶层构成异质化等三方面特征;基于嵌入族群关系的生产网络和雇工网络,产生了具有湖北地域特色的亚文化区。＂湖北村＂已经成为湖北移民经济资本循环的核心...