Nationalism, Populism, Dependency: Southeast Asia and Responses to the Asian Crisis

Opposition to neoliberal globalisation has been especially intense since the Asian crisis. This paper assesses three responses to the crisis: a broad localist reaction in Thailand, and the approaches adopted by two major Asian-based organisations, the Third World Network (TWN) and the Focus on the Global South. The discussion of these approaches focuses on the issues of nationalism and populism; dependency; industrialisation and the state; and liberalisation, international institutions, and local society. Their critiques range from the conservative populism of the localists, to reformism of TWN, and to the more radical "deglobalisation" approach of the Focus group. However, none have been able to free themselves of the influence of dependency models. Their populism and "progressive nationalism" prevents an accurate location of the causes of exploitation in capitalist processes. This paper questions whether the national-global dichotomy of these approaches is an adequate way to conceptualise capitalist production and exploitation in the era of globalisation.     

Ecological conflicts in Poland

Transformation of the political system, observed in Poland for 10 years in connection with economic restructuring and basic socio-economic reforms to harmonise with European Union structures, is also evident in terms of environmental management. Pollution has been reduced in many ways but the rise in living standards, linked with the rapid growth of cars and other forms of consumption, has had a negative effect and environmental conditions have deteriorated in the central areas of large cities. The growth of waste water and refuse is a considerable problem. More areas are now officially protected and the three levels of local government established at the beginning of January 1999 (voivodeship, district and community) all have certain defined environmental protection responsibilities which are cumulatively greater than before. Meanwhile there is a greater awareness in society of environmental issues, although it does not yet lead to a high level of participation in protection work. However, there are strongly-expressed opinions on the ecological acceptability of certain economic developments and conflicts are frequently arising within communities and local governments and also between investors on the one side and ecological organisations and environmental protection institutions on the other. Most controversial are new roads, power stations (like the Zarnowiec nuclear project) and reservoirs like the one on the Dunajec river at Czorsztyn. Local communities frequently resist plans for waste dumps, incinerating plants and other developments which are seen as injurious to health or the quality of life. The planned reprivatisation of the state-owned forests is also criticised by foresters and ecological movements. Conflicts are likely to grow as economic development accelerates but better information and greater public understanding of the need for sustainability should make for consensus. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

浅谈防震减灾管理中非政府组织的作用

地震灾害是自然灾害引起的危机事件,防震减灾管理是一项社会系统工程。NGO在社会管理和服务中发挥着重要的参与作用。在防震减灾管理中,NGO的作用体现在地震灾害管理的各个阶段。同时,NGO在参与地震灾害管理的行动中要与政府部门协调一致,并且要重视日常管理中的自身制度建设。     

论工业变化的综合研究：以澳大利亚制造业为例

80年代以来,国际工业地理学界采取不同的方法途径对工业变化进行研究。本文在分析这些方法的基础上,提出将工业组织变化与工业区域变化、工业结构变化加以结合,以弥补在工业区域和结构变化研究中忽视组织决策因素,在工业组织变化研究中忽视把区域作为一个整体。基于大量统计数据和本人实地调查资料,本文应用这种综合方法研究了70年代以来澳大利亚的工业变化。     

Blending Aggregation and Selection: Adapting Parallel Coordinates for the Visualization of Large Datasets

Abstract

Many of the traditional data visualization techniques, which proved to be supportive for exploratory analysis of datasets of moderate sizes, fail to fulfil their function when applied to large datasets. There are two approaches to coping with large amounts of data: data selection, when only a portion of data is displayed, and data aggregation, i.e. grouping data items and considering the groups instead of the original data. None of these approaches alone suits the needs of exploratory data analysis, which requires consideration of data on all levels: overall (considering a dataset as a whole), intermediate (viewing and comparing collective characteristics of arbitrary data subsets, or classes), and elementary (accessing individual data items). Therefore, it is necessary to combine these approaches, i.e. build a tool showing the whole set and arbitrarily defined subsets (object classes) in an aggregated way and superimposing this with a representation of arbitrarily selected individual data items.

We have achieved such a combination of approaches by modifying the technique of parallel coordinate plot. These modifications are described and analysed in the paper.     

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.     

Combining geophysical methods to estimate the spatial distribution of soils affected by water saturation

Geophysical methods have already shown their interest for the continuous characterisation of soils over landscapes, rapidly and, non-intrusively. But in bottomland areas, difficulties are encountered in relating geophysical properties to soil spatial distribution due to large variations in the depth, texture and/or water content of soils. Indeed, respective variations of these parameters can result in ambiguous geophysical responses. For example, a decrease in soil water content, which causes an increase in electrical resistivity, may be offset by an increase in soil clay content, inducing a decrease in resistivity. The objective of this study was to improve the continuous characterisation of soils affected by an excess of water by using a combination of geophysical techniques. Three techniques, the radio-magnetotelluric (RMT), the ground penetrating radar (GPR) and the electrostatic quadrupole (ESQP) were implemented along eight representative transects where soils were extensively described. The soil cover shows a succession from downslope to upslope consisting in fibric Fluvisols, gleyic Fluvisols, and Albefluvisols. None of the geophysical methods allows us to distinguish all soil limits and to estimate the geometry of soil horizons. The ESQP discriminates Fluvisols from Albefluvisols, whereas the RMT above all reveals differences in soil material thickness, which do not permit to discriminate between these soils. In complement, the GPR allows the estimation of the geometry of organic horizons and anthropic structures, such as ditches. Finally, the combination of these three techniques allows us to assess the main features of soil spatial distribution in bottomlands. To cite this article: V. Chaplot et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).     

REFLECTIONS ON INDIGENOUS WOMEN'S ORGANISATIONS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN BRONG AHAFO REGION, GHANA

This paper explores the activities and problems of indigenous women's organisations in Ghana. The survey data that form the basis of the analysis were collected in 1998 from a sample of 66 women's organisations in the districts of Atebubu and Techiman of Brong Ahafo Region in Ghana. The results suggest that despite the debilitating impacts of patriarchy, poverty and illiteracy, the women in both districts have managed to use their grassroots organisations to improve the socioeconomic circumstances of their members in particular and their communities in general. Given the dearth of theoretical and empirical analyses on grassroots mobilisation of women in sub‐Saharan Africa, the results presented here are intended to stimulate further research and discussion on the subject.     

Anchored locally – Linked globally. Transnational social movement organizations in a (seemingly) borderless world*

Dial locally -act globally: this slogan seems to appropriately reflect, under prevailing conditions of globalization and disembeddedness, the seemingly unrestrained possibilities of a variety of actors to influence events - without being present - anywhere on the planet. While focusing on a broadly conceived group of transnational social movement organizations - from non-governmental organizations to loosely linked transnational advocacy networks - the aim of this paper is to give evidence of the fact that geography - and all manner of borders - still matters even for these actors. Despite being linked with the world, they continue to act from deeply embedded local contexts, very often not triggering true transnational interaction but much more limited translocal encounters. In doing so, however, they literally cause collisions between different worlds while not only modifying existing but also constructing new spaces.September 1984 – first week of my field-work on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, eastern Canada. A teacher at the local high school had agreed to make the first contacts with environmental groups, who were opposed to the use of pesticides by a Swedish forest products company. In return, he asked me to give two geography lessons on Germany to his class.After the lessons the 15-year-old pupils asked questions. One of the first of these was what I did with my family on a free weekend. Without long consideration, I answered: ``We often go for a walk in the forest with our children'. The pupils doubled up laughing in response, and the geography teacher was obviously also amused.A few days later I understood the reason for this reaction, when I saw typical forest land in Nova Scotia for the first time. Forests of an age which in Germany would be airy timber forests, which could be walked through even away from paths, were here largely inpenetrable thickets with numerous trunks per square meter not much thicker than an arm. Nobody could `go for a walk' here...This episode serves as a background to the issues that will be discussed, and I will return to it in my conclusion. It supports a central aspect, which is often neglected in many discussions about globalization: geography matters.     

Accounting for carbon dioxide emissions from international shipping: Burden sharing under different UNFCCC allocation options and regime scenarios

CO₂ emissions from international shipping, which are currently unregulated, are predicted to rise dramatically if no regulations are implemented. International bunker fuel emissions have been excluded from the Kyoto Protocol; the UNFCCC conference in Copenhagen also failed to bring about clear directions on how to proceed with these emissions.