War and the commons: Assessing the changing politics of violence, access and entitlements in Sri Lanka

There are two antagonistic, but equally influential traditions in the study of the nexus between resource use and violent conflict. One works through a Malthusian frame linking resource scarcity with violence, the other school of thought establishes a nexus between resource abundance and the incentives to use violence for rent monopolisation in a political economy of war or markets of violence. The tacit essentialism inherent in both schools of thought has increasingly come under critical scrutiny by geographers and anthropologists. To escape such essentialism requires a more detailed study of the dynamism of the political economy of (civil) war and its spatial dynamics, the political geographies of violence. In this paper, we study endowments and entitlements of people depending on common-pool or open-access resources in war-affected areas of Sri Lanka. Rural spaces in the war-affected areas became both a strategic retreat for fighters and an important common-pool resource on which a large part of the rural populace depended for their survival. Our research illustrates how the political geographies of war affect access regimes and entitlements to common-pool resources and thereby confine the livelihood opportunities of resource users. These dynamics of the political economy of war cross different scales and go beyond simple place-based struggles, for they are rooted in broader spatial dynamics of warfare creating place-space tensions in the sense that spatial dynamics of military control impinge changing access regimes upon specific places.     

Mapping memorials for Edith Cavell on the colonial edge

Abstract:  This paper identifies and explains the pattern of memorialization in New Zealand for English nurse Edith Cavell, arguing that while the influences of empire and colonial mimicry provided a strong overarching framework, local context and parochial expressions were also strong at the colonial edge. In 1915 Cavell was executed by the occupying German forces in Belgium for her resistance work. The general transnational pattern of remembrance that resulted from the huge reaction to her death is explained. The paper then turns to the New Zealand memorialization of Cavell. With reference to monuments for other medical women, and addressing where Cavell does not appear in the landscape, the last section contextualizes Cavell's New Zealand memorialization.     

Gender and voluntary work in late adulthood in rural communities in the Netherlands

This article discusses the involvement of older women and men in voluntary work in rural communities in the Netherlands. Gender, ageing and civil society form the core concepts in the article. Politicians and policy makers in the Netherlands are worried about the perceived decline of civil society and about the consequences of this decline for specific categories of older women in terms of well-being and social exclusion. The paper presents the results of two surveys of involvement of older women and men in civic organisations, voluntary work and local actions. The surveys indicate high levels of involvement of both women and men. No gender differences are found in activity level. However, the data demonstrate the gendered nature of civil society. Women are more engaged in informal voluntary work and informal local actions, while men are more active in formal organisations and functions. This gender segmentation is not absolute, however. Many older women and men transgress the traditional feminine–masculine boundaries. The surveys highlight the involvement of women and men in rural communities, but indicate lower activity levels in urban areas.     

THE U.S. MILITARY AS GEOGRAPHICAL AGENT: THE CASE OF COLD WAR ALASKA*

ABSTRACT. Alaska was strategically key to the U.S. defense plan during the cold war (1946–1989). As such, it was the scene of an enormous and sustained military investment, the effect of which was amplified by Alaska's undiversified economy, sparse development, small resident population, and marginalized political status at the beginning of the era. The strong military presence affected Alaskan demographics, economic development, and infrastructure and figured prominently in the admission of Alaska to the union in 1959. The high profile and long‐term presence of the U.S. military had such a dramatic affect on the course of Alaska that the result was tantamount to a “militarized landscape.”     

兵棋地图概念模型研究

兵棋地图是对战场环境各要素及其对作战行动影响规律的客观描述,构建兵棋地图概念模型能够促使军事人员和技术人员建立对同一问题的统一认知。首先,分析了军事概念模型的基本概念及其形式化描述方法;其次,提出了战场环境仿真概念模型,据此构建了兵棋地图概念模型,并对概念模型中的两类元素和三种交互关系进行了讨论;最后,利用UML对兵棋地图概念模型进行了形式化描述。     

基于模板的六角格兵棋地图可视化设计研究

兵棋地图是兵棋的重要组成部分,是战场环境信息的载体,是兵棋推演者认知战场环境的工具。在介绍兵棋地图概念和作用的基础上,阐明兵棋地图可视化设计的重要性,总结目前兵棋地图可视化设计存在的问题和不足。以提高兵棋地图可视化设计效率和改进其可视化表达效果为目的,将地图模板技术运用到兵棋地图可视化设计中,分析兵棋地图可视化模板设计的影响因素,构建兵棋地图可视化模板库,并对其实现机制进行研究,最后给出应用实例,证明效果良好。     

军事地理学在未来战争中的发展问题

论述了未来战争的基本特征 ;以此为出发点 ,研究了军事地理学在未来战争中的地位、作用 ,概括出军事地理的发展特点     

Analyzing empowerment: An ongoing process of building state-civil society relations - The case of Walnut Way in Milwaukee

Arguments regarding citizen involvement and empowerment within neoliberal urban politics are ample in geographic literature. Existing discussions often define and evaluate empowerment as either some social, political, or economic end-product of a specific event. Such singular conceptualization is problematic. First, different kinds of social, political, and economic changes can simultaneously empower/disempower communities in contradictory ways. In addition, the view of empowerment as an end-product of a present event obscures a more nuanced understanding of empowerment as an ongoing process of state-civil society relation-building. An in-depth assessment of such a process is only possible with reference to the past and the potential future occurrences. Elwood’s (2002) multi-dimensional conceptualization of empowerment recognizes the limitations of a singular definition of empowerment. However, it falls short of operationalizing empowerment as a temporal process with a historically and geographically contingent past, dynamic present, and future in the making. Therefore, in this paper I expand on Elwood’s framework to show how a process-based view as opposed to a narrow end-product-based or event-based one can provide a deeper understanding of state-civil society interaction and community empowerment. This paper analyzes the interaction between the City of Milwaukee, the residents of a predominantly black inner-city neighborhood, the Walnut Way, and their community organization, the Walnut Way Conservation Corp. within a land-use dispute related to the development of a park space into a housing project. Using data collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews, archival research, and participant observation, this paper emphasizes that despite methodological limitations of collecting long-term data, community empowerment can and should be studied as a process with reference to the past, present, and potential future state-civil society interactions.     

江苏民营矿业发展探讨

通过对江苏民营矿业基本情况的调查研究,分析了民营矿业对促进地方经济发展的作用、资源开发利用总体情况,总结了民营矿业发展和管理中的基本问题,提出了促进其发展的措施与建议。对于把握江苏民营矿业发展现状、经济形势、存在的问题,以及加强对江苏民营矿业发展引导和监督管理,具有一定的指导意义。     

典权在农村土地经营权流转中的扬弃——民法典编撰过程中“典权要入典”

引导农村土地经营权有序流转、发展农业适度规模经营是当前我国土地工作之重心.而实现所有权、承包权、经营权三权分置,自需研究和探索集体所有权、农户承包权、土地经营权在土地流转中的相互权利关系,特别是其具体实现形式.传统典权制度作为一种切实可行的制度构建模式,其既能够解决公有制条件下私权主体进入土地市场的难题,又能够赋予农民在农村土地集体所有权基础上更好获得土地经营权流转收益的权利.考虑到典权制度在农村土地流转、城镇保障住房建设等问题上的独特作用,未来我国在编撰民法典的时候,自应将作为本土法律资源的传统典权正式纳入我国的物权法律规范的体系之中.