THE NEW INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOR AND DEBT CRISIS IN THE THIRD WORLD

The advanced capitalist ccuntries are undergoing an industrial devolution as remarkable as the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. The removal of high-paying jobs through automation and geographical migration destroys the main market of the center and precipitates debt crises in newly industrialized countries of the periphery which have followed export-oriented growth policies. This results in a new, internationalized form of the crises of iate capitalism and provides a new institutional foucs for crisis in the international banks. The paper examines this global process from the perspective of the geography of class struggle.     

The Mobile Street Food Service Practice in the Urban Economy of Kumba, Cameroon

The mobile food service practice is one of multiple survival strategies adopted by poor urban households in Cameroon to maintain and expand the base of subsistence incomes, especially in the current surge of economic crisis. Though a fast-growing informal sector enterprise, it is still at an artisanal stage in urban Cameroon, creating an urgent need for a supportive policy environment that could have measurable positive impacts on improving the productivity, welfare and income levels of the micro-entrepreneurs. This study looks at the mobile food service practice in Kumba, Cameroon, in terms of its basic characteristics, the locational factors influencing its socio-spatial distribution, the critical success factors (CSFs) determining customer choices, and its impacts on the local environmental resources and quality of urban life. The mobile food service practice creates employment, generates income, and acts as a food energy-support instrument to the urban poor and local economic activities operating in Kumba. The vendors, who are mostly women, can make incomes that are 405 per cent of the national minimum wage and, thus, contribute financially towards the education, health and survival of their families. The paper provides some recommendations on ways to improve the efficiency of this sector so as to achieve sustainable economic and social development and to enhance empowerment thereof.     

Employment mobility in high-technology agglomerations: the cases of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire

This paper examines labour market behaviour of the highly skilled in high-tech local economies, taking the UK examples of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire as case studies. It reports on data from a survey of members of three scientific institutes to compare rates of employee mobility in the two locations and considers the likely explanations and implications of those patterns.     

GDP and employment effects of policies to close the 2020 emissions gap

Four policies might close the gap between the global GHG emissions expected for 2020 on the basis of current (2013) policies and the reduced emissions that will be needed if the long-term global temperature increase can be kept below the 2 °C internationally agreed limit. The four policies are (1) specific energy efficiency measures, (2) closure of the least-efficient coal-fired power plants, (3) minimizing methane emissions from upstream oil and gas production, and (4) accelerating the (partial) phase-out of subsidies to fossil-fuel consumption. In this article we test the hypothesis of the International Energy Agency (IEA) that these policies will not result in a loss of gross domestic product (GDP) and we estimate their employment effects using the E3MG global macro-econometric model. Using a set of scenarios we assess each policy individually and then consider the outcomes if all four policies were implemented simultaneously. We find that the policies are insufficient to close the emissions gap, with an overall emission reduction that is 30% less than that found by the IEA. World GDP is 0.5% higher in 2020, with about 6 million net jobs created by 2020 and unemployment reduced.

Policy relevance

The gap between GHG emissions expected under the Copenhagen and Cancun Agreements and that needed for emissions trajectories to have a reasonable chance of reaching the 2 °C target requires additional policies if it is to be closed. This article uses a global simulation model E3MG to analyse a set of policies proposed by the IEA to close the gap and assesses their macroeconomic effects as well as their feasibility in closing the gap. It complements the IEA assessment by estimating the GDP and employment implications separately by the different policies year by year to 2020, by major industries, and by 21 world regions.     

上海中心城就业中心体系测度————基于手机信令数据的研究

利用手机信令数据识别上海市域内手机用户的工作地和居住地,获取就业者的通勤数据,测度上海中心城的就业中心体系.首先用就业者工作地数据生成就业密度分布图,基于中心城的就业密度识别就业中心.随后,用就业者工作地和居住地数据分别从就业密度和通勤联系两方面测度各中心的能级,分析各中心的腹地和势力范围.研究发现:① 上海中心城的就业中心呈主中心强大的弱多中心体系;② 就业密度越高的中心与其他地区的通勤联系一般也越强,但通勤联系在各中心间的差异更显著;③ 能级越高的中心腹地面积越大,但势力范围不一定越大;④ 相比于能级,职住功能混合度对职住平衡的影响更大;⑤缺少就业中心的地区势力范围呈交替状.本研究一定程度上能有助于解决既往就业中心体系研究因空间单元较大,缺少通勤数据在中心识别,通勤联系测度等方面受到的局限,希望能为构建上海中心城就业多中心体系提供帮助.     

Environmental change and the informal plastic recycling networks of Kolkata

This article introduces plastic recycling networks in Kolkata, India, as a case to illustrate the contradictory entanglement of economic and environmental change in urban informal contexts of the Global South. In light of the prevailing environmental critique of informal plastic recycling in India, this article discusses plastic recyclers’ environmental impact and contribution as well as the potential to enhance the environmental and economic performance of their business. Network and chain approaches in the emerging field of Environmental Economic Geography are combined with the notion of social metabolism to conceptualize the entanglement of environmental and economic processes as well as socio-environmental inequalities entailed in recycling networks. The analysis reveals the impact that the heterogeneity and fluctuation of plastic waste supply has on the economic organization of recycling networks, giving rise to distinct forms of governance in its intermediate and down-stream segments. Such an integrated perspective also serves to explain why environmental upgrading is hard to achieve under prevailing circumstances by plastic recyclers in Kolkata. Based on an assessment of the social and political conditions of informality under which plastic recyclers operate, the adoption of common assumptions about ecological modernization imbuing parts of Environmental Economic Geography is called into question.     

农户的非农就业如何影响中国的土地流转?

To clarify the impact of non-agricultural employment on rural land circulation in China,we built logit models using the Chinese Household Income Project 2013 dataset,which includes 18,948 household samples over 15 provinces,126 cities and 234 counties of China in 2013.We use the proportion of non-agricultural income,the proportion of non-agricultural laborers and non-agricultural fixed operating assets to reflect the degree of the households’dependence on agriculture,the degree of the households’laborers committed to non-agricultural employment and the stability of non-agricultural employment,respectively.The results show that the stability of non-agricultural employment is an important reason for farmers to transfer out their land,and an increase in non-agricultural income is the fundamental reason.The proportion of non-agricultural assets has the greatest impact on the decision to transfer land,followed by the proportion of non-agricultural income.Per unit increase in the non-agricultural income ratio has a stronger effect on the transfer-out decision than it does on the transfer-in decision,which is a 0.09 increase of the probability of transfer-out the land and a 0.07 decrease of the probability of transfer-in the land.In terms of regional differences,when considering the impact of non-agricultural employment on the land transfer-out decision,the impacts of non-agricultural income and labor force are the greatest in the Central region.The impact of non-agricultural assets is the greatest in the Eastern region.For the Eastern region,the decision to transfer out land is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets and the non-agricultural labor force,and the decision to transfer in land is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets.In the Central and Western regions,the decision to transfer out land is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets,non-agricultural income and the non-agricultural labor force,in that order.The decision to transfer in land in the Central region is not significantly affected by non-agricultural employment.The decision to transfer in land in the Western region is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets,non-agricultural labor force and non-agricultural income,in that order.We note that non-agricultural assets have a prominent impact on land transfer,which shows that the stability of non-agricultural employment has an important impact on land transfer decision-making.Vocational training for rural labor forces may be an effective means to promote stable non-agricultural employment and simultaneously facilitate rural land circulation,especially in Central and Western China.     

大马士革非正式聚落的讨论(英文)

Toadies cities are accumulating the global population in their territories,occurring formally and informally.The in-crease of urban informality is the most significant trend shaping the 21st century world.Furthermore,the urban informality theory should be considered in urbanization courses and development studies.With the rapid economic market development,changes mapped the major Syrian cities.Damascus is in the midst of a profound transformation of architectural and planning changes.Damascus urbanization i...     

江汉平原农地城市流转与经济发展阶段的耦合关系

分析江汉平原2000—2004年农地城市流转时空特征,根据农地城市流转的综合变动系数,将江汉平原农地城市流转类型划分为剧变型、缓变型、相对稳定型和稳定型,并研究农地城市流转类型与经济发展阶段的关系,结果表明:在不同的经济发展阶段,农地城市流转类型也不同;在相同的经济发展阶段,如果产业结构和就业结构不同,农地城市流转类型也不同;各市、县的产业非农化、就业非农化及农地城市流转耦合系数与农地城市流转综合变动系数具有较高的一致性,这对判断农地城市流转类型具有参考作用。     

川西地区劳动就业研究

以川西作为研究区域,对农村劳动力转移或非农就业从自然—人文相结合的观点进行了探讨。