Withered Geography

This commentary is a response to an article by Jay R. Harman in the November 2003 issue of The Professional Geographer. I argue that Harman's claim that scholarly disciplines offer social “returns” in a competitive “market” obscures the fundamentally political nature of how social resources are allocated and how social needs are defined. Harman would have us subordinate scholarly research to agendas set elsewhere, by politicians and other powerful interests, but I argue that such a vision would turn geographers into mere technicians. A healthier role for the discipline is for geographers to seek ways of asserting intellectual leadership and of shaping social agendas along more humane and socially just lines.     

Traces of the secondary Geography curriculum

Abstract: Expressions of dissatisfaction about the post‐compulsory Geography curriculum in the early 1970s were unusually concerted, leading to the creation of a National Geography Curriculum Committee. This essay reviews this history and the resulting Syllabus for Schools: Geography Forms 5–7 as a prelude to a discussion of contemporary curriculum development. The essay argues that curriculum development from 1975 and the ‘education reforms’ of the late 1980s failed to produce conditions in which satisfactory outcomes for a Geography curriculum can be assured in 2005, and that a new and concerted period of participation in curriculum discussion is required. Some goals for this process are outlined in the final section of the paper.     

关于地震预报决策程序问题的讨论

地震预报决策是大家所关心的问题。地震预报决策正确与否,关系到能否达到减灾目的。科学的地震预报决策程序是实现正确的地震预报决策的保证。本文就地震预报决策中有关决策目标的确定,地震预测,震害预测,地震对策,预报决策备择方案的制定及评估,决策方案的选择及实施等问题进行了讨论。     

邓小平语言中的礼貌现象

《邓小平文选》是领导者语言的范例,存在大量的礼貌现象,体现着礼貌的思想。它们的运用可以给交际对方留面子,从而使交际活动更好地进行下去。以Brown和Levinson的面子保全论为理论基础,运用Leech的礼貌原则及六个次准则分析了《邓小平文选》领导语言中的各种礼貌的语言现象,其实现途径以及它的内在语用机制。这说明礼貌理论对文本交际活动也具有很强的阐释力。     

领导团体腐败和作弊的社会经济影响：数量特征与客观评价

20世纪90年代以来,我国因领导团体作弊型腐败造成的经济和消费者福利损失迅速增加,其根本原因是行政权力对经济与市场的管制和干预,租金的来源主要是由政府控制引起的“公共区域”。学者们对我国租金价值计算表明,我国租金的绝对量有扩大的趋势,租金结构也发生了相应的变化。随着国家对经济活动管制的减少,租金的比例有降低的趋势。领导团体作弊型腐败不但扭曲了政府决策的合理性,并产生了严重的负外部性,且可能导致政府管理的失败,降低资源配置的效率和阻滞了国家的经济增长,最终影响到社会的稳定。官员腐败和作弊产生于制度的漏洞或不完善。制约与解决的有效手段是寻找能够适应生产力发展要求的新的制度安排。     

The economics of leadership in climate change mitigation

Which kind of reaction can a nation or group of nations expect when leading by example in climate policy? This synthesis article describes possible positive reaction mechanisms from different fields of economics, some of which have scarcely been linked to climate economics previously. One effect may be behavioural, a reaction motivated by fairness, reciprocity, or norms. Second, other nations may interpret the leader's action as a signal on his preference or the value of the objective and adjust their own policy based on the new information. Third, the leader may provide a service to other nations, which decreases their costs and risks. The followers could benefit by learning successful policies, adopting technologies, and obtaining information on the cost of environmental policy. All of these mechanisms have in common that the leader sets an example with the intention of motivating others to contribute to the public good.

Policy relevance

A large body of both theoretical and empirical evidence shows that leading by example in climate change mitigation by a small group of nations has important potential for motivating other nations to follow. Modern economics has identified a range of mechanisms to explain why simple free-riding is unlikely to dominate the reaction to leadership. One such mechanism is described by behavioural economics. Humans often behave as conditional cooperators, meaning that they are willing to do their bit once a leader has done his. A second mechanism is the transmission of a credible signal that the leader considers climate change mitigation to be important. Finally, the leader gains knowledge, which spills over to other countries and thus moves their cost–benefit ratio in favour of mitigation. This evidence implies that leadership provides a promising alternative to stimulate the global cooperation that will eventually be needed to stabilize the climate.     

邓小平语言中的礼貌现象

《邓小平文选》是领导者语言的范例，存在大量的礼貌现象．体现着礼貌的思想。它们的运用可以给交际对方留面子，从而使交际活动更好地进行下去。以Brown和Levinson的面子保全论为理论基础，运用Leeoh的礼貌原则及六个次准则分析了《邓小平文选》领导语言中的各种礼貌的语言现象，其实现途径以及它的内在语用机制。这说明礼貌理论对文本交际活动也具有很强的阐释力。     

Does leadership promote cooperation in climate change mitigation policy?

In the run-up to the Copenhagen negotiations, commentators, politicians and the public had great expectations of some state taking the lead towards a new global climate deal. Is there something in such a call for leadership? In two steps, this article provides an empirically informed answer to that question. The first part develops a theoretical account of the relation between leadership and cooperation in international climate change mitigation policy (ICCMP). Starting from a five-dimensional leadership account and a simple game-theoretical analysis of the impediments to cooperation, it is predicted that (1) increased leadership facilitates cooperation in ICCMP and (2) different leadership modes contribute to cooperation in varying degrees. The second part tests these hypotheses: a new leadership index measures the extent to which the EU exhibited leadership at the negotiations of the Conference of the Parties (COP) between 1995 and 2008. This positively correlates with the level of cooperation arrived at. The result also holds for four out of five leadership modes.     

Women participation in formal decision-making: Empirical evidence from participatory forest management in Ethiopia

Amid growing emphasis on community-based approaches to natural resource management, there are concerns about the lack of women participation in communal decision-making. We analyze the association between participation of women in decision-making of forest user groups in Ethiopia and several forest management outcomes. We combine longitudinal survey, administrative and forest inventory data and find that participation of women in executive committees (i.e., formal decision-making) is associated with greater forest benefits, and an improved (perceived and actual) condition of the forest. Alternatively, the association between women participation in group-level meetings and outcomes is not robust. This implies that women participation in formal decision-making is required to reach forest conservation and livelihood gains.     

Which states will lead a just transition for the Arctic? A DeePeR analysis of global data on Arctic states and formal observer states

A fair and equitable low carbon future depends on a just transition which, in turn, requires leadership. Where the Arctic is concerned, this leadership is currently lacking. To gauge which states are most likely to provide leadership in the global energy transition, a quantitative rank-percentile assessment of 21 Arctic Council members and Observer states was conducted, using measures relevant to the just transition. Data from multiple open-access sources were combined, creating a model to ‘evaluate energy and equity aspects of Distributional, Procedural and Restorative’ justice (DeePeR). Results suggest normative leadership on a just transition for the Arctic comprises international climate contributions in line with carbon emission records and a commitment to both fair and green jobs. Reflections are made on the positive and negative effects of a more involved EU for the just transition agenda in the Arctic.