Managing the hinterland beyond: Two ideal‐type strategies of economic development for small island territories

Abstract: Rarely does one come across critical analysis which looks at islands as the strategic and candid promoters of a role as political and economic usufructuaries over external resources. This paper is premised on the proposition that a small territory is especially obliged to use extra‐territorial resources as its hinterland for economic success. Such resources extend over a whole range of goods and services and include access to investment, welfare, security, stable currency, international relations, specialised labour power, transfers, markets and higher education. The MIRAB syndrome is one way of articulating this condition. This paper proposes a second cluster of features that are, or can be, deployed by small territories in a manner somewhat different from MIRAB; this second cluster has a more proactive policy orientation and a disposition towards carving out procedural and jurisdictional powers. It is thus proposed to consider a small territory's engagement with the external hinterland as a position on a sliding scale, a strategic mix of options located between two distinct development trajectories, of which MIRAB is one and the PROFIT model the other.     

An economic analysis of urban infrastructure development project in the northern Indian city of Bharatpur

Rajasthan Urban Sector Development Program involved investment in water supply, sewerage, sanitation, and drainage, solid waste management (SWM), and etc. in major cities in the state of Rajasthan in India. This program was an initiative of the Government of Rajasthan and the Government of India carried out with a loan arrangement from Asian Development Bank. The phase II of the program was implemented in 15 cities of Rajasthan including Bharatpur with total investment of 1868.40 million Indian Rupees. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the economic viability of the infrastructure investments in Bharatpur in water supply, sewerage, sanitation, and drainage, SWM, and measure the impact on urban poor. Water supply, sewerage, sanitation, and drainage, and SWM subprojects are economically viable with internal rate of return (IRR) of 85.72%, 22.87%, and 39.34%, respectively. The sensitivity analysis shows above 12% IRR for all the above‐mentioned subprojects. The distribution of project benefits to the urban poor in Bharatpur is significant with poverty impact ratio of 9%.     

延安市大豆生产现状及发展对策研究

通过对延安市2007-2009年大豆产业情况调研,全面分析了生产过程中存在问题及技术需求,提出了大豆产业发展的思路与对策。     

Surfers of the ocean waves: Change management,intersectoral migration and the economic development of small island states

This paper argues that there is a need to better acknowledge and problematise the manner in which individuals, households, organisations and governments in small island jurisdictions develop mechanisms that allow them to exploit the benefits, and/or minimise the losses, of episodic economic lurches. A ‘strategic flexibility’ approach is proposed to explain how actors practise intersectoral migration: cleverly shifting focus, interest and scope, not just out of necessity (reactively) but in ‘smelling’ promising opportunities (proactively). In a scenario where change is taken as a given, managing and coping with such change become the hallmarks of economic survival: just like surfers handling the ocean swell.     

City economic development,housing availability,and migrants' settlement intentions: Evidence from China

The slow growth of the permanently settled migrants in host cities poses new challenges for the sustainability of China's future urbanization. Given the growing importance of homeownership, this paper clarifies migrants' settlement intentions into three mutually exclusive patterns, including de facto permanent settlement intention through homeownership, long-term temporary settlement intention and short-term temporary settlement intention. Based on matched micro- and macro-level data, this paper examines the influence of city economic development and housing prices on these three patterns. The results suggest that economic development exhibits an attractive effect on migrants' settlement intentions for both earning money and for making a life while housing price weakens rural migrants' de facto permanent settlement intention. We also highlight the effect of the Housing Provident Fund (HPF), the most important housing financial policy in China, on settlement intention, and the results suggest that the HPF serves as an option to help migrants achieve permanent settlement through housing availability. The findings can explain the mixed results of previous research and provide policy references for sustainable urbanization in China.     

Power over,power to,power with: Shifting perceptions of power for local economic development in the Philippines

Power has long been recognised as crucial to the sustainability of community development interventions; however, the way in which space affects power relations within such interventions has remained relatively under‐theorised in the development literature. Many practitioners continue to regard power as located centrally and as embedded in particular institutions, networks, knowledge and resources. According to this logic, processes of empowerment involve the redistribution of these resources to marginalised groups through their participation in development interventions such as microfinance and sustainable livelihood initiatives. The danger inherent in such development approaches is that they can discourage the potential for participants to use their own agency by overemphasising an existing lack of resources locally and inadvertently feeding a sense of dependency on formal development interventions initiated by external agencies. This paper suggests that a post‐structural conceptualisation of power as dynamic, multiple and mediated at the local level offers a more productive starting point for thinking about approaches to empowerment. Drawing on data from an action research project designed to initiate community enterprises in a small rural municipality in the Philippines, I suggest how a post‐structural approach to power can be enacted by building on the existing local resources and practices of everyday life.     

Business networks,social capital and the economic performance of creative and cultural industries: The case of Indonesia

This study examines the ways in which networking characteristics and practices influence the economic performance of creative and cultural industries. The notion of social capital is used to conceptualise the complex nature of networks, including both professional and social relationships that occur on multiple levels. This qualitative study is set in the context of Indonesia, in which two cases are examined: creative apparel entrepreneurs in Bandung and batik producers in Surakarta. The results show that regional environments provide opportunities for creative industries to find specialist suppliers, to gather market information and, importantly, to find and cross‐fertilise new ideas. Although regions provide these opportunities, the firms’ internal social capital is crucial in being able to internalise and transform the knowledge from the environment into innovative values embodied in their products.     

Urban poverty alleviation strategies in Yogyakarta,Indonesia: Contrasting opportunities for community development

A multidimensional understanding of poverty includes the access of poor groups to decision‐making processes based on their needs and aspirations. However, the realisation of this ‘right to make decisions’ faces multiple obstacles. Over the last 20 years in Indonesia, in a context of a more democratic political environment and policy decentralisation, poverty alleviation policies have followed institutional arrangements to provide communities with opportunities for greater participation in development projects. Poverty data show a clear improvement in the living conditions of urban poor citizens in Indonesia; however, it is unclear whether poor communities have become stronger and more independent from public grants and better able to make their own decisions. This research analysed two urban poor communities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and found that some communities working on participatory poverty alleviation strategies still face obstacles to becoming more independent and making their own decisions because they remain part of an historical legacy of top‐down approaches to poverty, highly dependent on government support and working only within ‘invited spaces’. Conversely, those communities with more limited access to government funding have been more innovative in their strategies and have created ‘invented spaces’ for collective action that allows them to be more independent and empowered.     

Community Changes and Growth in Small Cities: Resident Perceptions of Growth in Brandon,Manitoba, Canada

While research on rural depopulation and urbanization to large cities has dominated the literature for decades, small city growth has been largely ignored. Yet, small cities are important to the regional systems in which they are located, including serving as centres to their rural surround. This paper is concerned about growth and change in small cities. Using Brandon, Manitoba as an example, citizen perceptions of a range of specific aspects of city growth are analyzed. The study is based on a household postal survey conducted in May and June 2010 in which 2,500 randomly selected households in Brandon, Manitoba received questionnaires. The results are based on the 518 useable, completed questionnaires that were returned. Differences in perceptions of the pace of change in a range of aspects of development were found based on income, age, educational attainment, employment status, and home ownership. No differences were found based on gender. The paper concludes with comments about how city governments need to be aware of citizen perceptions when pursuing and managing development. The paper also illustrated the importance of citizen perceptions in understanding the pace and direction of change in small cities.     

东营市种业发展现状、问题及对策

种子是农业的“芯片”,只有种业安全得到保障,粮食安全才能得到保障。当前东营市种子企业少、规模小,研发实力和加工能力较弱,种子供需结构性矛盾突出。为了加快推进东营市现代种业发展,启动种业创新体系改革,东营市组织力量对本市种业发展情况进行了专题调研,以分析东营市种业发展的现状,找出存在问题。从积极培育壮大种业企业、加快构建现代种业产业体系、加快推动现代种业创新产业园建设、积极构建政策支持体系、保护和利用种质资源5个方面提出了对策。     

The rural identity and the encroaching city: Governance,policy and development in Northern Virginia's Wine Country

In exurban areas, there are commonly issues and tensions associated with development and rural life. We assess how two counties located approximately one hour west of Washington, DC manage these tensions. Although both have enabled development, they have done so in different ways and neither has simply succumbed to exurban development as a given. Utilizing stakeholder interviews and document analysis, we note the different policy approaches that the two counties have taken and contrast them with the more common imagery of areas that fully acquiesce to suburban style development. Our findings suggest that tensions between the pressures of development and the persistent appeal of the rural identity occupy much time and attention in these two counties. Both counties have adopted observable policy changes driven by development pressures in recent years, underscoring a policy landscape that is in flux and the modern tension between the commercial economy of modernity, and the rural identity that is retained from the past. We observe that rural governance is largely about land, while urban governance is largely about people. As these two cases suggest, exurban governance has to be about both issues and this tension may lead to governance that is inherently unstable.     

Remoteness and rural development: economic impacts of rural roads on upland farmers in Sarawak,Malaysia

>Although Sarawak has a rapidly growing economy, the benefits of growth have been focused largely in the urban centres. However, the majority of the population lives in rural areas, where poverty, although on the decline, prevails. Attention is given to the role of rural roads in countering remoteness and, hence, promoting more equitable development. To assess the impact of rural roads, two roads were used for comparison. One provided Iban communities with access to Betong, a small district town. The other provided Bidayuh communities with access to Kuching, the capital city. This paper focuses on three economic impacts of roads – agricultural production, employment, and household income. Findings show that the impact of roads varied within an area (a function of remoteness) and between areas (also a function of remoteness). Impacts were considerably greater when roads provided communities with access to a major urban centre compared with a small town. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the government's strategy of rural development.     

加强管理 规范服务 促进周口种业新发展

周口市是河南省的农业大市．也是全省农作物种子生产大市和消费大市。为了确保农业生产用种安全,保护农民合法权益,我们在深入贯彻落实《种子法》及其配套法律、法规的基础上,解放思想,大胆创新．建立了市、县联动,上下一体化的种子管理体制,进一步加大了种子市场监管力度．规范了种子生产、经营行为。     

Borderland livelihood strategies: The socio‐economic significance of ethnicity in cross‐border labour migration,West Kalimantan,Indonesia

This paper explores cross‐border ethnic relations as an important socio‐economic strategy for the borderland Iban population in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Iban seeking more lucrative wage work have long used their ethnic identity to facilitate circular labour migration across the international border into Sarawak, Malaysia, a strategy which has also compromised their claims to Indonesian citizenship. Drawing on long‐term field research among the West Kalimantan Iban, we examine the close interconnections among cross‐border labour migration, ethnicity, identity, and citizenship, and how this plays into contemporary issues related to Indonesian political and economic change.     

基于叶大年院士城市对称理论的湘赣经济合作发展新模式的提出与探讨

从现阶段湖南和江西的实际情况出发,以叶大年院士城市对称理论为指导,研究了湘赣两省经济发展的共通性与互补性,提出两省经济合作深度发展尤其是城城合作的新模式。经分析,发现该模式能充分发挥地区优势,实现两省资源、信息、技术的优势互补,提高两省特色产业的竞争力,促进两省乃至中部地区的发展,对中部崛起战略的实施具有重大指导意义。     

福建省各县(市、区)经济发展实力评估与分类研究

为了研究福建省各县（市、区）经济发展水平的差异,对福建省各县（市、区）的经济实力进行评价,通过建立具有递阶层次结构的指标体系,运用层次分析-极差正规化综合评价方法、聚类分析法对福建省各县（市、区）的经济实力进行实证评价并分类。研究结果将福建省67个县（市、区）划分为经济发展实力雄厚、经济发展实力较强、经济发展实力较薄弱、经济发展实力薄弱四类地区,并为提升各类地区的经济发展实力分类提出相应的政策建议。     

Building knowledge city in transformation era: Knowledge‐based urban development in Beijing in the context of globalisation and decentralisation

This study examines knowledge‐based urban development in Beijing with the objective of revealing the impact of the ‘synergetic’ forces of globalisation and local government intervention on knowledge‐based urban development in the context of the coexisting processes of globalisation and decentralisation. The findings in this paper show that due to the rapid growth of the cultural industry sector, knowledge‐based urban development has created various kinds of ‘cultural industry clustered areas’, which were recently promoted by the 2008 Olympic Games. ‘Synergetic’ global and local forces are leading knowledge‐based urban development, with the emergence of a local coalition regime in which local government manages local development, considered as ‘enterprises’ in the decentralisation process, while the State retains a significant influence on knowledge‐based urban development. The central and municipal governments tend to emphasise strategies to ‘facilitate the climate for growth’ rather than the centrally planned control they exerted prior to the 1980s.     

Emerging geography of technological innovation in China's ICT industry: Region,inter‐firm linkages and innovative performance in a transitional economy

This study critically evaluates the relevance of the existing theory of technological innovation to the case of China's information and communications technology industry. Based on a large‐scale questionnaire survey conducted in China's three most important city‐regions, namely, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, where the core of China's information and communications technology industry is located, this study reveals a significant regional variation in technological innovation in a political economy undergoing marketisation and globalisation. This research has found no significant relationship between the innovative performance of firms and the extent of production linkages; nor was there a significant knowledge exchange among firms. A further analysis has identified the significant role played by government purchases, research and development capital input and export propensity in the process of technological innovation. The findings of this research cast doubts over the prevailing theory of ‘new economic geography’ in which soft and unbounded relational assets have been overemphasised at the expense of some solid and bounded actors and agents that are pivotal to technological innovation in a developing economy.     

An analysis of employment patterns of domestic migrants and immigrants in a Rustbelt city: A study of Buffalo-Niagara Falls

This study evaluates employment patterns of domestic migrants and immigrants and also explores the role of ethnic niching for Asian and African American recent arrivals in the context of local structural transformation (e.g., the shift from manufacturing to services). Employment patterns are examined for industry-occupation groups using the 5% Public Use Micro Sample of the 2000 U.S. Decennial Census and the 2006–2010 of the American Community Survey. The study area is a Rustbelt city that has suffered from population loss: the Buffalo-Niagara Falls MSA. Location quotients and shift-share analysis are used to classify employment shifts into four industry-occupation groups: growing, transforming, declining, and emerging. Logistic regressions are estimated to identify the role of various demographic factors and ethnic niches on the employment of recent arrivals in the above four industry-occupation groups. The results show that the employment of recent arrivals vary by migration status and ethnicity. The role of ethnic niches is especially important in declining industry-occupation groups. The analytical framework can be used to understand where and how migrants, both domestic and immigrants, find work. Future studies can focus on the pros and cons of ethnic niching (e.g., barriers to suitable jobs, ethnic entrepreneurship through niche experience) as structural transformation continues across U.S. regions, especially with new technologies.     

Immigrants Doing Business in a Mid‐sized Canadian City: Challenges,Opportunities, and Local Strategies in Kelowna,British Columbia

Lacking a tradition of settling immigrants and the appropriate infrastructure to integrate them, small‐ and medium‐sized cities often face the challenge of attracting and retaining immigrants. Using a mixed methods approach, this study compares the experiences of immigrant and non‐immigrant entrepreneurs in a mid‐sized Canadian city, Kelowna, British Columbia. A survey reveals different experiences between these two groups, with immigrants facing more challenges. In the absence of institutionally complete communities or strong ethnic economies, immigrants do not rely extensively on their own community resources, an element considered instrumental for immigrant business development in large cities. Compared to non‐immigrants, immigrant entrepreneurs have a more optimistic outlook on doing business in Kelowna; this is encouraging for a city trying hard to attract immigrant investment. Key informants recommended transforming the city into a more welcoming community, establishing appropriate support infrastructure, and removing potential institutional offsets. This paper adds new theoretical insights to the literature on immigrant entrepreneurship; all socio‐cultural, political‐institutional, and economic‐structural considerations are embedded in geography. The findings also have implications for growth strategies in small‐ and medium‐sized cities.