The Interaction of Economic Reforms,Socio‐economic Structure and Agriculture in Mexico

National policydecisions in developing countries contribute to the increasing integration of agriculture into national and world economies. The spatial consequences of national policies, however, vary across regions and agricultural systems. Employing and adapting a methodology first proposed by King (1970), this study explores the relationship between national policy, agriculture, and population characteristics at the regional level in Mexico during the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–94). Statistical analyses corroborate the hypothesis that the impact of policy reforms on the agricultural sector in Mexico is mediated by the characteristics of the population. Results suggest that government credit for agriculture and federal funding of rural development during the Salinas de Gortari administration were mediated by factors associatedwith the level of urbanization. The provision of commercial credit at the regional level, however, does not appear to depend on population characteristics. Disparities in the impact of national policies are attributed to a historical urban bias, the differential ability of more highly urbanized states to attract government funding, manage and implement programs, and the existence of highly profitable, commercial agriculture in more developed states.     

Commuting distances to local non‐farm workplaces and out‐migration: The case of Northeast Thailand

The relationship between commuting distances and where people work has been studied for urban contexts in both developed countries and developing countries. However, few studies have examined the situation in rural areas, and none look at commuting distances to non‐farm workplaces in rural areas of developing countries. This paper investigates how commuting distance, and thus accessibility, to local non‐farm work influences non‐farm employment and out‐migration from rural villages in Northeast Thailand. The main issues examined are: (i) the distance that rural residents travel to work in local non‐farm jobs; and (ii) the influence that local non‐farm employment has on the number of outmigrants from rural villages. The study finds: (i) distance between villages and non‐farm work sites impact the number of villagers who are employed in regular wage work; (ii) beyond 20 km villagers are less likely to travel to non‐farm employment using their own means of transportation; and (iii) employment in regular wage work decreases outmigration. The findings from this study contribute to the debates over the drivers of rural out‐migration, rural livelihood changes, and agrarian changes that are taking place in Southeast Asia.     

农村经济发展状况和生活环境对流动决策的影响

本文运用Tobit模型和调查数据,考察了农村经济社会发展状况对农村劳动力流动行为决策的影响。结果发现：农村经济发展状况整体上对农村劳动力流动产生显著的负向作用;农村基础设施对农村劳动力流动也产生负向影响。在中国城乡二元结构长期作用下,即便在惠农、强农的政策体系和促进城乡经济社会一体化发展的制度框架已初步建立,县域经济和乡镇企业发展迅速的大环境下,农村经济和生活环境的改善,并不能从根本上阻挡农村劳动力向城市流动的趋势。建议政府切实贯彻“一号文件”,以社会主义新农村建设为契机,将有限的资源重点投入到既能促进农民外出打工又能增加劳动力在本地转移的公共事业和基础设施建设上。     

Different Institutions,Distinctive Trajectories? Revisiting Maritime Industrial Development Areas with Cases on China's Liaoning Coast

Maritime industrial development areas (MIDAs) are spatial tools designed to accelerate economic growth in backwards coastal areas and thus alleviate regional disparities, and they have widely expanded in both developed and developing countries over the past sixty years. This paper reviews the global development of MIDAs in different historical periods and compares them with cases on China's Liaoning coast in terms of their structure, location, administration, national political‐economic climate and theoretical justification. The results indicate that although those countries have different institutional environments they seemingly once took the same path in their specific stages of development. However, the experiences of developed countries and other developing ones and the current dilemma of MIDAs in coastal Liaoning together demonstrate that MIDAs cannot achieve the policy targets anticipated by decision makers, especially during the economic transitions of China. This finding cautions backwards countries and their lagging areas, such as northeastern China, that the traditional pattern tried by the first developed countries may not be appropriate when the development tool (e.g., MIDAs) is examined in both the framework of international comparison and the socioeconomic setting of a specific country.     

我国农村公共文化服务政策研究——上篇：发展历程

为了全面了解农村公共文化服务政策的发展历程,促进当代中国农村公共文化服务体系建设。本研究对1979—2015 年间中国农村公共文化政策的制定与实施情况进行了全面梳理。研究表明,农村公共文化服务政策颁布和实施大致经历了“肇始”、“探索”、“深化”3 个阶段,政策的雏形在肇始阶段逐渐形成、轮廓在探索阶段逐渐显现、较为系统的体系在深化阶段基本形成。深入分析农村公共文化服务政策实施背景、实施情况、实施特点及其影响,对于完善农村公共文化政策体系、促进农村公共文化服务体系建设有着重要意义。     

Life Sciences and Human Capital: Jobless Growth on Specialised and Local Labour Markets?

Policy makers and scholars often regard the life science industry in general, and bio‐technology in particular, as an engine of future economic growth. The expectation is that growth in the industry will ultimately provide a major boost to national employment numbers. However, in this paper, I find that the Swedish life science industry (encompassing pharmaceutical, bio‐technology, and medical technology firms) accounts for only a small proportion of total employment in Sweden. Given the recent discussion on jobless growth (i.e., economic growth without employment growth), it is here argued that focusing on employment is not necessarily the best policy approach to assessing the impacts of the life science industry on the overall economy. This paper maps and analyses the scope, structure, and geography of the life science industry and its workforce in Sweden using a unique set of data covering approximately 1,200 firms and 53,000 employees. The industry's workforce has education and income levels significantly higher than national averages, and is heavily concentrated in larger metropolitan areas and major university cities. Despite employing relatively few people and being more or less dependent on the existence and success of a few major pharmaceutical firms, the industry may still have a significant impact on the national economy by engendering high levels of education, income, and export revenues, particularly in specific regions.     

Does Commuting Reduce Wage Disparities?

ABSTRACT This paper shows that in the Baltic countries, commuting reduces urban‐rural wage and employment disparities and increases national output. To quantify the effect of commuting on wage differentials, two sets of earnings functions are estimated (based on Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Labor Force Surveys) with location variables (capital city, rural, etc.) measured at the workplace and at the place of residence. We find that the ceteris paribus wage gap between capital city and rural areas, as well as between capital and other cities is significantly narrowed by commuting in some cases but remains almost unchanged in others. Different outcomes are explained by country‐specific spatial patterns of commuting, educational and occupational composition of commuting flows, and presence or absence of wage discrimination against rural residents in urban markets. A treatment effects model is used to estimate individual wage gains to rural—urban or inter‐city commuting; these gains are substantial in most but not all cases. Wage effects of commuting distance, as well as impact of education, gender, ethnicity, and local labor market conditions on the commuting decision are also explored.     

Border crossing of Muslim women in southern‐border provinces of Thailand

In general, the main roles of married Thai Muslim women were as home makers good wives and good mothers. Nevertheless, both married and single women from rural areas have been increasingly obliged to work outside the household, locally and in other countries. People in rural areas are now faced with the difficulty of maintaining their livelihoods if they depended on agricultural production alone. In some instances, female migration might be a response to families not being able to survive on the incomes earned by the male household heads. In response, women in southern Thailand provinces use long‐standing social networks that facilitate their migration for work, because they benefit from the close proximity, language, and religion that they share with the destination area. Commonly, they travel to work in Malaysia by using a border pass, while some travel and work without any documents. The effects of crossing national borders on migrants themselves and on their communities are mixed, generally positive from an economic perspective, but negative from a social viewpoint. Socially negative responses reflect a system of social control in the region based on patriarchy.     

农村留守儿童状况的实证研究

农村留守儿童是在市场经济的发展和国家政策的背景下产生的,本文采用实证分析方法,以新村的留守儿童为研究对象,采用调查问卷的方式了解新村留守儿童的状况,发现留守儿童存在思想品行问题、学业问题、心理问题和安全问题等方面的问题。并分析其产生的原因和提出从家庭方面、社会方面、学校方面和政府方面解决这些问题的对策,希望能够有效的解决留守儿童的问题。     

Practices of place‐making: Globalisation and locality in the Philippines

Abstract: Global flows of people and information in the Asia–Pacific region are creating new forms of place that stretch across national boundaries and rural–urban distinctions. These new mobile forms of place link long‐inhabited rural areas to cities, national centres, and to rural frontiers within the nation. Here, we describe new forms of place that are being produced by contemporary migration and economic change, using data from the Philippines and applying Appadurai's theorisation of translocality. Our analysis links these flows of overseas migrants to concomitant processes of economic change, migration and new rural livelihoods. We outline changing practices of place within the Philippines, exploring ways that transnational migration can articulate with apparently ‘local’ development and the flow‐on effects from migration on the spatial patterns of rural livelihoods.     

Knowledges of the creative economy: Towards a relational geography of diffusion and adaptation in Asia

Abstract: Recent dialogues in geography and the social sciences have reminded researchers of the extent to which academic and policy knowledges are socially and spatially embedded – that is, they circulate through formal and informal systems of publishing, exchange, commodification and cultural influence. Academic and policy knowledges are, in short, very much a part of the creative economy. In light of this, our paper surveys knowledges of the creative economy itself, as reflected in a geography of industry reports and government policy statements in selected Asian countries. Using a post‐positivist framework adapted from diffusion theory, we critically interpret the circulation, mutation and adaptation of knowledges of the creative economy, claims to its significance, areas of emphases and notable silences.     

Rural‐to‐Urban Commuting: Three Degrees of Integration

Commuting ties between rural places of residence and urban places of employment are among the most visible forms of rural–urban integration. For some rural areas, access to urban employment is a key source of population retention and growth. However, this access varies considerably across rural areas, with distance representing a primary deterrent. In addition to distance, the size of the urban community will also influence rural‐to‐urban commuting opportunities. In this paper, using Canadian data, we empirically estimated the influence of local rural population and job growth on rural out‐commuting within the urban hierarchy. We find consistent support for the deconcentration hypothesis where population moves to rural areas for lifestyle and quality of life reasons, while retaining urban employment. Further, we find some evidence that in addition to distance from the nearest urban center being a deterrent, increased remoteness from the top of the urban hierarchy exerts a positive influence on out‐commuting. Recognition of these types of rural–urban linkages through commuting is essential in designing Canadian rural policy and targeted programs that may effectively support local rural populations. In particular, they point to the need to have reasonable transportation infrastructure for urban accessibility, which should be complemented by other “built” infrastructure to improve the livability of rural communities.     

Extra‐Firm Networks and Firm Performance: A Study of South Korean Solar PV Firms and Industry Specific Government Actors

Extra‐firm actors have been acknowledged as vital to the success of green energy industries. This article deploys the firm network perspective to deliver a first of its kind analysis of specific extra‐firm actor impacts on firm performance in Korea's solar photovoltaic industry. Results are based on quantitative analyses of data from 60 firm respondents and augmented by interviews with eight government officials. Three research questions capture and compare firm and government actor perceptions pertaining to extra‐firm actor influences at the national, regional, and extra‐local scales, inclusive of place–place competition and cooperation. Results indicate that firms differ in perceptions related to the impact of 18 national level government institutes, R&D centers, associations, and academic societies on their success, and that perceptions vary by level of technology concerning a plethora of other related extra‐firm actor and support infrastructure impacts. A comparative perspective is presented based on government informant interviews.     

中国农村土地资产市场研究综述

农村土地资产市场受到很多学者的高度关注。综合运用文献资料法和对比分析法,梳理总结了相关研究关于中国农村土地资产市场的研究成果,分析了建立农村土地资产市场的必要性,梳理了存在的主要问题,探讨了建设农村土地资产市场的机制,并展望了研究重点和方向。研究结果表明：建设农村土地资产市场非常必要,它是完善社会主义市场体系、保障农民土地权益、统筹城乡发展的客观要求;建设农村土地资产市场面临一定困难,突出表现在土地制度供给不足、管理工作平台缺失、市场发展环境制约;发展农村土地资产市场要创新机制,建立农民土地资产权益保护机制、城乡土地资产市场统筹机制、农村土地资产配置市场机制。     

农村居民点用地发展变化驱动力研究

本文在分析鹿泉市现状农村居民点存在问题的基础上,从地理学的角度入手,将农村居民点变化的驱动因子归纳为经济、人口、技术、政策、社会五个方面,得到定量度量各驱动因子影响的多元线性模型,并用路径分析方法探讨驱动因子与农村居民点面积变化以及各驱动因子之间的关系。研究结果表明：经济因子、人口因子和政策因子对农村居民点变化均有较大影响,其中,技术因子和社会因子对农村居民点发展变化的影响是通过经济和人口因子来体现的。     

The role of national settings in the economic resilience of regions—Evidence from recessionary shocks in Europe from 1990 to 2014

This paper focuses on the particular role of the national setting for the economic resilience of regions during the resistance and recovery phase. Our empirical set-up introduces a spatial hierarchy of 249 NUTS-2 regions nested in 22 European countries while it includes numerous recessionary shocks from 1990 to 2014. Our results suggest that the impact of the national setting is strongest during the resistance phase when the national level accounts for up to 44.9% of the variance in regional GDP development. During recovery, however, the national share decreases but still amounts to no less than 22.0%. Apart from the direct effects that originate from, for example, regulatory density and fiscal policy measures, the national impact takes the form of cross-level moderation effects. These indirect effects indicate that the regional patterns of resilience are additionally shaped by the inter-linkages of country-specific institutional factors and regional determinants. Taking all this into account, regional economic resilience is anything but just a matter of regional capacities.     

Work and struggle of fishing livelihoods in the Delta: Development and ‘new’ change along the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River,Myanmar

Fishing constitutes a key source of income and food for rural communities worldwide. This is the case in predominantly rural Myanmar (World Fish, 2019), particularly in the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River Delta. Fishing has long been a central livelihood strategy and valuable source of food security in the Delta, and now also generates a substantial contribution to the gross domestic product. However, the livelihood practices of the fishers, particularly small‐scale fishers, are largely ‘invisible’ in the literature and policy. In this article, we advance understanding of the significant but understudied livelihoods of small‐scale fishers through interviews with fishers and a range of other actors in 2018. Taking a careful examination of the challenges, practices and responses of fishers in the Delta, our research underlines that fishers are important actors in the ‘making’ of the Delta as a geographical scale and concept, yet they are being pushed out of the very landscape they have helped co‐create and have lived in for generations. At this crucial point in Myanmar's development and change, we contend that a better understanding of the livelihoods of fishing households, as some of the nation's most vulnerable, is important for inclusive policy development, economic reforms and research strategy going forward.     

Green Strategy in China

Environmental protection has been a basic national policy since the 1980s. The State Environmental Protection Committee was established in 1984 and the first Environmental Protection Law formally issued in 1989. After     

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.