Reworking the frame: analysis of current discourses on North Korea and a case study of North Korean labour in Dandong,China

North Korea remains a place of obscurity, mystery and even of imminent threat in popular imagination of East Asia and America. In this article, we explore existing representations of and discourses around North Korea and argue for a different framework to consider how North Korea is a critical participant in the contemporary world. Drawing on our respective fieldwork in Dandong, China, throughout 2006 to 2014, the article suggests a new way of thinking about issues surrounding North Korea.     

Principles and algorithm of semantic analysis based on term connections

The present natural language processing (NLP) methods mainly employ bottom-up language analysis ways, which have only limited semantic analysis capabilities. Therefore it is impossible to carry out semantic processing for large amounts of real texts. This paper presents a semantic analysis approach and corresponding algorithms based on term connections. The approach has rooted in semantics based on term connections and taken a major sentence cut-in, bottom-up semantic analyzing process. The main algorithm is to find the optimal sentence tree based on the semantic meaning conformity of term connections. So far, this approach has been applied in project CAPC (Computer Aided Poetry Composing) funded by the Chinese Natural Science Foundation.     

论农民工的社会网络与居住模式选择

已有研究都是基于对农民工居住状况的数量调查进行统计学意义的表述和分析。农民工被视作没有历史的、以一种抽象化面目出现的概念。这种研究忽略了农民工在城市中的实践过程,包括劳动、食宿和社交生活等。而且,在农民工世界中至关重要的社会网络也在农民工居住模式的研究中被忽略了。本文的理论方向正是社会网络的视角,从抽象到具体的、基于实践过程分析的“面向劳动实践的农民工研究”,通过把农民工的个体面目还原出来,把他们的劳动过程作为分析解释的中心。采用深度个案的研究策略,通过对一个农民工装修队在一年时间内的三个不同居住地的研究,解释农民工在城市中的居住选择逻辑。提出“工队共居”这一装修业农民工的居住模式,并分析出这种居住模式在一定程度上是由工队的社会网络决定的。工队社会网络所具有的封闭性、二重性、工人强势和亲友关系导向等这些特点决定了“工队共居”这种居住模式。工队网络的封闭性使工人的居住模式选择与公司没有任何关系;工队网络的二重性,即亲友网络和组织网络的重合使工长倾向于和工人们同住;工队网络中的工人强势使工长提供住宿成为了可能;工队网络的亲友关系导向而非工作关系使工人们的居住乃至生活模式具有“扩大家庭的形式”。另外,工队工人个人的社会网络结构,即单身或与妻子、子女分居也成为工人居住模式选择的一个原因。     

新农村建设中失地农民社会保障问题探要——昆山市失地农民社会保障问题调研及思考

随着中国城市化进程的加快,越来越多的土地被征用,大片农民成为失地农民,失地农民的生活急需保障。为了加强失地农民社会保障工作,进一步消除城乡二元发展的弊端,城乡一体化社会保障制度被提出并实践。通过对昆山这一社会保障领跑城市的调查和分析,总结了昆山社会保障的现状,归纳出该市城乡一体化进程中存在着户籍制度造成的城乡差距依然存在以及农民自我保障的能力相对不足两点问题,并基于这些不足,结合昆山市的实际情况,提出相应推进昆山市失地农民社会保障制度建设的几点意见,即加大财政投入力度、增加农村社保资金、建立地方性法规、建立最低生活保障、出台就业扶持政策、增强就业能力。     

Diversity of methodologies to experiment Integrated Pest Management in arable cropping systems: Analysis and reflections based on a European network

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) aims to promote physical and biological regulation strategies that help farmers contain populations of pests (pathogens, animal pests and weeds) and to finally reduce the reliance on pesticides. It is based on the holistic combination of multiple management measures rather than on the sum of single methods, each of them having only small effects on pests reduction. Thus, to analyse the interactions between IPM measures and to evaluate the sustainability of their implementation, we require an approach considering the whole cropping system (CS), i.e. a functional entity whose complexity is more than the sum of its parts. A network of European experiments at the CS level was set up recently, and aimed at sharing data and expertise to enhance knowledge of IPM. Comparison of existing methodologies highlighted a diversity of CS designs and experimental layouts. We deduced that the concept of CS itself was viewed differently among scientists, and this affected experimental protocols. Other differences were related to the research context and objectives. Some experiments aimed to explore very innovative strategies and generated knowledge on both their effects on the agroecosystem and their ability to satisfy a set of performance targets, while others aimed to provide quickly adoptable solutions for local farmers in line with the current socio-economic constraints. In some research programmes, the experiment was part of the CS design process — and tested CS were regularly revised based on an continuous improvement loop — while in other cases CS were kept stable across years so as to enable the evaluation of their long-term cumulative effects. A critical aspect contributing to the diversity among CS experiments was the distinction between a factorial design of experimental CS and systemic approaches: factorial experiments allowed quantification of the effects of each IPM component regardless of the consistency between components defining the CS. In contrast, systemic approaches focused on the overall evaluation of CS designed with consideration of their consistency, hence maximising their ability to meet the objectives. Because CS experiments represent a huge investment in terms of economics and time, preliminary reflections of the relevance of the experimental strategy is of critical importance.