Introduction to a Debate on City-Regions: New Geographies of Governance,Democracy and Social Reproduction

In this introduction to a special Debates and Developments forum on city-regions, we argue that the recent revival of interest in city-regions has been constructed around a rather narrow set of empirical and theoretical issues relating to exchange, interspatial competition and globalization. The ‘new’ city-regionalism results in a reification of the city-region as an autonomous political agent of the global space economy. We outline an alternative approach to investigating and understanding geographies of city-regionalism, highlighting: a politics of governance and state re-territorialization around the city-region; the role of democracy and citizenship in city-region politics; and tensions around social reproduction and sustainability across the city-region.     

Who's Afraid of Postcolonial Theory?

Recent assertions of urban theory have dismissed the value of postcolonial critique in urban studies. This essay draws on postcolonial theory to demonstrate key flaws in such theoretical formulations. In doing so, it returns to the puzzle of how and why studying urbanism in the global South might matter for the reconceptualization of critical urban theory. Instead of a universal grammar of cityness, modified by (exotic) empirical variation, the essay foregrounds forms of theorization that are attentive to historical difference as a fundamental constituent of global urbanization. What is at stake, the essay concludes, is a culture of theory, one that in its Eurocentrism tends to foreclose multiple concepts of the urban and alternative understandings of political economy. A concern with the relationship between place, knowledge and power—a key insight of postcolonial critique—might make possible new practices of theory in urban studies.     

城市区域增长的网络化治理

肇始于20世纪末的信息技术发展及全球经贸联系的日益紧密,生产的分散化与管理的集中化导致国家间的竞争逐步演变为骨干城市及其所依托的城镇群体之间的竞争。立足于当代中国城市发展实践,衔接国际城市与区域研究的理论前沿,着眼于当前我国城市区域体制转型和制度变迁过程中凸显的深层次的体制障碍和运作瓶颈,采用城市政治经济学的研究方法,从背景、方法、视角、内容等多个层面,系统归纳和评述了中外城市区域增长的网络化治理机制,并从城市区域治理的增长网络、增长政体、增长制度和增长管理等角度提出了相关拓展研究的展望。     

The crisis of mass integration: on the development of political repression in Federal Germany

The aim of this essay is to investigate the bases and the specific forms of the development of the political repression which can be clearly observed at the present time in West Germany. The principal fact to be explained is that this development is being implemented by a social democratic-liberal government coalition, which leaves the institutions of the bourgeois-democratic system untouched and receives backing from the Trade Unions. Current attempts to explain this phemomenon, such as the theory of a 'new fascism', have proved to be inadequate. The essay begins by providing a brief overview of the theoretical starting point adopted and proceeds to sketch the economic, social and political conditions for successful mass integration in developed capitalist societies. The increase in repressive tendencies in the state apparatus is traced back to the specific forms in which the institutions for mass integration have failed to fulfil their roles, the main basis of which is to be found in the development of the current economic and social crisis. The most important tendencies in the economic development of the FRG and the particular structures of its political and administrative system are presented in order to validate this thesis. The decisive moment of political destablization can be seen in the growth of autonomous political movements outside the sphere of established institutions. These movements constitute an increasing threat to the existing institutional system of mass integration. The development of repression which has occurred in response to this is directed at a preventive safeguarding of the existing apparatuses for mass integration and at preserving the state's apparatus for the exercise of force as a crisis-reserve. This repression, which has not yet taken the form of the open use of force against the mass of the population—in particular established workers' organizations—is primarily directed against dissident individuals and groups within the state and ideological apparatuses, and against initial steps towards autonomous political organizations and forms of economic—political representation which are not based on the acceptance or granting of concessions.     

The Laws of Economic Rent and Property:

A bstract Economic rent in general, and oil rent in particular, is an historically-specific, social category, reflective of unique property relations , which goes beyond the conventional notion of physical scarcity prevailing in economics literature Neither the Ricardian theory nor the neoclassical general equilibrium theory suitably explain the nature of the capital-land relation and convey an understanding of the priority of their mutual interaction within the production process Being an effect of specific property relation, the phenomenon of rent merely assumes the status of a special category applicable to the concrete conditions of some industries Hence, political economy lacks a general theory of rent
The concept of oil rent is based on the potentially conflicting interaction of ownership of oil reserves , and that of the oil leases , within the global oil industry The oil rent is the result of the transformation of the existing differential productivities of oil-producing regions within the global oil industry The formation of global oil prices and differential oil rents rest on the global competition which has become a distinguishing feature of this industry since the early 1970s     

新民主主义革命时期中国共产党国家审计思想的政治经济学分析

新民主主义革命时期党的国家审计思想是中国共产党在运用马克思主义政治经济学分析根据地审计实践过程中形成的经验总结,是中国共产党百年审计思想史的重要组成部分。在理论上认识和阐述新民主主义革命时期中国共产党国家审计思想的理论依据,总结国家审计思想的理论创新,不仅是当前国家审计理论研究的重要任务,也是构建中国特色社会主义政治经济学理论体系的重要任务。马克思主义政治经济学关于国家、财政与监督的理论是中国共产党国家审计思想的基本理论依据。基于马克思主义政治经济学的理论基础,中国共产党从中国实际出发,在战争中艰难探索,努力实现国家审计思想的理论创新。新民主主义革命时期党的国家审计思想的理论创新涵盖四个维度：一是坚持马克思主义政治经济学的理论基础,二是坚持党领导审计监督工作的政治基础,三是坚持审计监督为人民服务的群众基础,四是坚持新民主主义道路的审计实践基础。     

The Political Economy of Low Inflation

What are the politics of inflation? This question is usually raised solely when inflation rates are high. All levels of inflation, however, high and low, are the outcome of political conflicts. But no current approach to the study of inflation — sociological, neoclassical, modern political economy — adequately captures the full range of political issues at stake, and this leads to problems for both theory and policy. This paper critiques the existing perspectives on inflation and then focuses on three theoretical issues raised by those critiques: the economic costs of inflation; the concept of monetary neutrality from economic and political perspectives; and the importance of disaggregating economic growth statistics. Finally, the paper introduces and explores a contending approach to the analysis of the political economy of inflation: a ‘micro‐politics’ perspective. This approach is the only one to address the politics of low inflation, which is of great significance for contemporary political economy.     

Validating a theoretical model of citizens’ trust in tourism development

This research establishes the theoretical link between the development of tourism and citizens' trust. The research is grounded in political economy of state intervention in tourism and draws from social exchange theory to build the theoretical model. The latter incorporates variables such as trust, power, knowledge, and benefits and costs of tourism, which are central to any exchange process between social actors. The model distinguishes and proposes a theoretical relationship between domain specific political trust and generic political trust. The former refers to citizens' trust in local government in the specific context of tourism development while the latter refers to citizens' general level of trust in local government. The model is tested using data collected from residents of the metropolitan area of Naples, Italy. Results suggest that residents’ trust in local government in the specific context of tourism strongly influences their general level of trust, suggesting a spill-over effect of political trust. We demonstrated empirically that political trust in the context of tourism and the general trust in an institution are theoretically distinct concepts. The constructs we used to conceptualize tourism development has distinct influence on the two dimensions of political trust.     

Spaces of Extraction,Metropolitan Explosions: Planetary Urbanization and the Commodity Boom in Latin America

Through an exploration of the political economy of the current commodity boom in Latin America, and on the basis of recent appropriations of Henri Lefebvre's notion of planetary urbanization, this article proposes viewing spaces of resource extraction resulting from an escalating international demand for raw materials as particular morphological expressions of market‐driven processes of urbanization. Furthermore, the article draws on Lefebvre to argue that such burgeoning spaces of urbanization are the result of a contradictory tension between spatial homogenization—in the form of multiscalar governance frameworks and infrastructural programs—and territorial fragmentation—in the form of fixed capital allocations and state‐led spatial segregation. When considered jointly, these contradictory movements allow us to grasp fully the extent of the problematic explosion of spaces that, according to Lefebvre, characterizes capitalist urbanization. The article concludes by reflecting on the emancipatory promise that underlies the planetary extension of the urban form because, with the projection of material infrastructures required for resource extraction—especially information technologies—across the rural realm, local communities have been able to shed their isolated state and emerge as fully fledged political actors.     

面对全球化过程中台北市的都市现实

在 2 1世纪开始的此时此刻 ,全世界的城市和社会都共同正在经历一个在我们自身结构内的巨大历史性转化。在这样的转化核心环绕着资讯技术所组织起来的技术革命。立基于新技术的基础设施 ,经济与传播的全球化过程已改变了我们生产、消费、管理、告知和思考的方式。所有层级的策略性支配的活动 ,都是在全球决策和交换网络中被组织 ,从金融市场到视听讯息 ,世界是不对称地相互依赖着。而这样的不对称互赖关系经由新资讯与传播技术 ,全球、即时地联系起来 ,这就是我们要面对的结构性转化所透露的新世纪 ,资讯时代、全球经济、与网络社会。文章针对作为全球城市 (globalcity)的台北市 ,在面临全球经济中的再结构与都市再结构的巨大变局时 ,就它的都市政策研拟首先要面对的现实课题 ,提出分析 ,换句话说 ,这也是一个正在横渡全球化恶水中地方政府 ,摸索它的新角色转化时必须先面对的地方真实情境。     

Translational Global Praxis: Rethinking Methods and Modes of African Urban Research

Advancing global urbanism depends upon making Africa's cities a more dominant part of the global urban narrative. Constructing a more legitimate research agenda for African cities, however, necessitates a repositioning of conventional modes of research. To achieve intellectual and political traction in what are typical African research conditions—where human needs are great, information is poor, conditions of governance are complex and the reality is changeable—we reflect on the experiences of the African Centre for Cities where (alongside conventional use of theory, methods and data) a translational mode of working has been adopted. The notion of translational urban research praxis captures more than the idea of applied research or even co‐production, and encompasses integrating the research conception, design, execution, application and reflection—and conceiving of this set of activities as a singular research/practice process that is by its nature deeply political and locationally embedded. In this way we suggest that African urbanism can be both usefully illuminated by global theories and methods, and can simultaneously be constitutive of the reform of the ideas through which cities generally are understood.     

LGBT Neighbourhoods and ‘New Mobilities’: Towards Understanding Transformations in Sexual and Gendered Urban Landscapes

In this article we apply insights from ‘new mobilities’ approaches to understand the shifting sexual and gendered landscapes of major cities in the global North. The empirical context is the purported ‘demise’ of traditional gay villages in Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia, and the emergence of ‘LGBT neighbourhoods’ elsewhere in the inner city. We reinterpret the historical geography of twentieth century LGBT lives and the associated ‘rise and fall’ of gay enclaves through the lens of the ‘politics of mobility’. In this reading, it is apparent that multifaceted movements — migration, physical and social mobility, and motility — underpin the formation of gay enclaves and recent transformations in sexual and gendered landscapes. After the second world war, LGBT communities in the global North were embedded in specific historical geographies of mobility and we trace these in the Canadian and Australian contexts. The ‘great gay migration’ from the 1960s to the 1980s has been joined by new LGBT constellations of mobility in the 2000s, and these have imprinted upon the sexual and gendered landscapes of Toronto and Sydney.     

Social Ecological Economics: Understanding the Past to See the Future

The attempt to provide insight into the interactions between the economy and the environment has been an on‐going struggle for many decades. The rise of Ecological Economics can be seen as a positive step towards integrating social and natural science understanding by a movement that aims to go beyond the confines of mainstream economics towards a progressive political economy of the environment. However, this vision has not been shared by all those who have associated themselves with Ecological Economics and there has been conflict. An historical analysis is presented that shows the role of mainstream theory in delimiting the field of environmental research. The argument is put forward that rather than employing a purely mechanistic objective empirical methodology there is a need for an integrating interdisciplinarity heterodox economic approach. In order to distinguish this approach—from the more mainstream multidisciplinary linking of unreconstituted ecological and economic models—the name Social Ecological Economics is put forward as expressing the essential socio‐economic character of the needed work ahead.     

Global virtual teams: a human resource capital architecture

As organizations continue to globalize their operations, it will become evident that most organizations do not have the resources to ‘fully man’ operations throughout the world. Therefore, management will be examining organizational options that reduce the demand on an already depleted pool of global managers. One of the options being examined by companies is the global virtual team (GVT). These complex teams are being considered as a bridge mechanism to allow multinational organizations to expand rapidly without taxing present global managerial skills. This paper uses a theoretical foundation based upon competency theory as the motivation for the formation of GVTs and to explain how they function. Four critical capitals (i.e. human, social, political and cross-cultural) are deemed to be essential for effectiveness of GVT and are discussed in the paper. In addition, a process for assessing the stock of capital in a GVT team is also developed in the paper.     

发展金融理论:一个文献综述

伴随着经济金融化和金融实践的蓬勃发展,发展金融理论在20世纪的最后几十年走上了经济学的舞台。作为一个新兴的学术领域,发展金融理论既继承了发展经济学以研究发展中国家为对象的优秀传统,又扩展和提升了金融发展理论的分析视角和研究内容。继麦金农和肖之后,发展金融理论的后期研究逐渐表现出"深"和"广"两大特征,并已经成为专门探讨发展中国家金融发展问题的基本理论框架和模型。本文沿着发展金融理论的萌芽、形成和发展这一演进顺序系统地梳理和评述该领域的主要文献,并提出亟需破解的两难命题。     

The political economy of international trade and factor mobility

Abstract. Free trade in goods and factors is efficient. When we move away from economic theory and consider the policies actually followed by governments, we observe distortions being implemented both on goods and factors trades. It is natural then to question the relative merits of the two types of intervention, and the normative literature has provided only partial answers. We ask then why is the international flow of goods and factors not free, and the political economy literature has looked at the two issues only separately. In studying the determination of trade policy, a theoretical paradigm has emerged, focusing on the role of influence driven contributions. This approach has also found strong empirical support. The literature on the political economy of factor mobility, on the other hand, is fragmented. Distortions in labor and capital flows are typically the subject of different studies, and only recently a unified framework has been proposed. More work has to be done in this area as well as in integrating the political economy of trade and factor movements.     

PRIVATIZATION AND EFFICIENCY: FROM PRINCIPALS AND AGENTS TO POLITICAL ECONOMY

Abstract.  We survey the theoretical literature on privatization and efficiency by tracing its evolution from the applications of agency theory to recent contributions in the field of political economy. The former extend the theory of regulation with incomplete information to address privatization issues, comparing state-owned enterprises with private regulated firms. The benefits of privatization may derive either from the constraints it places on malevolent agents or from the impossibility of commitment by a benevolent government because of incomplete contracts. Contributions dealing with political economy issues separate privatization from restructuring decisions. They either explore bargaining between managers and politicians or analyse the impact of privatization shaped by political preferences on efficiency. The theoretical results regarding the relation between privatization and efficiency do not lead to any definitive conclusion. Privatization may increase productive efficiency when restructuring takes place whereas its effects on allocative efficiency still remain uncertain.     

The development of political skill and political capital by global leaders through global assignments

The purpose of this paper is to explain how developing global leaders through global assignments (i.e. in the form of expatriation and inpatriation) may lead to their acquisition of valuable political skill and political capital. First, using the theoretical frame of political influence theory, the benefit of political skill is explained relative to the development and augmentation of global leaders' capital portfolio during global assignments. Second, a distinction between social capital and political capital, as the integral components of global leader's capital portfolio, is made. In conclusion, the value of acquiring political skill and building human, cultural, social and political capital by global leaders is discussed separately for expatriate and inpatriate assignments.     

Classical Surplus Theory and Heterodox Economics

It has recently been suggested that heterodox economics can benefit from an engagement with classical surplus theory. However, caution is often recommended due to the ideological concepts that are embedded in classical political economy. This article argues that many of the ideological concepts that are often attributed to classical political economy are actually not part of classical political economy, but rather of a “vulgar” form of political economy, a project that emerged after Ricardo. This vulgar project, often termed as “Ricardian economics,” is often mistakenly taken to be a development of classical political economy, but it is actually a rupture with the classical political economy of Petty, Smith, and Ricardo, as Marx, and later Sraffa, argued. Once this is acknowledged, the relationship between classical political economy and heterodox economics becomes clearer.     

How to Mend a Fragmented City: a Critique of ‘Infrastructural Solidarity'

Cities in Latin America in particular have been investing in new transportation networks such as bicycle systems, metros and bus rapid transit (BRT) technologies in recent years. These infrastructures are promoted as cures for trenchant social and spatial divisions as much as for traffic gridlock and vehicular pollution. This article unpacks the theory that infrastructures might mend cities that have been fragmented into disparate parts by uneven capitalist development. I argue that this ‘infrastructural solidarity' thesis relies on a troubled imagination—shared across urban design and strands of urban theory—that infrastructures are static, formal arrangements that concretize relations and enforce social cohesion or fragmentation. This article draws on qualitative research on the TransMilenio BRT system in Bogotá, Colombia, as well as on the work of Bruno Latour, suggesting that the political life of infrastructure is better revealed when such systems are understood as dense knots of shifting relations with complex temporalities. Arguments for the value of this type of actor‐network theory (ANT) reading often skew towards the esoteric, but the TransMilenio case shows how sorting through infrastructural ontologies actually matters in terms of how urbanists—academic and practicing—conceive of and work towards just and functional cities.