States and economic growth: Capacity and constraints

State capacity has become one of the most discussed concepts in development economics and political economy. In this survey we argue that the study of economic history provides vital insights into the process through which modern states have acquired ‘state capacity’. By evaluating the process of state building across a range of different countries in Europe and Asia, we are able to ‘decompress’ the relationship between state capacity and economic growth. Our analysis emphasizes the variegated nature of the state building process. We focus on recent research that helps to elucidate the mechanisms that relate state capacity to economic growth.     

中国高等教育发展水平的空间差异研究

在我国高等教育快速发展的同时，高等教育区域发展不均衡、资源配置不公平等现象越来越突出。采用熵权法从教育规模、经费投入、基础设施和师资力量四个维度构建地区高等教育综合发展指数，对2004—2013年我国地区高等教育发展水平进行全局空间自相关分析、局部空间自相关分析和三维趋势分析，结果表明：我国高等教育发展水平在总体上呈现显著的空间正相关特征，且空间关联性逐渐增强；虽然落后地区与发达地区的差距有所减小，但高等教育发展的空间异质性明显，落后地区仍然占很大比重。因此，我国高等教育发达地区未能有效发挥空间辐射和带动作用，空间溢出效应不明显，高等教育发展的空间结构有待改善。国家应避免高等教育区域差距继续拉大，落后地区应加快高等教育发展，发达地区应有效发挥辐射带动作用，努力缩小高等教育的空间差距。     

环境容量生产要素市场的宏观经济调控机制分析

传统经济学低估了环境作为生产要素的基础性和重要性,主张把环境容量作为一种基本生产要素,并在此基础上论述了环境容量生产要素市场的宏观调控功能,分析了这种调控机制的政策目标、政策手段和政策运转模式。环境容量生产要素宏观经济调控政策可以作为一种常态政策,同财政、货币等宏观政策共同作用于社会,谋求经济的良性可持续发展。     

S11调容变压器推广及发展的设想

农村电网具有负荷分散、季节性强、平均负荷率低等特点。为了降低变压器损耗，避免大马拉小车的现象．文中介绍了可以满足农网要求的s11调容变压器的结构特点和性能及其运行效果。     

Climate change adaptation: Is there a role for intervention research?

While climate change will expose regions to similar impacts, the extent of those impacts and effective response at the local level will be determined not only by the location's sensitivity and vulnerability but also by local groups and individuals’ capacity, including their institutional links, social networks and motivation to action. In parallel, scientific information and research plays a critical role in informing climate change adaptation by providing both an improved understanding of the actual climate risks and response alternatives.The paper focuses on two local-scale intervention research projects undertaken in urbanised coastal areas in Brazil and in Australia concentrated on improving the dialogue between ‘those who make science’ and ‘those who use science to make decisions’ in order to make climate science more useful, and creating purposeful collective action, respectively. A conceptual model is devised to investigate how intervention research could aid adaptive capacity by generating new knowledge and facilitating change towards climate change adaptation at the local level. Drawing on the findings, a framework is proposed to advance the role of intervention research in policy development for enhancing adaptive capacity.     

A tale of industrial stagnation from Africa

Many African economies have experienced rather dismal industrial development since the 1980s. The consensus is that African firms lack competitiveness in a world with increasing trade openness. What determines competitiveness? A well‐known explanation is that resource endowments in Africa favour land not labour, which results in high wages, especially in comparison with ‘labour abundant’ Asian economies. This paper examines the validity of this view on the basis of the case of Sudan. We demonstrate that the lack of competitiveness of manufacturing industries is not caused by high wages. Assuming a direct relationship between labour productivity and international competitiveness, we argue that acute capacity underutilisation, caused by supply‐side constraints, lowers manufacturing productivity, which in turn negatively influences competitiveness.     

Computer Simulation as a Tool for Planning and Management of Visitor Use in Protected Natural Areas

The United Nations Environment Programme’s Principles on Implementation of Sustainable Tourism suggest that implementing sustainable tourism must include monitoring visitor use of protected natural areas and directing it to areas where the environmental and social impacts of tourism are minimised. Thus, sustainable tourism management requires information about the spatial and temporal flow of visitor use in protected natural areas to help identify potential tourism-related threats to the natural and cultural resources of an area and the quality of visitors’ experiences. Recent research has identified at least four ways in which simulation modelling of visitor use can facilitate more informed planning and management of sustainable tourism in protected natural areas, including (1) describing existing visitor use flows; (2) monitoring the condition of ‘hard to measure’ indicator variables; (3) testing the effectiveness of alternative visitor use management practices; and (4) guiding the design of research on public attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, using findings from studies conducted in the Inyo National Forest and Isle Royale National Park, USA, each of these four potential contributions of computer simulation to sustainable tourism management and planning. The paper concludes with an assessment of the limitations of existing applications of computer simulation to nature-based tourism and recommendations for future research.     

网络环境下青少年心理健康教育研究

网络的推广与普及给青少年的身心带来了巨大的影响,它在拓宽青少年认知结构空间、促进其情绪宣泄和培养青少年多元价值观的同时,也容易导致青少年认知能力迷失、人际关系淡漠、生活意志丧失、抑郁、焦虑、敌对等一系列的心理问题。而我国当前在青少年网络心理问题的治疗过程中,存在着禁止青少年上网、只进行德育训诫、重治轻防和治疗人员专业水平较低等问题。提高青少年心理健康教育的效果,应建立家庭、学校和社会三位一体的教育和预防机制,开展网络心理教育,注重法制教育、德育教育与心理教育的有机结合并提高青少年网络心理疾病治疗人员的专业化水平。     

Book review

Leisure Counseling: Selected Lifestyle Processes. By Chester F. McDowell, Jr., Ph.D. Center for Leisure Studies, University of Oregon, 1976.     

From voice to choice: lessons from a regional capacity development initiative to strengthen social and gender analysis in participatory natural resource management research

Doing practical biodiversity and natural resources management research that is socially and gender sensitive remains a challenge. Most of the relevant literature is primarily at the conceptual level. There are few learning programmes that focus on systematic capacity development for gender and social analysis in applied research in this field. Efforts that systematically document and analyse this kind of capacity development process are also hard to find. This paper summarizes the main research and capacity development achievements and challenges of a novel, Asian-regional initiative that aimed to address these gaps. It is suggested that the success of capacity-building strategies for the integration of social and gender analysis can be enhanced by combining a mix of elements, including a ‘learning by doing’ approach, participatory (action) research methodologies, a diverse group of participants, regular peer review, flexible networking and strong personal and organizational commitment. These kinds of strategies will require a long(er) time horizon and sufficient resources.