Negotiating landscape in rural tourism

Landscape is a vitally important asset for Norwegian rural tourism. Different views and perceptions of landscape are negotiated among key actors such as operators, tourists, and farmers. This article investigates these negotiations in relation to three dimension of landscape: values and requirements; how it is experienced; and future development prospects. The study shows that while actors hold different positions and attitudes, all of them unite in their concerns about landscape change, and in their desire to preserve food traditions and local produce. Further, this paper argues that there is a general re-orientation in landscape perception from “spectacularization” towards “multi-sensing”.     

Corporate Legal Responsibility: A Levinasian Perspective

In this article I will look into Corporate Legal Responsibility taking into account Levinas’s notion of infinite responsibility, as well as his understanding of ethical language. My account of Levinas’s philosophy will show that it challenges – breaking down – deeply entrenched distinctions in the dominant strands of moral philosophy, within which the theory of individual responsibility is embedded, such as between:(1) duty to others on the one hand and supererogation on the other; (2) perfect duty to others on the one hand and imperfect duties to others on the other; (3) insiders and outsiders; kith and kin on the one hand and strangers on the other; Levinas’s moral vision is an inclusive one which embraces all of humanity (at least of those present today) irrespective of historical, linguistic, cultural differences and diversities. In other words, each has responsibilities for and duties towards all others. Of course, one might say that there is nothing new about a universalising ethics – after all Kantianism, liberalism as well as utilitarianism are well known instances. However, more crucially, all these traditional moral philosophies uphold the theory of individual responsibility, which is rooted in the philosophy of individualism. Such a philosophy can make sense only of the concept of individual moral/legal agency but not corporate agency. Therefore, in this article I will attempt to show that the Levinasian vision is able to help us change our view with respect to corporate responsibility.     

生态女性主义视野中的生态正义

几乎所有的女性主义者都认识到,二元对立与男性中心的文化体系是束缚女性解放的最大绊石。但她们从强调男女平权、反对生物性母职,到欣赏双性同体的人格建构,甚至建议以女性中心替代男性为中心的女性解放设想,都陷入了二元论的泥淖,而在生态女性主义的视野中,生态正义就是男性与女性之间的在生态权益方面的平等和公正,这也是实现人与自然和谐的前提。生态女性主义并不在探讨究竟是由女性还是由男性来主宰世界更有利于环境保护,而主要声讨的是社会的非正义的统治秩序和支配结构、二元论的价值立场。     

澳门博彩旅游业的多维效应——一个5年的历时性对比研究

居民对博彩旅游业在环境和青少年价值观方面的负面效应有着强烈的感知,在国际化和地方形象方面,有强烈的正面认同,在传统文化方面有较强烈的正面感知.在经济方面,相对于就业和增加家庭收入方面较高的正面效应,居民对提高生活成本压力的负面效应感知更为强烈.与5年前的历时性对比发现,居民的感知中变化最大的是环境和社会以及生活成本指标,其次是文化方面的指标,前者出现消极趋势,后者则是积极趋势.结合同期澳门社会现实数据分析,作者认为,5年间居民的博彩旅游的多维效应感知显著差异的关键因素很可能与赌权开放后博彩旅游业的规模效应密切相关,这种显著变化暗示居民对社会和环境方面的影响比以往更关切,或者澳门已处于一个比较敏感的社会环境临界点,因此,研究澳门博彩旅游业的社会环境容量和门槛成为迫切的课题.     

生态消费的价值合理性与人的全面发展、

消费是人类生存和发展永恒的主题。一定时代的消费水平、消费结构和消费观念等反映着特定的社会发展状况，影响着人的发展。消费模式不仅制约着社会经济，而且影响着生态环境、人际关系乃至人的发展。建构生态消费，应以科学发展观为指导，从价值论的高度重新审视生态消费，倡导消费的经济性、生态性、公正性、人文性、和谐性，从而促进消费的和谐发展和社会的文明进步。     

The Influence of Graphic Techniques in the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Treatment in Time-Series Design

The objective of this research was to see if the evaluation of the effectiveness of a given treatment through visual inspection depended on the type of graphs used. Three subjects were studied using 3000 graphs (1000 line, 1000 bar and 1000 box-plots), each one representing the results of an A–B design. The results indicate that the subjects committed more errors when the data were presented by line or bar graphs instead of box-plots.     

Choosing strategic responses to address emerging environmental regulations: size,perceived influence and uncertainty

How companies respond to impending regulations is a significant aspect of corporate strategy. Regulations, especially environmental regulations, are expanding quickly and increasingly important to firm success. The threat of impending environmental regulation forces companies to choose levels of strategic responses on a continuum from passive to active. Using practitioner oriented research and existing theoretical models of corporate response, this study finds that the type of strategic response is negatively related to size, positively related to state uncertainty and negatively related to effect/response uncertainty. Based on existing literature and the results of this study, the paper suggests that simplifying the uncertainty construct could lead to more definitive findings in future research. The study results also suggest that a curvilinear relationship may exist between managerial perception of influence and level of strategic response. Most importantly, the findings could have a significant impact on firm decision making regarding environmental investments. For example, it is hoped that firms will be able to use the findings of this study to further understand and anticipate their competitors' decisions. Practitioners may also benefit from the conclusions on uncertainty in that they may be able to more cleanly parse the types of uncertainty immersed in impending environmental regulations. Finally, firms may be better able to understand decisions by their own managers and their competitors' managers in terms of their perceived influence over the regulatory process. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Institutions and environmental governance: A reconceptualization

This article presents the conceptual revisions needed to extend the new institutional approach to environmental governance from its current local and international domains of application to all governance solutions, including national environmental and natural resource use policies and multi-level governance solutions that are increasingly used to address global environmental change. The article suggests that environmental governance is best understood as the establishment, reaffirmation or change of institutions to resolve conflicts over environmental resources. It also explains why the choice of these institutions is a matter of social justice rather than of efficiency. The article suggests a way to understand formal and state-centered governance solutions as forms of collective ownership not unlike common property. The article demonstrates how institutional analysis can gain resolution by looking at the functional and structural tiers, organization of governance functions, and formulation of key institutional rules as key aspects of the design of governance institutions.     

法治公正是实现社会公正的有效阶梯

实现社会公正是中国社会转型过程中迫切需要解决的时代性课题,是社会主义和谐社会的重要基石。要实现社会公正,不仅需要动员全社会力量,而且需要各个部门的共同努力,从而形成一个社会支持网。坚持依法治国、促进法治公正是实现社会公正的有效阶梯,而法治公正又包括立法公正和司法公正两方面内容,二者缺一不可。