Saving the Commons in an Age of Plunder

Land ownership, as commonly understood today, originated with the enclosure movement during the English Tudor era almost four centuries ago. Karl Polanyi referred to this “propertization” of nature as the “great transformation.” That land, water, and air was a social commons is now archaic and forgotten, and with it the classical economic concept of rent, which was, in theory, once paid to royalty as the earth's guardian. Garrett Hardin's article, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” raised alarm about the abuse and loss of this realm, and he recommended constraints and privatization to prevent this. Most people view titles to landed property much as they do their household goods, but Henry George saw that the earth should be seen as a common resource and its value taxed to benefit everyone. This would restore economic equilibrium to market exchanges and pay for government services. The capture of natural resource rents can supplant taxes on wages and capital goods, and it comports with all textbook principles of sound tax theory. This policy can be the modern replacement for the commons, and implementing resource rent capture is both economically and technically feasible.     

Honduras: application of a CGE model

This paper constructs a social accounting matrix for Honduras to serve as a database for the computable general equilibrium (or CGE) model adapted to the characteristics of the Honduran economy. A number of simulations of economic policy modifications were carried out to quantify their possible impact on Honduran economy. This paper first considers the general characteristics of the Honduran economy and the main policy reforms put into effect these last few years. CGE model characteristics for Honduras are briefly presented, and the Honduran SAM for 1991 is described. Several simulations were run to assess the impact of selected policy changes. Results show that, in general, structural modification policies used to redirect the Honduran economy outwards (trade liberalization and devaluation of the lempira) favor agriculture, not only in terms of its domestic production but also concerning income distribution. The results are consistent with the ones proposed in the literature on economic development that maintains that interventionist policies linked to the import substitution model that were in fashion until the eighties were anti-agrarian. On the other hand, a reduction in public expenditure promotes less the Honduran rural sector, though it does not stop doing so. However, results also point to the fact that there are underlying problems in carrying out these liberalization measures. The clearest case is free trade, since compensating the drastic reductions to state income that are brought by the reduction or elimination of tariffs is no easy task.     

浅谈高职院校图书馆信息共享空间的建设

本文主要针对目前图书馆读者到馆率不断下降的趋势,提出在高职院校图书馆中建设信息共享空间的服务模式。详细介绍了信息共享空间构成和特点,并对信息共享空间的建设原则及内容进行探讨。     

Minimum wages,wages and employment in various sectors in Honduras

This paper contributes to our understanding of the impact of minimum wages on labor markets of developing countries, where there are often multiple minimum wages and compliance is weak. We examine how changes in more than 22 minimum wages over 1990–2004 affect employment, unemployment and average wages of workers in different sectors, defined by coverage under the legislation. The evidence suggests that minimum wages are effectively enforced only in medium and large-scale firms, where a 1% increase in the minimum wage leads to an increase of 0.29% in the average wage and a relatively large reduction in employment of ? 0.46%. We find that public sector wages emulate minimum wage trends but the higher cost of labor does not reduce employment there. There are no discernable effects of minimum wages on the wages of workers in small-firms or the self-employed; yet, higher minimum wages may create more unemployment. We conclude that (even under our upper bound estimate of the effect on the wages of workers) the total earnings of workers in the large-firm covered sector fall with higher minimum wages in Honduras, which warrants a policy dialogue on the structure and level of minimum wages.     

国外信息共享空间发展现状对国家标准馆技术标准信息共享空间建设的启示

IC已经在世界上许多大学和研究型图书馆得到了成功实践.IC以提供一站式的信息服务、提高信息素养、推动研究与学习等特点,在国外得到了用户的好评,是被公认为自由分享信息、公平获取信息的一种学习模式.IC在国外的成功实践让许多图书馆因此提高了读者的到馆率,充分显示了图书馆在高校教育和科研活动中的作用.作者利用文献调研和网站调研法,调研了20余家国外图书馆IC的成功建设经验,为国家标准馆建设技术标准信息共享空间提出了可遵循借鉴的原则和方式.     

网络环境下高职院校图书馆信息共享空间的研究

从高职院校图书馆的现状与服务对象的需求出发,分析了在高职院校图书馆建设信息共享空间的必要性和可行性,重点提出了高职院校图书馆信息共享空间的构建措施和办法,并提出了其服务建设。     

技术标准信息共享空间的研究与思考

本文介绍了自上世纪90年代起信息共享空间在国内外的发展情况.通过学习和借鉴国内外图书馆对信息共享空间的研究和实践经验,以及与信息共享空间服务相关的技术手段调研,根据自身建设情况和特点,提出了国家标准馆技术标准信息共享空间建设的理念与基本设想.     

"工薪牌"是永远的王牌

去年,空调行业中卖得最欢的算是海信的工薪变频空调.而针对普通工薪阶层设计的几款两千元以下手机也一举占了不少市场份额.房地产行业也如此,凡是适合工薪阶层心理价位的产品都获得了可观的市场.这证明,工薪牌不仅是一张常规牌,更是一张决胜市场的王牌.     

学习共享空间理念与构建探析

现代信息和网络技术的飞速发展和高等教育、学习方式的转变,为高校图书馆的发展带来了新的机遇和挑战。学习共享空间作为一种新型的服务模式正在高校图书馆中逐步兴起并流行。本文对学习共享空间的演进、内涵、特点进行了分析,并以此为基础从实体环境、虚拟环境和支持环境三个方面对学习共享空间的构建进行了讨论。     

Schumpeter,Commons, and Veblen on Institutions

This article compares Schumpeter, Veblen, and Commons with regard to institutions setting up the paradigm of institutional evolutionary economics. Their theories are of a complex nature, and as such, it is very difficult to situate them in a clear‐cut tradition. The main similarity is their opposition to the thesis that market economy is an independent and self‐regulating system, in an attempt to integrate economic, sociological, and political perspectives with regard to the functioning of the system. Also, change per se is in contrast to the notion of equilibrium. Of course, despite the parallels, the existence of differences is undeniable.     

Coping with the Tragedy of the Commons: Game Structure and Design of Rules

Abstract.  The paper provides an assessment of some recent results of the large amount of New Institutional Economics analyses investigating a common-pool resource setting, with a specific focus on game theory models. Most of the studies have used a noncooperative approach in order to explain how under-provision for the resource or its over-use – the so-called Tragedy of the Commons – can be avoided, within given management rules. They show how the characteristics of the game (payoff matrix, repetition) or of the users (group size, wealth, heterogeneity and moral norms) may give incentives for the latter to play in a way that benefits all users. By contrast, much fewer articles have used a formalized approach to assess the possibility for players to design new rules to overcome the initial Tragedy of the Commons. The article ends with some proposals of directions for future research.     

城市公共空间"公地悲剧"治理:以共享单车为例

城市规划旨在实现空间资源的有效配置和管理,正在经历由技术理性向公共政策的转型.城市公共空间是规划实践与政策实施的场域,但也因开放性、稀缺性等特征,成为共享单车"公地悲剧"(Tragedy of the Commons)的牺牲品.深圳市在尊重市场和公民自由的基础上,引导政府—市场—社会多元主体对共享单车共治共管,基本实现了公共空间的有序使用,是"公地悲剧"多中心治理的典型案例.基于"公地悲剧"理论,在分析共享单车无序占用公共空间问题的基础上,立足多中心治理模型和制度分析与发展框架(IAD框架)剖析深圳市共享单车公共空间治理策略和互动过程,发现了界定边界、技术创新、数据共享等有助于实现公共空间资源的多中心治理,能为公共资源治理现代化提供借鉴.     

Accessing the Urban Commons Through the Mediation of Information: The Eliana Silva Occupation,Belo Horizonte,Brazil

This essay demonstrates how mediations (called Dialogues) between the University of Belo Horizonte and the residents of the Eliana Silva Occupation in that city have secured not only the right to urban land and constitutional rights that have been historically violated in Brazil, but also the right to that which is of common interest. The essay speaks to Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's contention that what is common goes far beyond the provision of public services. This starting point allows us to see that urban occupations are politically empowered, to the extent that poor people consciously violate the Brazilian law governing the right of possession and ownership over urban land through creative and cooperative actions that are undertaken and extended across networks. This essay will focus on the centrality of the struggle to build a common communication platform serving to nourish social ties and sociability among those social actors who share the same human deprivation—lack of access to what should be widely available to all citizens. On the theoretical side, the essay takes Pierre Bourdieu, Bruno Latour and Milton Santos as its guides to understanding how social actors act in the struggle for socio‐spatial coexistence and urbanity.     

The Meaning,Prospects, and Future of the Commons: Revisiting the Legacies of Elinor Ostrom and Henry George

Elinor Ostrom's work on the commons has convinced mainstream economists that “collective” governance of the commons can overcome the “tragedy of the commons” and “free‐rider problems.” Yet, a more systematic appraisal of Ostrom's work shows that it contains no concept of justice. Her idea of rights is extremely limited, often tied to the notion of joint, rather than equal, rights. Indeed, for Ostrom, the notion of the commons is socially separatist and not ecological. Ostrom uses historical examples, but without analyzing how common possession historically evolved and was undermined by external forces. Hence her proposed “collective action” to save the commons actually accelerates the real threats to the commons. A strikingly different and more holistic approach to the commons is offered by Henry George, who posits the commons as the most important path to social, economic, and ecological sustainability. Unlike Ostrom, who studied the commons “scientifically” to show that some goods are neither private, public, nor club‐based, George studied the commons to understand and remove injustice at the roots. His approach is more critical and certainly more relevant today in showing that another world is possible. However, George's work too, requires significant changes to update its framing of the meanings, prospects, and future of the commons.     

Two Models of Ownership: How Commons Has Co‐Existed with Private Property

This article challenges the claim by many historians that the rise of capitalism requires the destruction of common property systems. In contrast to the English case in which commons were enclosed, French peasants used their common property system to regulate the market, provide a rural safety net and a democratic check on elites, while urban industry developed. European battles over common property replayed in surprising ways in colonial African countries such as Sierra Leone, and echoes reemerge today. The West African country of Guinea tests two possible paths to development of a market society: the English path and the French path. Interviews with key government officials collected in 1993 help explain why Guinea, despite adopting a land law in 1992 inspired by the English path, has so far failed to widely apply the law and, in fact, is following the French path. The United States pursued a policy of replacing American Indian common property systems with exclusive individual property rights. Nonetheless, Indian common property survives in the form of recent recognition of Indian off‐reservation hunting and fishing rights. The Menominee reservation successfully resisted the destruction of its common property system and today participates in the market in a manner that preserves reservation ecology, democratic government, and Menominee cultural identity. Rethinking the meaning of French, African, and U.S. accommodation to common property systems offers important lessons for contemporary development policies in Africa and around the world.     

浅谈新时期纪念馆讲解员的管理工作

新时期下,进入到纪念馆进行参观的人员的素质和需求等都面临着不同程度的提升,而基于这一现状所需的前提下,强化对新时期纪念馆讲解员管理工作的创新,对其管理思路进行探析,并提出适当的改进策略对于实际工作的创新进行具有非常重要的借鉴意义。