“村改居”社区治理的困境及对策研究

"村改居"社区是农村在"就地城镇化"理念下不断向城市社区转化的一种过渡化社区,其治理情况直接影响到基层社区治理体系的完善以及城乡一体化建设的进程。近年来,学术界对"村改居"社区治理的关注度越来越高。结合"村改居"社区的特征,分析其存在管理体制混乱、公共服务落后、专业人才缺乏和居民参与度低等问题,并对此提出建议。     

“村改居”社区居委会选举困境与治理路径——以城乡协调发展为视角

城镇化导致"村改居"社区愈来愈多,"村改居"后村级选举模式发生了重大变化,这既给城乡协调发展带来了机遇,又造成了诸多挑战。基于对四川省达州市A社区"村改居"后社区居委会选举中存在的"等额选举"、"另选他人"、"贿选"、"基层政权干预"等困境的分析,本文提出影响"村改居"社区居委会选举的三个因素:居委会成员候选人资格的设定左右选举结果;居委会选举方式影响贿选效果;基层政权机关和居委会的角色定位影响选举的民主程度。     

盐城"村改居"后农村集体资产改制的调查

"村改居"是我国城镇化和经济社会发展到一定阶段的必然要求,是全面推进城乡一体化的重要工作.在城市化进程不断加快的新形势下,越来越多的村委会相继改为居委会.然而,由于推进的步伐较快,相当多的"村改居"仅仅是换了块牌子,对于"村改居"后原村委会职能调整,村集体资产处置等深层次问题并没有触及.最近,我们就"村改居"后如何处置原农村集体资产的问题,对江苏省盐城市盐都区新区管委会福才社区进行了专题调研.     

“村改居”社区养老服务质量提升研究

“村改居”社区作为城镇化的产物,其养老问题值得关注。受“村改居”社区自身特点的影响,区分于城市或农村社区,其参与养老的各主体发挥着不同作用,如何提升“村改居”老人的养老服务质量显得至关重要。本文基于4个案例,采用案例比较研究方法,选取以家庭、社区、市场、政府为主导的养老案例展开分析,并提出建议。     

关于"村改居"转制过程中的有关问题和建议

为研究农村城镇化进程问题，最近，我们对广州、东莞等地推行“村改居”转制工作进行了调研。通过调研我们认为，对“城中村”以及经济发达的城市郊区农村进行“村委会转制为社区居委会”(即“村改居”)，扩大了城市区划面积，为经营城市消除了体制上的一些障碍，聚集了可观的土     

村改居原住民城市融入困境分析

随着城镇化规模不断扩大,“村改居”社区作为政府推动的就地城镇化模式,数量也不断增多。在这种城镇化模式推进中,获得市民身份的农民由于在个人能力、经济、文化、社会保障等方面与城市居民存在差距而导致其在融入城市生活时困难重重。基于此,本文借助权利贫困理论,从个人可行能力、政治权利、文化权利、经济权利和社会权利五个层面对影响“村改居”原住民城市融入困境的因素做出理论解释。     

城市“新居民”的烦恼

<正>当下对村民们而言,"村改居"意味着生产生活方式的巨大改变,这些城市"新居民"是怎样看待新社区的,原村集体经济是否平稳过渡,集体资产改制如何、收益分配能否实现,带着这些问题,记者走访了山东省淄博市一个农村社区,深切体会到了他们的担忧。管理职能难梳理这个2013年完成"村改居"工作的新建社区原先是个城郊村,居民们向记者表示,由于缺乏实质性举措,运行机制基本还按原来的村"两委"体制。大多数居民认为,"村改居"对他们来说,跟原来没有什么大的区别,不同的只是挂着的牌子从"村委会"换成了"居委会",而运作方式仍     

我国城镇化进程中教育资源均衡配置研究

积极稳定地推进城镇化进程,提升城镇化质量水平,是我国在"十二五"期间国民经济社会发展的重要战略。城镇化发展的主要特点是要素集中,特别是"人"的集聚,城镇化的进程会带动教育资本的投入和人口受教育水平提高;反之,居民受教育水平的提高会增加生产效率的提升,从而促进城镇化进程。     

广州“村改居”面临的主要问题及解决思路

为适应城市化发展需要,近年来广州市逐步推进"村改居"工作。在"村改居"进程中,面临着农民对"转居"愿望不强、"农转居"人员的社会保障水平偏低、原有的集体经济组织仍承担大量社会管理职责且负担较重、转制社区公共服务配套滞后、"农转居"人员再就业存在较多障碍、"城中村现象"仍然存在、集体经济组织产权制度改革和"公司化"转型困难等问题。本文针对广州"村改居"面临的主要问题提出解决思路与建议。     

双轨制到嵌入式:“村改居”社区基层组织转型研究——基于绍兴市S社区的治理实践

政府主导实现的“村改居”社区,因治理体制急剧转型,必然要面临村委会和居委会双重治理主体长期并存的局面。S社区的治理实践表明,“村改居”社区双轨制治理存在着居委会行政化程度较高、村委会功能定位不清、社区自治组织虚化等治理困境。在此基础上,本文提出居委会统筹、村委会协助和社区居民参与的嵌入式治理结构。从双轨制向嵌入式转型,能够整合多元主体间的结构性冲突、重塑多元主体间的权责边界,为“村改居”社区基层组织转型提供路径创新。     

Price transmission between products at different stages of manufacturing in forest industries

The theory of demand and supply implies a positive relationship, or “price transmission” between the prices of products at different stages of manufacturing. This relationship was investigated with quarterly prices of softwood stumpage in the US South, and national prices of forest products, from 1977 to 2002. All prices, net of inflation, were found to be nonstationary and there was no evidence of co-integration between prices. Vector autogressive models, augmented by Granger causality tests and multiplier analysis showed that there was a one-to-one permanent positive response of the southern sawtimber stumpage price to a permanent change in the national lumber price. There was also a one-third permanent positive response of the national paper price to a permanent change in the national pulp price. There was no relation between regional pulpwood prices and national pulp or paper prices. When price transmission was significant, the full adjustment took about 2 years.     

Application of an ecosystem function framework to perceptions of community woodlands

Owners, local residents, government, and conservation organisations can express divergent preferences in the development and management of local woodlands. The perceptions of these four groups were examined, in the context of three community woodlands in Eastern England, using an ecosystem function framework. In a pilot study, residents were able to allocate a relative importance to woodland ecosystem services which were then related to “regulation”, “habitat”, and “production” or “information” functions. However residents also placed importance on negative services or “dis-services” associated with the woodland ecosystem. Therefore a fifth category of “dis-services” was included in the main survey which included 84 local residents, three woodland owners, three government institutions, and six representatives from conservation groups. Each of the four groups placed greatest importance on services associated with habitat (16–39% of the total importance) and information (30–50%) functions suggesting, in this example, mutual interest in the use of woodlands as a habitat or recreational resource. By contrast a potential area of difference was the particularly high importance placed by one owner on dis-services such as fly tipping. In addition the woodland owners placed higher importance (10–20%), than local residents and conservation groups (7–9%), on the productive services of the wood. This suggests a need for communication when production-related operations affect recreation. The ecosystem function framework appears to be a useful approach for highlighting potential tensions and areas of mutual interest in the management of semi-natural ecosystems.     

In Vino ‘No’ Veritas: impacts of fraud on wine imports in China

China is one of the largest wine importing countries in the world and is poised for continued import growth in the future. Increased wine purchases throughout China have given rise to persistent fraud where fake wines are packaged and sold with counterfeit contents and labels. For exporting countries like France, counterfeit wines displace market share, damage foreign brand reputation, and cause distrust in consumers who are aware of counterfeiting problems throughout the country. We examine the impact of fraudulent wine events (as measured by negative media reports) on Chinese wine demand differentiated by supplying country. We employ the Rotterdam demand system and a switching regression procedure to estimate import demand and compare results across different media variable specifications. Results consistently show that negative reports disproportionately affect French wine regardless of how the media variable is specified. This is not surprising because most fraudulent events involve French wine counterfeits.     

An evaluation framework for earthquake-responsive land administration

In recent years earthquakes and their secondary hazards have claimed the largest number of lives of all large natural disasters. Some of the world’s most earthquake-prone zones are also areas of high population density. The impact is magnified by vulnerability factors including non-enforcement of building codes, knowledge gaps, urban poverty and poor governance capacity to manage and reduce earthquake risks. Poor security of land tenure and property rights increases the vulnerability of people and affects their ability to respond to natural disasters.Earthquake recovery and reconstruction provides very significant challenges for land agencies, with these challenges differing from one country to the next due to differences in the local context. Drawing on contrasting case studies in Haiti, Nepal and New Zealand this paper identifies the common post-earthquake land administration functions and challenges that may apply to many contexts. These lessons provide land agencies and other key stakeholders with a summary of the challenges an earthquake poses for land administration at different post-disaster stages. We also discuss the policy and regulatory, institutional, operational and preparedness lessons for land administration. From these lessons we propose a framework for evaluating the earthquake-responsiveness of a land administration system. This framework can be used by a land agency in an earthquake prone region, or where an earthquake has recently occurred, to assess what challenges to land administration might occur in the event of an earthquake, and the preparedness of their land administration system.     

Agrarian Poverty,Nutrition and Economic Class – A Study of Gujarat,India

This paper analyses poverty and calorific undernourishment in the Indian state of Gujarat, where high and market‐led industrial growth has resulted in rapid economic improvement. The study is carried out through a combination of secondary and survey‐based data. We conclude that the neoliberal agenda of uncontrolled, outward‐looking growth has not resulted in significant reduction of poverty or malnourishment in rural areas. Furthermore, while land ownership is officially used as a proxy for wealth distribution, class position appears a better predictor of poverty status in the rural areas than landownership per se. At the policy level, there is a need to revive the agrarian economy and create new non‐agricultural assets, and the primary focus in the state must shift to the distribution of created assets rather than a single‐minded focus on growth.     

Does sustainable agricultural growth require a system of innovation? Evidence from Ghana and Burkina Faso

This paper tests the ‘systems of innovation’ hypothesis for a selection of crops in Ghana and Burkina Faso that have shown significant growth in production over an approximately 20-year period. The question is whether such growth can only occur if supported by a system of innovation. Using two indicators (a common understanding on objectives and priorities, and a high level of interactivity), we find little evidence for the existence of anything that might be considered a high functioning system of innovation.     

Local impacts of industrial tree plantations: An empirical analysis in Indonesia across plantation types

The values ascribed to industrial tree plantations are often controversial. Hence knowledge of their perceived impacts is important for improving their integration in rural landscapes. In 2016 we conducted household surveys with 606 respondents living in villages adjacent to acacia, teak and pine plantations across three islands in Indonesia (Java, Borneo, Sumatra). Results show that perceptions toward pine and teak plantations tend to differ from those toward acacia pulpwood plantations in several ways. Pine and teak plantations are perceived to have a higher number and variety of benefits and services, a higher number of positive impacts, a better environmental record, and to present more opportunities to local people for use of plantation land and products for improving rural livelihoods. In addition, we find that villagers around acacia pulpwood plantations tend to seek economic development and infrastructure to open up remote areas, yet their expectations were often only partially met. Recommendations from our analysis include: the role of the State in plantations must be clarified and potentially reinforced; the role of institutions as intermediaries is fundamental; and contributions by communities to design of management plans should be accommodated.     

Upstream demand for water use by new tree plantations imposes externalities on downstream irrigated agriculture and wetlands*

Large‐scale tree plantations in high rainfall upstream areas can reduce fresh water inflows to river systems, thereby imposing external costs on downstream irrigation, stock and domestic water users and wetland interests. We take the novel approach of expressing all benefits and costs of establishing plantations in terms of $ per gigalitre (GL) of water removed annually from river flows, setting upstream demands on the same basis as downstream demands. For the Macquarie Valley, a New South Wales sub‐catchment of Australia’s Murray‐Darling Basin, we project changes in land and water use and changes in economic surpluses under two policy settings: without and with a policy requiring permanent water entitlements to be purchased from downstream parties, before plantation establishment. Without the policy, and given a high stumpage value for trees ($70/m³), upstream gains in economic surplus projected from expanding plantations are $639 million; balanced against $233 million in economic losses by downstream irrigators and stock and domestic water users for a net gain of $406 million, but 345 GL lower mean annual environmental flows. With the policy, smaller gains in upstream economic surplus from trees ($192 million), added to net downstream gains ($138 million) from sale of water, result in gains of $330 million with no reduction in environmental flows. Sustaining the 345 GL flow for a $76 million (406–330) reduction in gains to economic surplus may be seen to cost only $0.22 million/GL; but this is much lower than the market value of the first units of that water to agriculture and forestry.     

Underpayment of Small Producers of Coffee and Cocoa in Sierra Leone

Fieldwork shows that many Sierra Leonean producers do not receive the official producer price for their coffee and cocoa, due to the concentration of buying stations, credit relations, the small quantities offered for sale, and the lack of marketing knowledge of the numerous and unorganized farmers. To the traders underpayment may seem economically justifiable to a certain extent, but to the farmers it means poverty and debt. A new village marketing centre project aims at remedying this situation and has already led to higher prices. Although no longer allowed to take their "just" share from the producers, traders are still willing to deal with the new centres.     

Malaria incidence and agricultural efficiency in Uganda

The cost of accessing healthcare can be a major determinant of disease prevalence, which in turn has short‐ and long‐term welfare implications on poor households. In response, governments in developing countries often resort to subsidizing the cost of drugs, which, while perhaps easier to administer, may not always be the most effective way of addressing healthcare cost. In this regard, we analyze the impact of different types of household level health expenses on disease incidence and agricultural production efficiency. We use data from the 2006 Uganda National Household Survey, which covered approximately 7,400 households. The results suggest that a 10% increase in consultation, medicine, and hospitalization expenses would reduce malaria incidence respectively by 35.6%, 20.5%, and 21.3 %, which translates into a 1.1%, 0.6%, and 0.6 % decrease in agricultural inefficiency, respectively. The results indicate that helping poor households meet expenses for consultation through subsidies or eliminating consultation fees has a larger impact on malaria incidence and agricultural productivity among poor rural households than subsidizing the cost of medical drugs, the most common avenue chosen by developing country governments in the fight against the disease.