Transformation of Local Power Elites: the Institutionalization of Social Movements in St Petersburg

Starting from the elections of 1990, the renewal of St Petersburg's political elite has developed in two stages. During the first stage, activists of social movement organizations were established in the city representative body (institutionalization of social movements). In the second stage, authoritative bodies within the city Soviet were formed from the deputy corps (whose members we have identified as the elite). Having progressed from their role of challenging the institutionalized political process to participating in it, the new city political leadership at first followed the patterns of social movement behaviour. There has been, however, a shift in activity patterns and an estrangement from challenging groups. There is also evidence of a change in the concept of city authorities' functioning. The desire for a union of representative and executive power, typical of an initial introduction to politics, is giving way to recognition of the need for a division of power. But the admission of leaders of challenging social movements to city power structures has not entailed their conversion to the new city elite. Depuis les élections de 1990, le renouvellement des élites de Saint Pétersbourg s'est produit en deux étapes. Durant la première phase, les activistes des organisations de mouvements sociaux s'établirent dans le corps représentatif de la ville (l'institutionalisation des mouvements sociaux). Durant la deuxième phase, les organisations autoritaires de la ville furent formées par le corps des fondés de pouvoir (dont nous avons identifiés les membres comme étant l'élite). Ayant progressé de leur position de contestation du processus politique institutionaliséà celle de participant dans ce processus, les nouveaux dirigeants politiques de la ville suivirent, au début, le modèle de comportement du mouvement social. Il y a cependant eu un changement dans les types d'activités et un retrait des groupes contestataires. Il y a aussi des indications de changement dans les concepts de fonctionnement des autorités de la ville. Le désir d'unir les pouvoirs représentatifs et exécutifs, caractéristique d'une introduction initiale à la politique, cède la place à une reconnaissance qu'une division du pouvoir est nécessaire. Mais l'entrée des dirigeants des mouvements sociaux contestataires dans les structures du pouvoir de la ville n'a pas été suivie par leur transformation en nouvelles élites.     

An Expansion of the Neoclassical Horizon in Economics: The Rent–Seeking Research Program Brings in the Nuances of Social and Political Control

Abstract . The terms of discourse in the Neoclassical school of economic theory have constrained its ability to develop the connections between the economic and the social and political spheres. Building on the logic of the rent–seeking research program a systematic connection is developed. A taxonomy of distribution is presented in which rent and profit ate identified as distributions to control over productive factors. The structure of control embodied in social and political institutions largely determines who controls these productive factors and therefore who receives the distributions to control: profit and rent. The distinction between profit and rent relates to opportunity cost. Profit is a distribution to control equal to opportunity cost and is therefore allocatively necessary. Rent is a return above and beyond opportunity cost and is not allocatively necessary. By clarifying the role of rent and profit in Neoclassical theory the interconnection between the social, political, and economic spheres is systematically integrated into the theory.     

Worker Ownership and Participation in the Context of Social Change

A bstract . A massive volume of literature has been generated over recent years concerning the nature of work organizations and resultant effects upon worker satisfaction and enterprise efficiency. Between extreme radical and conservative views, a good deal of attention has focused on worker ownership and the locus of power in the organization. Worker ownership can lead to beneficial results, but only if carefully structured. Worker participation in decision making is the key, but the transfer from authoritarianism is difficult. Any substantial transfer of enterprise ownership is remote. Even transformation to greater power sharing, short of ownership change, will be slow and fragile.     

我为什么积极参与中国城市科学研究会的筹建

筹建中国城市科学研究会,我可以说是一个积极分子和热心参与者.动因何在?就本人而言,很大程度上是切身经历的一些感触所促使的.     

Learning, Teamwork and Appropriability: Managing Technological Change in the Department of Social Security

Drawing on an extensive case study, we argue that management has to actively manage information flows, both within the organization and between the organization and its environment. Three tasks of knowledge management are, in our view, important in building technological capability: appropriation, teamworking and learning. 'Appropriation' includes the retention and effective utilization of internal knowledge. 'Teamworking' refers to the integration of diverse knowledge bases. 'Learning' embraces the acquisition and exploitation of externally held knowledge     

Change in the Social Hierarchy of French Urban Housing between 1978 and 1996

This article discusses aspects of stability and instability in the social hierarchy of French urban housing over time. The analysis is based on the creation of housing categories using the occupancy characteristics of 58 types of housing units. Each category represents the position of a housing unit and its occupant in a socially hierarchized residential space. Our study looked at the movements of housing units between these different positions, the residential distribution of 11 cohorts of households and the residential trajectories of social groups from 1978 to 1996. Its results highlight the emergence of a twofold residential contrast — between the top and the bottom of the social hierarchy, and between the generations who benefited from economic growth during the period known as the Trente Glorieuses and other generations. These contrasts are expressed through a significant erosion of the most socially mixed sections of the housing stock, most recently through increasingly rigid channels of access to housing, and through upward residential trajectories that now exclude working‐class social groups and are no longer totally guaranteed to young households in the higher social groups. Cet article porte sur les stabilités et les instabilités temporelles de la hiérarchie sociale de l’habitat urbain français. L’analyse est basée sur la construction de catégories d’habitat élaborées à partir des caractéristiques d’occupation de 58 types de logements. Chaque catégorie traduit une position du logement et de son occupant dans un espace résidentiel socialement hiérarchisé. L’étude présente, entre 1978 et 1996, les mouvements des logements entre ces différentes positions, la distribution résidentielle de 11 cohortes de ménages et les trajectoires résidentielles des groupes sociaux. Les résultats font apparaître la mise en place d’une double opposition résidentielle entre le haut et le bas de la hiérarchie sociale et entre les générations qui ont bénéficié de l’expansion économique des Trente Glorieuses et les autres. Ces oppositions se traduisent par une érosion sensible des fractions de parc les plus mixées socialement, des filières d’accès au logement de plus en plus rigides dans la période la plus récente, et des trajectoires résidentielles ascendantes qui excluent dorénavant les catégories populaires et ne sont plus totalement assurées pour les jeunes ménages des couches supérieures.     

无限时域下价格与需求相关时的订货问题研究

讨论了无限时域下采购商面对价格变化以及需求与价格相关情形下的最优订货问题,在已有文献的基础上,分析了采购商面对价格变化时的决策。分析表明,只有当价格上升时,采购商在拥有最后一次低价采购的机会下才有可能追加订货,从而改变了基本EOQ模型中需求是稳定的情形,而将需求与价格相关联,并用仿真分析了不同的价格上升幅度以及不同的期初库存对订货策略的影响。     

西藏建立社会稳定风险评估机制的时代背景与意义——以重大工程项目为例

重大项目是西藏推进跨越式发展的重要载体。项目数量多,投资金额大,它在促进西藏经济社会发展的同时,也蕴含着巨大的社会稳定风险。在全球步入风险社会、我国正处于社会转型期以及西藏特殊的自然与社会环境的时代背景下,西藏建立与完善社会稳定风险评估机制具有重要的理论与实践意义,源头治理创新了维稳新思维——实现了由传统的救火、应急维稳模式到防火,预防的转变,形成预防与化解社会矛盾的新举措,提高西藏各级政府的决策科学化与民主化,有助于西藏维稳长效机制的形成。     

The Future of Japanese Manufacturing in the UK

The expansion of Japanese FDI into the UK manufacturing sector during the 1980s and early 1990s gave rise to the debate on the Japanization of British industry. The paper argues that this debate was constructed from a Western perspective. It did not locate the strategies and structures of Japanese subsidiaries within the broader context of how Japanese multinational corporations were evolving in this period. The necessity to look at these issues from a more global perspective is reinforced by the changes which have occurred since the mid 1990s in the environment for Japanese multinationals. The global economy offers more choices to firms about their location as well as facing them with a more competitive environment. In the Japanese case, this is leading to a growing differentiation between standardized mass production (which can be located in Asia and Eastern Europe) and science–led sectors of industrial production (which necessitate location near to centres of research and development expertise in the USA and Europe). This means that Japanese firms are reconsidering the strategy and structure of their subsidiaries in the UK. Standardized mass production will only survive in the UK as long as costs can be pushed further down and productivity increased, both of which are difficult conditions to meet given possibilities elsewhere in the world for cheap mass production. The growing area of investment will be in science–based manufacturing, though here the UK will be competing against the USA and Germany for Japanese investment. Here, however, the organizational and management characteristics of Japanese subsidiaries will make the necessary connections with local managers and local networks of expertise difficult to achieve. Thus Japanese subsidiaries in the UK are in a period of prolonged uncertainty about their role in the future. These changes open up the necessity for a new agenda of research which goes beyond the Japanization approach and is concerned with the organization and management of Japanese multinationals in an era of global competition.