Popular Geopolitics Past and Future: Fandom,Identities and Audiences

This short and hopefully provocative paper serves as both a retrospective of the past twenty years of critical work on so-called popular geopolitics and also an impetus for a more theoretical connection to related areas within cultural studies, such as fan studies. An overarching theme of the history of popular geopolitics has been a concern over geopolitical representation and discourse, which is only now beginning to shift towards audience interpretation, consumption and attachment. This shift in focus parallels a similar move in cultural studies made several years prior. Therefore, this paper advocates combining theories from cultural studies with empirical studies of concern to popular geopolitics to further our understanding. Specifically outlined as a possibility in this paper is the viewing of nationalism and religion as forms of fan-based identities, in that both can be understood as adherence to serial narratives. This perspective carries several corollaries regarding methodology and object of study, most notably a concern with the making of geopolitical meaning by audiences as they consume popular culture and related texts.     

Sustainability in Canadian B&Bs: comparing the east versus west

Although bed and breakfasts (B&Bs) represent a small part of the overall accommodation sector, they can contribute to both the positive and negative impacts of the industry. Through a questionnaire of Canada's east and west coastal B&Bs, findings indicate that financial reasons are the biggest barrier to implementing environmental practices and government incentives and tax rebates may help the uptake of environmental measures. Results from this study can be used to motivate improvements for environmental commitment in this form of accommodation such as cost savings and strengthened lines of communication. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the factors that influence waste generation and diversion at Canadian festivals

ABSTRACT

Festivals can be important contributors to tourism and the social and economic sustainability of the communities in which they are located. A festival, however, can also negatively impact the environment by increasing demands on waste management and disposal. To better understand what factors influence festival waste management, we applied both quantitative and qualitative methods to find that provincial location, festival type and festival size significantly influence waste generation and diversion. Consistency in waste regulation and practices, sustainability partnerships with local stakeholders, and responsible leadership are encouraged.     

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SIMPLE X2 AND NEYMAN SMOOTH GOODNESS OF FIT TESTS

Suppose we wish to test whether data are consistent with a completely specified continuous distribution against a general alternative. Familiar omnibus tests are PEARSON'S X² test and NEYMAN'S smooth test. Fundamental problems in the application of these tests are the construction and number of classes to use for X², and the choice of the order of the NEYMAN smooth test. This paper examines these questions.     

Quote disclosure and price discovery in multiple-dealer financial markets

We examine the effects of price disclosure on market performancein a continuous experimental multiple-dealer market in whichseven professional market makers trade a single security. Thedealers trade with one another and with computerized informedand liquidity traders. Our key comparison is between fully publicprice queues (pretrade transparent market) and bilateral quoting(pretrade opaque). We find that opening spreads are wider andtrading volume is lower in the opaque markets due to highersearch costs there. More importantly, however, higher searchcosts also induce more aggressive pricing strategies, so thatprice discovery is much faster in the opaque markets.     

Control rights, debt structure, and the loss of private benefits: the case of the UK insolvency code

We show how the efficiency of reorganization is affected bythe distribution of control rights under the U.K insolvencycode. Control rights raise particular problems when creditorshave different incentives to keep the firm as a going concern.Such differences may arise from the possession of private benefitsby particular creditors which are lost if the debtor firm isliquidated. The incidence of inefficient liquidations is influencedby the size and seniority of creditors' claims. The currentU.K. code is widely thought to give rise to inefficient liquidations.We show, however, that inefficiency depends upon the debt structureand whether the controlling creditor in formal bankruptcy hasprivate benefits.     

Emerging trends in China's financial sector

This paper reviews the trends which emerged in the financial system in China over the period 1979 to 1987. Economic and social reforms, which began in late 1978, have produced some far-reaching and significant effects on the growth of the Chinese economy. These reforms have prompted changes in the financial system, including banking reforms to handle the flow of funds to finance domestic expansion, international trade, the foreign debt and other domestic and international financial and finance-related transactions. The paper reviews the developments and focuses on some of the problems with respect to balance of payments, imbalances and inflationary pressures.Cecil R. Dipchand is a Professor of Finance in the School of Business Administration, Dalhousie University, Halifax; J. Colin Dodds is a Professor of Finance and Dean of Commerce at Saint Mary's University, Halifax; Patricia McGraw is an Administrator in the Canada-China Management Education Programme, School of Business Administration, Dalhousie University; and Keng Chen is a Lecturer in the Economics College, Xiamen University, Fujian Province, PR China. The financial assistance of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is greatly appreciated.     

浅议世界经济和黄金市场走向

一、经济衰退历史是否会重演？ 很多媒体都认为正在进行的金融危机以及伴随而来的经济衰退,是自1929年华尔街股市崩盘以及20世纪30年代世界经济大萧条以来最严重的一次．不过,此次金融危机以及周期性的经济繁荣与低谷,在资本主义系统中仅仅属于个别的区域性现象。但是,有些媒体却预测资本主义的末日即将到来。尽管笔者不得不承认,很担心公共部门和私有部门之间平衡的转变也许很难逆转,但事实正如许多人所知道的那样,资本主义并没有在1637年荷兰的“郁金香狂热”和1720年的“南海泡沫”中迎来末日。一旦西方国家从现在的危机中摆脱,资本主义同样不会终结。