Rural traffic management: The Burrator Reservoir experiment

The introduction of traffic management schemes has been one response of the National Parks to the problem of ever-increasing car-borne visitors and the consequent damage caused to the rural environment. By reviewing these schemes and by determining and explaining attitudes towards one particular traffic management experiment, the paper aims to deduce lessons for future policy. The analysis, based on two visitor surveys, suggests that the likelihood of success is improved when schemes are integrated, containing both ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ elements. Since public perceptions are also found to be pivotal to its success, appropriate marketing of a scheme is vital. The paper concludes, however, that to achieve the fundamental objective of greater accessibility with less mobility, a more wide-ranging marketing effort is required intended to engender a sea change in attitude towards both the car and public transport.     

Futures assessment by field anomaly relaxation : A review and appraisal

Futures research includes the problem of generating reasonably exhaustive and plausible scenarios for a given topic, a problem for which there are no truly satisfactory solutions. This article reviews and evaluates a method, field anomaly relaxation, first put forward some 20 years ago. The evaluation is in the context of an illustrative study of political developments in Europe. The research reconstructs and further develops the method and concludes that it has something to offer for scenario generation. Its weaknesses are identified and suggestions for further research are made.     

Offshoring in the New Global Political Economy

abstract    This essay challenges claims by economists and management scholars that 'offshoring' is simply another form of trade with mutual benefits. I argue that reducing wages through offshoring leads to wealth creation for shareholders but not necessarily for countries and employees, and that many displaced workers have difficulty 'trading up' to higher skilled jobs. Offshoring is a new phenomenon that entails the organizational and technological ability to relocate specific tasks and coordinate a geographically dispersed network of activities. It decouples the linkages between economic value creation and geographic location. The result is the creation of global commodity markets for particular skills and a shift in the balance of market power among firms, workers, and countries.     

Generating Enhanced Fishery Rents by Internalizing Product Quality Characteristics

This paper demonstrates howadditional rents are generated in a fisherycharacterized by intraseasonal variation infish characteristics, including size,condition, and composition. Based on anexpanded conceptual model of the optimalharvest rule, fish characteristics affect preand post harvest production yields and outputprices. A dynamic empirical model, which uses asystem of quality characteristics and anhedonic equation, illustrates the complexrelationships and management choices associatedwith internalizing seafood qualitycharacteristics in a hake fishery. The modelretains the regulated open access managementsystem, but controls intertemporal andintersectoral quotas, production portfolios,and total allowable catch. Results demonstratethat including revenue-side effects frominternalizing fish quality can generatesignificantly greater rents and reduce therelative benefits of increased productionyields. If excluded, bioeconomic models canunderestimate the level of regulatory rentdissipation and overemphasize managementobjectives such as full utilization, whichcould misdirect processing decisions and resultin a suboptimal resource management plan.Implications for data collection,multidisciplinary analysis, and improvements inmarine resource management are discussed.     

中国作家的重庆礼赞

2005年9月21日至25日，由中国作家协会、重庆市委宣传部共同举办的“中国著名作家看重庆”活动在重庆举行。蒋子龙、张贤亮、黄亚洲等一行40余名中国著名作家来到重庆，与年轻的直辖市“零距离”接触，参观、考察和感受重庆，这是一次极富创意和美感的大型文学采风活动。作家们乘轻轨，看夜景，走龙湖，逛磁器口，参观三峡博物馆，邀游长江嘉陵江……从壮美河山到古老小镇，从巴山夜雨到繁华街市，从远古3000年漫漫求索，到新世纪重庆直辖崛起，重庆的传统与现代、人文与城市、自然与科技的融合，让作家们惊奇、赞赏，逸兴勃发，叹为观止。[编者按]     

关于企业质量管理发展阶段的探讨

1 引言　　 从传统的质量控制（QC）、全面质量控制（TQC）、全面质量管理（TQM）到ISO 9000认证,许多企业的质量管理已达到较高水平,但质量水平应该达到何种程度,却缺少明确目标;企业之间的质量水平如何客观地加以比较,也缺少统一的标准.当前,在进行ISO 9000质量认证的同时,国内外许多企业都非常重视企业质量管理水平的自我评估和第三方等级评定.     

精品课程建设漫谈

精品课程要求具有一流教师队伍、一流教学内容、一流教学方法、一流教材、一流放学管理等特点。精品课程建设，就是以现代教育思想为先导，以建设相应层次的、具有较强针对性和适用性的优秀教材为核心，以提高师资队伍素质为前提，以教学内容现代化为基础，以现代信息技术手段为平台，以科学的管理体制为保障。是集观念、师资、内容、技术、方法、制度于一身的整体建设。