Money as Social Exergy

Synopsis It has been proposed that open thermodynamic systems will act to dissipate available energy gradients by self-organizing into coherent structures that, with time, evolve and develop into nested hierarchies – panarchies – that adapt to internal and external changes according to a characteristic adaptive cycle. This paper seeks to apply these ideas in the purely societal realm by investigating the role of money in economic systems. Money represents the value embodied in goods; a value that is separate from the exact nature of those goods. We suggest that money thereby liberates the ‘free value’ of economic desire and that this free value has properties analogous to energy. The result is the self-organization of structures and systems (‘econosystems’) that dissipate this ‘free value’. Econosystems act at different scales, and nested levels of econosystems form a panarchy, having effects that can be observed. In particular, it appears that money facilitates the creation of relationships between econosystem actors, increasing the connectedness of the econosystems that envelop those actors. We have identified a phenomenon whereby freed social value (i.e. money) can aggregate, or pool, at a larger econosystem scale in structures such as banks. These pools act as gradients that actors at the neighborhood scale can exploit for self-organization in the econosystem. Thus, econosystem actors appear to be freed from thermodynamic constraints by using money as a means of self-organization. However, because of these pools of aggregated social exergy, connectedness is increased at the larger scale of the econosystem. The potential consequence of this dynamic is that money may act to push larger scale econosystems toward a state of heightened vulnerability to collapse, while freeing smaller scale actors from apparent constraints. In this way, we propose that money acts to skew information feedback loops between econosystem actors and larger scale structures such as economies and ecosystems.      

Régulation School and environment: Theoretical proposals and avenues of research

The article explores the relevance of a particular approach of the institutionalist movement, régulation theory, to deal with the relationship between the economy and the environment. Régulation theory, which appeared in France at the end of the 1970s, is mainly interested in macroeconomic issues. In contrast, until now it has tended to neglect environmental questions. By taking several key concepts of this theory (accumulation regime, mode of régulation, institutional forms), we have sought to assess its significance vis-à-vis the environmental field. More precisely, from the perspective of establishing an environmental regulationist theory, we propose considering the economic relation to the environment as the articulation of three forms: a transhistorical form, a general capitalist form and a specific capitalist form, the latter being variable in capitalist time and space. We give several illustrations of the variability of the relation to the environment, depending on the different accumulation regimes and the different modes of régulation. Two principal avenues of research are proposed: historical analyses for given economic areas, and comparative analyses relating in particular to different capitalist areas.     

民族文化变迁对生态环境保护的影响——以云南为例

我国西部生态环境保护一直是各学科关注的焦点问题,但从生态环境保护的民族文化内在驱动力这一重要角度进行研究的较少。实际上,环境保护的主体是当地居民,而环境保护观念主要受到传统民族文化的影响。本文通过对云南民族文化变迁的分析,指出了对云南民族生态文化产生负面影响的因素主要来自三方面:汉文化、近现代文明、地域权力变更与“左”倾思想。最后,探讨了解决云南民族文化与生态环境保护之间的摩擦的途径。     

广西乡村──城市转型与协调发展研究

本文揭示了“八五”期间广西乡村──城市转型发展的特征及其地理动力机制．预测未来15—25年内乡村──城乡转型发展的趋势、提出了促进乡村──城市转型与协调发展的一些对策建议。     

杭州湾萧山围垦区环境变化和土地集约利用研究

萧山围垦是建国以来与海持续争地的历史,其业绩为中外瞩目;围垦缓解了萧山人多地少的矛盾,对发展国民经济具有战略意义;围垦后在河道、输沙量和土地利用构成等方面发生了相应的变化;为使垦区可持续发展,提出围垦区土地集约利用的指导思想、近期开发目标和处理资源开发与保护关系应注意的几个问题。     

旅游企业电子商务环境分析及对策

文章从旅游企业电子商务环境的优劣势入手,探讨中小旅游企业如何利用自身的优势制定企业发展的规划与战略,寻求长远的发展。     

社会主义新农村建设中的生态环境问题——以成都市为例

构建和谐社会,建设社会主义新农村是我国在新时期的重要战略决策。但在新农村建设过程中,农村的环境问题是一个不能忽视的问题。本文以成都市新农村建设中的环境问题为例,分析环境现状和问题产生的原因,并提出了相应解决对策。     

绿色农业的农村妇女道路研究

妇女作为人类生命的孕育者，对人类赖以生存的地球环境，有着息息相关的感情和强烈的责任意识，从而更容易成为环境保护的理论先驱和积极实践者。本文阐述了农村妇女与绿色农业的内在关联，认为构建绿色农业必须要大力开发农村妇女这一人力资源。     

基于风景健康的海南省自贸区人居环境 空间研究

海南经过30年的经济特区建设已正式迈入自贸区建设的新时代，所面临的地区发展与生态维育矛盾逐步加剧。为保育海南优良的生态品质，提升海南人居环境空间质量，基于“健康、生态、人居”三元耦合与互动多赢的发展关系，提出与之适宜的风景园林健康理论；结合前人经验，以人居环境空间规划为切入点，解析人居环境空间研究内容。运用ArcGIS 10.2.2空间分析和Fragstats 4.2景观格局分析，解析海南省域三生空间敏感性、资源利用效率可持续性，以及资源服务范围与开发建设空间适宜性，结合人居环境空间发展特征，提出从全岛国土空间、资源统筹和空间营造3个方面进行规划引导，并提出以下观点：1)人类活动对资源环境和空间利用的合理性是有效保障海南人居环境空间的前提基础；2)遵循风景园林健康理论指导的全域国土空间规划、资源统筹规划和空间营造规划是提升海南人居环境空间的根本路径；3)“健康、生态、人居”三元耦合和互动多赢的关系均衡与协调是提升海南人居环境空间的终极目标。     

A landscape approach for assessing the biodiversity value of indigenous forest remnants: Case study of the Manawatu/Wanganui region of New Zealand

To halt the decline of biodiversity in New Zealand, the government has formulated a strategy of maintaining and restoring a full range of remaining natural habitats to a healthy functioning state. Many indigenous forest remnants exist on private land, and these could be utilised to increase biodiversity. Resources for conservation of forest remnants are limited, so they must be used wisely to deliver the greatest possible biodiversity gain. This paper presents a rapid method for valuing the biodiversity of a region's indigenous forest remnants to help prioritise conservation resources. The region is divided into environmentally distinct areas called land environments. A detailed land-cover map is derived from satellite imagery and used to estimate the proportion of natural habitats remaining in each land environment; from this the biodiversity value of any forest remnant may be calculated. The method is rapid and does not require detailed biodiversity information. When combined with conservation costs, it may be used to create a priority list of forest remnants for conservation. The Manawatu/Wanganui region of New Zealand is used as a case study to demonstrate the method.