Mining and Social Movements: Struggles Over Livelihood and Rural Territorial Development in the Andes

Social movements have been viewed as vehicles through which the concerns of poor and marginalized groups are given greater visibility within civil society, lauded for being the means to achieve local empowerment and citizen activism, and seen as essential in holding the state to account and constituting a grassroots mechanism for promoting democracy. However, within development studies little attention has been paid to understanding how social movements can affect trajectories of development and rural livelihood in given spaces, and how these effects are related to movements’ internal dynamics and their interaction with the broader environment within which they operate. This paper addresses this theme for the case of social movements protesting contemporary forms of mining investment in Latin America. On the basis of cases from Peru and Ecuador, the paper argues that the presence and nature of social movements has significant influences both on forms taken by extractive industries (in this case mining) and on the effects of this extraction on rural livelihoods. In this sense, one can usefully talk about rural development as being co-produced by movements, mining companies, and other actors, in particular the state. The terms of this co-production, however, vary greatly among different locations, reflecting the distinct geographies of social mobilization and of mineral investment, as well as the varying power relationships among the different actors involved.     

Analysing the factors influencing clean technology adoption: a study of the Spanish pulp and paper industry

Technological change has a relevant role to play in the transition towards a sustainable industry. However, slow diffusion of clean technologies can be observed in OECD countries. The analysis of the determinants and barriers to clean technology adoption should be a main goal of economists and social scientists. This paper shows that three sets of interrelated factors prevent but also stimulate the widespread adoption and diffusion of clean technology: these are factors external and internal to the firm, conditions of the potential adopters and characteristics of the environmental technology. These factors are included in the so‐called ‘triangular model’, which is further applied to the analysis of clean technology adoption in the pulp and paper industry in Spain. The empirical study shows that clean technology adoption decisions are the result of an interaction between these factors, often involving contradictory signals for the potential adopter. The paper closes with some public policy recommendations for the effective and efficient promotion of clean technology diffusion. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Researching with whom? Stability and manipulation

This paper explores the existence of stable research teams, when the preferences of each agent depend on the set of researchers who are collaborating. We introduce a property over researchers’ preferences, called top responsiveness, guaranteeing the existence of stable research teams configurations. We also provide a stable mechanism, induced by the so-called top covering algorithm, which is strategy-proof when researchers preferences satisfy top responsiveness. Furthermore, we find that, in this framework, the top covering mechanism is the only strategy-proof mechanism that always selects stable allocations.     

Intergovernmental transfers and fiscal behavior insurance versus aggregate discipline

This paper evaluates the trade-off between the advantages of risk sharing and the perils of common pool problems in federal fiscal arrangements. Under the assumption of asymmetric information we evaluate two alternative regimes of intergovernmental transfers. In one regime, the central government pre-commits to a certain level of transfers that compensate vertical fiscal imbalances and provide some limited ex-ante insurance. In the other regime, it accommodates ex-post the fiscal needs of the different provinces. In this second case, full-insurance results, but the economy is subject to a tragedy of the fiscal commons, with excessive subnational spending, insufficient local taxation, and reduced production of federal public goods. We find the range of parameters for which one or the other institutional regime will be preferable. The result is a fiscal-federalism version of the usual trade-off between rules and discretion.     

发展现代物流开掘新的利润源

随着经济的全球化，现代物流业在国内已逢勃发展，通过大量的资料和数据，说明了现代物流业已成为国民经济的重要支撑点，是新的“利润源泉”，指出了我国如何加快现代物流业的举措。     

高高在上的尊严

夜晚的绕城公路上，两三名“交警”拦下一辆外地牌号的轿车，制服、警帽、罚单甚至配枪，一应俱全，几名“人民卫士”俨然在秉公执法于一个交通违规事件。车，被“顺理成章”地扣留。几天之后，当车主带着扣车凭证前往车管所领车的时候，揭开了一场几地连锁的冒充交警扣车骗车的案件序幕。这是发生于广东省的一桩大型诈骗案件，涉及范围广及东莞、肇庆、深圳等多处。在警方严密配合下，几经展转周折，案件终究告破。     

企业公民

早在2003年．身为商务部研究院跨国公司研究中心主任的王志乐就开始对跨国公司如何强化公司责任进行了调查研究，当时．国内学术界媒体对于“公司责任”这个领域的研究报道几乎是一片空白。     

好风凭借力送我上青云--记虎门借力服装跃居全国千强镇之首

虎韵霓裳羽衣曲,十载激情谱华章M 11月,中国(虎门)国际服装交易会将迎来它的十岁华诞,一个激动人心的消息像一份不期而至的大喜贺礼在她的生日到来之际传来--国家统计局公布最新测评结果,全国综合实力千强镇名单新鲜出炉,虎门荣登榜首!     

加盟奥运特许经营的途径

7月1日．西部第一家北京2008年奥运会特许商品零售店正式在成都亮相。成都是继北京、青岛、上海之后，第4个开设奥运会特许商品零售店的试点城市。