The 2012 Olympic Ambassadors and sustainable tourism legacy

This paper examines the capacity of the London (2012) Olympic Ambassador volunteer programmes to create a sustainable tourism legacy. It contributes to the literature on event legacies, particularly the role of volunteers promoting tourism in their home destination. Using an exploratory inductive approach, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted, in 2012 and 2013, with managers of all 11 Ambassador volunteer programmes associated with London and the 10 other regional venues that hosted London Olympic and Paralympic Games events. These show that volunteer Ambassadors enhanced tourist experiences during the Games through the Ambassadors’ pride in their home city, enthusiasm and local knowledge. However, although the Ambassador programmes had aspirations to create a sustainable legacy, in the form of a pool of experienced volunteers to support future events and further tourist visits, this was severely constrained by cuts in local government budgets. The Government Olympic Executive provided a coordinating role leading up to the Games, but neither they nor the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games provided practical assistance for legacy development. This was a missed opportunity to channel the enthusiasm of mega-event volunteers into further volunteering to promote tourism.     

Legal evolution of the concept of ‘home base’ for the purpose of determining labour and social security law applicable to European aircrew members

This paper has a dual aim: (1) to outline the legal evolution of the ‘home base’ concept and (2) to map the role of this concept in determining the law applicable (both employment law and social security law) to employment contracts of European aircrew members. An in-depth analysis of the relevant portions of (1) Reg. (EEC) No 3922/91, (2) Reg. (EU) No 465/2012, (3) Reg. (EU) No 83/2014, (4) EASA's 2014 Certification Specifications, and (5) the European Court of Justice's preliminary ruling on joined cases C-168/16 and C-169/16 is conducted.What emerges is that (1) the ‘home base’ definition, due to its subjectivity, has traditionally been susceptible to multiple interpretations and (2) due to regulatory ambiguity, the use of ‘home base’ to identify the labour laws applicable to airline workers has for a long time been inconsistent, ranging from one extreme (being considered a key element for this purpose) to the other (being assigned a secondary role). It was only in the last few years that some improvements were made, with Reg. (EU) No 465/2012 first and the European Court of Justice's 2017 preliminary ruling then, clarifying that the ‘home base’ concept must be assigned a central role in the determination of the law (both social security law and employment law) applicable to employment contracts in the aviation industry.     

Evaluating the London 2012 Games’ impact on sport participation in a non-hosting region: a practical application of realist evaluation

In the literature on Olympic legacies and impacts, there is a dearth of materials that specifically address the issue of Olympic impact for non-hosting regions. The literature tends to deal with impacts at a national level, or at a hosting-city region level, neglecting in large part the degree to which benefits can be leveraged by non-hosting regions. A further limitation identified in the literature is a failure to engage in detailed formal evaluation of policy implementation where assertions of potential policy impact are based on untested assumptions. This study is intended to address both of these concerns. It presents an empirical, ‘bottom-up’ application of a Realist Evaluation framework to assess the impact of a policy initiative – Workplace Challenge – aimed at leveraging enhanced sports participation in a non-hosting region – Leicestershire – in the period leading up to the 2012 Games. In doing so, it seeks to identify which causal mechanisms worked within this particular context to produce the observed outcomes. The evaluation results demonstrate that the programme represented a positive approach to fostering regular engagement with sport and physical activities for some groups in some types of organisations, and that awareness and motivational factors associated with the London 2012 Games are, in this case, linked (albeit weakly) to an increase in sport and physical activity participation for specific groups taking part in the programme in particular organisational contexts.     

A new economics approach to modelling policies to achieve global 2020 targets for climate stabilisation

This paper explores a Post Keynesian, ‘new economics’ approach to climate policy, assessing the opportunities for investment in accelerated decarbonisation of the global economy to 2020 following the Great Recession of 2008–2009. The risks associated with business-as-usual growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere suggest that avoiding dangerous climate change will require that the world’s energy-economy system is transformed through switching to low-carbon technologies and lifestyles. Governments have agreed a target to hold the increase in temperatures above pre-industrial levels to at most 2°C and have offered reductions by 2020 in GHG emissions or the carbon-intensity of GDP. The effects of policies proposed to achieve pathways to 2020 towards this target are assessed using E3MG, an Energy-Environment-Economy (E3) Model at the Global level. E3MG is an annual simulation econometric model, estimated for 20 world regions over 1972–2006 adopting a new economics approach. Additional low-GHG investment of some 0.7% of GDP, with carbon pricing and other policies, is sufficient to achieve a pathway consistent with a medium chance of achieving the long-term target. GDP is above reference levels because decarbonisation reduces world oil prices and increases investment. Employment is some 0.9% above reference levels by 2020 and public finances are almost unaffected.     

2012年澳网李娜vs小克技术统计分析

通过对2012年澳网女子单打李娜对阵克里斯特尔斯的比赛情况分析,从中找出其在比赛中的优势与不足,并提出改进措施,旨在为我国女子网球技术训练和发展提供参考。     

The efficiency of schools in developing countries,analysed through PISA 2012 data

This paper analyses the efficiency of more than 6800 schools in 28 developing countries, by means of a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis and using data from OECD PISA 2012. The results reveal that the average efficiency of schools is around 70%, meaning that achievement scores can be raised by 30% by employing a more effective use of available resources. Substantial heterogeneity exists both between and within countries; in general, efficiency scores are higher when comparing schools only with those in the same country. Among factors associated with schools' efficiency, the most important are the characteristics of student population (for instance, motivation, truancy, etc.). Therefore, some practices related to accountability, teachers’ involvement and professional development, and extracurricular activities are also positively associated with higher levels of efficiency.     

瑞典创新政策议程设置的“多源流”分析--以“2009-2012年研究与创新预算法案”为例

运用约翰·金登的多源流分析模型,以瑞典“2009-2012年研究与创新预算法案”为案例,分析了瑞典的创新政策制定过程,揭示出那些较为稳定的影响瑞典的研究与创新法案乃至创新政策议程设置和制定的主要因素,政策过程的各方参与者及其在政策议程设立和备选方案的阐明中所处的地位、所起的作用和所利用的资源等。     

2012年陕西省房地产价格分析

2012年陕西省房地产价格出现先抑后扬、平稳中温和上涨的整体运行态势。政府的宏观调控政策、房地产供给加大以及建造成本的提高等是影响房地产价格主要原因。预计2013年陕西省房地产价格变化的总体趋势将稳中有升。为稳定陕西省房地产市场,文章提出相应的对策建议,如政府应"微调"定向宽松刺激刚需与坚持房地产调控不动摇的"双重标准"同时执行;加强保障性安居工程建设等。     

Social construction of the impact of Euro 2012: a Wroclaw case study

Our case study aimed to analyse the social construction of the impact of the 2012 European Football Championship on the Polish city of Wroclaw. To realise this aim, we conducted an analysis of 35 semi-structured interviews with select residents of Wroclaw; we also analysed the local press. Before presenting our findings, we briefly discuss the organisation of Euro 2012 and official discourse on this event in Poland to introduce a broader context. Referring to the Stuart Hall model of encoding/decoding, we argue that informants constructed the meaning of Euro 2012 in a negotiated manner. For example, they seemed to accept the thesis that Euro 2012 helped to modernise Wroclaw. However, they were suspicious of how and why modernisation projects were realised. Many argued that it was only because of external pressure that officials were able to act efficiently and honestly. It seems as though the respondents had rather low opinions of the competence of local authorities and did not trust in their ability to govern the city rationally and honesty. This observation is in accordance with a macro-social analysis of post-communist societies that speaks about a ‘culture of distrust’ or a ‘culture of cynicism’. We demonstrate that, in contrast to official discourse, residents of the city did not see any far-reaching and revolutionary social changes in Wroclaw.     

生态纺织品认证标准新进展

比较了《Oeko-Tex标准100》2012版与2011年版,了解了新增加的可萃取铬元素、邻苯二甲酸酯类增塑剂、溶剂残留物和表面活性剂四大项目的检测范围及检出物限量标准,并介绍了新增禁用物质的用途、危害和相关检测方法。通过对2012版《Oeko-Tex标准100》的解读,可了解和把握国际上对于生态纺织品的最新要求及其发展趋势。