China boasts 56 nationalities who are mostly inhabited in the sparsely populated mountain regions in West China. Like many other places in the Han nationality distributed regions, minority nationality inhabited region...China boasts 56 nationalities who are mostly inhabited in the sparsely populated mountain regions in West China. Like many other places in the Han nationality distributed regions, minority nationality inhabited regions are also facing the challenge of sustainable development in terms of both natural and human factors. Taking the Tibetan inhabited regions (TIR) in Sichuan Province as a case, this paper points out some major problems in the process of economic development in perspective of sustainability and leaves some hints for development strategies. While natural conditions such as geological instability are playing a major role to the environmental degradation, human activities and improper use of resources might constitute an important agent in the environmental deterioration. In order to promote local economic development and improve people’s living standard, sustainable planning is expected to be made and people’s awareness of sustainability should be strengthened.展开更多
This paper aims to analyze the background of the emergence of＂Islamic State＂ and prevailing sectarian strife in the Middle East from the aspect of international relations, considering it as the result of the failure...This paper aims to analyze the background of the emergence of＂Islamic State＂ and prevailing sectarian strife in the Middle East from the aspect of international relations, considering it as the result of the failure and mistakes, accumulated not only since the Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War but also from the post-WWI period when the territorial-state system was introduced in this area. This paper emphasizes the importance of the norms and ideas that provide the basis of regional order, and focuses on conflicts between norm-based regional order and interest-based regional alliance. The former has been pursued by the actors that underline supra- or sub-state identity as cores for regional solidarity, while the latter has been introduced by external actors, or established by conservatives to maintain the status quo to react to revolutionary/revisionist movements. The situation became complicated when regional actors faced three different cataclysmic transformations in 1979. Although each incident necessitated a different re-arrangement of their relations, a shorthand patchwork-like formation of alliances was applied, in which the US and Saudi Arabia played key roles. In the post-1979 regime, rivalry became dominant between the interest-based pro-US regional alliances vs. the challengers that justified their own interests with norm-based regional order, manipulating supra-state identity. Once the influence of the US declined after 2011, pro-US state actors found neither interest-based regional alliance nor norm-based regional order supported their own interests. Here, sectarian identity has emerged as a kind of norm to cover their collective interest. Thus sectarianism is the result of necessity for the regional actors to legitimize their interest-based actions and to secure partners for collective action. ＂Islamic State＂ was born in this circumstance, where sectarian identity became an ostensible factor for new regional order in the Middle East in the absence of the US-led regional alliance.展开更多
The subject of the present work is the study of the relationship between the city shape and its geographical and climatic context. This is a very important feature of the Portuguese city. The Iberian Peninsula compris...The subject of the present work is the study of the relationship between the city shape and its geographical and climatic context. This is a very important feature of the Portuguese city. The Iberian Peninsula comprised by Spain and Portugal belongs to very different environments： the Atlantic and Mediterranean sea. This position is responsible for a series of highly contrasted regions. The external forces presented in each region, influence the shape, location and orientation, not only of individual buildings but of whole villages in such a way that we can identify pattems of construction in different natural regions. There is in fact, a remarkable correspondence between climate and urban type which is useful to identify for planning the different regions. The legacy of industrial city, as in other parts of the world, has changed this close connection between geography and architecture, with consequences not only in environment but especially for the identity of urban spaces. Bioclimatic urbanism is not just a question of sustainability or survival. It is also a question of local identity and variety. There is in fact a relationship between cultural process and environment responsive which we can learn from the structures of the past -- the pre-industrial city. We believe that the reinterpretation of the traditional city pattems forms a language which can be used as a design process for recovering urban landscape.展开更多
This paper focuses on how the implementation of a single regional political instrument is perceived, understood and communicated. Designed as a regional political instrument, the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Co...This paper focuses on how the implementation of a single regional political instrument is perceived, understood and communicated. Designed as a regional political instrument, the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications started a pilot project： ＂Driver education as a part of upper secondary school in district Norway＂. The focal point in this paper is to explore how the professional participants understand and interpret the project as a regional political instrument in order to maintain the local community, identity and local belonging. The theoretical approach is based on Giddens＇s actor/structure theory, while the analysis based on discourse analysis, in the analysis we separated the arguments used in the professional discourse. We detected different categories of argument in the discourses among the professionals. In addition to the professional discourse, we became aware of a personal discourse. In both discourses the political instrument was perceived to be important in order to maintain the local community, create equality and maintain local identity and a sense of belonging.展开更多
The concept of benefaction,as shaped in the pre-industrial society,has been altered and replaced by the modern term of sponsoring.The verbal transformation emerges from a deep cultural shift.Focusing on the dipole of ...The concept of benefaction,as shaped in the pre-industrial society,has been altered and replaced by the modern term of sponsoring.The verbal transformation emerges from a deep cultural shift.Focusing on the dipole of benefactionsponsoring,we examine the cultural transition from the traditional communities of long duration to the modern societies of consumption,taking the Greek mountainous regions as an example.We investigate the cultural shift that generates the metastasis from the communities of benefaction to the modern brandplaces that consume their own cultural heritage,mainly,at the altar of the tourism industry.Modern society has adopted the concept of sponsoring,for the grace of which,culture has to prove evidence of economic value,in order to survive.In the extremely competitive frame of the free-market economy,mountain regions appear vulnerable.The selling and buying of their culture are tempting and attractive under a constantly shrinking welfare-state and narrowing development opportunities.It depends on local and national society to rediscover and regenerate those social mechanisms able to create culture or let the modern consumption-oriented forces prevail.However,authentic principles of benefaction may form an alternative perspective for social reorganization.展开更多
文摘China boasts 56 nationalities who are mostly inhabited in the sparsely populated mountain regions in West China. Like many other places in the Han nationality distributed regions, minority nationality inhabited regions are also facing the challenge of sustainable development in terms of both natural and human factors. Taking the Tibetan inhabited regions (TIR) in Sichuan Province as a case, this paper points out some major problems in the process of economic development in perspective of sustainability and leaves some hints for development strategies. While natural conditions such as geological instability are playing a major role to the environmental degradation, human activities and improper use of resources might constitute an important agent in the environmental deterioration. In order to promote local economic development and improve people’s living standard, sustainable planning is expected to be made and people’s awareness of sustainability should be strengthened.
文摘This paper aims to analyze the background of the emergence of＂Islamic State＂ and prevailing sectarian strife in the Middle East from the aspect of international relations, considering it as the result of the failure and mistakes, accumulated not only since the Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War but also from the post-WWI period when the territorial-state system was introduced in this area. This paper emphasizes the importance of the norms and ideas that provide the basis of regional order, and focuses on conflicts between norm-based regional order and interest-based regional alliance. The former has been pursued by the actors that underline supra- or sub-state identity as cores for regional solidarity, while the latter has been introduced by external actors, or established by conservatives to maintain the status quo to react to revolutionary/revisionist movements. The situation became complicated when regional actors faced three different cataclysmic transformations in 1979. Although each incident necessitated a different re-arrangement of their relations, a shorthand patchwork-like formation of alliances was applied, in which the US and Saudi Arabia played key roles. In the post-1979 regime, rivalry became dominant between the interest-based pro-US regional alliances vs. the challengers that justified their own interests with norm-based regional order, manipulating supra-state identity. Once the influence of the US declined after 2011, pro-US state actors found neither interest-based regional alliance nor norm-based regional order supported their own interests. Here, sectarian identity has emerged as a kind of norm to cover their collective interest. Thus sectarianism is the result of necessity for the regional actors to legitimize their interest-based actions and to secure partners for collective action. ＂Islamic State＂ was born in this circumstance, where sectarian identity became an ostensible factor for new regional order in the Middle East in the absence of the US-led regional alliance.
文摘The subject of the present work is the study of the relationship between the city shape and its geographical and climatic context. This is a very important feature of the Portuguese city. The Iberian Peninsula comprised by Spain and Portugal belongs to very different environments： the Atlantic and Mediterranean sea. This position is responsible for a series of highly contrasted regions. The external forces presented in each region, influence the shape, location and orientation, not only of individual buildings but of whole villages in such a way that we can identify pattems of construction in different natural regions. There is in fact, a remarkable correspondence between climate and urban type which is useful to identify for planning the different regions. The legacy of industrial city, as in other parts of the world, has changed this close connection between geography and architecture, with consequences not only in environment but especially for the identity of urban spaces. Bioclimatic urbanism is not just a question of sustainability or survival. It is also a question of local identity and variety. There is in fact a relationship between cultural process and environment responsive which we can learn from the structures of the past -- the pre-industrial city. We believe that the reinterpretation of the traditional city pattems forms a language which can be used as a design process for recovering urban landscape.
文摘This paper focuses on how the implementation of a single regional political instrument is perceived, understood and communicated. Designed as a regional political instrument, the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications started a pilot project： ＂Driver education as a part of upper secondary school in district Norway＂. The focal point in this paper is to explore how the professional participants understand and interpret the project as a regional political instrument in order to maintain the local community, identity and local belonging. The theoretical approach is based on Giddens＇s actor/structure theory, while the analysis based on discourse analysis, in the analysis we separated the arguments used in the professional discourse. We detected different categories of argument in the discourses among the professionals. In addition to the professional discourse, we became aware of a personal discourse. In both discourses the political instrument was perceived to be important in order to maintain the local community, create equality and maintain local identity and a sense of belonging.
文摘The concept of benefaction,as shaped in the pre-industrial society,has been altered and replaced by the modern term of sponsoring.The verbal transformation emerges from a deep cultural shift.Focusing on the dipole of benefactionsponsoring,we examine the cultural transition from the traditional communities of long duration to the modern societies of consumption,taking the Greek mountainous regions as an example.We investigate the cultural shift that generates the metastasis from the communities of benefaction to the modern brandplaces that consume their own cultural heritage,mainly,at the altar of the tourism industry.Modern society has adopted the concept of sponsoring,for the grace of which,culture has to prove evidence of economic value,in order to survive.In the extremely competitive frame of the free-market economy,mountain regions appear vulnerable.The selling and buying of their culture are tempting and attractive under a constantly shrinking welfare-state and narrowing development opportunities.It depends on local and national society to rediscover and regenerate those social mechanisms able to create culture or let the modern consumption-oriented forces prevail.However,authentic principles of benefaction may form an alternative perspective for social reorganization.
