The Dialectical Relationship between "Changing" and "Unchanging" in GIS Practice Teaching in the Social Transition Period

New requirements have been proposed for GIS practice teaching in colleges and universities in response to the developmental changes of national and industrial sectors during the social transition.Meanwhile,the underlying core characteristics of GIS should remain unchanged in GIS teaching to ensure they serve as the inherent attributes distinguishing GIS from other disciplines.Therefore,the clarification of the dialectical relationship between “changing” and “unchanging” in GIS practice teaching becomes the primary issue to address in relevant teaching reform.To address this issue,the present study systematically analyzes the structural contradictions in GIS practice teaching in the social transition period,and then closely examines the dialectical relationship between “changing” and “unchanging” from the key aspects of educational philosophy,teaching content,teaching methodology,and teaching assessment.Next,using the course of “GIS Practice Design” at the Central South University as an example,the present study describes this university’s reform and inheritance in GIS practice teaching,aiming to provide reference for GIS practice teaching in other universities or majors.

China’s Consultation Mechanisms during Social Transition——Speech at the Symposium on the Tenth Founding Anniversary of the Tokyo Foundation

I am happy to attend this symposium at the invitation of the Tokyo Consortium. China and Japan are close neighbors, separated only bya narrow strip of sea. Exchanges have been frequent between the Chinese and Japanese peoples since ancient times. In striving for modernization,

Islamic Reform and Social Transition in the Middle East:A World History Approach

A study of the social development in the Middle East from the perspective of world civilization history will help us better understand the complex Middle Eastern society today and grasp the trend of its development.The Middle East,which enjoys a brilliant history,declined in the modern period and is still underdeveloped today.Countries in the region are currently in a crucial period of transition-a stage of“transitional politics”toward modern democracy after they abandoned traditional centralism.Islam,which remains at a low level of secularization,has too many nonreligious functions,thus making the relationship between politics and religion even more complicated.The outdated social production mode in some Middle Eastern countries has to a large extent hindered their political,economic and religious development.The stagnated development of Islamic secularization also has affected the progress of Middle Eastern society.The Islamic reform will not only result in the self-improvement of the religion but also is bound to fuel the region’s profound social transition.

The Thinking and Approaches of Criminal Law Legislation in a Transitional Period

In this transitional period,the concept of legally protected interests in Chinese criminal legislation is changing with the imposition of new control measures that endow criminal law with new functions,including taking an active part in social governance.Active legislation will not entail the systemic risk of excessive interference by criminal law.Criminalization does not conflict with criminal law’s concept of modest restraint.In terms of overall approach,we need to establish dynamic,rational and diversified legislative mechanisms for the future.In terms of specific methods,legislation must maintain an approach of actively intervention in the life of society,changing the current centralized legislative model.However,decentralized legislation should not necessarily adopt the tripartite model of the criminal code plus special enactments and auxiliary criminal law.Rather,it should construct a written criminal law system centered on the criminal code and supplemented by the law on minor offences,in parallel with criminal penalties and public security measures.This will produce a mechanism for the seamless incremental convergence of public security administrative punishment law,minor offences law,and criminal law.The net of justice is fine-meshed but its penalties are light.The addition of new crimes must uphold the rule of law,correspond to specific social situations,maintain an attitude of sensitivity and clarity toward lawlessness and regard criminal law as a last resort,in order to alleviate the pressures legislators currently face from the growing body of criminal law.

Social Origins and Political Participation of Private Business Owners in Beijing

Over the past 30 years, Chinese society has undergone an enormous social transition. Along with the rise of a private economy, private business owners have emerged as a new social stratum, which attracts academic attention domestically and internationally. As for the social origins of the private business owners, some of the private business owners are former cadres and current members of the Chinese Communist Party（CCP）. A question rarely pursued is what effects these ties have on political participation of＂ private business owners. The paper explores this question on the basis of data gathered in a representative survey of private enterprises in 2006. The study shows that the Chinese private business owners have diverse social origins, and their behavior in terms of political participation is also distinct in some ways. When it comes to the patterns of political participation of the private business owners, CCP members and former officials among private business owners indeed have unique characteristics in their access to political resources, but the patterns of political participation vary between these two groups. Furthermore, there are also considerable differences between members of the CCP and democratic parties in China in these respects. These findings cast doubt on the common use of CCP membership and occupational experience as cadre as interchangeable indicators for the ＂political capital＂ of business owners. A more differentiated understanding of the nature of political capital and mechanisms by which it is put to use by private entrepreneurs in China is called for.

SPECIAL ISSUE： ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGIES IN TRANSITIONAL CHINA --The Guidance Function of Cases of Misappropriation of Public Funds in Transitional ChinamWith the Reference to Criminal Trial of the Supreme People＇s Court of China as a Sample of Analysis

Compared with the traditional offenses of embezzlement, bribe-taking and so on, the misappropriation of public funds is not a routine charge but a result of the response of criminal law to social transition. The fact that a number of difficulties have arisen in legislative and judicial procedures relating to this offense makes the value of case reference material significant. The Supreme People＇s Court of China attaches great importance to the publication of cases of misappropriation of public funds, which offer guidance and reference for real-life adjudication. Cases publicized in the last decade reflect a judicial emphasis-- they focus on the official nature of the duties performed by the subject, on understanding ＂for individual use＂ from the viewpoint of formal rationality and on a cautious interpretation of the connotations of ＂public funds.＂ Publicizing such cases facilitates reaching the same verdict in similar cases and at the same time acts as a catalyst for the advancement of theory and practice.