The Issue of Alternatives and History of the Collectivisation of Soviet Agriculture

Abstract A Soviet historian reconsiders the history of the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture in the context of today's Perestroika . His focus is on alternatives developed during the 1920s, under NEP. Detailed discussion is provided of Lenin's conception of the role of cooperation in socialist construction, A. V. Chayanov's analysis of 'cooperative collectivisation', and (using newly-opened archives) the position of Bukharin and his followers. The article concludes with a critique of forms of collectivisation pursued after abandonment of the original goals of the first Five Year Plan in 1929.     

Intra-firm and extra-firm linkages in the knowledge economy: the case of the emerging mega-city region of Munich

With the aim of identifying emerging patterns of spatial development and the driving forces behind the associated process, in this article we draw together two threads of interlinked phenomena. First, we look at how multi-location firms from the knowledge economy develop their intra-firm networks internationally. Second, we establish the partners with which these firms have working relationships along individual chains of value, and in which these extra-firm linkages are located. We start from a conceptual background that combines the location behaviour of firms with a value chain approach. We analyse the two main pillars of the knowledge economy – advanced producer services (APS) and high-tech firms. A case study carried out in the greater Munich area provides the empirical basis and draws on quantitative and qualitative research methods. The results provide evidence that the greater Munich area can be regarded simultaneously as a hierarchically organized polycentric mega-city region and high-grade localized system of value chains.     

The Techno-Thriller--Here and Now

The scholars who teach in universities and other higher schools are always concerned for the future: that is a function of their profession. To a considerable degree, their work is for the future. This is all the more true in our day, when the already major role of institutions of higher learning in the advancement of science, technology, production, and culture is rising at amazingly rapid rates. One of the most critical periods in the life of an educational institution occurs when it accepts people for admission. The quality of the specialists it trains is largely dependent upon the abilities of the new students it admits. The scholarly value of a lecture or seminar is determined, after all, not only by who is on the rostrum, but by who is in the audience.