Participatory Research by Niigata Minamata Disease Victims, and Empowerment of These Victims

Abstract:  Niigata Minamata disease is the result of environmental pollution. In the present paper I discuss the activities conducted thus far by victims (uncertified patients) of Niigata Minamata disease to receive the necessary physical and medical examinations, as well as requests for administrative appeal. Such activities, stemming primarily from efforts being made in Sentoji of Yasuda Town (Agano City at present), have had relevance in the lawsuits of uncertified patients of Minamata disease. Those who participated in these activities, even those who are not plaintiffs in the corresponding court cases, were able to receive a set amount of financial and medical support following a political settlement related to Minamata disease. As of 2005, the movement has been assisting people who visit the Agano River basin area to learn about Niigata Minamata disease, and approximately half of all victims manifesting symptoms of the disease have had some association with the Sentoji movement. I also examine how the activities being conducted in Sentoji have helped victims learn more about their own bodies, and how these activities have also helped people understand the significance of taking the initiative to become involved in such movements. And I examine how victims of the disease have received empowerment through victim movements.     

Civil Society on Global Governance: Facing Up to Divergent Analysis, Strategy, and Tactics

This paper considers three different conceptualizations – three politico-ideological perspectives within civil society – on global-scale economics and geopolitics. The standpoints can be termed “Global justice movements,” “Third World nationalism,” and the “Post-Washington Consensus.” These three perspectives stand in contrast to the fusion of neoliberal economics and neoconservative politics that dominates the contemporary world. The three approaches sometimes converge, but more often than not they are in conflict; as are the civil society institutions that cohere to the three different political ideologies. From the three different analyses flow different strategies, concrete campaigning tactics, and varying choices of allies. The World Social Forum provides hints of a potentially unifying approach within the global justice movements based upon the practical themes of “decommodification” and “deglobalization” (of capital). It is, however, only by facing up to the ideological divergences that the global justice movement can enhance its presence.

Between the Global Environmental Regime and Local Sustainability: A Local Review on the Inclusion, Failure and Reinventing Process of the Environmental Governance

Abstract: Japan has undergone drastic changes in ecological policy and practice over the past 40 years. Although this short history began with significant levels of pollution, notoriously termed “kogai”, the country seems to have achieved great ecological improvements, both technologically and institutionally, and now is one of the most highly ecologically modernized countries. But can this process really be posited as a simple, linear one of ecological modernization, a sort of natural, historical progress toward ideal environmental governance? This paper proposes some questions that cast doubt over this view. It focuses on local struggles for environmental governance, particularly in the city of Kamakura, which proclaimed itself an “environmental municipality” in 1993, a designation that seemingly fell by the wayside in 2001. Investigating this 8‐year case we can extract some lessons concerning the contradictions between global and local, and consequently about the inherent difficulties of top‐down environmental ordinances and insufficiently decentralized environmental governance. At the same time, through this case readers may also discover a new type of civic activity: cities with agriculture. After a short sketch of agri‐environmental movements, I will suggest that such movements are converging with more conventional ones and prevailing throughout the country. Therefore, the ecological modernization process can be seen to include a sort of restoration process: an updated return to perma‐cultural sustainability. Consequently, this essay contributes to international environmental discussion, not only by uncovering the cleavages between global and local, but also by suggesting the possibility of environmental governance alternative to technologically and institutionally driven ones.     

加快实现从科技管理向创新治理转变

创新趋势和现实需求要求科技管理向创新治理转变,转变的思路和内容是:从以控制为中心的管理理念向以协调为中心的治理理念转变,从政府作为唯一的管理者向多元化主体共同参与治理转变,从管理科技向治理创新转变,从计划管理和政策管理为主向多手段治理转变。转变的具体对策包括:建立权威的创新治理机构、培育多元化的治理主体、完善创新治理规则、提高创新治理能力和水平等。     

Innovation and Its Governance Process in Italy

Almost everybody, almost everywhere, speaks and writes about innovation: highly qualified and esteemed people covering key offices. Basically, the matter is debated within the framework of conferences, meetings, symposiums, articles put out in specialized, niche newspapers as well as in mass-circulation ones. Apparently it sounds positive, as innovation seems to have become the main theme, towards which the best efforts are worth being directed. The issue of China and India is now in the limelight. The way out is easy: just more innovation. And what about global competitiveness of Italy, or brain drain? What of GDP increasing less than the average in Europe? Tourism dropping off? Industrial delocalization increasing? What of such an inefficient public administration? The answer is one and only: There is a need for more innovation! That makes a lot of sense somehow; the negative aspect is that, most of the times, the core meaning and the fundamentals of innovation are not really deepened and understood; poor attention is paid to the reasons why the situation of Italy is unsatisfactory as regards innovation or to the main problems to be figured out for such a stalemate to be overcome. This short essay is going to focus on these issues, with a view to foster debate leading to prompt and realistic decisions.     

Globalization and Evolving Local Governance in Norway

Has local governance in Norway escaped the forces of globalization? In grappling with this question, and using the case of Trondheim Municipality, I argue that local government reform in Norway is predicated on the dominant paradigm of public sector reform in the age of globalization, namely, new public management (NPM). This has had corrosive effects on the capacity of the local states in Norway to provide basic services to their citizens. Consequently, the Norwegian welfare regime is being undermined by the new reform agenda. However, while local governance in Norway is predicated within the dominant global paradigm, it deviates from the global trend as there is increasing centralization as opposed to decentralization as the national government uses various mechanisms to regulate and control municipalities.

¿Ha podido el gobierno local en Noruega escaparse de las fuerzas de la globalización? Lidiando con esta pregunta y tomando el caso de la municipalidad de Trondheim, yo sostengo que la reforma del gobierno local en Noruega se basa en el paradigma dominante de la reforma del sector público en la era de la globalización, es decir la Nueva Administración Pública (NPM, por sus siglas en inglés). Esto ha tenido efectos corrosivos en la capacidad de los estados en Noruega, de proveer servicios básicos a sus ciudadanos. Consecuentemente, la asistencia pública del régimen noruego se ha minado gracias al nuevo plan de reforma. Sin embargo, mientras que el gobierno local se establece dentro del paradigma global dominante, éste se desvía de la tendencia global ya que existe un aumento en la centralización, al contrario de la descentralización, dado que el gobierno nacional usa varios mecanismos para regular y controlar las municipalidades.

     

中国改革发展新阶段与公共治理变革

当前,中国发展进入了新阶段,改革进入攻坚期和深水区。必须重构政府和市场关系,发挥市场在资源配置上的决定性作用;全力保障民生,维护社会的公平和正义;创新社会治理,释放社会活力;用法律构建制度笼子,用制度管人管权管事;加大政府自身改革力度,以提高政府的公信力。     

养老服务的逻辑、实现方式与治理路径

养老服务是不同供给主体将不同内容、质量和价格的养老产品或项目,以不同的方式配送到不同需求老年群体的过程。不同供给主体基于责任驱动和利益驱动,为需求主体提供适应性养老服务,是养老服务的基本逻辑。养老服务的实现,是在特定地域、特定的社会关系网络中,通过优化配置养老服务资源,聚集整合养老服务资本,来保障有质量、有尊严的老年生活。鉴于养老服务供给的多元性和需求的复杂性,养老服务的治理则需要运用先进的合作治理与参与治理理念、选择科学的治理工具和现代化的治理技术,保障养老服务供给与需求的适应性匹配,进而保障养老服务实现方式的有序运行。     

Going Green: Environmental Protest,Policy, and CO2 Emissions in U.S. States, 1990–2007

A major goal of the environmental movement is to conserve or improve the natural environment, but evidence showing that environmental mobilization produces positive environmental outcomes is mixed. This article addresses a fundamental question about the relative impact of pro‐environmental mobilization and the scope of an environmental policy regime on the natural environment. Using panel data at the state level from 1990 through 2007, we explore how environmental protest and environmental policies independently (or jointly) reduce CO₂ emissions in U.S. states. We find that the level of emissions in a state declines in states with increases in pro‐environmental protest, net of the effects of the range of environmental policies enacted, gasoline taxes, liberal attitudes, reliance on the fossil fuel industry, number of registered lobbyist organizations, gross state product, and population size.     

上海加快形成社区共治与居民自治有效机制研究

上海推进社区共治和居民自治,在创新社会管理、优化公共服务、激发社会活力、重构社会秩序等方面取得了明显成效。但从与上海转型发展和现阶段社会发育格局的适应性,与社会管理体制创新和基层民主政治建设的新要求相比,还存在着不少差距,一些瓶颈问题急需破解,一些影响社区共治和居民自治深入推进的体制性、机制性障碍尚需突破。     

A Comparison of Public and Charter School Board Governance in Three States

In this article we compare the governance behaviors and preferences of nonprofit charter school board members with traditional elected public school board members in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Using originally collected survey data, we find that nonprofit charter school board members are less likely to place emphasis on relations with the public, engage in conflict, be ideologically diverse, and perceive the executive as responsible for key governance tasks than traditionally elected public school board members. The findings provide new information for policymakers weighing the potential benefits of education privatization through the use of nonprofit charter schools against the potential loss of democratic board accountability.     

Environmental protest in New Zealand (1997–2010)

Protest actions are an important indicator of public concern, raising awareness and highlighting perceived failings in administrative practices. With increasing prominence of environmental challenges there has been a move for states to incorporate stakeholders, potentially reducing the need for such confrontational actions. This article uses protest event analysis and case comparison to examine the scale and character of environmental protest actions in New Zealand from 1997–2010. This period was one of relative socio‐economic stability, coupled with growing awareness of environmental challenges. The article considers the relative level of action of grassroots groups and more formalized NGOs, asking which issues generated protest actions and which factors contributed to environmental campaign outcomes. The findings suggest that, although protest actions can strengthen campaigns, the outcomes ultimately remain heavily dependent on the priorities of the state.     

State Fragility and Governance: Conflict Mitigation and Subnational Perspectives

Many drivers of intrastate conflict concern the relationship between the state and society, and thus are influenced by the quality of governance. Efforts to restore or create good governance, however, have adopted a relatively standardised democratising template. This article argues that conflict mitigation is a useful mechanism for adapting this template to conditions in fragile states. Furthermore, subnational reforms have important potential to mitigate the drivers identified in quantitative studies of conflict, as illustrated by selected experiences with decentralisation, citizen participation and local service delivery. The analysis confirms the important contributions both of quantitative research that has identified causal factors driving conflict and of qualitative study that has explored governance reforms that can address those factors.     

The Politics of Illegal Dumping: An Environmental Justice Framework

Studies of the intersection between environmental hazards and community demographics have concluded that environmental inequality is prevalent in communities across the United States. While these studies offer persuasive indicators of environmental inequality, we still have little understanding of the social forces involved in the production of these unequal outcomes. Drawing on a case study of a community of color facing illegal dumping, I propose an environmental justice framework to explain the social dynamics that produced this outcome.     

城市更新治理模式的比较与选择

城市更新是城市改造、重建、再生和延续的过程。从广州城市改造的经验观察,实践中所运用的政府、市场以及混合改造模式都存在治理困境。政府改造模式导致“角色”错位,市场改造模式导致公共利益受损,混合改造模式导致成本外溢。传统的改造模式由于没有将改造成本内部化,不论是政府行为还是市场行为都会产生负外部性。笔者由此提出新的治理模式——利益共同体模式。这种模式区分行动者的不同角色,以产权为纽带,以外部性成本内部化为基础,通过合约安排使政府、开发商和原住地居民组成利益共享、风险共担的共同体。在这样一个“利益共享、风险共担”的新模式运作下,旧城改造不再是单一的政府和市场行为,而是一个兼顾公共利益和私人利益的社区集体行为。这种治理模式符合社会发展与和谐社会的理念,能将旧城改造的成本内部化,使产权人享有真正意义的决策权,有利于社区的可持续性发展。‘     

突尼斯的旅游业与环保

突尼斯的地理位置和历史使其具有特色旅游资源，成为阿拉伯的重要旅游国家。突政府十分重视旅游业及相关产业与环保，制定了可持续发展的计划。     

Corporate Governance: Impulses from the Middle East

The sheer fact that the concept of Corporate Governance is not yet as widely spread in the countries of the Middle-East as in Western economies, may lead to our labelling, once again, this region as underdeveloped. The purpose of this article, however, is to lead the reader to let go of this Western perspective and to discover the distinctive impulses that the Arab-Muslim region has to offer for the further development of the human-social dimension of corporate governance, if not to ultimately transform it in such a “Middle-Eastern” light. We start then, in this article, by revealing some of the general limitations to corporate governance, before moving onto the specific impulses provided by the Muslim-Arab context. Islamic management is a new domain of knowledge that will be addressed in this paper to shed some light on how Islam can inform reform and transform the notion of corporate governance.      

阿拉伯国家环境治理与可持续发展的制度因素

过去30年,阿拉伯国家环境治理和可持续发展取得了重大的成就,主要体现在国家环境战略和相关行动计划的制订、新环境机构的建立、支持环境政策的法律和法规的颁布以及多边和区域环境协定的批准等方面。以1992年联合国环境与可持续发展大会和2002年世界环境峰会的筹备工作为契机,阿拉伯国家开启了筹建区域性环境治理平台,并开始了可持续发展评估的进程,阿拉伯环境部长理事会和阿拉伯环境与发展联合委员会都为实现区域性可持续发展协调行动作出了重要努力。     

阿拉伯国家环境治理与可持续发展的制度因素

过去30年,阿拉伯国家环境治理和可持续发展取得了重大的成就,主要体现在国家环境战略和相关行动计划的制订、新环境机构的建立、支持环境政策的法律和法规的颁布以及多边和区域环境协定的批准等方面.以1992年联合国环境与可持续发展大会和2002年世界环境峰会的筹备工作为契机,阿拉伯国家开启了筹建区域性环境治理平台,并开始了可持续发展评估的进程,阿拉伯环境部长理事会和阿拉伯环境与发展联合委员会都为实现区域性可持续发展协调行动作出了重要努力.     

大城市住宅房地产发展与管治研究——以上海为例

在对上海房地产的发展态势、存在问题以及住宅房地产的发展对经济社会的影响分析基础上,本文剖析了世界主要国家的住宅房地产政策,并提出了中国大城市住宅房地产治理的一些对策建议。