The Treadmill of Production and the Positional Economy of Consumption

The theory of the treadmill of production highlights how the constant search for economic growth leads to advanced economies being stuck on a “treadmill,” where their well‐being is not improved by economic growth, yet the impacts of this pursuit of growth causes massive, unsustainable environmental damages. In interrogating the specific driving force that keeps the irrational system of the treadmill so powerfully in place, the theory of the treadmill of production focuses on how those who control the production process, corporations, are the primary agents driving the treadmill, while also highlighting how the state and workers generally continue to provide support for the treadmill's continued reproduction. In thinking about ways to begin to unwind the treadmill, there is a clear need to explore why workers, who are also consumers and citizens, continue to support (reluctantly or not) the treadmill of production. Through an analysis of the positional economy of consumption, this paper identifies key stakes that individual consumers have in expanding their income and consumption levels through the treadmill of production, despite the widespread inefficacy of the treadmill to increase aggregate satisfaction levels. This theory of the positional economy of consumption identifies the structural forces that lock individuals into increasing their income and levels of “defensive consumption” merely to maintain their existing levels of social practices and the well‐being generated from them, thus further supporting the reproduction of the treadmill of production. La théorie de l'‘engrenage de la production’ (‘treadmill of production’) démontre en quoi la recherche constante de croissance économique enferme les économies avancées dans un ‘engrenage’, où leur bien‐être n'est pas amélioré par la croissance économique, mais où les impacts de la poursuite de la croissance se traduisent par des dommages environnementaux massifs et irréparables. En analysant les forces spécifiques qui préservent ce système avec autant de pouvoir, cette théorie insiste sur l'importance de ceux qui contrôlent le processus de production (les corporations) en tant que principaux agents appuyant cet ‘engrenage’, tout en soulignant comment, d'une manière générale, l'Etat et les travailleurs persistent à soutenir sa perpétuation. En pensant aux manières d'arrêter cet ‘engranage’, il y a un besoin évident d'étudier pourquoi les travailleurs, qui sont aussi consommateurs et citoyens, persistent à soutenir (à contrec?ur ou pas) cet ‘engrenage’ de la production. Grâce à une analyse de l'économie positionnelle de la consommation, cet article identifie les principaux intérêts qu'ont les consommateurs individuels à augmenter leurs revenus et leurs niveaux de consommation au sein de cet engrenage de la production, en dépit de son inefficacité générale à améliorer les niveaux de satisfactions agrégés. Cette théorie de l'économie positionnelle de la consommation identifie les forces structurelles qui enferment les individus dans une recherche d'augmentation de leurs revenus et de leurs niveaux de ‘consommation défensive’, seulement pour maintenir leurs niveaux actuels de pratiques sociales et le bien‐être qui en découle, contribuant ainsi à reproduire l'engrenage de la production.     

Intellectual Property,Scientific Independence,and the Efficacy and Environmental Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops

Neoliberalism is the political ideology behind efforts to commercialize university science. The development of genetically engineered (GE) crops has facilitated the commercialization process because GE crops generally have more restrictive intellectual property protections than conventional crops. Those restrictions have led some to question whether long‐term university research and innovations are being compromised to protect short‐term intellectual property interests. This concern is evident in two letters submitted by public‐sector entomologists in February 2009 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The letters asserted that scientists are prohibited from conducting fully independent research on the efficacy and environmental impact of GE crops. In response to the letter, the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) negotiated an agreement between university scientists and seed companies to protect industry property rights while enabling university scientists to conduct research with more independence. Through a survey of public‐ and private‐sector entomologists who are members of two regional entomologist research groups, we document scientists' perspectives on the adequacy of the ASTA agreement and whether those scientists have experienced limitations on their research projects involving efficacy and environmental impacts. Our findings show that limitations exist and that certain forms of public knowledge about crops are likely being compromised. These findings have implications for the legitimacy of current risk management institutions, as well as for future technological breakthroughs and innovations.     

有机更新：历史文化名城走出保护性衰败与建设性破坏困境之路

历史文化名城或城市的历史街区经常陷于保护性衰败或建设性破坏两大文化和社会困境之中。两大困境的突破之路在于通过有机更新实现城市的文脉延续、文化传承、文化再生与城市复兴。有机更新就是集物质更新、生活改善、文化再生和社会活化为一体的综合性更新。有机更新要求以谨慎的渐进式更新取代草率的激进式更新,以＂自下而上＂的自愿式更新取代＂自上而下＂的指令式更新,以多个主体的合作行动取代强势集团的单边行动。     

Generalized and Institutional Trust: Their Impacts on First- and Second-Order Environmental Cooperation

Environmental issues remain problematic, but a growing body of work shows that trust is a solution. Yet, studies offer competing arguments on what type of trust promotes cooperation, generalized versus institutional trust. Further, previous studies use a variety of measures to define environmental cooperation, including membership in environmental groups, recycling garbage, and purchasing green products. These measures are unalike but often considered as analogous. I argue that environmental measures fit within one of two frameworks: first-order cooperation or second-order cooperation. To address these discrepancies, I use 2000 and 2010 General Social Survey waves to determine how generalized trust and institutional trust differently affect first- and second-order environmental cooperation. The findings indicate that generalized trust is strongly linked to both forms of environmental cooperation, but the relationship of institutional trust on first- and second-order cooperation is inconsistent.     

The Association of Outdoor Recreation and Environmental Concern: Reexamining the Dunlap-Heffernan Thesis1

Abstract Building upon earlier studies, two hypotheses concerning the association between participation in outdoor recreational activities and pro-environmental behavior are tested using data collected in a general population survey from a random sample of individuals in four communities in Pennsylvania. The first hypothesis, that there is a positive association between outdoor recreational participation and pro-environmental behavior, received substantial support. In contrast to previous research, the results did not support the second hypothesis which stated that there will be differences between/among different types of outdoor activities with respect to their impact on pro-environmental behaviors. Clarifications are made with respect to previous classifications of outdoor recreation activities.     

Creative Destruction and Globalization: The Rise of Massive Standardized Education Platforms

This paper describes how massive standardized education platforms have emerged as a result of globalization and the process of creative destruction. In education, creative destruction involves the initial development of a large number of educational standards, followed by cycles of the destruction of old standards and the creation of new ones. This leads to the narrowing and refinement of the standards until the key element of interoperability is achieved, thus allowing individuals or organizations to interact on a large scale. Examples are presented of standardized education platforms in the United States and globally.

While the objective and subjective knowledge systems are represented in the field of education, one danger is that standardized platforms may become homogenized around only the objective knowledge system, which seeks perfect efficiency. This may result in the exclusion of the subjective knowledge system, which argues that diversity and heterogeneity are needed to produce educational creativity and innovation. On the other hand, the platforms may be able to deliver much needed financial efficiency for K-12 public education systems, as well as providing a connection between the research data, which remains isolated in universities, and the practitioners in K-12 settings who need it.

Este artículo describe cómo las plataformas masivas de la estandarización de la educación ha surgido como resultado de la globalización y del proceso de una destrucción creativa. En la educación, la destrucción creativa implica el desarrollo inicial de un gran número de estándares educacionales seguido por ciclos de destrucción de estándares pasados y de la creación de los nuevos. Esto induce al estrechamiento y refinamiento de los estándares hasta que se alcanza el elemento clave de la interoperabilidad, y por lo tanto, permitiéndoles a los individuos u organizaciones que interactúen a una gran escala. Los ejemplos de plataformas de educación estandarizadas se presentan en los Estados Unidos y globalmente.

Mientras que los sistemas del conocimiento objetivo y subjetivo se presentan en el campo de la educación, uno de los peligros es que las plataformas estandarizadas puedan llegar a homogenizarse solamente alrededor del sistema de conocimiento objetivo, lo que busca una eficiencia perfecta. Esto puede resultar en una exclusión del sistema del conocimiento subjetivo, lo que sostiene que la diversidad y la heterogeneidad se necesitan para producir creatividad e innovación educacional. Por el otro lado, las plataformas pueden quizás proveer la eficiencia financiera necesaria para los sistemas de educación pública K-12, como también una conexión entre los datos de investigación que permanecen aislados en las universidades, y para los practicantes en los entornos de K-12 que la necesitan.

本文描述了作为全球化的结果和创造性毁灭过程的大规模的标准化的教育平台是怎样出现的。在教育领域,创造性毁灭涉及大量的教育标准的最初开发,然后伴随着旧的标准的毁灭和新的标准的建立的周期。这引致了标准的狭隘和精细,直到获取了互运性（interoperability）的关键元素为止,然后使个体或者组织大规模地互动。本文提供了一些美国和世界其它地方的标准化教育平台的案例。 在主观与客观两种知识系统在教育领域获得代表的同时,一个危险是,标准化的平台可能仅仅围绕着客观知识系统进行同质化,客观知识系统寻求完全的效率。这可能导致排除主观的知识系统。主观知识系统认为,为产生教育的创造性和创新,多样性和异质性是需要的。另一方面,平台可能为K-12公共教育系统提供十分需要的金融效率,以及提供仍然封闭在大学里的研究数据与需要这些数据的在K-12情景下的实干家之间的链接。

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Эта статья описывает появление массивных стандартизированных образовательных платформ в результате глобализации и процесса творческого разрушения. В сфере образования творческое разрушение предполагает инициацию разработки большого количества образовательных стандартов, с последующими циклами разрушения старых и создания новых. Пока ключевой элемент взаимодействия не будет достигнут, это приводит к сужению и уточнению стандартов, что позволяет отдельным лицам или организациям взаимодействовать в крупных масштабах. Приведены примеры стандартизированных образовательных платформ в Соединенных Штатах и ??во всем мире. В то время как в области образования представлены объективные и субъективные системы знаний, первейшей опасностью является то, что стандартизированные платформы могут гомогенизироваться только вокруг объективной системы знаний, которая стремится к идеальной эффективности. Это может привести к исключению субъективной системы знаний, которая утверждает, что разнообразие и неоднородность необходимы для создания творческого образовательного потенциала и инноваций. С другой стороны, платформы могут быть в состоянии обеспечить столь необходимую для системы общественного образования К-12 финансовую эффективность, а также связи между данным исследований, которые остаются изолированным в университетах, и практиками в настройках K-12, нуждающихся в этом.     

网络游戏对现实社会道德规范的冲击

网络游戏为玩家提供了一个交互式的娱乐平台,可以让玩家在虚拟世界里获得从来没有体验过的成就感和自信,但是纷繁复杂的游戏内容以及超规则的游戏手段对现实社会道德规范形成了强烈的冲击,造成对道德英雄主义的曲解,对传统婚姻制度和对价值观念的冲击,而且玩家不惜采用外挂、盗号等不正当的手段来挑战社会规范,已经形成一个必须面对的社会问题.     

The Equity and Poverty Impacts of Aquaculture: Insights from the Philippines

Recent literature is sceptical about the ability of aquaculture development to enhance equity and reduce poverty. This article investigates the issue empirically by surveying 148 households randomly selected in five coastal communities of the Philippines. There is overwhelming evidence that aquaculture benefits the poor in important ways and that it is perceived very positively by poor and non‐poor alike. In particular, the poor derive a relatively larger share of their income from it than the rich, and a lowering of the poverty line only reinforces this result. A Gini decomposition exercise also shows unambiguously that aquaculture represents an inequality‐reducing source of income, providing employment to a large number of unskilled workers in communities characterised by large labour surpluses.     

The Impacts of Human Capital and Need on Alimony

Abstract

Work on the determinants of alimony awards is sparse and often speculative. The present study tests the human capital and needs models of alimony with data from Alabama. The results of Tobit regression analyses provide mixed support for both theories. For example, the human capital model was supported for duration of marriage but not husband's education. The economic need model was supported for age of wife, but not her education or presence of children. While some indicators of both models are written into Alabama's Legal Code on divorce, most indicators of both models are not predictive of alimony awards in practice. Models of alimony should perhaps also look to consensual, normative factors rather than being constrained by those that find expression in legal codes.     

青少年犯罪的环境因素与预防矫正制度--来自日本的启示

近年来,日本青少年犯罪问题凸现,逐渐成为日本的主要社会问题之一.本文一方面分析了日本青少年犯罪严重的原因,另一方面也提出借鉴日本在青少年犯罪的预防和矫正领域的经验,警示与借鉴并重,完善我国的相关制度.     

The Impacts of the Basel II Accord on the Concentration of the Entrepreneurial and Banking System

From the econometric analysis model, even though based on the US economy, one deduces the existence of an important correlation between the intervened changes in the role of banks’ prudential capital and in merger and acquisition dealings: the latter have increased, at least in number, after the reviewing of prudential capital requirements in favour of better structured banking organizations. The analysis of the Italian entrepreneurial and banking system shows a country characterised by small-scale enterprises with meagre growth capability (even though the Accord, paradoxically, is meant to facilitate the granting of loans to the development of small-scale enterprises), but also by the great expanding potential of banking enterprises that, contrarily to the other productive entities, can count of high re-investible margins and, consequently, of wide capabilities of investing in private equity.      

Paths of Destruction and Regeneration: Globalization and Forests in the Tropics*

Abstract Globalization has spatially and temporally varied effects on forest cover in the tropics. It destroys primary forests (first nature) in some places at the same time that it creates secondary and scrub growth (second nature) in other places. In any one region, globalization first destroys forest and then induces some regrowth. It also contributes to the emergence of persistent rural poverty in tropical regions. Although forest destruction and regeneration would appear to have mutually offsetting environmental effects, the first effect is stronger than the second, so globalization exerts a negative net influence on biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. Case studies of change in forest cover in southeast Asia and west Africa illustrate these processes.     

论“大规模杀伤性武器”与中东地区安全

本文通过对大规模杀伤性武器的概念及其政治意涵的考察,关注中东地区的军备竞赛,分析了利比亚、以色列、埃及、叙利亚和伊朗等国的核计划和核政策,以及外部大国对中东地区核扩散的基本立场,指出在当前局势下中东地区无核区的提出和建设,不能从本质上改变该地区日趋恶化的安全形势。公正解决历史遗留问题和地区冲突,真正实现阿以和解,在有关国家间确立相互信任,才是解决问题的关键所在。     

论"大规模杀伤性武器"与中东地区安全

本文通过对大规模杀伤性武器的概念及其政治意涵的考察,关注中东地区的军备竞赛,分析了利比亚,以色列、埃及、叙利亚和伊朗等国的核计划和核政策,以及外部大国对中东地区核扩散的基本立场,指出在当前局势下中东地区无核区的提出和建设,不能从本质上改变该地区日趋恶化的安全形势.公正解决历史遗留问题和地区冲突,真正实现阿以和解,在有关国家问确立相互信任,才是解决问题的关键所在.     

The Impacts of Sexual Arousal and Its Suppression on Executive Functioning

Suppression of certain types of reflexive emotional responses is thought to temporarily deplete executive functions (EF), as evidenced by poorer performance on measures of EF, but does not deplete other, lower-order cognitive processes. This study examined whether similar decrements in performance on EF tests would occur following suppression of sexual arousal. A sample of 44 male college students underwent baseline cognitive assessment (EF and lower-order cognitive processes), followed by experimental manipulation consisting of exposure to sexually explicit audiovisual stimuli. Sexual arousal was monitored using penile plethysmography. In this study, 21 participants were assigned to a suppression condition and were instructed to suppress sexual arousal during the video, while 23 were assigned to an arousal condition and were instructed to allow themselves to become aroused. Following experimental manipulation, cognition was reassessed. Unexpectedly, results showed EF decrements in the arousal group but not in the suppression group. As expected, only EF was affected by experimental manipulation, with no group differences in lower-order cognitive processes. Thus, the findings suggest that sexual arousal is associated with temporary decrements in EF performance, at least among young, primarily White, male college students. The results contribute to understanding why sexually charged situations are sometimes associated with poor decisions or unsafe/reckless sexual practices.     

抗生素环境超标原因及应对措施探讨

随着抗生素的广泛使用和公众环境意识的不断增强,抗生素的滥用问题引起了社会大众和政府的广泛关注。本文通过分析导致环境中抗生素严重超标的原因并结合抗生素的特点和分布特征提出了解决这一环境问题的途径。     

The Social Bases of Environmental Concern: Have They Changed Over Time?1

Abstract Using data obtained from National Opinion Research Center's General Social Surveys (1973–1990), this paper tests two hypotheses concerning possible changes in the sociopolitical correlates of environmental concern. The “broadening base” hypothesis predicts that environmental concern will diffuse throughout the populace, resulting in a broader base of support for environmental protection, while the “economic contingency” hypothesis predicts that the economically deprived will disproportionately withdraw support for environmental protection during poor economic conditions. Analysis of the data over the 18 years, however, failed to lend any clear support for either of the hypotheses. In marked contrast, results indicate that the social bases of environmental concern—at least as measured by the NORC environmental spending item—have remained remarkably stable over nearly two decades despite fluctuating economic, political, and environmental conditions. Younger adults, the well-educated, political liberals, Democrats, those raised and currently living in urban areas, and those employed outside of primary industries were found to be consistently more supportive of environmental protection than were their respective counterparts.     

Impacts of the Triple Global Crisis on Growth and Poverty: The Case of Yemen

Yemen is an oil‐exporting and food‐importing country with the highest levels of poverty in the Middle East and North Africa. The impacts of the triple crisis are likely to further complicate pre‐existing conditions of conflict, oil depletion and governance failure. Using a dynamic CGE model, this article finds that oil‐driven growth in 2008 dominated the negative growth impacts of the food crisis, but that growth was not pro‐poor. The financial crisis of 2009 slowed growth sharply and raised the poverty rate to 42.8%, up from 34.8% in 2005/6. Poverty continues to be higher in rural areas, where almost half the population live in poverty.