Vertical Farming: Social Work and Sustainable Urban Agriculture in an Age of Global Food Crises

Abstract

Environmental concerns, including issues of ecological justice, attention to sustainability, and focus on issues of food security have gathered increased momentum in social work. This article will trace the background of sustainable urban agriculture as a partial solution to the issue of global food insecurity and its impact on marginalised urban populations. It will review the development of a sustainable agricultural initiative called vertical farming and suggest that it holds promise for communities struggling with chronic food security problems. It will outline some tentative steps social work may consider in order to become more fully involved in support of vertical farming initiatives.     

Sympathy and the Value of Health: The Spill-over Effects of Migraine on Household Well-being

In this paper a model of life satisfactionmeasurement is formulated to calculatehappiness interdependencies. The model isapplied to estimate the spill-over effects ofmigraine headache on well-being. It is foundthat women are more compassionate thanmen. The results also show that ignoringhappiness interdependencies of migraineheadache underestimates the effects of migraineheadache on well-being.     

Assessing Antecedents of Socially Responsible Supplier Selection in Three Global Supply Chain Contexts

A number of highly publicized, controversial lapses in social responsibility within global supply chains have forced managers and scholars to reexamine long‐held perspectives on supplier selection. Extending Carter and Jennings’ department‐level study of purchasing social responsibility, our research assesses the role of supply managers’ ethical intentions and three key antecedents that drive socially responsible supplier selection. Comparing evidence from firms operating in China, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates, we identify three key drivers of supply managers’ ethical intentions and examine both their direct and indirect impacts on socially responsible supplier selection. We find differential support for the predictor relationships on supply manager ethical intentions across national contexts and mediated versus nonmediated models. These observations bear important implications for firms conducting global supply management.     

Practitioners’ perceptions of their ethics in Korean global firms

This qualitative study used in-depth interviews to review the perceptions held by public relations practitioners who work in global public relations firms, regarding their ethics, and to identify elements that support their ethics. Results indicate that those practitioners are adamantly ethics-oriented but they have a limited understanding of ethics specific to public relations. No absolute universal ethical standards were found. This study identified nine elements affecting public relations practitioners’ ethics. The important and powerful elements were chiefly attributed to cultural influences. It finally provides critical clues to the process of enhancing public relations professionalism.     

中东恐怖主义、全球治理与中国的反恐政策

中东反恐斗争是国际反恐中最关键、最具影响的组成部分,也是国际社会面临的全球治理问题之一。它与当代的国际体系转型和政治经济秩序的重建分不开,又同中东伊斯兰国家在经济全球化深入推进的形势下,如何处理现代化进程中的改革与发展、实现制度变迁和社会转型直接相关。从中东恐怖主义产生的根源、发展和蔓延的轨迹看,中东恐怖主义既蕴含着错综复杂的历史、社会、宗教、民族等内部因素,也掺杂着外来侵略、占领、干涉以及地区国家之间领土、资源和利益等方面的矛盾和冲突等外部环境因素。中国的反恐政策既出于保护海外利益的需要,也折射了中国独特的全球治理理念和治理模式。     

Multiobjective optimisation of production,distribution and capacity planning of global supply chains in the process industry

The performance of a supply chain should usually be measured by multiple criteria. We address production, distribution and capacity planning of global supply chains considering cost, responsiveness and customer service level simultaneously. A multiobjective mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) approach is developed with total cost, total flow time and total lost sales as key objectives. Also, two strategies to expand the formulation plants’ capacities are considered in the model. The ε-constraint method and lexicographic minimax method are used as solution approaches to tackle the multiobjective problem. Finally, a numerical example is investigated to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model and solution approaches.     

Recentralization of Tokyo: Contradiction and Political Struggle for Regional Policy in Japan

Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, has always been a center of national economic growth, and hence a focal point of political struggle between local and national government. There exist two kinds of political forces; the former desires strong concentration of economic activities in Tokyo based on market rationality and economic efficiency, and the latter counters the former claiming more decentralization based on the balanced national economic structure. This paper reviews the development of urban and regional policy in Japan over the last 20 years and examines how such political forces have played out. After the decade‐long sluggish economic performance and the challenge of inter‐urban competition by Asian mega‐cities, Tokyo Metropolitan Government formulated an aggressive promotional policy under the leadership of the then Governor Ishihara. He tactically created a political consensus to give locational favor to the central part of Tokyo at the expense of other regions. It was partially challenged by the election of the then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who insisted the need to revitalize the regions that were economically lagging. Despite his words, however, the centralization of Tokyo continued. This paper argues that the regional revitalization policy under the Abe administration was political rhetoric rather than reality, and Japan's economic fortune may still depend on the performance of Tokyo in the global economy under the neoliberal policy orientation.     

多边税收协定：税收协定的未来发展

国际上现有的双边税收协定最终应发展到多边税收协定的形式。本身就是多边谈判结果的OECD税收协定范本可以作为多边税收协定的谈判基点;当今世界经济相互依赖性不断增强,国家更可能考虑他国的利益。世界主义可以作为多边税收协定的伦理基础,世界主义主张个人在本国边界以外寻求发展和完善。多边税收协定为此提供了更大的机遇。根据建构主义理论,多边税收协定有助于塑造缔约国集体主义身份以及世界主义文化。     

发达国家企业后勤战略的新趋势

企业后勤战略是企业战略的一个重要组成部分.企业重组和兼并的浪潮、地区一体化和全球化的发展趋势以及竞争的日益加剧,使得企业的经济环境发生了很大变化.发达国家的企业审时度势,纷纷制定和实施新的后勤战略,如及时后勤战略、一体化后勤战略和全球后勤战略,以适应当今的经济环境,保持竞争优势,获取更大的生存与发展空间.这些战略对于即将加入WTO的我国企业来说,具有很大的借鉴作用.     

CAFTA、ACFTA自贸区与WTO贸易自由化的比较研究

全球贸易自由化是一个艰难的过程,区域性自由贸易区的建设是通向全球贸易自由化的必经之路吗？本文采用CGE全球模型---GTAP来研究CAFTA、ACFTA自由贸易区与WTO多边贸易自由化之间的相互关系。就粮食作物而言的部门调整,一个可能的全面的中国-奥大利亚自由贸易区（CAFTA）与多边贸易自由化进程的目标是一致的（WTO多边自由化过程）,然而中国-东盟自由贸易区（CAFTA）却与多边自由化进程不一致。