Globalization and Collective Labor Rights

The impact of globalization has been a perennial source of contention, and issues regarding labor rights have been a visible aspect of this struggle. Despite the popular controversy about a potential “race to the bottom” regarding globalization and labor rights, the empirical record on these linkages remains mixed. Moreover, despite the multifaceted nature of globalization, extant literature in this area has focused purely on several specific facets of economic globalization, such as trade and FDI. We focus on two additional aspects of globalization, social and political integration, as well as a broadly based measure of economic globalization, and examine how they influence collective labor rights—both in terms of labor laws, as well as their enforcement in practice—in the developing world from 1986 to 2002. We find that all three facets of globalization are negatively related to labor rights. Specifically, social, political, and economic globalization are related to the decoupling of labor practices from extant labor laws; that is, labor practices deteriorate while labor laws remain largely unaffected.     

Hesitant Madams in a Global City: Japanese Expat Wives and their Global Householding in Hong Kong

Care work, once a sanctioned labor of love, is increasingly commodified in transnational contexts. The picture of migrant women shouldering the housework and child care of local professonal women may seem like a mutually beneficial arrangement—matching the “needs” of the haves and have-nots—, but the global care chain ultimately works to maintain the traditional gendered division of labor as well as global inequality. To this trend of globalization of care work, Japan has been an exception; however, how much longer it will be so is now in a question, as the government paves the way for importing domestic labor from abroad. This article focuses on Japanese expat wives in Hong Kong in order to locate Japanese women vis-à-vis the global care chain. The narrative analysis on how they decide whether to hire a domestic worker in their home away from home highlights the sociopolitical nature of their supposedly private choices. Some drew on cultural ideal of wifehood and motherhood to rationalize their choice while others referred to racialized or even overtly racist and classist images of foreign domestic workers. A few women spoke against the system itself, showing awareness of its inherent social injustice. All such narratives are never purely personal; their decisions and the rationalization behind them sustain the prevailing discourses of gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and class, which, in turn, envelop their attempts at global householding.     

世界经济失衡:概念、成因与中国的选择

世界经济失衡可以表述为这样一种状态:或者是由于世界供求关系不平衡而造成的一种失衡状态;或者是由世界经济共同体内一种长期起作用的因素所导致的世界经济的失衡状态;或者是两者兼而有之。当今世界经济的失衡,既源于世界经济增长格局、贸易格局的变化,又源于国际资本流动中的二元结构,还和全球人口流动与商品、资本流动的非对称性相联系。短期内,世界经济失衡的触发机制源于中美之间的贸易失衡以及美国、中国经济的结构性失衡。面对全球经济失衡,中国的对策可以概述为:对内改变增长方式,对外保持汇率稳定。     

中等国家与全球多边治理

尽管中等国家的概念内涵存在争议,但是它们在国际社会中的地位、利益、共有观念和认同等使其成为塑造全球多边治理的重要力量。中等国家可根据不同情势,灵活选择个体主义、社会交往及制度主义方式中的一种或多种,旨在实现全球多边治理的系列目标和努力提升它们在国际舞台上的话语权和影响力。从现实层面来看,多边主义是中等国家在准确定位自身能力之后而形成的"利他"与"利己"彼此交错的优先选择,但这种选择面临着巨大的挑战。     

Mapping Invasive Species Risks with Stochastic Models: A Cross-Border United States-Canada Application for Sirex noctilio Fabricius

Nonindigenous species have caused significant impacts to North American forests despite past and present international phytosanitary efforts. Though broadly acknowledged, the risks of pest invasions are difficult to quantify as they involve interactions between many factors that operate across a range of spatial and temporal scales: the transmission of invading organisms via various pathways, their spread and establishment in new environments. Our study presents a stochastic simulation approach to quantify these risks and associated uncertainties through time in a unified fashion. We outline this approach with an example of a forest pest recently detected in North America, Sirex noctilio Fabricius. We simulate new potential entries of S. noctilio as a stochastic process, based on recent volumes of marine shipments of commodities from countries where S. noctilio is established, as well as the broad dynamics of foreign marine imports. The results are then linked with a spatial model that simulates the spread of S. noctilio within the geographical distribution of its hosts (pines) while incorporating existing knowledge about its behavior in North American landscapes. Through replications, this approach yields a spatial representation of S. noctilio risks and uncertainties in a single integrated product. The approach should also be appealing to decisionmakers, since it accounts for projected flows of commodities that may serve as conduits for pest entry. Our 30-year forecasts indicate high establishment probability in Ontario, Quebec, and the northeastern United States, but further southward expansion of S. noctilio is uncertain, ultimately depending on the impact of recent international treatment standards for wood packing materials.     

国家主权与全球治理:国际法视角下的互动问题再思考

国家主权与全球治理是两个具有不同历史和时代维度的理论体系,国家主权是建构国际法理论体系的基石。而国际法的发展及其价值取向的转移又为全球治理理念的兴起创设了条件。因此国际法正是推进国家主权与全球治理两大理论体系协调与交融的重要制度平台。     

自然·传统与建筑创作

通过对阿尔瓦·阿尔托表现自然主题的几种方法的分析 ,揭示其结合自然环境 ,表达建筑地方化与人情化的创作手法 ,寻求当前在全球化形势下对我国建筑地方化创作的借鉴意义 .     

哲学视域中的人类中心主义

人类中心主义既不是人类专制主义,也不是人类沙文主义,全球生态危机是"生态帝国主义"以及社会经济制度和管理体制的缺失所使然。不是人类中心主义造成了全球生态危机,而是全球生态危机造成了人类中心主义的灾难。所以,人类中心主义应该成为批判的主体,而不是批判的客体。     

The Tyranny of the Customer and the Cost of Consumerism: An Analysis Using Systems and Psychoanalytic Approaches to Groups and Society

This paper argues that an organizationaldiscourse on consumerism is replacing a prior discourseof dependency. This discourse encourages, and isencouraged by, economic rationales for behavior and ismarked by the collapse of many complex societal rolesinto the simpler category of customer.Moreover, practices emergent from consumerism andeconomic rationalism often act as organizational andsocial defences against anxieties about theuncertainties and changes occurring in a worldincreasingly dominated by global markets where thecustomer is sovereign. Six workinghypotheses are proposed to explain the operation of these new socialdefences. Evidence in support of these hypotheses comesfrom collaborative action research projects in which theauthor is involved. The argument moves toward a consideration of the new consumerprovider pair which, it is proposed, has becomea major signifier within the consumer discourse andwhich might be considered as a transitional pair indealing with widespread organizationalchange.     

中国湿地经典--红河哈尼梯田

红河哈尼梯田是哀牢山区以哈尼族为代表的各族人民在千百年勤奋劳作中开创的一套梯田文明系统,它是中国山区稻田农耕的最高典范,更是中国人工湿地的不朽经典。它在原先没有湿地的哀牢山区创造了人工湿地梯田,与长江中下游平原和三江平原改变天然湿地为稻田和耕地相比,更显出它保持水土、调节气候、维护生物多样性等湿地功能。