The Portuguese Disabled People’s Movement: development,demands and outcomes

The increased variety of social conflicts in the post-1960?years resulted in the extension of the individual’s participation in the state’s activity. This change was mirrored by the emergence of new social movements and the related expansion of the notion of citizenship. New groups of people, including disabled people, have emerged claiming citizenship rights. In order to do this, disabled people started to coalesce into uni-impairment and multi-impairment groups and organisations to denounce social exclusion and legal oppression, as well as to demand rights as citizens. Partially based on my research about social citizenship and the Disabled People’s Movement, this article investigates, firstly, the seeds and development of the Portuguese Disabled People’s Movement, secondly, its aims, demands and action strategies and, finally, its impact in the lives of disabled people in Portugal.     

Outside Looking In: The Community Impacts of Anti-Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Hate Crime

Hate crime scholars have long argued that the harms of hate crime extend beyond the immediate victim to negatively impact the victim’s reference community. However, this assertion is speculative and in need of empirical support. Utilizing focus group data from 15 people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or pansexual, this pilot study explored the extent to which the harms of anti-LGB hate crime spread beyond the immediate victim to impact nonvictims in the LGB community. The findings suggest that anti-LGB hate violence can have profound and negative effects on the psychological and emotional well-being of nonvictims who are LGB and may result in dramatic behavioral change as well. The findings also indicate that hate violence negatively affected participants’ decisions to disclose their sexual orientation to others. On a more positive note, however, awareness of such violence may also mobilize some people within the LGB community.     

A CGE Framework for Modeling the Economics of Flooding and Recovery in a Major Urban Area

Coastal cities around the world have experienced large costs from major flooding events in recent years. Climate change is predicted to bring an increased likelihood of flooding due to sea level rise and more frequent severe storms. In order to plan future development and adaptation, cities must know the magnitude of losses associated with these events, and how they can be reduced. Often losses are calculated from insurance claims or surveying flood victims. However, this largely neglects the loss due to the disruption of economic activity. We use a forward‐looking dynamic computable general equilibrium model to study how a local economy responds to a flood, focusing on the subsequent recovery/reconstruction. Initial damage is modeled as a shock to the capital stock and recovery requires rebuilding that stock. We apply the model to Vancouver, British Columbia by considering a flood scenario causing total capital damage of $14.6 billion spread across five municipalities. GDP loss relative to a no‐flood scenario is relatively long‐lasting. It is 2.0% ($2.2 billion) in the first year after the flood, 1.7% ($1.9 billion) in the second year, and 1.2% ($1.4 billion) in the fifth year.     

Rebound effects of progress in information technology

Information technology (IT) is continuously making astounding progress in technical efficiency. The time, space, material and energy needed to provide a unit of IT service have decreased by three orders of magnitude since the first personal computer (PC) was sold. However, it seems difficult for society to translate IT’s efficiency progress into progress in terms of individual, organizational or socio-economic goals. In particular it seems to be difficult for individuals to work more efficiently, for organizations to be more productive and for the socio-economic system to be more sustainable by using increasingly efficient IT. This article provides empirical evidence and potential explanations for this problem. Many counterproductive effects of IT can be explained economically by rebound effects. Beyond that, we conclude that the technological determinism adopted by decision-makers is the main obstacle in translating IT’s progress into non-technical goals.

论《西游记》中的五行观念

五行观念是中国重要的哲学思想,它对古代小说产生了深远影响,尤其是在神魔小说《西游记》中得到了充分的体现。在《西游记》中,从孙悟空的生长环境到其人生遭遇,无不存在五行观念的强大影响。不但如此,唐僧师徒取经队伍的组合次序及各自的性格特点,也在很大程度上参照五行模式而来。甚至在妖魔的世界中,五行观念的影响也是处处存在。     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Ragnar Lofstedt and Lynn Frewer, eds., The Earthscan Reader in Risk & Modern Society
Charles Vincent and Bas De Mol, eds. Pergamon Press, Amsterdam, 2000 Safety in Medicine
Hans Marquardt, Siegfried Schafer, Rodger McClellan, and Frank Welsch, eds., Toxicology     

Towards a generic sustainable urban transport strategy for middle-sized cities in Asia: Lessons from Ningbo, Kanpur and Solo

Almost 10 years ago the World Bank and UNDP expressed grave concerns about the likely future adverse impact of motorization on middle-sized cities in Asia and the Pacific region.¹ They claimed that, while many mega and primary cities in the region have an acknowledged transport crisis that has attracted major planning efforts, and extensive large-scale investment, the middle-sized cities (with only a fraction of the resources available to them) remain neglected and as result will reach their own crisis points unless effective policies are developed and implemented. Both agencies argued that catching the problems at an early stage would offer the advantage of developing a more systematic approach to tackling problems associated with unabated motorization and the opportunity to develop a generic method that could be applied to many medium-sized cities throughout the region. With this in mind, the World Bank, through UNDP and ESCAP, completed a study in 1998 directed by the author which sought to establish what generic strategic steps should be taken to prepare proactive measures to confront the challenges that motorization poses for such cities. The study drew extensively on the urban development and motorization experiences of three middle-sized cities in Asia—Kanpur in India, Ningbo in China and Solo in Indonesia—and recommended building blocks of a generic sustainable transport strategy for the region. Seven years on from the completion of this study, this paper examines the validity of the original motorization fears, re-examines the study's key findings and recommendations, and concludes that many still have resonance today.     

直面WTO

中国加入WTO,企业将直面世界市场,这必将进一步加速我国经济融入全球一体化的进程。中国加入WTO,既会创造各种机遇,又会面临各种冲击和挑战,国内企业必须尽快调整经营管理以适应新形势的要求。     

物联网:影响及其发展对策

随着物联网的兴起和应用面的逐步扩大,使得网络从数据和信息的维度扩展到有实物参与的更大维度。在促进社会进步的同时也带来了一定的发展风险。本文首先分析了物联网的基本特征,在剖析了物联网的积极作用与负面效应后,从多层次积极探索和研究了可能的对策,希望在当前物联网面临快速建设和发展的过程中能有效扩大其积极作用且避免和减少各种可能的风险和危害。     

论当代官僚制面临的几大冲击

马克斯.韦伯提出的官僚制组织理论奠定了现代组织理论基础,对整个20世纪乃至久远的未来都产生了深刻的影响。然而,任何一种组织都是一定历史条件下的产物,随着社会发展,尤其是信息技术的飞速发展,传统官僚制面临的冲击越来越多。科学地反思官僚制面临的困境,创造性地完善这一组织模式,对于我国现代化建设具有重要的意义。