A governance network perspective on environmental conflicts in China: findings from the Dalian paraxylene conflict

Employing the Governance Network framework, this article presents an in-depth case study of the conflict that evolved from 2003 onwards over the construction and operation of a paraxylene plant in Dalian, China. The study explores the usefulness of this framework as an empirical tool to describe and make sense of policy processes and governance in multi-actor situations in China. The analysis shows the lack of anticipation and deliberation by Chinese governments, resulting in the buildup of citizens’ concerns, mediated by social media beyond government control. This results in an outbreak of protest followed by uncoordinated governmental responses, with high costs for all parties. It is argued that, because of the underlying institutional causes, the challenges are even greater for Chinese governments to come to grips with the increasing need for internal coordination, deal with new social media, and balance economic and environmental values.     

上市公司治理:理论与现实的距离——基于1250份上市公司“自查报告和整改计划”的分析

本文根据1250家上市公司所公布的"自查报告和整改计划",重点从大股东、董事会/监事会、经理层以及投资者法律保护等四个方面对"自查报告和整改计划"的调查问题进行全面归纳、整理、分解和剖析,通过统计分析和理论文献对比,综合反映出目前我国上市公司治理现状和问题.调查分析结果表明,虽然我国目前已基本上建立了一整套与上市公司治理相关的法律法规,上市公司在大股东、董事会、经理层和投资者保护等方面的行为得到了一定的规范约束.但是,我国上市公司治理仍然处在不断完善过程中,如何强化大股东的信托义务和法律责任,从根本上解决大股东侵占中小股东利益的问题、保证董事会制度的独立性和有效性、培育经理人市场,积极推进股权激励机制、落实投资者法律保护制度等成为今后完善我国上市公司治理的重要任务.     

Opportunities of Reforming the WTO: Resistance and Potentials of Change

This paper intends to show both that a reform of the WTO is severely needed in order to establish a fairer international trade order but also that it is possible. The first section of this paper analyzes the functioning and the most controversial rules of the organization. The second and third sections intend to look for current opportunities of reforming the WTO by analyzing the main existing critical responses to the institution’s deficiencies—namely coalitions of southern Nation-States and global civil society movements—and their potential to achieve some change. It is concluded that these two key group actors, while playing different roles, do have common goals on selected issues of international trade and if so, their combined negotiating power is considerably increased for achieving a progress in the direction of a positive reform of the WTO for the developing world.

The power of activist networks in the mass self-communication era: A triangulation study of the impact of WikiLeaks on the stock value of Bank of America

This case study examines a confrontation between WikiLeaks and Bank of America (BOA). Drawing upon Castells’ concept of mass self-communication and the cocreational approach to public relations, a triangulation of social network analysis and event study method allows this project to capture the structure of WikiLeaks’ global network and to document how the activist network affected BOA's stock value. The analysis reveals that WikiLeaks emerged as the center of a global mass self-communication network consisting of a diverse group of members, such as social media sites and mass media outlets. The study offers implications for a re-conceptualization of the role of activism in public relations.     

Recognising the face of the other: Difference,identity and community

Social work's role in creating social solidarity requires an engagement with identity politics through careful negotiation of the boundary between the private and the public spheres and hence ensuring a balance between personal freedom to define one's specific identity and the public entitlement to belong to a political community as citizens. Current political and cultural trends, reflected also in social policies, impact severely on that boundary maintenance task inasmuch as privatisation encroaches on formerly public domains while simultaneously details of private concerns receive public attention through their commercialisation by the new media. It is suggested that social work's political role be asserted more explicitly in terms of the application of the Global Agenda which needs to penetrate to the level of person‐to‐person interaction.     

Staging the world in late‐qing China: Globe,nation, and race in a 1904 Beijing opera

This essay takes the first Beijing Opera of China's early twentieth‐century reformist opera movement as an exemplary text and performative context through which to analyze the production of a new historical consciousness in late‐Qing China (1895–1911). Performed in Shanghai in 1904, the opera is centrally concerned with the modern partition of Poland. The essay argues that the opera's interpretation of history is a deliberate intervention into China's turbulent socio‐political atmosphere and helps mark an attempt to popularize through performance a new synchronic global consciousness that links China's contemporary history to the non‐Western world of global transformation at the turn of the twentieth century.     

The Glocal and Global Studies

Abstract

This article offers an overview of engagements with the glocal and traces the consequences of this research agenda for Global Studies. First, it compares the emergence of the global and the glocal in the literature. It tracks the uneven impact of the business use of the glocal and argues that this genealogy has obscured alternative accounts. Second, it offers a thematic overview of the uses of glocalization in the literature. It highlights publication clusters in specific areas of interdisciplinary interest. It further addresses key criticisms against glocalization. Finally, it explores the vicissitudes of research on glocalization on the scope and definition of Global Studies. Trends in Global Studies appear to move in an opposite direction from the one suggested by glocalization. This could lead to the emergence of a separate field of Glocal Studies, causing further fragmentation in the field.     

Social Workers’ and Students’ Attitudes toward Electronic Tracking of People with Alzheimer's Disease

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have recently been employed to help monitor persons with dementia. While the advantages of such technologies are clear, making use of them raises a number of ethical dilemmas. Considering the fact that social workers may be called upon to assist families in making decisions regarding the use of GPS, their attitudes on this issue are important. Fifty-five social workers and 61 social work students completed a questionnaire including: attitudes toward tracking, knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) symptoms, familiarity with persons who have AD, and ratings of who should be involved in the decision-making process regarding GPS use. Findings showed that the highest-scored attitude factor was respecting elders’ autonomy, while the lowest-scored factor opposed GPS use. The elderly and their spouses were rated as important decision-makers regarding the use of GPS. Knowledge of AD and respecting autonomy were negatively correlated. Students gave a higher rating to respecting elders’ autonomy than the social workers. Social workers gave a higher rating to the importance of a multidisciplinary team. Implications for social work education are discussed including recommendations for person-centered AD care on the one hand, and the need to balance the interests of the individual and the family on the other.     

The Role of Social Work Education in Advancing Social Development in the English-speaking Caribbean

This article presents a discussion of the role of professional social work education in advancing social development in the countries of the English-speaking Caribbean. It addresses issues around the development of the profession in the region, student enrolment, curriculum expansion and programme delivery by the institutions which offer social work education. The events which contributed to the emergence of social work education in the region during the fourth decade of the twentieth century and social work education's continued contribution to regional development are discussed. The prospective use of the new Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development to advance the profession in the region in the twenty-first century is noted. The article concludes by highlighting the many challenges that currently impact social work education in the Caribbean and the fact that the development of social work education in the region is inextricably linked to the region's social development needs. Social work education as delivered through the University of the West Indies is used as the case in point for discussion.     

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.