Toward a sociology of global comparative placemaking

I call for a globally informed sociology of comparative placemaking that integrates historical and contemporary processes and includes the ephemeral, institutional, and personal. By placemaking, I am referring to the explicit or tacit cooperation among people to create, maintain, and give meaning to places in space through bodily occupation given differential resources and constraints. I review select place, space, and community-based literature about urban, Black, migrant, LGBTQ, and international populations to think about how we can build upon and integrate multiple theoretical, methodological, and epistemological insights to form an explicit placemaking research agenda. A US focus on neighborhoods contrasts with a comparative examination of global urban networks, social polarization, and transformation of the built environment in the interdisciplinary field of global urban studies (Ren, 2018). I argue for a placemaking research agenda that bridges insight from US Urban Sociology with Global Urban Studies to consider how various structures and actors constrain and facilitate place projects. With a globally reaching and comparatively informed sociology of placemaking, we can illuminate our multi-structured story of place and agency in context. We can answer questions about how and why we co-create and are simultaneously disciplined by the process of creation.     

Comparison of labour and birth outcomes between nulliparous women who used epidural analgesia in labour and those who did not: A prospective cohort study

ObjectiveTo compare labour and birth outcomes between nulliparous women who used versus did not use intrapartum epidural analgesia.DesignProspective cohort study.SettingTwo maternity hospitals in Ireland.PopulationA total of 1221 nulliparous women who gave birth vaginally or by emergency caesarean section.MethodsMultinomial logistic regression was used to analyse categorical outcomes, with results presented as ratios of relative risks (RRR). For dichotomous outcomes we used logistic regression, with results presented as odds ratios (OR).Main outcome measuresMode of birth, IV syntocinon use, pyrexia (≥38 °C), antibiotic treatment, first stage labour ≥10 h, second stage labour ≥2 h, blood loss (≥500 mls, ≥1000 mls), perineal trauma. Neonatal outcomes included Apgar score ≥7 at 1 min and 5 min, admission to neonatal intensive care unit, and infant feeding method.ResultsWomen using EA were more likely to require a vacuum-assisted birth (RRR 3.35, p < 0.01) or forceps-assisted birth (RRR 11.69, p < 0.01). Exposure to EA was associated with significantly greater risk of ≥10 h first (OR 6.72, p = 0.01) and ≥2 h second (OR 2.25, p < 0.01) stage labour, increased likelihood of receiving IV syntocinon (OR 9.38, p < 0.01), antibiotics (OR 2.97, p < 0.01) and a greater probability of pyrexia (OR 10.26, p < 0.01). Women who used EA were half as likely to be breastfeeding at three months postpartum (OR 0.53, p < 0.01). No differences were observed between groups in neonatal outcomes.ConclusionsOur data shows significant associations between EA use and several intrapartum outcomes.     

Professional blinders? The novel as an eye-opener in organizational analysis

ABSTRACT

Scholarly textbooks often follow a logic where suitable empirical cases are selected to illustrate the theoretical and analytical points that we as scholars want to make. But what would happen if we would do the opposite: build a textbook on a novel written by a novelist for such purpose and let the theories explain the actions and emotions of fictional characters? In this article, we share and reflect upon our experiences of co-authoring a textbook in organization theory together with a professional novelist. We argue that the novel can function as an eye-opener in organizational analysis, forcing us to look beyond more static and rationalistic perspectives on organizations as well as the stereotypes of such. We build and relate our experiences to the growing literature about using fiction in scholarly work and discuss the potential of such genre-bending work when we bring in flesh and blood into the analyses.     

加入世贸组织对我国税制的影响

加入WTO符合我国的根本利益,同时对我国的社会经济生活产生深刻的影响,正确分析和判断加入WTO对我国税制产生的各种影响,进而作出相应的对策,对于发挥税收的职能作用具有重要意义.     

浅谈未来高职人才的培养模式

中国入世和知识经济时代的来临,将对我国社会生活与经济结构产生重大的影响,在整个教育领域中,职业教育对经济的反映最为敏感.高等职业教育作为向各行业第一线提供生产经营、管理人才的基地,培养具有国际适应性和较强创新能力的技术应用性人才是高职教育的主要任务.因此,高等职业技术教育应建立灵活的管理体制和运行机制,调整专业结构,改革教学手段和方法,并周密计划将素质教育落到实处.     

经贸英语在中国加入WTO后的新趋势

经贸英语对我国的经济和对外贸易业务起了相当重要的作用。中国加入WTO后和在西部大开发的进程中,同世界各国的外贸业务更加频繁,国际贸易业务知识已渗入日常的商务活动之中,外贸活动对英语能力的要求必将刺激经贸荚语的进一步发展和普及。外贸函电中电子商务的普遍应用,商务活动中的信息高速公路,电脑购物、电子货币和智能卡等,使得经贸英语出现许多新的特点和新的优势。本文对这些特点和优势进行了探讨。     

中国加入WTO与法官独立

WTO的基本法律原则有最惠国待遇原则、国民待遇原则、禁止数量限制原则、公平贸易原则、关税减让原则、透明度原则、协商解决争端原则。 WTO法律原则要求成员国司法公正 ,而司法公正的核心是法官独立 ,它包括法官的地位独立、法官终身制、法官的错案追究与免责制度、法官选拔、法官待遇以及法官独立的前提条件法院独立等。纠正了人们的认识误区 ,为应对中国加入 WTO,对中国的司法改革提出了切实可行的建议。     

WTO框架下我国农业发展的政策选择

本文对WTO框架下我国农业发展进行了讨论,实证分析了我国农业发展的现状,并对WTO框架下我国农业发展的政策空间进行分析,指出了在WTO框架下我国农业发展的政策取向和实施措施.     

从GATT到WTO--全球多边贸易体系的发展

建立一个调整世界各国贸易关系的组织 ,以便在比较宽松的环境下开展国际贸易 ,是世界各国的共同愿望。经过战后近半个世纪的艰苦努力 ,从GATT到WTO ,在循序渐进的过程中 ,形成了当今比较完整的国际贸易体系     

WTO与我国房地产金融业

本文通过对我国正处于经济发展前言的房地产金融业的现实考察，分析了加入ＷＴＯ对我国房地产金融业的影响因素，为我国房地产金融业的发展提出了相应的对策。