Brownfield Remediation and Redevelopment in China: Legal and Regulatory Frameworks, Processes, and Actions

Massive cities in China are experiencing a shift in their economic structure from traditional manufacturing to service and skill-intensive manufacturing, which leaves behind underused or abandoned industrial sites with real or perceived contamination problems in central cities and/or peripheral regions. A comprehensive and sustainable strategy for brownfield remediation and redevelopment, which embraces ecological, economic and social benefits, is a hot topic in China. However, the country is lacking a comprehensive and effective legal and regulatory framework for brownfield remediation and redevelopment, uniform national standards on site assessment, cleanup and remediation, and effective funding or financing mechanisms from the national level to local levels. The purpose of this study is to examine policy tools that are being adopted in China to deal with brownfield remediation and redevelopment, compare them to those employed in the United States, make recommendations to improve existing frameworks, and try to coordinate cross-purpose programs in an integrated legal and regulatory framework

Citizen Participation in Rulemaking: Past, Present, and Future

Administrative law scholars and governmental reformers argue that advances in information technology will greatly expand public participation in regulatory policymaking. They claim that e-rulemaking, or the application of new technology to administrative rulemaking, promises to transform a previously insulated process into one in which ordinary citizens regularly provide input. With the federal government having implemented several e-rulemaking initiatives in recent years, we can now begin to assess whether such a transformation is in the works-or even on the horizon. This paper compares empirical observations on citizen participation in the past, before e-rulemaking, with more recent data on citizen participation after the introduction of various types of technological innovations. Contrary to prevailing predictions, empirical research shows that e-rulemaking makes little difference: citizen input remains typically sparse, notwithstanding the relative ease with which individuals can now learn about and comment on regulatory proposals. These findings indicate that the more significant barriers to citizen participation are cognitive and motivational. Even with e-rulemaking, it takes a high level of technical sophistication to understand and comment on regulatory proceedings. Moreover, even though information technology lowers the absolute cost of submitting comments to regulatory agencies, it also dramatically decreases the costs of a wide variety of entertainment and commercial activities that are much more appealing to most citizens. Given persistent opportunity costs and other barriers to citizen participation, even future e-rulemaking efforts appear unlikely to lead to a participatory revolution, but instead can be expected generally to deliver much the same level of citizen involvement in the regulatory process

FDZ Annual Report 2008

"Following the exceedingly positive response to our Annual Report 2007, you now have the Annual Report 2008 of the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency at the Institute for Employment Research in this FDZ Methodenreport. Like last year, the FDZ Annual Report 2008 is not a glossy brochure full of photos but summarises the main events of the past 12 months in a few pages. The Annual Report 2008 is mainly based on key figures which the FDZ made available to the German Council for Social and Economic Data for their evaluation in 2009. The Annual Report also serves to provide transparency for our users, who after all justify the existence of the FDZ. The Report is divided into the following chapters: 'General function', 'Basic information', 'The service-oriented FDZ', 'The international FDZ' and, as an apt conclusion, 'Research at the FDZ'." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Here you can find the German version of the report.Forschungsdatenzentrum - Bericht, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, amtliche Statistik, Datenzugang, Datenschutz, Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, IAB-Betriebspanel, IAB-Betriebs-Historik-Panel, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Datenaufbereitung, Datenausgabe, BA-Beschäftigtenpanel, Befragung, IAB-Querschnittsbefragung, IAB-Haushaltspanel, IAB-kombinierte Firmendaten, IAB-Weiterbildungspanel

Cultural Politics of Community-Based Conservation in the Buffer Zone of Chitwan National Park, Nepal

The dissertation research examines the socio-economic and political effects of community-based conservation initiatives within the Bagmara buffer zone community forests of Chitwan National Park, Nepal. In particular, the study investigates the role of buffer zones creation in structuring the way rural property rights have been defined, negotiated, and contested, in reinforcing or reducing patterns of ethnic dominance and exclusion, and in influencing how cultural identities are constituted and renegotiated. Using a political ecology framework with a specific focus on theoretical concepts of environmentality and territorialization, I conducted 12 months ethnographic and quantitative survey field research in the buffer zone communities of Chitwan National Park. I focused on documenting socioeconomic conditions and livelihood practices, and interpreting the meanings of residents’ lived experiences. In addition, I critically examined state and non-state conservation and development practices to understand how they work to produce identities, livelihoods, and landscapes in the park’s buffer zone. The ethnographic study documented diverse impacts of community-based conservation initiatives. One of the major effects is the distribution of costs and benefits, specifically elite capture of community forest and tourism benefits. Second is the existing conflict and potential conflict over the control of access, benefits, and territory based on social and cultural identities. Third is the reproduction of caste, ethnic, and class hierarchies. Fourth is the militarization of communities in and around the buffer zone and community forest. Fifth is the production of environmental and non-environmental subjects such as illegals and poachers. Finally, the sixth is the commodification of conservation spaces and subsequent ecological impacts. The research concludes that the discursive representation of humans and non-humans and the discourses and practices of economic development and biodiversity conservation produced and reproduced a number of negative social, political, and ecological consequences in the buffer zone of CNP. This dissertation concluded that the conservation and development practices are territorial projects to govern people and nature

Tension and complexity in decolonial advocacy: A rhetorical analysis of situated approach in western Shoshone, Bikinian, and Hawaiian resistance to militarized colonialism

Decolonial advocacy is a difficult, complex, tension-filled realm. Indigenous advocates working for decolonization must navigate decisions about whether or not to utilize rhetorics derived from the colonial systems they challenge, when to make material demands on colonial states and when to turn inward, and when and how to build coalitions with non-indigenous people. Decolonial movements in the Western Shoshone Nation, the Marshall Islands, and Hawai’i have approached these questions in differing but overlapping ways that address the varied colonial histories each nation faces. This thesis argues that each of these movements has alternatively utilized and rejected colonial rhetorics to serve the decolonial aims of their advocacy. Throughout this thesis, I engage a variety of theoretical vocabularies, including rhetorical strategies and tactics (de Certeau, 1984), rhetorical maneuvers (Phillips, 2006), rhetorical appropriation (Black, 2009), and language theft (Minh-ha, 1989). Additionally, I consider the varied use of consummatory, instrumental, and coalitional rhetoric (Lake, 1991). I conclude that each of these rhetorical approaches is valuable in particular contexts, and that decolonial advocates may make use of any or all of these approaches as they fit the needs of a movement at a given moment