Linking urban form to a liveable city

This paper intends to show the contribution and relationship of urban form to a liveable city, as many researchers pose the urban form as one of the factors that can worsen or improve the sustainability of the city. The paper will begin by exploring into the theoretical characteristics of the urban form at the macro and micro scale. Urban form models that match the Malaysian cities’ urban form are illustrated in this paper with the idea of giving a larger context of the living ecology for Malaysian communities. There are two types of cities, one that grows in an ad-hoc manner, and the other is being shaped by planners. This paper however, focuses only on a planned city that is the core city for Shah Alam. Consequently, this paper touches briefly on the liveable city concept which is currently being debated among the researchers as a more practical way of looking into the sustainable city issues. The liveable city framework for the city of Shah Alam is discussed and some preliminary findings are offered at the end of the pape

Asian Varieties of Service Capitalism?

There is currently only limited empirical research and theoretical conceptualisation of the role of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in the economies of Asia within economic geography or elsewhere in the wider social scientific literature. This paper argues that existing theoretical understandings of KIBS are inadequate to conceptualise the nature of ongoing KIBS development in Asian economies – both emerging and mature – and seeks to address this absence by developing a theoretical framework that draws on a range of existing theoretical approaches within and beyond economic geography. To do this, it proposes the concept of ‘service capitalism’, developed from work concerned with varieties of capitalism (VoC), variegated capitalism and advanced service industries. The paper elaborates its theoretical argument by presenting research into two forms of Asian service capitalism through two case studies examining respectively the specific nature of Japanese KIBS and the development of KIBS in China. Using the case studies, it demonstrates how service industry development in both these Asian economies exhibits distinctive characteristics that are a consequence of both local institutional, corporate, and socio-cultural contexts but are also interconnected the wider global economy in complex ways. The paper thus presents a significant and disruptive challenge to existing theories of KIBS development as based on the western experience, and contemporary deployments of the varieties of capitalism and variegated capitalism approaches

Credit Co-operatives in Locally Financed Economic Development: Using Energy Efficiency as a Lever

development finance, local economic development, energy efficiency, credit co-operatives

Ecology on the horizon of China's project of national development: ecological civilization as a paradigm

Climate change, global warming or sustainability are buzzwords nowadays and have been for at least the last 10 to 15 years. Powerful images of smog, polluted rivers and heavy industry polluting are frequently utilized to demonstrate a certain point and often these images are taken from the People’s Republic of China. Western prejudice towards the country in most cases, reality however is clear. More importantly than pointing culprits, the question should be centred in understanding China’s historical context and from there to understand the more recent theoretical and practical development towards fighting certain unbalances. Ecological Civilization is the culmination of China’s path towards sustainability. Sustainability of its national development goals, but also of its political and economic system. With that in mind, we sought to help unravel a bit more of this country’s recent history and its relationship with the environment through different perspectives and with the research question, already mentioned, as a guiding principle. In the end, this is about understanding China’s recent ecological swing considering the national development project that is marked by a complex historical path.Alterações climáticas, aquecimento global ou sustentabilidade são palavras que estão na moda desde há 10 ou 15 anos. Poderosas imagens a retratar a poluição são frequentemente utilizadas para demonstrar isso mesmo e não são raras as vezes que essas imagens retratam a situação na Républica Popular da China. Preconceito ocidental em muitos casos, mas a realidade em todo o caso é evidente. Mais do que apontar o dedo, a questão deve centrar-se em entender o contexto histórico da China contemporânea e perceber os desenvolvimentos teóricos e práticos mais recentes para combater certos desequilíbrios na sociedade. O conceito de Civilização Ecológica é o culminar do caminho traçado pelo gigante asiático em direcção á sustentabilidade. A sustentabilidade dos seus planos de desenvolvimento nacional, mas também do seu sistema político e económico. Com isso em mente, procurámos desvendar um pouco mais sobre este país, a sua histórica recente e a sua relação com o meio ambiente através de diferentes perspectivas e tendo como pano de fundo a nossa pergunta de partida e respectivas hipóteses. Trata-se, no fundo, de compreender a recente viragem ecológica Chinesa à luz de um projecto de desenvolvimento nacional marcado por um percurso histórico complexo

A different capitalism? : Guanxi-capitalism and the importance of family in modern China

The emergence of Capitalism is said to always lead to extreme changes in the structure of a society. This view implies that Capitalism is a universal and unique concept that needs an explicit institutional framework and should not discriminate between a German or US Capitalism. In contrast, this work argues that the ‘ideal type’ of Capitalism in a Weberian sense does not exist. It will be demonstrated that Capitalism is not a concept that shapes a uniform institutional framework within every society, constructing a specific economic system. Rather, depending on the institutional environment - family structures in particular - different forms of Capitalism arise. To exemplify this, the networking (Guanxi) Capitalism of contemporary China will be presented, where social institutions known from the past were reinforced for successful development. It will be argued that especially the change, destruction and creation of family and kinship structures are key factors that determined the further development and success of the Chinese economy and the type of Capitalism arising there. In contrast to Weber, it will be argued that Capitalism not necessarily leads to a process of destruction of traditional structures and to large-scale enterprises under rational, bureaucratic management, without leaving space for socio-cultural structures like family businesses. The flexible global production increasingly favours small business production over larger corporations. Small Chinese family firms are able to respond to rapidly changing market conditions and motivate maximum efforts for modest pay. The structure of the Chinese family proved to be very persistent over time and to be able to accommodate diverse economic and political environments while maintaining its core identity. This implies that Chinese Capitalism may be an entirely new economic system, based on Guanxi and the family

An aesthetic for sustainable interactions in product-service systems?

Copyright @ 2012 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because its implementation and diffusion is hindered by several barriers (cultural, corporate and regulative ones). The paper investigates the barriers that affect the attractiveness and acceptation of eco-efficient PSS alternatives, and opens the debate on the aesthetic of eco-efficient PSS, and the way in which aesthetic could enhance some specific inner qualities of this kinds of innovations. Integrating insights from semiotics, the paper outlines some first research hypothesis on how the aesthetic elements of an eco-efficient PSS could facilitate user attraction, acceptation and satisfaction