Suchergebnisse

The main focus of the contributors of this volume is to analyze closely major aspects of energy security, energy diplomacy, and maritime security in East and Southeast Asia. Specifically, they examine the current state of energy security and maritime security of China and Japan, as well as Southeast Asia

Grassroots innovations, understood as bottom-up experiments on more socio-ecologically sound practices, have been a primary focus in civic-oriented studies on transformative pathways to sustainability. However, grassroots innovation studies often adopt a socio-technical systemic approach, whereby grassroots actors' aspirations, mobilization efforts, and visions beyond the scope of certain socio-technical transitions are largely left off. This thesis proposes a place-centered enabling approach that foregrounds site-specific needs and place-based politics to better capture the nature and transformative potential of grassroots innovations. It first reconceptualizes a grassroots niche as 'a hybrid space' grounded in socio-spatial dynamics and networked politics and mixed with elements of incumbent socio-technical regimes. Drawing inspiration from political ecology and human geography, it then recasts grassroots innovations as grassroots place-making actions and analytically focuses on three constituents—the development history of the host community, outstanding place-framings, and internal and/or external place-making politics—to investigate a grassroots innovation in relation to the socio-spatial transformation and the underlying politico-economic structure experienced by a community. Empirically, this research draws on evidence from three cases of energy and agri-food grassroots innovations in Taiwan that address important problems emerging from the country's capitalist development, including the violation of indigenous rights, resource grabbing, and industrial pollution. Evidence was built through a comprehensive data collection, in-depth interviews, and participant observation over the course of 11 months in 2016 and 2017, supplemented by three annual post-fieldwork visits. The research shows that the formation of a grassroots innovation is often motivated by the geo-historical processes that communities co-evolve with and may seek to change in line with other defensive and/or innovative actions. Moreover, its development can be subject to structural lock-ins underlying site-specific concerns that also constrain systemic solutions. Overlooking unmet site-specific needs and ends can lead to problematic gaps in knowledge production for policymaking, which can unintentionally consolidate the injustice a community has faced. With these findings, the research contributes to the debate of transformative pathways to sustainability by joining the call for a geographical and critical turn in sustainability transitions research, thereby facilitating dialogues between grassroots innovation studies and critical studies for radical change. It enriches the meaning of 'sustainability' by situating it in the context of a (former) developmental state in East Asia, and expands the scope from socio-technical transitions to socio-spatial and structural transformations from a grounded, bottom-up perspective, which I argue, is vital to reach a real 'win-win' balance between 'sustainable' community development and 'sustainable' socio-technical transitions.

The essays in this book, written by people involved either involved in the strike (graduate students, faculty, organizers) or who are nationally recognized writers on academic labor, offers lessons on what the GSOC strike says about the current role of the university in public life, and how the pressure for universities to realign themselves along the lines of private corporations has broad implications for the future of higher education

AbstractThe design and development of photoinitiating systems applicable to visible light delivered from light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) have attracted increasing attention owing to the wide application of photopolymerization. In this study, four aryl glycine derivatives are designed and synthesized, and their applicability as visible light‐sensitive photoinitiators is thoroughly investigated. Specifically, the photoinitiation mechanism of these aryl glycine derivatives, when combined with iodonium salt, is investigated using steady‐state photolysis, fluorescence, and electron paramagnetic resonance spin trapping techniques. It is revealed that radicals can be generated from aryl glycine derivatives/iodonium salt combinations upon exposure to blue LEDs (410 and 445 nm) to induce free radical photopolymerization (FRP) of (meth)acrylates. Additionally, besides FRP, a photobase generator based on one of the investigated aryl glycine derivatives is synthesized and demonstrates the capability to initiate epoxy‐thiol polymerization under light irradiation. The remarkable photolatent characteristics demonstrate the significant potential in broadening the application of aryl glycine derivatives in controlled photopolymerization processes.

Conference Theme: Education Access and Excellence ; With the global spread of English arising from a whole host of historical, political andsocioeconomic factors, English, often recognized as the global "lingua franca" or " international language", has become one of the most popular mediums of instruction to offer in some higher education courses/programs in non-English speaking countries. Many European and Southeast Asian societies, with their desire to participate and compete in the globalized economy, regard formal/academic English literacy as one of the most important Twenty-First Century competencies to be developed among higher education students. Access to (overseas) higher education in the English medium, which has become a priced program of learning that often only middle/upper class families can afford, is an important issue in higher education research. To provide more affordable access to English medium higher education (both overseas and locally), "blended learning" that utilizes a variety of both face-to-face and e-learning platforms has become the latest direction for higher education development research in Southeast Asia. In this paper, the blended learning efforts made in MEd LAC (Master of Education in Language across the Curriculum) program at the University of Hong Kong are presented. ASAIHL scholars and researchers are requested to make discussion for possible future collaborative projects in this emerging area of research that aims at achieving both access and excellence in English medium higher education in Southeast Asia. ; postprint

ABSTRACTIn order to protect the sensitive waters in Tolo harbour (Hong Kong), Sha Tin and Tai Po sewage‐treatment works were first designed to remove 70% of the nitrogen load from the sewage. Since then, due to continuing serious eutrophication problems in the harbour, both plants have been modified to increase the removal efficiency to 90%.The modifications were based on the Bardenpho process. However, the designers of the two plants adopted different approaches to process intensity, complexity and control of bacterial foam. At Sha Tin, the average monthly results have shown an increase of total nitrogen removal from 60–70% to about 80% since its completion. The addition of methanol was found to be ineffective on further enhancement of the denitrification rate due to difficulties in the apportioning of the second anoxic zone. The overall monthly results for Tai Po have also shown an increase in the removal rate to about 80%, even though 90% was achieved for a short period of time. The major problem encountered at the latter plant was that the process design did not provide an effective control on bacterial foaming, which had affected the smooth operation of the process.