Suchergebnisse

Central governments face compliance problems when they rely on local governments to implement policy. In authoritarian political systems, these challenges are pronounced because local governments do not face citizens at the polls. In a national-scale, randomized field experiment in China, we test whether a public, non-governmental rating of municipal governments' compliance with central mandates to disclose information about the management of pollution increased compliance. We find significant and positive treatment effects on compliance after only one year that persist with reinforcement into a second post-treatment year. The public rating appears to decrease the costs of monitoring compliance for the central government without increasing public and media attention to pollution, highlighting when this mode of governance is likely to emerge. These results reveal important roles that nonstate actors can play in enhancing the accountability of local governments in authoritarian politicalsystems.

This study examines the role of social media in facilitating the network of a social movement, the novel forms of exchange networks that are fashioned by participants of this movement and the drivers and effects of individuals' engagement therein. Specifically, using the lens of political consumerism, we look at the movement of self-described Indignant Citizens in Greece to reveal the underlying motivations for participants to engage in this social movement, the dynamics of their engagement and the ways in which Indignant Citizens' online presence enables identity expression, community-building and social change. We draw on interpretive analysis of findings from eight focus groups with members of Indignant Citizens. The findings reveal how this movement and the shared identity developed amongst its members empower our participants by giving them a voice and engage them in role mobilization, drive specific actions towards the conceptualization of a shared utopia and provide them with a platform to organize action and employ desired practices for the co-creation of useful and gratifying exchanges.

Emerging construction practices such as building information modelling (BIM), prefabrication construction, green building, and integrated project delivery methods are gaining momentum in China, with great potential due to the size of its construction market. Through this, the sustainability level of China's construction industry is expected to be enhanced from the economic, social and environmental perspectives. So far, there has been limited understanding of how BIM, as a digital technology, would affect other contemporary sustainable construction practices from the industry professionals' point of view. Limited studies have been carried out to study the regional differences of these contemporary sustainable practices in China. This study adopted a questionnaire-based approach targeting industry professionals from three different metropolitan cities (Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wenzhou).The follow-up comprehensive statistical analysis revealed that with regards to these contemporary sustainable construction practices, survey participants held much varied views on the growth of renovation projects, traditional Design–Bid–Build delivery, and conventional on-site construction methods. These three types were also generally perceived to have weak correlation with BIM application. Regional comparison further conveyed information on differences in perceptions among survey respondents from these three cities. For example, respondents from Wenzhou perceived more positive effects of BIM use in conventional construction projects. This research addressed the inter-correlation among these emerging sustainable construction practices, as well as the regional differences in China's construction market. The findings provide insights and the big picture for both governmental authorities and industry practitioners on the latest sustainable practices of China's construction industry. Recommendations are also offered towards improved economic, social and environmental sustainability performance for construction projects in the country.

Abstract. Climate changes seriously affect people's daily life. Temperature and precipitation have been the focus of many studies dealing with regional climate changes in recent decades. In this study, the climatic trends in Xinjiang, northwest of China during 1961–2008 are analysed in detail on the basis of several parameters: annual and seasonal mean precipitation, and annual mean, minimum, and maximum temperatures. The results show a significant increasing trend of 7.40 mm decade−1 in the annual mean precipitation and a relatively minimal upward trend of 1.45 mm decade−1 in winter in Xinjiang. The annual mean temperature increases significantly in Xinjiang with an increasing trend of 0.30 °C decade−1. There is an increasing trend of 0.25 °C decade−1 in the annual maximum temperature and an increasing trend of 0.52 °C decade−1 in the annual minimum temperature.

It has been estimated that there are now about 100 million economic migrants 'floating' in China's cities and towns. Although these rural people are subjected to profound discrimination vis-‡-vis employment, welfare, court-ship and legal rights, their mental health problems are largely unknown. The present study examines retrospectively the psychiatric morbidity and treatment of 112 migrant workers who were hospitalized in the only psychiatric hospital in Shenzhen, China's first special economic zone, over a 2-year period. The most common reason for hospitalization was socially intolerable behaviour and the most common diagnosis was schizophreniform psychosis. More female than male patients seemed to have social precipitants, which were most commonly labour conflicts and love or marital problems. Most patients improved with treatment but, because of the lack of health insurance coverage, 25% of them were discharged against medical recommendation. Since access to health services for less socially disruptive psychiatric disorders among migrants is greatly limited, empowering social and health policies are essential for enhancing their health status. The findings of the present study challenge the Chinese state as to how far it should pursue rapid economic growth without giving adequate attention to its adverse impact on the nation's health and health care.

Abstract. Extreme precipitation events are major causes of severe floods and droughts worldwide. Therefore, scientific understanding of changing properties of extreme precipitation events is of great scientific and practical merit in the development of human mitigation of natural hazards, such as floods and droughts. Wetness and dryness variations during 1961–2008 in Xinjiang, a region of northwest China characterised by an arid climate, are thoroughly investigated using two extreme precipitation indices. These are annual maximum consecutive dry days (CDD) and annual maximum consecutive wet days (CWD), based on a daily precipitation dataset extracted from 51 meteorological stations across Xinjiang. As a result, we present spatial distributions of mean annual CDD and mean annual CWD and their trends within the study period. The results indicate that: (1) CDD maximize in the Taklimakan and Turban basins of southeast Xinjiang, while minima are found in the Tianshan Mountains and the Ili river valley of northwest Xinjiang. On the contrary, the longest CWD are observed in northwest Xinjiang and the shortest in the southeast part of the region. (2) On an annual basis, CWD temporal variability shows statistically positive trends and a rate of increase of 0.1d/10a. CDD temporal variability shows statistically negative trends and a rate of decrease of 1.7d/10a. (3) Goodness-of-fit analysis for three candidate probability distribution functions, generalised Pareto distribution (GPD), generalised extreme value (GEV) and Gumbel, in terms of probability behaviours of CDD and CWD, indicates that the GEV can well depict changes of CDD and CWD. (4) The CDD and CWD better describe wet and dry conditions than precipitation in the Xinjiang. The results pave the way for scientific evaluation of dryness/wetness variability under the influence of changing climate over the Xinjiang region.