试论清代宁夏地区灾荒发生的社会成因

清代宁夏地区是全国灾荒最严重的地区之一,灾荒的发生有其自然成因,但社会成因更为重要.环境破坏、粮储不足、吏治腐败、战乱频发等社会因素使人民丧失了抵抗灾荒的能力,人民饥馑潦倒,政府财政窘困,最终导致灾荒频发.     

Famine intensity and magnitude scales: a proposal for an instrumental definition of famine

Ambiguities in current usage of the term "famine" have had tragic implications for response and accountability in a number of recent food crises. This paper proposes a new approach to defining famine based on the use of intensity and magnitude scales, where "intensity" refers to the severity of the crisis at a given location and point in time, while "magnitude" describes the aggregate impact of a crisis. The scales perform three operations on "famine": first, moving from a binary conception of "famine/no famine" to a graduated, multi-level definition; second, disaggregating the dimensions of intensity and magnitude; and third, assigning harmonised "objective" criteria in place of subjective, case-by-case judgements. If adopted, the famine scales should contribute to more effective and proportionate responses, as well as greater accountability in future food crises.     

‘The Ethiopian famine’ revisited: Band Aid and the antipolitics of celebrity humanitarian action

In many ways the Ethiopian famine of 1983–85 has served as a watershed with respect to humanitarian action. One of its lasting legacies has been the emergence of Band Aid and the subsequent increase in celebrity humanitarianism. A revisiting of the events of 1983–85 occurred in 2010 during a dispute in which it was alleged that a portion of the donations of Band Aid were spent on arms purchases. This paper takes this controversy as its starting point. It goes on to use the theoretical reflections of Giorgio Agamben to consider the dynamics that unfolded during the Ethiopian famine of 1983–85 and to analyse the underlying conceptualisation behind the emergence of Band Aid‐type celebrity humanitarianism. The paper concludes with some wider thoughts on how the in essence antipolitical agenda of celebrity humanitarian action is transported into the everyday understanding of ‘African disaster’, resulting ultimately in the perpetuation of hegemonic control by the global North.     

Measuring populations' vulnerabilities for famine and food security interventions: the case of Ethiopia's Chronic Vulnerability Index

The concept of vulnerability has become an important part of food security analyses since the 1980s. It is seen as having two sides: exposure to external hazards; and an inability to cope with those shocks, attributed to social, political, and economic factors. Numerous attempts have been made to construct models to determine levels of vulnerability among populations. This paper analyses one such attempt, the Chronic Vulnerability Index (CVI), developed to measure levels of vulnerability to food insecurity in Ethiopia. The example of the CVI reveals many of the difficulties associated with producing a basic model of vulnerability that can be used in disaster mitigation. Ultimately, the CVI assumes that vulnerability is a linear, additive phenomenon with discrete causes and effects and fails to capture interactions between hazards and the human systems that produce and complicate them. The paper concludes with a discussion of alternatives to the CVI.     

Getting the Scale Right: A Comparison of Analytical Methods for Vulnerability Assessment and Household-level Targeting

This paper introduces broad concepts of vulnerability, food security and famine. It argues that the concepts and theories driving development and implementation of vulnerability assessment tools are related to their utility. The review concludes that socio-geographic scale is a key issue, and challenge. It analyses three vulnerability assessment (VA) methods, using Ethiopia as a case study. Facing the challenges of vulnerability assessment and early warning requires providing accurate information at the required scale, useful for multiple decision-makers within realistic institutional capacities.     

Bulking sludge for PHA production:Energy saving and comparative storage capacity with well-settled sludge

Two acetate-fed sequencing batch reactors (SBR) were operated under an aerobic dynamic feeding (ADF) model (SBR #2) and with anaerobic phase before aerobic phase (SBR #1) to select mixed cultures with a high polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) storage response. Although kinetic selection based on storage response should bring about a predominance of floc-formers, a bulking sludge with storage response comparable to well-settled sludge was steadily established. An anaerobic phase was introduced before the aerobic phase in the ADF model to improve the sludge settleability (SBR #1), however, due to the consequent increased feast/famine ratio, the performance of SBR #1, in terms of both the maximum PHB (polyhydroxybutyrate) cell content and ΔPHB, was lower than that of SBR #2. SBR #2 gradually reached a steady state while SBR #1 failed suddenly after 50 days of operation. The maximum specific substrate uptake rate and storage rate for the selected bulking sludge were 0.4 Cmol Ac/(Cmol X.hr) and 0.18 Cmol Ac/(Cmol PHB.hr), respectively, resulting a yield of 0.45 Cmol PHB/(Cmol Ac) in SBR #2 in the culture enrichment phase. A maximum PHB content of 53% of total suspended solids and PHB storage rate of 1.36 Cmol Ac/(Cmol PHB.hr) was achieved at 10.2 hr in batch accumulation tests under nitrogen starvation. The results indicated that it was feasible to utilize filamentous bacteria to accumulate PHA with a rate comparable to well-settled sludge. Furthermore, the lower dissolved oxygen demand of filamentous bacteria would save energy required for aeration in the culture enrichment stage.     

1928～1930年年馑陕西灾荒移民问题

1928—1930年年馑前后陕西省由于受灾荒等方面的影响，出现了人口大量外流和涌入城市的现象，导致陕西省人口锐减，在全国人口的比例下降，性别比例失调，地理分布不平衡等一系列社会问题的产生，这不仅是灾荒的影响，同时和陕西当时的政治环境有密切关系。     

先秦时期农业减灾救荒思想研究

我国先秦时期形成了较为系统的农业减灾救荒思想,它包含灾前预防思想、农业减灾思想和灾后救荒思想三大部分。中国古代的减灾和救荒两大思想体系由此成为有机整体,这在三代(夏、商、周时期)和春秋战国时期农业生产的转型发展过程中产生了积极的促进作用。研究这一时期的农业减灾救荒思想对于后世的防灾减灾极具借鉴意义。