Techno-environmental risks and ecological modernisation in “double-risk” societies: reconceptualising Ulrich Beck’s risk society thesis

By utilising a relatively underused framework developed by Maurie J. Cohen (1997. Risk society and ecological modernisation alternative visions for post-industrial nations. Futures, 29 (2), 105–119), this theoretical paper joins two of the most debated theories of environmental politics – ecological modernisation (EM) and Ulrich Beck’s risk society thesis – into a unified framework and problematises some of their implicit assumptions to theoretically introduce the notion of a “double-risk” society. In addition, it explains the differences between the traditional “Risk Society” theorised by the German sociologist Ulrich Beck and the newly introduced concept of a “double-risk” society. The arguments put forward in this paper provide some fresh perspectives facilitating the study of the techno-environmental risks and other ecological problems faced by “double-risk” societies. Theoretically, this paper adds to both EM theory and the risk society thesis as the generalisability of their existing versions is limited precisely because they fail to address some important social changes at the global structural level.     

我国大力发展循环经济的必要性分析

我国经济的高速发展使生态环境日益恶化，可持续发展问题成为建设小康社会的主要瓶颈。循环经济能使资源以最低的投入达到最高效率的使用和最大限度的循环利用，实现了污染物排放的最小化，是实现可持续发展的最佳经济模式。因此，我国必须大力发展循环经济。     

The role of symbolic capital in stakeholder disputes: decision-making concerning intractable wastes

This paper examines almost 30 years of disputation concerning the disposal of the world's largest stockpile of the toxic organochlorine, hexachlorbenzene. It describes the study of a chemicals company in its attempt to manage the disposal of the toxic waste in a collaborative fashion with government, environmentalists and the local community. The study describes the new processes and structures specifically designed to address the decision-making and the issues of stakeholder perception and identity construction which have influenced the outcomes. Decision-making in such disputes is often theorized from the perspective of the emergence of highly individualized and reflexive risk communities and changing modes and expectations of corporate responsibility as a result of detraditionalization. We argue that the stakeholder interaction in this study reflects competing discourses in which corporate actors prioritize the building and maintaining of identity and symbolic capital rather than an active collaboration to solve the ongoing issue of the waste. As well, issues of access to expert knowledge highlight the relationship between conditions of uncertainty, technoscientific expertise and identity. The events of the study highlight the challenges faced by contemporary technoscientific corporations such as chemicals companies as they must deliver on requirements of transparency and openness, while maintaining technoscientific capacity and strong internal identity. We conclude that the study demonstrates the co-existence of social processes of individualization and detraditionalization with quasi-traditions which maintain authority, thus challenging the radical distinctions made in the literature between modernity and late or reflexive modernity.     

云南楚雄市水环境对策研究

河流水污染和水资源短缺是楚雄市面临的两大水环境问题。本文将楚雄市社会经济发展、水污染控制和水资源开发利用纳入一个系统,在掌握水环境问题现状和变化趋势及其成因的基础上,探讨河流水质目标和排污控制目标,从宏观协调对策和水污染控制措施两个层次上进行水环境对策的设计和多目标优选,并得到最佳水污染控制实施计划。     

全面小康社会环境指标初步研究

从全面小康社会对环境质量的需求分析入手,提出全面小康社会环境指标应该针对典型环境要素的质量状况设置代表性指标.就综合性、简明性、可计量性、公平性、衔接性等对现有常用指标进行了评价,结合社会发展和环境演变趋势,针对"水、大气、土壤、生态"四大环境要素,分别选取"环境空气质量在二级以上区域的人口比例"、"国控断面水环境功能区达标率"、"植被覆盖率"、"农业用地土壤环境质量达国家二级标准的比例"等指标,作为全面小康社会环境指标的初步方案.      

Discussion on the Mode of China＇s Low-carbon Society and Construction Routes

In responding to global climate change, the idea of low-carbon economy emerges as the times require. Developing low - carbon economy is based on the construction of low-carbon society. The so called ＂t...     

Analysis on the Evolution of Regional Economic Disparity in the West Coast of the Strait

With the implementation of reform and opening-up, the overall economy of China has made brilliant achievements; meanwhile, however, the economic disparity has been enlarging among some regions, and between the city and the countryside. The existence and evolution of this kind of economic disparity is concerned with social stability, sustainable development and the construction of harmonious society, which has gradually become the hotspot in social economic development. The West Coast of the Strait （WCS） located in southeast littoral areas is adjacent to the Pearl and Yangtze River Delta in the south and north and faces Taiwan Province in the east. The stability and development of this region has vital political and economic meaning in the social economic development of our country. It has important theoretical meaning and practical value to research the form, characteristics and evolution of regional economic disparity in the WCS. Based on insightful analysis on existing study results on the WCS, the paper defines the connotation and extension. By a series of absolute and comparative relative evaluation indexes and taking the WCS since 1992 as the study object, the paper makes analysis on different scales including three regions, four regions, 20 cities and 152 counties, quantitatively evaluates the level, characteristics and evolution of the regional economic disparity and compares the regional economic disparity on different scales. The main conclusions are as follows： the variation trend of the absolute disparity of the whole region is obvious and stable, which has presented an inflating trend; the comparative variation trend on a large scale has waved, The comparative disparity of the three regions increased annually from 1992 to around 2000, which had a decreasing trend from around 2000 to 2005; the comparative variation trend on a small scale was not stable, which showed an annual increase of four regions, 20 cities and 152 counties from 1992 to around 2003 and a decrease from around 2003 to 2005; the     

风险社会中突发事件的特征与处置理念探析

突发性事件由于其本身所具有突发性、紧急性、危重性、复杂性、关联性、广泛性、政治性和不确定性等特征,所以其负面性影响很大,往往可能成为激发社会矛盾、进而爆发政治、经济和社会危机的直接原因。而经济转轨、社会转型、利益群体多元化等许多不稳定的因素,对局部地区乃至全国的经济发展和社会稳定构成了潜在威胁。在这样一个具有诸多风险因素的社会,由此而引发的突发事件又有形式多元化、规模扩大化、形态群体化、影响辐射化、目标国际化等特点。所以,在现阶段,处置突发事件的理念必须适应这种风险社会的公共危机特点,做到危机缓和,未病先防;以人为本,取信于民;利益调和,治病求本。     

节约型社会指标体系框架设计与广东节约水平现状评价

节约型社会指标体系贯穿了循环经济的思想，包括减量化、再使用再循环、节约支撑能力、资源禀赋变化与弹性系数等4领域共51个指标。应用该指标体系估算结果表明，广东省节能、节地、节水、节材、减污、资源化等核心指标目前高于全国平均水平，且每年均有所提升。高新技术产业产值占工业总产值比重、第三产业比重、行政管理费用所占GDP在全国属于领先地位，反映广东与其它地区的差异已经从数量的差异发展为结构性差异。GDP质量优于全国平均水平。但能源消费弹性系数反映出粗放型特征没有根本转变。水环境功能区水质达标率偏低，在制度支撑、科技支撑、教育支撑指标等方面亟待改进。     

安全生产与经济社会发展之关系的研究——以广东省为例

以广东省为例,通过对省内近几年的经济社会发展状况和安全生产事故的相关指标进行统计分析,从事故对经济社会影响和安全生产与GDP、产业结构、产业集群及区域差异的相互作用等方面分析安全生产与经济社会发展的相互作用,阐明安全生产状况与一定时期内社会经济发展水平有着密切的关系,即在不同的经济社会发展阶段,安全生产状况呈现不同的特点和发展趋势,而一定时期内的安全生产水平对经济社会发展有着重要影响。针对新时期的安全生产状况提出相应的对策,以促进区域内经济社会的和谐发展,对全省区域内的安全生产工作规划有着借鉴和参考作用。