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431. Valuing Heritage in Macau: On Contexts and Processes of Urban Conservation

Author:
Thomas Chung
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This paper examines the evolving values of urban heritage in Macau in terms of the various conservation approaches and mechanisms employed, and the shifting emphases on heritage and development within the context of continuity and change in Macau. Accumulated over four centuries of cultural interchange, the richly layered Historic Centre of the former Portuguese-administered outpost attained World Heritage status in 2005. After situating the problem pertaining to the multifaceted nature of heritage valorisation, the city's trajectory of urban conservation leading up to the 1999 retrocession will be traced, and germane issues concerning heritage management vis-à-vis effects of post-handover urban developments assessed. As the latest culmination of value imbalances and conflicts arising from urban change, the Guia Lighthouse controversy will be critically appraised to speculate on a timely re-evaluation of Macau's heritage conservation process.
Political Geography:
China

432. „Das olympische Feuer brennt. Und mit ihm lodert das Misstrauen" – Die Chinaberichterstattung während der Olympischen Sommerspiele in Beijing 2008 ("The Olympic Torch Burns, and Great Suspicion Blazes" – China Narratives in the German Media during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing 2008)

Author:
Michael Poerner
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This paper focuses on the description of China in leading German daily and weekly newspapers during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. On the basis of a brief outline of the main China narratives in German media since the 1950s, this paper analyses China-related articles which were published during the period August 8-15, 2008. It argues that reports on China are mostly based on well established German notions of China and centre around the image of a despotic and/or dangerous China. Therefore, they primarily refer back to the source culture and contain little information of value regarding the target culture.
Topic:
Mass Media
Political Geography:
China and Beijing

433. Die Strukturreformen des chinesischen Statistiksystems

Author:
Günter Moser
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
The quality of statistical data covering the economic and social development of the People's Republic of China has been questioned by international and national data users for years. The reasons for this doubt lie mainly in the structure of the Chinese system of statistics. Two parallel systems exist which operate largely autonomously: the national system of statistics and the sectoral system of statistics. In the area of the national statistical system, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has the authority to order and collect statistics. This competence lies with the ministries and authorities below the ministerial level. This article describes and analyses these structures, the resulting problems, and the reform measures taken to date. It also aims to provide a better understanding of the statistical data about the People's Republic of China and to enable an assessment of them within a changing structural context. In conclusion, approaches to further reforms will be provided based on the author's long-standing experience in cooperation projects with the official Chinese statistics agencies.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
China

434. Global Value Chains, Technology Transfer and Local Firm Upgrading in Non-OECD Countries

Author:
Robert Kappel and Juliane Brach
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
The productivity and competitiveness of local firms in non-OECD countries depends as much on technological capacities and successful upgrading as in industrialized countries. However, developing countries undertake very little to no original R and primarily depend on foreign technology. Long-term contracts and subcontracting arrangements within global value chains are here very important forms of transnational cooperation and therefore also important channels for technology transfer, especially as the majority of these countries attract only limited foreign direct investment. Drawing on innovation and growth models as much as on value-chain literature, we outline an analytical model for empirical research on local firm upgrading in non-OECD countries and technology transfer within global value chains.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Science and Technology, and Foreign Direct Investment

435. Oil-rent Boom in Iran?

Author:
Martin Beck
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
The present article aims to analyze the effects of high oil prices since 2003 on Iran. The theoretical basis of the analysis is the rentier state approach, the basic element of which is that rents are at the free disposal of the rentier. Empirically, the paper examines the issue areas of foreign policy, domestic policy and economic policy. After proving that the oil price—despite fluctuations—has constantly been at a high level in the first decade of the twenty‐first century, the discussion demonstrates that Iran has used the increased rent in‐come to support a populist policy. In terms of economic policy, the regime has pursued a redistributive strategy. The country's foreign policy, particularly the ostentatiously pursued atomic program, has been very expensive since it provoked sanctions whose costs were initially balanced only by high rent income. Yet, in his first term, Ahmadinejad failed to prepare Iran for the situation that has occurred as a result of the global financial crisis: the redistributive policy of the regime has meant that an oil price below US$70 or US$75 now constitutes a severe challenge for the Iranian state budget.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Markets, Oil, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Iran and Middle East

436. The Production of Insecurity by African Security Forces: Insights from Liberia and the Central African Republic

Author:
Andreas Mehler
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Little attention has been paid to the factual effect of the state's security forces on the security of African citizens. Reports about security forces' contribution to widespread insecurity are frequent: the protectors become violators and their appearance causes fear, not security. In many African crisis countries the realization of better security forces appears to be an elusive goal, either because violent conflicts are not definitively settled and therefore do not allow for decent reform or because a lack of capacity as a result of material constraints is not easy to remedy. The self‐help mechanisms used to compensate for the lack of state‐sponsored security need more attention. However, it has to be acknowledged that the ideal of a neutral and effective force loyal to the state is shared by a great majority of the population. This contribution compares the experiences of Liberia and the Central African Republic, two extreme cases of strong and weak international involvement, respectively, in post‐conflict security‐sector reform.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Africa and Liberia

437. Iran's Oil Wealth: Treasure and Trouble for the Shah's Regime A Context‐sensitive Analysis of the Ambivalent Impact of Resource Abundance

Author:
Miriam Shabafrouz
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
The Iranian revolution still appears to be a puzzle for theoretical approaches linking political instability and/or violent conflict to the resource wealth of a country. It therefore works well as a case study for the purposes of this paper: to show the necessity of a broader approach to the resource‐violence link and to highlight the “context approach.” The focus is on the violence that accompanied the events preceding the revolution, and also on the fact that this violence was mainly exercised by the rulers and—excluding the activities of militant groups—only very randomly by the masses. Many relevant contextual conditions had an impact on the downfall of the shah's regime: demographic (population growth, urbanization) and cultural factors (religious tradition, national identity); the vivid memory of several historical events; the personal preferences of central actors—mainly both the shahs—which in combination brought the country to an impasse; and the religious opposition to the regime. But upon closer examination, it becomes clear that many of those factors were influenced by resource‐specific conditions such as the amount and the use of oil income, sudden oil‐price drops, and external interference aimed mainly at the domination of the oil sector. It was the specific interplay of these and other contextual conditions—as much resource‐specific as general, and both within the country and on an international scale—that finally brought about the downfall of the regime.
Topic:
Oil
Political Geography:
Iran and Middle East

438. Contextualizing Conceptions of Corruption: Challenges for the International Anti-corruption Campaign

Author:
Malte Gephart
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
While in an initial legal and academic anti-corruption wave corruption itself was at the center of analysis, research is now increasingly focused on anti-corruption discourse and praxis. The latter analyses have generated numerous criticisms of anti-corruption activities and anti-corruption research, and these are presented in this literature review. These criticisms range from the anti-corruption norm's legitimacy deficit, to the difficulty of defining and measuring corruption, to the discourse's depoliticization through its technicalization. The anti-corruption movement faces particular difficulties with respect to the tension between the universality of the anti-corruption norm and its simultaneous contextualization for specific and local application. This tension is especially important because it touches upon the central issues of the respective political communities, such as the division of the private from the public, which differ from one cultural context to another. The contextualization of anti-corruption concepts has to be enabled in various areas: first, with respect to the culturally shaped conception of the division between the public and the private; second, with respect to local understandings of corruption, that is, what is actually meant when talking about “corruption”; and third, with respect to the low socioeconomic development levels in some countries, which do not permit the absence of corruption (evading a zero-tolerance rhetoric).
Topic:
International Relations, Corruption, International Cooperation, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and United Nations

439. Oil in Venezuela: Triggering Violence or Ensuring Stability? A Context-sensitive Analysis of the Ambivalent Impact of Resource Abundance

Author:
Annegret Mähler
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This paper studies the causal factors that make the oil-state Venezuela, which is generally characterized by a low level of violence, an outlier among the oil countries as a whole. It applies a newly elaborated “context approach” that systematically considers domestic and international contextual factors. To test the results of the systematic analysis, two periods with a moderate increase in internal violence in Venezuela are subsequently analyzed, in the second part of the paper, from a comparative-historical perspective.
Topic:
Oil and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Latin America and Venezuela

440. China's Politics under Hu Jintao

Author:
François Godement and Mathieu Duchâtel
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This special issue focuses on Hu Jintao's first mandate in power, between the Sixteenth and the Seventeenth Party Congress (2002-2007). It considers two intertwined issues: power viewed through the lens of party politics, and actual policy changes that may have emanated from a mandate initially loaded with expectations. Besides the domestic dimensions of elite politics and ideological change, two central aspects of Chinese politics, the key question tackled in this issue is the ability of a new general secretary to transform past policies, especially in the realms of foreign affairs and national security since they are by tradition – and constitutionally – the responsibility of China's paramount leader.
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
China