Showing posts with label Urban Sociology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Urban Sociology. Show all posts

Thursday, November 25, 2010

"China's Economic Growth Leads to Packed Roads, Push for Expanded Railways" from Voice of America by Stephanie Ho

China's rapid economic growth is causing some strains - and they are increasingly evident on the roads of the country's big cities. Traffic jams fill news headlines and create headaches for a growing number of people. Beijing is the capital of the world's most populous country. At rush hour, the city's roads become clogged. The city has 4 million cars, and 2,000 more are added every day. [...] The government stresses rail as an environmentally cleaner and more efficient urban transportation method. Tsinghua University economist Hu Angang backs that view. Hu says up until 2015, the Chinese government will invest $600 billion (four trillion yuan) to develop high speed railroads, and fast railroads, and long-distance railroads. He says rail is safe and energy-saving.
Read the Voice of America article here. See also: The Political Economy of Uneven Development: The Case of China (Asia & the Pacific), Economic and Social Transformation in China: Challenges and Opportunities, Achievement Evaluation of IFI Assistance Loans to China (1981-2002), The Chinese Economy in Crisis: State Capacity and Tax Reform (Studies on Contemporary China)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Charlie Rose's Tuesday, May 18, 2010 conversation with Joel Kotkin - author of 'The Next Hundred Million' -

CHARLIE ROSE: Joel Kotkin is here. He is a distinguished
presidential fellow in urban futures at Capp University in California.
His new book is called "The Next 100 Million -- America in 2050." This
book imagines what is America will look like 40 years from now when the
population will grow from 300 to 400 million.

I am pleased to have Joel Kotkin at this table. Welcome.

JOEL KOTKIN: Great to be here.

CHARLIE ROSE: So tell me how you came to write this? What does a
geographer do?

JOEL KOTKIN: Well, geography is one of those skills that`s
declined, like history, over time. You try to understand how people fit
in with space, with place, with this particular location.

And the reason I came to the book was one thing. One is that after
we had 300 million I asked a demographer friend, well, when we do we get
to 400 hundred million. He said about 2050. I said, well, somebody
ought to be writing about this.

CHARLIE ROSE: It was a nice sort of timeline.

JOEL KOTKIN: It`s a milestone like 300 million was. And, you
never know, we never thought we could support 300 million people, and in
many ways the country`s better than it was when it was 200 million.

And the other thing was I felt like the -- and I have to say this
as a boomer myself. I think we boomers left -- are leaving leave our

Read the full transcript here, or you can view the full interview and conversation here. See also: The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, The City: A Global History (Modern Library Chronicles), Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy, The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution Is Reshaping the American Landscape

Charlie Rose's Tuesday, May 18, 2010 conversation with Joel Kotkin - author of 'The Next Hundred Million' -

CHARLIE ROSE: Joel Kotkin is here. He is a distinguished
presidential fellow in urban futures at Capp University in California.
His new book is called "The Next 100 Million -- America in 2050." This
book imagines what is America will look like 40 years from now when the
population will grow from 300 to 400 million.

I am pleased to have Joel Kotkin at this table. Welcome.

JOEL KOTKIN: Great to be here.

CHARLIE ROSE: So tell me how you came to write this? What does a
geographer do?

JOEL KOTKIN: Well, geography is one of those skills that`s
declined, like history, over time. You try to understand how people fit
in with space, with place, with this particular location.

And the reason I came to the book was one thing. One is that after
we had 300 million I asked a demographer friend, well, when we do we get
to 400 hundred million. He said about 2050. I said, well, somebody
ought to be writing about this.

CHARLIE ROSE: It was a nice sort of timeline.

JOEL KOTKIN: It`s a milestone like 300 million was. And, you
never know, we never thought we could support 300 million people, and in
many ways the country`s better than it was when it was 200 million.

See: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11018. See also: The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, The City: A Global History (Modern Library Chronicles), Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy, The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution Is Reshaping the American Landscape, The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050