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With the application of intergenerational theory as its analytical framework, this paper seeks to provide new insights into the social construction of sugar-sweetened food and food practices in the context of contemporary urban China, drawing on 16 months' in-depth qualitative research in the city of Chongqing. From an intergenerational perspective, it argues that although adults and children both typically construct sugar-sweetened food as "bad" for health based on the logic of its biological meaning, there are more generational differences in the understandings of sociocultural meanings associated with these foods, which are the main reasons may lead to intergenerational conflict. Caregivers tend to regard their control of children's sugar-sweetened food intake as a means to discipline their children's bodies and develop food moralities. However, children themselves are likely to perform sugar-sweetened food practices as a way of socializing and sometimes resisting the control of caregivers. Based on this, this paper further shows that these diverse views are rooted in the tension between caregivers' anxiety about the transmission of food moralities through intensive parenting practices and children's agency in food consumption in contemporary urban China. These findings enhance intergenerational-theoretical research and highlight the need to move beyond the analytical framework of "behaviour change" in related food and health studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent theorization of the Global Production Network (GPN) framework, viz. “GPN 2.0 theory” (Coe and Yeung, 2015), firm-specific strategies namely intra-firm coordination, inter-firm control, inter-firm partnership and extra-firm bargaining are conceptualized to understand the changing dynamics and reconfiguration of global production networks. Drawing upon the extra-firm strategies in the GPN 2.0 theory, this paper examines the spatial and organizational reconfiguration of personal computer production networks in China since late 2000s. Based on the information and data collected from years of observation and in-depth interviews with various firms and extra-firm actors, particularly government officials during June 2014 and December 2016, this study explores the emerging laptop cluster in Chongqing, a centrally-governed municipality in West China, which produced 40% of the world laptop computers in 2015. This paper argues that the rapid development in Chongqing in a short span has been attributed to the rising power of strategic partner firms of lead firms, primarily Taiwan-based contract manufacturers (e.g. Foxconn). It sheds light on the emerging strategic coupling between strategic partner firms and local government in Chongqing, which has brought about the reconfiguration of laptop production networks from the prevailed lead-firm centric to the emerging strategic partnership pattern. This study enriches the developing literature on the rise of strategic partner firms by extending the firm-centric analysis to extra-firm strategies, which echoes the extra-regional dynamics advocated recently by the Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG) perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Regional Innovation System (RIS) needs revision to explain innovation in China. • Concept development is approached through qualitative methods to work critically. • In Chongqing, innovation is organised through two different RIS frameworks. • Institutional conditions in China hamper the convergence of the frameworks. • "Two RIS in one region" helps analysing transformation of China's innovation model. The Regional Innovation System (RIS) is a popular concept for approaching research on geographies of innovation. Political research and innovation studies in emerging economies suggest that there are much different institutional preconditions for and far more types of innovation than hitherto considered. It is thus unlikely that the RIS model as derived from "best practice" cases in the Global North has sufficient explanatory power for regional innovation dynamics in less developed regions in China. From an empirical qualitative analysis on Chongqing, China, as a non-"best practice" case, we find that it is more appropriate to consider separate RIS within one region. The analysis shows that different RIS-frameworks matter for different actors, who engage in different types of innovation. These frameworks are exclusive and do not provide their functions equally to all innovation actors in place. The separation of RIS frameworks acknowledges the co-existence of different structures and trajectories, which is explicitly helpful for understanding regional innovation dynamics in China, where the national government currently aims to transform its innovation model from state-control to an open system of innovation. This paper further discusses how the notion of separate RIS is more appropriate for capturing regional innovation dynamics in the Chinese context in contrast to previous concepts of emerging RIS or fragmented regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural decline is a severe global problem. The sustainable development of rural areas is in jeopardy due to rapid migration out of rural areas and the separation of rural housing and jobs. Rural housing-jobs synergy (RHJS) is conducive to promoting high-quality and sustainable development of rural areas. Based on rural permanent population, rural employment population, and rural working-age population data from 2007 to 2020, this study applied spatial autocorrelation analysis and Geodetector model to explore the spatio-temporal pattern and driving factors of RHJS at the county scale in Chongqing. Results showed that RHJS in Chongqing demonstrated a steady upward trend and showed spatial heterogeneity. The spatial layout of RHJS was characterized by spatial agglomeration. RHJS hotspots are all located in the yuzhong district and has advantages in terms of its natural resource environment and market placement, while the coldspots are concentrated in the northeast of Chongqing with generally poor conditions. The internal drivers of county RHJS have gradually shifted from a mix of resource-environmental factors and economic factors to a combination of economic factors and social public service factors, with the influence of social public service factors increasing. Market location was the main external driving factor for RHJS, and the influence of technological innovation factors is growing. The degree of influence of the selected variables in each driver on RHIS varies spatially and temporally, and improving RHIS can be accomplished by optimizing the industrial structure, boosting investment in science and technology, and improving the quality of social public services such as healthcare. The proximity of provincial capital cities, the income ratio of urban and rural residents, and the altitude have a significant negative effect on the regional divergence, they are the main variables affecting the RHJS divergence. These findings will assist decision-makers in developing future rural sustainable development policies for the construction of livable and employable villages and optimize rural areas spatial structures by RHJS situation and its driving factors in various regions of counties in mountainous and hilly ecologically fragile areas, and also serve as a useful reference for sustainable a rural development research in other developing countries. • This paper extends the measurement of the job-housing balance in urban research to rural areas. • Analyzing the definition of rural housing-jobs synergy (RHJS) from the perspectives of functional balance and efficiency. • The interaction of internal and external factors was found to determine the degree of the RHJS at the county level. • This research has significance for the rural revitalization and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is a growing global issue that seriously threatens agricultural production and livelihoods. Studying the relationship between wildlife damage, land use, and livelihood enables us to understand the dilemma facing current wildlife protection and ecological restoration policies and to amend existing policies effectively. Using participatory rural appraisal (PRA), quantitative analysis, and a Multilevel Logit regression model, this paper analyzed land use and livelihoods among 160 households subject to wild boar ( Sus scrofa ) damage in four villages within Youyang County in the poor mountainous areas of Chongqing, China. The findings showed the following: (i) wild boars in Youyang County were responsible for large-scale crop and property damage; (ii) cultivated land abandonment has become a significant trend in land use, and the most important perceived driver for abandoning farmland is the land plot's vulnerability to wild boar damage; (iii) when protecting cultivated land plots, households tend to protect those plots that are close to the road, have larger land area, and have a slight or abrupt slope; however, households with more members working in non-farm labor, more female agricultural workers, and/or higher non-farm income are more inclined to abandon protection of their plots. This paper discusses seven main measures that are frequently adopted by farmers to protect their crops and livestock and are perceived by these farmers as the most effective and sensible countermeasures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remediation of rural human settlements is receiving increasing attention in contemporary China. Evaluating the resilience of rural human settlements and formulating site-specific remediation strategies are crucial for realizing China's rural revitalization goals. Based on the social-ecological system (SES) theory, this study establishes a theoretical framework for understanding the resilience of rural human settlements. Building upon this framework, an index system for assessing the resilience is constructed across three dimensions: the resource subsystem, the actor subsystem, and the governance subsystem. The study then analyzes the resilience level of rural human settlements and the interactions among these subsystems, using Chongqing Municipality as an example. The main study conclusions are as follows. First, the resilience index of rural human settlements in Chongqing exhibits spatial heterogeneity and imbalances among subsystems. Specifically, the average resilience index of the resource subsystem is lower than that of other subsystems and there is noticeable spatial heterogeneity in resilience indices among different counties. Second, resilience in rural human settlements is a complex outcome resulting from interactions among multiple subsystems within the SES. These subsystems interact through a two-factor enhancement and non-linear enhancement relationship. Third, the main barriers to the resilience in rural human settlements in Chongqing are related to the resource subsystem, particularly per capita wetland resources, followed by challenges within the governance and actor subsystem, such as rural population density. Fourth, the SES theory can better guide the resilience evaluation of rural human settlements. To improve that resilience, we recommend adopting a systemism perspective, treating rural human settlements as SES entities, and paying attention to the important role of rural inhabitants as the main body of environmental governance. Additionally, tailored environmental governance measures should be developed based on the resilience characteristics and interactions between the subsystems. The research results expand the application field of SES theory and provide novel insights and valuable theoretical guidance for studying the resilience of rural human settlements. ● Rural human settlements (RHS) are a typical social-ecological system (SES). ● The SES framework provides an important theoretical perspective for understanding and evaluating RHS resilience. ● The dimensions of actor and governance systems have an important impact on the resilience of RHS. ● This paper provides new empirical evidence from China to expand upon the conclusions of previous theoretical analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a preliminary assessment of the potential for CO2 geological storage in Chongqing, China. Currently, there are about 116 large stationary CO2 point emission sources which emit 85.57 MtCO2/yr totally. These stationary sources are mainly belonged to four industries: cement, power plant, iron & steel and synthetic ammonia industries. In the three kinds of geological storage formations, namely, deep saline formations (DSFs), unmineable coalbeds and depleted gas fields, the total basin-scale theoretical storage capacities of CO2 reach 24.36 Gt, equivalent to about 285 times of the annual total CO2 emissions in Chongqing. The DSFs have the largest potential storage capacity accounting for 98% of the total storage capacities. The matching results between CO2 point emission sources and candidate geological storage formations show that 94.8% of the point emission sources (accounting for 97.1% of annual total emissions) can find at least one candidate geological storage formation in its adjacent areas. This means that, for Chongqing, the CO2 transport cost is likely very low. The research findings indicate that there is great potential for CO2 geological storage technology to deploy in Chongqing and for this technology to deliver profound and sustaining impacts on reducing CO2 emissions and developing low-carbon economy in Chongqing. This preliminary study is expected to stimulate more researches, critical thinking and policy actions to promote positive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so as to mitigate the impact of global climate change, as well as to set a good example for other regions in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]