Introduction |
简介 |
The BOCD (Barometer on China’s Development) project aims
to build a first-rate electronic GIS database on developments in China
at the Universities Service Centre for China Studies. The database will
include social, economic, political and other indicators about 333
prefectures and 2,862 counties. Parameters of the database was
selected by scholars from anthropology, demography, ecology, economics,
education, geography, history, public administration, political science,
social work, and sociology. The database will serve as a
multi-dimensional barometer with which academic researchers and policy
analysts from all over the world can monitor, explore, and evaluate
China’s development. In return, users of the database will contribute
resources and expertise for its maintenance and further development.
|
中国研究服务中心设立中国发展数据库(县级)项目,旨在建立一流的地理信息系统兼容的数据库,以便观察中国地方发展的动态。这个数据库包括333个地级市和 2,862个县的多年度的社会、经济、政治及社会领域内的各种指标。这些指标由人类学、人口统计学、生态学、经济学、教育学、地理学、历史、公共行政管 理、政治学、社会工作、社会学等等学科的学者们共同挑选。这是一个观察中国发展动态具有多维度指标的数据库,世界各地的学者和政策研究者可以观测、探究、 评估中国的发展。同时,数据使用者可以为维护和完善数据库做出资源和专业性的贡献。 |
Project Objectives |
项目目标 |
One of the greatest challenges facing studies of China
is its huge regional variations. Economic growth, demographic structure,
social stability, and governance all vary from place to place,
particularly from county to county and prefecture to prefecture. So far,
however, neither policy analysts nor academic researchers have managed
to establish a comprehensive platform for monitoring and evaluating
China’s developments by counties and/or prefectures. Indeed, given the
magnitude and the complexity of China’s nested administrative hierarchy,
the costs of producing systematic nationwide county-level and
prefecture-level data are beyond the capability of any single
researcher. This project aims at building up such a multidisciplinary
and longitudinal database on 2,862 Chinese counties and 333 prefectures.
The database and GIS system will provide researchers of contemporary
China with the critical and reliable multi-level data that needed for
theory-building and hypothesis-testing. It will also facilitate
comparative and trend studies in various disciplines with a common,
open, and scalable analytical instrument. Practically, the database will
enable policy analysts in China to assess the applicability and
effectiveness of important reform initiatives in public finance,
taxation, education, personnel management, migration, social security,
public health and so on. |
中国区域幅员辽阔,是中国研究面临的巨大挑战之一。经济增长、人口结构、社会稳定以及治理都因地而异,县之间和地级市之间具有多样性差异。至今,政策研究和学术研究都还没有一个综合而一致的数据整合平台,供大家观察和评估中国县和地级市的发展。的确,由于中国庞大而重叠复杂的行政区划,建立一个系统的全国县级和地级市的数据库,是研究者们力不从心的。我们的目标就是为中国2,862个县和333个地级市建立一个多维度、多年度社会指标的数据库。
数据库和地理信息系统将为研究者观察当代中国,提供可审视和可靠的多层数据,作为理论建构和测试推理用。由于具有一个共同的、公开的和可衡量的分析工具,研究者还可以做跨学科比较和趋势分析。具体而言,这个数据库可就公共财政、税务、教育、人事管理、移民、社会治安、公共卫生等等领域,对重要的改革的适用性和效果做分析。
|
Support |
获得的支持 |
We are grateful for the generous support of the Chinese
University for the first phase of this long-term initiative. Phase I
focuses primarily on data collection at the county level from 1978 to
2000. We plan on extending the temporal scope of BOCD in future
iterations of the project. |
我们衷心地感谢香港中文大学中国研究导向委员会对第一阶段的资金资助。这个数据库项目是一项长期努力,第一阶段的重点是1978年至2000年的数据的收集。我们计划将数据年代随年份向前推进。 |