Community Volunteers' Associations in Contemporary Tianjin: multipurpose partners of the party–state
The Community Volunteers' Associations (CVAs) are among the oldest grassroots organizations in contemporary China and as such provide a valuable case for a study of China's fast-growing non-profit sector. The author defines CVAs as multipurpose partners of the party–state in its pursuit of social stability and maintenance of legitimacy. In this role, the CVAs have served three major tasks. They have provided social services, acted as a link between the party–state and urban residents, and served as a medium for shaping values. The article explores the definition and redefinition of these tasks as well as the actual operations of the associations since the late 1980s.
The New Life of the Party: Party-Building and Social Engineering in Greater Shanghai
While the 2004 introduction of a Party-organized trade union in Wal-Mart's mainland China-based stores was widely reported, far less is known about official Party branches and committees in the non-state-owned sector. Well over 3.5 million Party members now work in “non-publicly owned enterprises”, a sector of the economy in which the Party has continued to expand. The Party is experimenting with new organizational arrangements and remaking its social agenda in order to increase its popularity, relevance and appeal, particularly among young urban professionals. This article outlines recent Party-building initiatives in the private sector over the last decade. Drawing upon membership and other data from over 1,000 local Party committees in non-publicly owned enterprises in greater Shanghai, I analyze contemporary “Party life” in “two new” branches—new social and new economic organizations since the adoption of market reform—as a reflection of the Party's possible future as it absorbs the “advanced forces” of an increasingly market-oriented China.
Mississippian Barnett Shale: Lithofacies and depositional setting of a deep-water shale-gas succession in the Fort Worth Basin, Texas
The Mississippian Barnett Formation of the Fort Worth Basin is a classic shale-gas system in which the rock is the source, reservoir, and seal. Barnett strata were deposited in a deeper water foreland basin that had poor circulation with the open ocean. For most of the basin's history, bottom waters were euxinic, preserving organic matter and, thus, creating a rich source rock, along with abundant framboidal pyrite. The Barnett interval comprises a variety of facies but is dominated by fine-grained (clay- to silt-size) particles. Three general lithofacies are recognized on the basis of mineralogy, fabric, biota, and texture: (1) laminated siliceous mudstone; (2) laminated argillaceous lime mudstone (marl); and (3) skeletal, argillaceous lime packstone. Each facies contains abundant pyrite and phosphate (apatite), which are especially common at hardgrounds. Carbonate concretions, a product of early diagenesis, are also common. The entire Barnett biota is composed of debris transported to the basin from the shelf or upper oxygenated slope by hemipelagic mud plumes, dilute turbidites, and debris flows. Biogenic sediment was also sourced from the shallower, better oxygenated water column. Barnett deposition is estimated to have occurred over a 25-m.y. period, and despite the variations in sublithofacies, sedimentation style remained remarkably similar throughout this span of time.