Alternative to incarceration for low‐income non‐custodial parents

Increasingly, low‐income non‐custodial parents in the USA, primarily fathers, are at risk of incarceration for failure to make child support payments, clogging the prison system, preventing already at‐risk fathers from holding a job and removing them from relationships with their children. This paper examines an innovative programme in one south‐eastern state that provides an alternative to incarceration for non‐compliant parents, also allowing fathers an opportunity to find gainful employment; to learn valuable life skills; and to establish healthier relationships with their children. Data analysis from 3 years of programme implementation suggests that low‐income non‐custodial fathers enrolled in the Alternative to Incarceration programme have a much greater chance to fulfil their obligations, both as wage earners and as parents, when they are in a programme that provides life skills, helps them find employment and provides other supports to help them improve their life situation rather than incarcerating them for non‐payment of child support. Furthermore, this programme represents a substantial cost savings to the state, as hundreds of fathers have remained outside of the prison system. To date, this alternative to incarceration is a promising solution to a previously intractable problem.     

Intensity and persistence of individuals' social exclusion in Australia

We construct a measure of social exclusion that recognises its multidimensionality at the individual level, including its potential variability in intensity at a point in time and in persistence over time. We distinguish seven dimensions or domains of social exclusion: material resources; employment; education and skills; health and disability; social; community; and personal safety. For each of these seven domains, several indicators of social exclusion are produced. Our exclusion measure identifies 20 to 30 per cent of the Australian population aged 15 years and over as experiencing ‘marginal’ or worse levels of exclusion at any given point in time. However, there is considerable variation in both the extent and persistence of exclusion among the excluded. We further find that, although there are commonalities in the demographic composition of the socially excluded and the income poor, there are also some important differences. For example, persons 65 years and over represent a much smaller share of the most ‘excluded’ group than they do of the ‘poorest‘; and – adopting a household‐level measure of exclusion – children represent a larger share of the excluded than they do of the poor.     

Making social policy work for economic development: the Nordic experience

The Nordic welfare states offer some lessons in a development context. A main achievement has been sustainable poverty reduction. Another important lesson is that, while democratization often leads to greater pressures for social policy expansion, social policy can also contribute to democratization. The Nordic countries further demonstrate that is possible to unify social protection with a competitive and growth-oriented economy. In a number of policy areas, particularly in relation to social services and labor market policy, the Nordic countries have also become leading modernizers. The women-friendly dual-earner model not only combats poverty among families with children, but also enables women to participate in the labor market. The future sustainability of the Nordic model of social policy hinges on the number of taxpayers that can be mobilized. In order to be successful in this, governments need to take a combined, or holistic, approach, and consider both micro motives and macro considerations.     

美国以女性为户主的家庭的贫困及其根源探究

文章说明了以单身女性为户主并携有未成年子女的家庭已成为美国最大的贫困群体,剖析了造成"贫困的女性化"这一现象的根源。在贫困的结构性解释及"贫困文化"假设这两个理论基础上,论述了20世纪60年代以来美国社会中家庭结构变迁和婚姻价值观的改变对以女性为户主的家庭的贫困现象所造成的影响。     

大山深处的美丽——评田开林中篇小说《人头山下一座坟》

田开林的中篇小说<人头山下一座坟>以一个发生在鄂西南这片红色的土地上的革命故事,揭示了土家儿女对红军的一片真情.伴随着这个美丽的故事,小说还为读者展现了鄂西南土家山乡独特的风景、风物及土家儿女那纯朴美丽的人性.小说借美丽的革命故事、独特的山川风物、浓郁的地方风情特别是土家人的原始素朴的自在人生和不拘礼俗的自然人性,将隐藏在那大山深处的美丽呈现在读者面前,给读者以丰富的审美体验,并为当代小说特别是鄂西乡土小说融入中国当代小说创作的大舞台昭示了一片新的天地.     

我国知识贫困的现状及其根源研究

在以知识创新为特点的新世纪,知识因素成为经济增长和社会进步中最重要的因素和贫 困的根源。作为发展中国家,我国在追逐知识发展这一"移动目标"的过程中,知识贫困现象愈显严重。 本文对我国知识贫困方面的现状及导致我国贫困现状的根源进行了较全面的分析研究。     

“阴”“阳”二题

作为词,"阳"的本义是"太阳;阳光";"阴"的本义是"没有阳光;阴天"."阴"、"阳"表示山水南北的意义,是先产生于"阳",然后连带影响到"阴"的.山南水北为阳,山北水南为阴,其原始意义是指山坡和河岸.水的阴阳与山相反,是因为河的北岸向南,南岸向北.     

阴阳变化与龙蛇转换：－先秦时期“北方”山神话形成与演变

生活于黄河及黄河以北的古代居民,发观了"山"的阴阳之性和阴阳之别,即运用这一发现来构造关于山的神话.先奏时期,以上述地域为背景的山神话山神形象,呈现着由"蛇"到"龙"的演变历程.龙形山神即成为阴阳思想观照的对象,成为阴阳运动、变化和发展的象征和说明.而阴阳的哲学属性则决定了龙形山神的奇异神性,直接影响着山神话的演变.     

An Elixir for Development? Olive Oil Policies and Poverty Alleviation in the Middle East and North Africa

The evolution of olive oil markets has sparked interest in policies that promote olive oil as a means of inducing rural development across the Middle East and North Africa. This article describes policies that link olive oil markets to rural development in Morocco, Syria and Tunisia and evaluate their effectiveness. It uses a framework that combines producer heterogeneity and market differentiation to describe how rural poverty impacts will be shaped by production, quality and marketing constraints. While the flow of olive oil from producers to the market may have increased, that of information and incentives in the reverse direction is still limited, something that too few olive oil policies aim to improve.