Improving Africa's Roads: Modelling Infrastructure Investment and Its Effect on Sectoral Production Behaviour

Given the scarce resources for public investment in developing countries, policy analysis should include a detailed perspective on the effects of infrastructure. This article develops a modelling framework for analysing the effects of improved road infrastructure on the economy of African countries. The theoretical framework is tested empirically and used for simulations in a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, and the effects on production and welfare are analysed. The model also serves to investigate the effect of roads on the economic participation of rural households.     

Identifying social innovations in European local rural development initiatives

Social innovation is attracting increasing attention in research and policy, heightened by continuing austerity across Europe. Therefore, this paper examines earlier research into community-led local development (CLLD) initiatives in rural areas of Europe to develop our understanding of the meaning and scope of rural social innovation. We draw on a Schumpeterian view where innovations emerge from new combinations of resources that bring about positive changes and create value in society. A Schumpeterian social innovation framework is derived as the basis for re-analysing data from previous evaluations of LEADER policy in five different national contexts. This elicits a clearer understanding of social innovation in a rural development context, identifying different processes and outcomes that create social value. As the CLLD agenda and the demand for innovation in Europe gather pace, our aspirations are to inform future research and other initiatives on how to integrate social innovation into the design and evaluation of new rural development policies and programmes.     

建构一个新的城乡一体化分析框架：机会平等视角

对城乡一体化的现有研究或采用经济学视角,或采用制度学视角,而很少采用机会平等视角。研究认为:不论是经济资源配置还是制度和政策制定,都要视对城乡机会平等的影响如何,来判断其是否促进城乡一体化进程。机会平等是城乡一体化的本质属性。当然,机会是复杂、多样的,可以划分为基本生存机会、中层机会和高层机会,与此同时,平等也可以划分为形式平等和实质平等。在推进不同类型机会平等上,城乡一体化表现出不同的进度。该分析框架可以更好地分析我国城乡一体化进程(包括地区城乡一体化进程)。     

The Contextual Experiences of Rural Custodial Grandparents and Opportunities for Social Work

Rural custodial grandparents have been understudied. As the grandparent caregiving population increases, more attention is needed to understand custodial grandparents in rural settings. This article explores the state of knowledge of the experiences of rural grandparents. A systematic review of the caregiving literature is conducted to understand the issues affecting this caregiving population. The results suggest that rural grandparents often are minority grandmothers with limited resources who provide care to older grandchildren in isolated environments. Attention is given to the social ecological framework as one model that can help to inform how social workers intervene with this population. Recommendations are offered for social work research, practice, and policy.     

Fabulachia: urban,black female experiences and higher education in Appalachia

Abstract

This article draws on focus group conversations with black female college students attending a small, liberal arts institution in Kentucky. Based primarily on group interviews and discussions, as well as observations and analysis – a theoretical domain (referred to throughout the article as ‘Fabulachia’) emerged as a site-specific outcome of events and ideas regarding race, gender and identity experienced by the research participants. Specifically, ‘Fabulachia’ functions as a theoretical hybrid space in which urban (e.g. ‘ghetto fabulous’) black college student-voices find a sense of empowerment as they construct their own narratives of leaving ‘the hood’ to attend college in rural Appalachia. This project revises and updates previous research on race and rural identity/ies in order to situate the urban black female experience into an Appalachian context. Drawing on hip hop feminism and urban education based theoretical paradigms, the Fabulachia study seeks to give voice to black females in contemporary Appalachia, with attention to their self-proclaimed ‘ghetto fabulous’ identities honed in and through their urban upbringings. The unique experiences of (Fabulachian) black females are an important and largely absent part of larger conversations of the growing body of Urban education research that seeks to situate the black student/black youth and schooling experience in the US. In the Fabulachia study, a group of black female students shared personal narratives (part-oral history and part direct response) to prompts and queries about the role of hip hop culture, race and gender identity in their lives. They also discussed and debated what it means to be a black female in contemporary (often racist) Appalachia, and about how their families and urban surroundings influenced their processes of being and becoming in the context of higher educational achievement.     

浙江农村青年创业小额贷款项目在基层的实施效果研究———以乐清市为例

浙江农村青年创业小额贷款项目自推出以来受到浙江基层创业青年广泛关注,该项小额贷款制度申请程序简便、担保形式灵活、政府扶持力度逐年加大,已逐步发展成为基层创业青年融资的主要途径之一.近年来,在浙江“两创”总战略鼓励下,农村青年创业小额贷款项目发展前景广阔、发展势头良好,同时在担保、风险控制、贷款覆盖面等方面也不乏矛盾和困惑     

土地流转视角的农村人力资本流动及其对策建议

农村人力资本的合理流动是土地流转的前提。土地流转能够有效提高土地资源配置效率．进一步激活农村富余劳动力的转移。观念障碍、信息障碍、成本障碍、技能障碍、制度障碍、职位障碍、收益障碍和公平障碍等八大障碍，较严重地制约了农村人力资本的流动，阻碍了土地流转的进一步实施。必须消除这些障碍，进一步促进人力资本有序流动。     

Social Work with the Osteoporotic Woman

A chronic, progressive, and potentially debilitating condition, osteoporosis has a multitude of currently untapped implications for effective social work practice. A working knowledge of the medical framework of the disease process itself is a prerequisite to informed practice. This article presents such information, along with the psychological and social components, in order to provide the social worker with the comprehensive biopsyehosaial knowledge base necessary for effective practice with the osteoporotic woman and her family.     

高校服务农村经济建设的路径研究

建设社会主义新农村的核心是增强农村经济建设,提高农民收入。高校肩负着服务区域经济的神圣历史使命,高校要发挥育人功能,培养农村经济建设人才;发挥科研优势,为农村经济建设提供智力支撑;突出服务社会职能,积极探索科技扶贫新途径;加强信息沟通与交流,提高农民综合素质;强化政策支持,提高师生服务农村的积极性,强化对农村经济建设的服务功能。