Latin American convergence and divergence towards the mortality profiles of developed countries

It is uncertain whether Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) countries are approaching a single mortality regime. Over the last three decades, LAC has experienced major public health interventions and the highest number of homicides in the world. However, these interventions and homicide rates are not evenly shared across countries. This study documents trends in life expectancy and lifespan variability for 20 LAC countries, 2000–14. By extending a previous method, we decompose differences in lifespan variability between LAC and a developed world benchmark into cause-specific effects. For both sexes, dispersion of amenable diseases through the age span makes the largest contribution to the gap between LAC and the benchmark. Additionally, for males, the concentration of homicides, accidents, and suicides in mid-life further impedes mortality convergence. Great disparity exists in the region: while some countries are rapidly approaching the developed regime, others remain far behind and suffer a clear disadvantage in population health.     

新乡土世界的美学建构——新世纪河南女作家乡土小说分析

新世纪以来,一批河南籍女性作家开始崭露头角,并取得了引人注目的成绩。面对急剧转型的时代,传统乡土叙事经验已经无法涵盖已经发生巨变的乡土社会,河南籍女作家以一种更加开放的姿态面对新的乡土世界,她们的创作把日常生活经验转化成一种叙事伦理,从而以独特的乡土感知,细致的文字表述拓宽了传统乡土小说的表现领域,更新补充了乡土小说的叙事内涵,为河南乡土文学注入了新质。     

Second generation Caribbean black male youths discuss obstacles to educational and employment opportunities: a critical race counter-narrative analysis

This study explores obstacles to navigating the high school-to-labor market transition experienced by Second Generation Caribbean Black Male Youth (CBMY) living in Canada's Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Drawing upon interviews with ten CBMY between the ages of 18–27, the article uses a qualitative phenomenological methodology to understand barriers to education and employment from their perspectives. Studies show that 45% of CBMY drop out of high school while 52% are precariously employed in the GTA [Allahar, A. L. 2010. “The Political Economy of ‘Race’ and Class in Canada’s Caribbean Diaspora.” American Review of Political Economy 8 (2): 54; James, C. E. 2012. Students “at Risk” Stereotypes and the Schooling of Black Boys. Urban Education 47 (2), 464–494.; Lewchuk, W., and M. Lafleche. 2014. Precarious Employment and Social Outcomes. Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society, 22, 45–50.; Block and Galabuzi 2011. Canada’s Color Coded Labor market: The Gap for Racialized workers. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives?=?Centre Canadien de Politiques alternatives]. The ten interview subjects provide retrospective and introspective counter-narratives that expose the race, class and gender-based barriers that frustrate their efforts to secure stable employment. The study utilizes Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the concept of White Supremacy to challenge the view that educational and employment success is based on color-blindness, merit and hard work. The CBMY counter-narratives examined in this study offer profound insight into dominant ideologies and practices that perpetuate racial biases, and present many valuable suggestions, explicit and implied, regarding how to improve the opportunities, inclusion and well-being of CBMY.     

The business of writing: literature as a commodity in Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú

This article presents considerations about the status of literature as a commodity and writers as professionals in the twenty-first century. These considerations are based on an analysis of Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú (2011), which follows the story of an Argentine crime novel writer who becomes a ghostwriter after her latest novel receives harsh reviews for being considered commercial rather than literary. I argue that the novel in question points out misconceptions about the influence of the book industry on the aesthetic quality of literary writing, highlighting the need for literary criticism to look into everyday relations between readers, authors, and editors.     

上海都市民俗的文学书写

都市民俗是在都市环境中蕴育形成的物质民俗、社会民俗、精神民俗及语言民俗等。在20世纪华洋杂处的上海,都市民俗形成了其特有的兼容并蓄的特点。对上海都市民俗的文学书写经历了20世纪30年代新感觉派的“异质民俗”书写、40年代新市民作家的“日常民俗”书写,以及80、90年代当代作家的“民俗寻根”书写等阶段,从而建构起了一条跨越时空的都市民俗文学书写的独特的风景线。都市民俗的文学创作承传也积淀着作家个人的文化情结与国家民族的文化记忆,具有文学史的意义与价值。     

新世纪前后中国文学版图中的“宁夏板块”

“宁夏文学”在中国当代文学史上占有一席之地，始于社会主义新时期。20世纪80年代，张贤亮以其饱经沧桑和忧患之后的慷慨悲歌征服了大江南北。张贤亮的小说创作，不仅提升了宁夏文学总体的创作水平，也为宁夏文学在中国文坛赢得了美好声誉。进入20世纪90年代，宁夏文学在略事犹豫和徘徊之后，终于在新世纪前后，再次向中国文坛奉献了“宁夏青年作家群”。这一创作群体的崛起，不仅给新世纪前后的中国文学界吹来一股清新怡人的创作之风，而且，这一与广阔深厚的中国古老土地和“中国经验”血脉相连，并因此取得了不凡文学业绩的青年创作群体的成功，也充分证明，在市场经济条件下，居于偏远地区的文学创作事业，只要领导得法，调动有方，是可以走在全国前列的。     

‘I am studying in the US but’: observations and insights from Caribbean college students

This paper examines the experiences and views of 12 Caribbean students studying at four Liberal Arts colleges and one large university in the Northeast, USA. The purpose of the study was to ascertain how young educated potential immigrants to the US today are thinking about race, identity, and homeland. The data were gathered through a 12-item open-ended questionnaire electronically administered through Google Forms. Among other issues, the researcher wanted to learn about participants’: decision to study in the US, experiences with race, identity and attitudinal shifts, feelings about being assigned racial labels, and current thinking about returning to their home countries. The findings highlight the acceptance of racial labels except for ‘African American’, a dogged adherence to national identity, the challenge of adjusting to the US racialized space, the view of the US as an education and economic transitional point for migrants on their return journey to their home countries, the formulation of new understandings and attitudes regarding mixed ancestry, and the defining role of sexual orientation in the attitude towards home country versus the US.     

Kinship Care and Transnational Parenting: The Intersection of Cultural Values and Practices

This study uses ethnographic research to examine the phenomenon of transnational parenting by migrant mothers from the African Caribbean community and their family who care for the mothers’ children. Twenty women’s narratives demonstrate the complexity of relationships between migrant mothers living and working in New York City and their extended family or kinship caretakers who coparent their children in their countries of origin. The study reveals three main factors that contribute to the success of transnational parenting: (1) informal kinship care-child fostering, (2) remittances, and (3) social networks. Policy and practice implications are explored.     

Maternal union instability and childhood mortality risk in the Global South, 2010–14

Efforts to improve child survival in lower-income countries typically focus on fundamental factors such as economic resources and infrastructure provision, even though research from post-industrial countries confirms that family instability has important health consequences. We tested the association between maternal union instability and children’s mortality risk in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia using children’s actual experience of mortality (discrete-time probit hazard models) as well as their experience of untreated morbidity (probit regression). Children of divorced/separated mothers experience compromised survival chances, but children of mothers who have never been in a union generally do not. Among children of partnered women, those whose mothers have experienced prior union transitions have a higher mortality risk. Targeting children of mothers who have experienced union instability—regardless of current union status—may augment ongoing efforts to reduce childhood mortality, especially in Africa and Latin America where union transitions are common.     

新时期女性作家对女性身体美学的重构策略及意义

在男权社会中，女性身体美学也是由男性的历史之手制造并且是符合其男权中心主义需要的，这种男性的美学表现出对病弱女体的偏爱。新时期女性作家重构了女性身体的美学范式。这一美学重构是通过女性身体的健美与男性身体的丑弱对比．以新的眼光设置女性身体描写的空间来实现的。当代女性作家通过对女性身体形象的重塑，传达出女性建构新的自我的努力。