Producing mobility: visual narratives of the rural migrant worker in Chinese television

This paper employs literatures of mobility to explore the ways which rural migrant workers in China are represented publicly via television drama. Through an analysis of the popular serial Mingong, the paper examines the underlying politics of contemporary migration in China through three themes: the territorialisation of rural and urban spaces; the embodiment of boundaries via corporeal practices and subjectivities; and the politicisation of rural migrant desires. This analysis demonstrates the significance of television in crafting discursive understandings of mobility and migrants that are suffused with contemporary governmentalities of generating but also managing and excluding migration.     

Migrant women’s economic success in Russia: objective reality and subjective assessment

This study contributes to the growing body of literature on the outcomes of labour migration by focusing on the effects of migrant legal status on the economic and perceptual measures of migration success. To study the effects of legal status, we use a sample of Central Asian migrant women who work in Russia and of their native counterparts who occupy the same positions on the labour market. Similar to the studies in the developed settings, we find that a temporary legal status is associated with an earnings penalty and that permanent legal status corrects this earning disparity. We also find that both temporary and permanent migrant status is positively associated with perceptions of pay inequality but that, irrespective of these perceptions, both types of migrants are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than natives. We interpret these findings within the legal and social context of migrant economic incorporation in Russia and relate them to the findings from other migrant-receiving settings.     

Contrasting perspectives of parents and service providers on respite care in Queensland,Australia

Abstract

Parent-carers need support to continue to care for their child with significant disability in their home. There has, however, been little evidence that respite interventions have consistent or enduring beneficial effects on carer well-being. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study which adopted an Appreciative Inquiry philosophy to interview parent-carers of children with significant intellectual and/or developmental disabilities on how formal support services have helped them maintain their health and well-being, and disability support staff on how they help such parent-carers foster their health and well-being. We conclude that better communication and collaboration between service providers and users, more targeted training of workers, and embracing a person-centred and family-centred approach to respite services are needed. In addition, clearer definition and communication of the scope of respite services are required to best support families of children with significant disability in their home.     

Multicultural education in Thailand

This study examines multicultural education policy in Thailand. The researcher used the qualitative research methods of interviewing, observation and document examination to obtain data. Theory about multicultural education was used as a theoretical framework. The sites of study were eight primary schools that served students from diverse cultures – Muslim, Buddhist, Burmese, Cambodian and Thai – in the southern provinces of Thailand. Results showed that current educational policies do provide opportunity for migrant students to access public education. The Ministry of Education has allowed schools to apply their own rules and regulations that reflect the diverse cultures of their students. The results also show that the curriculum includes references to various cultures, that textbooks contain content that encourages students to live in harmony with people from different cultures and that some schools have implemented bilingual education programs. However, deeper analysis of school practices made it clear that what seems to be an acceptance of cultural diversity is just another form of assimilation. The well-established features that define Thainess remain intact and the inclusion of culturally specific content is insufficient to change the unequal power relations among dominant and minority groups in Thailand.     

Inclusionary policy and marginalised groups in Aoteaora/New Zealand process,impacts and politics

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the consolidated findings of a four-year research project that evaluated policy inclusion between the New Zealand government and communities of difference – specifically, ethnic/migrant/refugee groups, women/gender and Māori. Policy inclusion builds on foundational principles of deliberative democracy that dialogue and relationship not only improve policy but also foster democratic transitions towards pluralism and diversity. Although associated with the social democratic agenda of the Fifth Labour government, collaborative policymaking with marginalised groups continued in the subsequent National government. Drawing on interviews with policy communities, this paper analyses (a) the processes of inclusionary policymaking, (b) policy impacts and (c) implications for politics of difference. The findings suggest that, overall, the greatest efforts in inclusive policy have been at the level of design, primarily by maximising the presence of members and promoting visibility for communities of difference. These processes have had less impact on sustained, deep political transformations or opportunities for advancing diversity. The findings suggest that inclusionary policymaking had benefits for recognition politics, but against the backdrop of recent neo-conservatism, the prospects for pluralistic politics have been compromised, paving instead a politics of regulation.     

Toward a sociology of global comparative placemaking

I call for a globally informed sociology of comparative placemaking that integrates historical and contemporary processes and includes the ephemeral, institutional, and personal. By placemaking, I am referring to the explicit or tacit cooperation among people to create, maintain, and give meaning to places in space through bodily occupation given differential resources and constraints. I review select place, space, and community-based literature about urban, Black, migrant, LGBTQ, and international populations to think about how we can build upon and integrate multiple theoretical, methodological, and epistemological insights to form an explicit placemaking research agenda. A US focus on neighborhoods contrasts with a comparative examination of global urban networks, social polarization, and transformation of the built environment in the interdisciplinary field of global urban studies (Ren, 2018). I argue for a placemaking research agenda that bridges insight from US Urban Sociology with Global Urban Studies to consider how various structures and actors constrain and facilitate place projects. With a globally reaching and comparatively informed sociology of placemaking, we can illuminate our multi-structured story of place and agency in context. We can answer questions about how and why we co-create and are simultaneously disciplined by the process of creation.     

组织支持、城市融入与新生代农民工离职:一个被调节的中介模型

新生代农民工过于频繁的离职行为导致企业用工成本上升,同时也阻碍了农民工的城市融入进程.基于组织支持和互惠理论,采用问卷调查的方式,实证检验了组织支持感、城市融入感及互惠与新生代农民工离职意愿之间的关系与作用机制.研究结果表明,组织支持感负向影响新生代农民工的离职意愿,城市融入感在其中起到了中介作用.同时,新生代农民工的互惠倾向对城市融入感与离职意愿的关系具有强化调节作用,并进一步调节城市融入感在组织支持感与离职意愿之间的中介作用,也即新生代农民工的互惠水平越高,城市融入感的中介作用越强.文章首次测度了新生代农民工的互惠倾向,并且验证了微观企业的组织支持能够促进新生代农民工的城市融入.研究结论为用工企业更好地理解新生代农民工心理行为机制,从而建立有效的管理措施提供了理论指导,同时为寻找新生代农民工城市融入的实现路径提供了依据.     

农民工工资支付法治化问题研究——基于对《保障农民工工资支付条例》的解读

《保障农民工工资支付条例》(以下简称《条例》)是我国当前面对农民工工资支付出现的新问题制定的一套具有规范化、权威性和有效性的法律保障机制。从农民工工资支付法治化保障机制的制度特点来看,《条例》的主体责任更加明确化,处罚方式强调规范化,监管过程具备严密化,监管主体呈现多元化。《条例》采取全程协同监管手段消除“灰色治理”的“梗阻”,用“法律红线”落实并明确各方的法律主体责任,以细化规定的方式打通工资支付的“绿色通道”,从而能够保障《条例》的有效落实。为了更好地保障农民工的切身利益,《条例》主要从实践逻辑层面上落实法治化保障措施:明确不同监管主体在监督检查领域中的职能定位,对用人单位实行严格的资格认定与法律责任制,在监管领域中始终关注劳有所得的民生问题。     

农民工市民化与城镇化进程的共生与错位

农民工市民化与城镇化进程有着必然的共生关联，但是在实践中，农民工市民化的实践事实与迅猛的城镇化进程相分离。在城镇化进程中，城镇化的经济驱动型特征与农民工市民化的经济给付型需要错位，国家推进人口城镇化的强意志与地方政府的弱反应形成反差，城市发展不平衡的现实与农民工的市民化意愿存在矛盾。在城镇化发展中，要以“共享“为理念，重构农民工的城市权利；以“主体性”为依归，尊重农民工的市民化选择；以“均衡发展”为目标，拓宽农民工的发展路径。     

Humanitarian response and stress in Kenya: gendered problems and their implications

ABSTRACT

Stress-related conditions such as burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder are a growing concern in the humanitarian sector. Aid workers themselves report not only that mental health problems are common, but that the support they receive from their employers is insufficient. Problematically, the experience of the international aid worker – particularly those who are white and from the global North – is often foregrounded in explaining what constitutes stress and related mental health problems. This indicates a wider problem of what is required of ‘the perfect humanitarian’ – a personality that is gendered and racialised – and how this influences the different experiences and treatment of national and international staff from aid agencies. This article explores the organisational culture and working conditions of humanitarian settings and their impact on the mental health and well-being of staff. It argues that there is a structural dimension to stress that is less to do with external security threats and more to do with the specific infrastructure, policies, and practices of humanitarian operations, with implications for aid workers which cut across dimensions of race, gender, and nationality.