Six central features of the Chinese labour market: A literature survey

In this comprehensive analytical overview, the author pays particular attention to the changing structure of China's employment towards more private‐sector jobs in urban areas; its rising wages and widening earnings inequality; the persistence of its hukou system, causing labour market discrimination, an urban labour shortage and a rural labour surplus; its more market‐oriented wage structure, albeit with segmentation between firm ownership types; its relatively low unemployment; and the relatively weak role of its traditional labour market institutions, including minimum wages and trade unions. The aim is to contribute to the development of more suitable, China‐specific theoretical models and sound policy analysis.     

The new rural-urban labor mobility in China: Causes and implications

As the Chinese economy reforms, a huge new floating population of rural-urban migrants is transforming the urban labor force. This article explores some of the most important reasons for the emergence of the floating population in China. We argue that the neoclassical model alone is not adequate to explain the massive rural-urban internal migration underway in China. Instead, ideas drawn from both sociological theories of segmented markets and institutional economics are used to supplement the standard neoclassical explanation. We found that Chinese policy reforms in both rural and urban areas decreased the balkanization of labor markets and opened up employment opportunities for many rural-urban migrants. In rural areas, a set of agricultural market reforms, starting in 1978, increased farm incomes and simultaneously produced a large surplus labor supply. In urban areas, reforms beginning in the 1980s created an effective demand for rural migrants. Of particular importance was the development of a contract labor system and the emergence of a private sector.     

Breast‐Feeding Advocacy,Risk Society and Health Moralism: A Decade’s Scholarship

This article reviews research published this century that engages critically with the mantra ‘Breast is Best’ and the associated expansion of official breast‐feeding promotion programmes. In recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of such studies published. They mostly explore experience in English speaking, industrialised countries (the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain) which are in some social and cultural respects dissimilar, yet where very similar developments and problems are detected in regards to breast‐feeding promotion. We highlight how this exploration of breast‐feeding promotion internationally has developed understanding of wider sociological themes. This scholarship, we suggest, has provided a powerful illustration of the relation between risk society (more particularly a heightened consciousness of risk) and the evolution of a code of conduct that regulates behaviour, that has been termed ‘health moralizm’. The article covers three themes: ‘Science, risk society, authority and choice’; ‘Public health policy and infant feeding’; and ‘Moralization and women’s identity work’. We conclude that the research discussed shows how the sociological imagination continues to shed light on the relation between private troubles and public issues. We also suggest one conclusion that can be drawn from this research is that official discourse and everyday maternal experience appear increasingly distant from each other.     

Street art in non-capital urban centres: between exploiting commercial appeal and expressing social concerns

ABSTRACT

How do local cultural agents in particular places adopt new policies towards street art as having commercial and political value? The present article takes up this question through a discussion of street art festivals and their role within urban culture and cultural policies in two large Russian cities. It considers the activities of cultural intermediaries promoting street art vis-à-vis the existing constellation of over-centralized politics, creative industries, urban development and precarious labour. Drawing on fieldwork in these cities and conducting critical sociological analysis of the street art curating, I show how the appropriation of street art by cultural intermediaries is subtly changing its ecology and values and argue that this change contributes to the range of ambivalences of neoliberal cultural politics. The article also sheds light on cultural policy and practice in Russia at a juncture characterised by the impact of globalization, on the one hand, and the country's isolationist and conservative politics, on the other.     

Patron-Client Relation Reconsidered: Comparing Civil Defense Group in Kanto Earthquake and Jakarta Riots of May 1998

Abstract  Through comparative sociological analysis, this paper discusses the patron-client relation in urban locality groups. The civil defense groups as urban locality groups which emerged during the chaotic situation after the Kanto earthquake in September 1923, and during Jakarta riots in May 1998, are the subjects of comparison. Even though the social background and historical context of the societies in question are different, both incidents share some similarities, in the rumors which accelerated the formation of civil defense group in almost every neighborhood. Further analysis on the formation, membership, and activities of the group reveals that the patron-client relation is not a mere power (vertical) relation, but also a life-cooperation relation.     

Wirth,Whiskey, and WASP's: Some Consequences of Community Size for Alcohol Use*†

Several themes in Wirth's “Urbanism as a Way of Life” generate the prediction that alcohol use (versus nonuse) will be more widespread among residents of urban areas. Multiple regression analysis of data from two recent national polls (1966, 1968) reveals support for this prediction. With eight other key sociological variables simultaneously controlled, the greater the urbanism of a community (measured in terms of community size), the greater the proportion of alcohol users it contains. To make certain that this association is due to urban conditions (as opposed to merely the absence of rural forces which encourage abstinence), the effects of rural forces are reduced by omitting the most rural categories of the community size measure of urbanism, and the data are reexamined. The association still persists, basically because of the larger proportion of middle to upper status, white, and Protestant alcohol users in the more urban areas.     

Feminism,voluntarism and the welfare state: Toward a feminist sociological theory of social welfare

In current debates about social welfare, the terms public and private are often equated with state vs. nonstate realms. This paper argues that a feminist sociological analysis would reconstitute notions of public and private as forms of social relations that occur in a wide range of activity, thus disentangling them from institutional divisions. It reviews contemporary feminist theory and practice and spells out implications for a feminist sociological theory of social welfare. It uses these implications to look at a particular kind of women’s grassroots voluntary organization that contains possibilities for rethinking societal responses to social welfare needs. She is author ofWomen of the Upper Class (1984), and senior editor ofShifting the Debate: Public/Private Sector Relations in the Modern Welfare State (1987).     

Sociological consciousness as a component of linguistic variation1

While practice theory has provided a valuable framework for establishing connections between individual‐level sociolinguistic variation and social structures, Bourdieu's (1977) formulation of practice theory has been argued to inadequately address subjectivity. The sociologist C. Wright Mills' (1959) concept of the sociological imagination – consciousness of links among personal experiences, social structures, and historical processes – is posited as a partial solution, as it offers a framework for modeling one aspect of subjectivity. Use of the sociological imagination concept is demonstrated through a quantitative acoustic analysis of /o/ fronting in Worthington, Ohio, a Columbus suburb confronting acute urban sprawl. The distribution of /o/ fronting across 21 speakers largely resists traditional sociolinguistic explanations. A close analysis of four speakers' mental representations of the local tensions surrounding urban sprawl reveals significant differences which are argued to account for their variable use of fronted /o/.     

Characterizing private investments and implications for poverty reduction and natural resource management in Laos

We examine the patterns and characteristics of private investment in Laos, and how these evolve in relation to the Lao government's investment incentive policies in particular, and the wider State policies in general. Our goals are to: (1) systematically describe and analyze the patterns and characteristics of private investment in the country, and (2) analyze investment outcomes in terms of economic growth, poverty reduction and livelihoods. We argue that while private investments in the resource sector have contributed to economic growth, they have also negatively impacted local resources and communities. From a policy perspective, we highlight the need to examine the actual significance of policy incentives provided by the Lao government, especially with regard to its ability to direct investment decisions, in terms of both geography and sector.     

Japanese urban sociology: Development and current trends

This article focuses on current trends in Japanese urban sociology as they developed historically. They can be understood in the distinctive context of Japanese sociology, as the products of an interaction between Western sociological theories and their adaptation to Japan’s own materials. The article begins with the historical context of urban development and provides an overview of the development of urban studies in Japan, including issues in the theory of urbanization, the distinctive character of the neighborhood association, Cbonaikai, and the formation of new local communities in suburban areas. The current trends since the 1980s involve the macro approach to urban restructuring, studies on urban ethnicity, and social network analysis. Overall, it is suggested that the influence of American sociology makes Japanese urban analysis comparative. I thank Claude S. Fischer and Tazuko Hanzawa for their help with editing this paper. Remain-ing deficiencies are mine.     

Nocturnal Omissions: Steps Toward a Sociology of Dreams

The examination of dreams should properly be a legitimate topic of sociological investigation. We argue that there are four basic principles of dream-life that suggest that dreams are external to the individual mind and are collective enterprises: 1) dreams are not willed by the individual self; 2) dreams reflect social reality; 3) dreams are public rhetoric; and 4) dreams are collectively interpretable. With the development of sociological approaches that examine topics previously defined as psychological, such as the sociology of emotion and cognition, the seemingly idiosyncratic components of these nocturnal productions should not exclude them from social analysis.     

Faith,gender and development agendas in Nigeria: conflicts,challenges, and opportunities

Religion is a dominant force in private and public life in most developing countries. Based on fieldwork in Nigeria, where Christianity and Islam are the two major religions, this article looks at ways in which religion interplays with development and gender equality, and what this means for development policy and practice. First, it explores conflicts and challenges, looking at how religious and indigenous customary values converge as powerful influences, affecting all areas of women's lives. The article goes on to examine the impact of these influences on individual women's choices and aspirations in the context of Nigerian development policy on gender equality. Against this backdrop, it highlights opportunities that can stem from religion, pointing to the ways in which Nigerian faith-based women's organisations are beginning to use religion as a basis for challenging male bias and promoting holistic development.     

Changes in Firm Pension Policy: Trends Away from Traditional Defined Benefit Plans

In light of the recent concerns regarding the solvency of Social Security’s Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI), private pensions may play an increasingly important role in retirement welfare of US retirees. However, the private pension landscape has evolved in ways that may result in lower private pension wealth for retirees. One recent such phenomenon involves the conversion of traditional defined benefit pension plans to cash balance plans, which results in lower pension benefits for many workers. In this study, I investigated how characteristics of the firm’s workforce influenced whether the firm converted their traditional pension plan to a cash balance plan and how these characteristics related to the firm’s pension plan policy more generally. Using the Longitudinal Employer-Household Data and pension plan data from the Department of Labor/Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, I found little evidence of workforce age distribution effects on the likelihood of DB plan conversion to a cash balance plan in the 1990s. More generally, I consistently found positive associations between firms with older and more female workforces and defined contribution plans during the same time.     

Measuring relative efficiency of government-sponsored R&D projects: A three-stage approach

Without considering differences in operating environment, traditional methods of efficiency evaluation are suffering from external environmental influences. This study presents an alternative approach for assessing the relative efficiency of government-sponsored research and development projects (GSP). A three-stage approach employing data envelopment analysis to evaluate efficiency and Tobit regression to control external variables was applied to 110 projects over 9 years. This study finds that firm size, industry, and ratio of public subsidy on research and development (R&D) budget of recipient firm significantly influences the technical efficiency of GSP in Taiwan. After controlling these external variables, the mean value of technical efficiency in the third stage increases and becomes significantly different to that in the first stage. Most GSPs increase their returns when their projects are scaled up. Furthermore, government policy makers must establish the upper-limit ratio of subsidies on R&D budgets of recipient firms to avoid inefficient use of public funds.     

Energy Policy and Environmental Possibilities: Biofuels and Key Protagonists of Ecological Change*

While a growing body of research indicates the severe ecological and social costs of biofuel production worldwide, the U.S. government continues to promote the expansion of this fuel sector. Recent congressional testimony regarding the promotion of biofuels via the renewable fuel standard (RFS) offers a strategic research site for sociological investigation into the practices of key political actors and their roles in promoting and discouraging ecologically oriented change. Congressional hearings provide a window into the political process of energy policy formation, thus informing environmental sociological theory and debates. The ecological modernization perspective and its assumptions provide the analytical frame of this empirical analysis of congressional hearings during the peak legislative period concerning biofuels. This research is intended to contribute to alternative energy debates, add to our understanding of the role of various actors in energy policy formation, and further theoretical developments within sociology.     

Urban growth,policy and planning of public space

Under the pressure of the urbanizing tsunami, town planning and urban policies in Spain have given a residual treatment to public spaces in recent urban development. This work proposes a brief but comprehensive sociological analysis about social and morphological traits of public spaces – like paradigmatic social space – in order to show the city's irreplaceable role in citizen socialization processes. The network of streets and places, the city in this sense, make up the scenes of man's sociability. In this perspective, planning ought to be geared towards and for the city and redeem a civic impetus that pursues developing the whole instead of subjecting it.     

Demolition for Development: A Critical Analysis of Official Urban Imaginaries in Past and Present UK Cities

This article analyses official urban imaginaries of “demolition for development” in two different UK cities and time periods: 1) the City Improvement Scheme in Birmingham (1875–1914) during a time of rapid industrial growth, and 2) a housing‐led neighbourhood regeneration scheme in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne (2000–2011) during a time of post‐industrial uncertainty. The concept of the “official urban imaginary” is employed to critically examine assumptions of growth, progress and success within “demolition for development” policies across different times and places. Drawing on both historical and sociological qualitative case study methods, this research contributes to a range of debates on urban regeneration, gentrification, creative destruction, comparative methodology, and imagining the city. The article argues that there is a serious need to rethink urban policy trajectories of property‐led regeneration and “planned gentrification”, particularly in the post‐2008 context of recession.     

Latino Children's Integration into American Society: The Dynamics of Bilingual Education

Abstract

The Latino population has grown in recent decades due to increased immigration. This group is largely urban, disproportionately young, and typically enters American society with a low socioeconomic status, which has implications for urban schools. Using data from a three-year investigation of the bilingual education program at Maya Angelou Elementary in Texas, this study examines the integration of Latino students into the educational system. More specifically, I utilize a sociological framework which incorporates structural and sociocultural factors of immigrant adaptation to investigate bilingual education at Angelou and the broader context of educating Latino English Language Learners (ELLs). At Angelou, I find evidence of commitment to bilingualism, yet structural constraints in the school undermine this commitment. However, these challenges are minimal in comparison to the broader policy environment concerning the ELLs' education. On this front, Angelou must confront teacher shortages, scarcity of materials, and high-stakes standardized testing. Conclusions indicate the treatment of Spanish language and Latino culture as subordinate despite the school's efforts to serve their students.     

Social Development and Minimum Standards in Social Work Education in South Africa

This paper evaluates how well South African minimum standards for social work education, known as Exit Level Outcomes, are aligned to a social development paradigm. Developmental social work is a relatively new approach in social work education internationally, and this article can therefore provide lessons for other countries using this paradigm in an education model based on national minimum standards.

The complexities and difficulties of using a minimum standards approach in education are discussed and the policy context for the development of these standards in South Africa is explained. The use of a social development framework for the analysis is motivated in relation to its relevance to the social context. Nine criteria for a social development perspective were drawn from the literature to form an analytical framework. A content analysis using this framework was done on the minimum standards.

The results show that the minimum standards are generally aligned with social development principles that drive national priorities, but a few significant gaps exist, which are outlined and discussed. This article attempts to grapple with the complexities of using these minimum standards to drive both curricula related and extra curricula activities in social work education in South Africa     

论公共政策视角下城市规划的价值取向

城市规划具有公共政策的属性,实质上是一种公共政策,研究其价值取向,既是城市规划理论发展的应有之义,也是新时期我国城市发展的现实需要。在分析城市规划公共政策属性的基础上,结合我国城市规划向公共政策的转型,着重探讨了公共政策视角下城市规划的公共价值取向、民主参与取向、人本取向和空间正义取向。