A ‘Wild West’ of trade? African women and men and the gendering of globalisation from below in Guangzhou

Based on fieldwork in Guangzhou, this paper documents the activities of a group of African women traders, highlighting their role in constituting globalisation from below or a counterhegemonic globalisation that emanates from China. It further builds on previous studies on women and development to show how neoliberal economic changes in Africa since the 1980s have forced African men into the traditionally feminine role of (informal) traders between Africa and China. Struggles for economic power between African women and men traders and representations of gender in such struggles as well as the construction of a hyper-masculine discourse in the Guangzhou context are analysed in discussing how women and men are engaged in a continual process of ‘making gender make sense’ outside of Africa.     

Editorial—On the role of the humanities in urban ecology: The case of St. Petersburg

Urban ecology is increasingly interdisciplinary, with biophysical and social scientists joining forces to study how human and built environments and processes interact with non-human nature. Humanistic disciplines that study high culture and intellectual currents also bear upon urban ecology, since cities are not simply aggregates of human and non-human factors but seats of civilization and loci of concentrated creative energy. The Russian city of St. Petersburg, which Dostoevsky called the most abstract and intentional city in the world, offers an example of the way individual acts of intellectual and artistic creation affect the energy balance of a city and its interaction with ecological forces. Such concentrated creative energy may be a key to making cities sustainable, and it should not remain outside the calculus of urban ecology.     

Intergenerational Continuity and Change in Conceptualization of the “Child” Among Guji People of Ethiopia

The rapidly growing globalization that embodies new technologies has greatly characterized intergenerational difference by fostering change and hindering continuity of values and traditions. However, the effects of cultural change on intergenerational continuity and change in less technologically developed societies have not been documented adequately. This article presents change and continuity between adults and children in conceptualization of the “child” in the context of the Guji people of Ethiopia. It discusses how the meaning of “child” is variable across synchronic generations among the Guji people and how this variability reflects discontinuities and continuities in intergenerational transmission of local knowledge. The difference between adults and children in their knowledge of generational structure is observed as a ground for their divergence in conceptualization of the “child.” Accordingly, for adults, one’s position in generational structure is a basis for identifying somebody as a child. However, for children, one’s level of physical maturity is a basis for defining somebody as a child. The data on which this article is based are drawn from 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork among the Guji people.     

Jews in the News – Representations of Judaism and the Jewish Minority in the Norwegian Contemporary Press

This article provides an analysis of how Jewish rituals and Jews as a minority group are represented and debated in the Norwegian press: How is “news about the Jews” framed by the media? Which discourses dominate the debates? Are notions of what it “takes to be Norwegian” put forward in these cases? The article is also an analysis of Jewish voices in the press, and based on the fact that Jewish advocates refer to minority-based legal rights suggests that the Jewish minority benefits from the use of a broader international human rights discussion in the press. I claim that a multicultural discourse provides the Jewish minority with language that makes it possible to argue for cultural rights without referring to Jewishness; offering protection against a general fear of anti-Semitism.     

College women’s sexual and reproductive health screening behaviors and the role of mother–daughter communication

Abstract

Objective: The study investigated the role of mother–daughter communication and race in college women’s decisions to pursue sexual health screening services. Participants: Participants were 301 college women who primarily identified as White and Asian American (M_age = 19?years). Methods: Participants completed an online survey that assessed mother–daughter communication about sex and responded to items pertaining to pursuing sexual health screening services. Results: Maternal communication predicted daughters’ screening behaviors and sexual anxiety mediated the negative association between conservative communication from mothers and screening behaviors. Asian American college women were less likely than White college women to report that they received frequent and open communication about sex from their mothers and reported higher levels of sexual anxiety. Conclusions: Mothers should be aware of the implications their communication patterns may have on their daughters’ sexual and reproductive health, and college women’s sexual anxiety should be addressed in order to increase utilization of screening services.     

Intergenerational Relationships and the Life Course: Children-Caregivers’ Relations in Ethiopia

Drawing on three rounds of survey and qualitative data of the Young Lives study in Ethiopia among children born in 1994 and their caregivers, this article investigates intergenerational relationships by means of the life course perspective. With the expansion of modern education and children’s exposure to different experiences outside the family, many of them contest parental values, norms, and expectations. Competing agents of socialization have contributed to increased intergenerational conflicts and negotiations. In the context of rapid social changes, intergenerational relationships are becoming dynamic and the life course perspective needs to adapt to understand the changing features of such relationships.     

On Women Writers and the Women Literature in the New Period

Avital new force in China's literature circle is the group of women writers who have come into prominence during the "new period," the years since 1978 when China entered a period of reform. These women writers brought their talents of creation into play and have made remarkable achievements. There are five generations of fine women writers. The first generation includes Bing Xin, a founding member of the New Cultural Movement, around the time of the May 4th Movement in     

The role of the enslaved in the ‘Fedon Rebellion’ of 1795

This article argues that the slave component of Grenada’s Fedon Rebellion of 1795 has been somewhat overlooked in the scholarship. In reality, the Fedon Rebellion was an enormous servile revolt that cost the lives of some 7000 slaves over the course of its 18-month duration. This article argues that there were three distinct elements to the slaves caught up in this revolt: those that joined with the revolutionaries, those that remained loyal and those that sided with neither. This article also explores the varying source base for this conflict to argue that though partisan, the few sources that remain can tell us a great deal about the war and the slaves who took part.     

Binge drinking in adolescence – social stratification and the collectivity of drinking cultures

Research investigating what shapes young people’s drinking habits is of great importance. This study aimed to analyse the relation between close social networks and adolescents’ drinking habits and the extent to which close social networks may explain differences in binge drinking among social groups. Data from the ‘Stockholm Survey 2012’ were analysed. The Stockholm Survey was a census survey administered to students in academic years 9 and 11, with a response rate of 76%. Ordered logit models were used to estimate relations between the frequency of binge drinking and the independent variables. Parental educational level is associated with adolescent binge drinking, as students with more highly educated parents are more frequent binge drinkers. Parents’ willingness to offer their teenagers alcohol and peers’ drinking habits are also associated with adolescent binge drinking, with a more permissive parental attitude and a prevalence of drinking among peers increasing the risk. Both parents’ willingness to provide alcohol and peers’ drinking habits may statistically explain a large portion of the observed differences in adolescent drinking by parental education. Close social networks are an important factor influencing adolescent binge drinking, and they may explain a large portion of the differences between social groups.     

On the Analyses of ”reader-friendly” Between the Graphs and Diagrams in Two Economics Textbooks

There exist many differences in the process of compiling "reader-friendly" between the two textbooks, including the method of illustrating graphs and language style. In the former part, the foreign authors tend to illustrate a graph in a dynamic way, while the domestic authors tend to explain it with logical words in a statics way. Meanwhile, in the style of language, the foreign economics textbooks tend to use humorous words, while the language style of domestic textbooks seems stuffier. This paper selects two domestic and foreign economics textbooks to find out the application of the principle of "reader-friendly" and the functions of the principles in textbook compiling through the analysis of the comparison of graph compiling.     

Marketing Reform? The Rise and Fall of Agricultural Liberalisation in Tanzania

This article argues that the liberalisation of Tanzanian export agriculture from the early 1990s to the present has failed to take place to the extent claimed by the Tanzanian government and donor agencies. While internal food markets have largely been liberalised, donor–inspired attempts to liberalise export crop markets have been seriously undermined by the political–bureaucratic class. As in other countries undergoing adjustment under World Bank/IMF programmes, a combination of local vested interests and concerns with the ‘rigged rules and double standards’ of global commodity markets has led to a systematic but under–reported backlash against liberalisation. Tanzania's current status as a star HIPC/PRSP performer is belied by a growing rejection, whether principled or opportunistic, of the liberalisation project.     

Evaluating homelessness – a comparative analysis of top 10 articles from the US and Europe

Homelessness as a political and social dominion has a number of features that make it particularly difficult to tackle. In addition to being a wicked problem, homelessness offers several analytical avenues. How do these characteristics affect the evaluation of programmes and projects aspiring to combat homelessness? Dissimilar pictures and solutions regarding homelessness in the US and in European countries will likely affect recommendations given as a result of evaluations performed. For this study, the empirical base is a sample of the most cited evaluations of homelessness programmes published in professional journals between 1996 and 2010. Most of these evaluations are from the US. These US evaluations more often use large-scale national programmes and quantitative methods, whereas European evaluations more often have smaller sample sizes and qualitative methods. In both regions, the evaluators seldom use theory from social science when analysing their findings. It is suggested that European evaluation research should be noticed to a larger extent since it is probably better suited for application in a European context.     

Dowry in the absence of the legal protection of women’s inheritance rights

Review of Economics of the Household - The practice of dowry is often thought to be the root cause of the unequal treatment of girls in India, as represented by sex-selective abortion and female...     

Young women in a male periphery — Experiences from the Scandinavian north

This paper deals with the migration of young women from rural areas in northern Scandinavia. The way from adolescence to adulthood is discussed and the notion of a male periphery is presented. An attempt is made to shift focus in studies of rural youth migration. The emphasis here is on the socially constructed space that the young women leave. Is one reason behind the rural migration pattern to be found in the male periphery? The periphery is dominated by male economic and leisure activities. Women in the rural areas are less visible, and their activities are not as valued as the male activities. Young men tend to follow in the footstep of their fathers, while young rural women break with the mothers on their life paths. There are few modern role models for the daughters in the periphery. A study of young women and men in Troms county in northern Norway is used to illustrate the women's paths from adolescence to adult life. Young women in rural Troms do, to a much larger extent than the young rural men, take higher education. They have ambitions of highly qualified jobs, either in towns or in their home localities. The young rural women break new ground by continuing in higher education. The young men run the risk of being left behind as losers.     

What is the role of e-technology in mental health services and psychiatric research?

In this article, the role of e-technology is explored, with an emphasis on the advantages and disadvantages of its use for health care and mental health research. E-technology is broadly understood to include the Internet and related information technologies, and in recent years, its use has grown rapidly. The Internet is a major source of health information, and there is potential to deliver enhanced services through this medium. In addition, e-technology's role in future mental health service delivery and research will continue to expand as increased numbers of consumers, caregivers, health professionals, and the general population go online, particularly as the technology is refined and made even more user friendly.     

Does caregiving increase poverty among women in later life? Evidence from the Health and Retirement survey

Given the rapid aging of the U.S. population and reductions in federal funding, elder care has become a major issue for many families. This paper focuses on a long-term consequence of elder care by asking how caring for elderly parents affects women's subsequent risks of living in poverty. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examine whether and how caregiving for parents in 1991 increases women's risks of living in households with incomes less than the poverty threshold, receiving public assistance, and receiving Medicaid in 1999. Our findings illustrate that caregiving in earlier life raises women's poverty risks in later life by intensifying the negative effects of stopping work and declining health on women's economic well-being.     

The role of the voluntary sector in the provision of rural services — the case of transport

The voluntary sector has become more fully involved in service provision in rural areas over the last 10 years and this paper attempts to assess its impact with respect to one particular group of services, namely transport. The importance of the initiatives which have taken place is outlined in a statement of recent policy changes, including the radical provisions in the 1985 Transport Act, and through a national review of the three principal kinds of voluntary transport services in rural areas — social car schemes, dial-a-ride and community buses. This review is followed by an in-depth analysis of the extent of the voluntary sector involvement in transport provision in Norfolk and Suffolk. Extensive tables are presented and the characteristics of the schemes outlined together with an assessment of the essential ingredients for success or failure.The conclusion reached is that the scope and scale of voluntary sector initiatives in rural areas is small, and they form no alternative to a more general and systematic provision of transport services. Further, voluntary sector activities may even increase the inequalities in service provision. Suggestions are made as to how the scattered developments could be brought together and developed through the parish councils, parish transport groups and the rural transport broker.