Export, Import and Economic Growth: The Case of Transition Economies

This study analyses the relationships between export, import and economic growth for the 13 transition economies. Empirical results show that there is a unidirectional causality from economic growth to export. Empirical findings show that the growth-led export hypothesis is valid in those countries and growth is rather shaped by increase in import demand.

Standardization as a Means for Globalizing a Commodity: The Case of Rapeseed in China*

Abstract Not all commodities are things, nor are all things available in society commodities. Then, what are commodities? Using the case of rapeseed and its products in China, this paper examines the role of grades and standards (G&S) in simultaneously determining the life of things as commodities and the position of humans as market participants. In the first section, we summarize our conceptual understandings of commodities. Next, the paper examines tests and trials to which rapeseed in China were subjected by the mid 1990s. We then discuss how G&S represent political processes among commodity chain actors for creating, legitimizing and maintaining the social relations between things and people. Lastly, we discuss our conclusion that the analysis of tests and trials helps us understand the process of commodification as simultaneous transformations of humans and things in a commodity chain while reorganizing linkages among these actors.     

青岛万福畜产品出口创汇示范园注重标准化规模化建设

青岛万福畜产品出口创汇示范园是青岛万福集团股份有限公司在青岛市人民政府、莱西市人民政府及有关职能部门的大力支持下于1998年春开始投资筹建的。园区以发展高效、创汇畜牧业为目标,以调整、优化农村经济结构为主线,通过引进英国PIC公司的优良品种猪,建立标准化、规模化养殖示范基地,带动农民通过科学养猪走上致富之路。经过3年的建设,目前,园区已建起了饲料生产、优良品种猪繁育、商品猪育肥、疫病防疫、疾病控制、宰杀、深加工于一体的产业化生猪生产体系,2001年,园区实现销售收入1.936亿元,实现利税2462万元,创汇1000多万美元,为推…     

The recent evolution of immigration in Venezuela

Recent trends in immigration to Venezuela are reviewed. Data are from official sources, including the 1981 census and a 1981 survey of migrants. An analysis of migrants by major country or region of origin is presented that includes consideration of geographic distribution, migrant characteristics, and the characteristics of illegal immigration.     

Women in steel: The case of Ciudad Guayana,Venezuela

This paper analyzes the incorporation of women into heavy industry during the Ciudad Guayana employment boom of 1974–1979 and the reduction in female employment during the post-boom period. The first and second sections outline the features of female incorporation at a specialty steel plant and the state-owned steel mill. The third section describes the discrimination to which two groups of women, day laborers and engineers, were subjected. The fourth analyzes the response of women to discrimination.The study suggests that male discriminatory behavior and female coping mechanisms result from the interaction of gender roles and stereotypes on the one hand, and institutional/structural factors on the other. Discriminatory practices and women's responses to them are mediated by class and age differences. These are shaped by the individuals' prior experiences and the historical context in which discrimination evolved.     

The migrant family: subsistence strategies in Dominican families in Venezuela

This study of migration to Venezuela from the Dominican Republic used sociological and anthropological techniques to study fragmentation and regrouping of families before and after migration, family subsistence strategies, entry into the labor force, and mutual aid networks among migrants. A 44-item questionnaire was administered in 1987 to 50 heads of households born in the Dominican Republic and residing in Venezuela with their families for at least 1 year. The survey took place in metropolitan Caracas. Its findings were complemented by use of traditional participant-observation. 43 respondents were male and 7 were female. 30 were married, 1 divorced, 16 in consensual unions, and 2 widowed. Respondents' ages ranged from 26 to 57 years. 38 had resided permanently in their place of birth before migrating to Venezuela. 36 had lived in Venezuela for 5-10 years and 9 for 11-15 years. 39 stated that their principal reason for coming to Venezuela was to find employment. 36 entered on tourist visas, 11 on transient visas, and 2 with no documentation. 29 entered the country alone, 12 came with spouses, and 8 with most of their family group. Only 3 planned a future move within Venezuela. The migrants were of relatively low educational status. 16 had incomplete and 19 complete primary educations and 11 had some degree of secondary education. 41 were employed at the time of the survey, 5 were unemployed and 3 were temporarily disabled. 16.3% were vendors, 12.2% were office workers, 8.2% were transport workers, 8.2% were artisans or operators, 8.2% were in domestic service, and 12.2% were in other personal services. 22 worked in enterprises with fewer than 5 workers or were self-employed and only 6 worked in enterprises with 21 or more employees. 11 had had 3 jobs since their arrival, in Venezuela, 8 had had 4, and 25 had had 5 or more. 16 migrants had found their jobs through a direct search, 16 had obtained them through recommendations of friends or relatives, and 2 were contracted abroad. Total time spent unemployed was low. 41 stated that their current employment situation was better than that in the Dominican Republic, 4 that it was about the same, and only 1 that it was worse. 13 of the households contained some type of nuclear family, 13 contained an extended family with spouse, children, and other relatives, and 22 a compound family of some type with relatives and nonconsanguineally related persons. Organization into compound families was found to result from complex networks of assistance and reciprocity among migrants. The average time elapsed after migration by the household head until the family reformed in Venezuela was 1 or 2 years. 38 persons stated they had relatives in other parts of Caracas or elsewhere in Venezuela. There were only 6 households in which wives were not also economically active. 40 respondents reported they gave some type of assistance in money or goods to other relatives outside the household.     

The Instability of Response Sets

Researchers who use surveys and long psychological instrumentsassume that response sets are constant over time. Data fromthree studies are presented that challenge this assumption.Questionnaires of different response formats, subjects, andtopics were used. Correlations of the response sets across adjacenttime periods formed a simplex, suggesting that the responsesets across adjacent time periods were more similar than theresponse sets across distant time periods. The implicationsof the instability of response sets for the interpretation ofsocial science findings obtained with long instruments are explored.     

International migration data: their problems and usefulness in Venezuela

During the 1940s and 1950s Venezuela was an important destination for migrants from Southern Europe, a flow that disappeared almost entirely during the 1960s, to be replaced by border movements and the largely illegal migration of Colombians. The oil boom of the 1970s saw an increase of the latter, which may have subsided during the 1980s due to the more difficult economic conditions that have also led to significant emigration levels of Venezuelans and former immigrants. Methods of data collection systems that provide information on migrants include the National Population and Housing Census, the National Household Survey, migration surveys, arrival and departure statistics, registration systems operated by the Direccion General Sectorial de identificacion y Control de Extranjeros, the 1980 regularization drive, statistics gathered by the Ministry of Labor, and vital and civil registration statistics. The lack of effective coordination among the different government agencies gathering information and the administrative nature of the data collected give rise to problems of comparability. Mechanisms to publish and disseminate the data available are not well developed, so that researchers often have no access to potentially useful sources of information. Problems of timeliness in the publication of the most widely used information are also present, as is the large gap existing in data pertaining to emigration, be it of Venezuelan nationals or of immigrants leaving the country.     

The Struggle for Housing in Rural Venezuela: Ideology,Practice, and Power1

Abstract Little is known about the struggle for housing in rural areas or whether rural housing standards and aspirations resemble those of urban areas. This article, based on field research in Venezuela, analyzes housing ideology as expressed in public policy and housing programs, and in interviews with and actions of rural leaders, employers, government officials, and citizens. Competing housing ideologies co-exist but one—the cement-block house—dominates; although international and urban in origin, the cement-block model is diffused through rural housing agencies and political agendas. Housing practices are neither consistent with nor weaken the dominant ideology; and some aspects of rural housing conflicts are similar to those in urban settings. These findings support the need for further research to better understand the conditions under which rural and urban housing issues differ.     

World Cities and Global Commodity Chains: an introduction

The purpose of this special anniversary issue is to assess the possible cross-fertilization between two prominent analytical frameworks: the World City Network framework, in which researchers have studied the emergence of a globalized urban system for the provision of a host of advanced corporate services; and the Global Commodity Chain framework, in which researchers have scrutinized the interconnected functions, operations and transactions through which specific commodities are produced, distributed and consumed in a globalized economy. These two approaches have developed in parallel but have rarely been brought together. This introductory essay identifies the common roots and recent history of these two frameworks, and outlines how the six articles contribute to their theoretical and empirical cross-fertilization.     

Renegotiating a Timber Commodity Chain: Lessons from Indonesia on the Political Construction of Global Commodity Chains

This paper shows how political strategies and negotiations influence the construction of the market linkages that form global commodity chains. It provides an account of how an oligopoly of timber-producing firms in the peripheral nation of Indonesia came to dominate the production and export of processed tropical plywood from 1985 to 1998. The oligopoly forged alliances with the state to gain domestic control over producers of the raw material and negotiated an external alliance with Japanese importers to penetrate that core market. Exposing processes of political influence can enrich global commodity chain analysis of market processes in the global political economy.     

Romantic Attachment Among Young Adults: The Effects of Parental Divorce and Residential Instability

Using an attachment theory perspective, variation in adult romantic attachment style outcomes were examined according to childhood experiences of parental divorce and residential instability. The sample was made up of 172 young adults who were recruited using snowball sampling via online social networking. A statistical difference on adult romantic attachment style was not found between individuals who experience parental divorce and those who did not, and parental conflict and stability of residence patterns did not have a statistical impact on attachment avoidance or anxiety. However, conflict, residential stability, and time with nonresidential parent statistically improved the predictive ability of attachment anxiety among those whose parents had divorced. Specifically, time with nonresidential parent moderated adult romantic attachment anxiety.     

The Impact of Housing Instability on Child Maltreatment: A Causal Investigation

More than a half million children are confirmed as victims of maltreatment by the child welfare system each year. Children from unstably housed families are over-represented in child maltreatment reports, and a growing body of evidence links housing problems to maltreatment and Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation. The present study applies two propensity score analysis approaches—greedy matching and propensity score weighting—to data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study to move toward a causal explanation of child maltreatment behaviors among mothers in low-income households. Utilizing two separate methods to correct for overt selection bias, the present study finds that housing instability leads to a small increase in maltreatment behaviors, yet this small positive net impact on child maltreatment does not fully explain the over-representation of unstably housed families in the child welfare system. Families experiencing housing problems likely have a range of needs that require earlier, targeted intervention to mitigate consequences of poverty, domestic violence, and maternal depression. Child welfare services should invest resources in housing assistance programs in-house as well as through partnerships with local public housing authorities to stabilize families, reduce housing-related strain on caregivers, and promote family preservation.     

Sustainability and Risk: The Case of Russia

The majority of recent concepts of sustainable development assume that all societies will sooner or later reach the state of sustainable development, the question being how. For Russia, the question is another one: how can a society survive in the course of the long-term process of its devolution. At present, Russia and several other of the so-called transition societies are maintaining their sustainability at the expense of de-modernization, and the over-exploitation of natural and human resources, and there is a return to the values and structures of a traditional society. The paper attempts to adapt the concepts of the risk society developed by Ulrich Beck and Antony Giddens for a comprehension of Russian reality with a focus on the relationships between risk production, dissemination and sustainability.