Population planning in Asia in the 1970s

Analysis of data from various phases of a study of post-partum amenorrhoea in Bangladesh illustrated good aggregate consistency of response on menstrual status, but less individual consistency on duration of post-partum amenorrhoea. Using life table techniques, the median duration of amenorrhoea was calculated as 19.9 months for women with births between February and September 1974. There were substantial seasonal variations in duration, with the median decreasing from 21.5 months for women with February births to 16.9 months for those with September births. By contrast, the median duration of post-partum amenorrhoea varies by only two months for women in the lowest and highest quartiles of weight and weight for height. The seasonal pattern was similar for all weight groups.     

Social Reporting in the 1970s and in the 1990s

In this paper I give an account of the major welfare conceptsand social reporting concepts of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Inconclusion I discuss possibilities and limits of social reporting today.Quality of life and qualitative growth were the welfare programs of the1970s. The next decade saw a trend to individualization, subjectivewell-being and plurality of life styles. In the last decade the qualityof society once more came into the forefront in concepts likesustainable development, human development and social capital. From thefar-reaching program of the social indicators movement socialreports are the most visible results in many countries whereas ambitiousplans like national goals accounting failed. In the 1980s we watched akind of dissolution by diffusion and in the 1990s a revival inseveral fields. Overall, the monitoring and enlightenment function stillis the most important contribution of social reporting but today on ahigher level of data, methods and international comparisons.     

Economic mobility of young workers in the 1970s and 1980s

This paper uses longitudinal data to estimate cohort changes in the earnings trajectories of young adult males. Levels of earnings are uniformly lower for male workers turning 21 between 1980 and 1991 than in 1970-1979, although rates of earnings growth are roughly comparable. Among males turning 21 before 1980, six in 10 (60%) of all men and seven in 10 (71%) college-educated men attained earnings levels by age 30 that were at least twice the poverty level. Corresponding fractions for workers turning 21 between 1980 and 1991 were considerably lower (42% and 56%). Recent cohorts from all demographic subgroups appeared to have more difficulty than older cohorts in attaining middle-class earnings.     

毛泽东的人口思想与我国五六十年代的计划生育政策反思

本文是作者为纪念毛泽东同志诞辰110周年而撰写的纪念文章。文章分为四个部分:第一部分是对长期以来有很大争论的《唯心历史观的破产》一文中毛泽东的人口思想进行的评价,认为应该从政治斗争的需要,历史地看待毛泽东当时的人口观点,毛泽东的主导思想是在阐述社会生产方式的决定作用这一马克思主义的基本观点,而不是强调人越多越好;第二部分是阐述五十年代以来,特别是“一普”之后,毛泽东人口思想的主基调是提倡节育,主张有计划地生育。以毛泽东为核心的中国共产党的第一代领导集体制定了适合当时条件的人口和计划生育政策;第三部分是对五十年代批判马寅初及其“新人口论”对我国计划生育政策影响的评价,认为不能过分夸大“批马”对计划生育政策的影响作用;第四部分是对广泛流传的“错批一人,多增三亿”提法的评价,认为这一提法缺乏科学依据。     

Population planning and change in Singapore

Population planning in Singapore has always been linked to economic planning. Lacking natural resources on an island 536 sq. kms. in size, the physical carrying capacity was not large so that the government had to resort to careful economic planning to overcome this constraint. The “stop at 2” population policy of 1965–87 was designed to support the economic plans to improve the quality of life of the people. Restraint of population growth was promoted as a necessary move serving the common good of Singaporeans as the country struggled in her early years of independence to build a nation. By 1983, however, Singapore switched from being antinatal to being pronatal. The environmental determinism school that influenced population planning gave way to environmental possibilism in which man is the main agent determining his own actions in the population-environment relationship. Technology has allowed the leadership of Singapore to make use of the global economy as its hinterland. By concentrating on the high-end service sector, such as mercantile banking or currency markets, Singapore has used the new information age of computers to take advantage of the changing world market. The “quality” population required to do this job is missing, thus the “have 3 or more if you can afford it” policy.     

东亚地区人口老龄化特征分析

东亚地区是目前倍受国际关注的经济高速发展的地区 ,但其人口也迅速老龄化。本文比较了东亚地区各国 ,尤其是两个东亚大国———中国和日本的人口老龄化的特点 ,进而总结了东亚地区人口老龄化的特点。     

Migration expectancy revisited: Results for the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s

Planners in a variety of situations require an improved understanding of migration trends if services and products that adequately meet constituent needs are to be provided. This note focuses on changes in migration expectancy over three decades in the context of the planning function. Using the CPS one-year migration question for the periods 1975–1976, 1980–1981, and 1987–1991, and the work of Wilber (1963) and Long (1973) as historical benchmarks, migration expectancy is found to have fallen since the earlier studies. Longer-distance migration (between counties and between states) has remained relatively constant over the same period so that these types of moves now account for a larger proportion of total residential mobility. The results are discussed in the context of their value to individuals and organizations who seek a better understanding of demographically-driven demand from services and products.This article is based on a paper presented at the Southern Demographic Association annual meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, 22 October 1993.     

The Erotic Lesbian in the Spanish Sexploitation Films of the 1970s

This article studies the representation of female homosexuality in the newly born erotic Spanish cinema of the 1970s, questioning the political and social implications of these first representations of lesbianism which contributed to shaping the first democratic discourses around women's sexuality. In order to do so, it looks at some of the most relevant films of the genre (most of which have never been studied before) and examines their portrayal of lesbian sex, focusing later on the figure of Ignacio F. Iquino and his film The Mask as the main representative of this genre in order to prove how the narrative construction of the eroticizing lesbian was largely based upon fascist conceptions of homosexuality.     

Family planning services and Population Research Act

The Senate Human Resources Subcommittee under the chairmanship of Senator Alan Cranston has completed its work on the Family Planning Services and Population Research Amendments of 1973 (S. 1708) and has referred the bill to the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee. Right-to-Life activists are zeroing in on committee members in hopes of amending the bill to prohibit federal funds for sterilization and continued research on abortifacient drugs. If such provisions were to be approved, it would prohibit men from obtaining vasectomies with federal assistance and eliminate what has become a most popular birth control method for couples who have reached their desired family size. Such a prohibition would be especially discriminatory of low income males who cannot afford to finance a vasectomy through the private health care system. Banning use of IUDs by federal family planning agencies could also interfere with valuable cancer research and the treatment of such ailments as asthma and duodenal ulcers. The Senate Labor Committee needs to be fully advised as to the dangerous implications of these provisions and of the public opposition to their enactment. Vocalize your opposition today by urging the committee to exclude such amendments from the legislation they send to the Senate. The committee members are: Chairman: Williams, New Jersy; Randolph, West Virginia; Pell, Rhode Island; Kennedy, Massachusetts; Nelson, Vermont; Mondale, Minnesota; Eagleton, Missouri; Cranston, California; Hughes, Iowa; Hathaway, Maine; Javits, New York; Dominick, Colorado; Schweiker, Pennsylvania; Taft, Ohio; Beall, Maryland; and Stafford, Vermont.     

Women’s sex preferences in the United States: 1970 to 1975

This analysis examines the potential effect of sex preselection technology in the United States. The results suggest that controlling the sex of offspring is not the desire of most American women; that if it were employed, there would be a significant increase in sons as first-born and daughters as second children; that the overall sex ratio would be little changed from that occurring naturally except at very low fertility levels with universal use of such technology; and that fertility is only minimally influenced by gender preferences.     

The Poverty-Growth-Inequality Triangle: Asia 1960s to 2010s

The main objective of this paper is to disentangle the poverty-growth-inequality triangle for Asia, its sub-regions and individual economies by constructing poverty and inequality profiles, decomposing poverty changes and modelling inequality. Due to a shortage of unit record data, analytical techniques are developed for estimating the poverty headcount ratio and regional inequality with minimum data requirements. Analytical results confirm significant reductions in poverty across the board due to fast growth, although the benign effect of growth on poverty was offset by worsening distributions in many economies. Furthermore, the poverty-reducing effect of growth has been diminishing over time and converging to 0 for many countries. Also, the cost of rising inequality in Asia was found to be surprisingly large in terms of missed poverty reduction. Looking ahead, Asia is expected to eradicate abject poverty soon but likely to continue facing high inequality, particularly income gaps between economies.

     

International dependence and urbanization in East Asia: Implications for planning

In recent years the political economy of the world-system approach to macrostructural change has asserted itself as a dominant paradigm in the sociology of development. Increasingly, comparative urban researchers have pointed to the linkages between the growth of Third World cities and the role these places play in the changing international system. This article begins by summarizing the major elements of this perspective on “dependent urbanization.” Then the urban experiences of the less-developed nations of East Asia are interpreted using this approach. This analysis leads into a discussion that centers on the main objective of the article, which is to tie the dependency/world-system perspective to policy-making and planning. How can this research contribute to debates about practical problems and suggest realistic, implementable solutions? The article concludes with some general comments about the relationship between theoretical analysis, planning, and action directed at bringing about social change.