Women in Lhasa, Tibet

Lhasa, capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, is a famous cultural city with a long history on the roof of the world. After more than 30 years' construction, the urban area now covers over 50 sq. kilometers. The city has been gradually equipped with complete facilities for scientific research, culture and education, publication, commerce, fire control, communications and energy supply. Lhasa is now a bright pearl of prosperity on the snowy lands.     

Studying in France,Serving at Home

DEAR EDITOR, I am a 75-year-old retired primary school teacher. I published my new work The Work-Study Movement of Young Chinese in France (1912-1930) three years ago, expressing my fondness of history, especially China's history. Currently, I pay more attention to the Chinese women who came to France for studies in their early years, Could you publish some precise information on their situations before and after returning to China? GABRIELLE REYGNER FRANCE     

Population removal,displacement, and divestment in South Africa∗

In the past twenty years several million Africans have been removed or displaced from the ‘White’ areas to the ‘homelands’. Others have found themselves in the ‘homelands’ by virtue of changed borders between the ‘homelands’ and the rest of South Africa. But all three categories lose on transfer to the ‘homelands’ whatever rights to ‘White’ area residence and employment they might have enjoyed under the pass laws. Transferring people to the ‘homelands’ not only often curtails their access to the labour market; it also adds to the financial burdens of the ‘homeland’ administrations, who find themselves having to provide extra schools, health services, and other facilities. Some of the ‘homelands’ are poorer in terms of public funds than are countries like Lesotho. The financial apartheid that is entailed in the ‘homelands’ policy, which includes classifying public funds supplied to the ‘homeland’ administrations as ‘foreign aid,’ is one of the most insidious forms of racial discrimination in South Africa. Under the stricter enforcement of the pass laws that has come about following the recommendations of the Riekert Commission, people in the ‘homelands’ are having their access to the mainstream economy reduced. Displacing Africans to the ‘homelands’ enables the government to ‘export’ part of South Africa's unemployment problem. One of the chief motives behind the refurbished industrial decentralisation programme announced by the Prime Minister on 31st March 1982 is to promote the policy of influx control. It remains to be seen whether the refurbished programme makes a material contribution to the creation of additional jobs in the ‘homelands’. The action of the authorities in deporting people from Cape Town to the Transkeiin August 1981 under laws governing aliens testifies to continued determination to deflect black urbanisation from the ‘White’ areas to the ‘homelands’. But it is doubtful whether the ‘homelands’ have the space to accommodate people displaced from ‘White’ areas as well as their own natural population increase. Pressures from farmers in the ‘White’ areas for erecting fences between these areas and the ‘homelands’ testifies to growing tensions on the internal borders of South Africa as the ‘homelands’ reach bursting point.     

Sugar,Slavery and Productivity in Jamaica, 1750–1807

The article revisits one of the most significant questions in the historiography of British West Indian slavery and abolition. It examines the argument that the relatively weak state of the British West Indian economy from the 1780s onward was the main reason why Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807. In confronting this question of decline, the article analyzes the largest and most important slave plantation economy – Jamaica – during the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using newly generated indicators such as total factor productivity and national income, the paper constructs a case for the dynamism and efficiency of the plantation system in Jamaica right up to abolition in 1807.     

“Bringing the migrant back in”: mobility,conflict, and social change in contemporary society

Dominant social theories have rarely placed migration at the center of our understanding of society and social change. Classical theories in the Western tradition have been more preoccupied with the impact of economic and political revolutions on social change, stratification and class conflict, and have paid far less attention to other important aspects of society. Contemporary theories have expanded the theoretical gaze to include a much wider set of issues, from racial and gender divisions to warfare and the environment. In an era of globalization, we argue that such a marginalization of the migrant, and the failure to better integrate both internal and external migration into a more nuanced interpretation of social change, is a significant shortcoming. By examining some of the key elements linked to such human movement in Europe, North America and China -- in the light of five recent studies in this field -- we argue that migration is a vital factor in changing the world as we know it and consequently a central concern for social theory. This is a review essay on:Richard Alba and Nancy Foner. Strangers No More: Immigration and the Challenges of Integration in North America and Western Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.Louis DeSipio and Rodolfo de la Garza. US Immigration in the Twenty-First Century: Making Americans, Remaking America. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2015.Adrian Favell. Immigration, Integration and Mobility: New Agendas in Migration Studies. Colchester: ECPR Press, 2015.Zhongshan Yue. Social Integration of Rural-Urban Migrants in China: Current Status, Determinants and Consequences. Singapore: World Scientific Publishers, 2015.Robyn R Iredale and Fei Guo. Handbook of Chinese Migration: Identity and Wellbeing. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015.     

The Internet,transparency, and government–public relationships in Seoul,South Korea

This study aimed to examine the relationships among public perceptions of the Internet for government-related information, the transparency of city government, and perceived government–public relationships (indicated by one's city-oriented pride). The responses of 689 residents of Seoul, South Korea, were analyzed and the results indicated that individuals perceive greater transparency of city government when they consider the Internet as a useful source of government information, which leads to a more favorable relationship with the city government.     

Rooted in relative privilege: US ‘expats’ in Granada,Nicaragua

This article investigates how US citizens living in Granada, Nicaragua, negotiate transnational belonging. Best known for a revolution and covert US intervention, Nicaragua, and in particular, the colonial town of Granada, has become a popular site for settlers from the Global North. Similar to other cases of ‘lifestyle migration’, these migrants enjoy spacious homes, maids, and upscale restaurants in a country ranked second poorest in Latin America, and governed by none other than El Comandante Ortega himself. They do not sever ties with their homeland, and form strong attachments in their new land. Fieldwork conducted in 2016 reveals that despite their international mobility, cosmopolitanism does not characterize how these migrants belong in the world. Instead, they practice privileged transnationalism in which their economic, political, and cultural power relative to that of their hosts facilitates both their mobility and their comfortable sense of rootedness in their sites of origin and settlement.     

Autonomy in Everyday Life,for Whom?

A disability reform came into force in Sweden in 1994 which emphasises the importance for disabled people to increased autonomy and self determination in everyday life. Interviews with disabled women and men have shown that while there are those who, because of the legislation, have increased control in their everyday living, there are also those who in no way have benefited from this reform. Some of the disabled participants have not even heard of the legislation before the time of the interview. They are in a situation that they require support, which they do not have, in order to apply for services of their choice and, if necessary, appeal against 'negative' decisions with regard to the applied for services. The paper concludes with a discussion about the Janus-faced nature of individual rights.     

Trends in Female Violence, 1960–1977

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of whether levels of female violent crime are rising. Two differing viewpoints, both using the Uniform Crime Reports as their principal data source, are compared. Both viewpoints suffer because of a failure to specify the major questions on female violent crime and because of inappropriate usage of UCR arrest statistics. The central questions about female violent crime are clarified, and arrest rates are computed to determine whether there has been any change in levels of female violent crime since 1960. The effects of the women's movement on female violent crime are also examined. The conclusion is that female levels of violence are rising, but male levels are increasing at an equal pace. The pattern of the data suggests that the upward trend in female violence, which now appears to be leveling off, is not due to the women's movement or to the changing status of women in the United States. Instead it appears that common social forces are operating to affect levels of violence for both sexes.     

Women in Academic Sociology, 1925–75

Abstract

The career patterns of two distinguished sociologists, Arnold and Caroline Rose, exemplify male-female differentials in academic career patterns in sociology. Arnold's career was a straight and steep line of progression; Caroline's, despite her record of scholarly productivity, existed on the fringes of academia—night school, correspondence courses, and extension and part-time teaching. Examination of the authors and reviews in the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review confirms this model of women at the academic margins: over the years, women have written a far greater proportion of the book reviews than of the articles. This pattern parallels that women in academic life generally, although not all of it can be attributed to discriminatory factors. While the participation of women in mainstream academic life has increased in very recent years, these historic patterns indicate the possible need for different formal models of male and female academic careers.     

Criminal sittings – rape in the colony, New Zealand, 1862

In 1862 His Honor, Justice Johnston, issued his instructions to the jury of the New Zealand Supreme Court for two simultaneous rape trials – the alleged rape of a European woman by two Māori men, and an alleged “assault with intent to commit a rape” of a Māori woman by a European man. This article argues that those instructions should be read within an historiographical critique of British colonial expansion, print capitalism and violence. Drawing on feminist postcolonial theorizing the question posed here, is, “What is the historical, ideological context for a newspaper reporting of the possible rape of a Māori woman in 1862?     

New Ways of Life, Thinking, Cause Distress in Modern Families

THE social news that has appeared in the media comes in all forms. Some people regard an increase in the number of divorce cases brought by omen as a sign that society has advanced. Others look at the activity of selecting "model husbands" as a trend that women are prospering, while the age of male dominance is in decline. Some say that the "single child" is an expedient measure for the state population policy, while in reality, the state has reached its goal of "fewer births, but excellent child-rearing and