Comparing European and North American international migration

International migration is a vast, complex, and heterogeneous field of study. It requires not only knowledge about dynamic processes in the past and at present and in various regions of the world, but also interdisciplinary cooperation, not least in order to achieve a good theoretical development. Theories about international migration tend to be built on particular periods or regions. The test of these theories comes through comparative research. A comparison of North American and European immigration and immigration policy could examine 1) whether immigration is permanent or temporary, 2) the desire of Europeans for short-term immigration to allow the integration of the large numbers of immigrants from the recent past, 3) the differential development of welfare states, 4) the likely long-term outcome of large waves of immigration, and 5) the legal status of aliens.     

Using strategic planning to drive strategic change

This article describes a case history of strategic planning, learning and change within a major division of Dowty plc. At Dowty CASE, a telecommunications company, the management team used strategic planning as a structured learning process to generate strategic change. There are many lessons which academics and practitioners alike can learn from this case of strategic planning and change in action.     

New trends in national minority population since the 1980s

The author discusses policies that were developed in China in the 1980s specifically for the minority populations, and describes how they differ from the country's general population policies. These differences center on a greater leniency toward fertility among minorities, such as a permitted norm of two children, and, in some cases, three or four children per couple. The author also describes recent demographic trends among the minority populations, with particular reference to falling fertility rates and continuing high general mortality and infant mortality rates. Aspects of the age and sex structure, educational status, and literacy of the minority populations are also reviewed.     

Public opposition to genetic engineering

Abstract The extent and sources of public opposition to the use of genetic engineering in agricultural production are examined through data from telephone interviews with 220 farmers and 332 nonfarmers living in eight North Carolina counties. A model suggesting that public opposition to genetic engineering is influenced by demographic characteristics mediated by three intervening variables (awareness of genetic engineering, faith in government and industry, and moral objection to genetic engineering) is analyzed. Moral objection is the strongest predictor of opposition. Opposition is also related to lower awareness and less faith in institutions. Women are more likely to oppose genetic engineering than men. Implications of findings are noted.     

The means to marry: population and economy in pre-industrial England

The relationship between marriage trends and long-term economic trends in preindustrial England is explored using data developed through aggregative back projection by the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure. The results show that marriage became more difficult and therefore less frequent in worsening economic conditions, and easier and therefore more frequent when the economic climate was improving. The author speculates on the links between this relationship and the creation of conditions favorable to the industrial revolution.     

Dual citizenship and political integration

On the premise that representative government cannot properly function without the political participation of a large active segment of its constituents represented by permanent immigrants without citizenship, this article 1) reviews some attempts to resolve such an anomalous situation; 2) suggests naturalization as an instrument to correct it and describes the naturalization rate and the reasons for the low propensity for naturalization in various North European countries; 3) surveys the phenomenon of dual citizenship, the reasons for its increase as well as its increase as well as its inconveniences and advantages; and 4) hypothesizes that future increases in dual citizenship will protect political integration. Labor immigration will probably not be encouraged again, as it was some 20 years ago, but large international migration will take place both within Europe and to Europe from other continents. There are many indications that in the future many more Europeans will possess dual or multiple nationality, and this, in combination with more weight on a person's effective residence, will promote political integration of those large groups of immigrants and their descendants, who now stand outside the political systems without proper representation.     

评《阿尔都塞的著作:结构主义的马克思主义》

史蒂文·史密斯写的这本书的最大优点在于能使我重新思考同阿尔都塞的分歧.具有讽刺意义的是,我曾经认为,我是同意史密斯对阿尔都塞的批评的,现在却不再这样想了.《阿尔都塞的著作》一书,不管怎么说,是一部力作.史密斯直截了当地概括了阻碍阿尔都塞马克思主义发展的知识环境和政治环境.准备工作做了,而且做得很好.我所发现的他的一些令人头痛的错误(例如:拿恩格斯同尼采比较、假设"思想状况"相同、心理学以及意识)根本就不是他论点的中心,本书最大的弱点是当他拿阿尔都塞同别人作比较时,总是给那个人作出一个标准的批评,并假设(往往是正确的)这一批评同样适用于阿尔都塞.它最大的长处是对阿尔都塞的学说作了清晰有力的批判性解释.     

Community and individual acceptance: family planning services in the Sudan

The Sudan Community-Based Health Project, initiated by the University of Khartoum in cooperation with the Ministry of Health in 1980, sought to test the proposition that government-trained village midwives could provide maternal-child health and birth spacing services in addition to their ongoing obstetrical duties. The project area encompassed 92,000 people in 93 villages. The 120 midwives serving the project area received training in 4 interventions -- oral rehydration therapy, maternal and child nutrition, immunization, and birth spacing -- and introduced these services by means of 3 rounds of household visits over a 5-month period. Comparison of pre- and post-intervention survey data indicates that village midwives can indeed be used successfully to promote not only contraceptive use, but also health attitudes and practices that are positively associated with fertility regulation. Between the 2 surveys, the percentage of women who ever used contraception increased from 22% to 28%, while the percentage of current users rose from 10% to 13%. Parity was significantly related to current use; each child born multiplied the likelihood of contraceptive acceptance (by a factor of 0.76 in the post-intervention sample). Maternal education was the socioeconomic variable that most enhanced receptivity to contraceptive acceptance after the project's interventions. In terms of community-level variables, village location along the Nile and proximity to a paved road were significant correlates of contraceptive use. When variables related to the project itself were analyzed, women with vaccinated children were found to be twice as likely to contracept as those with nonvaccinated children and women who believed breast feeding should be continued during diarrhea episodes were 1.5 times more likely to use birth spacing than those who did not. Although midwives did not specifically emphasize contraceptive use, it appears women who were encouraged by midwives to take positive steps in the area of child health were also likely to become more innovative in terms of fertility regulation.     

Keyworkers for elderly people in the community: case managers and care co-ordinators

In the United Kingdom a range of services for elderly people in the community has developed that is delivered by a variety of professionals and administered within different organisations. This has resulted in a problem of co-ordinating services to meet the individual needs of the most frail elderly people. In the United States 'case management' has been introduced as a way of improving the co-ordination of care. Despite structural differences in the provision of health and social services between the United States and the United Kingdom, the concept of case management has influenced the design of a number of innovatory schemes in the United Kingdom, including the Gloucester Care for Elderly People at Home project (CEPH). These innovatory schemes have demonstrated the need for a 'keyworker' and clarified the tasks that are involved in taking responsibility for co-ordinating services to meet the needs of elderly people at risk of failing to cope at home. There is, however, a danger of proliferating the complexity of service provision by creating a new breed of professional; an alternative might be to alter the responsibilities, attitudes and team orientation of existing professional workers so as to include taking on the keyworker role for some of their clients.