Overcoming Market Constraints on Pro‐Poor Agricultural Growth in Sub‐Saharan Africa

In sub‐Saharan Africa, there is fairly broad agreement that increased investment in key public goods such as roads and communications infrastructure, agricultural research and water control will be required if revitalised agricultural development is to take place. However, it has proved more difficult to reach agreement on what needs to be done to improve the performance of agricultural markets. In this article we set out an agenda for investment and policy reform in this area, providing a brief theoretical examination of the co‐ordination problems involved before examining in turn demand and supply constraints affecting smallholder farmers, and policies for price stabilisation and the co‐ordination of support services. We also argue that increased attention needs to be paid to governance issues.     

Never the Right Age? Gender and Age‐Based Discrimination in Employment

Although UK legislation against age discrimination is required by December 2006, little is yet known about how ageism affects different age categories of employees, and the gender dimensions of ageism have also been neglected. Both issues were investigated by questionnaire survey, producing responses from over 1000 employees of a major UK financial services enterprise. The extent and manifestations of ageism were found to vary across age categories and by sex, and evidence of gendered ageism emerged. Reported examples of ageism were highest among younger and older age categories, but all age groups were affected to some degree. Across all ages, women were more likely than men to experience ageist attitudes concerning appearance or sexuality. To be effective, legislation will need to cater for the complex nature and patterns of age discrimination revealed, though the comparator problem and other complexities are such that important aspects of age prejudice, including gender dimensions, risk being overlooked.     

Outre‐Manche/Across the Channel: Ongoing Training and Gender in France and Britain

The French state‐levy system of ongoing training at work has not provided greater access for women than the laissez‐faire British system. While headlines figures suggest that women receive more training than men in Britain and that the gap has also closed for well‐qualified women in France, qualitative analysis shows that this does not indicate greater gender equity. The societal effect approach is useful for cross‐national comparison within the sphere of economic organization but must be combined with analysis of the gender order to account for differences and similarities in social reproduction. The case of the insurance industry provides detailed empirical evidence of the issues underlying this, particularly women's availability for ongoing training at work. The situation of women in each country is inextricably linked to a complex interdependence of a multitude of variables, some of which are similar, such as the workings of patriarchy, and some of which are different, such as state configurations of childcare infrastructure.     

Structure, Agency, and Context: The Contributions of Geography to World-Systems Analysis

The interaction of geography and world-systems theory has created two groups of work. The first body of work uses world-systems theory as its theoretical framework with minor levels of critique or change. The second body of work attempts to inform world- systems theory by explicitly including a geographical perspective. Human geographers attracted to world-systems theory provide a perspective that highlights the role of agency in what is widely perceived to be a rigid structuralist approach. Key geographical concepts of region and place are viewed as social constructs created within an overarching context of structural imperatives. By conceptualizing places, states, and the macroregions of core, semiperiphery, and periphery as geographical scales, the role of agency in creating and maintaining the important structures and institutions of the capitalist world-economy, such as hegemony, is illustrated. The geographer's interest in the creation of geographical scales results in analysis of the dynamism of the contemporary world-system.