The employment relationship in the domestic workspace in South Africa: beyond the apartheid legacy

Employing more than one million people, domestic service is one of the largest sources of employment for black women in South Africa. In this article, we contend that, historically, the impact of apartheid has been to skew the analysis of employment relationships in domestic workspaces in South Africa so that the power asymmetry and exploitation that so characterise these relationships have been labelled an artefact of the racist apartheid regime and its legislation. By reviewing literature on domestic workers globally and drawing on a study into the impact of the Sectoral Determination for the Domestic Worker Sector, which was promulgated in 2002, we argue for a broader understanding of this relationship: one that takes into consideration its global similarities.     

Alternative and Conventional Agricultural Paradigms: Evidence From Farming in Southwest Saskatchewan*

Abstract Agricultural analysts have suggested that the emergence of an alternative agriculture system represents more than changes in practices; it is also thought to represent a shift in environmental beliefs, values, attitudes, and norms. This means that conventional and alternative systems of agriculture represent distinct paradigms which are informed by two contradictory worldviews. Insofar as this claim is correct, it is possible to delineate, target, and promote one paradigm, depending on the system of agriculture that policy makers wish to encourage. In this paper we seek to clarify the practical application of the two agricultural paradigms by examining the practices, beliefs, values, norms, and attitudes of farmers in southwest Saskatchewan, part of the semi‐arid section of the North American Great Plains. Findings support the view that different farming systems correspond to different worldviews. Strong confidence in the market, however, is not limited to conventional farmers, as suggested by the literature.     

‘Time Past and Time Future’

What connects family therapists as a discipline is something rarely looked at. It seems our field is obsessed with highlighting difference which often slips into criticism and attacking the work of colleagues. This patriarchal behaviour invades most family therapy forums, and yet at the same time there is a belief that we have moved away from patriarchal ways of operating. Newcomers to the field experience this confusion somewhat like visiting a ‘Mad Tea Party’.     

Homicide in eighteenth-century Cheshire

This article provides an analysis of indictments and coroners’ inquests dealing with homicide coming before the Court of Great Sessions at Chester during the eighteenth century, with a special focus on the better documented second half of that century. The Court of Great Sessions was the equivalent of the assize court for the County of Chester, which was a Palatinate enjoying its own legal institutions. Initially the social status of offenders and the method of killing are analysed, and the results compared with patterns extant for the early seventeenth century, Cheshire being one of the few English counties whose records survive sufficiently to permit such long-term comparisons. The main features are a retreat by the gentry from homicidal violence by the late eighteenth century, and the preponderance of killing by simple kicking or beating in contrast to an earlier emphasis on the use of weapons. This latter feature is reinforced by the discovery of numerous cases, normally categorized as manslaughter by the court, in which death followed what appears to be a formalized form of fighting, obviously based on contemporary boxing practices. The findings are then placed in the broader context of cultural change in the eighteenth century, and it is argued that Cheshire materials relating to homicide and violence more generally provide a local perspective on the general shift towards ‘polite’ values which has been seen as characterizing the upper and middling social strata of eighteenth-century England.     

不列颠及其意识形态十字军对阵法国大革命

1789年法国大革命对英国的政治实践及理念具有深远的影响。尽管一些激进的英国作家们深刻同情法国大革命,并期望大革命的政纲能在英国传播,但绝大多数知识人则投入到规模巨大的舆论战中,意在说服英国民众相信法国革命的信念对英国宪法、政治传统、社会体制、宗教、公共秩序乃至个人财产都是威胁应予以拒斥。他们认为,法国大革命的政治信念是对秩序与稳定的威胁,它会摧毁贵族与君主制,也会威胁私有财产,并由此导致混乱、暴力与恐怖活动。1793到1802年英法开战,英国保守派政治宣传家们力劝对英国政治、社会、经济产生影响的人们认同他们对法国大革命信念的反对立场,从而支持他们在法国恢复旧秩序的战争诉求。本文即探讨并追溯由保守派宣传家们发动的、以其最知名者埃德蒙?伯克领导的这场颇具才干及影响力的政治争论。     

Sleepiness,choice consistency,and risk preferences

We investigate the consistency and stability of individual risk preferences by manipulating cognitive resources. Participants are randomly assigned to an experiment session at a preferred time of day relative to their diurnal preference (circadian matched) or at a non-preferred time (circadian mismatched) and choose allocations between two risky assets [using the Choi et al. (Am Econ Rev 27(5):1921–1938, 2007), design]. We find that choices of circadian matched and mismatched subject are statistically similar in terms of satisfying basic requirements for preference consistency. However, mismatched subjects tend to choose riskier asset bundles.     

Experiment timing and preferences for fairness

Classroom experiments examining fairness preferences [Andreoni, J., Miller, J., 2002. Giving according to GARP: an experimental test of the consistency of preferences for Altruism. Econometrica 70 (2), 737–753] were conducted to examine two issues: first, are classroom points a salient reward medium (comparable to cash in research experiments)? Secondly, does experiment timing during the semester influence results. Subject choices are consistent with the existence of well-behaved utility functions, indicating that points experiments can be valid. Secondly, subjects are more likely to be “selfish” when the experiment is conducted early rather than late in the academic semester. This result has behavioral implications for environments where nonmonetary incentives prevail, as well as implications for the growing number of instructors using experiments and follow-up discussion in the classroom.     

Ultimatum decision-making: A test of reciprocal kindness

While fairness is often mentioned as a determinant of ultimatum bargaining behavior, few data sets are available that can test theories that incorporate fairness considerations. This paper tests the reciprocal kindness theory in Rabin (1993 Incorporating fairness into game theory and economics, The American Economic Review 83: 1281-1302) as an application to the one-period ultimatum bargaining game. We report on data from 100 ultimatum games that vary the financial stakes of the game from $1 to $15. Responder behavior is strongly in support of the kindness theory and proposer behavior weakly in support of it. Offer percentages and past offers influence behavior the most, whereas the size of the pie has a marginally significant effect on offer percentages. The data is more in support of reciprocal kindness than alternative theories of equal-split or learning behavior, although the data also weakly support a minimum percentage threshold hypothesis. As a whole, our results together with existing studies suggest that, for smaller stakes games, fairness considerations dominate monetary considerations. This has implications for more complicated naturally occurring bargaining environments in which the financial stakes can vary widely.