Preschool attendance and school-age profiles: A revision

Data collected from the Uruguayan household survey (ENHA) of year 2006 is used to provide more evidence and revision on the longer-term impact of pre-primary education on subsequent school attendance and accumulated years of education. In order to control for unobserved individual or household characteristics that may affect both the participation in a preschool program and the later educational attainment, we instrumented preschool attendance with average attendance rates by age in each locality. Previous research found a positive effect both on school attendance and accumulated years of education, and this effect magnifies as children grow up. But, till 2006 survey, there's no accurate data available to calculate properly the accumulated years of education a child should have and so the causality between preschool and the outcome accumulated years of education was only approximated. Thus, a major contribution of this paper is that for the first time, ENHA makes possible to work with real data on school grade repetitions (estimate accurately the possible lag in children education) and we find results which are different to previous findings. In sum, though preschool impacts positively on subsequent school attendance, preschool seems not to have an increasing impact on years of education as children grow up if we take into account new data on grade repetition. Also this paper broadens the scope of the previous research adding data on rural areas and taking also into account children who do not live with both biological parents. Spreading out preschool education seems to be a successful policy option in a country with large drop-out rates but to cope with school grade repetition new options should be studied.     

The demonstrative copulative or can that lady cook: African languages,authoritarianism and servility

This paper discusses some African language materials including books for learners, phrase books as well as grammars and dictionaries. The metalanguage created to explain African languages both to learners and scholars alike is very briefly analysed. Furthermore, it is shown that some of the materials contain more than a modicum of references to conditions of subalternity and servility imposed on speakers of African languages in the past. It is suggested that historically the creation of a field of African language studies and linguistics is ultimately linked to complex local social histories that then find a more than superficial reflection in the language materials themselves. Moreover, it is shown that these materials are often reprinted without significant changes in the post-apartheid era, which perhaps indicates a great resilience in perceptions and practices related to African languages.     

New Evidence on the Impact of Legal Status on Immigrant Labor Market Performance: The Spanish Case

Using a recent and rich Spanish data set on immigrants, we examine the impact of legal status on two measures of labor market performance: the likelihood of being employed and earnings. The Spanish case is of special interest given the rapid increase in immigration over the past 15 years and the large number of amnesties granted during the 1990s and 2000s. We find that a 10 per cent increase in the share of legal immigrants would raise the overall employment likelihood of immigrants by 4 percentage points and their earnings by 3.3 per cent. The results, which prove robust to alternative sample specifications, confirm the well‐known importance of being legal for the economic assimilation of immigrants.     

Environment and Happiness: New Evidence for Spain

This paper explores the relationship between air pollution, climate and reported subjective well-being (or happiness) in Spanish regions. The results show that, after controlling for most of the socio-economic variables affecting happiness, there are still significant regional differences in subjective well-being. Evidence also suggests that climate and air pollution variables play a significant role in explaining these regional differences in happiness. The analysis also allows us to calculate the monetary value of air quality and climate, deriving the average marginal rate of substitution between income and air quality and climate for the Spanish regions.     

Are Theories About Social Capital Empirically Supported? Evidence from the Farming Sector

Social capital is the bond that links societies together and without which there is little opportunity for economic growth or individual well-being. Thus, this paper aims to contribute to the literature by providing an analytically reliable concept of social capital and a methodological tool for empirically testing a theoretical model of how social capital is built. Based upon a decomposition of the concept of social capital characterising three main dimensions (i.e., structural, relational and cognitive), for each specific group of individuals under study the structural equation model allows us: (1) to confirm the multidimensional construct of social capital; (2) to measure the interrelation between its different attributes and; (3) to set a solid basis for additional research on the effects of social capital. This approach has been empirically applied to Andalusian (southern Spain) farmers as case study. We believe this research to be a fundamental starting point for informing social capital policymakers and helping them implement the necessary tools to facilitate sustainable development processes at different moments in time as it takes into account the multidimensional, contextual and dynamic nature of the concept.     

Assembling the pieces: a framework for the integration of multi-functional ecological main structure in the emerging urban region of Bogotá, Colombia

Bogotá, the capital of the Republic of Colombia, is a tropical highland city located 2,650 m above sea level. It is the 25th largest city in the world and, among large cities, is also one of the highest. In common with other cities in Latin America, a large part of its urban growth during recent centuries has been unplanned and informal. The introduction of green spaces into urban planning in Bogotá began in the mid-20th century, but was first included in official legislation during the 1990s through the concept of Ecological Main Structure (EMS). Initially developed by Dutch scholars, EMS was brought to Colombia via biological conservation practitioners as a means of enhancing biological connectivity in rural and natural landscapes, extended in this case to urban landscapes as a top-level planning instrument. EMS originally included a variety of components, from protected areas and biological conservation tools to environmental urban elements - the emphasis being on biodiversity conservation, without sufficient recognition of specific urban structures and functions. This process led to conceptual disciplinary-based divergence and conflicting political interpretations. The current emergence of EMS as a planning tool for urban regions represents an opportunity for integration, although the risk of divergent interpretations remains, as no integrative conceptual framework has yet been developed. In this paper we review the concepts underlying EMS that have been incorporated within urban and regional planning, especially those of ecological networks and green infrastructure, and also diagnose conceptual and institutional barriers to its current integration, challenges and opportunities which are set in the context of an emerging urban region. We propose a trans-disciplinary framework for multi-level integration of EMS, along a gradient from wild environments to built structures that incorporates emerging concepts such as urban biodiversity, ecosystem services and design in the urban landscape, with the aim of contributing to the creation of an urban landscape that is resilient to environmental change and suitable for human well-being and adaptation.     

Vygotsky’s Anomalous Spinozism

Abstract

This article exposes sources and influences of Spinoza in some of Vygotsky’s works, keeping in mind its meaning for the creation of a “new man” in Soviet Socialism. We try to understand the features of Vygotsky´s reading of Spinoza in an active dialogue with contemporary studies of 17th-century philosophy and its consequences for a materialist psychology. In this direction, we discuss references to Spinoza done by Vygotsky in the context of the latter’s argumentative style as well as studies of Engels, Plekhanov and Deborin as possible sources in Vygotsky´s approach to Spinoza. Paraphrasing Negri´s take on Spinoza as the “wild anomaly” of the 17th-century, we argue that Vygotsky performed an anomalous reading of Spinoza. In spite of the similarities with Deborin´s view of the modern philosopher, Vygotsky had plans that were more ambitious for Spinozist materialism and determinism. We trace the anomalous way in that the latter´s materialism reveals itself as one of randomness and contingency, against a rigidly structured projection of state, society, or model of human beings. We cannot figure out exactly which “model of man“ Vygotsky had in mind in his take on Spinoza, but we are able to recognize some core aspects in his reasoning. Roughly, these include the unity between mind and body, which can take the most diverse forms in the common body of multitude; the bases of consciousness in the affection; the integration, in the psychological systems, of affect, will, and desire; and the Spinozan ethics as a reference to life.     

Assessment of the distributive impact of national trade reforms in Brazil

This paper quantifies the distributional and poverty effects of trade liberalization in Brazil using household survey data. We estimate the consumption and labor impact of Mercosur trade reform following the methodology suggested by Porto (J Int Econ 70:140–160, 2006) and Nicita (J Dev Econ 89(1):19–27, 2009). Results show that trade liberalization had a pro-poor effect in Brazil. This result is largely explained by two major observations: the fact that consumption good prices decreased after Brazil entered Mercosur and a close to zero labor income effect. We find that poverty decreased after national trade liberalization (both for women and men). Additionally, we obtained no significant inequality effects after national trade reforms.     

Beyond cultural competence: what child protection managers need to know and do

This article addresses issues for child protection managers, such as hiring, program design, service evaluation, and policy development. It presents three frameworks for levels of organizational change: cultural sensitivity, which modifies existing services to better meet the needs of target populations; self-reflective cultural sensitivity, which calls for managers to be aware of personal and organizational cultural values; and cultural solidarity, which acknowledges that organizational power is vested in managers, which can oppress clients.     

Alleviating Urban Poverty in a Global City: New Trends in Upgrading Rio-de-Janeiro's Favelas

In contrast to the “eradication and resettlement” approach of the 1960s and 1970s, and the implementation of isolated public-works projects in the 1980s, the 1990s in Rio have brought a comprehensive upgrading approach to the favelas. Such local innovations in Brazil began to emerge after the enactment of the 1988 Constitution that gave municipalities the power to formulate urban policies and laws at the local level. We examine the Favela-Bairro Program, in particular, highlighting its five central features: (1) projects designed to integrate favelas with planned neighborhoods (bairros), (2) urban redevelopment plans that embody a comprehensive approach, (3) an emphasis on coordination among municipal agencies, (4) utilization of a participatory approach, and (5) the use of private sector firms in executing public works projects.