Persistence of an exclusionary model: Inequality and segmentation in Mexican society

Beginning in the 1980s, Mexico's social and labour policies took a neoliberal turn which exacerbated inequalities, poverty and social exclusion. The change of policy course that has occurred over the past decade has so far failed to bring about a critical review of the country's economic model and its social consequences. The role of the State has been systematically cut back; social services have been outsourced to the market; and informal family‐based social protection has gained ground. Mexico's social model has thus been reduced to a system that is almost exclusively concerned with protection for those living in extreme poverty.     

富裕社会中贫困的消除：加尔布雷思的探究及启示

贫困表现为人的基本需要得不到满足,“富裕社会”中的贫困表现为私人生产、物质生产的过剩和公共生产、精神生产的不足。加尔布雷思认为,美国“富裕社会”中贫困的原因是不平衡的“二元经济体系”,只要实行“新社会主义”,实现“计划体系”和“市场体系”的平衡,就能解决“富裕”背后的贫困问题。由于这一设想是以不改变资本主义的经济基础为前提的,所以,只能是一种治标不治本的改良。只有扬弃经济学的“传统智慧”,建构以促进“每个人的自由发展”为目标的“全面生产”经济学,才能从根本上消除“富裕社会”中的贫困问题。     

四川少数民族村寨旅游扶贫模式转变研究

In 2012 , State Ethnic Affairs Com-mission of the People’ s Republic of China( hereaf-ter SEAC ) announced an outline concerning the protection and development of‘ethnic minority vil-lages with special characteristics ’ . The develop-ment of such villages is one of the important tasks of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission:this devel-opment aims to foster the conservation of ethnic culture and to accelerate the development of the ethnic areas in which these villages lie. On Sep-tember 23 , 2014 , the State Ethnic Affairs Com-mission announced guanyu minming shoupi zhong-guo shaoshu minzu tese chunzhai de tongzhi ( No-tice on the Naming of the First Group of China ’ s Ethnic Minority Villages with Special Characteris-tics):340 villages in total were inscribed into the list of this so-called ‘First Batch ’ , among which four villages of Sichuan province were included:( i) Jiefang village of Haqu in Leshan, ( ii) Mutuo Village of Maoxian in Aba, ( iii) Shangmo Village of Songfan in Aba, and ( iv) Guza Village of Seda in Ganzi. With the support of the so-called‘Poverty Al-leviation Policy’ , tourism in ethnic minority villa-ges has been booming; however, this has also re-sulted in a new series of related problems that need to be addressed. Tourism development obviously had reduced regional poverty. Since the 1980s, the promotion of economic development through tourism in the ethnic areas ( with a corresponding improvement of people ’ s living conditions ) has been widely accepted by society. Also in the prov-ince of Sichuan the ‘poverty alleviation through tourism’ policy has led to economic growth and has reduced the poverty of the people in the ethnic mi-nority areas. From 2011 to 2014, the SEAC has invested 57. 8 million Yuan in the development of ethnic minority villages in Sichuan province. This has led to the implementation of 73 projects and has benefited around 100,000 people, 7 indige-nous ethnic groups, and 11 prefectures and munic-ipalities in Sichuan. It seems that this‘poverty al-leviation through tourism ’ ( hereafter PATT ) has resulted in good economic and social effects. Ethnic minority villages in Sichuan share sim-ilar challenges: ( i) a low level of production and productivity,economic backwardness, simplistic e-conomic infrastructure, cultural narrow-minded-ness, a low level of education and personal devel-opment, and a fragile condition of local nature and cultural surroundings. Moreover, tourism has since deeply altered previous development models for these regions: this has also brought many new problems, like e. g. how to correctly distribute the newly acquired economic benefits and profits, as well as cultural and environmental protection is-sues. Many of these problems seem to be only tran-sitional;however, these challenges do ask for the necessary tweaks of the PATT policies. This article thus tries to review the model of PATT as imple-mented in the ethnic villages of Sichuan. The arti-cle explores its different stages/aspects:( i) adap-tation of goals, ( ii) the changing role of the gov-ernment, ( iii) an evolving profit model for local people, and ( iv ) evolving local talent discovery and activation. The first aspect of PATT is the change of the development goals. At first, the priority is to get rid of poverty through tourism. To initially boost local tourism, the government must make major in-vestments: enhancement of the basic infrastruc-ture, creation of a touristic brand and initial adver-tising for the ethnic villages. However, when the PATT has been effectively implemented, and reached a mature stage of development, i. e. the village has become relatively popular and annual numbers of tourists have reached a stable good lev-el, the goals must be adapted: economic develop-ment should change to sustainable development. The new goals would be a combination of local tourism and local related industries, such as handi-craft products, catering and other hospitality busi-nesses etc. When all of this takes place, the eth-nic villages and areas seem to be able to arrive at a green and sustainable development path. The second stage is the change of the role of government. As said, in the beginning large in-vestments in infrastructure, tourism marketing and publicity are needed. In this start-up stage, the village needs quite a lot of human and material re-sources. Without the financial and human aid of the government, it’ s very hard to change a local ethnic minority village into a tourist destination. Hence, the government should play a supportive role during the initial stages of tourism develop-ment, while taking the local villagers ’ will and ethnic culture into consideration: the government should consult with the villagers and encourage the villagers’ participation in the whole development process. When indeed the PATT reaches a mature phase, the local people can take over. By then the locals have gained much experience;their attitudes and business skills have sufficiently improved so the government can take a step back, leaving the villagers to further develop the villages by them-selves. The third aspect is an ‘evolving profit model for local people ’ . During the initial stages of PATT, it’ s all about developing basic tourism pro-jects: at this moment, the main profit models for businesses rely on ( a) ethnic culture projects with distinct characteristics, ( b ) establishing high quality modes of the tourists route, and ( c) pro-moting the unique name and fame of the villages. However, when PATT reaches a mature stage, the villagers themselves must further develop and maintain their unique brand and fame. As said, the government takes a step back while local peo-ple are to develop new related sustainable profit models. The fourth issue is the further evolution of‘local talent discovery and activation ’ or‘talent mechanisms’ . Before the initial stages of PATT in Sichuan, the local villagers of the ethnic minorities had been engaged in traditional agriculture for many years;hence it was difficult for them to tran-sition into modern industries such as tourism and hospitality. Moreover, there were very few locals who had any knowledge of this tourism/hospitality industry. E. g. only some elderly people conducted simplistic tour guide practices for tourists: they were unable to provide any in-depth explanations of the traditional ethnic customs and culture due to language barriers. Thus, outsiders ( including gov-ernment staff and tourism professionals ) had to come in and provide advanced concepts, methods, and training. More importantly, a new ‘local tal-ent team’ had to discover and activate local people with tourism talents/abilities. This allowed for a genuine local tourism industry to come into exist-ence and further evolve. However, when PATT reaches a mature stage, the government should re-turn the economic benefits back to the local people and give them the dominant right to further self-de-velopment. A newly developed professional middle class will then allow the local people to further de-cide on the future of the ethnic villages. After the initial ‘local talent discovery and activation ’ , a more mature ‘talent mechanism ’ should be formed. Led by the best local talents, people from all circles should be encouraged to take part in the further development of the local villages and areas:this allows for greater stability and continuity, while new talents can develop more. This article has analyzed the implementation and adaptation of PATT in the province of Si-chuan, including the ( i) adaptation of goals, ( ii) the changing role of the government, ( iii) an evol-ving profit model for local people, and ( iv) evol-ving local talent discovery and activation. Howev-er, the development of ethnic minority villages still seems to face many difficulties and challenges, and need to be studied and discussed more.     

The U.S. Health System and Immigration: An Institutional Interpretation1

We examine the institutions that comprise the U.S. health system and their relationship to a surging immigrant population. The clash between the system and this human flow originates in the large number of immigrants who are unauthorized, poor, and uninsured and, hence, unable to access a system largely based on ability to pay. Basic concepts from sociological theory are brought to bear on the analysis of this clash and its consequences. Data from a recently completed study of health institutions in three areas of the United States are used as an empirical basis to illustrate various aspects of this complex relation. Implications of our results for theory and future health policy are discussed.     

Wealth Holdings and Portfolio Allocation of the Elderly: The Role of Marital History

This paper investigates the role of marital history in terms of explaining differences in wealth holdings and portfolio allocation of older individuals by studying data from the first wave of Health and Retirement Study which was conducted in 1992. The results generally suggest that both men and women suffer from the negative shocks of past marital dissolutions in terms of household wealth accumulation. The significance level, however, differs across currently married couples, single males, and single females. The examination of the asset components of net worth also indicates that both the probability of owning a particular asset and the fraction of wealth allocated to that asset might vary depending on the elderly individuals’ marital history.

湘西土家族苗族自治州扶贫开发的历史反思

经过 2 0年的艰苦奋斗 ,湘西土家族苗族自治州的扶贫开发取得了显著成效 ,基本实现了预期的扶贫工作目标。但是 ,全州仍然有相当部分农村人口尚未解决温饱问题 ,扶贫任务还十分艰巨。本文从全国反贫困战略的角度 ,梳理了湘西州扶贫开发的基本过程 ,评述了扶贫开发的思路和举措 ,总结了 2 0年扶贫开发的基本经验 ,对于推动下一步的扶贫开发工作具有一定的启发作用。     

扶贫政策与农村贫困

农村贫困是当代中国农村的一个严峻的现实问题。为了减缓农村贫困,中国政府颁布了一系列的扶贫文件,实施了一系列的扶贫政策。本文考察了扶贫政策出台的背景,回顾了扶贫政策的历史,指出了扶贫政策中存在的问题。文章试图表明的是,要想真正减缓农村贫困,政府必须加大扶贫力度,改变现存扶贫政策中存在的诸多问题。      

数字经济的减贫效应研究

利用中国2011-2018年省份数据,构建面板回归模型和多重中介模型探讨数字经济的减贫效应及影响机理.研究发现:数字经济与农村贫困发生率存在显著负向关系,在考虑城镇化、经济增长等影响贫困因素的基础上,减贫效应依旧显著;数字经济的收入增长效应和收入分配效应显著,即数字经济可通过促进家庭增收和弱化收入差距的渠道影响贫困,但数据资源配置不均带来的数字鸿沟可能会扩大城乡收入差距,加大相对贫困的治理难度.     

对重庆农村扶贫开发战略的反思

社会救济是对贫困人群提供无偿物质帮助的一种制度。重庆作为最年轻的直辖市,扶贫开发是中央交给重庆直辖市的重要任务之一。能否解决好贫困问题,不仅关系到经济的稳定发展,而且还会影响到社会的安定团结。从重庆市农村贫困的原因出发,从政府、贫困者自身和社会三个角度提出贫困治理的途径和对策。     

人口老龄化的经济社会后果——基于多层面与多维度视角的分析

人口老龄化的加剧对中国社会形成了巨大冲击。文章利用宏微观数据,系统梳理了人口老龄化对中国经济社会与文化、社区治理和家庭福祉的影响。研究发现:随着持续近40年的人口红利逐渐消失,中国宏观经济增长、社会保障体系、文化形态和公共政策都发生了诸多改变;社区服务供给和社区治理的复杂性也日渐提高;家庭养老资源日益萎缩,护理员面临总量短缺和结构失衡,照护活动给照料者的身心健康带来负向溢出效应。尽管人口老龄化给社会带来了诸多改变,但应乐观、科学辨证地审视这一现象。积极应对人口老龄化,应从推动产业转型升级、完善为老服务体制机制、提升养老服务质量等方面入手,真正让老年人共享社会经济发展的成果。