Why do people engage in paid informal work? A comparison of higher- and lower-income urban neighbourhoods in Britain

The aim of this paper is to show that the extensive and growing sphere of paid informal work is not the same everywhere. Instead, we identify distinct socio-spatial differences in its character and the reasons why people engage in such work. Drawing upon interviews with 511 households in higher- and lower-income urban neighbourhoods of British cities, we reveal that for people living in the higher-income neighbourhoods, most paid informal work is conducted under social relations akin to formal employment. Exchange is between consumers and suppliers previously unknown to each other who are motivated by economic gain. For the populations of the lower-income neighbourhoods, in contrast, paid informal exchange occurs mostly between relatives, friends and neighbours for reasons associated with redistribution and sociality. Consequently, we show the need to move beyond assigning a universal character and logic to paid informal work and for greater recognition of the socio-spatial differences in this form of exchange. El objetivo de este articulo es demostrar que la esfera extensiva y creciente del trabajo pagado informal no es en todos sitios igual. En cambio, identificamos distintas diferencias socio-espaciales en al carácter y en el porque la gente se dedica a tales trabajos. Recurrimos a entrevistas con 511 hogares de barrios urbanos con ingresos elevados e ingresos bajos en varios ciudades británicas para revelar que, para los que viven en los barrios de ingresos elevados, la mayoría del trabajo pagado informal se conduce según relaciones sociales parecidas a las del empleo formal. En este caso, el intercambio ocurre entre consumidores y proveedores, previamente desconocidos, motivados por ganancia. Por cambio, en los barrios de ingresos bajos, el intercambio pagado informal ocurre principalmente entre familia, amigos y vecinos por razones asociadas con la redistribución y la socialidad. Por consiguiente, demostramos la necesidad de avanzar mas allá del mero nombrar un carácter y una lógica universal al trabajo pagado informal, y de dar mayor reconocimiento a las diferencias socio-espaciales en esta forma de intercambio.     

刘坤一与晚清政局述论

刘坤一任封疆大吏几达四十年,其显赫的晚年官宦生涯,直接影响晚清政局清廷的朝政大计,帝后两党的暗斗明争,皇位的建储废立,都与他有着直接的关系.其后还俨然而为诸侯长,领袖东南督抚,倡导互保,倡举新政,议采西法,引起了其后的官制改革和立宪风潮.     

"中阿合作论坛"框架下的中阿合作范式研究

2004年建立的"中阿合作论坛"顺应了中阿人民巩固传统友谊、加强互利双赢合作关系的共同要求,也体现了中阿关系的历久弥坚和中阿传统友谊的强大生命力。在新形势下,共同的目标、共同的任务、共同的利益,使中阿合作比以往任何时候都更加迫切和重要。全面发展中阿关系和深化中阿在各个领域的合作是大势所趋,是中阿关系持续发展的必然。     

Population fluctuation and persistence of one-host–two-parasitoid systems depending on resource distribution: from parasitizing behavior to population dynamics

Population dynamics and variability were examined in one-host–two-parasitoid experimental systems with different resource distributions: resource-clumped and resource-sparse conditions. The system consists of a seed beetle host, Callosobruchus chinensis, and two parasitoid wasps, Anisopteromalus calandrae (Pteromalidae) and Heterospilus prosopidis (Braconidae). In the resource-clumped condition, suitable hosts for parasitism (the late fourth-instar larvae and pupae) were clumped in 1 large resource patch, but they were scattered evenly among 16 small patches in the resource-sparse condition. Population censuses were conducted at 10-day intervals in long-term cultures, renewing 10 g of azuki beans (Vigna angularis). In both resource conditions, the first period was a single-species system of C. chinensis only, and A. calandrae was added in the second period. The one-host–one-parasitoid system with C. chinensis and A. calandrae showed stable population dynamics with small fluctuations. After addition of H. prosopidis in the third period, two of three replicates persisted to day 800 in each resource condition, although one replicate in each went to extinction at an immediate outbreak of the H. prosopidis population after the introduction. Population variabilities of C. chinensis and H. prosopidis were significantly higher and the mean population size of A. calandrae was significantly smaller in the resource-sparse condition than that in the resource-clumped one. A short-term experiment on parasitism efficiencies revealed that H. prosopidis parasitized significantly more at a low host density in the resource-sparse condition than in the resource-clumped one. Mutual interference of H. prosopidis was weak enough at low parasitoid densities but became abruptly stronger with high densities. Providing fresh hosts in a mixture of already parasitized ones, host-searching behaviors of a parasitoid were recorded by video for 3 h and were compared between the two wasp species. H. prosopidis could parasitize fresh hosts more efficiently than A. calandrae through frequent long-distance walks (walking to distant beans at one bout or outside a clump of beans with hosts and back soon on a distant bean of the clump) after reencounters with parasitized hosts. Considering all the experimental results, populations were judged to be more fragile and more likely to go to extinction in the resource-sparse condition than in the resource-clumped one. A higher attacking efficiency of H. prosopidis destabilized population dynamics more in the resource-sparse condition. Received: December 23, 1998 / Accepted: January 20, 1999     

城市化进程中的地方政府治理转型:一个新的分析框架

城市化是人类社会走向现代化的必由之路,也是当前中国经济社会发展的重大战略。推进城市化离不开地方政府治理转型,而地方政府治理变迁也离不开城市化进程。两者之间存在着一种表征关系,即不只是城市化影响了地方政府治理,而且地方政府治理变迁本身属于城市化过程。在城市化进程中,地方政府得以强化公共服务与社会管理等本质职能,而且还可实现治理体制机制的超越与创新。相应地,地方政府必须从产业、空间与人口等城市化各要素协调发展出发,推进职能转型,并在重构自身与市场、社会关系的基础上,创新治理体制机制,以更好地回应城市化并促进城市化发展。     

基于各国经济危机应对策略驳斥“中国威胁论”

基于对西方列强的殖民外贸策略与中国在经济危机时采用的国内外经济策略进行对比分析,阐述“中国威胁论”的荒谬,希望国际社会认清一些帝国主义国家的丑恶嘴脸,认清中国在经济发展中的真诚。任何国家与中国建立密切的外贸关系不仅不会受到“中国威胁”,还能在合作中享受到真正互惠,完全可以安心地与中国保持长期友好的经济贸易乃至更深层次的关系。     

茶碱、咖啡因同时测定研究

对茶花瓣组织──十六烷基三辛基碘化铵──四苯硼钠──邻苯二甲酸二壬酯构成的茶碱传感器（Ⅰ）和以茶花瓣组织──三庚基十二烷基碘化铵──四苯硼钠──癸二酸二正辛酯构成的咖啡因传感器（Ⅱ）进行研制．借助计算机对市售医用茶碱片剂中互为干扰的茶碱、咖啡因进行同时测定，取得了满意结果．     

“劳资两利”中的国家利益——论毛泽东新民主主义劳资关系思想的精神实质

毛泽东新民主主义劳资关系思想的精神实质,是在实施"劳资两利"方针中逐渐突出了国家利益的重要性,并以国家利益引导、平衡和评判劳资双方的利益。其形成有哲学方法论层面原因、政治理论层面原因和党内实践层面原因。同时,毛泽东做到在解决劳资纠纷中保障国家利益,在教育党内外各方人士中维护国家利益,在执行新中国经济建设方针中体现国家利益。     

粮食危机、获取权与1959-1961年大饥荒的再解释

无论诉诸于农民退社权的剥夺、公共食堂,还是从政府救济能力、城市偏向的供应制度,这些单个因素或视角的解释不能让人信服地理解大饥荒发生的真正机制与根源。将解释大饥荒的各种因素纳入到一个能够包容各种假说在内的系统的政治经济学模型,增加了一些被现有文献所忽视的因素如家庭储备与社区共济机制失灵等因素。对大饥荒研究存在的两个重要争论是可以得到消解的,显然,关于大饥荒发生的解释应该同时侧重于粮食生产领域和分配领域,而关于Sen的粮食获取权理论也同样适用于对非市场经济的大饥荒进行解释。     

Information Properties for Concomitants of Order Statistics in Farlie–Gumbel–Morgenstern (FGM) Family

Let (X _i , Y _i ), i = 1, 2,…, n be independent and identically distributed random variables from some continuous bivariate distribution. If X _(r) denotes the rth-order statistic, then the Y's associated with X _(r) denoted by Y _[r] is called the concomitant of the rth-order statistic. In this article, we derive an analytical expression of Shannon entropy for concomitants of order statistics in FGM family. Applying this expression for some well-known distributions of this family, we obtain the exact form of Shannon entropy, some of the information properties, and entropy bounds for concomitants of order statistics. Some comparisons are also made between the entropy of order statistics X _(r) and the entropy of its concomitants Y _[r]. In this family, we show that the mutual information between X _(r) and Y _[r], and Kullback–Leibler distance among the concomitants of order statistics are all distribution-free. Also, we compare the Pearson correlation coefficient between X _(r) and Y _[r] with the mutual information of (X _(r), Y _[r]) for the copula model of FGM family.