Household expenditure patterns and resource pooling: evidence of changes in post-apartheid South Africa

The primary aim of this paper is to examine whether resources accruing to different members of the household and from different sources have differential impacts on household expenditure patterns. The issue is of considerable policy interest for, if the identity of the income recipient does matter in the household’s expenditure decisions, then it indicates the usefulness of targeting income assistance at particular members of the household. The South African evidence is generally supportive of the hypothesis of resource pooling by the income earners in their spending decisions on food, clothing and energy. The results of this paper have been placed in the wider context of social, political and economic developments following the end of apartheid that have caused significant changes in the nature of resource inflow and in the balance of power in decision making within the South African household. The results are indicative of improvements in the standard of living of the majority of South Africans following the end of apartheid.

14至18世纪中古后期至近代早期西非社会演进与当地伊斯兰化进程间的关系

14至18世纪西非经历了帝国的瓦解,国家和社会重新整合的历史过程。在行政机构、经济运作方式、宗教、文化等方面都有了新的发展。中央集权化趋势成为国家政治发展方面的主流,经济、贸易活动的形式更加丰富多样。与此相对应,伊斯兰教和当地传统宗教文化也都有了很大的发展,其中伊斯兰教的发展对西非日后的历史进程影响更加深远。在没有官方支持的情况下,伊斯兰教注重向民间社会的渗透,教团组织开始普及,并在随后与苏菲主义合流,形成了苏菲主义教团,建立起了自己的社会、经济基础,当地伊斯兰文化得到了整理和发展,教士们提出了针对社会问题的改革主张,并在上几内亚地区付诸行动,从理论和实践上为未来的西非历史进程奠定了基础。     

邓小平主政西南时期的干部队伍建设探究

邓小平主政西南时期,以马克思列宁主义、毛泽东思想为指导,以党的干部队伍现状为依据,围绕干部队伍的思想、作风、组织、制度等内容,从理论和实践上积极探索加强中国共产党的干部队伍建设的理论和方法,积累了丰富的经验,形成了独创性的干部队伍建设思想。邓小平主政西南时期的干部队伍建设思想和实践,为当今新形势下加强干部队伍建设工作提供了十分重要的理论依据和实践基础。     

新世纪以来关于邓小平主政大西南的研究综述

新世纪以来,有关邓小平主政大西南的研究取得了可喜进展,形成了诸多研究成果,内容涉及到政权建设、党的建设、民族关系以及经济、教育、社会发展等方面。笔者以此为主题进行综述,以期进一步促进对邓小平主政大西南的研究。     

瓜、桃、竹与人的出生--中国西南少数民族与日本植物崇拜神话比较

中国西南少数民族与日本民间由于风土环境及生产、生活方式的相似,在植物崇拜神话的母题情节及文化内涵方面有诸多相同或相似之处.本文从民族文化学及文学人类学角度对中国西南少数民族与日本有关瓜、桃、竹等植物崇拜神话及始祖神话进行比较研究,并说明其文化内涵.     

Sociolinguistics and modes of social class signalling: African perspectives

The paper evaluates spatial, behavioural, and material signalling of social class in African contexts, focusing on Kenya and Zambia. In particular, it draws on notions of mode of class signalling and intersectionality and a vignette of an interaction between urban‐based Western educated development agents and local participants in rural Kenya to illustrate how social class is implicated in interactions. The paper shows how significant features of class and dimensions of social inequality may be perceived intersectionally so that positionalities in class structures are negotiated in contexts of interaction, thus illustrating how structural conditions of class may be challenged and questioned. The paper concludes that sociolinguistics needs to identify the various ways in which the marginalized challenge social structures of inequality. Otherwise there is a risk that sociolinguistics will work to validate inequalities as permanent and fixed, and victims of unequal treatment as permanently condemned and never able to rise against oppressive social structures that tyrannize them.     

Public Debt Sustainability in Africa: Building Resilience and Challenges Ahead

The increased access of African countries to international capital markets has put public debt sustainability at the forefront of the continent's policy agenda. Utilising the ‘stabilising primary‐balance’ approach, this article finds that the actual primary balances exceeded those required to keep public debt at the 2007 level in about half the countries studied, and in several cases, those needed to reduce public debt‐to‐GDP to sustainable thresholds. The interest rate‐growth differential (IRGD) drove sustainability, underscoring the importance of growth and borrowing for growth‐enhancing outlays. As the IRGDs are likely to narrow over the longer term, fiscal policies will need to play a greater role.     

Trends in cardiovascular diseases and associated risks in sub-Saharan Africa: a review of the evidence for Ghana,Nigeria, South Africa,Sudan and Tanzania

Background: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries are facing an epidemiological shift from infectious disease to chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). CVDs incidence in SSA are frequently attributed to the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, and overweight/obesity. Nevertheless, some researchers contend that CVDs are not a priority public health problem in SSA.

Method: This paper systematically reviews the evidence on CVDs and their relation with hypertension, diabetes mellitus and obesity/overweight in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania. The publication’s content was analyzed qualitatively using the directed content analysis method and the results were presented in a tabular format.

Result: The paper illustrates the rising prevalence of CVDs as well as the three related risk conditions in the selected SSA countries.

Conclusion: The review indicates a poor health system response to the increasing risk of CVDs in SSA. The conditions and major drivers that contribute to this underlying increasing trend need to be further studied.