Reforming Land‐Tenure Systems in South Africa: Routes to Socio‐Economic and Agricultural Sustainability

Given the historical development of land tenure in South Africa, the aim of this article is to examine the best routes to alleviate poverty and retain sustainable agriculture in the country. First, a theoretical framework is presented that relates land tenure to sustainability, and three historical periods (pre‐colonial, colonial, and apartheid) are then considered to explain the changes in land tenure and their consequences. The progress and main limitations of post‐apartheid land reform to approach agricultural sustainability and alleviate poverty are discussed. Based on the analysis, different possibilities for future land reform are elaborated, followed by some recommendations for future land‐reform policies in South Africa.     

Invention and repair: disability and education after the UK Coalition Government

This short paper examines the extent to which the UK Coalition Government has been inventive or reparatory in their approach to policies governing the education of disabled children and young people. Of central concern here is the extent to which policies contribute to the invention of the disabled child by conceptualising their education as a constant process of reparation. I argue here that this landscape of policy proposals creates particular problems for the ways in which the pedagogic relationship can be conceptualised, reinforcing teaching as a complex negotiation of deficit and anxiety.     

刑事政策视野下醉驾入刑的正当性论析

从刑事政策的视角看,醉驾入刑是立法机关所作出的一项正确选择。作为一种具有严重社会危害性及应受刑罚处罚性的行为,醉驾具有入刑的必要性。此外,面对日益严重的醉驾现状,原有的处罚已不足以抑止此类违法行为以充分保护公共交通安全,故将其入刑亦符合刑法谦抑原则的要求。然而,具有入刑的正当性,并不代表立法规定本身及实施过程中的完美性,入刑后存在的问题同样值得关注。     

打造"中国白酒金三角"的区域合作问题研究

"中国白酒金三角"地域范围横跨四川、贵州两省,行政区划不同导致了一定程度的地方保护主义、区域内白酒产业盲目扩能、区域间企业间协作不够、规模化生产集约化经营不足、缺乏有效行业自律、基础实施建设滞后等问题。各地政府、白酒生产企业应弱化行政区划观念,统筹打造"中国白酒金三角";加大产业标准化建设,实现行业自律;全力推进白酒产业集聚发展,科学合理布局产业产能;以白酒生产为主体,拓展延长产业链条;着力破解制约瓶颈,促进发展环境大改善,以加快"中国白酒金三角"建设进程。     

智库产业化发展的基本特征与操作

智库产业化并不是要改变智库的本质属性。而是借鉴生产性部门产业化的生产组织方式和市场化的资源配置方式,通过产业化、市场化的手段,提高智库机构的运作效率。促进我国智库产业化发展．应大力发展各类智库机构,特别是民间智库;制定智库产业发展的总体规划,对不同类型的智库实行分类指导;引入智库产业发展的竞争机制;建立科学的智库产业发展评估指标体系;加强我国智库机构的专业化建设,努力打造龙头型智库机构：完善智库产业发展的社会配套环境,努力构建全国、区域性智库产业网络;搭建学术交流平台,整合学术资源,努力营造智库产业的网络互动氛围;创新人才培养模式,提升研究人员的学术能力,夯实智库产业发展的人力资源基础。     

The Sociology of International Migration: Where We Have Been; Where Do We Go from Here?1

Controversies about international migration expose the changing structure of and underlying assumptions about societal membership in many nations. The sociology of international migration has emerged as an increasingly important subfield over the past decade in large part because it has tended to move beyond more narrow economic and demographic problems and has begun to address this fundamentally sociological issue. In the future it will be particularly important that sociologists pay attention to how demographically changing societies define who is and is not a member. As such, legal status and the role of the state has become critically important.     

The European Union in the flows of international students: attractiveness and inconsistency

This paper aims to describe the overall pattern of flows of international students and to determine the factors that can explain the variation of countries' attractiveness. In a second step, it assesses the position of the European Union as a whole in these flows at the global level. Is the EU strong enough in the global competition to attract the best brains? Besides, it shows how attractiveness factors can vary according to the profile of a sample of European Union member countries. In the third section of the paper, we raise some reflexions on the relations of the EU with its neighbourhood with respect to the flows of international students. In fact, the EU may not be able to maintain its status as a major power if it does not better regulate its relations with neighbour countries, especially in the domain of higher education and students' mobility.     

Pension policy in China, Singapore, and South Korea: An assessment of the potential value of the notional defined contribution model

The rate of population aging is increasing in the developing world and the trend is particularly dramatic in East Asia. One consequence is sharp increases in old-age dependency ratios which have major implications for the sustainability of current public pension schemes. These trends are pushing pension policy experts in many of these countries to search for new pension models that are more suited to the increased demographic pressures they will be facing in the decades ahead. In this article we discuss five alternative public pension models with a focus on the newest of these models, the notional defined contribution (NDC) approach. We consider three countries with very different pension systems in place, two from East Asia (China and South Korea) and one from South East Asia (Singapore). The central question we address is which (if any) of the limitations in these existing models might more adequately be addressed using a variant of the NDC model. We conclude that the NDC model has the most to offer China and the least to offer Singapore.     

Being Judged,Being Assessed: Young People’s Perspective of Assessment in Youth Justice and Education

Research from the Economic and Social Research Council programme on Pathways Into and Out of Crime prioritised young people’s ‘voices’ in exploring experiences of crime and a range of intervention services. Drawing on data from interviews with 110 young people, this paper explores their perspectives of professional assessment. Embedded within neo‐liberal youth welfare policies are a number of contradictions. Policies encourage ‘individualisation’, ‘responsiblisation’ and ‘self‐realisation’ while also needing to maintain control and regulation of ‘risky’ populations. This paper explores the implication of these contradictions through examining the experiences of young people being assessed in youth justice and education. The impact on their identities as neo‐liberal citizens is discussed in the conclusion.     

Child poverty and family policies across eighteen wealthy Western democracies

While a good deal has been written about the potential value of family policies in reducing child poverty in Western countries, few cross-national quantitative studies have been carried out on this topic. This article uses ordinary least squares regression analysis on panel data from 18 Western democracies from 1987 to 2007 to test the significance of family policies and other welfare policies on child poverty rates. It extends existing research on the relationship between family policies and child poverty by utilizing a broader data-set in terms of time, countries, and child poverty measures. The main finding is that all three of the main family policies studied – child cash and tax benefits, paid parenting leaves, and public support for childcare – correlate significantly with lower child poverty rates. Somewhat surprisingly, disability and sickness insurance also correlates significantly with lower child poverty in nearly every model and test. These findings provide valuable insight for future research and policy-making in the area of child poverty.