Traditional vs. Modern Food Systems? Insights from Vegetable Supply Chains to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)

This article describes the development of vegetable marketing in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), where modern distribution outlets are competing fiercely with traditional traders for wholesale and retail customers. Data from interviews with supply chain stakeholders and a survey of vegetable wholesalers have been used to compare the performance of modern and traditional chains, and the findings reveal the chains as segmented in their product focus, the modern sector focusing exclusively on quality. Modern marketing channels are generally more efficient than traditional ones but still account for only around 2% of vegetable distribution. The article argues that policy‐makers should not promote the ‘modernisation’ of food systems at the expense of traditional channels which meet important consumer needs.     

We're All in This Together: Context, Contacts, and Social Trust in Canada

How do conditions of diversity and inequality affect the sense of solidarity with each other that is manifested as social trust? This article brings together the literatures on racial heterogeneity, inter-group contact and relative deprivation to test and enrich the existing theoretical understanding of trust. It explores the effects of city and neighborhood contexts, individual experiences of inter-group relations, and their moderating effects on social trust. Findings suggest that the influence of a city's level of ethnic/racial diversity and income inequality is conditioned by inter-group social ties and experiences of discrimination. By considering the characteristics of neighborhoods, racial diversity of cities no longer has any significant association with trust in others. However, income inequality at the city level interacts with experiences of discrimination to undermine trust. Public policies aimed at improving social cohesion would benefit from considering the joint impact of economic and social policies that regulate resource distribution and hence shape inter-group relations.     

Estimates of per Capita Fish Consumption in the U.S. Based on the Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII)

This paper presents estimates of daily average per capita fish consumption by age and gender for the 48 conterminous states. The estimated consumption rates are reported for three fish habitats: freshwater/estuarine fish, marine fish, and all fish. The estimates were generated from the combined 1989, 1990, and 1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII), a national food consumption survey conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Point and interval estimates of per capita fish consumption were generated from the empirical distribution of daily average per capita consumption. The point estimates include the mean, 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th, and 99th percentiles. Ninety percent confidence intervals are provided for the estimated mean and 90% bootstrap intervals are provided for percentile estimates. Information in a recipe file provided by USDA was used to calculate the amount of fish in recipes which contain fish. The estimated consumption rates are based on the weight of fish in its prepared or "as consumed" condition. The estimated mean consumption rate for all fish for the U.S. population of the 48 conterminous states was 15.65 grams/person/day (C.I.:14.67–16.63) of which 4.71 grams/person/day (C.I.:4.17–5.25) was freshwater/estuarine fish and 10.94 grams/person/day (C.I.: 10.14–11.73) was marine fish.     

Measuring Women’s Empowerment at Household Level Using DHS Data of Four Southeast Asian Countries

Women’s empowerment is important indicator for social development, yet there has not been a practical index on women’s empowerment at household level, especially for developing countries. Previous studies have suggested a theoretical framework of four components of women’s empowerment at household level: women’s labor force participation, women’s household decision-making, women’s use of contraception and women’s education. In this study, a measurement of women’s empowerment is developed using principal axis factoring with micro data from the Demographic and Health Surveys on four Southeast Asia countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Timor-Leste. The results has consistently found three factors including women’s labor force participation, women’s education and women’s household decision-making that affect individual women’s empowerment. Nevertheless, despite the literature suggested by other studies, very little evidence was found to support family planning use as one of the components of women’s empowerment in these countries. The new measurement also provides a solution for the problem of lacking household level data in current indices. More importantly, the construction of the measurement is practically applicable in more than 90 developing countries where the Demographic and Health Surveys are available.     

DO TERRORIST ATTACKS IMPACT EXCHANGE RATE BEHAVIOR? NEW INTERNATIONAL EVIDENCE

This study examines whether terrorist attacks affect bilateral exchange rates. Using historical 10‐minute exchange rate data for 21 countries' currency vis‐à‐vis the U.S. dollar, we show that exchange rate returns of all countries are statistically significantly affected by terrorist attacks. Some exchange rates appreciate and some depreciate following a terrorist attack, some currencies experience exchange rate reversals while others experience a persistent effect. Generally, the effect declines but persists as terrorist attacks become stale information. (JEL F31, F37)     

Sexual abuse victimization and psychological distress among adolescent offenders

This study focused on sexual abuse victimization and psychological distress among 272 adolescent offenders. The respondents were interviewed while they were being detained in a short-term holding facility. Female respondents reported more sexual abuse victimization and psychological distress than did their male counterparts. Furthermore, church attendance moderated the association between sexual abuse victimization and psychological distress among the male respondents. Implications of these findings for research and interventions with adolescent offenders are discussed.     

Voices from Vietnam: experiences of children and youth with disabilities,and their families,from an Agent Orange affected rural region

This study examines the experiences of young people with disabilities from ethnic minorities, and their families, in central Vietnam. The study is set in an area contaminated by Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Data were gathered from interviews with youth with disabilities and interviews and focus groups with mothers who had children with disabilities. Respondents expressed confronting multiple barriers to inclusion, education, health and well-being similar to other persons with disabilities and their families from around the world. Participants sought broad-ranging human rights as they described experiencing stigmatization and marginalization from negative social reaction toward disabilities and by residing in a location known for dioxin contamination. The participants’ voices are not only important in informing program responses to support implementation of Vietnam’s new National Law on Persons with Disabilities, but also timely as the US government considers proposed legislation providing material support for Vietnamese nationals affected by Agent Orange.     

Effects of the Home Learning Environment and Preschool Center Experience upon Literacy and Numeracy Development in Early Primary School

This study investigates the influence of aspects of home and preschool environments upon literacy and numeracy achievement at school entry and at the end of the 3rd year of school. Individuals with unexpected performance pathways (by forming demographically adjusted groups: overachieving, average, and underachieving) were identified in order to explore the effects of the home learning environment and preschool variables on child development. Multilevel models applied to hierarchical data allow the groups that differ with regard to expected performance to be created at the child and preschool center levels. These multilevel analyses indicate powerful effects for the home learning environment and important effects of specific preschool centers at school entry. Although reduced, such effects remain several years later .     

Race,Religion, and the Social Integration of New Immigrant Minorities in Canada1

The social integration of Canada’s new religious minorities is determined more by their racial minority status than by their religious affiliation or degree of religiosity, according to results from Statistics Canada’s 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey. Interview questions tap life satisfaction, affective ties to Canada, and participation in the wider community. Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Hindus are slower to integrate socially, mainly because they are mostly racial minorities. Degree of religiosity affects social integration in the same ways as ethnic community attachments in general, positively for some dimensions, negatively for others, and similarly for different religious groups. Patterns are similar in Quebec and the rest of Canada; results carry implications for the debate over “reasonable accommodation” of religious minorities in Quebec, and parallel debates in other provinces and countries.     

An Institutional Contingency Perspective of Interlocking Directorates

Interlocking directorates, in which companies are linked by the directors that serve on their boards, exist globally. It is an expression of hegemonic power exercised by the elites of a society, and has been studied with great interest by organizational sociologists, management scholars and financial economists. The interest emanates from the effect that interlocks have on wealth creation and distribution, and from the perspective that interlocks can tell us how elites in a society are networked. Although diverse theoretical perspectives have informed the research on interlocking directorates, this review shows that the Anglo‐American perspective dominates. This dominance is notable not only in the volume of Anglo‐American studies, but also in theories employed by international studies. For example, most international studies use agency theory to investigate the welfare implications of interlocks, but many countries do not use the Anglo‐American legal regime, which is the basis for agency theory. This paper expands the theoretical basis of the review to include class hegemony and resource dependence, to articulate better the causes and consequences of interlocks in the international context. The paper also extends theory by showing that institutions have an important influence on interlocks, so that the latter can be welfare‐depleting in one institutional setting, while welfare‐enhancing in another. The review concludes by discussing the implication for future research.