Employment hardship and rural minorities: Theory,research, and policy

Rural racial and ethnic minorities are among the poorest of all Americans. This article situates their plight both theoretically and empirically in the context of employment hardship. Defined by access to employment and job quality, employment hardship is more prevalent among nonmetropolitan African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans than it is among either their central city counterparts or non-Hispanic whites. The strengths and limitations of both individuallevel frameworks (e.g., human capital) and macro-level theories (e.g., uneven development) in explaining the economic double jeopardy faced by rural minorities are discussed. Policy recommendations designed to ameliorate employment hardship are presented. This paper was prepared as the author’s contribution to the Rural Minorities Working Group of the Rural Sociological Society Task Force on Persistent Rural Poverty. The Working Group’s report appears as chapter 6 inPersistent Poverty in Rural America (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993).     

Women and political participation in Africa: Broadening the scope of research

The article argues for a more flexible and inclusive approach to research on women and the state in Africa and, in particular, women's political participation. Inter alia it suggests moving away from restricted Western definitions of politics, from overly aggregated notions both of “the state” and of “women,” and from too centralized a focus on government; and moving to include a greater appreciation of informal organizations, unusual modes of participation, uneven tradeoffs and even manipulated politics. Its concern is to ensure that we do not overlook or close off those narrow spaces of participation which may, by default, have been allowed to women, or which women may have fashioned for themselves.     

Beyond the rhetoric of rural development participation: How can it be done?

Although beneficiary participation occupies a prominent place in the rhetoric of rural development, attempts actually to achieve it have a much less notable record. This essay examines reasons for this disappointing history and suggests eight elements that can be used to improve the practice. Two cases are used to illustrate the potential of the approach, and ways to manage it. The authors conclude that, for participation to succeed, redistributing power must be accompanied by the simultaneous building of local capabilities.     

农村家族创业研究:文献评述与研究展望

中国农村创业主要是利用家庭、亲戚与社区资源,以家庭和家族为基础进行的创业,其背景是农村社区环境和农业产业特性.现有家族创业研究有两个基本视角:家族如何作用于创业过程,家族涉入是否构成新创企业或公司创业的竞争优势来源.总体来看,国内农村创业研究尚处于起步阶段,主要集中在农村创业的情境条件和农民创业方面,缺乏对于农村社区环境和农业产业特性的深入研究.在文献分析基础上,本文提出了中国农村(家族)创业研究的理论框架和进一步研究的方向,认为引入情境条件和中介作用机理将有助于建立本土化的家族创业理论.     

Community participation and health: Towards the study of human resources in the development of local health care

Thts article begins with the observation that community participation in health Involves the activation of local material and human resources. It follows from this that the study of local resources is essential in planning community health care. With this in mind, the article discusses family health care as a key human resource in handling disease. With a case study from rural Transkei, the article illustrates the role and functions of family health care. Finally, family health care is assessed as a potentially viable unit for stimulating community participation in local health and health care.     

Dependency and Underdevelopment: The Limits of Structural Adjustment Programmes and Towards a Pro-Active State-Led Development Strategy

Abstract: This essay discusses the limits to structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) resulting from external and internal constraints with special reference to the development task that confronts African countries. It is argued that while the efficiency preconditions of SAPs are legitimate for restoring static and short term efficiency, and as general guideposts for economic policy, SAPs as such, arc not adequate to initiate the process of economic development. The argument is made, rather, that the nature of external and internal constraints to structural transformation confronting African countries is such that domestic and global market forces, on their own, are only likely to reinforce enclave and dependent development which only results in the marginalisation of African countries in the global economy, and the marginalisation of the majority of the labour force in the domestic economy. It is contended that, in order to resolve the various structural constraints, conscious development strategies have to be devised with active government involvement to direct the market toward activities that upgrade African economies in the international hierarchy of specialisation and that ensure the participation of the majority of the populace in productive activities. The essay proceeds to elaborate an alternative strategy to SAPs based on a generalisation of the experience of the Newly Industrialising Countries (NICs) which entails a hand-in-glove partnership between the state and domestic and foreign entrepreneurs. In this respect, it is argued that simultaneous agrarian and industrialisation strategies would be needed to jump-start African economies onto a path of endogenous savings and investment mobilisation and of accumulative virtuous circle of growth and development. Such strategies, it is argued, have to be consciously devised with long term goals in mind, and have to entail the full participation of all the social partners in the society through formalised processes of consultations. The essay in effect calls for dirigist strategies of one degree or another, depending on specific country circumstances, as the only sure way to initiate the process of economic development under current global conditions in which market forces are biased in favour of the already developed. Résumé: Cet essai analyse les limites des programmes d'ajustement structural (PAS) liées aux contraintes externes et internes, en accordant une attention spéciale à l'oeuvre de développement à laquelle les pays africains doivent s'atteler. II avance que si les conditions posées par les PAS sont légitimes pour rétablir l'efficacité statique et à court terme, et pour servir de principes directeurs pour la politique économique, les PAS ne suffisent pas en eux-mêmes pour enclencher le processus de développement économique. Les obstacles aussi bien internes qu'externes à la transformation que doivent surmonter les pays africains sont tels que les forces du marché intérieur et mondial, par leur seule action, ne peuvent que renforcer le développement enclavé et dépendant conduisant immanquablement à la marginalisation des pays africains sur la scène économique internationale et à la marginalisation de la population active dans l'économie nationale. II est soutenu que, pour lever les différentes contraintes d'ordre structurel, il faut mettre au point des stratégies hardies de développement visant à orienter le marché vers des activités de nature à améliorer la place des économies africaines dans la hiérarchic Internationale de spécialisation et à assurer la participation de la majorité de la population aux activités productives. L'essai développe une stratégic de rechange axée sur la généralisation de l'expérience des nouvcaux pays industriels (NPI) qui nécessite un partenariat harmonieux entre l'Etat d'une part et les entrepreneurs nationaux et étrangers d'autre part. A cet égard, il est dit que des stratégies agraires et industrielles concomitantes seraient de mise pour lancer les économies africaines sur la voie de la mobilisation endogène de l'épargne et de l'investissement ainsi que du cercle vertueux cumulatif de la croissance et du développement. De telles stratégies doivent avoir résolument à l'esprit les objectifs à long terme et favoriser la pleine participation de tous les partenaires sociaux à la vie nationale grâce à un processus formel de consultations. L'essai préconise, en fait, des stratégies dirigistes à divers degrés suivant les conditions spécifiques aux différents pays comme unique moyen sûr d'enelencher le développement économique, compte tenu de la situation internationale actuelle qui favorise le monde déjà développé.     

Squatters,collective action,and participation: Learning from Lusaka

There are few large self-help housing projects that endeavour to have real squatter participation in the decision-making processes. Because of the substantial community building skills of the Zambians involved, the Lusaka Housing Project in Zambia may be a worthwhile example of what can be done. Utilizing the rational-actor model, this article identifies the core obstacles to collective action. Where collective action is necessary to deal with a problem, collective effort will rarely be rational and, hence, will rarely take place. If and when it does occur, it means increased leverage. At another level, therefore, this project raises a paradox. There is an intricate interdependence between rural and urban sectors in national development. Increased leverage for previously powerless urban squatters can add to the pressures for an urban bias in public expenditures and have negative consequences for rural development. If, however, there is no increased leverage, then one must question the reality of the participation.     

Perspectives on migration research: a review of theory,evidence, methodology and research priorities

The author presents a general review of migration and urbanization in developing countries     

Development and structural change in rural Egypt, 1952 to 1982

This study evaluates the changes which have occurred in rural Egypt since 1952 in terms of a growth-conscious, poverty-oriented definition of development. According to the study, development requires improvements in three criteria over time: poverty, inequality and productivity (land and labor). Using a variety of empirical data, the study demonstrates that each of these criteria has either stabilized or improved in rural Egypt since 1952. The study therefore concludes that ’development’ has indeed taken place in the Egyptian countryside. However, the low rate of qualitative structural change in the basic factors of production (land and labor) raises questions about the prospects for such development in the future.     

Active citizen's income, unconditional income and participation under imperfect competition: a welfare analysis

Various types of basic income schemes are considered to compensatethe allocative inefficiencies induced by unemployment benefits.A dynamic general equilibrium model of a unionised economy isdeveloped in which participation to the formal labour marketis endogenous and the budget of the State has to balance. Itis shown that basic income schemes reduce the equilibrium unemploymentrate. Assuming that job-search is costly to monitor, the normativeanalysis suggests that only the active population should beeligible to the basic income. Introducing such an ‘activecitizen’s income’ can be a Pareto-improving reform.     

Inner hybridity in the city: Toward a critique of multiculturalism

Muddled as an idea and flawed as a public policy, multiculturalism in Canada advocates conformity to a unitary culture in the public place and tolerance of diverse cultures in the private place. This tolerance of cultural heterogeneity in the sphere of the intimate is often upheld as a defining characteristic of Canadian society. Yet multiculturalism is not without criticisms. For one, multiculturalism is at odds with the desire of the children and grandchildren of the Chinese immigrants in Canada to adapt themselves to their host society, thus transforming themselves as well as the larger society. A multicultural policy that continues to hark back to the past turns a blind eye to the fierce generation and gender politics within the Chinese family. Neither does the multicultural policy square well with a more progressive social theory of self, identity, and culture that is cognizant of the duality of the psychological make‐up of human beings: that one looks backward and forward, committed to preserving roots of the past and exploring routes to the future. As such, the Canadian multicultural policy suffers in a two‐fold way: empirical and theoretical. A possible way out is to pursue a Hegelian dialectics that sees culture as an aftermath of a collision of dissimilar cultures, a kind of forced entanglement of things different We need a new urban social theory that sees integration, fusion, and hybridization—not assimilation, and not cultural pluralism—as possible and desirable outcomes. This is a completely different vision of society altogether, a kind of Utopia. We need a public policy that sees a distinct promise of the city in designing institutions and public spaces that promote hybridism in the mind, an inner deliberation, a mental turmoil—which is not afraid of confronting modern life's many moments of contradictions, ironies and paradoxes.     

The Botswana Development Corporation: Divestiture policy and citizen participation in the private sector

The Botswana Development Corporation, Botswana's most important agency for industrial and commercial development, assists in the development of viable businesses, with the emphasis on profit‐making and earning acceptable returns on investment. Its policy is to divest from mature and successful ventures, ‐with the aim of raising capital for future investment, encouraging diversification and competition, and promoting citizen participation in private business ventures. The article considers the implementation of the policy with regard to two brewery companies. Its assessment is that the brewery divestments have had a positive but limited effect on economic participation by citizens and it concludes by suggesting policy and strategy reforms that would ensure sustainable private sector development.     

Internalisation as a general theory of foreign direct investment: A critique

Conclusions The theory of internalisation does provide an explanation of certain types of FDI activities by MNEs. In particular, there are three areas where internalisation appears to provide an explanation of FDI as a specific form of international involvement by the MNE: these entail vertical integration, transfer pricing and quality control [Buckley, Casson, 1976; Casson, 1983].     

On the post-structuralist critique of development: a view from north-west Namibia

The Namibian government's long-standing plan to dam the Kunene River has generated heated discussion on a number of development issues, both within and outside the country. This article examines the discourses of the various groupings in the so-called Epupa debate by paying special attention to the ways they represent ‘development’, the project and the affected community; and it explores aspects of agency by focusing on Himba people's attempts to assert opposition to the project. The Epupa case also affords us the opportunity to evaluate aspects of the post-structuralist critique of development. The article suggests that the currently fashionable critique offers a simplistic interpretation of the development process and reveals the need for a more thorough (and insightful) scholarly engagement with development.