Family planning,gender differences and infant mortality: evidence from Uttar Pradesh,India

This paper modeled the proximate determinants of infant survival using the National Family Health Survey data on 11,500 women from the most populous Indian state Uttar Pradesh in the period 1982–1992. A methodological framework was developed for analyzing the inter-relationships between high fertility and infant mortality, gender differences in mortality, and for modeling the effects of health care and family planning variables. Probit models were estimated by maximum likelihood taking into account simultaneity of regressors and unobserved household differences. The proximate determinants of infant survival included maternal education and age at first birth, birth interval, the number of children before family planning was first used, maternal tetanus vaccination, and child's vaccinations. Indicator variables for a boy (girl) born at a birth order higher than the “ideal” number showed that unwanted births exacerbated female mortality.     

The Rise of Ethnicity under China's Market Reforms

This article investigates the dynamic relationship between economic development and the identification of ethnic minorities and argues that identification of China's ethnic minorities manifests itself at various levels. At the national level, the introduction of market mechanisms and economic growth initiatives have been concentrated predominantly in the coastal areas and metropolises, and are thus increasingly distant from ethnic minorities, a disproportionate majority of which reside in the western parts of the country. This growing regional disparity has placed ethnic regions and populations in a distinctly unfavourable position in terms of economic engagement and development. Regional development in the ethnic‐minority homelands has been characterized by the representation and reinvention of ethnic cultural traditions and the production of cultural economies. Unequal economic growth has resulted in a massive migration of ethnic minorities to the cities. Simultaneously, urban development has reinforced ethnic identity, particularly through urban labour‐market development. Urban and regional development has, in turn, led to the production, activation and magnification of ethnic identity at individual and group levels.     

文化规划主导下的西方城市旧工业区的复兴

针对城市旧工业区更新发展中存在的物质环境更新与经济社会发展不平衡、局部地区更新与地区整体发展不平衡的问题,结合当前文化需求不断提高的国民经济发展阶段,探讨了文化规划的内涵及其对旧工业区再生的意义,提出以文化规划为主导进行旧工业区再开发的主张,并结合实例分析了文化规划主导下的以发展文化产业为特征的经济目标引导型、以引入文化事件塑造城市品牌为特征的社会发展引导型和以建设标志性文化设施为特征的物质环境目标引导型三种旧工业区的再生类型。     

城镇化背景下的民族旅游社区文化生态环境保护研究

“十一五”期间,我国民族旅游社区经济社会发展成为一大亮点,有力地带动了周围乡村及民族区域经济的发展,与此同时,民族旅游社区文化生态环境又面临着巨大的挑战.在“十二五”时期,尤其是在我国城镇化日趋明显的总体形势下,民族旅游社区如何应对内外部压力,有效保护与传承自身优秀传统文化,以促进民族旅游社区新一轮经济社会发展将是我们...     

Analysing Place and Place‐making: Urbanization in Suburban Oslo

Despite developments within planning theory challenging the ideal of the rational master plan it may be argued that there is still use for the production of knowledge through analysis in planning. However, the cultural complexity of today's planning contexts, and a move towards governance and entrepreneurial policies, makes it difficult to make places, to achieve social welfare and sustainability. Traditionally, the analysis of places has been done by architects and planners focusing on physical form, having an essentialist perspective of place resembling the theory of genius loci. In Norway, the planning authorities refined this methodology in the 1990s. This approach is, however, not in tune with a progressive view of places as multiple and dynamic social constructions, and may be accused of ‘symbolic violence’. If one is to take this view seriously and still be able to make plans, planning must also be based on other types of knowledge. In this article I argue for a socio‐cultural approach to reveal social representations and practices that make a place. I use the case of place‐making in Sandvika, a suburban ‘minicity’ outside Oslo, as an example of how a constructivist understanding differs from and may supplement an essentialist approach.     

再看“计划”与“经济”

在当时的历史条件和环境的作用下,新中国建立后选择了计划经济模式。计划经济时代成为新中国社会经济发展一个不可逾越的历史阶段,构成了中国后来一系列社会经济变革发展的历史前提。但是不可否认,即使是再科学的理性计划体制,也会因为自身的种种局限与弊端而不得不进行改革,更何况中国当时实行的只能算是"非理性的命令经济"。改革不可避免,但绝非是对"计划"的完全抛弃,我们可以从"计划经济"走向"经济计划"。     

Bricolage in the urban cultural sector: the case of Bradford city of film

Abstract

This article discusses bricolage in the context of a social enterprise for urban development. It focuses on the case of BDK Limited, and discusses how this organisation contributes to the economic and social development of the British city of Bradford by promoting city-wide film-based cultural consumption and cultural pride. This research used semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documentary analysis to examine this organisation’s different modes of material and ideational bricolage. The entrepreneurs serve as material bricoleurs as they transform the residuals of the city’s industrial past from materials of no use and reminders of backwardness to sites for cultural consumption. This paper also identifies patterns of ideational bricolage. In Bradford, ethnic diversity has long been discursively associated with conflicts and backwardness by local businesses, potential investors, the media and even urban social entrepreneurs themselves. However, in this case study, diversity is re-perceived as a cultural asset for urban tourism and related industries.     

Measuring health expenditures and outcomes in saarc region: health is a luxury?

The objective of the study is to investigate the link between health care expenditures (HCE), economic growth and health outcomes (i.e., life expectancy (LE), infant mortality and the share of elderly people) for a panel of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries; namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; over the period of 1995–2010. The developed panel cointegration technique is employed for analysis of short and long-run relationship between the variables. The results of panel cointegration found that there is a long-run relationship between health expenditures, economic growth and health outcomes in SAARC region. The estimated results indicate that both, LE and share of elderly people in population have a negative relationship related to the HCEs which signifies that HCEs are luxury goods in SAARC countries. The burden of aging population can be lowered by provision of quality health services and utilization of their experience and knowledge in dynamics of economic development forecasting. Furthermore, there is no significant relationship found between infant mortality rate (IMR) and HCEs which implies that HCEs do not provide sufficient benefits to reduce infant mortality. Similarly, HCEs are not enough in generating GDP, lowering IMR and increasing LE in SAARC region. The implementation of appropriate tax reform, stable food prices and trade promotion for low transaction cost medical equipment is required for the SAARC region.     

空间植入:大事件对城市社会空间演化的影响研究——以昆明为例

以99昆明世博会为例,探索了大事件对城市社会空间演化的影响。文章认为,随着经济的改革,世博会植入前昆明市的社会结构已经分化,但由于城市物质空间重构进展缓慢,以及有关制度性因素的制约,变迁的社会结构并未充分完成空间化过程。1995年底昆明世博会的植入,加快了城市物质空间的重构,在城市文化与制度变迁的耦合下,推动了前阶段社会结构变迁的持续空间化,也开启了同期社会结构变迁的快速空间化进程。昆明世博会的成功举办也深刻地影响了城市的社会结构,后续社会空间演化至少部分可以解释为世博会的影响。     

Ethnic Solidarity and Black Business

A bstract This paper examines the development of a separate economic niche for black entrepreneurs in Chicago's ethnic beauty aids industry. It argues that this economic niche developed in response to advantages black entrepreneurs had in mobilizing ethnic resources in the black community. The paper's findings lend support to general theoretical arguments stating that ethnicity, race, and other symbols for identity function as low-cost screening devices for evaluating the likelihood that trading partners will honor economic contracts, particularly in a market setting where formal market mechanisms are not fully developed. The findings are based on a series of in-person interviews with Korean, Jewish and black distributors of ethnic beauty aids in Chicago. Although this paper focuses on a single market niche, its conclusions indicate that greater attention needs to be paid to the effects of social, political, economic and structural factors on minority business development.     

Networks,Regional Development and Democratic Control

The networking literature has burgeoned in recent years within a complex cross‐disciplinary field and particularly in economic geography and regional planning. Networks have been analysed both as organizational expressions of globalization, linked to claims about the rise of the network society, and as territorial and cultural systems of exchange. Concepts of networks and networking have been accepted as positive, and sometimes also as progressive or radical within both social science and policy discourses. In this article we analyse regionally embedded economic networks and the EU’s urban and regional policy networks as a new mode of administration, at a variety of spatial scales. Little attention has been paid to the theoretical implications of using the concept of network as a social metaphor or to the operation of actually existing networks, as a result of conceptualizing networks in ways that deny their constitutive inequalities, asymmetries and democratic deficits. This darker side has been pushed into the shadows by the rhetorical emphasis on the benefits claimed for networked organizational forms.     

Employment equity,human resource development and institution building in South Africa

The process of economic and social reconstruction in South Africa (SA) has harnessed capital, organized labour and state agencies in emergent tripartite macro-policy forums; in particular, the National Economic Development and Labour Commission. Public policy on human resource development, affirmative action and diversity issues is increasingly an outcome of negotiations in these structures. However, although significant legislative developments on these issues are envisaged in the near future, institutional adaptation has not been adequately researched. The apartheid state was constructed on the ideological basis of ethnic fragmentation rationalized by ethnic and cultural diversity. At the same time, diversity is a social reality in building common national and organizational goals, symbols and identity.

This paper discusses structural and labour market factors associated with the process of employment equity and diversity management in South African organizations. A research project, the Breakwater Monitor, at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, has established a national database covering some one million employees, which enables benchmarking of company and sectoral practices in regard to affirmative action, diversity policy, training and development and skills formation. The project has also begun to track diversity representation at all levels across major sectors longitudinally, using a common job evaluation standard for comparability. The project considers both quantitative and qualitative factors in human resource development. Findings from this project are presented and discussed in the context of human resource development.     

Planning with great uncertainty: A review and case study of the safe drinking water controversy

Since 1974, monitoring the water for dangerous contaminants and judging the impact of low levels of contamination on human health have become highly controversial environmental planning issues in the United States. This paper overviews the chemical, ecological correlation, and case control literatures to establish a baseline and then focuses on New Jersey, the state with the highest cancer mortality rates in the United States from 1950 to 1969, for a case study. While estimates of cancer incidence from consuming contaminated water are made, the scientific results are inconclusive. When combined with economic and political questions, the overall result is to highlight an issue frought with uncertainty presenting serious dilemmas for scientific planning.     

Opportunity, Subculture and the Economic Performance of Urban Ethnic Groups

A bstract . An attempt is made to account for age-specific differences in economic performance among 14 ethnic groups living in the nation's nine largest metropolitan areas, by regression analysis of 1950 U.S. Census data. A large proportion of the variance in occupational structure, income, unemployment, and labor force status is accounted for by variations in urban opportunities, relative group size and the members' educational attainment. With the specified economic factors held constant, ethnic factors—nationality and nativity—are associated with residual differences in economic performance. These residual ethnic influences as well as ethnic differences in marital, educational, and labor force status suggest that differences in ethnic subculture have important economic consequences.     

中外少数民族经济发展模式比较研究

不同国家由于历史的不同,其国内民族结构也是不一样的,由此导致少数民族经济发展模式的不同。少数民族经济发展是影响民族内涵的一个重要诱因。纵观民族国家发展史,中国的少数民族经济发展模式与其他国家存在明显的不同。国外一般是强调地域而忽视民族,以地区代替民族;中国则不同,我们是先组成了多元的国家,然后通过一体的精神文化逐渐培育出了统一的中华民族,借由各民族之间的经济发展实现文化交融,最终形成中华民族共同体意识。经济动因在中国少数民族经济发展模式形成过程中,一直发挥着至关重要的作用。     

Self-employment of immigrants and natives in Sweden – a multilevel analysis

Recent research suggests that self-employment among immigrants is due to a combination of multiple situational, cultural and institutional factors, all acting together. Using multilevel regression and unique data on the entire population of Sweden for the year 2007, this study attempts to quantify the relative importance for the self-employed of embeddedness in ethnic contexts (country of birth) and regional business and public regulatory frameworks (labour market areas). This information indicates whether the layers under consideration are valid constructs of the surroundings that influence individual self-employment. The results show that 10% (women) and 8% (men) of the total variation in individual differences in self-employment can be attributed to the country of birth. When labour market areas are included in the analyses, the share of the total variation increases to 14% for women and 12% for men. The results show that the ethnic context and the economic environment play a minor role in understanding individual differences in self-employment levels. The results can have important implications when planning interventions or other actions focusing on self-employment as public measures to promote self-employment often are based on geographic areas and ethnic contexts.     

Managing the locals: employee relations in South Asian restaurants

This paper examines the management of employee relations in South Asian firms in the UK independent restaurant sector. Key working practices pertaining to the employment relationship are examined in a particular socio-economic and spatial context. Acknowledging such contexts facilitates an appreciation of how ethnicity and employment relations interact, rather than abstracting culture from the material context in which it operates. Consistent with this analytic focus, a mixed embeddedness perspective (Kloosterman et al. 1999) is adopted which recognizes the importance of both economic and social aspects of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. A qualitative methodology, drawing upon 23 case histories (involving both employer and employee perspectives) is deployed. The indications from this research suggest that the employment relationship is an outcome of the fluid interaction of social, economic and geographical contexts. This renders problematic both culturalist and purely economic approaches to ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Future research should carefully consider how the employment relationship is influenced by its embeddedness within specific communities.     

Dynamic redistribution of mitigation resources during influenza pandemics

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has pointed out that the existing pandemic mitigation models lack the dynamic decision support capability. In this paper, we present a simulation optimization model to generate dynamic strategies for distribution of limited mitigation resources, such as vaccines and antivirals, over a network of regional outbreaks. The model has the capability to redistribute the resources remaining from previous allocations in response to changes in the pandemic progress. The model strives to minimize the impact of ongoing outbreaks and the expected impact of potential outbreaks, considering measures of morbidity, mortality, and social distancing, translated into the societal and economic costs of lost productivity and medical services. The model is implemented on a simulated H5N1 outbreak involving four counties in the state of Florida, U.S. with over four million inhabitants. The performance of our strategy is compared to that of a myopic distribution strategy. Sensitivity analysis is performed to assess the impact of variability of some critical factors on policy performance. The methodology is intended to support public health policy on effective distribution of limited mitigation resources.     

Constructing Cityscapes: Locality,Materiality and Territoriality on the Urban Construction Site in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,Northwest China

Urbanization in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Northwest China) has gained momentum in the last three decades. The Chinese government supports infrastructure development in this border region and construction sites have been emerging everywhere. Often framed as a planned nation‐state project of sinicization from above, from an ethnographic perspective infrastructure development involves a much more diverse set of actors and their different motives. The construction sector offers a gateway for global and national architectural designs and manpower to enter the making of local cityscapes. Besides engaging with the political economy of construction activities, this article outlines the meaning of the construction site as a place where social and ethnic senses of locality are negotiated. The data show that many of the economic, material, social and design mobilities on the construction site in Xinjiang extend eastwards to the rest of China rather than to Central Asian countries which are geographically much closer. Power relations and ethnic issues become interwoven into the construction of new cityscapes. In particular, the domination of Han actors in the planning and implementation of construction projects shapes not only the materiality of the built environment but also related senses of locality.     

Distribution of income and expenditures across nations

This paper outlines a premise that state social and economic planning in recent decades were the outgrowth of Marxist doctrine, even though Marxism as an economic system failed to materialize. The paper addresses the rise of the New Left with its doctrine of radical economics and its influence for state planning. For this purpose, the paper compares 126 countries grouped by income distribution and income inequality. The findings indicate that richer economies perform better than economies of lesser income in the distribution and equality of income.