(In)equality and the South African Constitution

ABSTRACT

Does the South African Constitution constrain or empower government, courts and citizens in addressing systemic social and economic inequalities? This article argues that the Constitution is explicitly ‘transformative’, but is an enabling document, providing ‘scaffolding’ for political and legal activities. It is government, strong institutions and civil society that are ultimately responsible for securing its equality aspirations. Here the Constitution admits of different understandings of equality and different economic and social policy choices. This article identifies these contested meanings of equality and suggests that a liberal egalitarian/social democratic version is dominant in policy choices and the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. It illustrates this with reference to the Court’s jurisprudence on equality, and suggests that more radical and transformative interpretations remain possible. However, it concludes that we cannot escape politics, the need for good policy choices and effective implementation and enforcement.     

Forget about ‘the ideal worker’: A theoretical contribution to the debate on flexible workplace designs,work/life conflict,and opportunities for gender equality

This study integrates insights from Self-Determination Theory and Boundary Theory to present scenarios on how flexible workplace designs can trigger multiple motivational processes underlying gendered work/nonwork integration behaviors, and how these affect work/life conflict. We disentangle processes underlying work engagement and work/life conflict, explaining the paradoxical outcomes found with regard to gender inequality in terms of work/life performance, satisfaction, and health. Policy makers and organizations need an increased understanding and a reconceptualization of these issues, realizing that the ideal worker does not exist. Instead, a long-term perspective is needed in order to truly realize the potential benefits of flexible workplace designs for all stakeholders. Organizations need to take responsibility for preventing individual workers’ depletion and stimulating the regeneration of workers’ resources.     

ICT Statistics at the New Millennium—Developing Official Statistics—Measuring the Diffusion of ICT and its Impact

The paper gives a short and very rough overview of the ongoing work in the field of statistics relating to the development of information and communication technology (ICT) and its impacts on the economies and on the society as a whole. It introduces three slightly different approaches with different emphasis on describing the emergence and diffusion of ICT and the respective economic and social change. These are termed the indicators approach, the new economy approach and the intellectual capital approach. The paper also discusses the basic requirements for the establishment of a new statistical system, as well as the present obstacles and problems of this work. Finally, some remarks are presented regarding further statistical co-operation in this field.     

Changes in food provision in Russian households experiencing perestroika

The purpose of this article is to describe how households in Novgorod the Great, Russia, deal with food provision in everyday life. The study focuses on changes experienced in food provision and consumption in Russian society, in order to illustrate how households respond to the transformation towards a market economy. The study reflects women's perspective on food provision. Students from Novgorod the Great visited 105 households and asked the women in the household to answer a questionnaire. Results from the study show that in order to cope with changes in society related to economic reforms, Russian households had changed both their food consumption and food production patterns. There was no big difference between urban and rural households. Nearly all of the households were self‐sufficient in the provision of vegetables and potatoes. Many households had a ‘dacha’ (plot), where they produced most of what they needed. Among the changes experienced during recent years (i.e. during the end of the 1990s), a decade after perestroika was initiated, households mentioned the rise in food prices and the decrease of income. Households reported that they consumed less fruit and/or meat. Some households also mentioned that the quality of nourishment had decreased, thereby indicating lower general quality, lower nutrition value, or less healthy foodstuffs.     

论全面推进农村小康社会建设

我国新世纪“全面建设小康社会”的奋斗目标和纲领,是邓小平“小康”思想的进一步丰富和发展。从目前的经济发展和人们生活水平来看,离全面建设小康社会目标最远的主要是农民,全面建设小康社会的重点和难点在农村。在我国农村,全面建设农村小康社会应从政治、经济、文化和可持续发展等方面全面推进。     

我国市场经济初建时期知识经济的思考

债转股是防范金融风险和加快国有企业扭亏为盈的重要举措 ,但债转股的推行又产生了一系列的法律问题 ,本文借鉴国外的相关立法并结合我国的具体情况 ,就债转股的四个方面法律问题进行了讨论 :债转股与资本真实原则 ;债转股与公司治理结构 ;债转股与债权人利益保护 ;债转股与股     

论理性消费视角下生态和谐社会的建构

传统的消费观念和消费心理在目前资源和环境日益恶化的奈件下，已经难以为继。如何调整消费心理。进行合理消费已成为当前社会需要解决的重大课题。     

提高我国自主创新能力的思考

本文依据当代经济发达国家经济社会发展经验的总结,并从我国当前全面建设小康社会的客观需要出发,分析了提高自主创新能力在国家经济社会发展战略中的核心地位,提出构建体制基础和科技基础以及营造生态环境,是推行自主创新战略的基本措施。     

论公正及其与自由、平等的关系

尽管学术界对自由、平等和公正问题有许多研究和阐释,但较少将自由、平等与公正问题联系起来从总体上进行考察和研究,以致关于自由、平等和公正及其关系问题成了人们最说不清、道不明的问题。本文试图立足于当代人类社会现实及其走向,着重从与自由、平等相互关联的视角研究公正问题,力求纲要性地对公正及其与自由、平等之间的关系提供一些阐释和见解,最终论证这样一种基本观点:现代公正是一种综合性的价值要求,它要求社会自由和平等,也要求对自由和平等可能导致的社会问题给予适当解决。     

论高职院校学生信息素质教育

文章论述了信息素质教育的内涵和对高职院校学生实施信息素质教育的重要性及其措施。