(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.     

Application of collective knowledge diffusion in a social network environment

ABSTRACT

We present a group dynamics model that shows knowledge integration as a process occurring over time. As each individual in the group contact others, his own knowledge changes, and over time the collective knowledge is obtained. This allows modeling knowledge diffusion in a social network and while the models presented in this paper are not competitive in that area, they approach the problem from previously unconsidered direction. We test the behavior of the model in a multi-agent simulation and we test a simple advertisement campaign in a social network. We provide discussion of elements needed for making model more competitive.     

Social Comparisons in Ultimatum Bargaining

Experiments are used to examine the effects of social comparisons in ultimatum bargaining. We inform responders about the average offer before they decide whether to accept or reject their specific offer. This significantly increases offers and offer‐specific rejection probabilities. For comparison, we consider another change in informational conditions: telling responders the total pie is $30—ex ante it was either $15 or $30—affects offers and rejection probabilities roughly as much. Our results are consistent with people’s dislike for deviations from the norm of equity but inconsistent with fairness theories, where people dislike income disparity between themselves and their referents.     

我国救济性投资的现状、问题及对策

我国救济性投资的救济力度远远低于救济需求,在社会救济意识、救济管理、资金来源、投资形式等方面存在不足,投资增长缓慢,且存在城乡失衡和地区失衡.应创新公民的社会保障观念和思维模式,建立健全救济性投资的管理机制,着力解决救济性投资的不平衡问题,并且投资形式要向着多元化、多层次的方向发展.     

对陕西省农村社会养老保险供求主体的分析与政府作用研究

陕西是西部的农业大省,农村社会养老保险制度发展缓慢,农村养老保险市场需要寻找供需双方的均衡点,政府作为制度的提供者和政策的制定者,必须在农村社会养老保险制度建立和运营中明确思路,发挥主导作用,以保证陕西省农村养老保险健康、有序地发展。     

研究生就业形势及策略

自1999年研究生大规模扩招以来,毕业生数量激增,研究生“天之骄子”的地位不复存在,如何有效面对就业形势,转变就业观念,提高就业策略是本文探讨的主要内容。     

浅析我国服务业的库存问题及应对策略

服务业在整个经济中的地位是衡量一国经济结构合理程度、国际竞争力强弱、经济社会发展协调水平等的重要评判指标之一。与中国经济快速持续发展相比,服务业发展落后的短腿现象却日益突出,而服务业的库存管理问题更是落后。     

农民工城乡迁移个人机会成本的构成及定量分析

农民工城乡迁移的个人机会成本可归纳为经济性个人机会成本、社会性个人机会成本和政治性个人机会成本三大类，基于笔者主持的1012名城乡迁移农民工的问卷调查，文章分析了这三类个人机会成本各自的构成，并对它们进行了定量分析。     

Benefits and barriers of telework: perception differences of human resources managers according to company's operations strategy

Telework as an integration of Information and Telecommunication Technologies with Human Resources management, means a new job organisation paradigm for companies working in the New Economy. However there are very few empirical studies that have analysed the perception differences of telework benefits and barriers in industrial and service companies. This paper contributes with empirical data to the relationship between the use of telework techniques and the implementation of this new work organisation with the company's operations strategy. The paper uses data from Spanish companies to test the relationship between innovation, employee training, and other production strategy performance parameters with the feasibility of telework adoption.