Reflections on Peasant Adaptation in Rural Russia at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: The Stolypin Agrarian Reforms

The Stolypin reforms in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century are usually understood as a revolutionary attempt to destroy the peasantry and peasant culture through legal coercion; in fact, they were a more moderate attempt to encourage change through voluntary procedures. In terms of both the numbers of peasants embracing them and their social impact, the reforms were also more successful than has traditionally been acknowledged. A key reason for their success was the synergistic relationship between the reform process and the deepening marketization of rural and urban economic environments in conjunction with the peasants' increasing willingness to adapt to and take advantage of the new opportunities these processes created. The reforms' positive outcomes contrast sharply with the results of current reforms in Russia and highlight the critical role of market supporting institutions in creating a supportive environment.     

Rural Poverty and the Green Revolution: The Lessons from Pakistan

This article argues that the Green Revolution in Pakistan has failed to live up to its promise of ending hunger, unemployment and poverty. An analysis of the time series data of the past four decades points to the worsening of inequalities in income and asset distribution, contributing to the poverty of one in every three Pakistanis [World Bank, 2002, 1992]. The article measures the distributional impact of the Green Revolution in three allied areas of tenurial security, rural employment and rural household income, which tended to decline correspondingly, worsening income and asset distribution. Based on this evidence, this article makes a case for equitable land distribution in rural Pakistan, where half of the population is landless [World Bank, 2002].     

Typologies of Household Risk-Taking: Contemporary Rural Russia as a Case Study

In the post-Soviet economic environment, new opportunities arose attendant with market reform. Rural households had to choose whether to continue past behaviors – to subsist – or to adapt, the latter requiring a degree of risk. This paper analyzes risk-averse and risk-taking households by addressing three main questions: (a) which households are risk-averse and which are risk-takers?; (b) what are the characteristics of those different types of households?; and (c) which factors have greatest causal properties in explaining household risk-taking? Typologies of risk-averse and risk-taking households are presented. Using survey data, statistical analysis disaggregates peasant households, showing that households with higher total income are more likely to take on risk. Land expansion is important mainly for commercially oriented households.     

Patterns of Middle School Adjustment and Ninth Grade Adaptation of Rural African American Youth: Grades and Substance Use

The transition to high school has been identified as a potentially difficult time in adolescents’ lives. Reductions in both academic and social functioning often accompany this transition. While these effects have been documented in urban youth, the move to high school has not been extensively studied in rural minority youth. Toward that end, the academic grades and substance use in ninth grade of 447 (184 male and 263 female) African-American adolescents from two rural counties in a state in the deep South were examined in relation to configurations of adaptation from sixth through eighth grade. Results indicate that individual with consistently positive patterns across middle school had higher grades and lower rates of substance use compared to individuals with persistent difficulties or those that transitioned to problem behavior. Many individuals who improved in their patterns of adaptation had relatively high grades, but also rather high rates of substance use in the ninth grade. David B. Estell is an assistant professor of educational psychology at Indiana University Bloomington. He received his PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His major research interests include peer relations and the development of aggression. Thomas W. Farmer is an associate professor of education at Pennsylvania State University and director of the National Research Center on Rural Education Support. He received his PhD in Special Education from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His major research interests include peer relations and the development of aggression in students with and without special needs. Matthew J. Irvin is a research scientist at the Center for Developmental Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His major research interests include resilience and student engagement. Jana H. Thompson is a research associate at the Center for Developmental Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include peer social relations and developmental transitions into early adolescence. Bryan C. Hutchins is a research assistant at the Center for Developmental Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a graduate student in the Educational Psychology, Measurement, and Evaluation Program at UNC. His research interests include child and adolescent social development and school based emotional and behavioral interventions and prevention programs. Erin M. McDonough is currently a doctoral candidate in School Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Emory University. As a research assistant at the Center for Developmental Science, she has been able to explore her interests in student achievement as well as rural education. Another major research interest of hers is school-based mental health.     

Peasant farming in Russia

Russia started its decollectivisation effort in earnest after the abortive 1991 coup attempt. A legislative foundation has been laid and over one‐quarter million peasant farms have been created, many through the act of exiting a collective by a farm worker, taking his or her land and asset shares along. Yet significant obstacles remain in the path of both continued peasant farm creation and the viability of those already functioning.     

贫困问题与和谐发展

经过20多年的改革和经济发展,我国的改革开放已经步入关键时期。实现国民经济的增长和社会进步的协调发展,是推动改革开放的进一步深入和促进社会主义现代化建设不断发展的重要保证。经济和社会发展过程中的一个突出问题是贫困问题,贫困不但会带来一系列严重的社会问题,而且会成为经济、社会和谐发展的巨大障碍。解决贫困问题成为和谐发展的关键所在。     

见怪不怪与其怪自败

中国的基尼系数从20世纪80年代的0 25上升到目前的0 458,并且还有进一步扩大的趋势。进入20世纪90年代中期以后,我国城市贫困的状况持续恶化,农村贫困的缓解也面临着极大的困难。即便是按照我们自己制定的非常之低的贫困线来衡量,目前城乡绝对贫困人口的数量也在1亿人上下,如果按照联合国制定的每人每天1美元来衡量,中国的贫困人口总量将达到2 5亿人的规模。     

The politics of private farming in Russia

This article seeks to explore why private farming in Russia has fared so poorly even after private farming was designated the centrepiece of Russian land reform and political capital was invested in its success. The underlying causes for the lack of success extend beyond economic and social factors. While the entire agricultural sector has been adversely affected by reform policies undertaken since 1992, private farmers have been hurt the most because they were more vulnerable. Private farmers have not been successful in defending their interests because they are politically weak, a fact that led them to seek out urban alliances whose interests differ from private farmers, and because of intra‐rural divisions that have weakened the efforts by agrarians to defend their interests.     

论城市贫困群体社会心理冲突与社会支持

亏损、破产和效益较差企业的职工已成为当今城市贫困的主体,贫富差距极易使其心态失衡,潜伏着不安定因素,对社会稳定带来威胁。只有建立起以政府为主导的社会保护与支持体系,才能维护社会的稳定与持续发展。     

Household Responses,Regional Diversity and Contemporary Agrarian Reform in Russia

This article analyses divergent patterns of responses using survey data from rural households in three region of Russia. The purpose of this article is to explore how household responses to reform differ in geographically distinct regions. Second, the goal is to compare regional response patterns using a standardized set of reform dimensions: perceptions about winners and losers, responses to land reform opportunities, the structure of household income, and the use of economic assistance networks. The article concludes that factors other than geography and climate influence responses to reform.     

Women and Poverty in Morocco: The Many Faces of Social Exclusion

This article focuses on the gender dimension of poverty in Morocco. It questions the inadequate parameters relied on in the existing studies on the subject and underlines their blindness to the complex causes and effects of poverty among the female population in the country. The article then approaches female poverty from its multidimensional perspective in order to underline the social, cultural, legal as well as economic aspects and implications of poverty. The final section of the article gives a critical reading of some of the strategies currently adopted to reduce the incidence of poverty in Morocco.     

Land Reform and the Social Origins of Private Farmers in Russia and Ukraine

This article examines land privatization in two administrative regions of Russia and Ukraine. In both regions, members of two distinct social groups were the beneficiaries of land distribution for private commercial cultivation: rural elites, and people on the margins of rural society. This double-ended distribution led to the recapitulation of Soviet forms of production. Traditional analysis of agrarian economies emphasizes actual productive capacities, while literature on property rights centres on the presumed legal categories of production. This article integrates these two theoretical concerns to understand how private property regimes affected cultivation practices and thus, participation in markets.     

Oligarchs,megafarms and land reserves: understanding land grabbing in Russia

This paper seeks to unravel the political economy of large-scale land acquisitions in post-Soviet Russia. Russia falls neither in the normal category of ‘investor’ countries, nor in the category of ‘target’ countries. Russia has large ‘land reserves’, since in the 1990s much fertile land was abandoned. We analyse how particular Russia is with regards to the common argument in favour of land acquisitions, namely that land is available, unused or even unpopulated. With rapid economic growth, capital of Russian oligarchs in search of new frontiers, and the 2002 land code allowing land sales, land began to attract investment. Land grabbing expands at a rapid pace and in some cases, it results in dispossession and little or no compensation. This paper describes different land acquisitions strategies and argues that the share-based land rights distribution during the 1990s did not provide security of land tenure to rural dwellers. Emerging rural social movements try to form countervailing powers but with limited success. Rich land owners easily escape the implementation of new laws on controlling underutilized land, while there is a danger that they enable eviction with legal measures of rural dwellers. In this sense Russia appears to be a ‘normal’ case in the land grab debate.     

Perceived Discrimination and Linguistic Adaptation of Adolescent Children of Immigrants

This study examines the relationship between perceived discrimination and self-reported proficiency in English and non-English languages among adolescent children of immigrants. Data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study was used. The average age of participants was 17.2 years; 1,494 were females and 1,332 were males. Among 2,826 participants, 61% reported Latin American and Caribbean national origin and 39% reported Asian national origin. Findings from probit regression analysis showed that adolescents who felt discriminated against by school peers were more likely to report speaking and reading English less than “very well”. On the other hand, adolescents who felt discriminated against by teachers and counselors at school or reported perceived societal discrimination were more likely to report speaking and reading English “very well.” The results suggest youth’s English, as opposed to non-English language, as the primary venue in which perceived discrimination influences youth’s linguistic adaptation. The findings further indicate that the direction and possible mechanisms of this influence vary depending on the source of perceived discrimination.     

Rural studies in France

The article examines a number of criteria by which to categorise rural households into distinct socio‐economic classes. Based on the author's sample survey of 211 households in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico, the study argues that an analysis of rural class structure must focus not only on access to the means of production and the extent of participation in the labour market but also on key structural features of domestic units such as household size, generational composition, and the division of labour by gender and age. Statistical tests strongly support the thesis that considerations of household structure sharpen and enrich the concept of class. The results also define and distinguish three main class types in the survey region ‐ commercial, subsistence, and landless households.     

贫困大学生在校行为调查

教育救助作为一项旨在普及教育的社会救助项目,对于解决当前中国的贫困问题具有十分重要的意义。通过在现行救助政策体系下的贫困大学生在校行为的系统研究,可以从受助者行为状况的角度,探讨促进贫困大学生救助工作进一步完善和深入的途径。