What do Household Surveys Really Tell Us about Risk,Shocks, and Risk Management in the Developing World?

We report on a project to explore empirical patterns in risk, shocks and risk management using recent household surveys with risk modules from 16 different developing countries. Natural disasters, health shocks, economic shocks, and asset loss are the most commonly reported types of shocks and, especially for the poor, often result in ‘bad’ coping responses that may perpetuate vulnerability. The information culled from these survey modules falls short of expectations in several ways.     

Las reformas políticas en el gobierno de Sebastián Piñera Chile, 2010-2013

This paper analyzes political reforms carried out by Sebastián Piñera’s government in Chile. Te reforms considered are those that his Coalition for Change campaigned on as part of the presidential and legislative elections in 2009. Tese reforms promised an improvement in the quality of democracy, and promised its consolidation, including increased political participation, in order to counter the most common criticisms of institutions of representation. Throughout this process, the government showed little receptivity to proposals coming from other sectors, both of the ruling coalition and the opposition; furthermore, it paid scant attention to growing citizen protests and their demands voiced since his second year of government. Te information analyzed conveys little progress in decentralization and in the importance that players with veto powers were gaining within the ruling coalition.     

Historic Leap of Education in Tibet ——Celebrating the 60 Anniversary of Tibet’s peaceful liberation

China is a unified multiethnic nation. Tibet has since ancient times been an inalienable part of China. Speeding up economic and social de-     

Why and How the CPC Works in China

Why and How the CPC Works in China,edited by Xie Chuntao,a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC,records how the Communist Party of China established the People’s Republic and began the construction of a modern socialist country.This time span is     

La constitucionalización del derecho en méxico

In this essay I defend the idea that the mexican legal order has been partially constitutionalized since the amendment to the first article of the Constitution in june 2011. I argue that some conditions of a constitutionalized legal system can be found in this rule. An analysis of those conditions is carried out through the work and in the end I discuss the matter of whether this constitutional change amounts to a new legal paradigm.     

Watch the Sparks Fly in Yuxian!

Hinterland rural towns are the last sanctuaries of old traditions, best honored at the Chinese New Year.YUXIAN in northwestern Hebei Province is a three-hour drive from Beijing.     

Personal and Vicarious Experience with the Criminal Justice System as a Predictor of Punitive Sentencing Attitudes

This study examined the impact of prior personal or vicarious experience with the criminal justice system on sentencing attitudes. Existing research on sentencing attitudes has examined factors such as race, gender, income level, political affiliation, and education level, but few research studies have focused on actual contact with the criminal justice system and its influence on perceptions of sentencing as either too harsh or too lenient. The current study utilized data collected by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Over 1,500 respondents were surveyed nationwide in 2006 regarding sentencing attitudes. Logistic regression analysis was utilized to assess the impact of factors of interest on sentencing attitudes. Results indicated that individuals who had been charged with a crime (personal experience), or who had an immediate relative or close friend who had been charged (vicarious experience), were more likely to perceive the criminal justice system as too harsh, regardless of race/ethnicity.     

inhabiting or occupying the web?: virtual communities and feminist cyberactivism in online Spanish feminist theory and praxis

This article examines the relationships between gender and technology in Spanish feminist praxis online and argues that different perspectives on online feminist community-building offer distinct responses to cyberactivism, which is considered central to sustaining efforts for social change. To ascertain whether Spanish virtual communities and cyberactivism have the potential to address the challenges posed by the relations between gender and technology, we analyse feminist scholar Remedios Zafra's theoretical proposals, and the different ways in which this theory intersects with the cyberactivism put forth by two feminist web portals, Ciudad de Mujeres and Mujeres en Red. We will discuss to what degree particular Spanish feminist theory and practice online adapts to or challenges utopianism regarding the liberating potential of technology. We will also examine how, in the face of critical arguments about such liberatory possibilities, two options present themselves for women's effective use of technology: inhabiting or occupying the web through the construction of feminist communities online.