Competitive Global Fruit Export Markets: Marketing Intermediaries and Impacts on Small-Scale Growers in Chile

Abstract — This paper explores the implications of increased competition in global fruit markets for the Chilean small-grower sector. Stagnation in the growth trajectory of such exports has precipitated significant changes in the structure and strategy of the private fruit export company sector. It is proposed that this restructuring discriminates against small growers, whose position within the market has become increasingly vulnerable. To support this idea, evidence obtained from a field study of small-scale grape growers operating in the locality of El Palqui, Region IV is presented. It is argued that increased vulnerability is not simply a function of the inefficiency of diminutive scale per se. Rather, the nature of economic power relations, which tilt heavily in the favour of export companies, form an important explanatory factor in the increasing rate of failure among the fruit growing parceleros. It is argued that the implications of the failure among small growers who have already 'reconverted' is of particular importance. It is proposed that steps re-dress structural imbalances in the market could precipitate productive gains, increase the potential success of small growers attempting to 'reconvert' to fruit production and improve rural equity. If applied to the small scale fruit sector as a whole such moves could help sustain Chile's fruit export sector — an objective which can be seen as crucial to Chile's economic well-being. In this way the argument of free-market purists — that rural economic differentiation which has taken place to date is inevitable and desirable — is challenged.     

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH THEFT,MARIJUANA USE,DEPRESSION, AND POOR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE*

Explanations for the fact that crime tends to run in families have focused on the deprived social backgrounds of criminal parents, methods of child‐rearing, modeling processes, and genetic mechanisms. However, parental involvement in the criminal justice system itself also might contribute to the intergenerational transmission of crime and have other adverse effects on children's well‐being. We investigated the development of youth problem behavior in relation to parental arrest, conviction, and incarceration in the youngest and oldest samples of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a longitudinal survey of 1,009 inner‐city boys. Parental arrest and conviction without incarceration did not predict the development of youth problem behavior. Parental incarceration was not associated with increases in marijuana use, depression, or poor academic performance. However, boys experiencing parental incarceration showed greater increases in theft compared with a control group matched on propensity scores. The association between parental incarceration and youth theft was stronger for White youth than for Black youth. Parenting and peer relations after parental incarceration explained about half of its effects on youth theft. Because the effects of parental incarceration were specific to youth theft, labeling and stigma processes might be particularly important for understanding the consequences of parental incarceration for children.     

The Penetration of Social Science into Legal Culture

Over the past 75 years, social science references in court decisions have changed from an anonymous footnote to an appendix to a brief ( Muller v. Oregon , 1908) to extensive discussion of social science methods and results to changing a rule of law based on social science propositions ( Hovey v. Superior Court , 1980). The acceptance of social science may be traced in state court decisions as well as in Supreme Court cases. The academic field of law has, since its entrance into the university, identified itself with the rhetoric, if not the model of science. Although earlier attempts to introduce social science into law were relatively unsuccessful, there is now a sufficient acceptance and a sufficient professional infrastructure to predict a growing influence of social science in law.     

The Role of Special Master in Institutional Reform Litigation: A Case Study

Wuori v Zitnay (1975), an institutional reform case, came to a successful resolution within a relatively few years. This case study describes the change process from the perspective of the special master and reports on devices used to sustain the changes after the court relinquished active supervision. The case study describes the functioning of masters in other cases to show the comparability of the processes. The special master undertakes change agent activities which are not in keeping with the model of a quasi-judicial role. The master preserves the court's legitimacy by providing a buffer which allows the court to maintain a neutral stance when implementation problems are brought to its attention.