Towards a Feminization of Agricultural Labour in Northwest Syria

Smallholdings in the rural areas of northwest Syria are a result of land fragmentation that is due to inheritance. Because of rapid population growth combined with land fragmentation, these smallholdings are increasing and cannot sustain the rural households whose sizes and needs are also increasing rapidly This situation has led to increasing numbers of males migrating to urban areas in Syria and to neighbouring countries looking for work opportunities. In addition, recent agricultural intensification trends seem to have led to the emergence of a waged labour force which, in the absence of male workers owing to significant rates of migration, is now predominantly female. Agricultural labour use depends upon household characteristics and resources (type of labour used, gender of labour waged/exchanged/familial). The article attempts to present a comprehensive analysis of household labour use in distinctive farming systems in one region of Syria that has undergone great change in recent decades, and examines the changes in the composition of the agricultural labour force. Secondary information, rapid ural appraisals and formal farm surveys were used to gather information on the households in a study area where different farming systems coexist. The results show that the decrease in landholding size, the resulting male migration, and land intensification have resulted in the expansion offemale labour in agriculturalproduction, which has been termed in this research a 'feminization of agricultural labour'. This suggests that agricultural research and extension services will have to work more with women farmers and farm workers, seek their wisdom and involve them in technology and transfer. This is not easy in conservative societies but requires research and extension institutions to take this reality into consideration in their programmes.     

The Purse Strings and the Policy Process: Bureaucratic Shaping of Industry Policy Capacity after 1945

Much literature in public administration debates the role of the public servant in the policy-making process. Some literature acknowledges an integral role of the public servant in the process. However, this role often remains obscure, due to being couched in abstract terms. The hierarchical structuring of responsibilities and power within bureaucracies imparts the capacity for differential influence. This paper provides a case study of the role of the Public Service Board (power over staffing) and the Australian federal Treasury (power over the purse) in the shaping of the bureaucratic structure. The case study centres on the industry policy bureaucracy in the volatile decade after World War II. In shaping the bureaucratic capacity, the Board and the Treasury exerted a discretionary influence on the policy process itself.     

The law of value in Ricardo and Marx

A statement of Marx's law of value and the place which it occupies in the structure of his economic studies. A critique of the treatment of the law of value as found in the work of several writers—principally Maurice Dobb and Ronald Meek. The implications of this critique: an examination of Ricardo's method in the light of Das Kapital. The wider implications of the issues discussed for Marxist scholarship.     

Political actors,linkages and interactions: Democratic consolidation in Southern Europe

While it is assumed that the new regimes in Spain, Greece and Portugal are fully liberal democratic, the question of their consolidation remains to be assessed. Although this raises problems about the nature of that process, focusing on the role of political parties provides a crucial means for determining the extent to which democratic consolidation has been achieved so far and for identifying any problems here. This is done by constructing a comparative approach based on three relationships: parties with the state; inter‐party relationships; and, parties with society. In applying this approach to the three cases, it is hypothesised that regime consolidation may well proceed at variable paces at the different levels.     

Managerial Experience and Organizational Performance: A 15‐Year Panel Study of Local Assessors

The proposition that managerial experience improves performance is an empirical claim, yet panel studies with long time dimensions exploring the relationship are uncommon. This article investigates the impact of managerial experience on organizational performance using a 15‐year panel of local property assessors in Washington State from 1999 to 2013. Each additional year of experience improves assessment quality as measured by the coefficient of dispersion by three‐tenths of a percent. However, although the relationship is statistically significant, the size of the effect is quite small, with administrative practices and the environment surrounding the assessment task being stronger predictors of assessment performance.     

The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism

The boundaries between news and entertainment, and between public affairs and pop culture, have become difficult if not impossible to discern. At the intersection of those borders sits The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a hybrid blend of comedy, news, and political conversation that is difficult to pigeon hole. Although the program often is dismissed as being “fake” news, its significance for political communication may run much deeper. This study first locates The Daily Show within an emerging media environment defined by the forces of technological multiplication, economic consolidation, and discursive integration, a landscape in which “real” news is becoming increasingly harder to identify or define. It then offers an interpretive reading of the program that understands the show not as “fake news,” but as an experiment in journalism. It argues that the show uses techniques drawn from genres of news, comedy, and television talk to revive a journalism of critical inquiry and advance a model of deliberative democracy. Given the increasing popularity of the program, this essay concludes that The Daily Show has much to teach us about the possibilities of political journalism in the 21st century.     

Justice,Sustainability, and Integrated Management: Concluding Thoughts

Social Justice Research -