From permanent employment to massive lay-offs: the political economy of ‘transitional unemployment’ in urban China (1993–8)

Abstract

The idea that economic activities may be described and studied as ‘embedded’ in social relations has been central to much debate in recent economic sociology. The present paper analyses legal struggles over the status of begging in US law and argues that conflicting rhetorical accounts of begging illustrate social actors’ efforts to articulate the interconnectedness of their social world, including the ways in which economic practices are embedded in their social and institutional contexts. The paper thus suggests that embeddedness is not just something identified by social researchers, but also a problem faced by social actors as they try to understand the socio-economic order in which they live and act. By arguing for or against the claim that begging is simultaneously an economic action and the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, the voices in this debate attempted to affect the future of this marginal economic activity.     

Reassessing the Role of Constituency in Congressional Voting

Poole and Rosenthal (1997) argue that mostcongressional voting can be understood in terms of alow-dimensional spatial model. This paper uses their model toassess the importance of the two mechanisms that couldcontribute to the vote-predicting power of constituencyvariables: (i) constituency variables may predict wherelegislators fall along one or two dimensions in thevote-predicting spatial model and (ii) constituency variablesmay account for errors in the spatial model's predictions. Thepaper compares different methods of using a basicset of constituency variables to generate out-of-sample predictionsfor representatives' votes. The analysis covers a large numberof recent House roll call votes, considering Democrats andRepublicans separately and using Poole and Rosenthal'sW-NOMINATE scores to measure legislators' locations invote-predicting space. The results show that the predictivepower of a basic set of constituency variables arisesprincipally from its ability to predict representatives'locations in Poole and Rosenthal's space, not from its abilityto explain errors in the predictions based on that space. Thisholds true to a remarkable extent, consistent with Poole andRosenthal's argument that the influence of constituentinterests occurs largely through logrolling mechanismsreflected in their spatial model.     

Confronting Racial Discrimination: A CERD Perspective

From the perspective of a member of the Committee on the Eliminationof Racial Discrimination this article provides an overview ofthe implementation of the International Convention on the Eliminationof All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The article reviews thework of the Committee in endeavouring to fulfil a difficultmandate by ensuring that the Convention remains relevant, andalso demonstrates how, through mechanisms such as its concludingobservations and general recommendations, the Committee continuallyendeavours to address the contemporary meaning of racial discriminationas used in the Convention.     

Parents' and Children's Views on Talking to Judges in Parenting Disputes in Australia

Judicial interviews with children in contested parenting proceedingsare an uncommon and contentious practice in Australia and manyother common law jurisdictions. While there has been some debateabout the merits and risks of such a practice among professionalsand academic commentators, there is little research on the viewsof children and parents. In this study, children and parentsinvolved in contested and non-contested family law matters inAustralia were asked to comment on this practice. A subsequentarticle will explore the views of Australian judges on talkingwith children in chambers, and their experience of doing so.Children and parents had mixed views but most children saidthat it should be an option even if they did not want it forthemselves. Children who had been the subject of contested proceedingswere generally keen to talk to the judge even though most hadbeen interviewed by an independent expert and had a child legalrepresentative. Resident parents were, however, much more likelythan non-resident parents to be in favour of children beingable to talk with the judge, either alone or together with acounsellor or ‘interpreter’. Both parents and childrenwho were in favour of children talking directly to judges gavevery similar reasons. They were related to children's rightto be heard and acknowledged, the value of direct communicationand the likely beneficial effect on the decision.