The gypsy as vanishing mediator in Russian television coverage of inter-ethnic tension

The article addresses the representation of gypsies in Russian television news bulletins and popular drama series over a 15-month period. It seeks first to explain the prominence of the media image of the gypsy relative to the size of the Roma population and second to account for the relationship between fictional and non-fictional modes of representation. Situating itself within the broader field of post-Soviet Russian identity studies and applying qualitative tools differentiated according to the arena of analysis, it looks at questions of lexicon, voice and viewpoint in relation to news and issues of characterization, fictional space and plot with respect to drama. The two apparatuses are linked through a shared emphasis on narrative, and in particular on its dual orientation toward the exceptional (what makes a story worth telling and capable of embracing “difference”) and the typical (what enables it to represent and project “identity”). In its central argument it maps this dual “identity/difference” dynamic onto the gypsy's liminal status as both “of the self” and “of the other”, and its mediatory function: the ability to serve as a proxy for ethno-cultural difference more generally, and to negotiate the tensions between the cultural and racial aspects of ethnicity.     

Russian Studies Without Russia

A distinguished American specialist on Soviet and Russian politics addresses the lessons of the seven years leading to Russia's crash of 1998 for how US scholars, journalists, and politicians have analyzed Russia under Yeltsin. Citing a wide range of academic and journalistic sources, including materials published from October 1998 to January 1999, the article surveys and criticizes the mainstream concepts employed for comprehending social, political, and economic life in that country. It proposes both an alternative vocabulary and different comparative references for explaining and predicting developmental trends in Russia.     

Trends in poverty and destitution in Wollo,Ethiopia 1

According to several studies, poverty in rural Ethiopia has fallen significantly since the early 1990s, thanks to improved governance and economic liberalisation policies. This paper presents several arguments that challenge this view. The first questions the methodological foundations of the data from which these positive trends are derived: we argue that the original sampling frame was too small and unrepresentative to provide a basis for extrapolating national poverty levels or trends. The second argument questions the conceptual underpinnings of these studies: poverty estimates based on levels of current consumption fail to allow for non-income dimensions of wellbeing, nor for confounding factors such as seasonality, annual rainfall and food aid receipts. The third strand considers alternative sources of data on changes in wellbeing in Ethiopia: recent qualitative studies report that the poor perceive themselves as poorer and more vulnerable than poverty headcount figures suggest.

Finally, we report findings from our own survey in chronically poor and historically famine-prone Wollo. First, a significant proportion of households in the study area are destitute – destitution being defined as inability to meet basic needs, lack of key productive assets, and dependence on transfers. Secondly, the numbers of destitute people, and of people vulnerable to becoming destitute, have increased over the past ten years. Thirdly, the crisis of livelihoods underlying this trend is affecting entire communities – the dominant pattern is an aggregate downward shift, rather than stratification – and the decline of wealthier households is exacerbating the vulnerability of the poorest. These findings cast serious doubts on generalisations about poverty trends in Ethiopia. At the very least, national-level data need to be disaggregated: improving national trends may conceal pockets of entrenched poverty and a deepening livelihoods crisis in parts of rural Ethiopia.     

The importance of household asset diversity for livelihood diversity and welfare among small farm colonists in the Amazon

Taking a small farm colony on the Amazon frontier as a case study, this article examines the relationships among household assets, livelihood diversity and welfare. The findings show that: (1) few households diversified into non-agricultural income sources, but those that did also had agricultural incomes comparable to households primarily reliant on agriculture; (2) distinct household assets influence the extent of agricultural and non-agricultural diversity, implying that households with combinations of specific assets were best able to diversify their livelihoods, and (3) while specific types of household assets influence household welfare, livelihood diversity does not exert an additional effect on welfare. A key issue that emerges is that different arrays of assets are important for agricultural and non-agricultural diversity as well as for household welfare, implying that households need diverse assets for diverse livelihoods as well as better welfare.     

Safeguarding Common-Pool Resources in Transition Economies: Experimental Evidence from Central Asia

Empirical evidence suggests that the propensity to cooperate in common pool resource dilemmas is higher for small, homogeneous groups with efficacious monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms. Given that transition from socialist to market economies is associated with larger, more heterogeneous groups with diluted opportunities for monitoring and sanctioning, individuals in later-stage transition economies may be expected to be less cooperative than their early-stage counterparts. However, evidence from experiments conducted with subjects in two economies at different stages of transition suggests that this may not be the case. These findings have implications for both theorists and practitioners alike.     

Administrative ethics in post-MAO China: challenges and chances an introduction

This article provides an introduction to the recent development of administrative ethics in the People's Republic of China, which embarked on the path of reform and opening to the outside world in 1978. The article also summarizes the issues discussed in the following articles. These include Chinese views of corruption since Tiananmen, the issue of whistleblowing, organizational ethics and bureaucratic corruption in Chinese schools, changing administrative ethos and corruption in reform China, and the process of professionalization and rhe resultant rebuilding of administrative ethics in post-Mao China.     

Book notes

The Emergence of East Central European Parliaments: The First Steps edited by Attila Agh. Budapest: Hungarian Centre of Democracy Studies, 1994. Pp.306. NP. ISBN 963 7415 96 3

Nonviolent Struggle and the Revolution in East Germany by Roland Bleiker. Cambridge, MA: The Albert Einstein Institution, 1993. Pp.53. NP. ISBN 880813 07 6

The Russian Press from Brezhnev to Yeltsin: Behind the Paper Curtain by John Murray. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1994. Pp.280; index. £45 (hardback). ISBN 1 85278 885 2

A Voice for the Excluded by Matthias Stiefel and Marshall Wolfe. London: Zed Books, 1994. Pp.xciii + 265; index; references; four annexes. £39.95 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85649 247 8 and 248 6

Democratization in Eastern Europe: Domestic and International Perspective edited by Geoffrey Pridham and Tatu Vanhanen. London: Routledge, 1994. Pp.xiv + 274; index. £40 (hardback); £12.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 415 11063 7 and 11064 5

Grasping the Democratic Peace by Bruce Russett. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995. Pp.xi + 165; references; index. $13.95/£11.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 691 00164 2

Lobbying the European Union: Companies, Trade Associations and Interest Groups edited by R.H. Pedler and M.P.C.M. van Schendelen. Aldershot and Brookfield: Dartmouth, 1994. Pp.xii + 311. $59.95. ISBN 1 85521 609 4

The Victorious Incumbent: A Threat to Democracy? edited by Albert Somit, Rudolf Wildenmann, Bernhard Boll and Andrea Rommele. Aldershot and Brookfield: Dartmouth, 1994. pp.311; index; bibliography. £40 (hardback). ISBN 1 85521 515 4

Uncommon Opportunities: An Agenda for Peace and Equitable Development. UN International Commission on Peace and Food. London: Zed Books, 1994. Pp.210; index. $55 (hardback); $19.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85649 305 9 and 306 7

The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism? by Ahmed Rashid. London: Oxford University Press; Zed Books, 1994. Pp.278; index; bibliography; appendices. £36.95 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback) ISBN 1 85649 131 5 and 132 3

Greece and Europe in the Modern Period: Aspects of a Troubled Relationship edited by Philip Carabott. London: Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's College, 1995. Pp.xvi + 130. £8 (paperback). ISBN 1 897747 01 2