Urban agriculture: addressing practical and strategic gender needs

This paper considers the role of urban agriculture in addressing the practical and strategic needs of African women, and assesses the gender implications of embracing urban agriculture as a development intervention strategy. Empirical evidence from Botswana and Zimbabwe points to the multi-faceted role of urban agriculture whereby some women use this activity to support their households on a daily basis, and others use it as an avenue for social and economic empowerment over the longer term. In order to benefit rather than burden women, the promotion and support of urban agriculture must take on an emancipatory agenda, which supports individual, practical and strategic goals, and ultimately challenges the structural conditions that give rise to women's involvement in the activity in the first place.     

Techniques for evaluating regulatory change

This paper demonstrates the applicability of two empirical techniques—the Heckman two-stage switching regression and the event study methodology—for evaluating regulatory or legislative change relating to companies and in particular to the regulation of company reporting. These techniques measure the impact of regulatory changes once they have happened. They could be used in practice if regulatory changes were subject to a review procedure. The availability of these relatively sophisticated techniques should encourage the quantitative analysis of regulatory changes. Comparisons of effects across member states of the European Union would be interesting but would obviously need care.     

Temporary migration in Shanghai and Beijing

In a number of developing countries, temporary migration plays a key role in the labor market. In China, where permanent migration is carefully controlled, movement without an official change in household registration (temporary migration) is relatively unrestricted. It has increased dramatically since the economic reforms introduced in 1979. Using data from surveys in Shanghai and Beijing, this article focuses on the sociodemographic characteristics of temporary migrants in relation to their reasons for moving and the duration of their stay at destination. Many temporary migrants come to these cities in search of work; however, many others move for noneconomic reasons associated with family reunion and retirement. Moreover, the distinctive socioeconomic features of Shanghai and Beijing also influence the characteristics of temporary migrants and their reasons for coming to the cities. Alice Goldstein is senior researcher at the Population Studies and Training Center of Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912. Her research deals with the interrelations among population mobility, urbanization, and economic development. Among her most recent publications isPermanent and Temporary Migration Differentials in China, East-West Population Institute Paper No. 117 (Honolulu: 1990) (co-author with Sidney Goldstein). Shenyang Guo recently received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and has held an appointment as a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University. His research interests encompass fertility changes and economic development in China.