Problems Facing China＇s ＂Going Out＂

The risks facing Chinese investors overseas vary according to the field of investment and the country of investment. There are six key problems which spring to mind when this topic is brought up:First, there is the type of investor who does not have a basic knowledge about the countries he is planning to invest in. China opened itself long ago to the outside world, but it is na?ve to think that other countries will do the same. The U.S. is a good example. It is very hard for     

The Precarity of Feminisation

Despite women’s increasing participation in the labour market and attempts to transform the traditional gendered division of work, domestic and care work is still perceived as women’s terrain. This work continues to be invisible in terms of the organisation of production or productive value and domestic and care work continues to be unpaid or low paid. Taking domestic and care work as an expression of the feminisation of labour, this article will attempt to complicate this analysis by first exploring a queer critique of feminisation, and second, by situating feminisation within the context of the coloniality of power. Drawing on research conducted in Austria, Germany, Spain and the UK on the organisation of domestic work in private households, the article will conclude with some observations on the interconnectedness of feminisation, heteronormativity and the coloniality of power in the analysis of the expansion of precarity in the EU zone.     

Minority Reconsidered: Towards a Typology of Latvia’s Russophone Identity

Abstract

Latvia’s Russophones are often seen as a consolidated ethno-linguistic unit. The goal of this essay is to test this assumption by exploring Russophones’ in-group differentiation over an extended period of time. Conceptually, the essay combines social representation theory with the quadratic nexus model. By analysing cross-sectional survey data it is argued that citizenship of Latvia and generational belonging are two major factors that explain the deviation from the standard model of identification that is primarily imposed by Russia as a symbolic homeland. The essay also suggests that the standard model has experienced inconsistent support over the years and this has opened up space for identification with a more emancipated in-group representation.     

State budget support to local government

The principle of self-government is essentially a new phenomena in the Czech Republic. Under the previous regime, almost everything was ruled by the central government. At the present time, the major constraint to local budget reform is primarily from the local authorities’ lack of experience. While on one hand, this gives the Czech Republic a challenge to avoid some of the mistakes made in several developed countries, it is, on the other hand, difficult to make estimates of the possible responses to any change. Next to the lack of experience, there is a strong feeling both at the local and the central levels of government that the self-government bodies should have almost no regulation from the central government. The current opinion is that their control should be left only to the respective electorate. There is also the belief that self-government units should become increasing financed by tax revenues derived from within their own area. An additional complication is the lack of common non-governmental institutions (different associations and others) which usually smooth the the relationship between local and central governments. The changes in the Czech Republic are not yet complete. After the changes in the legal framework, the complete reform of the tax and social systems were to follow. While the essentials of tax reform were introduced in January 1993, the changes in the social systems are still under consideration. In spite of the relatively short history of having true local authorities functioning in the Czech Republic, the establishment of an additional level of government is being proposed. This issue is reopening some already closed matters and will bring a change to the whole system. As in many other countries, the division of responsibilities between different levels of government will probably continue to be discussed until the end of time.     

Shifting Tides of Informal Worker Resistance in Mexico: A Domestic Work-Construction Contrast

Informal workers in Mexico, the majority of the country's workforce, have organised to demand rights, but with varying results. In this article, we contrast recent organising by Mexico's domestic workers and informal construction workers. Household worker movements have succeeded in institutionalising significant new organisations and raising public awareness. Construction workers, despite earlier militant counterexamples, have remained trapped by corporatist structures, and their organising capacity has atrophied. We place these outcomes in the context of the overall decline of labour, suggesting conclusions for the limits and possibilities of contemporary Mexican labour mobilisation.     

Breaking the Law to Ensure Order: The Case of Tijuana (2007–2012)

This paper explores how state agents and civilians justify human rights violations when the military perform police tasks. Based on a set of interviews and documents, it analyses the actions of the armed forces and the police during a military-led operation that targeted drug trafficking organisations in Tijuana. In a context of limited civilian control over the armed forces and the police, the paper identifies two discourses that supported the illegal action of state agents: the construction of a foreign other who does not belong to society and the need to use violence to accomplish a greater good.