The Texture of Livelihoods: Migration and Making a Living in Hanoi

Abstract

Through the experience of 30 rural migrants to Hanoi, this paper reconstructs their livelihood histories, linking the experience of our migrant subjects with wider transformations in Vietnam’s economy and society. We argue for an ‘everyday’ political economy that recognises the fluid connections between the state, society and economy, and the individual. While highlighting the indeterminacy and contingency of life, we recognise the wider context that contributes to the production of the livelihood textures we discern. The characteristic livelihood pathways of the migrant households are shown to echo research undertaken in rural, often less economically vibrant, contexts.     

A Criminal Injustice System? Sex Offender Suspects and Defendants

The purpose of this paper is to open up a discussion regarding the potential shift from the presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt regarding those suspected of or charged with sexual offending. It is acknowledged that further investigation is needed and it is hoped that this discussion is one of many. The crux of this paper therefore is that sex offender suspects and defendants potentially find themselves in a criminal injustice system. Whilst the focus is predominantly on ‘victims’ (usually female) and people suspected or charged with sexual offending (usually male) within the criminal justice system in England and Wales the concerns articulated here are not confined to this context. For example such concerns are echoed in relation to the potential injustices occurring on American campuses. This demonstrates that this is a domestic and international situation and a situation that extends beyond the criminal justice system. We argue that what is occurring at home and abroad has to be contextualised with regard to public, media and official attitudes and approaches to ‘victims’, suspects, defendants, sex, sexual consent, sexual offending and a subsequent shift from the presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt. It is argued that not only is the presumption of innocence undermined by the presumption of guilt regarding suspects and defendants in cases of sexual offending, it is also undermined in England and Wales by the victim personal statement (VPS). The VPS contains and promotes the idea that there is a ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ before this has been legally established in a court of law. These assumptions embodied within the VPS weaken the principle and practice of the presumption of innocence. The safeguard of the presumption of innocence is potentially under threat and the result is an even greater potential for miscarriages of justice and wrongful convictions.     

African corporate lawyering and globalization

Influenced by processes of globalization and localization, many fields of social and commercial practice – including legal services – across Africa are undergoing rapid transformation. It should come as no surprise that these processes of globalization and transformation include the ongoing transformation of corporate lawyering. Lawyers from Johannesburg to Algiers – not to mention Khartoum and Ouagadougou – are experiencing and participating in rapid global change in their profession and everyday work. This article identifies some of the questions and issues that emerge from this process, as well as providing a vignette of the South African corporate legal sector and tentatively outlining the emergence of an African corporate lawyering field. It does so in order to propose a research agenda into the trends and potential pathways of growth in this field. It does so in four steps, moving from a theoretical frame to one of the Global South to a portrait of the South African jurisdiction and ending with an agenda for African corporate lawyering.     

When tinkering is not enough: provincial reform to manage health care resources

Abstract: Prompted by fiscal deficits and guided by recommendations of provincial review commissions, a number of provinces are restructuring their health care systems to iniprove resource management. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia have published comprehensive plans for health care reforms. The plans reveal a diversity of management approaches, including devolved structures in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia, strongly centralized, technocratic structures in Manitoba, and variations on these in the other provinces. Though impossible to judge a priori which approaches are most likely to improve management, a number of limitations can be observed in the newly created institutions that decrease the chances of achieving the stated goals. The changes represent a potential watershed in medicare's history as the provinces embark down divergent paths for planning and managing health care resources. They will provide an interesting natural experiment regarding the effectiveness of the alternative approaches to organizing health care systems as well as challenge some of medicare's principles and the concept of a national system. Sommaire: Sous la pression des déficits fiscaux et face aux recommandations de commissions d'enquête provinciales, plusieurs provinces restructurent actuellement leurs systêmes de santé pour améliorer la gestion des resources. La Colombie-Britannique, la Saskatchewan, le Manitoba, le Québec, le Nouveau-Brunswick et la Nouvelle-Éosse ont publié des plans détaillés de réforme de ces systèmes. Les plans adoptent toute une gamme de méthodes de gestion: des structures déléguées en Colombie-Britnnnique, en Saskatchewan et en Nouvelle-Écosse, des structures technocratiques fortement centralisées au Manitoba, et diverses variantes des deux dans les autres provinces. II est impossible de décider a priori quelles sont les méthodes les mieux adaptées pour améliorer la gestion, mais on peut d'ores et déjà noter, dans le cadre des institutions nouvellement créées, des limitations qui entravent la possibilité d'atteindre les objectifs énoncés. Ces changenients pourraient constituer un tournant critique dans l'évolution des systèmes d'assurance-maladie car les provinces empruntent maintenant des chemins divergents en ce qui concerne la planification et la gestion des ressources consacrées aux soins de santé Cela constituera une expérience empirique intéressante pour déterminer l'efficacité des diverses façons d'organiser les systèmes de soins de santé, tout en mettant en question certains principes de l'assurance-maladie ainsi que l'idée même d'un système national.