Waste pickers and collectors in Delhi: Poverty and environment in an urban informal sector

Waste pickers and collectors constitute the bottom layer of waste recycling in the metropolis of Delhi. Pickers collect waste just by picking them up from public places such as garbage dumps and streets, whereas collectors purchase waste from waste producers such as households and shops for sale to higher-level waste traders. Most pickers have incomes below the poverty line set by the Planning Commission of India, whereas the majority of collectors earn marginally higher than the poverty-line income. The poverty of pickers is not transitory, but chronic as they have no connection to enter the community of collectors and higher-level waste traders within which the community mechanism works effectively to reduce risk and transaction costs. Despite their low economic and social status, pickers and collectors are making important contributions to society. It is found that pickers and collectors are adding more value than their own income to waste producers' income and to the saving of the city government's expenditure for disposing waste. Increased public support not only for social services, but also production services and infrastructure can be justified not only for the purposes of reducing poverty but also for furthering their positive contribution to society.     

The Social Outcomes of Education and Feedbacks on Growth in Africa

Most of the effects of education included in the complete model presented here are shown to be consistent with those found in the mainstream of the research on each outcome using microeconomic data. This, however, is a first effort to estimate net education effects more comprehensively, beyond just growth and health effects on other key measures of development in Africa, and also a new view of indirect feedbacks on economic growth and of externalities. After developing the conceptual framework, the regression estimates are presented together with a discussion of the net direct and indirect effects of education on each outcome. These are shown to improve infant mortality, increase longevity, strengthen civic institutions and democratisation, increase political stability, and increase investment in physical capital, which in turn have positive delayed feedback effects on the economic growth process. The effects also lower fertility rates and population growth rates but the latter occurs only after long delays because of the short-term positive effects of education on health. There are significant net education effects reducing poverty, inequality and crime, the latter after netting out negative externalities from growth and white-collar crime. Education effects reducing poverty and substituting skills for extractive exports also contribute to environmental sustainability. Simulations solve the complete model endogenously and iteratively over time for all of the direct and indirect (largely externality) effects. They reveal that indirect feedback effects including those on non-market outcomes are larger than the direct effects. Some effects are immediate, but many of the lags are long. So policy options for a continent in crisis that consider these lags are considered.     

DISCUSSION - Agricultural Policy Reform and Rural Livelihoods in Central Mexico

This contribution examines the impact of profound changes to agricultural policy implemented since 1988 on the livelihoods of Mexico's rural population. Detailed studies in four villages show that rural incomes are very unevenly distributed within communities leaving half of households in poverty. During the last decade key factors affecting village economies have been international and national, rather than specific changes to farm policy. Most changes have been to the detriment of the communities studied, but peasant households have adapted and survived, at a price. If the worst fears about the consequences of economic liberalisation have not been realised, neither have the hopes. Depressed markets for basic goods and services have limited the growth of the rural economy. Private investment and provision of services have not been stimulated.     

Rich doctors and poor patients: Market failure and health care systems in developing countries

This article argues that, in developing countries, health care systems (HCS) have been facing the problem of market failure, implying that the fair rules of market principles do not apply and patients often become losers. Explaining the theoretical issues involved, the article examines various causes of market failures in HCS, including: rent-seeking activities by doctors, asymmetric information between doctors and patients, between patients and insurance companies, and the oligopolistic behaviour of health care practitioners. The policy implications of the study suggest that, in many cases, government intervention is essential to eliminate market failures in the HCS in developing countries.     

EVACUATION OF SMYRNA (IZMIR) TURKEY, 1922

I. N. Duncan Wallace, QC studied law at his father's old college, Oriel, Oxford University, before spending the war years in the Navy. After the war he completed his law course, was called to the Bar in 1948 and took silk in 1973. His legal career involved practice in Pacific Rim countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as stints as ‘visiting’ Scholar and Professor at the University of California at Berkeley and King's College, London. Aged 80, he is still active in producing legal textbooks.     

The Effects of Political Talk Radio On Political Attitude Formation: Exposure Versus Knowledge

The effects of political news on the mass audience are usually difficult to establish empirically. Recent models of mass communication effects have held that political knowledge is a better indicator of media reception than traditional measures of exposure. This claim is tested in two studies of attitudes toward Democratic and Republican leaders during the 1996 U.S. presidential primary campaigns. The impact of messages from three types of political talk radio (PTR) is examined: Rush Limbaugh, other conservative hosts, and liberal/moderate hosts. Political knowledge and exposure to talk radio are found to be equally good predictors of attitudes toward political leaders when studied separately. However, when tested against one another, exposure is the more effective measure. Agreement between Rush Limbaugh's messages and his audience's attitudes toward political figures is consistent and strong. Biased processing of PTR content by audience members with partisan predispositions contrary to those of the host is also examined.     

Argument Repertoire as a Reliable and Valid Measure of Opinion Quality: Electronic Dialogue During Campaign 2000

A new measure of opinion quality that we name "argument repertoire" (AR) is introduced and evaluated. AR refers to the relevant reasons that one has for one's own opinions and the relevant reasons that others with opposite opinions might have. The measure is shown to be reliable and to have construct validity. Those with elevated AR also were more likely to attend on-line deliberative groups during the presidential election and to contribute to those conversations. Those who participated in online deliberations tended to have higher AR scores on particular issues that were discussed. The role of AR in deliberative political groups is explored.     

Notes on recent articles

An increasing number of studies in political communication focus on the “sentiment” or “tone” of news content, political speeches, or advertisements. This growing interest in measuring sentiment coincides with a dramatic increase in the volume of digitized information. Computer automation has a great deal of potential in this new media environment. The objective here is to outline and validate a new automated measurement instrument for sentiment analysis in political texts. Our instrument uses a dictionary-based approach consisting of a simple word count of the frequency of keywords in a text from a predefined dictionary. The design of the freely available Lexicoder Sentiment Dictionary (LSD) is discussed in detail here. The dictionary is tested against a body of human-coded news content, and the resulting codes are also compared to results from nine existing content-analytic dictionaries. Analyses suggest that the LSD produces results that are more systematically related to human coding than are results based on the other available dictionaries. The LSD is thus a useful starting point for a revived discussion about dictionary construction and validation in sentiment analysis for political communication.     

Decomposition and Arthropod Succession in Whitehorse,Yukon Territory,Canada

Forensic arthropod succession patterns are known to vary between regions. However, the northern habitats of the globe have been largely left unstudied. Three pig carcasses were studied outdoors in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Adult and immature insects were collected for identification and comparison. The dominant Diptera and Coleoptera species at all carcasses were Protophormia terraneovae (R‐D) (Fam: Calliphoridae) and Thanatophilus lapponicus (Herbst) (Fam: Silphidae), respectively. Rate of decomposition, patterns of Diptera and Coleoptera succession, and species dominance were shown to differ from previous studies in temperate regions, particularly as P. terraenovae showed complete dominance among blowfly species. Rate of decomposition through the first four stages was generally slow, and the last stage of decomposition was not observed at any carcass due to time constraints. It is concluded that biogeoclimatic range has a significant effect on insect presence and rate of decomposition, making it an important factor to consider when calculating a postmortem interval.     

Crime and Sex in South Australia

Policing Images: Policing, Communication, and Legitimacy. Rob C. Mawby. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1–903240 71–9. Hardback US $55.00. 214 pages.

Armed Robbery. Roger Mathews. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1–903240–61–1. 162 pages.