Secondary Precarity in Asia: Family Vulnerability in an Age of Unfree Labour

ABSTRACT

Scholarly discussions of precarious work have identified and analysed the conditions and structures that produce precarity, the contextual nuances that characterise worker relations across a range of sites and sectors and the possibilities of resistance by the precariat. In these studies, workers are often discussed with inadequate attention to their social embeddedness. Taking workers’ embeddedness in social relations and norms as a starting point for analysis, this article explores a secondary aspect of precarity amongst families of exploited workers. This aspect is analysed according to three registers of vulnerability and risk: economic (household and livelihood), intimate (anxiety and negative emotional relations) and physical (mobility and movement). The article outlines this framework through a case study of trafficked fishers and their families from Cambodia and the Philippines. Human trafficking is an extreme form of precarious labour, characterised by unfreedom and hyper-exploitation. The article contributes to the understanding of the trafficking of migrant fishers, which has not seen rigorous academic documentation and is relatively poorly understood in comparison to other forms of trafficking.     

The veterans’ gala: the use of tradition in an industrial labour conflict in contemporary Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

Since its privatization in 1995, Kazakhstan’s largest steel mill has been in a restructuring process characterized by workforce reduction, augmented pressure on remaining jobs and labour conflict over wages, work conditions and corporate social responsibility. In 2013, in an attempt to re-establish harmonious relationships with workers, management invited the mill’s former labour aristocracy to join a newly established veterans’ council, a forum resembling traditional aksakal councils, to discuss the company’s difficult situation. In the context of a banquet in honour of the veterans, tradition became the contested terrain over which labour and capital struggled to endorse their own visions of the industrial future. As corporate capitalist visions of efficiency and professionalism, ethno-national concerns for harmony and stability, and practices rooted in the Soviet labour legacy clash, tradition is staged by actors as a practice which can either affirm or challenge industrial leadership in a labour conflict.     

论信息化带动工业化的非均衡路径

以信息化带动工业化,就是以"带"为手段,大力发展信息技术,以"动"为传导,优化产业结构,提升企业竞争力,目的是实现社会生产力的跨越式发展。分析制约信息化战略的供给与需求两方面因素发现,赶超战略的可行途径与应有之义具有非均衡性,大力推进城市信息基础设施建设,积极参与国际商务中心竞争,培育若干个都市群的国际竞争优势,以此带动中小城镇与整个国民经济发展是实施信息化战略的现实选择。     

论海上保险中代位求偿权的范围——兼论对《海商法》第254条的理解

本文就海上保险代位权的立法目的、性质 ,代位权的范围在实践中的利弊等方面分析讨论了《海商法》2 5 4条的有关规定。     

Migration and the reconfiguration of Malaysia

This article examines the social impact of the 1997 financial crisis in South Korea. Although the crisis was short-lived, it has created major ripples all across the country, profoundly affecting the Koreans' lifestyle and family life as well as their values and worldview. In spite of the magnitude of the financial crisis and its social impact, scant scholarly attention has been paid to the issue, although the causes and economic impact of the crisis have been amply discussed. In view of this, the article examines major social changes brought upon by the financial crisis. The article probes, for example, how employment patterns have been deeply affected, whereby a majority of workers are now irregular workers or are underemployed. The article also demonstrates how the people's perception of work has changed and how the income gap between the rich and the poor has widened. Also discussed are, among others, the continuing discrimination against women in the workplace, rising divorce rate, increase in immigration and value conflicts over the relevance of Confucianism in contemporary Korea. In addition, the article examines the agency of the Korean people in reacting to or coping with the changing circumstances.     

工农业协调发展的体制演进考察

我国工农业发展与资源配置方式直接相关。计划经济体制下形成城乡工农业部门资源配置的隔离格局,造成农业生产的"内卷化"及城市工业低效率和高消耗的恶性循环;市场取向改革条件下形成城乡工农业部门资源配置的双向互动格局;市场机制作用下农村和农业资源向城市和非农产业逆向流动;以工哺农背景下的包容性增长体制使工农业部门资源配置和流动趋向协调。     

利率市场化对辽宁金融业的影响及对策

利率市场化,以渐进的方式改革利率管理体制,是金融体制改革的重要任务,是建立符合经济规律的资金配制机制、解决长期以来资金效益低下问题、提高金融机构竞争力与效率的必由之路。随着利率市场化进程的深入,必将促进辽宁市场的金融创新、扩大与活跃,中小金融机构将面临竞争压力和风险。为实现辽宁金融业的蓬勃发展,提出几点对策建议。     

促进出版传媒企业快速发展的思考——以打造“双百亿”广西出版传媒集团为例

打造"双百亿"出版传媒集团是当下各省(自治区、市)文化跨越式发展的重要举措。文章分析了打造广西"双百亿"出版传媒集团的可行性、优势和困难,提出政府应统筹规划积极支持打造广西"双百亿"出版传媒集团;接通出版发行产业链;将集团上市工作列入政府工作规划之中;以重大项目的培育与实施,支撑和推动大型文化企业的快速发展;在北京建立广西出版中心;打造一支过硬出版传媒队伍;政府应加大对文化产业的资金及政策扶持等建议。     

以市场需求为导向协调发展餐饮业

我国餐饮业目前发展低迷并存在同质化竞争等问题,而影响餐饮业发展的主要因素是政策和环境。目前餐饮业在急剧变化环境下出现了"危"与"机",以市场需求为导向,分层次定位与协调发展,是餐饮业持续健康发展的可行性道路。     

对影响我国服务业发展因素的实证分析

当今世界经济,尤其是发达国家的经济发展轨迹中显示：服务业已成为各国着重发展的重要产业。这使得各国学者对服务业发展影响因素和服务业发展模式的研究逐渐兴起。本文通过对我国1994--2008年间三类服务业数据进行计量回归,得出实证模型,分析出影响我国服务业发展的重要因素。