Analysis about Identity and Diversity of the Legal Culture in View of ＂One Country Two Systems＂ and Its Embodiment in China： Writing with Formation of the Socialist Legal System of China＇s Characteristics

法律文化的概念外延包括了规范制度形态、意识观念形态、实践活动形态的法律文化。法律体系问题主要属于规范制度形态的法律文化,而法系的问题主要属于意识观念形态和实践活动形态的法律文化。由于实行“一国两制”,在“两岸三地”即中国大陆、香港、澳门和台湾存在着多种法律体系与法系,这是“中国特色”的体现。中国特色社会主义法律体系形成之后,我们还可以在“一国两制”的视野下,继续探讨法律文化的同一性与多样性问题,对中西方法律文化中蕴藏的优秀精神——对法治的崇尚和对统治的信念,通过实践不断地选择,融化成一种崭新的、先进的法律文化体系,将法治精神与民族精神融为一体,建成法治国家。     

Considering the ecohealth approach: Shaping Haitian women's participation in urban agricultural projects

This paper examines the social and gender politics of a women's urban garden project supported by the International Organisation of Migration, in Cap Haitien, Haiti. My study highlights how the development process created an unmonitored symbolic space where society's normalised gender processes reproduced broader social inequalities, which, in turn, prevented the project from meeting the women's practical and strategic goals. Then, I discuss how the ecohealth approach, as an alternative design framework, could make symbolic space visible to be critically engaged and analysed by participants, to account for gender process, and create an emancipatory activity.     

Endogenous African Governance Systems: what roles do women play in rural Malawi?

Endogenous African governance systems are criticised for excluding women. This critique ignores several realities that women have played roles different from those of men. This article examines the roles that women play in endogenous governance structures of patrilineal and matrilineal ethnic groups in rural areas in Malawi on leadership, violent conflict prevention, and transformation. It argues that these endogenous governance systems inherently contain features that enable women to actively participate and play powerful leadership roles, though men dominate in terms of numbers and authority. These gender patterns do not seem to change much despite the changing political, social, and economic environment.     

Microcredit and power: examining how and why women encounter domination in Bangladesh

Using data from a recent ethnographic research project on microcredit, power, and poverty in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, this article demonstrates that the relationship of women with both NGOs and male relatives is one of dependency and subordination. Gendered power relations, embedded in NGO practices and socio-cultural gender norms, influence the female borrowers to accept the domination of the fieldworkers and their male relatives. This article examines how and why NGOs create power inequalities between fieldworkers and female borrowers, why the fieldworkers dominate a group of women, and why these women continue to participate in microcredit programmes.     

Party competition over decentralisation: The influence of ideology and electoral incentives on issue emphasis

Under what conditions is decentralisation a salient issue for state‐wide political parties? It is argued in this article that the extent to which state‐wide parties emphasise decentralisation depends on their strategic considerations: on their overall ideology, on the electoral incentives created by the context in which they compete, and on the interaction between the two. The results of the analysis of party manifestos in 31 countries since 1945 are as follows. First, parties that pay greater attention to cultural matters relative to economic matters tend to talk more about decentralisation. Second, the systemic salience of decentralisation also encourages parties to talk more about decentralisation. Third, the larger the regionally based ethnic groups within a country, the more salience all state‐wide political parties will attach to decentralisation. Finally, only parties that put greater relative emphasis on cultural matters tend to respond to the electoral threat of regionalist parties. The influence of territorial diversity on the salience of decentralisation thus works through two channels and is partly conditioned by political parties’ ideological profile.     

Gender dimensions of decision-making on production assets and challenges facing women

This article investigates gender dimensions of decision-making on access to, and control over, productive assets for agricultural development in selected communities in Ghana. The men were more educated, resourced, and economically empowered than the women. This resulted in differential access to, and control over, resources by gender and a low level of female participation in decision-making. The study identified a land access gap by gender and crop acreage gap of up to 80% for women as compared to men. Challenges limiting women in agricultural production and processing include inadequate land access, inadequate capital, inefficient processing technologies, and unattractive markets.     

Microfinance and women's empowerment: an ethnographic inquiry

Within the last two decades microfinance has been widely adopted as one of the best development strategies to reduce poverty and empower women in many developing countries. Drawing on ethnographic research undertaken in Ethiopia, this article elucidates the complexities of microfinance processes, and argues that current microfinance practice does not facilitate the participation of women in decision-making over the use and management of loans as well as the income they generate from running small enterprises. The article illustrates that women are engaged in running small-scale economic activities at home that produce low returns, and they have limited access to lucrative markets. It also demonstrates that due to a discriminatory household division of labour, women are overworked in their households and in their enterprises. Through engaging in a mode of representation (ethnography) that allows specific critical voices to be heard, the article contributes toward tempering the current enthusiasm for the widely expanding microfinance industry.     

Ethnographic filmmaking as narrative capital enhancement among Atauro diverwomen: a theoretical exploration

This article reports on a project involving the development and release of an ethnographic film about the women divers of Atauro Island, Timor-Leste, and suggests a theoretical framework to interpret its outcomes. It describes the project aims and the filmmaking process, and reports on its results. In doing so, the paper explores the potential use of an agent-based concept of narrative capital focused on collective agents. The article suggests that the ideas of narrative capital and transformations of capital by collective agents can provide a valuable interpretative framework for the design, implementation, and analyses of results of development interventions involving filmmaking.     

Vicarious Trauma in Child Welfare Workers: A Study of Organizational Responses

Child welfare is provided within an organizational context that both supports and thwarts the efforts of workers and administrators to meet the myriad of goals established by federal, state, and local regulation and professional bodies. As the field moves toward trauma-informed services for children and families (Ko et al., 2008 Ko, S. J., Ford, J. D., Kassam-Adams, N., Berkowitz, S. J., Wilson, C., Wong, M., Brymer, M. J., &; Layne, C. M. (2008). Creating trauma-informed systems: Child welfare, education, first responders, healthcare, juvenile justice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39(4), 396–404.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the effect of trauma on workers has received less agency attention (Middleton &; Potter, 2015 Middleton, J. S., &; Potter, C. C. (2015). Relationship between vicarious traumatization and turnover among child welfare professionals. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 9(2), 195–216.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This exploratory, qualitative study examines the level of knowledge administrators have regarding vicarious trauma and probes the organizational responses of public child welfare agencies to the vicarious trauma experienced by workers.