Friendship and care: gendered practices within personal communities in Portugal

What is the role of friends in practices of care within intimate relationships, either towards each other, or in supporting caring practices towards other persons (children, parents or other kin)? And to what extent are these caring practices gendered? I explore how friendship either disrupts, or reproduces, the ethics of care that cross-cuts gender relations throughout society. I focus on the experience of Portuguese men and women and take as reference their personal community, understood as the active and meaningful personal ties they consider to be central in their lives. Drawing on qualitative data from 30 in-depth interviews, I explore their experiences of care in three dimensions: caring for others; caring for oneself; and being cared for. Results show that, while it is not possible to assert a complete centring of personal lives on friendship, friends stand out as important sources of care in these three different situations, providing both emotional and practical support.     

Piecing Together the ‘Turkish Puzzle’ on Female Labour Force Participation: Comparative Insights from Southern Europe

Southern Europe has seen remarkable turnarounds in female labour force participation (FLFP) over the past four decades. In Turkey, however, scores of women have yet to join the labour force. To address this ‘Turkish puzzle’, we present comparative data on women’s work in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece (SE-4) and Turkey. Through Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we identify the factors behind rising FLFP in Southern Europe to explore the prospects for a steeper rise of FLFP in Turkey. We reveal two causal pathways to rising FLFP: (i) left party rule, or (ii) combinations of higher levels of take-up of early education and care, higher levels of tertiary education among women and larger size of service sector employment.     

Why (most) Indonesian businesses fear the ASEAN Economic Community: struggling with Southeast Asia’s regional corporatism

By the end of 2015 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had ushered in a common market, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). However, the groups most affected by it – small businesses – were bypassed in the decision-making process. They are the victims of a selectively inclusive state corporatism which member countries have transferred from their domestic political system to the regional level. In this article I argue that the decision to create the AEC was promoted by ASEAN governments together with foreign economic and local corporate interests. This coalition was able to frame the AEC in a way that small businesses perceived it as a win-win scheme. Empirically the article focuses on Indonesia.     

Pushing Dualisms and Differences: From ‘Equality versus Difference’ to ‘Nonmimetic Sharing’ and ‘Staying with the Trouble’

Abstract

Critically revisiting the ‘equality versus difference’ dualism that is inscribed in the feminist canon of the last decades is an important task for feminist ethico-political discussions today. The theoretico-political tension between claims of equality and difference still troubles feminist discussions and thus needs to be addressed by contemporary research. Yet, moving beyond the persisting antagonism cannot be done by either moving outside the problematic relation or by choosing one term over the other. It is, as Joan W. Scott noted, impossible to choose between equality and difference, so that other ways of tackling the problem are needed. This article suggests a new line of flight for feminist politics in respect to this founding paradox from a feminist new materialist/posthuman(ist) perspective. Via an affirmative reading of Irigaray's cosmopolitical concern of Sharing the World (2008) and a critical investigation into the structuring ‘anthropological limit’ (Derrida) of her sexual difference thinking, the author pushes the dualistic framework of equality versus difference towards a thought of ‘nonmimetic sharing’ and ‘staying with the trouble’. In her argument, she turns to the differential worldings of Grosz's ‘differing’, Barad's ‘quantum’ and Haraway's ‘terran’ in order to open up ethico-political alternatives to engage difference(s) differently. The article ultimately argues that by affirming all multifaceted (im)material worlding entanglements, significant new insights can be gained for both theorizing differentiality as ethico-onto-epistemological ‘becoming-with’ and for practising this world of/as difference(s) in a more ‘response-able’ manner.     

承包地利用的守成与突破——以土地经营权法律定位的检讨为中心

农地家庭承包带来的分散经营的弊端,可通过在农户的土地承包经营权上为新型经营主体设立土地经营权而得到克服。新《农村土地承包法》创设的土地经营权,摆脱了集体成员身份对土地承包经营权的束缚,有助于更大程度释放农地的财产价值。“以其他方式承包取得的权利”应为物权性质的土地承包经营权,而非土地经营权。承包地因物权性利用和债权性利用之不同,各自法律效果存在明显差异。在三权分置的结构下,土地经营权的性质应属于债权。明确土地经营权性质,不仅有利于促进土地有效利用,还能够解决农地权利群的逻辑冲突。     

ISO Standards Addressing Issues of Bias and Impartiality in Forensic Work

The ISO/IEC 17020 and 17025 standards both include requirements for impartiality and the freedom from bias. Meeting these requirements for implicit cognitive bias is not a simple matter. In this article, we address these international standards, specifically focusing on evaluating and mitigating the risk to impartiality, and quality assurance checks, so as to meet accreditation program requirements. We cover their meaning to management as well as to practitioners, addressing how these issues of impartiality and bias relate to forensic work, and how one can effectively evaluate and mitigate those risks. We then elaborate on specific quality assurance policies and checks and identify when corrective action may be appropriate. These measures will not only serve to meet ISO/IEC 17020 and 17025 requirements, but also enhance forensic work and decision-making.     

Recalcitrant spoiler? Contesting dominant accounts of India’s role in global trade governance

India is frequently cast as a troublemaker and blamed for the breakdown of the Doha Round. This article provides a critical re-reading of India’s trade policy and its position in multilateral trade negotiations. It challenges the widespread characterisation of India as a recalcitrant spoiler, intent on derailing trade liberalisation at the WTO. It shows that with the emergence of its highly-competitive, export-oriented services sector, India became one of the leading advocates of global services trade liberalisation in the Doha Round. Yet, not unlike the traditional powers, India’s offensive trade interests are also combined with significant defensive concerns in agriculture.     

试论转基因产品贸易措施的合法性

随着全球转基因产品种植面积的扩大,人们对转基因产品安全性的担忧与日俱增,许多国家纷纷制定了关于转基因产品的贸易措施,以保证本国国民生命健康和环境免遭破坏。WTO成员要想成功援引《卫生和动植物检疫措施协定》必须满足以国际标准为基础、以科学证据为基础的风险评估、保护水平适当和有关同等待遇的规定等适格性条件。我国关于转基因生物安全的政策体系、法规体系已初步形成,但还须加强转基因食品的立法、尽快制定与国际接轨的相关规则与标准、建立转基因产品风险评估技术体系。     

批准和实施《1958年消除就业和职业歧视公约》对中国社会的影响

2006年1月12日,中国正式批准了《1958年消除就业和职业歧视公约》。批准该公约将进一步明确国家在消除就业和职业歧视方面的责任,促进我国建立和完善反就业歧视的法律制度,推动我国构建完整的反就业歧视机制,培育和提升我国公民的权利意识和平等观念,将对中国社会产生重大影响。     

明代南京官署志概说

中国的志书不仅源远流长 ,而且种类繁多。除了记载各级行政区的地方志外 ,还有大量记录某一特定区域内某项或某方面内容的专志。然而 ,几乎所有研究志书的学者都忽略了一种记载政府某部门典章故事的可称之为“官署志”的专志。这种官署志的编印在明代达到一个新的高峰 ,而且多集中在留都南京。本文在回顾官署志起源的基础上 ,集中讨论明代南都官署志的编撰特点、内容及其史料价值