Can top-down community enterprise development reduce poverty and out-migration? Evidence from Thailand

This article examines the performance of a poverty alleviation policy in Thailand known as the Small and Micro Community Enterprises (SMCEs) programme. It investigates provincial determinants affecting the establishments of the SMCEs and assesses the effects of the programme on household income and out-migration by using panel data analysis and propensity score matching model. The research findings indicated that such enterprises have spread widely. Average household expenditure, the rate of poverty, and agricultural output were significant predictors of SMCE establishments. However, the research did not find any concrete evidence to support the claim that this policy helped reduce poverty or out-migration.     

Negotiating one position: Switzerland at the Global Forum on Migration and Development

The paper explores intra-governmental processes in migration policy-making, using the example of Switzerland and examining its preparations for chairing the Global Forum on Migration and Development 2011. Switzerland's “one joint position”, presented at the forum, required intensive negotiations and cooperation between different Swiss federal offices. The paper highlights how and why Switzerland achieved this joint position. It analyses the intra-governmental tensions between national securitisation and global migration and development debates and how they were overcome. This experience of a “whole-of-government approach” offers an insight into politics underlying migration and development debates within donor countries, and its implications for global migration debates.     

神经干细胞增殖、迁移及分化调控机制的研究

神经干细胞能够不断增殖、迁移,并具有分化成神经元、星型胶质细胞和少突胶质细胞的能力,神经干细胞的这种特性为研究中枢神经系统退行性疾病及损伤后功能恢复奠定了基础,也为法医病理学死后时间和尸体损伤推断的研究提供了新的机遇。本文对神经干细胞的分布、生物学特性、鉴定、增殖、分化与迁移的影响因素,及其在治疗中枢神经系统疾病和法医病理学中的应用前景作一综述。     

The Vitality of A Traditional Art

正A younger generation of crosstalk performers focuses on combining tradition with elements of the modern eraIt’s 9:30 p.m.on a Friday night.Over 100 audience members casually sip tea while taking in the performance of a comedic dialogue showcasing the traditional Chinese linguistic art     

Mutual Trust Tried and Tested

正TWO important high-level discussions between Chinese and U.S.policymakers concluded on July 10 in Beijing.The sixth China-U.S.Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the fifth China-U.S.High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchanges ended successfully,according to participants from both sides.The latest rounds of dialogue,which featured candid exchanges of views and differences,will help build a new type of major-power relationship between China and the United States.Mutual distrust,the cause of all the ups and downs in Sino-U.S.relations,     

Solidarity and Social Networks: The Invisible Backbone That Ethiopians and Eritreans in Washington D.C. used to Transform Adams Morgan and U Street

Abstract

This research depicts the social networks that the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities use to establish and support ethnic and non-cultural businesses in Washington D.C. It also showcases the solidarity expressions that, behind-the-scenes, sustain and help strengthen these migrant-led businesses in the area. Furthermore, it describes the opportunity structure found in Washington D.C. that has allowed Ethiopians and Eritreans to open businesses and progress in neighborhoods such as Adams Morgan and U Street. The study uses ethnographic research comprised of participant observation and in-depth interviews to analyze 20 case studies of successful Ethiopian and Eritrean entrepreneurs in D.C. This paper describes the characteristics of an immigrant community that is underrepresented in the literature, especially regarding its entrepreneurship; it underscores the special role that family and kin play in supporting their entrepreneurship; and it makes visible the impact that Ethiopians and Eritreans have had in some areas of Washington D.C.     

论社会对话

社会对话是我国政治学领域亟待研究的课题。社会对话的产生,有赖于市场经济和民主政治的充分发展,也有赖于社会心理的成熟。在社会对话中,政府如何定位,直接关系到社会对话能否顺利进行及其效果如何。不同的国家有不同的社会对话模式。成功的社会对话,既是改善治理的关键,又是经济和社会改革的推动力量。     

Cultivating Dialogue: From Fragmentation to Relationality in Conflict Interaction

This article builds on the tendency in recent decades in the field of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to analyze conflict and its transformation from a relational perspective. It surveys developments in twentieth‐century philosophy that support the ongoing quest to explore the self in ADR from a relational perspective. It then shows how the concept of dialogue provides a framework for understanding conflict transformation from a relational perspective, by exploring the relational foundations of dialogue. It also draws a connection between the growing use of mindfulness practices in conflict settings and the practice of dialogue, suggesting that Buddhist philosophy and practices can help cultivate relational awareness and dialogue. The article therefore suggests that incorporating dialogue and exploring its relational characteristics can assist ADR scholars and practitioners to develop further practices that can promote collaboration by shifting disputants from adversarial and fragmented orientations to more relational mindsets.     

Conflict dynamics and agonistic dialogue on historical violence: a case from Indonesia

This article contends that the type of high-level political consensus needed to reach a peace agreement is often insufficient for rebuilding and transforming wider social relations. Consensus-focused processes tend to suppress divergent views and experiences of conflict, particularly among grassroots conflict actors, and risk deepening social divides by homogenising diverse memories of past violence, with potentially dangerous consequences. In response to these concerns this article advances an understanding of agonistic dialogue and explores an example of such dialogue in communal conflict in Indonesia. Building on an understanding of effective dialogue as sustained, intensive and relational, this article also underscores the need for effective dialogue to have politico-institutional support and to be locally driven and owned by actors who are legitimate and trusted in the eyes of conflict protagonists.     

The urban household in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900–2000: Patterns of family formation in a turbulent century

Starting from census data on co-residence and household composition, the authors analyse principles of family organisation and family formation in twentieth-century urban Russia and the Soviet Union. The article uses an adapted version of the classification of households developed by Peter Laslett and Eugene Hammel to study variation in household structure for successive population censuses. Changes in this variation between cross-sections are explained with the help of additional quantitative and qualitative data and are linked to the fundamental demographic, social and economic shifts which took place in Russian society in the course of the twentieth century. The article finds a family system characterised by a tendency towards nuclear family formation, but incorporating a fairly stable element of household extension. Co-residence of three generations was both an answer to a perennial housing problem and offered important advantages in the sphere of childcare and care for the elderly. Variation and fluctuation in household structure are found to be most pronounced during the turbulent first half of the century. After a period of stability during the post-war decades of Soviet rule, post-Soviet transformations provoke new changes.