Participatory visual research with subsistence farmers in Papua New Guinea

This article discusses the trial of visual research methods in a socio-economic research and development project with women subsistence farmers and their families in two regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It reports on the benefits and challenges of three visual research methods (drawing, participatory photography, and picture elicitation) to explore the agricultural practice of women subsistence farmers and their families. The paper discusses the potential of these methods for enhancing community engagement, reducing the power imbalance between researchers and participants, and promoting dialogue and reflection to better understand the needs and practices of subsistence farmers.     

One village one product: evaluations and lessons learnt from OVOP aid projects

The One Village One Product project that originated in Japan's Oita Prefecture is just one component of many official Japanese development assistance projects aiming to promote rural development in more than 30 countries. Not all efforts, however, result in the same level of sustainability. Oita Prefecture built its movement on three principles: local yet global, self-reliance and creativity, and human resources development. The projects that satisfy these principles are generally found to be sustainable. These principles can also be applicable to overseas projects.     

Gender justice: the World Bank's new approach to the poor?

Gender inequality is now widely acknowledged as an important factor in the spread and entrenchment of poverty. This article examines the World Development Report 2000/01 as the World Bank's blueprint for addressing poverty in the twenty-first century, together with several more recent Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), with a view to analysing the manner in which gender is incorporated into the policy-making process and considering whether it constitutes a new approach to gender and poverty. It is argued that the World Bank's approach to poverty is unlikely to deliver gender justice, because there remain large discrepancies between the economic and social policies that it prescribes. More specifically, the authors contend that the Bank employs an integrationist approach which encapsulates gender issues within existing development paradigms without attempting to transform an overall development agenda whose ultimate objective is economic growth as opposed to equity. Case studies from Cambodia and Vietnam are used to illustrate these arguments.     

关于清代诗学史的研究方法

清代诗学相比前代诗学,具有文献丰富、作者众多、流派纷繁的特点,现有的研究由于视角单一,同时缺乏对文献的发掘和关注,视线集中在有限的少数问题上,遮蔽了清代诗学的丰富性和多样性。鉴于此,笔者结合自己多年的研究实践对清代诗学研究的方法谈了点看法。     

云南铁路禁毒斗争回顾与思考

多年来 ,云南铁路公安机关开展了卓有成效的禁毒斗争 ,特别是 1998年昆明铁路公安局成立以后 ,始终把维护铁路治安稳定与全面开展禁毒斗争有机结合起来 ,取得了显著成效。但是 ,铁路公安机关全面开展禁毒斗争目前也确实存在着一些困难和问题 ,主要有经费不足、法律法规不健全等。只有解决了这些困难和问题 ,云南铁路禁毒工作才能更有效地发挥作用     

Best of practices?

In this brief critique of the idea of ‘best practice’, the author argues that good practice is not replicable or uniform; it cannot be reduced to its component parts for replication elsewhere. Furthermore, the criteria for what constitutes ‘best practice’ are at best unscientific and tend to discourage diversity and local experimentation.     

Adult learning and literacy learning for livelihoods: some international perspectives

Reflecting contemporary interest in developing new adult literacy learning programmes based on ‘literacy for livelihoods’, this article examines some case studies from New Zealand, Bangladesh, and Egypt, illustrating literacy being used in livelihoods, and relates these to the kind of literacy being taught in many adult literacy programmes today. It argues that people often change their livelihoods, and that each livelihood has literacy practices embedded within it. The authors suggest that the use of these literacy practices embedded within the livelihood activities might be a better starting point for adult literacy learning than a school-based textbook.     

论银监会成立后我国银行业监管的完善

银监会的成立,标志着中国形成了银行业、证券业和保险业分业经营、分业监管的体制。银监会成立后的两年多来,银监会的监管工作确实取得了明显的成效。但我国银行业监管仍存在一些问题,必须进一步加以完善。具体来说,应转变银行监管理念、监管方式和监管目标模式;提高银行监管主体素质,建立对监管者的监督制约机制;完善银行监管的法律、法规、规章及相应的制度体系。     

Pretend It Doesn'T Work: The ‘Anti-Social’ Bias In The Maryland Scientific Methods Scale

The social constructs and methodological principles embodied in the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale (SMS), comprising part of the Campbell Collaboration in Crime and Justice assessment protocol, induce a series of biases in the evaluation of evidence of crime prevention policy interventions that focus on collective social phenomena, such as communities. Applying these principles leads to negative conclusions about effectiveness; yet their inherent ‘anti-social’ bias may induce Type II error with regard to the desirability of ‘social’ interventions to reduce crime. Policy-making is poorly served as a result. This point is illustrated, first, through a scrutiny of the social constructs used, including those that typify treatments, institutional settings and units of analysis. These are seen as being constructed in a way that is congenial to the underlying methodological issue of ‘control’ but that constitute nevertheless a distorted definition of the governance issues involved in crime reduction in community settings. A model more appropriate for evaluating voluntaristic action in civil society is needed. Second, it is suggested that this methodological bias arises particularly in policy interventions and change programmes that address issues concerning the ‘collective efficacy’ of local communities in reducing crime. An empirical exemplification of these arguments is presented with reference to a completed evaluation research study (Foster and Hope, 1993).     

犯罪现场重建之我见

犯罪现场重建是犯罪现场勘查后进行的一种分析犯罪行为过程的活动。它对现场勘查活动产生了重大的影响。犯罪现场重建的方法有回溯推理法、案情环节推进法。