Work and Family Life among Migrant Factory Workers in China and Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Through on-site interviewing, a comparative study has been carried out about migrant factory workers in industrialised parts of China’s Guangdong province and in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City. Even though China and Vietnam possess similar legacies of socialist transformation and have household registration regulations that restrict rural migrants’ access to urban social services and impede their settlement in cities, there exist marked differences in Guangdong and Ho Chi Minh City in migration patterns, factory work conditions and migrant worker family livelihoods. In particular, migrant families in Ho Chi Minh City largely stay intact and tend to settle there permanently, while married migrant workers in Guangdong normally need to split up their families and remain trapped in circular rural–urban migration. As shall be seen, the national and local governments play important roles in determining the inclusion or exclusion of migrants from urban life, the wages they are paid and their standard of living and, most important of all, their children’s access to education. Each of the two countries’ differences in implementing policies is examined and comparatively analysed.     

The judiciary and post-election conflict resolution and democratic consolidation in Ghana’s Fourth Republic

ABSTRACT

In recent times most elections in Africa have been fraught with post-elections conflicts that have had dire consequences on citizens. Kenya, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe are few of these cases. This makes post-election conflict resolution a very important aspect of the electoral process deserving enormous attention. However, extant literature has not accorded it the needed attention. It is as a result of this, that this study investigates the nature of post-election conflict resolution in Ghana’s Fourth Republic. The study, based on a qualitative case study approach, found among others that, the Courts have been instrumental in consolidating democracy in Ghana, and stakeholders are devotedly operating within the legal framework governing elections, despite logistical, law enforcement and justice delivery challenges. The study being conscious of the progress made over the years concludes that, where democratic institutions are consolidating, the use of unconventional means to resolve conflicts is usually not an option.     

What explains the rise of majority–minority tensions and conflict in Xinjiang?

ABSTRACT

In the past few years there has been a rise of inter-ethnic violence in China. While ethno-cultural repression and ineffective state policies are correctly attributed as key culprits behind this reality, this article suggests that socio-economic factors play a fundamental contributory role as well. Using the Xinjiang case, the article maps ethnic tensions and violence as a manifestation and expression of a growing and heightened ethno-cultural consciousness stemming from ethnic minorities’ low socio-economic status due, in part, to internal Han migration, and a labour market process – involving agency and structure – that has shaped a split and segmented labour market.     

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.     

Sense of Belonging Among High School Students Representing 4 Ethnic Groups

The authors investigated the dimensions and mechanisms of belonging relevant to motivation and achievement among high school students representing 4 ethnic groups. Using survey data from 9th to 12th grade students (N = 5,494) attending 7 ethnically-diverse high schools, structural equation modeling was employed to explore, independently for each ethnic group, the relationships between students’ perceptions of their belonging (encompassing relationships with teachers and peers, extracurricular involvement, and perceived ethnic-based discrimination), motivation (efficacy beliefs and valuing school activities), and academic success. All 4 measures of belonging were significant for European-American and Latino students. However, friendship nominations were not significant for all groups, suggesting potential variability in perspectives across ethnic groups. The strength of the structural model postulating belonging as a mediator, including statistically significant indirect paths, supported the hypothesis that the belonging construct accounted for much of the relationship between student motivation and success across groups.Beverly Faircloth is a doctoral candidate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include the developmental and motivational processes that support adolescent school engagement in ethnically diverse settings.Jill Hamm is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996. Her research interests are adolescents’ peer relations in ethnically diverse schools and classrooms.     

《公安机关适用继续盘问规定》亮点解析

2004年7月,公安部发布了《公安机关适用继续盘问规定》。适用范围缩小、三类人不得进候问室,明确限定持续的时间、妥善安置弱势者家属、致人死亡三级问责制和严格候问室设置管理等内容都是其中的亮点,人民警察需要认真学习和理解,规范执法行为。     

世贸组织法律框架下贸易自由理想与贸易保护现实的冲突

贸易磨擦事件数量的上升是当今世界经济全球化发展的一种“不和谐音” ,是各国基于自身利益的考虑而推行贸易保护主义所引发的贸易冲突的集中表现 ,而这绝大部分冲突又恰恰是在以推行和实现世界贸易自由化为宗旨的世贸组织法律框架内所发生的。我国已经加入世贸组织 ,对这一问题作一反思 ,积极迎接挑战 ,具有特别的现实意义     

论家庭抚育功能外化对青少年社会化的挑战——基于对苏州市托教机构的实地研究

家庭在青少年社会化的过程中起着基础性的作用,但是随着经济社会的迅速发展和家庭结构的变化,家庭在青少年社会化过程中所扮演的角色正在发生改变,家庭的抚育功能正在发生外化。在这一背景下,青少年社会化面临着新的挑战,包括影响青少年的人格培养、导致青少年产生自我认同危机、造成青少年角色失调与混乱以及由青少年社会化自主性增强所导致的与家庭传统权威的冲突。     

高等教育责任实现视域下的高校德育探讨

我国高等教育承担着对国家与个人的责任，责任之间及其内部存在一定冲突，并给高校德育工作带来了一定的影响。高校德育工作必须坚持将“培养什么人”放在首位，注意平衡个人价值与社会价值，改进德育方法，着力引导学生认识伦理道德素养对自身生存与发展的重要价值，从而有效解决冲突，更好地实现自身对国家与个人的责任。     

我国恐怖主义犯罪与普通刑事犯罪冲突研究

由于我国《刑法》对恐怖主义犯罪没有明确的法律界定,导致与相关普通刑事犯罪在法律适用上产生冲突,给司法实务中的定罪与量刑工作带来了很大的不便,也不利于对恐怖主义犯罪的惩治和预防。因此,论述恐怖主义犯罪与相关普通刑事犯罪之间的冲突、分析冲突产生的原因、提出解决冲突的具体对策具有重大的理论和实践意义。