The weakness of postcommunist civil society reassessed

During the last two decades, scholars from a variety of disciplines have argued that civil society is structurally deficient in postcommunist countries. Yet why have the seemingly strong, active and mobilised civic movements of the transition period become so weak after democracy was established? And why have there been diverging political trajectories across the postcommunist space if civil society structures were universally weak? This article uses a new, broader range of data to show that civil societies in Central and Eastern European countries are not as feeble as commonly assumed. Many postcommunist countries possess vigorous public spheres and active civil society organisations strongly connected to transnational civic networks able to shape domestic policies. In a series of time‐series cross‐section models, the article shows that broader measures of civic and social institutions are able to predict the diverging transition paths among postcommunist regimes, and in particular the growing gap between democratic East Central Europe and the increasingly authoritarian post‐Soviet space.     

Mediated territoriality: rural workers and the efforts to scale out agroecology in Nicaragua

The Spanish word formación can be translated as ‘training’ or ‘education’, but Latin American social movements use it as inspired by Che Guevara’s notion of ‘molding’ the values of the new woman and new man for egalitarian, cooperative social relations in the construction of a ‘new society’. This contribution presents findings on the dialectical linkages between the formación processes led by the Rural Workers’ Association (ATC) and the gradual transformation of the Nicaraguan countryside by peasant families choosing to grow food using agroecological practices. We use Vygotsky’s sociocultural historical theory to explore the developmental processes of formación subjects and the pedagogical mediators of their transformation into movement cadre. The motivations of active learners to develop new senses and collective understandings about their material reality become a counterhegemonic process of internalization and socialization of agroecological knowledges and senses. In this paper, we further explore the formación process by identifying territorial mediators: culturally significant elements within and outside of individuals that facilitate the rooting of agroecological social processes in a given territory where the social movement is active. By placing the territory, rather than the individual, at the center of popular education processes, new synergies are emerging in the construction of socially mobilizing methods for producing and spreading agroecological knowledge.     

Democracies in crisis

The main contribution of this study is to identify democracies in the world that are at risk of becoming non-democracies. It is hypothesized that if democracies have a low level of legitimacy and have low effectiveness, they are at risk of becoming non-democratic regimes. These types of democracies are called weak democracies. Of the seven democracies that are identified as weak democracies between 2000 and 2010, the weakest of them, Mali, has already fallen. However, looking at the results of this study, it is not surprising that the democratic regime in Mali fell. The other six countries that are identified as weak democracies are Benin, Mongolia, Lesotho, El Salvador, Belize, and Mexico. The democratic regimes in these six weak democracies should be observed in more detail in the future to predict whether they are close to falling and losing their democratic institutions, or whether they will recover and no longer be weak democracies.     

Reply to ‘The politics of evidence: a response to Rulli and D'Odorico’

ABSTRACT

Indicators of carbon storage in forests and other land uses have gained much prominence to evaluate and endorse land-based climate change mitigation policies. The outcomes of such assessments can have direct livelihood implications for dwellers living at the forest–agriculture frontier, such as shifting cultivators or subsistence farmers. This contribution critically discusses the methodological relevance of carbon stock indicators to assess long-term emission dynamics of land uses, and furthermore addresses the ‘politics of measurement’ that can be involved in policy practice. From a complex socio-ecological systems perspective, the paper argues that carbon stock indicators provide necessary but not sufficient information to endorse land use policies with mitigation aims. While they may indicate one-off sequestration gains through vegetation and land-use change, they cannot account for permanent hidden emissions that emerge as part of the broader agrarian transitions that accompany land-use change. Over the long term, this may render related mitigation interventions ineffective, if not counterproductive. Furthermore, carbon stock estimates for future land-use scenarios sometimes draw on biased assumptions, or are constructed within histories of discrimination, through which they may further marginalize subaltern groups such as shifting cultivators. A paradigm shift is needed that includes more integrative assessment approaches.     

From Command Economy to Hollow State? Decentralisation in Vietnam and China

In Vietnam and China, decentralisation is a by‐product, both by default and design, of the transition to a state‐managed market economy. A dual process of horizontal and vertical decentralisation is occurring simultaneously in both the economic and political arena. There is an increasingly high level of de facto political/fiscal decentralisation, much of it occurring by default as local governing units try to meet rising demand for services. This is accompanied by the marketisation and socialisation of services such as education and health. Accompanying both of these processes is a trend towards greater ‘autonomisation’ of service delivery units, including the emergence of new ‘para‐state’ entities. Most of these decentralisation processes are the by‐product of marketisation, rather than part of a process of deliberate state restructuring in pursuit of ideals of decentralised government. The cumulative effects include a significant fragmentation of the state, a high potential for informalisation and corruption, and a growing set of performance accountability problems in the delivery of public services.     

A dynamic analysis of partisan voting: The issue salience effect of unemployment in South Korea

This paper examines the electoral effects of the salience of unemployment issue. While increasing employment volatility has spawned exciting research, evidence of how unemployment affects vote choice is inconclusive. I refine partisan voting theory by focusing on issue salience of unemployment and the dynamics of voter choice. Voters are more likely to make a transition to support left parties when they identify unemployment as the most important and salient issue. The study also examines voter heterogeneity in the link between issue salience and the propensity for transition to the left. The effect of issue salience of unemployment is more pronounced among lower income groups than their counterparts. Analysis of a transition model using the 1997 and 2002 Korean presidential election surveys finds evidence supporting my arguments.     

Popular Attitudes toward Distributive Injustice: Beijing and Warsaw Compared

Popular reactions to the transition from centrally planned socialism to a market-based economy are explored through an examination of survey data on distributive justice and injustice attitudes in Beijing, China, in 2000, and in Warsaw, Poland, in 2001. In both capitals objective socioeconomic status characteristics of respondents have weaker and less consistent associations with distributive injustice attitudes than measures of subjective social status and self-reported trends in family standards of living. When objective and subjective respondent background characteristics are controlled for statistically, residents of democratic and enthusiastically capitalist Warsaw have stronger feelings of distributive injustice than respondents in undemocratic and only partially reformed Beijing. However, one exception to this pattern is that Beijing residents favor government redistribution to reduce income differences more than their Warsaw counterparts. Conjectures about the sources of these differences in distributive injustice attitudes are offered. Martin King Whyte is Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. His recent research focuses on changing family patterns in contemporary China, China’s distinctive economic development path, and popular attitudes toward distributive injustice issues. His recent publications include two edited volumes: China’s Revolutions and Intergenerational Relations (University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies) and One Country, Two Societies? Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China (Harvard University Press, forthcoming). Chunping Han recently completed her PhD in Sociology at Harvard, with a doctoral thesis entitled, Rural-Urban Cleavages in Perceptions of Inequality in Contemporary China.     

旅游人类学在美国

20世纪70年代,旅游成为当代人生活的一个重要组成部分,同时带来各种社会文化的碰撞和变迁.这一问题引起了美国人类学家的注意,他们就旅游者及其类别,旅游的目的、动机和方式,旅游给东道国带来的文化影响和社会问题等论题进行研究,形成了人类学的一个分支学科--旅游人类学,并形成由格雷本、史密斯、马康耐、马格丽特·丝旺等为代表的一批旅游人类学家.     

参七虫草胶囊对博莱霉素致肺纤维化大鼠肺泡上皮细胞间质转化的影响

目的 从肺泡上皮细胞间质转化（epithelial mesenchymal transition，EMT）角度探讨参七虫草胶囊治疗肺纤维化的作用机制。方法 将128只SD大鼠随机分为正常组、模型组、参七虫草组和泼尼松组。采用气管内滴入博莱霉素的方法复制肺纤维化模型。采用苏木精-伊红染色检测大鼠肺组织形态学改变，采用Masson染色观察肺组织胶原沉积情况，采用免疫组织化学法检测肺组织中上皮细胞钙粘素（E-cadherin，E-cad）、α-平滑肌肌动蛋白（α-smooth muscle actin，α-SMA）、波形蛋白（Vimentin）的表达水平。结果 参七虫草组大鼠肺组织炎性反应及胶原沉积较模型组明显减轻。第7、14、21、28天，模型组E-cad表达水平显著低于正常组（P<0.05），α-SMA和Vimentin表达水平显著高于正常组（P<0.05）；参七虫草组和泼尼松组E-cad表达水平显著高于模型组（P<0.05），α-SMA和Vimentin表达水平显著低于模型组（P<0.05）；参七虫草组和泼尼松组E-cad和Vimentin表达水平相近（P＞0.05）。第28天，参七虫草组α-SMA表达水平显著低于泼尼松组（P<0.05）。正常组4个时点肺组织中E-cad、α-SMA和Vimentin表达水平无明显变化（P＞0.05），模型组、参七虫草组和泼尼松组第14、21和28天肺组织E-cad表达水平逐渐降低，α-SMA和Vimentin表达水平逐渐升高，差异均有统计学意义（P<0.05）。结论 参七虫草胶囊通过调节肺组织E-cad、α-SMA和Vimentin表达水平而抑制EMT的发生。     

复方守宫散抑制肝细胞癌细胞增殖、迁移和侵袭的机制研究

目的 探究复方守宫散对肝细胞癌（hepatocellular carcinoma，HCC）细胞增殖、迁移和侵袭的作用机制。方法 采用CCK-8法检测复方守宫散对HCC细胞系SK-Hep-1和Huh7增殖能力的影响，并基于此将HCC细胞分为对照组和低、中、高浓度组进行后续实验；采用划痕实验和Transwell实验检测不同浓度的复方守宫散对HCC细胞迁移、侵袭能力的影响；采用q-PCR实验和Western blot实验检测复方守宫散对HCC细胞中上皮细胞-间充质转化（epithelial-mesenchymal transition，EMT）和整合素家族（integrin）基因和蛋白表达的影响；构建NOD/SCID小鼠HCC模型，观察复方守宫散对小鼠体内HCC瘤体生长的抑制作用。结果 CCK-8实验结果显示，复方守宫散对HCC细胞的增殖能力有显著的抑制作用；划痕实验及Transwell实验结果显示，各浓度的复方守宫散对HCC细胞的迁移、侵袭能力有抑制作用，并且存在剂量依赖性；q-PCR实验和Western blot实验结果显示，复方守宫散可以影响EMT和integrin相关基因和蛋白的表达；复方守宫散对小鼠体内HCC瘤体生长具有显著的抑制作用，且呈剂量依懒性。结论 复方守宫散对HCC细胞系SK-Hep-1、Huh7的增殖、迁移和侵袭能力具有显著抑制作用，其机制可能与EMT及integrin信号通路有关。