State marionettes,phantom organisations or genuine movements? The paradoxical emergence of rural social movements in post-socialist Russia

Of all the rural social movements in the world, those in post-socialist Russia have been considered to be among the weakest. Nevertheless, triggered by the neo-liberal reforms in the countryside, state attention to agriculture and rising land conflicts, new social movement organisations with a strong political orientation are emerging in Russia today. This sudden burst of civil activity, however, raises questions as to how genuine and independent the emerging organisations are. Our research shows that many rural movements, agricultural associations, farm unions and rural political parties lack constituency, support the status quo and/or are actually counterfeits (what we call ‘phantom movement organisations’). With this analysis, we aim to explain the nature of social movements in the post-Soviet countryside and offer an original contribution to the theory on and practice of rural social movements.     

Reserve labor,unreserved politics: dignified encroachments under India's national rural employment guarantee act

The rural proletariat constitute a substantial proportion of the global poor. Leading better lives is central to their political practices. In this paper, I aim to elaborate the political practices that attend to these aspirations, interrogations and contests. I examine existing approaches to studying political practices of the rural proletariat. I do this with a focus on India, where the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is in force since 2005. I locate the program against the backdrop of neoliberal transformations in India. I then examine the ways in which the rural proletariat engage with the program, even when other opportunities in the agricultural sector are available. Based on these examinations, I argue that the practices spawned by the program are to be understood as ‘encroachments’ into the extant social customs, norms and habits of rural India. This perspective, I contend, is more fruitful than locating the rural proletariat's engagement with the NREGA as a coping strategy or a tactic of resistance against rural elites. The data which this paper draws on include official sources, in-depth interviews with workers in rural Bihar and West Bengal and ethnographic observations.     

加强工会自身建设 树立工会良好形象

加强工会自身建设是工会工作创新发展的内在动力,工会工作要与时代同步,就必须把自身建设摆在更加突出的位置,不断推进工会工作群众化、民主化、制度化,全面加强工会组织的干部队伍建设、工作活力建设、民主管理建设。     

非法人社团的独立财产权——以工会的独立财产权为中心

非法人社团虽然不具有法人资格,但在某种意义上,并不影响其享有独立的财产权,这一点,对于具有社会公共职能的社团而言,更具有现实价值。工会作为协调劳资关系,保护劳动者权益的重要社团,其独立财产权的享有是其生存和发展的根本所在。这充分表明,不具有法人资格的工会组织也可以准用独立财产权规则。这种准用得到了大陆法和英美法的理论和制度的支持。     

Strategic drift in international non‐governmental development organizations—putting strategy in the background of organizational change

Although the use of strategic planning has become widespread in INGDOs they have often been accused of strategic drift—continuous change in their strategic directions with plans only loosely coupled to their activities. However, the way that they prioritize their activities, and the reasons why strategic drift occurs has generally escaped in‐depth research. This article draws on detailed, qualitative research of strategic planning meetings at the executive levels in a major INGDO, carried out between July 2006 and December 2007 to identify the reasons why strategic drift occurs and the role of strategic planning. It was found that by deliberately crafting multiple, ambiguous, and ambitious strategies, managers were able to effect organizational change, not by literal strategy implementation, but by using these strategies as metaphors to harness consensus and legitimacy in key stakeholder groups. Senior managers utilize the symbols, language and deliberative arenas of formal strategic planning to effect organizational change; however, strategy, in rational terms, needs to be located in the background for its role to be properly understood. The research unpacks complex decision‐making processes in an INGDO and, contrary to normative literature, recommends that, in order to avoid inflationary planning, managers should not take their strategy literally. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

关于工会组织公信力的思考

工会组织公信力是工会组织赢得职工群众认可和社会信任的关键能力,是工会组织取得社会合法性的基础力量.当前我国工会的组织体制和运行机制还不能适应市场经济条件下维护职工合法权益的形势需要,使得工会尤其是基层企业工会作用发挥有限、部分职工和社会公众对工会工作的认可度不高,从而造成了工会组织公信力低下的状况.面对这一问题,工会组织需要调整传统的工作理念、工作模式与工作方法,主动作为,通过理念创新、组织创新、机制创新与工作创新,大力推进组织服务力建设.     

宁夏农村金融扶贫的路径选择——大力发展微型金融服务

微型金融是为解决发展中国家农村金融落后而兴起的一种金融形式,发展微型金融服务已成为当前我国农村金融改革的重要课题。也是宁夏农村摆脱贫困、帮助农民创业,实现宁夏农村金融扶贫的新的路径选择。     

新农村建设视域下的社会资本建构问题探论

发轫于20世纪80年代的社会资本理论具有很强的解释力。新农村建设是一项涉及政治、经济等多方面的系统工程,社会资本理论可以为其提供较好的分析视角。社会资本由信任、规范和网络构成。这种结构化的特征使得它对新农村建设具有正向功能。培育社会资本、推进新农村建设,需要政府与社会通力合作、协同治理。     

新型农村合作医疗制度中的政府职能定位

新型农村合作医疗制度的建设关系到广大农民的切身利益和农村社会稳定的大局,是社会主义新农村建设的重要组成部分。随着新型农村合作医疗制度的实施,暴露出一些亟待解决的问题,强化政府在该制度中的主导性地位成为解决问题的关键。政府作为公共产品及服务的提供主体,必须在新型农村合作医疗制度中发挥关键作用。在制度设计中充分体现"以人为本"的理念,改善农民的医疗条件,更好地维护农民的切身利益,为我国新型农村合作医疗制度构建做出新的贡献。     

农村养老保障模式选择的影响因素分析

一个国家农村养老保障模式的选择与固化是多种复杂因素相互影响的结果。影响农村养老保障模式选择的因素复杂,主要有社会经济结构、社会需求、政策主体的价值偏好、区域经济的不平衡性等因素。