Harvested rainwater: quality,adequacy, and proximity in Ghanaian rural communities

This article presents a study that aimed to assess the accessibility, use, and quality of harvested rainwater in three rural communities in Ghana where the government of Ghana and local and international development organisations have sponsored domestic rainwater harvesting. The results showed that rainwater storage facilities were within the recommended distance of 1000m from each house. The amount of rainwater per person per day was below the recommended amount. The majority of the respondents therefore depended on other sources of water. Though the physico-chemical quality of rainwater met the WHO guideline limit for drinking water, the bacteriological quality did not. The majority of common water-associated infections experienced prior to the project have not been experienced after the project.     

When development breeds contempt: case examples of community-driven health systems initiatives

This article discusses case examples of community-led initiatives triggered by the introduction of an external development programme in Senegal and Mali. These are community initiatives that learn from projects initiated and funded by an external donor organisation, and transform interventions to better meet their own needs. The circumstances leading to the demand for, and successful establishment of, health infrastructure are examined to understand the triggers. These breakthroughs demonstrate unintended benefits of development, and the need to leverage donor-led initiatives. Therefore, community involvement, participation, and empowerment are key in establishing local ownership in development projects.     

Social construction of capabilities and intersectional complexities in a Tamil village

India is an ethnographic museum, well-known for its national motto of “unity in diversity”. It is a country of diverse hierarchies where the social reality is intersected by the varied grades of caste and class, among others. Against this backdrop, this article conceptualises the intersections of primordial identities. The concept of intersection underscores how diverse social positions interact in a Tamil village in India. As intersectionality is “the mutually constitutive relations among social identities” (Shields 2008), the interactions of caste, class, and gender in education are conceptualised to understand the formation of capabilities.     

Inside a Cultural Agency: Team Ethnography and Knowledge Exchange

This article undertakes an auto-critical analysis of the research team's ethnographic study of Cultural Enterprise Office (CEO), a Scottish creative business support agency. We discuss the team's composition and how this relates to other analyses of ethnographic teamwork. Our research is situated in the wider policy context of the “creative-economic” turn in the UK's research funding. This has been accompanied by increased emphasis on “knowledge exchange” and “impact” in the drive for greater accountability in higher education. The team's evolution in the course of undertaking research is illustrated by reference to four “pivotal moments,” which illustrate how we “performed” knowledge exchange.     

从政企关系看入世对政府管理企业职能的挑战

我国加入WTO政府必将面临多方面的挑战。一是政府管理企业职能面临的挑战。市场经济促使政府要由微观经济管理职能转向宏观经济调控和协调服务职能;二是政府服务成本面临的挑战。政府服务成本影响着企业的竞争能力,政府服务成本的社会价值会在企业的竞争能力中体现;三是政府利益面临的挑战。国有企业是政府利益的特特殊代表,其经济功能的价值体现在政府利益中,中小企业、服务业在参与竞争中,政府应给予支持和保护。     

地方政府在国有资本整合中的政策调整--以老工业基地为例

老工业基地地方政府在国有资本整合中,不仅要完成第一次飞跃,还要完成第二次飞跃,实现“双重目标”。其政策调整要开启后改革时代,着力解决多元主体权责利险的对称性和统一性;加大政府改革成本支出与降低企业改制成本相结合。     

城乡统筹下农民工社会保障的政策执行研究

解决农民工社会保障问题对于促进我国城市化、统筹城乡经济社会发展、建设和谐社会具有重大现实意义。借助史密斯政策执行模型,论述了政策本身、执行机构、标的团体以及环境因素在农民工社会保障建设中的作用机制,并提出相应的对策。     

Citizens,consumers, workers,and activists: civil society during and after water privatization struggles

Water privatization battles and their aftermath in seven Latin American, African, and Asian countries feature diverse and often complementary forms of action by unions, popular movements, neighbourhood associations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs cooperate with popular movements for water rights more than the literature would suggest, and after mobilizations against privatization, activists have had some success maintaining pressure for better service to poor neighbourhoods through advocacy and local self-provision arrangements. Public employees’ unions play important roles in water policy coalitions, often practising a distinctive form of social movement unionism. These experiences argue for a more flexible understanding of categories and organizational forms in civil society.     

关于国有石化企业培育“工匠精神”的实践思考 —— 以中国石化茂名石化公司为例

国有石化企业大多建厂较早,不少装置结构不够优化,许多工艺技术比较落后,产品则是"大路货"居多,缺少高端"拳头"产品,在国内外市场激烈竞争中缺乏核心竞争力。以茂名石化公司为例,每年生产近90多个石油产品和200多个化工产品,但低端产品产能过剩,高端产品比例不足,具有市场竞争力的产品并不多,特别是企业化工产品中合成树脂材料占比非常大,深陷低水平同质化竞争,严重限制了企业增效创效能力。在这种情形下,国有石化企业就需要员工具有开拓创新、精益求精的工匠精神,勤于学习、肯于钻研、勇于创造,不断开发新工艺、新技术、新产品,以提升企业的增效创效能力,增强企业核心竞争力。     

论职工社团在企业文化建设中的地位作用与发展

文化是人民的精神家园,其核心是以人为本,首发集团秉承着"以人为本"的理念,积极探索实践企业文化管理的新理念、新方法、新途径,首发职工社团就是在这个探索过程中应运而生的,不仅满足了广大职工日益增长的多元化的文化需求,还发挥了文化引领风尚、教育职工、服务企业、推动发展的作用。