Analysis of off-farm work decisions among smallholder farm households in Burkina Faso

This article investigates off-farm work decisions by smallholder farm households. Using data on 1,101 households from Burkina Faso, it demonstrates that in addition to the usual household socio-demographic characteristics, remittances, access to information and beneficiary of specific training affect off-farm work decisions, as well as rainfall factors and idiosyncratic health shocks. Community characteristics such as accessibility and number of inhabitants are also key factors. While suggesting that off-farm work is less likely to be undertaken for accumulation purposes, these results have important policy implications. In particular, policy measures should consider each segment as a separate entity.     

Local government projectification in practice – a multiple institutional logic perspective

ABSTRACT

During the last couple of decades, we have witnessed a proliferation of the project as an organizational solution in sectors as diverse as IT, housing, social services, education and culture. Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon, we know surprisingly little of how processes of public sector projectification unfold in practice, especially at local government level. This article uses an institutional logic perspective to illustrate and argue that public sector projectification can be understood and conceptualized as the enactment of multiple, co-existing institutional logics, but where one particular logic is of growing importance – the project logic. It is argued that even though the project form is often perceived as more flexible than that of the bureaucracy, the practical outcome seldom represents a radical break with traditional, bureaucratic management models. Rather, it appears to aid a rediscovery and reuse of central bureaucratic practices and procedures such as reporting, documentation and standardization.     

From discourse to policy: US policy communities’ perceptions of and approaches to climate change and security

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, a diverse set of policy communities, including those with defence, development and environmental mandates, frame climate change as a security threat. Most often this discursive formation labels climate change as a ‘threat multiplier’. This framing, however, is vague, linear and leaves many questions unanswered regarding how institutions can develop and implement policy that addresses the joint challenges of climate change, conflict and security. Utilising a mixed-methods approach, and grounding data collection in US policy communities, this article examines how policy actors and institutions integrate climate-security discourses into policy processes. The objective of this research is to provide direct insight into how the discourses and technical understandings of climate-security transition into policy priorities and implementation realities. This research identified three common approaches to climate-security: (1) A challenge of adaptation and resilience; (2) A potent political argument; and (3) An issue of limited importance and feasibility. These approaches, however, are inconsistent across sectors and within organisations, suggesting a lack of cohesion and considerable challenges in identifying and responding to climate change as a ‘threat multiplier’.     

论公司经营范围的准确定位

公司作为一种营利性组织,必须以其组织章程规定的经营范围为基础进行经营活动。传统公司法中,对超范围经营活动,法律赋予其绝对无效的法律后果。随着经济的发展,体制的转变,经营范围的绝对性受到了质疑。本文分析了经营范围的功能及社会经济基础的变化,认为我们可以借鉴发达国家的做法,采用相对无效原则。不将其全盘否定,放宽限制,给公司充分的经营自由,同时兼顾政府的公共事务管理职能。     

关于经济全球化背景下中国政府职能转变的思考

加入WTO ,加快了中国经济全球化的进程 ,同时受到更多约束的是中国政府 ,因此政府只有适应经济全球化的挑战 ,进一步转变政府职能。政府职能不再是“守夜人”。针对目前存在的主要问题 ,本文提出在五个方面的政府职能的转变 ,最终创造有效率的市场环境 ,促进中国经济持续稳定地发展。     

2005年上海地区乳牛球虫感染的季节动态

为了解上海地区乳牛球虫感染的季节变化情况,对上海地区3个牧场乳牛抽样直肠采集粪便,检查了718头乳牛粪样。结果,查出球虫阳性牛269头,平均感染率为37.46%,其中1月龄以内牛的感染率为33.89%,1~12月龄牛的感染率为42.33%,12月龄以上牛的感染率为25.95%。平均感染率最高的4月份为44.44%,最低的8月份为28.57%。3个牧场球虫阳性牛的感染强度(OPG值)为0~169 000个,平均OPG值为9 477个,其中1月龄以内牛的OPG值为8 270个,1~12月龄牛的OPG值为4 318个,12月龄以上牛的OPG值为145个。调查发现了6种球虫,分别是牛艾美球虫(Eimeria bovis)、椭圆艾美球虫(E.ellipsoidalis)、邱氏艾美球虫(E.zurnii)、怀俄明艾美球虫(E.wyomingensis)、柱状艾美球虫(E.cylindri-ca)、亚球形艾美球虫(E.subspherica)。结果表明,2005年上海地区乳牛球虫感染率无明显季节差异,12月龄内乳牛的球虫感染率与感染强度均明显高于12月龄以上乳牛,乳牛球虫的优势虫种为牛艾美球虫、椭圆艾美球虫、邱氏艾美球虫。     

Bushwhacking the Democratic Peace

The invasion of Iraq has been justified, ex post , as for the purpose of promoting the democratic peace. It does not, however, appear to have been a principal goal ex ante . Most democratic peace theorists, moreover, do not endorse democratic regime change by great-power external military intervention. Success is difficult to achieve (usually at high cost), and the conditions in Iraq were not promising even had the occupation been carried out more competently. Greater success in democratization has been achieved by UN peacekeeping operations, and by various regional international organizations using a variety of peaceful measures to ensure free elections, constrain authoritarian leaders, and empower democratic forces. International organizations, notably those whose membership is largely composed of democracies, are especially likely to succeed in promoting democracy.     

论我国现行立法背景下的物权变动模式

物权的变动模式作为物权法的重要内容,一直是学界讨论的热点。如何正确认识我国现行立法背景下的物权变动模式,对于未来物权立法能否选择一个既与国际接轨又适合我国国情的物权变动模式,有着重要的意义。笔者认为,我国现行法规定的物权变动模式,虽非债权意思主义,但也绝不是学界通说的债权形式主义,而是一种特有的模式——物权意思主义。     

我国刑事被害人诉讼权利保护制度的完善

随着诉讼制度的发展,刑事被害人的诉讼地位经历了一个由高到低再逐渐提高的过程。我国修改后的刑事诉讼法提升了被害人的法律地位,并一定程度上强化了其诉讼权利,但在保护被害人诉讼权利方面仍存在着一些不足,应当采取相应的措施加以完善。     

The Frontiers of Legal Analysis: Reframing the Transition in Northern Ireland

British constitutional legal discourse is structurally limited in its capacity to capture the complexity of the Good Friday Agreement. Rather than assessing the Agreement in narrow devolutionary terms, it should be seen as a hybrid domestic and international law instrument, making an important contribution to accepted international law norms in relation to self-determination. The Agreement transforms and partly transcends the Northern Ireland conflict by substituting political contestation for violent conflict, and by defining the modalities of conducting that contestation. This analysis complements classical international law perspectives, and opens up the application of legal discourses associated with 'transitional justice' to the legal and political transformation in Northern Ireland. These discourses focus on the problem of reconciling the demands of peace with the imperatives of justice. The Agreement sits squarely in this terrain with its provisions on 'dealing with the past' and 'institutional legacies'. The insights gained here challenge orthodox thinking about conflict-management and the ongoing political process.