Gendered-Caste Violations and the Cultural Politics of Voice in Rural Orissa,India

Despite the legal ban on untouchability over four decades ago, caste discrimination and atrocities perpetrated against ‘untouchable’ women (or Dalits) continue to be a part of the social landscape in India. Based on a decade-long partnership between a Canadian NGO, a partner Dalit/Adivasi local organization and 75 partner villages in South Orissa, this article provides a localized snapshot of the contemporary nature of caste atrocities committed against Dalit women in the Mohana administrative block. It briefly elaborates on Dalit explanations for such assaults and suggests that when it comes to addressing gendered-caste victimization, there are limits to open democratic advocacy which need to be acknowledged by activists and critical scholarship engaged with the cultural politics of ‘voice’.     

Rural Credit in Zambia: Access and Exit

I am grateful for comments from Geoff Lamb, Paul Isenman, and Robert Chambers. ‘Exit’ is a reference to A. O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty, Cambridge, Mass., 1970, and to B. B. Schaffer and G. B. Lamb, ‘Exit, Voice and Access’, Social Science Information, December 1974.     

Environmental Mis‐Assessment,Development and Mining in Orissa,India

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are the pre‐project standard for outlining potential environmental and social risks related to large‐scale mining. Incomplete or disingenuous EIAs mask the potential social, environmental and economic impacts of large projects. To examine the possible misrepresentation of project risks, this article analyses a set of EIAs for the proposed Niyamgiri mine and related Lanjigarh refinery and refinery expansion in Orissa, India. In contrast to their promises of development benefits, it is argued that the project assessments fail to acknowledge the substantial social impacts for project‐affected persons as some face displacement, livelihood change, marginalization and a loss of natural resources. The issues raised here are not unique to these cases, but are representative of a flawed system in which environmental clearance is granted for projects with misleading or mis‐assessed EIAs. This article questions the validation of ‘development’ projects via EIAs which do not thoroughly estimate the social risks and costs of projects.     

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, poverty and prices in rural India

The objective of this analysis is mainly to construct an intuitive measure of the performance of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India. The focus is on divergence between demand and supply at the district level. Some related issues addressed are: (i) whether the gap between demand and supply responds to poverty; and (ii) whether recent hikes in NREGS wages are inflationary. Our analysis confirms responsiveness of the positive gap between demand and supply to poverty. Also, apprehensions expressed about the inflationary potential of recent hikes in NREGS wages have been confirmed. More importantly, higher NREGS wages are likely to undermine self-selection of the poor in it.     

Access to Health Care Among Three Cohorts of Older Americans Residing in a Rural State

Three cohorts of older Americans are examined to determine how they perceive the likelihood of being able to access health care in the future. A modified Andersen (1968) model provides the framework for the study. A representative sample of 2,404 noninstitutionalized midwestern older persons separated into three age cohorts (60–69, 70–79, and 80+) was used. Predisposing, enabling, and need factors were examined by logistic regression. Significant differences were found between age cohorts, with the perceptions of the oldest-old and the youngest-old appearing to be markedly more sensitive than those of the middle-old. Need factors of health and the respondents' perceptions of help they needed with instrumental activities of daily living, and enabling factors of community size and the barrier imposed by lack of transportation, combined to explain the perceptions of the oldest-old. For the youngest-old, the significant variables were bills, gender, barriers imposed by inadequate insurance, lack of transportation, and a perception that physicians charged more than allowed by Medicare. Recommendations are made for health care policy with respect to different age cohorts among the elderly, their families, and the rurality of the population.     

工业化前中英乡村借贷比较研究

工业化前中国与英国乡村经济中普遍存在着经常性的借贷活动 ,乡村借贷成为农村经济中不可或缺的要素。然而 ,它们历史背景、表现方式、发展状况、功能流向多有不同 ,2 0世纪上半叶中国农村为生存而借贷的传统高利贷市场 ,与工业革命前英国乡村为投资生产而借贷的现代信贷市场形成了鲜明对照。这从一个侧面反映了工业化前中英乡村社会转型的实况     

Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Marriage Distance in Two Sikh Villages of Punjab

The spatial aspects of marriage in two Sikh villages in the Indian state of Punjab are investigated with the findings compared to earlier sudies in other parts of India. One village had experienced the Green Revolution, hut the second had not. A radius of roughly 25 miles demarcates the limit of over 80% of marriage interaction in both villages, and a “crater effect” was observed in the distance decay of marriages. An expansion of the marriage field had taken place in the village influenced by Green Revolution changes, whereas no similar change occurred in the village practicing traditional agriculture. Both the extent of the marriage field and the variations in the intensity of marriage links within the field were affected by socio-economic factors including level of education, caste and extent of land ownership.     

The Social Regulation of Markets: Why Microcredit Fails to Promote Jobs in Rural South India

There is growing evidence that microcredit does little to support self‐employment. Two main explanations are typically emphasized: from a microeconomic perspective, the poor have been argued to lack the skills, resources and motivation to start their own businesses; from a macroeconomic perspective, local markets are often saturated. This article uses first‐hand data from rural South India to explore a third explanation which focuses on the social regulation of markets. Drawing on a household survey, the authors show that self‐employment and microcredit are uncorrelated, and that women and lower castes have a significantly lower chance of starting up a business. The businesses they do start tend to be smaller, less profitable and based in very specific sectors. Qualitative insights into the workings of local economies show that caste and gender‐based social regulations influence local markets determining who can produce or sell what, to whom, and at what price. The authors observe that real markets are affected by power relations and structured through social institutions rather than being the sum of interactions between free and competitive individuals. These findings show the importance of integrating self‐employment programmes into broader policies for transforming the social regulation of markets and for eradicating discrimination against women and lower castes.     

我国旅游资源整合影响因素的理论分析

生产的正外部性和产权不明晰产生的高昂的交易成本导致我国旅游资源开发程度不足,创新旅游资源整合机制是解决这一问题的有效途径。本文将交易成本和外部性引入企业的旅游资源开发决策,发现旅游资源最优多样化程度随着旅游资源的产出弹性的增加而增加,随着旅游资源复杂程度的增加而降低。旅游资源整合机制创新可以从构建超部门的协调机构、建立旅游资源产权交易市场和选择最优的治理结构来实现。     

抗战时期的国统区农村金融--以农村合作金融事业为中心

抗日战争爆发后,南京政府认识到抗战将是持久战,持久抗战的关键之一在于农村能否持久地提供支持。因而,维持和发展农村经济就成为坚持抗战的重要一环。而维持和发展农村经济的关键又在于是否能够为农村提供金融支持。本文以台湾"中研院"近代史研究所档案馆藏有关资料为中心,特别是农林部中央农业实验所农业经济系所作的农村金融调查资料,辅以其他史料,对1939年至1944年间国统区15个省的农村金融借贷、放款利率、放款期限、借贷办法、放款机关等情况进行具体考察,分析和观察其成效与特点,并与抗战前后的情况进行比较,以期对抗战时期国统区的农村金融发展和演变情况,有一个较为清晰的认识。     

A Cognitive Approach to Extant Boat Structure in Goa,India

This article presents information derived from unfunded fieldwork undertaken between 2008 and 2014 in Goa, India. Traditional boat structure is understood in the context of the use of local materials in response to climatic, geophysical, and cultural factors. Expanded and unexpanded logboats are shown to affect differently the pirogues based on them. The outrigger is not used as a sailing aid. Small sailed boats with sewn strakes on a keel‐plank are compared with 19th‐century records. Simple techniques are used on larger sewn and metal‐fastened vessels still being built. Today some factors combine to compromise traditional construction, while others are bringing about the demise of the vessels themselves.     

Public Intervention and Poverty Alleviation: A Study of the Declining Incidence of Rural Poverty in Kerala,India

In the context of the continuing and lively debate on the estimates, trends and determinants of rural poverty in India, this article examines the sharp decline, since the late 1970s, in the incidence of rural poverty in the state of Kerala, well known for its record of social development. It is argued that, given the slow rate of growth of the Kerala economy in general and agriculture in particular since the mid-1970s, the ‘trickle down’ theory cannot explain the decline in poverty. Similarly, the fact that rural wages have increased faster than the consumer price index does not constitute a sufficient condition for crossing the poverty line. Expansion of state-directed programmes is seen to be the single most important determinant in reducing rural poverty. The effect of public intervention programmes is roughly estimated to be equal to one fifth of the consumption of rural labour households. The lesson of Kerala for poverty alleviation is that social protection expressed in terms of meeting the basic consumption requirements of the poor, especially the vulnerable among the poor, should be a necessary component of development policy. However, this is not a sufficient condition: there should also be a growth strategy which would provide adequate employment to all members of the labour force from the poorer sections of the population. The current line of official thinking in India, in the context of economic liberalization, is hardly conducive to such a strategy.