UNICEF ‘Child Poverty in Perspective’ Report: A View from the UK

In February 2007, UNICEF launched the latest in a series of reports comparing the conditions of young people's lives across the world's more industrialised countries. The report ranked the UK as the lowest of the countries investigated. We give a critical overview of the report, identifying its limitations as well as some of the trends it reveals. We also discuss the poor placing of the UK in relation to current broader political and public debates.     

青海省贫困人口成因及扶贫措施探讨

青海省是全国最贫困的省份之一。本文针对贫困人口的成因,重点分析了扶贫工作中存在的问题,并在此基础上提出了今后扶贫管理方面改革的措施。     

HEALTH OF HOME-BASED SEX WORKERS AND THEIR CHILDREN IN RURAL ANDHRA PRADESH,INDIA

This study uses secondary data from 2006 to assess the physical and mental health of rural, home-based sex workers and their young children in rural Andhra Pradesh state of India. The analyses of survey and clinical data show a high level of morbidity amongst sex worker women and their children. Women show high levels of nutritional deficiencies, anaemia, weight loss and hospitalisation. Women's mental health is particularly serious, with 92 per cent being depressed and 57 per cent having attempted suicide. The majority have experienced domestic and work-related violence, including rape. Clinical assessments of sex workers’ children show that most have received vaccinations, but almost half have parasites, dental problems and nutritional deficiencies. Both the physical and mental health of sex worker mothers are associated with the health of their children. Therefore, health interventions focusing on sex worker mothers have the potential to improve the health of their children.     

Child Poverty in the American States: The Impact of Welfare Reform,Economics, and Demographics

This article identifies the predictors of child poverty rates at the state level before and after the adoption and implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The analysis shows that the most important state‐level factors that influence child poverty rates are demographics, the health and viability of the state economy, and often the generosity, inclusiveness, and quality of state welfare programs. States with large numbers of black citizens, and those that score highest on infant mortality, teen births, births to unmarried women, children living with a parent without a high school degree, and children living with a single parent have the highest rates of child poverty. Child poverty rates are lowest in states that suffer less unemployment, and in wealthier states. States that score higher on per capita personal income, tax revenues, and taxable resources have lower child poverty rates. While specific “tough” welfare policies adopted by some states seem to have no impact on child poverty rates, we tested for the first time a sophisticated measure of the overall quality of state welfare programs. The analysis reveals that the global quality of a state's welfare programs is often an independent predictor of child poverty. States with the most generous, inclusive, and supportive welfare programs have done the best job of lowering and containing child poverty.     

国外学者对中国消除农村绝对贫困的研究

自20世纪90年代以来,国外学者从反贫困的视野出发,对中国消除农村绝对贫困的政策、实践与经验进行了比较全面的研究。他们分析了中国农村绝对贫困的状况和发生的原因,跟踪研究中国消除农村绝对贫困的历程和所取得的成就,注重用国际减贫理论分析中国消除农村绝对贫困的措施,用中国减贫实践验证国际减贫理论的有效性,总结中国减贫经验为世界其他贫困地区提供借鉴。在中国完成脱贫攻坚任务、整体消除农村绝对贫困之际,梳理国外学者对中国消除农村绝对贫困的研究,对于国内学界全面准确地总结中国消除农村绝对贫困的实践经验有一定的参考价值。     

Health prospects of older persons in Thailand: the role of education

ABSTRACT

Thailand’s population is aging rapidly and the number of older adults suffering from health limitations is expected to increase. Making use of several rounds of the Survey of Older Persons, we look at the education-specific prevalences of three health indicators over time and find a positive education gradient for difficulties with ADLs and poor self-rated health, but not for functional limitations. Combining these age-, sex- and education-specific prevalences for each indicator with population projections up to 2050, we see a lower projected number of persons with difficulties with ADLs or bad health as compared to an approach when we only account for differences by age and sex. Still, irrespective of the approach taken, we project a significant increase in the number of persons 50+ that have at least one ADL difficulty, at least one functional limitation or suffer from poor health. Our results provide estimates for future care needs and illustrate the possibly preventive effect of education.     

How Asabano Children Learn; or,Formal Schooling amongst Informal Learners

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the way in which Asabano children of Papua New Guinea (PNG) learn. The question of how Asabano children learn is interesting because parents believe children to be incapable of heeding instruction, and so they consciously do not attempt to teach children and may even intervene to stop activities that they see as educational. Thus, with little or no instruction, children come to possess a rich corpus of skills and knowledge. To explain how this is possible, I draw upon the concepts of guided participation and play, illustrating that the routine arrangements of children's lives are critical to their education and enculturation. This traditional Asabano system of education contrasts starkly with the formal schooling system in the village, which I argue should better address the local socio‐cultural context     

Parental migration and the educational enrolment of left-behind children: evidence from rural Ponorogo,Indonesia

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the effects of parental migration on children’s educational enrolment following the recent reforms in Indonesian educational policy. We find that, in general, parental migration has a positive impact on school enrolment, although this varies by the child’s age and the gender of the migrant parent. Parental migration has an adverse impact on the school enrolment of younger children who are eligible for free education, but a positive impact on older children who are no longer able to access state educational support. The gender of the migrant parent matters, as paternal migration appears to have a more positive impact on children’s educational enrolment than maternal migration. Maternal migration is associated with a reduction of younger children’s likelihood of a being in school, while paternal migration makes no difference to their school enrolment. For older children, maternal migration has a lower positive impact compared to paternal migration. Our qualitative interviews also show mixed findings: some children appreciate their migrant mothers’ migration efforts and are motivated to persevere in continuing education, while others are weighed down by their migrant mothers’ sacrifice and develop a sense of obligation to reduce their financial burdens by leaving education early to enter paid employment.     

Children constructing Japan: material practices and relational learning

Children's understandings of place have been researched from the differing perspectives of ‘new social studies of childhood’, developmental psychology and geography education. However, the processes by which children construct their understandings of distant places have received relatively little attention. This paper summarises insights from the existing literature and outlines the findings from empirical research which employed a range of interpretive methods within a class of 14-year-olds studying Japan. Representations of Japan and the richly diverse material and relational contexts of their construction are summarised and illustrated by an in depth case study.     

两汉童蒙教育

两汉时期是中国教育史发展的重要阶段。对于儿童启蒙而言,这一时期的教育形式和教育内容都已经实现了重要的历史进步。当时,民间儿童教育程序形成了“幼童入小学”、“成童已上人大学”的大体确定的模式。官方对教育的干预也对童蒙教育的进步有促进作用。童蒙教育有向社会其他年龄层次普及的趋向,也值得我们注意。而“小学”逐渐成为专门学科的称谓,也是学术史进程中的重要现象。了解汉代童蒙教育的形态,对于认识和理解中国教育史、汉代社会史以及汉代儿童的精神生活,都是有益的。     

中国大城市贫困研究的多种测度与多层模型分析

基于六大城市住户调查数据,采用多种贫困测度和多层模型分析的方法,探讨中国大城市居民贫困状况及其影响因素。研究发现,大城市低收入邻里的贫困状况存在较大差异,其中广州、西安的相对丢失(relative deprivation)严重且低收入群体层级结构复杂,昆明的贫困深度大,而武汉财富集聚相对明显。贫困多层模型表明低收入邻里贫困的主要影响因素仍存在于个体层面,个体在家庭制度、市场制度、国家福利供应中所表现的特征影响了贫困发生率;城市贫困同时存在邻里效应,主要体现在邻里经济状况和贫困文化的影响作用;而城市间的贫困差异亦不可忽视。     

地方电视台宣传应突出地域文化特色

本文从电视地域特色的必要性出发,对地方电视台如何应对竞争,发挥优势,做好节目,做大做强自己的媒体品牌进行了有益的探讨。     

青海农村剩余劳动力转移问题研究

文章通过对青海省农村剩余劳动力现状的分析,表明青海农村劳动力资源过剩严重,农村剩余劳动力行业和地域分布不合理,农村劳动力转移仍然处于无组织的自发状态,劳动力整体素质低下,同时,分析了青海农村剩余劳动力转移中存在的主要问题和难点,提出消除制度障碍,调整农业产业结构,大力发展农村第三产业,发挥乡镇企业吸纳农村剩余劳动力的功能,建立城乡统一的劳动力市场体系,大力推进农村城镇化进程,吸引农村剩余劳动力向小城镇聚集,加大教育投入,提高农村劳动者素质,搞好农民工技能鉴定工作等措施。     

Education for what? Shaping the field of climate change education with children and young people as co-researchers

ABSTRACT

Children and young people are often positioned as the next generation of leaders in whom the public imagines or expects to overcome the legacies of climate and environmental inaction. Increasingly analyses of progress in environmental education independently identify the need for researchers and teachers to ‘listen to children’s voices’. In this paper we argue that climate change education presents a significant platform not only for youth voices, but also for a genuine activation of children’s political agency in schools, universities, and the public domain. In so doing, we draw upon the government funded project Climate Change?+?Me, which has involved working with 135 children and young people from across Northern NSW, Australia as co-researchers investigating young people’s voices in climate change. We conclude that climate change education can open up an entirely new field of educational experience and inquiry when it is inclusive of and led by young people.