Rural children’s role in buffering household poverty through ganyu (piecework) in Zambia

In Zambia, the ways in which social change intersects with rural livelihoods to increase children’s workload and commodify their labour are poorly understood. In this article, changing patterns of rural children’s work are seen as necessitated by their evolving household roles and contributions in an increasingly rural cash-based economy. Drawing on child-focused qualitative research in rural Lundazi district in Zambia, it is explored how children use a traditional labour practice called ‘ganyu’ (piecework) to ameliorate poverty. The infiltration of the cash-based economy, amplified by the Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes, a predominantly adult-centred traditional informal socio-economic levelling mechanism of ganyu, and its evolution into more cash-oriented transactions increasingly involving children are discussed. Although ganyu has largely been seen as characterized by exploitative labour relations, the empirical findings from this research indicate the complex ways in which the practice is empowering children and their families. The resources accrued through ganyu are vital for both personal and household well-being. The findings of this study have important implications to rethink not only contentious issues of child labour but also dominant narratives of childhood that fail to take into account children’s lived experiences as situated in local, social, economic, and cultural contexts.     

Christian colleges amid political changes: The University of Nanking’s reorganization and registration (1927-1928)

Jinling University, or the University of Nanking, was created in 1910 from the merger of three Christian missionary schools in Nanjing (Nanking). After a period of smooth development in the second decade of the twentieth century, the University of Nanking had to face huge challenges in the 1920s when nationalism and revolutionary movements gained momentum in China. After the Nanjing Incident in 1927, the university was forced to deal with all the serious challenges of running a new school. Within two years, the University of Nanking underwent comprehensive reform, which included the reorganization of the school administration, the establishment of a board of directors, the accession of the university’s first Chinese president, and the completion of a process of government-mandated registration. All this ultimately led the University of Nanking into a new era. The university reacted to the registration requirement and the internal administrative reshuffling in a process of gradual, interlocking responses. This process reflects the general nature of relations between church universities and the Chinese government during this important historical moment, though the unique characteristics of the University of Nanking’s own experience are also apparent.     

From Organismic Biology as History and Philosophy to the History and Philosophy of Biology—the Work of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger in the German Context**

In this paper, I ask about the broader context of the history and philosophy of biology in the German-speaking world as the place in which Hans-Jörg Rheinberger began his work. Three German philosophical traditions—neo-Kantianism, phenomenology, and Lebensphilosophie—were interested in the developments and conceptual challenges of the life sciences in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their reflections were taken up by life scientists under the terms theoretische Biologie (theoretical biology) and allgemeine Biologie (general biology), i. e., for theoretical and methodological reflections. They used historical and philosophical perspectives to develop vitalistic, organicist, or holistic approaches to life. In my paper, I argue that the resulting discourse did not come to an end in 1945. Increasingly detached from biological research, it formed an important context for the formation of the field of history and philosophy of biology. In Rheinberger's work, we can see the “Spalten” and “Fugen”—the continuities and discontinuities—that this tradition left there.