Gender,households and reintegration: everyday lives of returned migrant women in rural northern Ghana

Since the late 1990s, migration of single women from the rural north to the urban south in Ghana has been making up a growing share of migrant streams. While the livelihood strategies of these migrant women in their southern destinations have been recently examined, the experience of reintegration for those who return to their place of origin has rarely been studied. Drawing on qualitative research with migrant women, returned migrant women (RMW) and their family members, this study examines everyday reintegration experiences of RMW within their households in a rural Dagomba community in Northern Region, Ghana. We conceptualise the household as an arena of everyday life wherein RMW exercise agency to learn to generate livelihoods that support their own as well as household members’ joint well-being. We combine this conceptualisation of household with feminist scholars’ recognition of gender as situated process. Our conceptualisation makes it possible to illuminate gender dynamics around the everyday repetitive decision-making acts that constitute livelihood generation as performed by RMW within specific intra-household dynamics in the context of reintegration in the situated community. Through the examination of the diverse and contradictory ways in which RMW exercise agency in making decisions about livelihood strategies within their households in the studied community, we show how the everyday repetitive acts of RMW contribute to micro-transformations of a situated gender ideology.     

The Economics of Rural Households in Russia: Impact of Village Location

An American specialist on Russia's agrarian sector and two collaborators explore the effects of distance to nearby urban markets on the agricultural output and income of Russian rural households. Unlike previous studies that have largely tested such effects on the basis of household distance from relatively large oblast administrative centers, the authors adopt a micro-level scale of analysis, focusing on distance from smaller rayon centers. Comparison of two sample populations (near vs. remote from rayon center) from a larger survey population of 900 households in nine representative regions of Russia reveals marked differences in household incomes, commodity output, and real holdings of land that are statistically verified by a linear regression model. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, P32, Q15, Q18. 4 tables, 46 references.     

Geographies of adult multigenerational family households in metropolitan Sydney

This paper investigates spatial trends of multigenerational adult families in metropolitan Sydney. Australia's immigrant gateway city, Sydney has high housing costs and infrastructure pressures, and planning policies support higher residential densities. In this context, the accommodation of persons living in multigenerational families is examined, by major region of origin, their geographies in Sydney, and by housing costs and constraints. Results highlight that cultural origins were influential in multigenerational household formations, and such formation is higher in areas of first and second ethnic community formation areas. Multigenerational living is also more common in middle ring and outer areas of cheaper housing. Implications are drawn for more nuanced housing policies in Sydney and comparable cities, given that detached and semi‐detached houses were favoured by these households, whereas two‐fifths of new housing constructed in Sydney in 2011 consists of two or less bedroom apartments.     

The Relevance of Nineteenth-Century Religion to the Archaeological Record: An Example from the Home of Ellen White, Prophetess of Seventh-Day Adventism

Religion is one of the least tangible aspects of the past, yet it was very real and very important in the lives of past people. Understanding the impact nineteenth-century evangelical Christianity had on the archaeological record will add substantially to studies of historic households in the United States and around the world. One of the most aggressive of these denominations was Seventh-day Adventism, which grew out of the Millerite movement under Ellen White. A brief case study based on a home occupied by her family is used as a way to explore some of these themes.     

过滤理论的起源、概念及研究进展

过滤是住房的生命周期与家庭的生命周期之间相互作用的产物,包括两大支流:以建立经济理论和模型为代表的关注住房的过滤研究、有关居民迁居的强调家庭的过滤研究。过滤理论的地理学视角可以追溯到霍伊特(Hoyt)的扇形模型,提供了关于居民迁居和城市社会空间结构之关系的解释。过滤理论意义主要有:为低收入群体提供合适住房、解释城市微观和宏观空间变化、分析和解释与住房市场有关的社会问题。过滤理论是中国城市转型研究的新视角。     

Rainwater Tank Households: Water Savers or Water Users?

This paper provides the first published post‐installation analysis of retrofitted rainwater tanks and their effects on mains water consumption. The study aimed to determine the average mains water reductions achieved in households with recently installed rainwater tanks and compare this figure with wider community consumption. The social and cultural impacts of rainwater tank ownership were also explored to understand how rainwater is used and perceived. The results show that during the period of analysis, the drought years of 2005–2007, 7125 or 8% of Illawarra households installed a tank. Comparison of mains water consumption for two years before and after installation shows that rainwater tank households reduced their mains water consumption about the same amount (10.26%) as the wider community (10.8%). The social and cultural components reveal three main groups of households. The largest group, water users, had a desire for water autonomy and independence to continue previously enjoyed water practices that had been restricted. Among a light green group, tanks were part of a package of overtly pro‐environmental behaviours that did not necessarily change consumption patterns. A frugal group, many of whom had been raised in rural areas, were the main water savers. Perception of tank water quality was shown to be an influential determinant of how rainwater was used, particularly for connections internal to the house. This study shows that rainwater tanks have the potential to achieve significant water savings, but if water‐intensive behaviours are not modified, and rainwater tanks are not plumbed indoors, the potential of this alternative water source will not be met. Currently, rainwater tanks facilitate water users as much as water savers.     

江汉平原农户日常消费空间演变及影响因素研究

消费空间变化是透视当代乡村地域系统演变的重要视角.基于江汉平原公安县农户抽样调查和实地访谈数据,以微观分析描绘农户消费场景变化、宏观分析勾画农户消费空间演变,以多元线性回归解析乡村消费演变影响因素.研究表明:①微观上,农户消费区位频次趋于增加、区位类型趋于分化,低等级商品消费向低等级购物地扩散、高等级商品消费向高等级购...     

Land-holding,participation in agriculture and short-term migration in rural India

ABSTRACT

We analyse a nationally representative data set from India for the year 2013 in order to provide evidence on how short-term migration is affected by household ownership of land and participation in agricultural activities. We estimate a recursive-bivariate-probit model recognising the simultaneity between short-term migration and the decision to operate the land. The results of the likelihood ratio test imply that it would be incorrect to ignore this simultaneity. Households with less than 1?ha of land and those leasing out land are more likely to have a short-term migrant. Households leaving their land fallow, a common occurrence in South Asia, are also more likely to have a short-term migrant. Moreover, the choice of crops and livestock farming has a significant role to play in the migration decision. Current initiatives to increase coverage of irrigation and facilitate access to formal finance could improve the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers, thereby reducing the probability of distress-related short-term migration.     

Family caregiving for older adults: gendered roles and caregiver burden in emigrant households of Kerala,India

The Indian state of Kerala leads the demographic transition and characteristically showcases emigration of predominantly male adult children, leaving behind parents, spouses and children. When men emigrate, gendered contexts burden women, especially spouses and daughters-in-law, with caregiving duties including elder care. Employing the social exchange perspective and drawing on in-depth interviews of left-behind caregivers to older adults in emigrant households, we explore reciprocal motives, expectations and perceptions of burden. Findings resonate gendered expectations of care and social sanction that ensure women do much of the caregiving. Daughters-in-law sacrificed careers and endured separation from husbands to transition into caregiving roles, costs borne to effectuate their husband's filial role. Perceived non-reciprocity, unbalanced exchanges and unmet expectations increased perceptions of burden for caregivers. Temporary financial autonomy could hardly alleviate perceptions of burden among women caregivers who perceived emotional and functional support exchanges from husbands, older adults themselves or other family members as supportive.     

试析萧梁官班制度下的诸县分等

分析萧梁一代县官选任和调动案例可知,“县制七班”“大县六班”是当时客观存在的制度。但在制度的实际运行过程中,许多县官都会出现超班用人,即任职者官资超过县官对应内职班次的现象。正史所见高班大县全部位于扬、南徐二州境内,且主要隶属南朝国家腹心地区的丹阳、吴、吴兴、会稽等郡,这与史书记事的偏向性不无关系,但同时也是上述地区政治地理条件的直观反映。影响县官班次的最主要因素是人口,结合其他制度推测,等第最高的六班大县有可能是以领民满五千户为定等标准。探索县官班次,也可增进对当时人口地理的认知。