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In this Article, Professors Chang and Aoki examine the relationship between the immigrant and the nation in the complicated racial terrain known as the United States. Special attention is paid to the border which contains and configures the local, the national and the international. They criticize the contradictory impulse that has led to borders becoming increasingly porous to the flows of information, goods and capital while simultaneously constricting when it comes to the movement of certain persons, particularly those of Asian and Latinalo ancestry. The authors examine Monterey Park, California, as one site where there has been a large influx of capital, information, and persons. Centering the immigrant in their analysis allows them to observe the interaction of national borders and the construction of racial subjects as community members negotiate electoral politics and coalition building.

Discusses the difficulties in comparing the environmental impacts of motorized transportation in developed countries to those in developing countries. It is argued that the different social objectives, administrative structures, & fiscal capacities of developing countries nullify the environmental lessons learned by industrialized countries in regard to uncontrolled urban sprawl & its demands for private automobile use. Transport policies proposed for developing nations & newly industrialized countries (particularly those in East Asia) by international authorities falsely assume that (1) the critical problems of developing countries are the same as those of developed countries, (2) their perceptions & objectives are also similar, & (3) similar policy designs for motorized control will also apply equally. It is contended instead that the development of efficient social & personal incentive systems would better facilitate land use planning, mass transit investment, & nonmotorized transport use. Adapted from the source document.

This article examines what democracy means to a people who have no direct word for it in their own language. It sets one village's experience of Guinea-Bissau's first multi-party elections in the historic context of the struggle for independence, the failures of the one-party state, the difficulties caused by structural adjustment. It sets this experience against theories of democracy as an ideal or as sets of formal arrangements and argues that whilst the latter may have been successfully implemented, democracy will be poorly rooted unless it leads to palpable socio-economic progress. There are still many problems to be overcome, not least with the lack of resources available to the state, before this is likely to be achieved. This article follows others by Rudebeck: 'Kandjadja, Guinea-Bissau, 1976-1986: Observations on the Political Economy of an African Village' (ROAPE No. 41) and 'The Effects of Structural Adjustment in Kandjadja, Guinea-Bissau' (ROAPE No. 49) - which have sought to understand the impact of wider political and economic forces on this village over time. This article is a continuation of that story. (ROAPE/DÜI)

Discusses the efforts of Local 399 of the Service Employees International Union to unionize janitors in Los Angeles, CA, in the early 1990s. Janitor unions grew from their inception in the post-WWII period to their peak in the late 1970s, when union wages rose some $.50 per year. However, unions found new obstacles as the cleaning business grew exponentially & contractors turned to recent immigrants as a labor pool in the 1980s. The union began a campaign that featured a confrontational, militant effort to improve conditions of workers. The ingredients of this campaign's success are identified as centralization of control & a strategy that included research, guerrilla legal tactics, coalition-building, & mobilization of the rank & file. It is concluded that the union's recent internal difficulties are a normal result of such a massive organization campaign. D. M. Smith

Examines the interactive & codefining characteristics of communication & politics in terms of the concepts of space, time, & speed, & assesses their implications for global society. It is argued these concepts are being redefined by advances in global communications that have brought the world closer together. Described is how communications have become politicized by the world geography; the latter has been created by the spatial concepts of nationalisms & imperialisms, which also control the media. A postmodern framework is presented for analyzing the history of these developments, focusing attention on various actors' (eg, governments & media) efforts to control them & drawing on recent conceptual works in international politics & social sciences. It is concluded that, by emphasizing the problem of agency, a postmodern approach offers more to the analysis of communications, time, space, & speed. 17 References. T. Arnold

Citing various scholars, political & economic changes in capitalist structures from the late 1960s on are examined for their influence on globalization, with special emphasis on the culture industry & communication processes. Globalization is not a phenomenon imposed on the countries of the world; it involves the concurrence of nation-states & their political apparati. Transnational corporations, first nurtured by particular nation-states, have since transcended those states & created changes in the international division of labor, the relationship of workers to capital, & the uniformity of cultural propositions. Mass media companies, eg, have concentrated through acquisitions, mergers, & agreements. Entertainment products with strong emotional, mercantile, & play content have experienced standardization & massive expansion. As a result, globalization of culture has occurred as these corporations expand territorially & as cultural values & practices are homogenized. Adapted from the source document.

La raréfaction des ressources hydriques conduit la végétation des zones sahéliennes à se "contracter" pour former des structures originales, qu'il convient d'étudier et de comprendre afin d'en tirer le meilleur parti. Tous les écosystèmes contractés, c'est-à-dire formés d'une juxtaposition de zones de végétation et de sol nu, ne sont pas dégradés et donc ne justifient pas les projets de reboisement coûteux qui peuvent aller parfois à l'encontre du but recherché. "Comprendre pour mieux gérer les forêts sahéliennes" est le thème de l'Atelier international qui s'est tenu à Niamey, Niger du 20 au 25 novembre 1995. Organisé par la Direction de l'Environnement du Ministère de l'Hydraulique et de l'Environnement du Niger, le CIRAD-FORET et l'ORSTOM, rassemblant chercheurs et opérateurs du développement, il a permis de confronter les acquis scientifiques sur ces écosystèmes forestiers contractés avec les politiques mises en oeuvre au Niger.

Die Analyse von Institutionen und ihre Berücksichtigung in der ökonomischen Theorie war bisher überwiegend gesellschaftskritischen Ökonomen vorbehalten. Der Mainstream in der ökonomischen Forschung blendete institutionelle Arrangements weitgehend aus. Ausgehend von den vereinigten Staaten, konstituierte sich in den vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnten ein neoklassischer Institutionalismus, der von bekannten Protagonisten als Neoinstitutionalismus((h'fett)) bezeichnet wurde. Der Autor versucht, wesentliche Elemente einer neoinstitutionalistischen Theorie der Entwicklungsfinanzierung((h'fett)) kritisch zu rekonstruieren. Im Zentrum steht die Analyse der Finanzierungssituation von Familienwirtschaften als der dominierenden Organisationsform der unteren und mittleren Einkommensgruppen in Entwicklungsökonomien. Es werden die Bestimmungsfaktoren der Rationierung der Ausleihungen an diese Wirtschaftssubjekte untersucht. Zur Verbesserung der Kreditversorgung werden Bank-Kunden-Beziehungen vorgeschlagen, die sich an der "Hausbank" orientieren. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden Entwicklungsbanken, Sparkassen, Finanzkooperativen, kreditvergebende Nichtregierungsorganisationen und Geschäftsbanken untersucht. Es zeigt sich, daß der Erklärungswert und die Grenzen des Neoinstitutionalismus in engem Zusammenhang stehen mit dem Prinzip des methodologischen Individualismus. Die Anwendung dieses Prinzips versperrt den Blick auf übergeordnete soziale Systeme und Institutionen, die dem Handeln der Akteure Konditionen auferlegen. In der Arbeit wird versucht, den Anwendungsbereich des Neoinstitutionalismus((3x h'fett)) abzugrenzen und Wege aufzuzeigen, die über diese Grenzen hinausweisen. Die Arbeit wendet sich an Studenten und Lehrende insbesondere in den Bereichen der Finanzierungslehre und der Entwicklungstheorie sowie an Mitarbeiter von internationalen Finanzinstitutionen, Entwicklungsbürokratien, Beratungsunternehmen und Finanzinstitutionen in Entwicklungsländern, soweit sie an theoretischen Grundlagen der Entwicklungsfinanzierung interessiert sind

This paper, based on material previously presented at the ACWA Biennial Conference in Sydney, describes the design, development and implementation of the 'Looking After Children' practice and management materials in the UK. The paper traces the research and practice background to the trialing of these out-of-home care assessment and planning materials in the UK, where they are expected to be adopted and implemented by all statutory agencies by the end of 1998. The international interest in the Assessment and Action Record is supported by an exploration of the arguments for child-focussed assessment and planning for 'placement as a process – not an event'. Finally there is coverage of the three recently completed pilot projects in Western Australia. An argument is made for the adoption and adaptation of these materials as potential practice standards for the 'State as parent'.

Taiwan is a geographic location, an economic force, a political presence, a social reality and a cultural expression. The "precious island" (baodao), in the minds of those who are vaguely familiar with East Asia in the English-speaking community, evokes sensations of stunning natural beauty, hard-working people and troubled international status. Those who have travelled there as tourists in recent years are easily impressed by the vibrant economy, cuisine, traffic jams, air pollution, rich folk traditions and colourful popular culture. While journalists and business executives may be fascinated by the transformative power of marketization and democratization in Taiwan's political economy, many students have been overwhelmed by the profound impact of economy and polity on all dimensions of the cultural world - literature, art, dance, music and drama - since the lifting of martial law in 1987.

Since achieving independence in December 1991, Kazakhstan has made cautious progress in assuring political rights and freedoms for all its citizens by stressing, among other things, the equality of the different ethnic groups in society, and the equality of individuals before the law. However, an observable outflow of the non-Kazakh population2 from the territory of Kazakhstan has caused a certain hesitation about this. It has received a fairly consistent international response in the scholarly literature and press.3 In almost all cases, the emphasis is on emerging Kazakh nationalism as the most obvious reason for the emigration of the non-native population. It has also been suggested that the Kazakhs would have little to gain from it, given the allegedly dominant economic role of Russians, in particular, within the country, and given also their external dependence on Russia.

AbstractThis case study illustrates the reality of trying to achieve the European Commission objective of fruitful international research co‐operation with Third Countries. The process of responding to an EC research call, preparing a proposal and negotiating a contract are explored with areas of general applicability being highlighted. The case study is drawn from the Avicenne Initiative in the area of health systems research. The difficulties and inequality of access to information, administrative research support and resourcing are explored as both issues for individuals and institutions and also as part of the difficulties of developing south‐north or east‐west research partnerships. The backstage of research is explored in order to highlight issues of discourse, practice and procedure which, if tackled, could provide a more level playing field for researchers from a wide range of institutions and countries.

Territorial disputes are traditionally regarded as the most common sources of war. Yet, research focusing on the question why territorial disputes arise has been rare, and has usually relied on power-political assumptions. Typically, the emergence of territorial disputes has been explained in terms of rational strategic and economic interests and changing power relations. This article argues that these modes of explanation are severely misleading, since many of today's territorial disputes can be better explained from a normative perspective, by referring to subjective conceptions of justice and international norms. As an emotive issue, territory is loaded with a number of emotional and normative elements which today are likely to surpass its `rational' economic or strategic value. Therefore attempts to resolve territorial disputes which do not take into account the normative dimension underlying such disputes are likely to fail.