Suchergebnisse

This important study introduces the conceptual premise that families, like firms, analyze their circumstances, make decisions, and pursue courses of action on the basis of what they perceive to be the most efficient methods for producing and reproducing survival. Combining this premise with an extraordinary assemblage of facts gleaned over the period of a decade from the streets, markets and homes of Port-au-Prince, the author weaves a tapestry of despair and hope which only an unusual degree of intimacy with the details of everyday life in the city could provide. The result is a considerable deepening of understanding about the politics and economics by which family members earn their livelihoods, distribute resources within and between households, produce life and labor from food and water, provide shelter and schooling for themselves, and borrow money to finance these and other activities.These different dimensions of daily existence form a web of interdependency in which change in any one dimension causes change in all the others. As Professor Pass's work demonstrates, research and development assistance practices of public and private organizations, in such areas as employment, health, housing, education and credit are often irrelevant. This is because they are necessarily guided by prevailing concepts and theories with respect to the circumstances of the urban poor, which sometimes do the poor considerable disservice.With the additional insight provided by a decade of participation in the design of policies, programs and projects serving as a tempering influence, the author does not leap to easy criticism of prevailing views and practices. He notes that ideas and interventions change in response to new understanding, sometimes in ways that the producers of such understanding could never have imagined. The problem is that change is painfully slow, and in desperately poor countries like Haiti, waiting for change exacts an almost intolerable price from the poor.This book is a provocative yet highly original contribution which will require serious attention from scholars and practitioners of development. Appearing as it does soon after the great seaward exodus of Haitians and urban unrest culminating in the flight of the Duvalier family, this timely volume will provide illumination for those seeking to understand the circumstances that press people to risk all in the name of survival.

The interpretation of cause & effect in human action is often extremely difficult for the policy analyst, especially in determining whether causal relationships are inferred from the evidence or imputed to it. This dilemma characterizes certain types of government activity in which distinctions between policy & implementation, decisions & actions, & inputs & outcomes are unclear. The efforts of the federal government between 1960 & 1985 to assist refugees in securing employment illustrate how the flow of events may elude causal explanation, & how conclusions & recommendations for improvement derived from the evidence may prove highly ambiguous. In such instances, the most rational course open to policy analysts may be to concede ignorance. HA

Interpretation of cause & effect in human action is often extremely difficult; especially complicated for the policy analyst is the problem of determining whether causal relationships are inferred from the evidence or imputed to it. This dilemma characterizes certain types of government activity in which distinctions between policy & implementation, decisions & actions, & inputs & outcomes are unclear. The efforts of the federal government between 1960 & 1985 to assist refugees in securing employment illustrate how the flow of events may elude causal explanation, & how conclusions & recommendations for improvement, derived from the evidence, may prove highly ambiguous. In such instances, it may prove more rational for policy analysts to concede ignorance. HA

Federal efforts to assist Cuban and Indochinese refugees in securing employment in the U.S., 1960-85. Some emphasis on efforts by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to resettle a large contingent of Hmong, a hilltribe people from Laos.

This paper provides a description of human interaction, ambiguity, and learning that took place during the course of two 'Urban Functions in Rural Development'-projects conducted by AID in Upper Volta and northern Cameroon between 1977 and 1982. The description contains an overview of the projects' origins, the difficulties during initiation and execution, and the eventual impact of the undertaking. (DSE)

Il est particulièrement difficile de définir des politiques et programmes de logement efficaces lorsqu'on s'adresse à deux catégories particulières de la population : les ultra-pauvres et les gens qui travaillent pour leur propre compte. Dans certaines villes du Tiers monde telles que Port-au-Prince, ces groupes constituent une partie importante de la population. Pour les ultra-pauvres, les conditions de logement sont fonction du prix des denrées de base alors que pour les travailleurs autonomes, elles sont influencées par la nécessité de consacrer des ressources à la production plutôt qu'à la consommation. L'utilisation efficace des ressources dans le but d'améliorer les conditions de logement de ces catégories de population suppose des normes de qualité et des critères d'évaluation qui ne sont pas très différents de ce que ces ménages considèrent déjà comme satisfaisant.