Suchergebnisse

As the issue of immigration between Mexico and the United States becomes more critical, it is increasingly important that we understand the process of development in Mexico's northern border region. This collection of essays offers an empirical analysis of development in Ciudad Juárez, with an emphasis on the social and spatial contexts in which economic relations occur. The analyses are framed by a general discussion of urbanization, migration, and industrialization, considered in light of the history of Mexico's northern frontier. Contributors recount the city's pattern of urban growth in response to the natural environment and the changing national culture and examine current patterns of land use, especially as compared to similar development in other Latin American cities. Other issues considered are the impact on household activities of the structure of women's participation in the maquiladora work force; the city's use of its human resources, especially in off-shore assembly activities; and the foreign orientation of the Juárez economy

The analysis in this special issue on the sociology of development continues the ongoing process of problematizing the development enterprise. While the notion of modernization seems out of fashion, and few scholars would juxtapose the so‐called "progress and superiority" of modernization with the supposed "stagnation and inferiority" of tradition, the concept of development retains considerable ideological content. Evaluating development theories solely in terms of their relevance for policy both privileges the dominant worldview of the development community and masks the ideological premises of that worldview. The conditions pitting the ideology of free‐markets against state‐led development no longer exist, to be sure. Instead, the intricate connections between the global war on terror and global economic restructuring now serve the hegemonic project of developmentalism – "making the world safe for markets".

Earlier research suggests that, based on generation and gender, significant conflicts of materials interests exist in households and that domestic work, informal sector work, wage work, and female subordination intersect at the household level. In light of such analysis, this study presents propositions about (1) how households in industrializing areas allocate the labor of their female members (2) and the consequences of the nature of the work women perform for their bargaining power in the household. The ideas developed here have relevance in situations in which export-led economic developmet is also female-led, such as Mexico's northern border region or the export processing zones of the newly industrializing countires (NICs) of Asia. Export assembly as a development strategy has the potential to make problematical both the division of labor by gender and patriarchal expectations about women. However, a focus on the household reveals some of the complexities comprised by this general tendency and offers a more nuanced understanding of the relation between gender and industrialization.

AbstractThis paper probes the relationship between nationalism and belonging. In the context of the enactment of the 'Nation‐State Law' in Israel, it addresses a twofold question: how do members of the Druze community articulate the minority group's sense of belonging to the national community, and what do their constructions of belonging suggest about how Druze might shape and secure their belonging in the Jewish nationalist project? Our analytical approach draws on theoretical accounts of the politics of belonging and nationalist projects centred on culture and political values; civic identifications and attachments; and the racialized positioning of social groups. The analysis of 18 semi‐structured interviews evoked four metaphors through which we elaborate the impact of the Nation‐State Law on Druze belonging and explore the implications for Druze engagement with this Jewish nationalist project. We envision the possibility of Druze pursuing a transversal intersectional political project of belonging as non‐Jews in Israel.

In 1995, Mexico again slid into economic and social crisis without full recovery from the crisis of 1982. When the Mexican peso plunged in value right before Christmas 1994, many segments of the society that were affected had not regained the purchasing power of 1980. The broad outline of the Mexican government's program for responding to the most recent crisis is parallel to the prescriptions offered in the 1980s; indeed, the response represents prevailing mainstream neo‐liberal economic thinking — stabilization, structural adjustment, privatization, and so on. However, lacking a well developed social welfare system, the burdens of adaptation to adverse economic conditions fall primarily on women in households in the struggle to preserve individual well‐being. This paper, then, joins a growing body of work attempting to analyze the connection between micro‐level household conditions, including gender relations, and gendered macro‐level processes, such as ongoing economic liberalization in Mexico.

In response to a critique by Mitchell A. Seligson (see abstract in this section of SA 43:3) of an earlier study on Mexican maquiladora workers (see SA 40:6/92S26483/ASA/1992/7598 [republished in this issue of Social Science Quarterly]), it is asserted that the original design of the study did not mandate a probability sample of non-maquiladora maquiladora workers. Characteristics from both groups demonstrate that the non-maquiladora sample was drawn from the same pool of women that comprised the maquiladora work force. Additional evidence about the pay differences in the 2 groups is presented, & the role of household factors in women's decisions about where they work is emphasized. 1 Table, 4 References. D. Schwartz