Women–Family in Quality Perspective

Bringing together women and family in quality perspective bring about interesting discussions in this paper. By integrating previous studies and considering expert opinions, we determinate the variables and dimensions with respect to women’s existence regarding their roles both in the family and at work. Many activities carried out by women represent the consumer aspects of their role. Women undertake these activities to fulfill their needs, which can be classified in the order of preference using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need. Women success can be measured based on their ability to perform their roles successfully. We identify women’s performance by using quality approach of Personal Quality Maintenance (PQM), which is widely applied in many organizations in order to maintain the service delivery, which meets the customer satisfaction. The effort to enhance women’s satisfaction for their success in playing the multirole in the family and at work is our main consideration. This study may contribute a new point of view regarding for the women’s welfare and existence.     

Unemployment and consumption near and far away from the Mediterranean

We study the insurance mechanisms employed by households to absorb unemployment shocks using comparable data for four countries: Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and the US. Results on family transfers when the male household head becomes unemployed suggest that family networks are the weakest in Britain, while unemployment benefits there are instead the most generous across the four countries. Despite these differences, food consumption losses induced by unemployment of the male household head are similar across countries. These findings are consistent with the view that family support and the Welfare State substitute each other in mitigating the consequences of unemployment shocks. The first author is also affiliated with CEPR and CESifo, the second author with EUI, CEPR, CESifo, and IZA.     

全国流动人口计划生育管理研究

本文根据全国及部分地方有关流动人口计划生育的调查和相关的现有资料 ,分析了中国流动人口的规模、影响人口流动的因素、流动人口的特点和计划生育工作存在的问题 ,并提出了今后加强流动人口计划生育工作的对策和建议。     

自愿不育的人口社会学视角

文章通过对目前人口形势和不育群体现状的分析 ,从人口学和社会学的角度对不育文化作了论述 ,最后分析了几个值得深入探讨的社会问题     

关于计划生育干部培训形式的几点思考

目前我国人口与计划生育工作已进入稳定低生育水平、综合治理人口问题的新阶段 ,要求全面提高计划生育干部素质 ,教育培训工作越来越显示出其重要性。本文探讨了原有培训形式存在的问题和今后计划生育干部培训形式的多元化发展     

Who Are We? Genealogists Negotiating Ethno-Racial Identities

This paper analyzes how ethno-racial standpoints influence the ways that genealogists negotiate and narrate biological and/or social interpretations of family and social history. A constructivist methodological approach grounds the analysis of three family genealogists who all have African and European lineages, but differ in their current ethno-racial identities. These case studies serve as exemplars of how individuals negotiate the racial formation processes of past and present. I suggest that there is reflexive and political potential in bio-based genealogy to transform our current racial “common sense.” The practice of genealogy reveals tacit social and biological assumptions that can serve as points of leverage for progressive social change, and yet vary by standpoint. In the context of the iconic gene we must be vigilant about the threat of genetic essentialism, yet the threat is mitigated by the simultaneous democratization of our knowledge and control over origin stories.

Gender and Transnational Gossip

Transnational social networks powerfully shape Mexican migration and enable families to stretch internationally. In an atmosphere of such high dependence on social networks, it would be rare for families not to be affected by the opinions of others. This article analyzes this often-overlooked aspect of social networks, gossip. I analyze gossip stories prevalent for one type of migrant family, those in which parents and children live apart. Drawing on over 150 ethnographic interviews and observation with members of Mexican transnational families and their neighbors in multiple sites, I describe both parents’ and children’s experiences with transnational gossip. I show that in a transnational context, gossip is a highly gendered activity with different consequences for men and women. Although targeting both women and men, transnational gossip reinforces the expectations that mothers be family caregivers and fathers be family providers even when physical separation makes these activities difficult to accomplish.

Family involvement in the institutional eldercare context. Towards a new understanding

This article focuses on family involvement and its various patterns and expressions in the context of end-of-life care in a nursing home. Based on analyses from an ethnographic study carried out at a nursing home ward, the aim is to describe and analyze the conditions of aging and dying for the old residents, as well as effects on their visiting families and relatives. As in similar research findings, it became clear from the study that families continue to visit and contribute to the care of the old resident throughout the years, from the time of placement to their demise, but that this involvement might vary both in content and in extent. However, it was found that families' involvement (as well as their changing relationships and roles) is particularly shaped by the very process of dying and lingering aura of death on the ward. The analysis presented in the article evinces the difficult — and in many ways impossible — role of the family in the institutional end-of-life setting, and discloses the various patterns and manifestations of family involvement in this environment. Different meanings and implications of family involvement are discussed and highlighted.     

Family farmers and major retail chains in the Brazilian organic sector: Assessing new development pathways. A case study in a peri-urban district of São Paulo

The expansion of the organic sector in Brazil is seen as a leverage for the social emancipation of the small family farmers. Next to the traditional alternatives circuits of organic food and farming, new powerful capitalistic actors, such as supermarket chains, are rapidly entering the Brazilian organic arena. Can family farming benefit from the development of these “conventional” commercialisation circuits in the organic sector? Research undertaken in 2007, in a green belt rural community of São Paulo, shows how family farmers may have benefited from the implication of large retail chains in the organic sector and how an economically and ecologically outstanding agriculture may arise from these circumstances. However, we highlight the crucial role played by social regulation: only strong solidarity between farmers and the implication of technicians, militants and researchers in the process made it possible to counter the negative effects of the liberal logic governing the development of organic farming via the major retailers. Still, as tougher competition is expected on the regional organic market, the development of short supply chains involving “committed” consumers and the broader integration of the local farmers in networks of organic militancy appear crucial. It would guarantee a continuous enhancement of the local human and social capital, reinforce an emerging process of internal conversion and allow for a stronger social regulation of the future local development pattern.