Why Do Women Have Longer Unemployment Durations than Men in Post-Restructuring Urban China?

This paper provides the first systematic analysis of the reasons why women endure longer unemployment durations than men in post-restructuring urban China using data obtained from a national representative household survey. Rejecting the view that women are less earnest than men in their desire for employment, the analysis shows that women's job search efforts are handicapped by lack of access to social networks, social stereotyping (that married women are unreliable employees), unequal access to social reemployment services stemming from sex segregation prior to the displacement, and wage discrimination in the post-restructuring labor market.Gender inequality, unemployment duration, Oaxaca-decomposition

Mitigating the social impact of privatization and enterprise restructuring

This paper focuses on the role the of social programs in economic restructuring. Restructuring often results in significant downsizing of labor. When this occurs a negative social reaction can slow and/or stall restructuring. This is increasingly recognized by development agencies, governments, and enterprise managers and as a result social programs are increasingly becoming part of the design of enterprise restructuring programs. There are economic, social and political objectives for providing social support packages (SSPs) to workers displaced by restructuring and privatization of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). Social support programs should include elements that combine to"pull"and entice excess labor to leave overstaffed enterprises, while at the same time helping"push"and assist displaced workers to quickly rejoin the labor market. These measures usually include both temporary income support and active labor programs. To be effective the measures must be carefully designed and targeted, and social monitoring of displaced workers should be an integral part of the design to ensure the services are reaching the most needy workers.Municipal Financial Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Public Sector Economics

Shifting conceptions of social (in)justice in Nepal

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and situate the changing discourses of social (in)justice in the context of political transition and restructuring process that Nepal has gone through since 2006. This paper discusses the origin and development of the discourse and analyses how its meaning has changed over time. As the paper argues, the earlier discourses of social justice in Nepal can be linked to the Hindu and Buddhist notion of dharma and various other ethnic cultural traditions. After Janandolan-I in 1990, the policy and practice of social justice began to be equated with the principle of equality, which was based on the assumptions of sameness. After Janandolan-II in 2006, the public conception of social justice has shifted towards a more vocal emphasis on social equity, inclusiveness, proportionate representation and participatory decision-making. The article provides empirical manifestations of social injustices in Nepal, linking them with various discourses and traditions of justice in the early and modern historical, socio-cultural and political contexts. It is hoped that a thorough understanding of historical shifting of public conceptions of social (in)justice in Nepal will be useful in guiding the country’s future public policies towards inclusive restructuring and equitable development

Restructuring of industrial economies in countries in transition: Experience of Ukraine

The transition of Ukraine and other CIS countries to an effective socially oriented market economy is delayed by dramatic economic and social problems of their restructuring. The restructuring problem is exclusively sever in industrial regions of Ukraine because of their dependence on technologically obsolete heavy industry sectors as well as due to the former economic development paradigm. Such regions will require a prolonged adaptation to market conditions, and discretionary state policy regarding to the regions, a special status of regional and local self-government. The objectives of the paper are as follows: * determining the priorities of economic restructuring in industrial regions of Ukraine with due regard to their social consequences; * elaborating of principles of the redistribution of powers on economic restructuring process among central, regional, and local governments; * substantiation of economic instruments and organizational forms for supporting structural changes and investment activity at regional level. Approaches to the restructuring of the industrial regions elaborated in the paper provide CIS countries with a basis for a long-run strategy of the transition of their industrial regions to a market and will reduce the political tension in these regions. They have been implemented in the number of programs for regional development adopted by the Ukrainian government for the Donbass, industrial heartland of Ukraine, and they are the subject for the detailed discussion in the paper as well.

A model of manager-induced organisational stability in post-Soviet agriculture

Agricultural transition in the former Soviet Union has, surprisingly for many observers, not led to a widespread adoption of individual farming. This article attempts to understand some previously neglected forces behind this outcome. It develops a theoretical model of farm restructuring in which managers exploit the preferences of workers for conformity within a social reference group to cement their own power. The model provides a rationale for the persistent support among workers and managers to the status-quo organisation, despite the availability of a more efficient individual farming option. Based on empirical evidence, we argue that managers have an incentive to keep horizons of workers limited by sheltering them from pro-reform influences. Polar reform equilibria are generated that are consistent with the observed spatial patterns of restructuring. The model predicts that policies aiming at the establishment of independent farms will fail unless they induce a big push in reform attitudes among workers.Agricultural transition, former Soviet Union, social interaction effects, farm restructuring., Farm Management,

Clustered marginalization of minorities during social transitions induced by co-evolution of behaviour and network structure

Large-scale transitions in societies are associated with both individual behavioural change and restructuring of the social network. These two factors have often been considered independently, yet recent advances in social network research challenge this view. Here we show that common features of societal marginalization and clustering emerge naturally during transitions in a co-evolutionary adaptive network model. This is achieved by explicitly considering the interplay between individual interaction and a dynamic network structure in behavioural selection. We exemplify this mechanism by simulating how smoking behaviour and the network structure get reconfigured by changing social norms. Our results are consistent with empirical findings: The prevalence of smoking was reduced, remaining smokers were preferentially connected among each other and formed increasingly marginalised clusters. We propose that self-amplifying feedbacks between individual behaviour and dynamic restructuring of the network are main drivers of the transition. This generative mechanism for co-evolution of individual behaviour and social network structure may apply to a wide range of examples beyond smoking.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Social security, labour market and restructuring - Russia and Ukraine

Since the beginning of the 1990s, demographic, economic and social changes occurring in Russia and Ukraine have had an impact on both labour markets and social conditions. Even though some of the social safety net changes introduced at the beginning of the 21st century have brought positive effects, additional reforms are still necessary.Social security, social policy, Ukraine, Russia

Rurality, Locality and Industrial Change: A Micro-scale Investigation of Manufacturing Growth in the District of Leominster

Geographers have recently sought to understand countryside change by examining economic restructuring and its impact on local social coherences. However, despite renewed interest in the locale, many investigations of the rural economy have been at a macro-scale. It is argued that this broad brush approach has neglected many important aspects of rural restructuring and, in particular, the importance of social and cultural constructions of change. This paper considers manufacturing growth in rural areas and focuses on western Hereford and Worcester. Based on the findings of a micro-scale investigation of a rural industrial estate, it examines the causes of manufacturing growth and assesses its impact on job creation, local restructuring and in-migration. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

Residential and support services for older people in the Waikato, 1992-1997: Privatisation and emerging resistance

As disproportionate users of services, older people are more vulnerable to shifts in policy in health care and social support. This paper focuses on older people as a group affected by economic and social restructuring. We summarise the history of support for older New Zealanders in the century prior to 1984, and assess the impacts of the subsequent shifts in social welfare policy up to 1997. Four reference points for appreciating the impacts of these policy changes are suggested: • shifts in general health care and housing policy • the cumulative impacts of restructuring on families and communities • evolving patterns of disability in the older population • the emerging resistance of older people to privatisation. We follow this up with analysis of a case study carried out in the Waikato on the provision of residential and caring services, and describe shifts in the supply of age-targeted housing and community support services. For example, in contrast to the trend towards reduced involvement by the state in residential care (e.g. rest homes), there has been no concerted dis-investment in pensioner housing. Finally we document the emerging resistance of older people to change

Defining and measuring displacement: is relocation from restructured neighbourhoods always unwelcome and disruptive?

Current regeneration policy has been described as ‘state-led gentrification’, with comparisons made with the ‘social disruption’ caused by slum clearance of the 1950s and 1960s. This article takes issue with this approach in relation to the study of the restructuring of social housing areas. The terms ‘forced relocation’ and ‘displacement’ are often too crude to describe what actually happens within processes of restructuring and the effects upon residents. Displacement in particular has important dimensions other than the physical one of moving. Evidence from a recent study of people who have moved out of restructured areas shows that although there is some evidence of physical displacement, there is little evidence of social or psychosocial displacement after relocation. Prior attitudes to moving and aspects of the process of relocation—the degree of choice and distance involved—are important moderators of the outcomes. Issues of time and context are insufficiently taken into consideration in studies and accounts of restructuring, relocation and displacement