Understanding Japanese Rural History in a Comparative Context: from Surplus Labour to the Labour-Intensive Path of Development.

La historia del desarrollo rural de Japón debería constituir un caso clave en cualquier análisis comparado del papel de la agricultura en el desarrollo económico y la industrialización. En las décadas de 1960 y 1970 se utilizó efectivamente así, mediante el modelo de la economía dual con excedente de trabajo. Desde entonces, sin embargo, la historiografía sobre Japón no ha avanzado en las comparaciones. Este texto pretende cubrir este vacío, poniendo de manifiesto cómo se relaciona la experiencia japonesa con los conceptos y modelos de historia económica y economía del desarrollo, difundidos en décadas recientes. En especial el artículo subraya cómo las explotaciones familiares, por medio del cambio en las técnicas agrarias y de la participación en la protoindustrialización y en la manufactura, diseñaron estrategias de diversificación del ingreso y pluriactividad, que no resultaron incompatibles con el crecimiento económico moderno. En el artículo se ponen de manifiesto las amplias implicaciones de esta forma de desarrollo agrario sobre las pautas de crecimiento económico a largo plazo y se sugiere que fue el fundamento rural de la llamada "vía intensiva en trabajo de la industrialización", de la que en nuestros días se considera que Japón fue el país pionero.The history of rural development in Japan ought to provide a key example within any comparative analysis of agriculture’s role in economic growth and industrialisation. In the 1960s and 1970s it was indeed treated in this way, by means of the dual‐economy, ‘surplus labour’ model. Since then, research on Japan however has largely taken place outside any comparative framework. This paper seeks to remedy this by showing how the Japanese case relates to the concepts and models that have emerged, in economic history and development studies, in recent decades. In particular, it outlines the ways in which, by means of technical change in agriculture together with participation in proto-industrialisation and rural manufacturing, farm households devised strategies of income diversification and ‘pluriactivity’ that were to prove not incompatible with modern economic growth. The implications of this form of rural development for the pattern of economic growth in the long term are considerable and the present paper suggests that it provides the rural basis for the so‐called ‘labour‐intensive path of industrialisation’ of which Japan is now seen as a pioneer in Asia

Teacher motivation

The purpose of the study was to ascertain the causes of decreased teacher motivation in order to provide assistance to first year teachers and other novice teachers who were experiencing difficulties. In addition, the study determined whether teachers who went through a teacher assistance program sustained a higher degree of motivation and enthusiasm towards teaching than those who were not assisted. The study provided a basis for developing a beginning teacher assistance program. As a result, the intern developed a mentoring program to offer novice teachers a means of coping with many of the difficulties they periodically faced. The intern used a sample of 30 teachers. The sample included first year teachers and nontenured teachers who were aided by a teacher assistance program and those who were not assisted. Surveys, questionnaires, and interviews were used to collect data, and the data was reported in percentages. From the data analysis, the intern concluded that teachers who were aided by a teacher assistance program had a higher level of motivation and a more positive attitude towards teaching than those who were not assisted. Furthermore, the study concluded that student attitudes, bureaucratic paperwork, and too many demands from the administration had a negative effect on their enthusiasm for teaching

ONergy Case Studies: Seven Years of Impact and Innovation

ONergy and Adhikar Microfinance has impacted over 10,000 households in Odisha by offering financing to purchase solar lanterns. This partnership allows ONergy to reach impoverished people with a household income of Rs 4,000 -10,000 per month. Villagers were previously spending Rs 100-180 per month on kerosene, firewoods and poor quality flashlights to get light during power cuts. They are now using high quality solar lighting product ‘Beacon’ which has multiple features and 3 modes of lighting, multipurpose solar lanterns to light various activities in the evenings ranging from kids studying, women folk working on income generation like garment sewing, toy-making to mobile charging. As ONergy continues to reach more of the 100,000 households that MFIs in Odisha serve, its impact in Odisha will continue to grow

ONergy: Impact Investing Landscape Map (Executive Summary)

By incubating new technologies in SwitchON, ONergy reduces the risk of expanding its product portfolio and geographic coverage. With its for-profit status, ONergy could attract social impact investment because it can offer investors both large social and positive financial returns

To Teach a Social Studies Concept--Chunk It!

I don\u27t know why they couldn\u27t answer the questions. We covered the subject in our social studies class. Besides, all the answers are in the textbook! Has such a thought ever passed through your mind as you looked with dismay at your class\u27 test results? Unfortunately, this kind of reaction is common to the social studies teacher in our nation\u27s classrooms. Difficulties in learning to read in content area subjects tend to baffle the teacher and present obstacles to the learner. All this can be overcome by a strategy which is based on knowledge of how a student learns to read fluently. One solution to the problem is derived from research findings in the fields of memory processing and reading (Adams, 1967; Smith, 1971, 1975; Wilson, 1966). From memory processing, we will borrow a principle known as chunking and adapt it to the aim of reading, that is, to get meaning from written language

ONergy Innovation Profiles

ONergy’s solar solutions enable the company to impact a variety of end beneficiaries. The company’s willingness to innovate and offer a wide range of products places it at the forefront of the distributed solar energy market in India. This widens ONergy’s impact, as it is able to meet a multitude of community needs. The following case studies showcase the positive outcomes ONergy’s products provide, which often reach far beyond their functional use. These positive effects, from savings to increased study hours, have a profound impact on the communities ONergy serves

Onergy: Human Resources Manual (Executive Summary)

This document was sent directly to ONergy and is meant to be distributed to new employees along with the Rule Book and Code of Conduct, since the information in those documents is still important for all employees to know. The new HR manual will show what employees should do to embody the values of ONergy, and the Rule Book and Code of Conduct can be a reference for specific rules and other information

Patterns of brain asymmetry associated with polygenic risks for autism and schizophrenia implicate language and executive functions but not brain masculinization

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia have been conceived as partly opposing disorders in terms of systemizing versus empathizing cognitive styles, with resemblances to male versus female average sex differences. Left-right asymmetry of the brain is an important aspect of its organization that shows average differences between the sexes, and can be altered in both ASD and schizophrenia. Here we mapped multivariate associations of polygenic risk scores for ASD and schizophrenia with asymmetries of regional cerebral cortical surface area, thickness and subcortical volume measures in 32,256 participants from the UK Biobank. Polygenic risks for the two disorders were positively correlated (r=0.08, p=7.13×10-50), and both were higher in females compared to males, consistent with biased participation against higher-risk males. Each polygenic risk score was associated with multivariate brain asymmetry after adjusting for sex, ASD r=0.03, p=2.17×10-9, schizophrenia r=0.04, p=2.61×10-11, but the multivariate patterns were mostly distinct for the two polygenic risks, and neither resembled average sex differences. Annotation based on meta-analyzed functional imaging data showed that both polygenic risks were associated with asymmetries of regions important for language and executive functions, consistent with behavioural associations that arose in phenome-wide association analysis. Overall, the results indicate that distinct patterns of subtly altered brain asymmetry may be functionally relevant manifestations of polygenic risks for ASD and schizophrenia, but do not support brain masculinization or feminization in their etiologies