Changes in social inequality with respect to health-related living conditions of 6-year-old children in East Germany after re-unification

BACKGROUND: Since Germany re-unified in 1990, substantial social and economic changes have happened in East Germany, the former socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR). The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of these socio-economic changes in East Germany on the association between social status, measured by parental educational level, and health-related living conditions of children during the ten-year period after re-unification. METHODS: In total, 25,864 6-year-old school beginner children (51.2% male and 48.8% female) participated in cross-sectional studies which have been repeated every year from 1991 to 2000 in East Germany. Parental educational level as a social indicator was the independent variable. Dependent variables included not employed parents, small living space and health-related living conditions (e. g. damp housing, single oven heating and living at busy road). The relationships were described by odds ratios using logistic regression. RESULTS: A large overall effect of parental educational level on health-related living conditions was observed. The time trends showed that the situation regarding small living space, damp housing conditions and single oven heating improved from 1991 to 2000, while regarding not employed parents (1996–2000) and living at busy road (1991–2000) did not, but even deteriorated. 6-year old children with low parental educational level, who lived at the time of re-unification, were often under damp housing conditions and with single oven heating at homes. Nevertheless, this social inequality has almost vanished ten years later. In contrast, we found an increasing gap between low and high parental educational level with respect to the proportion of parents who were not employed (22%: 4% gain), or lived under cramped housing conditions (22%: 37% reduction), or close to a busy road (7% gain: 2% reduction). CONCLUSION: The social inequalities which already existed under the socialist system in East Germany persisted in the system of social market economy between 1991 and 2000. 6-year-old children from families with the lowest social status were living under the worst domestic conditions (e. g. living at busy road, having damp housing conditions, single oven heating and small living space) and for some conditions (e. g. living at busy road and having small living space) the gap betweenlow and high social status was even bigger in 2000 than in 1991

The party-state in the land occupations of Zimbabwe: the case of Shamva district

There has been significant debate about the land occupations which occurred from the year 2000 in Zimbabwe, with a key controversy concerning the role of the state and ruling party (or party-state) in the occupations. This controversy, deriving from two grand narratives about the occupations, remains unresolved. A burgeoning literature exists on the Zimbabwean state’s fast-track land reform programme, which arose in the context of the occupations, but this literature is concerned mainly with post-occupation developments on fast-track farms. This article seeks to contribute to resolving the controversy surrounding the party-state and the land occupations by examining the occupations in the Shamva District of Mashonaland Central Province. The fieldwork for our Shamva study focused exclusively on the land occupations (and not on the fast-track farms) and was undertaken in May 2015. We conclude from our Shamva study that involvement by the party-state did not take on an institutionalised form but was of a personalised character entailing interventions by specific party and state actors