State Schemes or Safety Nets? China's Push for Universal Coverage

Daedalus ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 143 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark W. Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Universal Coverage ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Safety Nets ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Expenditures

After rapid changes in social policy and increases in social expenditures over the past five years, many of the uniformly negative assessments of China's record on health care, retirement pensions, and other forms of social security have to be reconsidered. This article examines the rapid expansion in social policy coverage and spending, and considers the possible significance of these changes for Chinese politics. The administrative and territorial categories that have defined access to social welfare provision over the history of the People's Republic of China have not yet receded, but their significance has diminished with programs that create uniform eligibility across rural and urban categories of citizenship. Large gaps in benefits remain, and are likely to generate political demands in the future as urbanization continues to erode the administrative distinctions between urban and rural.

Small peatland with a big story: 600-year paleoecological and historical data from a kettle-hole peatland in Western Russia

The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110332
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Mroczkowska ◽  
Piotr Kittel ◽  
Katarzyna Marcisz ◽  
Ekaterina Dolbunova ◽  
Emilie Gauthier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Impact ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Testate Amoebae ◽  
The Past ◽  
Kettle Hole ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Physical And Chemical

Peatlands are important records of past environmental changes. Based on a multiproxy analysis, the main factors influencing the evolution of a peatland can be divided into autogenic and allogenic. Among the important allogenic factors, apart from climate change, are deforestation and drainage, which are directly associated with human impact. Numerous consequences arise from these processes, the most important of which are physical and chemical denudation in the catchment and the related hydrological disturbances in the catchment and peatland. The present study determined how human activities and the past climatic variability mutually influenced the development of a small peatland ecosystem. The main goals of the study were: (1) to trace the local changes of the peatland history over the past 600 years, (2) to investigate their relationship with changes in regional hydroclimate patterns, and (3) to estimate the sensitivity of a small peatland to natural and human impact. Our reconstructions were based on a multiproxy analysis, including the analysis of pollen, macrofossils, Chironomidae, Cladocera, and testate amoebae. Our results showed that, depending on the changes in water level, the history of peatland can be divided into three phases as follows: 1/the phase of stable natural conditions, 2/phase of weak changes, and 3/phase of significant changes in the catchment. Additionally, to better understand the importance of the size of catchment and the size of the depositional basin in the evolution of the studied peatland ecosystem, we compared data from two peatlands – large and small – located close to each other. The results of our study indicated that “size matters,” and that larger peatlands are much more resilient and resistant to rapid changes occurring in the direct catchment due to human activities, whereas small peatlands are more sensitive and perfect as archives of environmental changes.

scholarly journals FORENSIC MEDICINE OF PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, FROM ITS ORIGINS TO THE PRESENT DAY

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 44-48
Author(s):  
V. A. Klevno ◽  
Yu. V. Nazarov
Keyword(s):  
Forensic Medicine ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Basic Information ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

In the publication, based on the book «the History of forensic medicine» under the editorship of doctor of medical sciences, professor Burkhard Madea, provides basic information about forensic medicine in the People’s Republic of China, details the history of its origin, the path and the complexity of its development, shows the current organization of services, the principles of training of forensic experts. The achievements of Chinese forensic medicine, both in the past and in the present, are noted.

6. Chinese Papercut Poster Collection

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Fu
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Revolution ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
History Of ◽  
15Th Anniversary

For the past five months, I have been working on researching and digitizing a set of twenty-four Chinese papercut posters at W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections. Using the web publishing platform Omeka, the project combined the digital images of the papercut posters and all the metadata including title, translation, historical background and dimensions. This set of papercuts reflects the history of the Chinese revolution from the founding of the Chinese Communist Party to the establishment of People's Republic of China. This set includes the most representative events in all stages of the revolution creating a microcosm of the history of the Chinese people seeking liberation. Among these historical events, the majority of them were also displayed in the film “The East Is Red” which is a “song and dance epic” filmed in 1965 for celebrating the 15th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Chinese papercut posters online collection preserves and increases accessibility to these rare materials of which there is only one other collection online. By accessing to this site, more scholars can study this unique collection without time and location limitation. Website Link: http://postercollection.omeka.net/collections/show/1

When a Global War Befell a Global City: Recent Historiography on Wartime Shanghai

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Taoyu Yang ◽  
Hongquan Han
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
World War ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Global War ◽  
Chinese And English ◽  
Wartime Experience

Abstract Shanghai was the first Chinese city to bear the full brunt of Japanese aggression during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). This historiographical article reviews the development of the study of wartime Shanghai in Chinese- and English-language academia in the past two decades. In the People’s Republic of China, Shanghai’s history during World War II has long been a favorite topic for academic historians. In the English-speaking world, however, the history of Shanghai’s wartime experience has only recently become a popular research topic. This article introduces many significant works related to wartime Shanghai, lays out important areas of inquiry, and identifies key historiographical trends. Its conclusion offers some suggestions on how the study of wartime Shanghai can be further advanced in the future.

scholarly journals Contract gangs: race, gender and vulnerability

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
Heather Goodall
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
The Past ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Rural Settings ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Workers ◽  
Indian Students ◽  
Women In Agriculture ◽  
Adequate Power

While violence directed at Indian students in Australian cities has been highlighted in the Indian and Australian press, far less attention has been paid to the violence directed at Indians in rural areas. This has most often involved Indians employed in contract labour in seasonal industries like fruit or vegetable picking. This article reviews various media accounts, both urban and rural, of violence directed at Indians from 2009 to 2012. It draws attention to the far longer history of labour exploitation which has taken place in rural and urban Australia in contract labour conditions and the particular invisibility of rural settings for such violence. Racial minorities, like Aboriginal and Chinese workers, and women in agriculture and domestic work, have seldom had adequate power to respond industrially or politically. This means that in the past, these groups been particularly vulnerable to such structural exploitation. The paper concludes by calling for greater attention not only to the particular vulnerability of Indians in rural settings but to the wider presence of racialised and gendered exploitation enabled by contract labour structures.

That Which Is Carved in Stone: Nanjing’s Monuments and Chinese Commemoration of the Second World War

Modern China ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 009770042094285
Author(s):  
Jonathan Henshaw
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
Occupied Territory ◽  
Nanjing Massacre ◽  
History Of ◽  
Memorial Sites ◽  
Second World

Chinese commemoration of the Second World War and of the Nanjing Massacre that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s has been framed as a “new remembering” in response to political change in China and Japanese denial. This periodization obscures both earlier Chinese commemorations and the multiple ways the past has been (re-)remembered. In fact, Chinese commemoration of the victims of the Nanjing Massacre began much earlier, in 1937. Nanjing and its history of building, bulldozing, and restoring wartime monuments and memorial sites offer a case study of how China’s shifting political priorities have provided frameworks that alternately enable and restrain commemoration of the wartime past. This article explores these frameworks, with particular attention to occupied territory, in order to more fully understand the war’s legacy in the People’s Republic of China.

scholarly journals The status of wildlife conservation in Botswana

Koedoe ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Von Richter
Keyword(s):  
Wildlife Conservation ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Conservation Areas ◽  
The Past ◽  
Landuse Planning ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
State Of Affairs

The sparse human population and the general lack of surface water over most parts of the Republic of Botswana, which has hampered rapid expansion of agricultural activities into the less suitable areas in the past, have contributed to the fact that Botswana still supports a varied and rich wildlife population. The long history of hunting by the local populae makes them understand and appreciate the concept of wildlife conservation and utilization and has assisted in general to implement a policy for rational conservation and utilization. The next decade will be decisive whether this laudable state of affairs will continue or whether the wildlife resource will be depleted and finally restricted only to formal conservation areas as it has happened in many other countries on the African continent. The government is fully aware of the significance of wildlife conservation and utilization and the necessity to integrate it into overall landuse planning.

scholarly journals Dairying, Dispossession, Devastation

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Matthew Wynyard
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Dairy Industry ◽  
Dairy Herd ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Agricultural Subsidies ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

The past three-and-a-half decades of neoliberal orthodoxy in New Zealand have been marked by the rapid expansion and intensification of the New Zealand dairy industry. In the years since direct agricultural subsidies and supports were removed in the mid-1980s, the national dairy herd has more than doubled and the area given over to dairying has increased by some 750,000 hectares. This relentless drive to intensify has come at a simply enormous environmental cost: New Zealanders, present and future, are being systematically dispossessed of cherished freshwater ecosystems and endemic biodiversity. In this paper, I argue that this is but the latest episode in a long history of often-violent dispossession that has been crucial to the historical development of capitalist agriculture in New Zealand. In so doing, I draw on Marx’s theory of primitive accumulation.

scholarly journals Is ‘Teach for All’ knocking on your door?

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Price ◽  
Andrew McConney
Keyword(s):  
Fast Track ◽  
Primary Teachers ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Teacher Professionalism ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Social Entrepreneurs ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rural And Urban

Abstract Over the past few decades there has been a rapid expansion in alternative ‘fast track’ routes for teacher preparation. Among the most aggressive of these are Teach for All (TFA) schemes characterized not only by their ultra fast entry to teaching (6 - 7 week course) but also by their underlying philosophy that the so called ‘crisis’ in poor rural and urban schools can be solved by attracting the ‘best and brightest’ university graduates for a two year appointment in ‘difficult to staff’ schools. With its missionary zeal TFA is heralded by some as one way to solve socio- -educational problems that governments cannot. Others condemn such schemes as not only patronizing, but also as part of an ideologically driven and deliberate neoliberal attack on public education, teachers, teacher professionalism and working class or ‘other’ communities. Recently Teach for All came knocking on New Zealand’s door. Concerned about the possible implications of this for the teaching profession and education more generally, the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua commissioned a review of the international literature on TFA schemes. This paper synthesizes some of the key findings of this review with particular focus on TFA’s marketing strategies and the connections TFA schemes have with so called social entrepreneurs or venture philanthropists, many of whom are actively and aggressively engaged in shaping educational reforms in line with neoliberal agendas.

Ecology and the Poor: A Neglected Dimension of Latin American History

1991 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Martinez-Alier
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Conservation Of Resources ◽  
Latin American History ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ecological Politics ◽  
Amazonian Region

This Commentary addresses the issue of ecological perception and ecological politics among poor populations, rural and urban. Some social struggles by poor people (and some national struggles by poor countries) can be understood also as ecological struggles. This approach reveals the ecological content, both hidden and explicit, of social movements from the past or present, which have been geared to defend access to natural resources against the advance of the generalised market system, and that have contributed to the conservation of resources to the extent that the market undervalues externalities. Examples are taken mainly from the history of highland and coastal Peru, but this approach is relevant also for the Amazonian region. Some comparisons are made with other countries in Latin America and also with India.

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