Nonmarket Labor Processes in an Advanced Capitalist Economy

In advanced capitalist economies, the treatment of labor as a commodity suggests that labor's cost and availability depend on market mechanisms. Although neoclassical economic thought recognizes the influence of collective bargaining and labor legislation on the cost and availability of labor, economists generally pay scant attention to the ways informal and formal relations of power, along with myths of sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality, combine within labor processes in advanced capitalist economies to influence the cost and availability of labor. This article presents data on the labor processes in the North Carolina seafood processing industry and compares them to the labor processes accompanying the annual, seasonal importation of legal alien farm labor by U.S. agricultural producers. The labor processes of the former rest on kinship and informal social relations while those of the latter rest on formal political authority. The analysis suggests that, even in advanced capitalist economies, employers faced with labor supply problems do not rely on market mechanisms but instead tap formal and informal systems of authority to assure supplies of labor, and support their behaviors with myths of sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality. The article concludes with a discussion of these behaviors in the context of post-World War II international divisions of labor.     

Introduction to "In Focus: Global Change and Adaptation in Local Places"

ABSTRACT   In recognition of unavoidable changes that human actions are producing in our environment, the term adaptation has become ubiquitous in the environmental and climate-change literature. Human adaptation is a field with a significant history in anthropology, yet anthropological contributions to the burgeoning field of climate change remain limited. This "In Focus" section presents studies of local adaptations to climate variation and change. Each is concerned with current environmental challenges and future environmental change, and each study is placed within a wider context that includes processes of globalization and integration into market economies, formal and informal institutions, and disasters. These studies highlight the challenges involved in understanding complex adaptations under conditions of stress. They also illustrate how anthropologists engage the larger climate-change and human-adaptation discussions and enhance our ability to respond to the challenges of a changing environment.     

Food,Money, and Morals: Compliance Among Natural Resource Harvesters

A comparative qualitative study of Norwegian and Newfoundland inshore fisheries revealed that compliance with the states fisheries regulations was governed by a set of moral distinctions which were strikingly similar in the two cases. Violations of government regulations were followed by informal sanctions only in commercial fisheries. Illegal food fishery was generally accepted. A fisherman could also break the law in commercial fisheries without being met with significant sanctions provided that it was generally perceived to be the only way to ensure a necessary outcome. The empirical findings are connected to the moral meanings of money and food, and it is suggested that the economies of natural resource harvesters include two different moral spheres. One of these spheres is linked to subsistence, small-scale operations and local exchange, and is perceived as morally safe. The other sphere is connected with money, large-scale operations, and exchange with strangers, and is seen as morally perilous.     

Comparing the Health State Preferences of Older Persons,Informal Caregivers and Healthcare Professionals: A Vignette Study

Background

The Older Persons and Informal Caregivers Survey—Minimum Dataset (TOPICS-MDS) collects uniform information from research projects funded under the Dutch National Care for the Elderly Programme. To compare the effectiveness of these projects a preference-weighted outcome measure that combined multidimensional TOPICS-MDS outcomes into a composite endpoint (TOPICS-CEP) was developed based on the health state preferences of older persons and informal caregivers.

Objectives

To derive preference weights for TOPICS-CEP’s components based on health state preferences of healthcare professionals and to investigate whether these weights differ between disciplines and differ from those of older persons and informal caregivers.

Materials and Methods

Vignette studies were conducted. Participants assessed the general wellbeing of older persons described in vignettes on a scale (0-10). Mixed linear analyses were used to obtain and compare the preference weights of the eight TOPICS-CEP components: morbidities, functional limitations, emotional wellbeing, pain experience, cognitive problems, social functioning, self-perceived health, and self-perceived quality of life (QOL).

Results

Overall, 330 healthcare professionals, 124 older persons and 76 informal caregivers participated. The preference weights were not significantly different between disciplines. However, the professionals’ preference weights differed significantly from those of older persons and informal caregivers. Morbidities and functional limitations were given more weight by older persons and informal caregivers than by healthcare professionals [difference between preference weights: 0.12 and 0.07] while the opposite was true for pain experience, social functioning, and self-perceived QOL [difference between preference weights: 0.13, 0.15 and 0.26].

Conclusion

It is important to recognize the discrepancies between the health state preferences of various stakeholders to (1) correctly interpret results when studying the effectiveness of interventions in elderly care and (2) establish appropriate healthcare policies. Furthermore, we should strive to include older persons in our decision making process through a shared decision making approach.     

Towards Measuring the Informal City: A Societal Metabolism Approach

The rapid growth of urban informal settlements, or slums, poses a particular challenge for balancing developmental and environmental goals. In South Africa, high levels of inequality, poverty, and unemployment contribute to widespread migration. The influx of migrant workers to cities, however, is rarely matched with adequate housing and infrastructure, resulting in the formation and growth of urban informal settlements. Despite the persistence of the slum phenomenon, very few studies provide an in‐depth understanding of the metabolic processes that link these spaces, and informal economies, to the broader urban environment and economy. This article therefore utilized a multiscale integrated assessment of the societal and ecosystem metabolism approach to examine human activity and land use in Enkanini, an urban informal settlement in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The results highlight a number of issues to be addressed through spatial, developmental, and local economic policy, such as the need for improved transport linkages. The time‐use results show that Enkanini is a net provider of labor to the surrounding area. Further, geographical mapping indicates Enkanini as a small, but vibrant, informal economy, while being grossly underserviced in terms of water, waste, and sanitation infrastructure. Key implications are discussed in terms of the theoretical, methodological, societal, and policy impact of the study, including the need for city observatories that conduct regular data collection and analysis.     

A new <Emphasis Type="Italic">Heteropterys</Emphasis> (Malpighiaceae) from semideciduous forest,with notes on wood anatomy

This paper describes and illustrates Heteropterys serrata, a new species endemic to semideciduous forests associated with inselbergs in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Morphological and wood anatomical traits of the new species are compared to those of other species of the Heteropterys Metallophyllis informal group. Based on wood anatomy, H. serrata and H. nitida (the most morphologically similar species) have different axial parenchyma, which is scarce paratracheal in H. nitida (and some other species of the Metallophyllis informal group) and aliform confluent in H. serrata. The most notable morphological and anatomical characters that distinguish the new species are the young hexagonal stems, the unusual widely serrate leaf margins and the aliform confluent axial parenchyma in the wood.     

Globalization of biotechnology: The agglomeration of dispersed knowledge and information and its implications for the political economy of technology in developing countries

This study examines a contradictory development in the era of globalization wherein country-specific economic and socio-political institutional environment limits the global flow of technological knowledge and information, particularly in the biotechnology sector. International collaborations for developing new biotechnologies has increased significantly in recent years, but these have virtually bypassed firms in developing countries. The international flow of technologies tends to agglomerate in developed economies particularly in the US, where an appropriate mix of economic choices, social regulation and state action fostered institutional environments that facilitated the development and commercialization of biotechnologies. Moreover, with the heightening competition in the global economy, state and firms of developed economies have evolved into a relationship of close partnership. This shows that, far from being irrelevant, the state remains a political entity that structures the innovation system in order to promote the well-being of its firms. This calls for a re-thinking of the role of the state in technological and economic development, particularly among the developing economies.     

Witch Hunts, Herbal Healing, and Discourses of Indigenous Ecodevelopment in North India: Theory and Method in the Anthropology of Environmentality

ABSTRACT  In this article, we examine the environmental thought and practice of indigenous peoples living in and around a wildlife sanctuary in North India. Analysis reveals that those religious specialists (such as shamans) who possess knowledge of herbal healing are more committed than other villagers to preventing or mitigating the overharvesting of natural resources. To explain these results, reference is made to a specific juncture of native traditions and modern conditions and in particular to an intersection of local economies with global discourses of "ecodevelopment." Drawing on theories and methods from political ecology and cultural psychology, we present a framework for testing the extent that local actors—in this case, shamanic and herbalist healers—are differently positioned to resist or accommodate state and parastate structures of "environmentality" than are other villagers.     

Experimental study of informal rewards in peer production

We test the effects of informal rewards in online peer production. Using a randomized, experimental design, we assigned editing awards or "barnstars" to a subset of the 1% most productive Wikipedia contributors. Comparison with the control group shows that receiving a barnstar increases productivity by 60% and makes contributors six times more likely to receive additional barnstars from other community members, revealing that informal rewards significantly impact individual effort.     

The Political Economy of ‘Trauma’ in Haiti in the Democratic Era of Insecurity

This article explores the challenges that emerge at the intersection of economies of compassion and terror: local, national, and international forms of humanitarian assistance; security practices in insecure social and institutional environments; questions of victimization and global reparations; and quests for justice, as revealed through an analysis of political violence and humanitarian interventions in Haiti during and after the 1991-94 coup period. Each domain is constrained by politics and history but can engender "occult economies" that challenge the intended consequences of restitution policies at international, national, and local levels of exchange. 'Trauma' and discourses about traumatic suffering are the hinge around which these economies pivot, generating new forms of political subjectivity for Haitian activists.     

Crisis-management: Tzeltal-Maya transnational migration and the Foucauldian apparatus

This paper offers a Foucauldian analysis of Tzeltal-Maya transnational migration from Cañada Estrella, Ocosingo, Chiapas, to San Francisco, California, placing it within the context of North American neoliberalism. It asserts that Tzeltal-Maya migrants, through their creation of new transnational social relations, bring into articulation an informal neoliberal migration apparatus (a Foucauldian dispositif). This apparatus assembles and coordinates a variety of indigenous, ladino, and gringo strategies, techniques, tactics, and technologies for dealing with and harnessing the crises and opportunities presented by international capitalism. Such an apparatus functions in tandem and tension with neoliberal state apparatuses and produces a transnational neoliberal order in indigenous ejidos. Further, this paper demonstrates that this apparatus has allowed Tzeltal-Maya ejidos in the Lacandon Jungle greater degrees of autonomy from the Mexican municipal, state, and federal governments and the local rancher elite, while also making them increasingly interdependent with small businesses in the United States.     

“You don’t see any violence here but it leads to very ugly things”: forced solidarity and silent violence in Michoacán,Mexico

Mexico has become an ideal laboratory for anthropology interested in studying the transformations of drug trafficking, its economies, and its cultures. Certainly, the challenges are complex and difficult, since criminal violence affects fieldwork and its results. However, when one delves into regions where drug trafficking and organized crime are present, what we can grasp ethnographically are fundamental questions about the relationships that are being generated between the state, neoliberalism, and illegality. In this article, we will analyze the expansion of drug cartels in one of the states most affected by criminal violence: the state of Michoacán, with special reference to the Caballeros Templarios—the Knights Templar. Understanding the origins and structures of this organization can teach us how the transformations of the state and criminal economies are being redrawn in neoliberal spaces.     

Informal Urban Settlements and Cholera Risk in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

Background

As a result of poor economic opportunities and an increasing shortage of affordable housing, much of the spatial growth in many of the world''s fastest-growing cities is a result of the expansion of informal settlements where residents live without security of tenure and with limited access to basic infrastructure. Although inadequate water and sanitation facilities, crowding and other poor living conditions can have a significant impact on the spread of infectious diseases, analyses relating these diseases to ongoing global urbanization, especially at the neighborhood and household level in informal settlements, have been infrequent. To begin to address this deficiency, we analyzed urban environmental data and the burden of cholera in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Cholera incidence was examined in relation to the percentage of a ward''s residents who were informal, the percentage of a ward''s informal residents without an improved water source, the percentage of a ward''s informal residents without improved sanitation, distance to the nearest cholera treatment facility, population density, median asset index score in informal areas, and presence or absence of major roads. We found that cholera incidence was most closely associated with informal housing, population density, and the income level of informal residents. Using data available in this study, our model would suggest nearly a one percent increase in cholera incidence for every percentage point increase in informal residents, approximately a two percent increase in cholera incidence for every increase in population density of 1000 people per km² in Dar es Salaam in 2006, and close to a fifty percent decrease in cholera incidence in wards where informal residents had minimally improved income levels, as measured by ownership of a radio or CD player on average, in comparison to wards where informal residents did not own any items about which they were asked. In this study, the range of access to improved sanitation and improved water sources was quite narrow at the ward level, limiting our ability to discern relationships between these variables and cholera incidence. Analysis at the individual household level for these variables would be of interest.

Conclusions/Significance

Our results suggest that ongoing global urbanization coupled with urban poverty will be associated with increased risks for certain infectious diseases, such as cholera, underscoring the need for improved infrastructure and planning as the world''s urban population continues to expand.     

SYSTEMATICS AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE AUSTRALIAN "GREEN ASH" EUCALYPTS (MONOCALYPTUS)

Abstract— A cladistic analysis of the "green ash" eucalypts, informal subgenus " Monocalyptus ", is presented- As a first step, ordination methods of principal coordinates analysis and multidimensional scaling delineated some terminal taxa. The cladistic analysis, applying parsimony methods to the unweighted data set, yielded 25 equally parsimonious trees, each with a consistency index of 0.57.
Farris' successive approximations approach to character weighting produced one tree with a consistency index of 0.74.
An informal classification of the group, superseries Eucalyptus , is based on that cladogram. The biogeographic history of superseries Eucalyptus is interpreted from the cladogram as having been caused by lour vicariant events in southeastern Australia, in combination with a suite of ecological features that overlie the biogeographic area-pattern.     

Development of a social impact assessment methodology for recycling systems in low-income countries

Purpose

Informal recycling is one of the most significant activities within waste management systems in low-income countries. The main aspect of a number of recently implemented waste management systems has been to organise the informal recycling sector. The implementation of formalisation is expected to eliminate social problems related to the informal sector, but this has not been precisely measured and evaluated. A lack of methodology to assess social impacts persists, as does the comparison of different formalisation approaches. The goal of this work is to develop a methodological procedure for assessing the contribution of formalised recycling systems in low-income countries in terms of social impacts, in comparison with informal systems.

Methods

Some existing social assessment approaches were evaluated by a review of literature. This investigation focuses on the development of the social life cycle assessment approach, the analysed social aspects, proposed indicators and characterisation models within this framework.

Results and discussion

This study proposes an approach for the social assessment of recycling systems based on formalisation approaches in low-income countries oriented towards the social life cycle assessment methodology (sLCA). The approach developed considers 3 social impact categories, 9 social subcategories and 26 semi-quantitative indicators for the assessment of the social impacts on formalised recyclers. It includes a characterisation procedure that takes into consideration the application of a score system and the calculation of average scores at both the indicator and subcategory levels.

Conclusions

This research shows that it would be feasible to apply a sLCA-based methodology to evaluate recycling systems based on formalisation of the informal sector. The impact categories and subcategories identified represent the social problems of informal recyclers. The 26 semi-quantitative indicators and the proposed characterisation approach attempt to measure the social impacts that currently are only qualitatively assumed. The applicability and validation of the indicators and characterisation procedure will be determined by further research. The methodology developed will be tested using data from three recycling systems in Peruvian cities.     

Informal Child Care and Adolescent Psychological Well-Being: Hong Kong’s “Children of 1997” Birth Cohort

Background

Informal child care (child care by untrained family members, relatives or employees in the home) in Western populations is often associated with poorer psychological well-being, which may be confounded by socioeconomic position. We examined the association of informal child care, common in non-Western settings, with adolescent psychological well-being, using Hong Kong’s Chinese “Children of 1997” birth cohort.

Methods

Multivariable linear regression was used to examine the adjusted associations of informal child care (at 0.5, 3, 5 and 11 years) with parent-reported Rutter score for child behavior at 11 years, self-reported Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventories score at 11 years and self-reported Patient Health Questionnaire-9 depressive symptom score at 13 years. Model comparisons were used to identify the best representation of child care, in terms of a critical period of exposure to informal child care (independent variable) at a specific age, combination of exposures to informal child care at several ages or an accumulation of exposures to informal child care.

Results

Child care was not associated with behavioral problems. A model considering child care at 3 years best represented the association of child care with self-esteem while a model considering child care at 5 years best represented the association of child care with depressive symptoms. Informal child care at 3 years was associated with lower self-esteem (-0.70, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.26 to -0.14). Informal child care at 5 years was associated with more depressive symptoms (0.45, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.73).

Conclusion

In a developed non-Western setting, informal child care was associated with lower self-esteem and more depressive symptoms.     

Revisiting the ‘cornerstone of Amazonian conservation’: a socioecological assessment of Brazil nut exploitation

The Brazil nut (the seeds of the rainforest tree Bertholletia excelsa) is the only globally traded seed collected from the wild by forest-based harvesters across the Amazon basin. The large geographic scale of Brazil nut exploitation and the significant contributions to local livelihoods, national economies, and forest-based development over the last decades, merit a review of the “conservation-through-use” paradigm. We use Elinor Ostrom’s framework for assessing sustainability in socioecological systems: (1) resource unit, (2) users, (3) governance system, and (4) resource system, to determine how different contexts and external developments generate specific conservation and development outcomes. We find that the resource unit reacts robustly to the type and level of extraction currently practiced; that resource users have built on a self-organized system that had defined boundaries and access to the resource; that linked production chains, market networks and informal financing work to supply global markets; and that local harvesters have used supporting alliances with NGOs and conservationists to formalize and secure their endogenous governance system and make it more equitable. As a result, the Brazil nut model represents a socioecological system that may not require major changes to sustain productivity. Yet since long-term Brazil nut production seems inextricably tied to a continuous forest cover, and because planted Brazil nut trees currently provide a minimal contribution to total nut production basin-wide, we call to preserve, diversify and intensify production in Brazil nut-rich forests that will inevitably become ever more integrated within human-modified landscapes over time.     

Multidisciplinary transmural rehabilitation for older persons with a stroke: the design of a randomised controlled trial

Background

Stroke is one of the major causes of loss of independence, decreased quality of life and mortality among elderly people. About half of the elderly stroke patients discharged after rehabilitation in a nursing home still experience serious impairments in daily functioning one year post stroke, which can lead to difficulties in picking up and managing their social life. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of a new multidisciplinary transmural rehabilitation programme for older stroke patients.

Methods

A two group multicentre randomised controlled trial is used to evaluate the effects of the rehabilitation programme. The programme consists of three care modules: 1) neurorehabilitation treatment for elderly stroke patients; 2) empowerment training for patient and informal caregiver; and 3) stroke education for patient and informal caregiver. The total programme has a duration of between two and six months, depending on the individual problems of the patient and informal caregiver. The control group receives usual care in the nursing home and after discharge.Patients aged 65 years and over are eligible for study participation when they are admitted to a geriatric rehabilitation unit in a nursing home due to a recent stroke and are expected to be able to return to their original home environment after discharge. Data are gathered by face-to-face interviews, self-administered questionnaires, focus groups and registration forms. Primary outcomes for patients are activity level after stroke, functional dependence, perceived quality of life and social participation. Outcomes for informal caregivers are perceived care burden, objective care burden, quality of life and perceived health. Outcome measures of the process evaluation are implementation fidelity, programme deliverance and the opinion of the stroke professionals, patients and informal caregivers about the programme. Outcome measures of the economic evaluation are the healthcare utilisation and associated costs. Data are collected at baseline, and after six and 12 months. The first results of the study will be expected in 2014.

Trial registration

International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Register Number ISRCTN62286281, The Dutch Trial Register NTR2412

     

Comparison of Statistical and Clinical Predictions of Functional Outcome after Ischemic Stroke

Background

To determine whether the predictions of functional outcome after ischemic stroke made at the bedside using a doctor’s clinical experience were more or less accurate than the predictions made by clinical prediction models (CPMs).

Methods and Findings

A prospective cohort study of nine hundred and thirty one ischemic stroke patients recruited consecutively at the outpatient, inpatient and emergency departments of the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh between 2002 and 2005. Doctors made informal predictions of six month functional outcome on the Oxford Handicap Scale (OHS). Patients were followed up at six months with a validated postal questionnaire. For each patient we calculated the absolute predicted risk of death or dependence (OHS≥3) using five previously described CPMs. The specificity of a doctor’s informal predictions of OHS≥3 at six months was good 0.96 (95% CI: 0.94 to 0.97) and similar to CPMs (range 0.94 to 0.96); however the sensitivity of both informal clinical predictions 0.44 (95% CI: 0.39 to 0.49) and clinical prediction models (range 0.38 to 0.45) was poor. The prediction of the level of disability after stroke was similar for informal clinical predictions (ordinal c-statistic 0.74 with 95% CI 0.72 to 0.76) and CPMs (range 0.69 to 0.75). No patient or clinician characteristic affected the accuracy of informal predictions, though predictions were more accurate in outpatients.

Conclusions

CPMs are at least as good as informal clinical predictions in discriminating between good and bad functional outcome after ischemic stroke. The place of these models in clinical practice has yet to be determined.     

Coping with Bureaucracy: Survival Strategies in Irrigated Agriculture

Small-scale family farming and centralized bureaucratic management are in many ways incompatible, yet the two are often combined in modern irrigation systems. Bureaucrats and farmers cope by means of "informal adjustments." The kinds of informal adjustments made by farmers vary with their differential access to resources, particularly labor, despite minimal variation in access to land and water. The effects of bureaucratic control and associated informal adjustments are illustrated by reference to three large-scale irrigation systems noteworthy for their high degree of centralization and for their success in achieving high productivity by family farm operators: the Israeli cooperative farming sector, the Gezira Scheme in Sudan, and the Mwea Scheme in Kenya.