Dramatic Socioeconomic Changes Research Articles

Examining the autonomy of Zulu Ingoma from the 1930s to present: Image or authentic experience?

It is prudent to highlight that Ingoma has played an essential role in the transformation of amaZulu. The Ingoma’s story is of dramatic socioeconomic changes in Zulu society after the final ‘downfall’ of the independent kingdom. It is the decade in which amaZulu entered the migrant labour system in greater proportions than ever before. As expected from any African society, the narrative for this decade could well be expressed in music, song, dance and some other forms of performances, which could be collectively called Ingoma. Sentiments arose around this period in the history of Zulu Ingoma, whereby some felt it as negative, while others saw it as positive. As such, this article set out to examine the story of Ingoma during the decade between 1929 and 1939. This article adopted an ethnomethodological approach within an interpretive paradigm to understand the impact of Ingoma musical and/or dance performance tradition. The results of this article reveal that Ingoma musical and/or dance performance traditions of the 1920s and 1930s represented the less continuity of precolonial musical and/or dance performance traditions of amaZulu expressions of power and warfare than the complex interaction of dance traditions, labour migration and missionisation. This article concludes by affirming that people continuously construct their cultures to reflect their identities. These results imply two things: firstly, amaZulu migrants were not just passive recipients of cultural changes at that time, and secondly, they were consciously responsible for the transformation of Ingoma dance songs as they reflected on the socioeconomic changes they found themselves in.Contribution: This study contributes by establishing the factual impact of this transformative period on Ingoma musical and/or dance performance tradition and on the broader cultural expression of amaZulu as a society in developing South Africa.

‘Road of life’: changing navigation seasons and the adaptation of island communities in the Russian Arctic

ABSTRACT Adaptation of remote island communities in the Russian European Arctic to dramatic socioeconomic changes has been intensified by the impacts of climate changes in navigation seasons. Both the stability and duration of winter and summer navigation seasons and the start of the rasputitsa season, a shoulder period between the first two, are becoming more unpredictable and jeopardizing local mobility options. The ability to commute between neighboring settlements is an important aspect of island communities’ viability. Local mobility depends on well-functioning ice roads during wintertime, tugboats during the raputitsa season and on passenger vessels or smaller boats during summer navigation. To examine whether and how the island population of the Arkhangelsk region adapts to changing conditions and what factors shape adaptation options, we apply a community-based adaptation approach. The results from qualitative interviews with 32 residents and relevant stakeholders indicate that further development of the island communities will rely on sufficient mobility options. Incorporation of climate prognoses and local knowledge can improve the planning of mobility measures. Current and future community adaptation is challenged by out-migration, unpredictability in the rasputitsa season and lack of investment in island development.

Long-term trends in anthropogenic land use in Siberia and the Russian Far East: a case study synthesis from Landsat

As globally important forested areas situated in a context of dramatic socio-economic changes, Siberia and the Russian Far East (RFE) are important regions to monitor for anthropogenic land-use trends. Therefore, we compiled decadal Landsat-derived land-cover and land-use data for eight dominantly rural case study sites in these regions and focused on trends associated with settlements, agriculture, logging, and roads 1975–2010. Several key spatial–temporal trends emerged from the integrated landscape-scale analyses. First, road building increased in all case study sites over the 35-year period, despite widespread socio-economic decline post-1990. Second, increase in settlements area was negligible over all sites. Third, increased road building, largely of minor roads, was especially high in more rugged and remote RFE case study sites not associated with greater agriculture extent or settlement densities. High demands for wood export coupled with the expansion of commercial timber harvest leases starting in the mid-1990s are likely among leading reasons for an increase in roads. Fourth, although fire was the dominant disturbance over all sites and dates combined, logging exerted a strong land-use pattern, serving as a reminder that considering local anthropogenic landscapes is important, especially in Siberia and the RFE, which represent almost 10% of the Earth’s terrestrial land surface. The paper concludes by identifying remaining research needs regarding anthropogenic land use in the region: more frequent moderate spatial resolution imagery and greater access to more finely resolved statistical and other spatial data will enable further research.Social media abstractLandsat reveals long-term anthropogenic land-use trends in Siberia and Russian Far East

T150. SEX DIFFERENCES IN PEOPLE WITH PSYCHOSIS: FINDINGS FROM A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE IN KOSOVO

BackgroundThe need for mental health care services is particularly high in low and middle income countries (LMICs) where socio-economic factors have a deep impact on treatment and management of psychosis. Lack of funds and qualified professional represent the main challenge to treatment gap leaving between 36% and 45% of people with psychosis without care for their condition thus having a huge impact at individual and societal level. Although data from epidemiological research show that prevalence of psychosis is equal between sexes, some differences in terms of needs for care might be relevant, particularly in a context that has been affected by dramatic socio-economic and cultural changes.In this study we explore in a representative sample of people with psychosis from Kosovo*, as part of a large multi-country study (EU-funded IMPULSE project), whether demographic, socio-economic and clinical differences exist between male and female patients.MethodsData on demographic, socio-economic characteristics, use of psychosocial treatment and medication was collected; general level of psychopathology and negative symptoms were assessed through the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory and Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms. Male and female patients were compared in terms of demographic, socio-economic and clinical characteristics using Chi-square and independent sample t- test as appropriate.ResultsThe sample (n=103) was composed by 33 female and 70 male patients with psychosis. The two groups did not show any statistically significant difference in age, employment, level of education; however, marital status seems to differ with higher proportion of women being separated (p=0.009). No differences emerged in monthly income, while a trend of significance (p=0.079) suggested that female patients had slightly higher financial benefits than their male counterpart. While there was no difference in terms of psychiatric diagnosis, higher depressive (p=0.017) and paranoid symptoms (at trend level, p=0.054) were reported by females patients. There were no differences on antipsychotic medication. Attendance of a psychosocial treatment was higher in male than in female patients (80% vs 57.6%; p=0.017) without any difference though in the type of approach. Overall, patients who attended a psychosocial treatment had lower negative symptoms (p<0.001) compared to those who did not.DiscussionFemale patients with psychosis were found to have a worse clinical presentation compared to male patients, and to have a lower attendance to psychosocial treatment. Regardless of sex, psychosocial treatment seems to be associated to less negative symptomatology.More research is needed to better characterise clinical presentation of people with psychosis in LMICs and to understand whether access to mental health service, particularly psychosocial intervention, is accountable to clinical characteristics or to contextual factors, social and/or economic in nature. Offering psychosocial intervention to this clinical population could alleviate burden of the illness in this clinical population.

Urban–rural disparities in cardiovascular disease risks among middle-aged and older Chinese: two decades of urbanisation

AbstractChina has been undergoing dramatic socio-economic and demographic changes in the last few decades. The rapid growth of the ageing population will pose tremendous challenges to its public health and social welfare system. This study aims to examine how urbanisation has impacted cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks among middle-aged and older Chinese in two decades, from 1991 to 2011. Data were drawn from a nationwide longitudinal data-set of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) (sweeps 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2011). Participants aged ⩾45 years old were included. A dynamic urbanisation index was created for each community (village or neighbourhood) based on community-level data that can reveal the heterogeneity within and across places and capture dimensions of social, economic and physical characteristics of urban living over time and space. Multi-level modelling analyses (level 1: occasions; level 2: individuals; level 3: households; level 4: communities) were performed on outcomes of CVD risks such as body mass index, waist circumference, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The results show upward trends in all CVD risks for both genders over 20 years of urbanisation after adjustment for socio-economic and demographic confounders. Urbanisation in China is associated with absolute increases in CVD risks over time among its middle-aged and older people, despite its contribution to relative reduction of the rural–urban gap over time. This is particularly true for women from the least urbanised areas. It is relevant to inform policy-making processes to target the most vulnerable groups of older people in China during its rapid urbanisation process. There is a possibility for policy intervention to reduce inequality during the process of China's planned urbanisation.

Multiple long-term trends and trend reversals dominate environmental conditions in a man-made freshwater reservoir

Man-made reservoirs are common across the world and provide a wide range of ecological services. Environmental conditions in riverine reservoirs are affected by the changing climate, catchment-wide processes and manipulations with the water level, and water abstraction from the reservoir. Long-term trends of environmental conditions in reservoirs thus reflect a wider range of drivers in comparison to lakes, which makes the understanding of reservoir dynamics more challenging. We analysed a 32-year time series of 36 environmental variables characterising weather, land use in the catchment, reservoir hydrochemistry, hydrology and light availability in the small, canyon-shaped Římov Reservoir in the Czech Republic to detect underlying trends, trend reversals and regime shifts. To do so, we fitted linear and piecewise linear regression and a regime shift model to the time series of mean annual values of each variable and to principal components produced by Principal Component Analysis. Models were weighted and ranked using Akaike information criterion and the model selection approach. Most environmental variables exhibited temporal changes that included time-varying trends and trend reversals. For instance, dissolved organic carbon showed a linear increasing trend while nitrate concentration or conductivity exemplified trend reversal. All trend reversals and cessations of temporal trends in reservoir hydrochemistry (except total phosphorus concentrations) occurred in the late 1980s and during 1990s as a consequence of dramatic socioeconomic changes. After a series of heavy rains in the late 1990s, an administrative decision to increase the flood-retention volume of the reservoir resulted in a significant regime shift in reservoir hydraulic conditions in 1999. Our analyses also highlight the utility of the model selection framework, based on relatively simple extensions of linear regression, to describe temporal trends in reservoir characteristics. This approach can provide a solid basis for a better understanding of processes in freshwater reservoirs.

Towards Sustainable New Settlements in Egypt: Lessons Learned from a Comparison between Traditional and Modern Settlements in Greater Cairo Region - Egypt

The last few decades, Egypt drawn into a dramatic socio-economic change that causes a relative change in adopted development patterns. Different typologies of new residential districts have turned from globalized westernized world into Egyptian context. Planners and authority thought that changing adopted development patterns from traditional to modern neighborhood could provide solutions for old town's problems. On the other hand, different scholars have emphasized that traditional compact, mixed use, high-density urban forms are important for reaching sustainability goals in term of environmental, economic and social advantages. Based on a comparison of the sustainability of three case studies Shubra, Heliopolis, and new Cairo city; this research examine analyze the sustainability of New Egyptian Settlements. The analysis depends on observation and spatial analysis to investigate the variations of performances between the three case studies in terms of urban, social, environmental, and economic sustainability indicators. The research aims to assess the sustainability of moving from traditional to modern urban form in GCR' new towns and to extract development criteria and lessons learned from traditional urban form to enhance the sustainability of modern settlements. The research concluded that both traditional early developed settlements like Shubra and new planned settlements like new Cairo recorded low performance in sustainability issues, each one in its own way; and that early planned settlements like Heliopolis recorded moderate performance in sustainability issues, this paves the way for criteria to prepare new plans of new settlements and provide intensification repair tools to fix existing new settlements.

Examining the effects of social networks formed in a senior-oriented online community on older participants’ subjective well-being in China

In recent decades, the dramatic socioeconomic changes that have occurred in China have increasingly affected the social lives of older Chinese adults. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the social networks developed in an online community contributed to the subjective well-being of this age group. The underlying mechanism of this effect was examined by investigating a senior-oriented online community (OldKids). An online survey was administered to participants in the OldKids network. The results showed that the proposed theoretical model was effective in demonstrating that their participation in the OldKids network improved the participants’ subjective well-being through the mediation of perceived social support and feelings of social connectedness. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed in this paper.

Living space and psychological well-being in urban China: Differentiated relationships across socio-economic gradients

Western research has shown that a shortage of living space is associated with poor psychological well-being. By contrast, norms and practices of extended family co-residence, collectivist social or...

Branding an authentic rural Maramureş in tourism practices: Interplay of hospitality, heritage and social memory

In trying to shape an “authentic” rural Maramureş, tourist guesthouse owners promote local hospitality as a brand. Mechanisms of branding hospitality, as part of a tourism marketing strategy mean re-enacting their “social memory” related to Romanian peasants’ sociocultural universe. The use of rural guesthouses as arenas for staging peasant identity for tourists entails the presentation of a peasant “essence” as reflected in physical traces (replications of peasant domestic universe) associated with traditional practices and knowledge relating to natural and agricultural landscapes. These local resources involve above all producing identity for tourist cultural consumption. However, the endowment of these resources with symbolic power opens up questions about their authenticity. It also questions the interplay between “heritage” and “hospitality values” intended for tourist development. Using an ethnographic approach, our findings advance understandings about the interplay of hospitality, heritage and social memory with authenticity in a rural world experiencing dramatic socio-economic changes under the incidence of globalization.

The Societal Cost of China's Rapid Economic Growth

In China, political control is centralized and economic management is decentralized. This gives rise to a serious principal–agent problem, in which the agents are often better informed than the principal. China also has a semi-marketized economy involving much state intervention. This intervention serves both a political and an economic function. It enables the Communist Party to remain in political command and generates formidable patronage resources. It also provides the policy instruments, including incentive structures for officialdom, to maintain a “developmental state.” The combination of economic decentralization and a semi-marketized economy creates a problem of weak accountability and a breeding ground for rent-seeking and corruption. For a quarter of a century China's leadership gave overwhelming priority to the objective of achieving rapid economic growth. This policy was viewed as providing political legitimacy and securing the best protection against social instability. It is argued that the leadership was able to solve the principal–agent problem in its pursuit of economic growth. By contrast, the solution to the principal–agent problem failed in other respects, giving rise to societal costs. Little attention was paid to the dramatic socioeconomic changes—including rising inequality and economic insecurity, environmental degradation, mass migration, rent seeking, and corruption—which accompanied economic growth and posed new challenges. It is argued that these changes help to explain the failure of life satisfaction scores to rise over the two decades from 1990–2010. They can also help to explain the rise in indicators of social instability over that period. It is to be hoped that the new leadership's current anti-corruption campaign, together with its declared policy intention to reduce state economic intervention and increase reliance on competitive markets, will strengthen deterrence and weaken opportunities for rent seeking and corruption. The paper carries the implication that China's economy cannot be well understood except through the lens of political economy.

The needs and difficulties in socializing the young in contemporary China: Early childhood education experts’ perspectives

This study was the first of its kind in China to examine early childhood education experts’ perspectives on the urgent educational needs of preschool-aged children. Twenty-one nationally and regionally recognized experts, including university professors, practitioners and government officials, participated in interviews. They offered critical evaluations of early educational needs, pointing out the difficulties in socializing young children in the context of dramatic socioeconomic changes, the country’s single-child policy, labor migration in urbanization, and other societal forces. This study adopted a conceptual framework from cultural anthropology to present and interpret the experts’ perspectives in terms of the survival, economic and cultural goals of socialization. The experts’ perspectives suggest that early Chinese socialization should emphasize health, the acquisition of healthy habits, the development of well-socialized personalities, skills for future economic success, and the preservation of cultural beliefs and values, especially Chinese cultural emotions. These experts’ explanations constitute a call for adaptive early Chinese socialization and parenting, and offer a widely shared Chinese response to complex societal transformation in globalization.

The changing epidemiology of dengue in China, 1990-2014: a descriptive analysis of 25 years of nationwide surveillance data.

BackgroundDengue has been a notifiable disease in China since 1 September 1989. Cases have been reported each year during the past 25 years of dramatic socio-economic changes in China, and reached a historical high in 2014. This study describes the changing epidemiology of dengue in China during this period, to identify high-risk areas and seasons and to inform dengue prevention and control activities.MethodsWe describe the incidence and distribution of dengue in mainland China using notifiable surveillance data from 1990-2014, which includes classification of imported and indigenous cases from 2005-2014.ResultsFrom 1990-2014, 69,321 cases of dengue including 11 deaths were reported in mainland China, equating to 2.2 cases per one million residents. The highest number was recorded in 2014 (47,056 cases). The number of provinces affected has increased, from a median of three provinces per year (range: 1 to 5 provinces) during 1990-2000 to a median of 14.5 provinces per year (range: 5 to 26 provinces) during 2001-2014. During 2005-2014, imported cases were reported almost every month and 28 provinces (90.3%) were affected. However, 99.8% of indigenous cases occurred between July and November. The regions reporting indigenous cases have expanded from the coastal provinces of southern China and provinces adjacent to Southeast Asia to the central part of China. Dengue virus serotypes 1, 2, 3, and 4 were all detected from 2009-2014.ConclusionsIn China, the area affected by dengue has expanded since 2000 and the incidence has increased steadily since 2012, for both imported and indigenous dengue. Surveillance and control strategies should be adjusted to account for these changes, and further research should explore the drivers of these trends.Please see related article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-0345-0Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12916-015-0336-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Assessment of Care Problems in Romania: Feasibility and Exploration

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to study the feasibility of a recently developed instrument, LPZ-International, which assesses care problems in health care, and to describe the prevalence of care problems in Romanian health care institutions. Large differences exist in care services in Europe. Data on quality of care are absent or incomplete in Central-Eastern European countries. These countries, including Romania, have faced dramatic socioeconomic changes, which led to negative changes in quality of care. DesignCross-sectional study. SettingHospital wards, mental care institutions, and nursing homes. ParticipantsNine health care institutions and admitted 394 patients. MeasuresLPZ-International was introduced in 9 health care institutions in Romania. Assessed care problems included pressure ulcers, urinary and fecal incontinence, malnutrition, falls, and physical restraints. The data were collected between November 2013 and March 2014. Two health care professionals completed the questionnaire by hand at the patient's site. ResultsSix of the 9 health care institutions and 90% of the patients participated, which indicates the feasibility of LPZ-International, as did the completeness of the questionnaire. The data showed a high consistency and only a few were missing. The most frequent care problem was urinary and fecal incontinence, especially in the nursing home. Pressure ulcers and malnutrition were less frequent care problems in Romanian patients. Physical restraints were frequently applied in the nursing home and geriatrics and oncology wards. ConclusionsLPZ-International is a feasible instrument to assess care problems. The differences between wards and countries in the prevalence of care problems indicate differences in quality of care and the need for high-quality, comparative research.

Ancestral Spirits Love Mining Sites

In recent years, Mongolia has been enjoying rapid economic growth thanks to the development of its enormous natural resource deposits of copper, coal, gold, petroleum, and so on. However, due to the consequent social instability, the number of shamans has increased dramatically over the last 10 years, especially in the capital city Ulaanbaatar and mining towns. In this paper, I will explore shamanic activities around the Oyu Tolgoi mining site in South Gobi, examining what kinds of people are actually becoming shamans and how they become shamans, as well as what activities they are involved in with relevance to the dramatic socio-economic and environmental changes.

Trust in Government and Goal Pursuit in a Transition Society

The development of life goals and aspirations is vital to positive youth development, and may be especially important in societies undergoing dramatic political and socioeconomic changes. Scholars have identified a wide range of factors associated with goal-directed behavior during youth, but the linkage between trust in government and goal pursuit has received scant attention in this literature. Using data from a nationally representative survey and focus group discussions with Russian youth, this study examines the impact of trust in government on goal pursuit in post-communist Russia. The analysis finds that trust in government has a significant effect on the likelihood of goal pursuit among 25–30 year old respondents, but a negligible impact on goal-oriented behavior of younger respondents. The results from the focus groups further suggest that failure avoidance, historical legacies, and limited access to resources inhibit goal pursuit in the post-communist state. The present analysis seeks to contribute to extant research by investigating youth development in a transition society.

Enhanced N input to Lake Dianchi Basin from 1980 to 2010: Drivers and consequences

Due to a rapid increase in human population and development of neighborhood economy over the last few decades, nitrogen (N) and other nutrient inputs in Lake Dianchi drainage basin have increased dramatically, changing the lake's trophic classification from oligotrophic to eutrophic. Although human activities are considered as main causes for the degradation of water quality in the lake, a numerical analysis of the share of the effect of different anthropogenic factors is still largely unexplored. We use the net anthropogenic N input (NANI) method to estimate human-induced N inputs to the drainage basin from 1980 to 2010, which covers the period of dramatic socioeconomic and environmental changes. For the last three decades, NANI increased linearly by a factor of three, from 4700kgkm−2year−1 in 1980 to 12,600kgkm−2year−1 in 2010. The main reason for the rise of NANI was due to fertilizer N application as well as human food and animal feed imports. From the perspective of direct effects of food consumption on N inputs, contributions of drivers were estimated in terms of human population and human diet using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) factor decomposition method. Although human population density is highly correlated to NANI with a linear correlation coefficient of 0.999, human diet rather than human population is found to be the single largest driver of NANI change, accounting for 47% of total alteration, which illustrates that the role of population density in the change of NANI may be overestimated through simple relational analysis. The strong linear relationships (p<0.01) between NANI and total N concentrations in the lakes over time may indicate that N level in the lake is able to respond significantly to N inputs to the drainage basin.

Cardiovascular risk factor trends in the Eastern Mediterranean region: evidence from four countries is alarming.

Many Eastern Mediterranean countries are undergoing dramatic socioeconomic, demographic and life style changes and face noncommunicable disease (NCD) epidemics. We evaluated recent trends in major NCD risk factors in occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), Turkey, Syria and Tunisia. We searched published and unpublished sources for systolic blood pressure (SBP), diabetes, smoking, body mass index (BMI), and cholesterol trends for both men and women aged 35-84 in each country from 1995 to 2009. Smoking prevalence was stable over time in Tunisia and Syria, but decreasing in Turkey (annual change -0.9%) and OPT (annual change -0.7%). Mean BMI (annual change of 0.1% for Turkey, 0.2% for OPT and Tunisia and 0.3% in Syria) and diabetes (annual change of 0.3% for Turkey, 0.4% for OPT and Tunisia and 0.7% in Syria) prevalence increased in each country. SBP levels increased slightly in Tunisia and Syria but decreased in OPT and Turkey. Recent risk factor trends are worrying. Good quality data on the extent and determinants of NCDs are essential to respond the changing health needs of populations with burgeoning NCD epidemics.

Child Development in a Changing World: Risks and Opportunities

This review explores current understandings of child development and the consequences for children of risk exposure in low- and middle-income countries by integrating empirical evidence from development economics with insights from allied social science disciplines. It provides a holistic perspective that highlights the synergies between children’s developmental domains, drawing particular attention to dimensions such as self-efficacy, self-esteem and aspirations, which have had only limited treatment in the economics literature to date, especially in developing countries. It concludes that there is strong evidence of dynamic relationships between risk factors in early childhood and later outcomes across multiple developmental domains, emphasizing the heightened effect of shocks to the care environment and the cumulative effect of multiple shocks. It also concludes that risk is distributed unevenly, with children who are both in poverty and disadvantaged socially according to, for example, their ethnicity bearing the greatest burden; within a household, gender, birth order and other factors mean that some suffer disproportionately from shortfalls and incomplete protection. However, this review finds that low endowments in early childhood can be at least partially compensated for through improved environments and investments in later childhood, emphasizing the resilience of some children. The review goes on to explore the impact on children of dramatic socio-economic changes that have occurred in recent years with rapid growth across most developing countries. It highlights four key forces for change, fall in absolute poverty, increased access to services, changing household incentives for investing in children, and changing social and cultural values, and stresses the ambiguous effects on the welfare of children and their long-term prospects.

Heterogeneity in Contemporary Chinese Marriage

Is universal and early marriage still true in China after decades of dramatic socioeconomic changes? Based on the 2005 Population Survey data, we find that by age 35 to 39 years, almost all women are married, and less than 5% of men remain single with the singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM) in the country at 25.7 and 23.5 for men and women, respectively. There are notable regional variations in marriage prevalence and timing across China, likely due to economic development, migration, and cultural norms particularly for ethnic minorities. Those who live in the East and in urban areas tend to enter marriage later. Universal and early marriage is particularly true for women with no education and least so for men with no education. College education delays marriage for both men and women, but most of them eventually marry. We discuss the implications of findings for highly educated women and poorly educated men.