Tale Of Transition Research Articles

A Tale of Transition: Trends of Catastrophic Health Expenditure and Impoverishment in Urban China, 1986-2009

ABSTRACT From 1986 to 2009, China’s health system reform first adopted a market-oriented approach and later reemphasized the role of the government starting from 2002. China’s oscillating health care financing policies present us a unique opportunity to examine the consequences of government-led financing and market-oriented financing measures. This study uses the Urban Household Survey, a diary data in China that covers the period of 1986 to 2009, to examine the long-run trends in the incidence and intensity of catastrophic health expenditure and medical impoverishment. Four major findings emerge. First, the incidence and intensity of catastrophic health expenditure in urban Chinese households increased rapidly between 1986 and 2002, whereas they stabilized after 2002. Second, the incidence of medical impoverishment and its depth in the poverty gap remained stable before 2002 and decreased rapidly after 2002. Third, income and regional inequality in measures of catastrophic health expenditure widened from 1986 to 2002. They narrowed in the 2000s but remain wide. Fourth, income and regional inequality in medical impoverishment remained unchanged between 1986 and 2002 and narrowed substantially after 2002. All these results suggest that China’s two cycles of health care reform generated significantly different outcomes in financial protection, holding lessons for the ongoing health care reform in China and other countries.

A tale of transition: An empirical analysis of economic inequality in urban China, 1986–2009

This paper is the first comprehensive empirical study of earnings, income, and consumption inequality in urban China from 1986 to 2009, conducted using micro-level data from the Urban Household Survey (UHS). We document a drastic increase in economic inequality for the sample period. We find that consumption inequality closely tracks with income inequality, both over time and over the life cycle. We believe that the main driver of this co-movement could be the dramatic increase in uninsurable permanent income shocks that occurred after the early 1990s, a result of the economic transition in urban China.

A Tale of Transition: An Empirical Analysis of Economic Inequality in Urban China, 1986-2009

This paper is the first comprehensive empirical study of earnings, income, and consumption inequality in urban China from 1986 to 2009, using unique micro-level data from the Urban Household Survey (UHS). The paper documents a drastic increase in economic inequality for the sample period. The paper finds that consumption inequality closely tracks income inequality, both over time and over the life cycle. The paper believes that the main driver of this co-movement could be a dramatic increase in noninsurable idiosyncratic permanent income shocks after the early 1990s, associated with the economic transition in urban China.

A Tale of Transition: An Empirical Analysis of Economic Inequality in Urban China, 1986-2009

This paper is the first comprehensive empirical study of earnings, income, and consumption inequality in urban China from 1986 to 2009, using unique micro-level data from the Urban Household Survey (UHS). The paper documents a drastic increase in economic inequality for the sample period. The paper finds that consumption inequality closely tracks income inequality, both over time and over the life cycle. The paper believes that the main driver of this co-movement could be a dramatic increase in noninsurable idiosyncratic permanent income shocks after the early 1990s, associated with the economic transition in urban China.

Service Users' Self-Narratives on Their Journey from Shame to Pride: Tales of Transition

As part of a course on changing attitudes developed by KREM, a Norwegian service user organization, narratives are used to explore and understand identity formation. The process is based on the role of shame in the lives of those whose life experiences lead to a reliance on government social benefits to sustain themselves. Shame is identified as an obstacle that affects everyday life and undermines one's capacity to take actions that can lead to and support self-sufficiency. Exploring oneself through the construction of the fairy tale can provide service users with a renewed sense of empowerment. Using identity formation and the concept of shame as the conceptual framework, this analysis focuses on the use of narratives to construct and interpret stories. It concludes with both practice and research implications of using narratives to acquire an understanding and sensitivity to service user perspectives.

Becoming an HR strategic partner: tales of transition

This article aims to bridge the gap between previous examinations of HR strategic partnership from a role perspective and an emerging interest in the social construction of identity. I consider ‘strategic partner’ as a local, flexible social construction framed by the broader occupational context. Based on a year‐long ethnographic study, I examine the experiences of HR practitioners ‘becoming’ strategic partners, considering the themes of becoming strategic, becoming a partner and remaining a generalist. Practitioners depict becoming strategic as a ‘release’ from previous constraints, with becoming a partner positioned as filling a gap created by clients' deficiencies in people management. Meanwhile, tensions develop as strategic partners attempt to retain a say in transactional issues. I reflect on the resulting practical issues while also considering the role of HR practitioners in, in the words of Helen Francis, ‘the dynamic and socially complex nature of HRM’.

Understanding China's telecommunications policymaking and reforms: a tale of transition toward liberalization

By drawing on institutional theory and bargaining theory, this paper analyzes China's telecommunications policymaking mechanism, an important but less-explored issue. Key factors of shaping China's telecommunications policy are examined and the implementation of China's telecommunications policy in network development, competition, foreign direct investment, and regulatory restructuring is investigated. Finally, the impacts of China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) on its telecommunications reform and transition are discussed.

Tales of transition: Futures studies and sociological explanation

(1999). Tales of transition: Futures studies and sociological explanation. International Review of Sociology: Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 373-385.

Tales of transition: self‐narrative and direct scribing in exploring care‐leaving

Direct scribing is a technique that transforms oral discourse into written text, basically by typing oral material verbatim. It was developed in practice with youth in child welfare care and adapted for research data collection. The technique flattens the power imbalance in the interview situation and between oral speech and written text, supports self‐reflection, democratizes the ownership of written material, is potentially empowering, and is an efficient means to produce high‐quality text. The origins in practice are reviewed and a research application is discussed in detail. Thirty youths aged 18/19 from child welfare constructed self‐narratives about how they conceptualized and managed the adolescent transition, and collaborated with the researcher in analysing the narrative as a story. Each interview was direct scribed and printed copy given to the participant. Participants were introduced to direct scribing by completing a questionnaire presented on a note‐book computer, and some took part in a gender‐specific group discussion as a final data‐collection event, which was audio‐taped and transcribed. The value of direct scribing and self‐narrative in this research project and possibilities for other applications are discussed.

Tales of transition

In this article the rationale of this special issue is provided and the different contributions are introduced. The assumption is that there are strong similarities between the recent political and social transitions in South Africa and Germany and the reactions, both emotional and literary, of the people involved. Broadly, the transitions are described as a movement from external (or violent) to internal (or ideological) social control, though this must be modified by the various constructions the contributors put on the transition. The main themes and questions of the transitions are synthesized, highlighting the marked similarities the different contributions reveal. The most important of these are the relation to the past, problems of identity, projections of the new and the internal contradictions of nationalist discourse (which informs the process of transition). In conclusion, the similarities and differences between the two transitions indicated by this special issue, are discussed. The assumption of strong similarities between the two seems to hold, it is argued, but much more research into the matter is needed.