No description available.

No description available.

Written as three publishable papers, this dissertation examines the individual, community and national level factors related to social cohesion with emphasis placed on the role of economic inequalities. The core of dissertation revolves around two main arguments: The first argues that there is a direct negative association between economic inequality and social cohesion. The second states that this connection is influenced by other factors that include the individuals’ position in the stratification system. The contextual effects are of particular importance because they influence both the relationship between individual economic realities and economic inequality and the link between social cohesion and economic inequality. Focusing on two aspects of social cohesion—civic engagement and social tolerance—I present evidence that (a) high levels of inequality are related to low levels of social cohesion and inclusion; (b) high levels of inequality are associated with lower commitment to democratic principles; and (c) low levels of inclusion are associated with lower commitment to democratic principles such as social tolerance. This dissertation provides links between these topics by exploring the comparative role of inequality in varying social, economic, political, and religious contexts. It examines contextual effects at both the community-level and at the cross-national level to illustrate the patterns and results of social cohesion.

Though there has been substantial research on poverty and inequality in Canada, the issue of Aboriginal poverty and inequality has not yet been examined in a systematic manner. The issue has been discussed, in some cases, as a part of the overall poverty profile, and mostly analysed in a cross-sectional manner. A complete and methodical study of Aboriginal poverty and inequality that allows behaviour of poverty and inequality to be analysed over time remains to be initiated. In order to get a comprehensive comparative picture of Aboriginal income poverty and inequality in Canada, the research measures off-reserve Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal income poverty and inequality for the period 1996-2007 and compares the results for off-reserve Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal population groups. For measurement purposes Statistics Canada’s low income cut-offs are considered as poverty lines. Several commonly known along with some axiomatically correct poverty indices such as Headcount Ratio, Income Gap Ratio, Poverty Gap Index, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Index, Sen Index and some modifications of the Sen Index such as the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon (SSTO) Index are used. The Gini coefficient is used as the measure of inequality. Both pre-tax and post-tax incomes are considered. Though a substantial decline in off-reserve Aboriginal poverty is recorded by most of the poverty indices by early 2000s, off-reserve Aboriginal poverty remains higher than non-Aboriginal poverty. After the decline, these off-reserve Aboriginal poverty indices remain stable and show some decline from mid-2000s onwards. Income inequality among the non-Aboriginal population remains stable throughout the period whereas off-reserve Aboriginal income inequality shows a slightly increasing trend in the 2000s. According to the breakdown of the SSTO Index, the decline in off-reserve Aboriginal poverty is mainly due to decline in the headcount ratio.

On the southeast corner of the Pomona College campus a small community farm and lush oasis is nestled in the suburban jungle of Claremont, California. ‘The Farm’ is a two-acre food forest that produces a wide variety of annual vegetable crops, fruits, and perennial herbs and berries in a landscape otherwise covered largely in asphalt and lawn.From my experiences on the Farm and in the classroom studying environmental analysis , I have developed a great interest in sustainable food and farming. The failures of the modern food system, destructive to the natural environment and inadequate in providing the world’s population with sufficient food or nutrition, posed against a great variety of emerging alternatives, has led me to study and engage in local, grassroots efforts to create new (and remember old) ways of feeding ourselves. In this project, I focus on the development of the Claremont area and the role that food and agriculture have played in its history. Additionally, I discuss the current situation and the local food system alternatives that are emerging.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This dissertation consists of three essays, which mainly talk about the wage inequality caused by outsourcing in the source countries like the US. The title of the first essay is “Does Outsourcing Always Benefit Skilled Labor? A Dynamic Product Cycle Model Approach.” To understand why outsourcing did not cause wage inequality in the 1970s, I build a dynamic product cycle model with three kinds of labor inputs, scientists, white-collar workers, and blue-collar workers. First, only a homogenous representative producer exists in the model and then the paper allows for producer heterogeneity. According to my theoretical model, outsourcing can hurt skilled labor and does not cause wage inequality if outsourcing industries are absolutely blue-collar worker-intensive compared to non-outsourcing industries. Only scientists who conduct research and development always benefit from outsourcing. The second essay is an empirical work. The title is “Outsourcing, Innovation, and Wage Inequality in the United States: What Happened to the Outsourcing Effect on Wage Inequality in the 1970s?” I find that, in the 1970s, white-collar workers’ wages deteriorated and blue-collar workers’ wages were non-decreasing. R&D workers always benefit from outsourcing. Except computers and high-technology capital, innovation expenditure on wage payment was an additional source of wage inequality in the 1980s. The last essay is named “Beyond the Wage Inequality, the Impact of Outsourcing on the U.S. Labor Market.” To understand the impact of outsourcing on employment, I examine laborers’ ages, gender ratio, years of education, and job tenure and retention rates. By employing the January Current Population Survey (CPS) data, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) production data, and outsourcing data provided by Feenstra and Hanson, I find that outsourcing decreased blue-collar laborers’ average years of completed education; increased the hiring of females into white-collar workers, and increased job stability of unskilled and skilled laborers in the 1980s. Thus, outsourcing did not take away unskilled laborers’ jobs but hindered new hiring of young unskilled workers

Diss. Uppsala : Univ., 2002.