1982: Volume 13
Volume 13 Number 3 July 1982
Edited by: Martin Greeley
Food policy research is often regarded as having just two main strands: food production and food distribution. This reflects policy responsibility which, in ldcs, is commonly divided between ministries of agriculture responsible for food production to the point of harvest, and ministries of food responsible for public sector food trade and controlled distribution. Yet falling between thee is the post-harvest system which, for ldc staples, contributes a substantial share to total crop value. For city-consumed cereals the value added in post-harvest handling and processing is usually over a half of the total crop value.
These postharvest operations typically include transportation, threshing and winnowing, drying, milling and storage and - even in poor peasant farming - usually represent least a quarter of the total costs of food production, whether time or money is used to estimate value.
Volume 13 Number 2 May 1982
Edited by: Raphie Kaplinsky
This issue of the Bulletin, attempts to explore some of the possible impacts which microelectronics technology might have on the problems of underdevelopment. Its particular focus is an examination of its impact on international trade. A simple-minded explanation of its significance might be as follows: the existing international division of labour depends upon developed countries supplying technology and developing economies providing labour; but when there is no longer a need for labour, where lies the future comparative advantage of developing countries? But before we move on to a brief discussion of some of the issues involved in this subject area, it is appropriate to begin with a description of the technology.
Volume 13 Number 1 January 1982
Edited by: Dudley Seers
lt is quite eerie to read Anglophone economists discussing monetarism as if it had not been vigorously debated for more than a quarter of a century in Latin America, and as if there had not been numerous attempts there to apply monetarist doctrines starting, let us say, with the Klein-Saks programme for Chile of 1957. One feels one is seeing the re-run of an old film. Eminent economists in Britain and the United States repeat long familiar arguments (falling often into errors long since overcome in Latin America). They cite empirical evidence, for example the relation between the quantity of money and prices, as if the world were bounded by the North Sea, the Rio Grande del Norte and the coast of California and British Colombia. The tacit assumptions are that nothing of importance happens in foreign parts and that, naturally, the native economists are of no consequence.
1981: Volume 12
Volume 12 Number 4 October 1981
Edited by: Richard Longhurst
All planners are faced with the problem of obtaining accurate and relevant information about those for whom they plan. They usually have two alternatives; they can get in their jeeps and go to see for themselves.Or they can refer to the reports of academic or government surveys written after prolonged investigation in rural areas by investigators and their enumerators who, at best, have only general, not specific. policy purposes in mind.
Either method can he inappropriate. The brief foray by the urban professional who does not leave tarmac roads and talks chiefly to local leaders can be seriously misleading, and may only serve to legitimate decisions already half-madejust happening to turn up facts which give a good prognosis for the investigator's pet project.
The larger general survey, on the other hand can be full of enormous quantities of data, none of them relevant to the planner's particular purposeor to the likely purposes of most other planners. It may well be out of date because of the scale of the survey and the time taken to process the data.
Volume 12 Number 3 July 1981
Edited by: Kate Young
In this issue there are two papers which deal directly with the Informal Sector debate: in the first, by Bienefeld, the assumptions behind the debate are examined, as are the links between the struggles of those unable to achieve formal employment and of women trying to free themselves from social oppression.
In the second, Banerjee questions whether the Informal Sector is an economic category at all, and suggests that it belongs more to the realm of politics. Heyzer, looking at women's participation in the Informal Sector sketches a possible framework for analysis, while Greenstreet indicates the crucial importance of discrimination in access to education in shaping women's limited economic options.
Other articles provide detailed case histories of the form that work for women takes, and either how this is directly organised by capital or how it is patterned according to women's life cycle and the ways in which women can organise despite being involved in fragmented and isolating enterprises.
In a final article, the editors of the Bulletin look at some of the factors that influence both the form women's work takes and the factors structuring their participation. They point to where future research is urgently needed.
