A vision of social justice in intergroup dialogue

Intergroup dialogues (IGD) – face-to-face, structured interactions between people of different social identities – is one educational intervention used to foster engagement across differences and to promote social justice. Using an 18-month case study methodology, we examined the experiences of IGD students and facilitators at one campus to gain a deeper understanding of what happens in IGD, specifically how social justice is understood and cultivated. Findings suggest that the primacy and limitations of individual experience, the tension facilitators experience about stepping in to dialogue, and the confounding nature of comfort in IGD contribute to a dialogue experience that better addresses some aspects of social justice than others.     

Using institutional ethnography's ideological circle to portray how textually mediated disability discourse paralysed a Supreme Court of Canada ruling

Persons with disabilities created through texts as damaged goods are being ‘cured’ by workplace accommodation, a textually mediated work process. Prior to 1999, workplace accommodation in the Canadian federal public service signified the adjustments necessary to enable a disabled worker to fit into a workplace designed for able-bodied workers. In 1999, a Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruling known as Meiorin turned this accommodation provision on its head. Instead of being focused on individual-level fixes so that a disabled worker could be accommodated in an existing workplace, this legislation required employers to transform their workplaces so as to make them ready to receive as many different types of workers as reasonably possible from the outset. Using Dorothy E. Smith's institutional ethnography, I use my experiences as a disability rights activist employed in the Canadian federal public service to explicate how textually mediated disability discourse paralysed this groundbreaking SCC ruling.     

Using a capabilities approach to understand poverty and social exclusion of psychiatric survivors

The purpose of this project is to better understand poverty and social exclusion of psychiatric survivors using a capabilities approach to social justice as part of a larger mixed-methods longitudinal study (N=380) in Ontario, Canada. Using thematic coding, four themes emerged: poverty, ‘You just try to survive’; stigma, ‘People treat you like trash’; belonging, ‘You feel like you don’t belong’; and shared concern and advocacy, ‘Everyone deserves housing’. This analysis provides a deeper understanding of poverty and other social determinants of experiences of psychiatric survivors, including the synergism of poverty and social exclusion.     

Gendered Movement: Negotiating Youth,Sex and Harm in the US Carceral State

Exempt from the current bipartisan reassessment of the US carceral state are people with convictions for sex offenses. While movements against public registries for sex offenders are scant, a grassroots movement is underway. This article offers a preliminary analysis of the complex consequence of women's political work to extract their sons from the US carceral state. This gendered advocacy is mapped against shifts in the racialised US criminal justice system, where the fluid category of child/juvenile is often unavailable to youth of colour and/or queer youth, and criminalisation is offered to regulate sexuality, consent, age and potential harm.     

Asymmetric learning in a short-term,macro-oriented international students’ exchange: an exploratory study

International social work organizations’ call for a Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development emphasizes promotion of social justice-oriented policies. A major challenge for international student exchange programs, especially when the visitors are from affluent countries, is to overcome the asymmetric process of the relative lack of power, in student hosts’ in comparison to student visitors’ relationships, as well as to focus on macro-practice orientation. Through analyzing a case study of student exchange, we propose a set of pedagogical strategies that may help to overcome these challenges through using processes of mirroring to address this asymmetric situation. This exploratory research is based on a three-year assessment of a short-term, macro-oriented MSW travel study course between graduate students from two universities (in the US and in Israel) using an exchange framework. It includes a comparison of joint experiences of students using both written and arts-based data. The findings demonstrate that the use of relationship building and mirroring enables both hosts and guests to learn about their own macro-reality through the eyes of the others and helps diffuse asymmetry and create relationships not only on the micro-, but also macro-levels. Implications for teaching methods in international courses are discussed.     

论我国当前加强和改善社会组织建设的关键环节

社会组织的发展及其功能的充分发挥对于我国社会主义和谐社会建设具有重要作用,应大力促进社会组织的发展。但我国社会组织发展还存在很多不足和问题,主要问题一方面是其内部资源能力不足,另一方面是其管理和监督机制不完善。为了促进社会组织的发展,应进一步厘清对社会组织的认识,转变对社会组织态度,并抓住重点大力推动社会组织的建设与发展。为此,从四个方面讨论了当前大力发展社会组织的意义,提出了应该从四个方面进一步转变对发展社会组织的态度和观念,在此基础上提出并论证了当前我国应如何在体制机制建设、能力建设和管理体系建设三个重要方面加强和改善社会组织建设。     

从无知之幕到分配正义——罗尔斯正义论的“哲学—历史”逻辑演进

罗尔斯正义论体系分为理想理论和非理想理论。"次序"或"优先性"是衔接两部分的关键,它赋予正义论体系最鲜明的逻辑特征。原初状态的理性人,内蕴着一种历史的观念,是逻辑和历史的起点。制度正义连接正义原则和分配正义,是体现逻辑和历史交汇的核心地带。随着正义原则由社会基本结构进入现实分配领域,不完善的一般性继续进化为合理的一般性——一种历史的理性。至此,从原初状态开始的哲学和历史结合的逻辑基本实现了它本身的发展形式,即从逻辑一般到现实历史。     

总结党的反腐经验、创新制度与机制建设

党从新民主主义革命到改革开放前开展的防止"糖衣炮弹"进攻的反腐败斗争,为改革开放后中国共产党反腐败制度建设奠定了基础。改革开放后,中国共产党面对"重磅炸弹"的腐败威胁,坚定走中国特色反腐倡廉道路,不断深化制度与机制改革,全面推进惩治和预防腐败体系建设。文章主要从党反腐败斗争的历史经验和视角出发,探索反腐的制度与机制建设。     

论《刑事诉讼法修正案(草案)》中的特别程序——再谈刑事和解制度

《刑事诉讼法修正案(草案)》将刑事和解制度首次纳入特殊程序范围,这是我国刑事司法理念不断创新和提升的直接体现,具有重要的实践意义。为确保刑事和解制度能够切实运行而不空为一纸规定,有必要对该制度的存在基础予以明晰,同时进一步完善其运行机制,最终实现刑事和解程序化解当事人矛盾、弥补受害人损失、修复被破坏社会关系的根本目的。