Social assistance in China and Sweden: how policy intentions are translated into local practices

This article compares social assistance policies in China and Sweden, with a special focus on the means of translating policy intentions into local practices. Unlike China, Sweden has laws regulating social assistance, which is intended to ensure a ‘reasonable standard of living’. Though considered a legal right, assistance is Sweden is means-tested. While social assistance claims are dealt with by the welfare bureaucracy in Sweden, in China the process of application involves the input of cadres, administrative officials from different levels of government, and neighbours. The challenges facing Sweden are to find ways to cope with long-term social assistance and to help recipients find work. The challenges facing China are to establish a social assistance law and standardized management procedures, and to incorporate the resources of social work.     

论我国建立行政判例制度的必要性

判例法具备很强的灵活性和社会适应力，能够有效弥补成文法的缺陷，在行政法领域表现出明显的优势。从统一法律适用、弥补行政立法的不足和完善司法解释的角度，论证我国建立行政判例制度的必要性。     

RACIALIZING CULTURE IS ORDINARY1

This article engages a discussion of Raymond Williams claim that culture is ordinary to explore some of the ways in which racializing culture is embedded in everyday interactions and processes of identification that found subjectivity. It argues that there is a pressing need for social policy analysts to come to grips with the mechanisms through which ‘culture’ comes to be racialized and an object/subject of governance and suggests that current, high-profile articulations of the ‘problems’ of multiculturalism, profoundly hinder such a development.     

海峡两岸跨境经济犯罪防治问题研究

当前很有必要深化对海峡两岸间跨境经济犯罪之惩治与防范的研究。跨越海峡两岸的经济犯罪与大陆地区和台湾地区的境内经济犯罪有着不同的表现,而海峡两岸刑事法学界对此的概括和分析也有所不同。这些差异对海峡两岸司法机关开展相关的刑事司法合作有一定的影响。海峡两岸司法机关可在侦查、起诉、审判和执行等刑事诉讼阶段展开合作,但需要特别注意妥当处理司法效率与司法公正的关系,以利于对海峡两岸跨境经济犯罪的有效防治。大陆地区需要立足于自身情况,结合海峡两岸跨境犯罪的具体特点,采取合理的预防措施。     

Use of concurrent mixed methods combining concept mapping and focus groups to adapt a health equity tool in Canada

The aim of this project was to identify and prioritize a set of conditions to be considered for incorporating a health equity tool into public health practice. Concept mapping and focus groups were implemented as complementary methods to investigate the conditions of use of a health equity tool by public health organizations in Quebec. Using a hybrid integrated research design is a richer way to address the complexity of questions emerging from intervention and planning settings. This approach provides a deeper, operational, and contextualized understanding of research results involving different professional and organizational cultures, and thereby supports the decision-making process. Concept mapping served to identify and prioritize in a limited timeframe the conditions to be considered for incorporation into a health equity tool into public health practices. Focus groups then provided a more refined understanding of the barriers, issues, and facilitating factors surrounding the tools adoption, helped distinguish among participants’ perspectives based on functional roles and organizational contexts, and clarified some apparently contradictory results from the concept map. The combined use of these two techniques brought the strengths of each approach to bear, thereby overcoming some of the respective limitations of concept mapping and focus groups. This design is appropriate for investigating targets with multiple levels of complexity.     

Evidence-based practice: a critical reflection

This article employs the process of critical reflection to uncover and challenge the hegemonic assumptions of evidence-based practice (EBP). The critical reflection process results in a re-conceptualisation of best practices that, while still honouring empirical research, is less hierarchical and more inclusive of a broad spectrum of interests than traditional EBP. Multidimensional Evidence-Based Practice (MEBP) validates consumer wisdom, professional experience, and qualitative research as equal partners to quantitative research in determining current state-of-the art best practices. Furthermore, MEBP incorporates a value-critical analysis of those best practices that can lead to improvements and innovations, so that ‘best practices’ becomes a dynamic rather than a static construct.     

Of peasants and publics in colonial India: Daduram's story

ABSTRACT

This article uses an exceptionally well-documented law case from the 1650s to offer a fresh perspective on the English experience of Atlantic settlement during its early years. It argues for the centrality of the Essex county quarter sessions court in the building of neighbourhood on the geographic and cultural margins of the Massachusetts Bay colony. By focusing on the north-eastern margin at Cape Ann, the analysis reveals aspects of state building through a common law judicial process which was just as important, but less readily apparent, in other settings. The article addresses three major historiographic areas, engaging with the historical literature on English neighbourhoods and English adaptation to the American environment, on the significance of witchcraft or maleficium in English societies, and on the nature and meanings of law, law courts and judicial process in the building of communities. Case documents also enable the use of some concepts and techniques of literary analysis related to the study of narrative, arguing that judicial verdicts selected and suppressed aspects of local stories elicited during the course of the investigation in order to craft an account of local neighbourhood that suited a broader cultural narrative of Massachusetts Bay’s political consolidation during the 1650s.     

Adolescent girls’ race/ethnic status, identities, and drive for thinness

Using data from 7272 adolescent US girls, we explore how girls’ race/ethnic group status affects their bodyweight, perceptions of overweight, and weight control practices. We hypothesize that a girl’s race/ethnic status influences her basic identity which in turn prompts her to adopt or reject a “drive for thinness.” After controlling for family and peer support, school engagement, family SES, maturation, and family structure, we find that girls’ race/ethnic status influences their susceptibility to the thinness ideals of mainstream culture. African American girls weigh more than Asian, Hispanic, or White girls, but at any given weight they perceive themselves as overweight and attempt to control their weight less. Asian American and White girls invest most in thinness dynamics. Some evidence also suggests girls from lower SES families are less driven to be thin. Our results affirm the utility of viewing material bodies as “situations” that are experienced and interpreted in accord with identity group relations and dynamics.     

夫妻共同生活之用意之于不动产物权

我国婚姻法司法解释（三）（征求意见稿）首次尝试在不动产物权流转法律关系中援引夫妻共同生活的理念,此做法值得肯定,但由于未充分认识到该理念的价值而使得征求意见稿不尽完善。事实上,夫妻共同生活之用意不仅可以作为不动产物权归属的判定依据,而且可以作为限制配偶一方擅自处分个人财产的正当理由。     

Social Vulnerability to Toxic Risk

SUMMARY

A model of social vulnerability to toxic risk from fugitive chemical releases is tested in 8 southeastern U.S. states. Using structural equation modeling techniques, population density emerged as the critical factor driving exposure to toxic risk. Results indicate that: social vulnerability varies across types and sources of toxic risk; social factors, such as race, that increase risk in some circumstances may buffer risk in others; and that toxic risk has both social justice and social welfare components. Practice and research implications include the importance of community planning and economic models that enhance environmental quality and health along with economic security.