Do public pensions matter for health and wellbeing among retired persons? Basic and income security pensions across 13 Western European countries

Esser I, Palme J. Do public pensions matter for health and wellbeing among retired persons? Basic and income security pensions across 13 Western European countries Int J Soc Welfare 2010: ??: ??–??© 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. Mortality rates suggest that elderly people in the advanced welfare democracies have experienced dramatically improved health over the past decades. This study examined the importance of public pensions for self‐reported health and wellbeing among retired persons in 13 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in 2002–2005. New public pension data make it possible to distinguish between two qualities of pension systems: ‘basic security’ for those who have no or a short work history, and ‘income security’ for those with a more extensive contribution record. For enhanced cross‐national comparison, relative measures of ill‐health and wellbeing were constructed to account for cultural bias in responses to survey questions and heterogeneity among countries in the general level of population health. Overall, better health is found in countries with more generous pensions, although the results are gendered; for women's health, high basic security of the pension system appears to be particularly important. Women's wellbeing also tends to be more dependent on the quality of basic security.     

Financial self‐sufficiency or return to welfare? A longitudinal study of mothers among the working poor

Cheng T. Financial self‐sufficiency or return to welfare? A longitudinal study of mothers among the working poor Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 162–172 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. This study investigated how working‐poor mothers who withdrew from a US government assistance program were affected by the economy, welfare reform policies, and their own human capital, in terms of their likelihood of returning to welfare and their likelihood of becoming nonpoor through work. The study employed longitudinal data (covering 42 months) extracted from a national data set. The sample for the current study, which relied on event history analysis, consisted of 228 working‐poor former welfare mothers. Results showed that the women's return to welfare was correlated to high unemployment, restrictive welfare policies, enrollment in Medicaid and food‐stamp programs, possession of service‐job skills, and being Hispanic. The women were most likely to attain relative financial independence in the presence of generous government assistance program policies, housing assistance, full‐time employment, operative‐job skills, college education, and marriage. African American ethnicity also made achievement of financial independence more likely.     

浅论旅行社自驾车旅游产品开发

自驾车旅游在我国的兴起、发展时间比较短,但却有着非常大的现实需求和市场潜力。自驾车旅游产品开发目前在国内仍处于初级阶段,极具市场开发前景,但机遇与挑战也同时并存,需要我们多角度多方位地去进行思考。     

论批判民族志研究的困境及对策

20世纪70年代以来,批判民族志的研究方法逐渐受到西方教育研究领域的重视,并被广泛应用于社会弱势群体的教育问题研究。但同时,批判民族志也面临着声音的合法性危机和研究者与被研究者的不平等关系的问题。鉴于此,批判民族志提出了自我反思、建立与研究对象的平等、互动、信任的关系以及主动帮助他们寻求公平等三条解决途径。批判民族志研究的问题及其对策对我国的教育民族志研究的深入开展具有重要的参考价值。     

审美心理结构的动力学

人类的审美心理结构动力学揭示了人类审美心理的动态构成。审美心理结构是在人类的遗传过程和经验的基础上生成的。对应于审美显意识、审美潜意识、审美无意识,人类的自我形成为创造性自我、经验性自我、本能性自我、创造性自我在本能性自我和经验性自我的基础上生成了审美的自我,从而在自由选择的社会实践之中生成了审美心理动态结构。     

黑龙江省农村社区城镇化中社会公共供给问题研究

在城乡统筹背景下探讨了黑龙江农村社区社会公共供给问题,梳理农村社区社会公共产品的供给与农村城镇化的关系,以及黑龙江农村社区社会公共供给与配置方面存在的相关问题,在以上问题的解读基础上提出加强黑龙江省农村社区社会公共产品配置的相关对策建议。     

成长小说视角下卡萝尔的螺旋式人生

从成长小说的视角审视了辛克莱·刘易斯的代表作《大街》中主人公卡萝尔的人生遭遇。小说通过心理分析,揭示了其“孩提般”浪漫心理的形成原因,考察了她在婚姻之后的心理成长过程,叙述了她的个性和思想在坚持自我发展和融入小镇社会的张力中不断被改变的现实,认为她对社会规则的妥协是其成熟的标志。卡萝尔的成长轨迹是一个螺旋式上升的过程,也是作者对个人与社会关系的辩证思考和解读过程。     

“自我意识”：通向幸福的必由之路——读谭恩美《喜福会》

长篇小说《喜福会》是美国华裔女作家谭恩美的代表作,于上世纪末出版后即获得很大成功并很快成为学术界研究的热点,评论者角度各异,观点不一。本文以女性主义和文化研究为依托,吸取心理学人格结构理论的研究成果,运用文本细读的批评方法,分析在不同时代与文化背景下,母女两代人在寻求幸福的道路上,自我意识由缺失到觉醒,迷失到重拾的过程,侧重探讨了自我意识与个人幸福之间的关系。     

城市自生性民间组织:特征呈现及其结社形式——以上海青年自组织为中心的组织社会学透视

城市自生性民间组织是指在城市社会中由个体通过自我成立、自我运作、自我发展而演化形成的社会组织形式。当前城市自生性民间组织的成长发育,已逐步体现出它与"依附式发展第三部门"作为一种"他组织"系统所不同的"自组织"特质,而表现为它的原生性、草根性、非正式性、开放性、在线性、活力性、聚散性和非稳定性。受制于外部环境及其自身判断,当下城市自生性民间组织又有着多样性的结式形式,包括了松散型、社团民非型、社会企业型和单位内部型,这些多样性结社形式背后所体现的是自生性民间组织面对社会环境所做的适应性选择。面向城市自生性民间组织的兴起,需要进行相应的政策调整:一是要在全国层面进一步推广降低社团民非成立门槛的做法,以实现国家和社会间的信息对称性;二是,推动成立民间组织评估机构以外部监督的方式构筑新型的民间组织管理体系;三是,根据自生性民间组织的"自组织"特点,以"放养"、支持型政策为政策重心而加强对自生性民间组织的扶持。     

《时时刻刻》中的“房间”意象

在美国当代作家迈克尔·坎宁安的小说《时时刻刻》中,＂房间＂意象具有明显的悖论性：它既可以是现实中监禁的牢笼,又可以是释放自我的自由之所。小说借助＂房间＂这样一个共通意象将三位处于不同时空的女性连接起来。她们对理想中＂房间＂的探求其实就是对自我存在和自我实现的追寻。面对悖论式的生存状况,无论是选择自杀、逃离还是享受当下,皆出于人们对生活无尽的信仰和热爱。同时这三种选择也表现出宏观上的进步性,反映出现代人在追寻生命意义的道路上对个人主体价值的强调,以及人们以乐观积极的姿态而实现的对当下社会的超越。