Children and Violence: Nurturing Social-Emotional Development to Promote Mental Health

The absence of violence against children is a fundamental children's right and a major milestone of civilized society. Similarly, reports on incidences of violence by children and youth, including severe cases with devastating consequences, speak to the need that the trauma of exposure to violence in childhood needs to be addressed. While violence and its risk factors are generally understood, what is less clear are the essential protective factors, how we can identify those as early as possible, and how we can use them to prevent and address the trauma of violence exposure in children and youth. In this report, I review pathways of child and youth violence through the lens of social-emotional development as a central protective factor. Negative emotions of frustration and anger can underlie violence and aggression. Kind emotions, such as caring and our ability to connect with others emotionally, can serve as social-emotional protective factors. A brief review of the central social-emotional processes and their development is provided, including the human capacity to feel with others and express empathy, be emotionally aware and care about the effects of one's own actions on others, and be able to regulate the self and their emotions. Given the negative widespread and long-term impact of exposure to violence, I describe research-informed attempts to prevent violence exposure across development. Taking a humanistic, strength-based perspective, the focus is on social-emotional protective factors to address violence and nurture mental health in every child. I conclude with recommendations for practice and policy.     

Social movement schools: sites for consciousness transformation,training, and prefigurative social development

ABSTRACT

We develop the concept of “social movement school’ (SMS), showing how these organizational spaces are deliberately designed for purposes of educating, mentoring, training, and coordinating individuals as effective, committed movement agents. SMSs can also be important sites of prefigurative design and practice for future societal development consistent with movement goals. We motivate the theoretical significance of SMSs based on five perspectives in social movement scholarship: (1) resource mobilization; (2) cultural approaches to repertoires of contention; (3) cognitive perspective; (4) micro-mobilization; and (5) biographical consequences of participation. We then offer a typology to capture primary purposes, and spatial reach within the broad field of SMSs. Within-movement variation is illustrated by focusing on a variety of SMSs in the U.S. civil rights movement; and the cross-movement breadth of the concept is illustrated by highlighting contemporary SMS forms drawn from three very different movements–labor, radical feminism, and mindfulness meditation movements. In the interest of launching a research agenda on SMSs, we end with several key questions that could serve to guide future research. Important theoretical, empirical, and practical considerations suggest that SMSs deserve the attention of scholars and activists alike.     

以环境哲学为研究视域的文化自觉

以环境哲学为研究视域的文化自觉是站在明确的生态整体主义立场的学科文化自觉。它以哲学为衔接点，把环境与广义的文化联系在一起，努力为环境哲学寻求新的增长点。而弱的非人类中心主义观念作为观念侧翼，更细致地修复破碎染尘之人心。让人类有效地从社会走向自然，又从自然回归社会。审视以环境哲学为研究视域能否实现文化自觉？它必须立足以环境哲学的语境与方式思考文化自觉的可能与必然，并应用环境哲学的方法与逻辑阐释文化自觉的内涵与趋向。环境哲学所固有的自然之翼，是其学科存在的本质特征。但如若停滞于自然界的现象，而无文化元素的参与和交融，环境哲学的困顿将会在现象与抽象之间迷失。而文化元素的加入，又必须在自觉的前提下进行，它一方面是为融合确定边界，另一方面是为渗透找到根据。以对人类与自然界高度负责的精神，文化自觉与环境哲学都有着共同的使命：欣赏人与自然的和谐相处。     

孔子政法观念之再认识

作为儒家创始人的孔子,其法律思想带有一定的保守主义色彩。参照现代法学理论,形式意义上的"法",在孔子的政法观念中就是"刑";实质意义上的"法",在孔子的政法观念中则是德礼、政刑的规范体系。孔子所理解的"法"基本被限制在"刑"的范围内,而"礼"则部分承担了"法"的"规范"职能,这也是"仁政""德教"与"和谐"等孔子政法观念核心价值的立论基础。然而,当"法"不只是"刑"的时候,"仁政""德教"与"和谐"等核心价值则需要被重新审视。     

从祭祀对象的选取看梅山儒礼的价值取向

梅山儒礼与中国传统的儒家思想和儒家文化一脉相承,虽然有神秘的程式,但无论是框架、内容,还是形式,都体现出我国儒家所倡导的平等的人本精神。单从祭祀活动所选取的祭祀对象就可以解读出梅山儒礼呈现的奋发向上、积极进取、和谐生活、兼济天下的思想。     

Working-class ecology and union politics: a conceptual topology

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that Environmental Labour Studies may benefit from incorporating the perspective of environmental justice. We offer a theorization of working-class ecology as the place where working-class communities live and work, being typically affected by environmental injustice, and of working-class environmentalism as those forms of activism that link labour and environmental struggles around the primacy of reproduction. The paper’s theoretical section draws on a social ethnography of working-class ecology in the case of Taranto, a mono-industrial town in southern Italy, which is experiencing a severe environmental and public-health crisis. We show how environmental justice activism since the early 2000s has allowed the re-framing of union politics along new ways of politicizing the local economy. We conclude by offering a conceptual topology of working-class ecology, which situates different labour organizations (confederal, social/community, and rank-and-file unions) according to their positioning in respect to environmental justice.     

为己之学的不二法门——先秦儒家自省意识研究

儒家为己之学是修身之学,自天子以至庶人,皆以修身为本,自省又是修身之本,故自省可谓是儒家为己之学的不二法门。先秦儒家自省意识奠定了儒家自省学说的基础,孔子及孔门“七十子”、孟子、荀子都有具体的自省思想,孔子的“内自省”“自讼”,孟子的“自反”“反求诸己”,荀子的“参省乎己”是儒家自省思想的经典表达,在省过、为学、进德等重要方面初步建立了儒家自省学说体系,成为汉唐儒学、宋明理学自省意识的思想源泉和理论依据。先秦儒家自省意识虽然朴素,尚不系统,但在整体上呈现出主体性、自觉性、乐感性、人文性的理论特征。先秦儒家自省意识是划分君子与小人的一道分水岭,是处理人己关系的重要法则,它开启了儒家自省传统,为推进当下的公民道德建设、唤醒当代自省意识提供了思想资源和重要启示。     

马克思与但丁人文精神比较

但丁的人文主义思想主要表现为强烈的批判精神、积极的理想主义以及丰富的人本思想。但丁终生对意大利乃至西欧的社会变化与市民思想行为进行尖锐评判,并强烈批判教会腐败,愤怒谴责贵族的堕落与政治纷争;在早年从政与后期流亡途中,但丁通过系列著述与勇敢斗争,展示了追求和平统一的理想;但丁将人们关注的重点从对上帝和天堂的盲目崇拜转向对世俗生活的赞美,充分肯定人的情感、理性与尊严,其人本主义思想明显超越了中世纪晚期的宗教神学。马克思最喜爱但丁,终生以“下地狱”决心投身政治经济学研究。不过,马克思更关注普通劳动者,其共产主义理想以解放全人类为目标,超越了但丁仅关注社会上层的狭隘性;与但丁晚年的消沉保守相比,马克思理想更为坚定;马克思对资本主义生产方式的批判持续终生,整体上突破了但丁人文主义思想的宗教束缚与神学局限,表现出更为全面彻底的人文精神。     

人类命运的终极关怀 ——胡丘陵及其政治抒情诗

胡丘陵的作品被称为“后政治抒情诗”代表性文本,他的作品有着浓重的历史意识,其在历史的褶皱深处发掘人性的光辉,用全球化的视野和人性的光辉照亮读者的心灵;同时,对人类命运的终极关怀,以及作品艺术性、政治性和抒情性的高度统一,使得他的作品既有历史的深度、现实的厚度和精神的广度,又在保持思想高度和作品纯度的基础上,最大可能地寓含了散发着诗性光辉的生命情怀、悲悯精神与世界意识。     

论《神谕女士》中的文体戏仿与女性主体意识

《神谕女士》是加拿大当代作家阿特伍德的代表作品之一,这部小说在文体上戏仿哥特小说,同时体现出对女性主体意识复杂性的思考。女主人公琼成长经历曲折,以写作哥特小说来寄托梦想,哥特小说文体在作品中形成了书中之书的叙事模式。在琼所呈现出的一系列多形态的、不同的自我形象中,可以看出阿特伍德在写作中对多元的、复数的主体的解放。由此,《神谕女士》显现出明显的后现代艺术特征。