Minding Your Neighborhood: The Spatial Context of Local Redistribution*

Objectives. Previous research on redistribution by local governments has not accounted for spatial context. I develop a model of local own‐source redistributive spending that accounts for the economic characteristics and policy decisions of geographic neighbors. Methods. I estimate a modified spatial 2SLS equation of own‐source redistributive spending that accounts for endogeneity between neighboring policy decisions and own policy decisions. The data set spans the 48 contiguous states and utilizes data from the 2000 Census and the 1997 Census of Governments, among other sources. Results. I find that the policy choices and economic characteristics of jurisdictional neighbors are significantly related to own‐source housing and community development spending decisions. Jurisdictions reduce their redistributive policies to prevent unwanted movers from entering and produce redistributive packages similar to surrounding jurisdictions. Conclusions. The nuances of geographic context are a critical determinant of local redistributive spending decisions.     

意义:人的自我提升和解放

意义世界的拓展过程 ,是人类不断自我提升、自我解放的过程。为了克服自然存在的无意义 ,人类付出了顽强的努力。不论神话、宗教、科学、艺术还是历史 ,都是创造和追求意义、拓展人的意义世界的积世累代的不懈努力。正是这种努力 ,使文化的各组成部分构成一个统一的文化整体。人们对意义世界的研究 ,应该有助于使文化变革成为更加自觉的过程     

佛陀形象分析

佛教是世界三大宗教之一。佛陀的形象存在于佛教徒的心目中 ,也广泛存在于佛教文学艺术作品中。本文主要探讨了这一形象的渊源、演变、内涵及人格与审美意义。     

文化:意义的出场和敞开

文化即"人类意义化实践的观念凝结",其核心乃是价值体系,文化的变迁主要体现为价值体系的转换。而作为文化本体外显的符号,又可分为近价值符号和远价值符号。近价值符号必然随着价值体系的变更而改变,远价值符号则可保持相对独立。由于价值体系这一共性的存在,诸文化样态具有一般性和可通约性;而远价值符号的发散和多样,则是文化特殊性和民族性的真正所在。     

“阿舅”和他班里的小朋友们

宋阳春,是一名另类的幼儿园阿姨,人们戏称他为阿舅.他的班里有40个活泼可爱的小朋友.这个男老师用他特有的个人魅力为他的小朋友们编织着七彩的童年!     

Wisdom from Life's Challenges: Qualitative Interviews with Low- and Moderate-Income Older Adults Who Were Nominated as Being Wise

Previous wisdom research tended to focus on cognitive and intellectual aspects, highly educated professionals and/or prominent subjects, and wisdom as the outcome not process. In this study, based on in-depth interviews of 18 low- and moderate income older adults who were nominated as being wise by their aging-service providers, we explored the ways challenging life experiences and coping may have contributed to the development of their wisdom, their ideas/beliefs about the qualities of wisdom, and the ways they may be practicing wisdom in daily life. Their emphasis on interconnectedness and interdependence, forgiveness and patience, and gratitude appears to represent self-transcendental qualities of wisdom. Social work practice and research implications are discussed.     

Why to Buy Your Darling Flowers: On Cooperation and Exploitation

Trusting in someone's cooperation is often connected with the danger of being exploited. So it is important that signals are exchanged which make it probable enough that the potential partner is reliable. Such signals must be too expensive for partners who are planning to abuse the trust they are given but cheap enough for those who wish to initiate a long-term cooperation. In a game theoretical model, it is shown that such signals could consist of presents given before the partnership starts. These presents must be more expensive than the advantage of a one-period exploitation but smaller than the profit from a long-term partnership. In order to prevent that the receiver only collects presents, and that she is not interested in a firm partnership, these gifts should be of low value for her. Flowers are the prototype of such presents but usually not the only and not the most important signal of this kind. Nor is the partnership between men and women the only example of cooperative relations which are endangered by exploitation – but of all exploitation stories this one is most often narrated.     

Understanding Contemporary Homelessness: Issues of Definition and Meaning

There is little agreement in the recent academic literature about how the concept of homelessness should be defined. This is more than just a theoretical problem, because it becomes difficult to urge governments to meet the needs of homeless people, if the parameters of the homeless population are unclear. This paper reviews ‘conservative’, ‘radical’ and ‘conventional’ perspectives on homelessness in modern society, and it argues that it is possible to adjudicate between them. The paper proposes a socially constructed definition of homelessness based on the notion of minimum community standards. It argues that this culturally relative position provides a theoretically meaningful framework for understanding homelessness in the 1990s.     

现代认同:在自我中寻找人的本性

衡量消费社会中人的价值,在于看其手中握有的支配权利的大小,这是个人价值实现的模式———几个世纪以来,这种模式一直被视为文明社会的中心内容。那么,这一理念的深层含义是什么?它与提高限制无止境消费行为的能力又有什么联系?这能够在“现代认同”这一概念中找到答案。现代认同的起点就是内在自我的起点。现代人必须处于自觉自为的自主程度才能找到自我,而这种自主程度归根到底需要独立的私人性。现代认同并不关乎能否与宇宙哲学的秩序相匹配,而在乎能否回应自我内心的需要和欲望。能否实现这些最终关乎自我个人的情感生活,这是构成幸福生活的关键因素———幸福生活就是根据情感上的满足程度来确定的。     

鲁迅在元话语层面和自由主义的对话

鲁迅与自由主义的关系必须区分为元话语层面和实践层面进行分析。近年来对于鲁迅是不是自由主义者的争论在很大程度上正是对这两个层面未加区分的结果。本文主要从鲁迅与自由主义在元话语层面的对话这一角度进行讨论,认为鲁迅与自由主义看似内核一致的个人主义其实是恰好相反的两种类型,鲁迅批判继承了尼采等思想家的力量派个人主义,并对具有"奴隶道德"特征的权利派个人主义及以之为基础的自由主义进行了元话语层面的批判。鲁迅并且在这一认识的基础上建立了主奴认识模式和"立人"、改造国民性思想,并把这一思想后来运用到包括自由主义在内的各种思想的实践批判中。