Young people's orientations to the future: navigating the present and imagining the future

This article discusses the findings of the Imagine Sheppey project (2013–2014) which studied how young people are ‘oriented’ towards the future. The aim and approach of the project were to explore future imaginaries in a participatory, experimental, and performative way. Working with young people in a series of arts-based workshops, we intervened in different environments to alter the space as an experience of change – temporal, material, and symbolic. We documented this process visually and made use of the images produced as the basis for elicitation in focus groups with a wider group of young people. In this article we discuss young people's future orientations through the themes of reach, resources, shape, and value. In so doing, we reflect on the paths that our young respondents traced to connect their presents to what is next, what we call their modes of present–future navigation. We explore the qualities and characteristics of their stances within a wider reflection about how young people approach, imagine, and account for the future.     

Grassroots sociology and the future of the discipline

It has become a truism to say that the sociological enterprise is in disarray. The sociological niche is neither self-evident nor safe. Given the problems facing sociology, it is imperative that the discipline begins to plan to protect is assets and to project its capabitlities into the twenty-first century. State sociological assocations could be major components of such a plan. The state sociological association is, however, a largely unknown entity. The present study presents the result of a survey of the officers of state assocations to determine the demographic makeup of their membership, concerns addressed by their associations and their strategies for dealing with these concerns. The findings suggest that state socioclogical associations are in an excellent position to build community in the discipline by breaking down the lines of stratification separating the organizational levels of the sociological enterprise and the different needs of our academic and applied endeavors. Both are past presidents of the North Carolina State Sociological Association. Harris is past president of the National Association of State Sociological Associations and Wise is its current president.     

谋划发展 规划未来 兼谈天津职业技术师范学院"修建性详细规划"的制定和实施

一、校园规划背景 校园规划是一门科学,有其自身的科学规律.从学术上讲,可以说是一个边缘学科,是介于城市规划与单体建筑设计之间的综合学科.科技、社会、经济的进步,推动了教育事业的大发展,校园建设不断扩大,高校学生人数急剧增加,现有校园规模,无法满足发展的需求,迫使学校面临着扩大、调整、改建、新建等项任务.     

大境门的过去与未来

大境门坐落在张家口市区北端,始建于清顺治元年(1644年).大境门位于高耸入云的东、西太平山之间,据长城之要隘,扼边关之锁钥,形势险要,历史上这一带是兵家必争之地,是扼守京都的北大门,连接边塞与内地的交通要道.大境门经历了数百年风雨的冲刷与岁月的洗礼,见证了张家口的历史巨变,印证了中国北方最大国际商埠的繁荣与辉煌,同时也是蒙汉两族人民交通和贸易关口,为发展蒙汉两族人民的友好关系,沟通内地与边塞贸易,发挥了重要作用.     

One-shot exchange networks and the shadow of the future

From the Prisoner's Dilemma and other games, it is well known that strategy selection in one-shot games can be very different from that in iterated games. Because exchange structures were studied only as iterated games, whether one-shot structures differ was not known. Nor have exchange theories previously considered whether events in structures would be different if studied as one-shot games. This paper offers new theory to predict one-shot exchange structures and one-shot experiments to test that theory. As predicted, the experiments found that processes and outcomes of one-shot exchange structures are quite different from those of iterated exchange structures. For example, certain relations that are strategically used as threats in iterated exchange structures occur very rarely in one-shot structures. It follows that power differences in one-shot structures regress from those observed for repeated structures.     

An evaluator of the future

For the evaluator who is part of the management of a human service organization, future expectations will be more demanding than at present. Operating staff, managers, and funders will already be familiar with the methods and the usefulness of capable program evaluation. Improved information tools will help the evaluator meet this challenge, by keeping the organization visible and manageable. A more fundamental change will be an improved “language of accountability”. Program standards, accreditation, and review now focus on structure and process characteristics. What is emerging is a growing consensus on definitions of client problems and program objectives in relation to these problems. This consensus spurs psychometric research on measures of problems and of the attainment of program objectives. Dependable, standard measures and meaningful comparative data will make the evaluation of program effectiveness possible.     

Reviewing challenges and the future for qualitative interviewing

ABSTRACT

In this article, we consider challenges for the existence and practice of qualitative research interviews. We review key features of qualitative interviewing, in particular the debate over the radical critique of interviewing and the nature of the data it generates, to set the scene for our arguments about the current standing and future prognosis for the method of generating data and the technologies that enable this. We look at qualitative interviewing in the context of the political project of neoliberalism and the regime of austerity associated with it, and the linked turn to what is known as ‘big data’, a feature of digital technological developments in garnering data. Qualitative researchers using interview methods have been creative in working with and resisting features of neoliberal austerity pragmatically and politically, and we provide some examples. We also consider an epistemological challenge and resistance from outside of the dominant framework – interviewing in indigenous methodologies. We argue that it is the relationship between the interview as a method of data generation for research and the ways of knowing about the world, that is the epistemology that the interview-based research proceeds from, that is crucial in considering the potentials for the method’s practice.     

Welfare reform and the future of nonprofit organizations

This article discusses implications of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) for nonprofit social service organizations. We emphasize their role in the contemporary social safety net in relation to the public sector. Based on a study of ninety organizations operating in the Detroit metropolitan area, we adopted the supplementary, complementary, and adversarial framework from Young (1999) to assess the complex and evolving relationship between the nonprofit and public sectors in the post‐PRWORA era. The findings indicate a clear presence of all three perspectives; however, the continued shifting of responsibility for social services to private, nonprofit organizations suggests a growing dominance of the supplementary role. This raises concerns regarding future nonprofit capacity and other potential costs of nonprofit sector service provision.     

Teens and technology: preparing for the future

In the past two decades, economic, technological, demographic, and political forces have stimulated major change in the learning and working landscape for young people. These circumstances compel us to prioritize the integration of technology skill building into youth development experiences in order to better prepare older youth for the challenges and responsibilities ahead. Facilitating older youth's acquisition of technology skills must continue to be a principal goal of policymakers, city leaders, and youth program providers. This chapter looks at the integration of technology skill building into youth development experiences with consideration of gender and races differences in technology access and utilization, along with challenges that at-risk teens face.     

Transforming finance for the future

Abstract

Significant changes in external market conditions have resulted in operations placing greater demands on the finance function. Traditional finance departments are increasingly expected to deliver more value and be more proactive in supporting the organization's overall business strategies. Unfortunately, many finance departments are not yet ready to meet such challenges. This article proposes a transformation process to reorganize present day finance functions to become a finance of the future. The proposed process applies tools such as best practices, outsourcing and technology to achieve a desired future outcome.     

Immigration history and the future of international migration

"International migration must be understood as a permanent phenomenon rather than as a temporary movement. In this article, the author proceeds from the premise that in appreciating the relation between the past and the present, we may be able to draw on 'lessons of the past' to modify our definition and perception of current problems and to analyze possible policies and decisions. The article is divided into several sections, historical changes within migration patterns including different categories of migrants, various phases within the migration process in recent history, theoretical considerations in analysis, distinct types of immigration policies pursued by various states, and current and possible future trends."     

职场装备未来时

人类凭借高级动物的资本获得了更长的寿命,更舒适的生活和更宽广的想象力。无论你对现在的生活是否满意, 我们都认同的一点是,未来将更美好。每个人都可以凭借自己的经历和想象力对未来发表一番看法,即使你认为将来会出现能飞的汽车,能游泳的电话也并不为过。不过从人类的需要和目前的发展趋势来看,未来的高科技装备将延续目前产品的功能发展方向,并逐渐拓展,融合其他新功能;一些新科技将首先用于单一功能的专业产品。而和职业人士息息相关的恐怕还是前者,因为巨大的工作压力带来对娱乐和自由时间的追求,而这就促使未来的高科技产品将更多地突出“为您服务”的精神。