Moll Flanders' View on Marriage and Love

Moll Flanders is one of the the most engaging figures that are shaped by Defoe. The legendary story of this female criminal reflects the real social and cultural status in the early 18th century in British. Particularly people's twisted view of marriage and love, and provoke people to ponder deeply.     

Testosterone therapy – effects on prostate and bone

This paper is based on a presentation given at the 2nd World Congress on the Aging Male, Geneva, Switzerland, February 2000     

Seminar on Employment and Development of Town Women

IN October 1994, the All-China Women's Federation held a seminar on the employment and development of town women in Shanghai, China's largest city. The seminar was also a preparatory meeting for the '95 NGO Forum on women's employment. More than 70 people, including the presidents of the provincial women's federations, the municipal women's federations and some leaders of the state departments concerned attended this meeting. Chen Muhua, Vice-Chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, the     

Reflections on Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology’s Program

Ethnomethodology’s Program, published in 2002, presents Garfinkel’s most recent statements on ethnomethodology and its central concerns, assumptions and procedures. This article reflects on biographical influences that have shaped Garfinkel’s thinking, differences between this work and his earlier statements of ethnomethodology, the deliberate elusiveness of his writings, the connections between ethnomethodology and classical sociology, and under-appreciated parallels between ethnomethodogy and current critiques of rationalization and modernity.     

Reflections on conducting research on the ‘war on terror’: religious identity,subjectivity and emotions

In recent years there has been an increase in literature which has explored the insider/outsider position through ethnic identities. However, there remains a neglect of religious identities, even though it could be argued that religious identities have become increasingly important through being prominent in international issues such as the ‘war on terror’ and the Middle East conflict. Through drawing on the concept of subjectivity, I reflect on research I conducted on the impact of the ‘war on terror’ on British Muslims. I explore the space between the insider/outsider position demonstrating how my various subjectivities – the ‘non-Islamic appearance I’, the ‘Muslim I’, the ‘personal I’, the ‘exploring I’, the ‘Kashmiri I’ or the ‘Pakistani I’, the ‘status I’ and the ‘outsider I’ – assisted in establishing trust, openness and commonality. I conclude by demonstrating how the ‘emotional I’ allowed me to manage my own emotions and participants emotions.     

Li, Miao and Hui Women on Hainan Island

Of all the ethnic groups on Hainan Island, the Miao people keep the most ancient traditions and customs. Here, a Miao woman weaves brocade by hand in her village.     

Social focus on health and children’s well-being

This special section on children’s health and well-being is an outgrowth of the 2010 International Sociological Association’s (ISA) World Congress in Gothenburg, Sweden. Within the Congress, the Research Committee 53, Sociology of Childhood, organized a panel focused on the health and well-being of children. Together, this collection makes two distinct contributions: first in terms of considering children’s health disparities as an area of concern within sociology, and second by considering children’s health as a factor that shapes other areas of children’s well-being. In addition, these papers offer novel empirical research on children’s health and varied methodological and theoretical orientations. Each paper also makes contributions to social policy, first in the area of infant health affecting later educational outcomes, second in the area of family structure and children’s health, and additionally in understanding type 2 diabetes for children at the individual and structural levels. Finally, these studies highlight the interplay—between the individuals’ health on the one hand and structure and culture on the other—as children’s life chances are shaped.     

Hall's Encoding/ Decoding and Its Influence on Media Study

As an outstanding representative of British Cultural Studies, Stuart Hall has long been occupied as the leader of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in its theories, thoughts and factual work. He has been concentrated on the critical topics such as culture, ideology, and identity. In the field of mass communication, major contribution of Hall lies in his attempts to connect the ideological encoding of cultural formation to the decoding position of the audiences. His thought develops the critical theories of mass communication. Given the importance of Hall's role in the contemporary cultural studies and his significant contribution to mass media research, it is worthwhile for us to probe deeper into his thought to explore valuable contents. In this essay, it mainly concerns Hall's new model of encoding/decoding and the theory of the audience.     

European policy developments and their impact on social work†

ABSTRACT

Europe, in the throes of global trends, dissolves and yet re-establishes boundaries, both on its external perimeter and in terms of its internal social and political structures in a process reminiscent of the early period after the industrial revolutions. Once again it poses a fundamental question for social work: is the profession’s mandate limited to containing the effects of this process at the level of its individual victims or can it play a role in shaping European social policies which would deal with structural issues and further the cause of European integration? By examining the spaces created by the EU’s ambiguous initiatives on social issues – in areas like child welfare, poverty or migration – it will be shown that social ‘rescue’ attempts might only serve to legitimate exclusion and to further the decline of social solidarity within European states – and ultimately the disintegration of the European Union itself. The alternative lies in taking a wider political perspective and practising ‘relational citizenship’, giving people rights to belong and to participate.     

Muriel’s Claims on Psychoanalysis (and Me)

ABSTRACT

This essay memorializes Muriel Dimen and her creative and generative claims on the future of psychoanalysis. The essay goes over her early ideas about gender and sexuality as well as her keen feminist analyses of the everyday that continue to fuel my own standards as a feminist psychoanalytic theorist.     

Study abroad learners’ metalinguistic and sociocultural reflections on short- and long-term international experiences*

English-speaking learners of L2 Spanish who were taking part in a four-week study abroad program in Spain and Japanese-speaking learners of L2 English who were individually studying in year-long abroad experiences participated in the present study. Quantitative and qualitative data from language questionnaires and contact profiles along with open-ended responses revealed details on learners’ engagement with and use of their languages while abroad. We discuss the findings and their implications for programs, educators and learners.     

Review and Thought on American Teenagers＇ Civic Moral Education

建立和完善对青少年进行公民道德教育的机制是美国教育的特色之一。长期以来,美国在对青少年进行公民道德教育的过程中,形成了特有的人本化、个性化的教育理念,多样性、灵活性的教育方法,渗透性、社会性的教育途径,充分发挥了政治性、阶级性的教育功能,有着一整套独特的理论与实践体系,对青少年公民道德素质培养提高发挥了重要作用。通过对美国青少年进行公民道德教育的内容和运行机制的分析审视,借鉴其成功的经验和做法,可以提高我国青少年公民道德教育的实效性。     

The Temporal Effects of Divorces and Separations on Children’s Academic Achievement and Problem Behavior

This article provides an examination of the effects of the divorce and separation process on children’s academic achievement and problem behavior over time. By using child fixed effects and establishing a baseline period that is four or more years prior to a family disruption, I can examine how children are affected in different periods relative to the disruption and whether any negative effects subside, persist, or escalate as time passes from the disruption. With a sample of 7- to 14-year-olds, I find that children are affected at least two to four years before the disruption; reading test scores are most affected; and for reading comprehension, the negative effects persist and even escalate as time passes from the disruption.     

Ethnic,gender, and length‐of‐residency influences on sexual knowledge and attitudes

We examined potential differences in sexual knowledge and attitudes between 702 Canadian undergraduates of Asian (n = 356) and European (n = 346) ancestry. We also examined potential influences of length of residency in Canada on these variables among Asians, and the role of gender both across and within ethnic groups. The primary purpose was to examine whether length of exposure to North American sexual values influences sexual knowledge or attitudes among Asians living in Canada. Results revealed that compared to Europeans, Asians held more conservative sexual attitudes and demonstrated significantly less sexual knowledge. Recent Asian immigrants were significantly more likely than Canadian‐born or long‐term Canadian residents to hold conservative sexual attitudes on a number of sexuality items. Among Asians and Non‐Asians, males reported more negative attitudes toward homosexuals than did females; females held more conservative sexual attitudes toward uncommitted sexual relations than did males. The findings provide partial support for a cultural explanation of the frequently reported finding that, compared with North Americans, Asians are more restricted in their expression of sexuality.     

Scientific advice and public policy: expert advisers’ and policymakers’ discourses on boundary work

This article reports on considerable variety and diversity among discourses on their own jobs of boundary workers of several major Dutch institutes for science-based policy advice. Except for enlightenment, all types of boundary arrangements/work in the Wittrock-typology (Social knowledge and public policy: eight models of interaction. In: Wagner P (ed) Social sciences and modern states: national experiences and theoretical crossroads. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991) do occur. ‘Divergers’ experience a gap between science and politics/policymaking; and it is their self-evident task to act as a bridge. They spread over four discourses: ‘rational facilitators’, ‘knowledge brokers’, ‘megapolicy strategists’, and ‘policy analysts’. Others aspire to ‘convergence’; they believe science and politics ought to be natural allies in preparing collective decisions. But ‘policy advisors’ excepted, ‘postnormalists’ and ‘deliberative proceduralists’ find this very hard to achieve.     

Doha’s cultural armature on display: a response to Artifacts and Allegiances: How Museums put the Nation and the World on Display

After a brief discussion of the rapidly changing international museum world in Doha, this response piece engages with Peggy Levitt’s arguments around cultural armature and the role of museums in managing a city’s diversity, focusing on Doha, Qatar. Given the dominant migrant foreign population (88 per cent) and the careful protection of national citizenship in Qatar, the role of museums in managing diversity presents a situation that contrasts with older nation states: rather than encouraging inclusion, the museums in Qatar and the Arabian Peninsula states play a role in constructing and protecting a pure concept of national identity on behalf of a minority citizen population that deliberately fails to embrace any notion of diversity. This piece uses brief case studies to illustrate this process of exclusion, expanding Levitt’s original argument.