Social Class in Public Schools

This article shows the pattern of socioeconomic class differences in schooling outcomes and indicates some of the causes for those differences that lie within the public realm. Those causes include "nested inequalities" across boundaries of states, school districts, schools within a district, classes within a school, and sometimes separation within a class. In addition, urban public schools demonstrate a particular set of problems that generate differential schooling outcomes by economic class. The article also demonstrates ways in which class biases are closely entwined with racial and ethnic inequities. It concludes with the broad outlines of what would be necessary to reduce class (and racial) disparities in American public schools .

The American dream will succeed or fail in the 21 ^st century in direct proportion to our commitment to educate every person in the United States of America.
            —President Bill Clinton, 1995 ( Clinton, 1995 : 617)

There is no greater test of our national responsibility than the quality of the education we provide.
      —Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, 2000 ( Gore, 2000 )

Both parties have been talking about education for quite a while. It's time to come together to get it done, so that we can truthfully say in America: No child will be left behind.
                —President George W. Bush, 2001 ( Bush, 2001 )

     

Social Representations and Individual Actions: Misunderstandings, Omissions and Different Premises

Wolfgang Wagner (1994) has submitted a logically ordered and well phrased chain of arguments. But his paper contains, at least in concern of our research which he uses for illustration (Thommen et al , 1988, 1992), a number of misinterpretations. Furthermore, and what is more important, it ignores relevant scientific developments and tries to monopolize the field of social representations for one single, namely Wagner's own, viewpoint and level of analysis.¹ For these reasons, I can not accept some of his statements.     

破产重整中债权协商制度存在的问题及解决

破产重整成功的关键取决于债务人与债权人的协商结果。我国企业破产法建立了债权调查、重整计划、强制批准等债权协商制度,但在实践中出现了操纵危机、债权人利益保护失灵等问题。我国应设置预重整制度,即在重整程序开始前已经接受或反对重整计划将被视为已经按照破产法的规定接受或反对该重整计划,该表决结果拘束全体利害关系人,以利于财务危机企业迅速进行重整。明确破产管理人的信息披露义务,破产管理人应在关系人会议召开之前提交重整说明书。完善重整计划草案的内容,应包括债务人经营方案,以及债权人会议与债权人委员会之间有关批准重整人交易的职权划分。     

Hospital Performance and Regional Equity

The objective of this article is to see whether or not the attainment of regional equity within the hospital sector has involved any sacrifice in hospital performance.¹ For most health services providing medical care free of charge, regional equity is usually an important objective; but when doctors decide who gets into hospital and for how long regional equity may be difficult to achieve in practice. We look at certain indicators of hospital inpatient performance in relation to regional equity within the hospital sector in both England and Wales and Czechoslovakia. The comparison with Czechoslovakia is an interesting one because that country is as much concerned with regional equity in its hospital service as is the United Kingdom (UK). At the same time there have been substantial differences between the two countries in the availability of hospital resources.     

The recalibration of the Danish old-age pension system

Pension reform in Denmark in the 1990s is of general interest owing to the development of a system of funded, defined contribution pension schemes based on collective agreement between the parties in the labour market. The resulting pension system seems to hold some answers to the critique of funded pension schemes. This paper analyses the process which led to the 1991 pension reform and relates the discussions and solutions found in Denmark to the international debate on pension reform.     

Mutual benefit societies in Indonesia

We do not know when or how mutual benefit societies first appeared in colonial Indonesia, but there is evidence that they were part of the lives of at least some of the ordinary people in the towns and cities by the last quarter of the nineteenth century. By the 1910s they were common in workplaces and kampung, the often less than salubrious parts of the towns and cities where wage labourers and their families lived. Large numbers of people joined and some of them handled significant sums of money. For many people, they were an essential help in coping with daily life on small incomes with no capacity to save and with the ever-present threat of loss of work, sickness or death. The relationships between mutual benefit societies, labour unions political parties and other voluntary organizations which would contribute to Indonesian nationalism is of particular interest. Clearly, to be involved in, and to be seen to be involved in, mutual aid was important for all these urban organizations.¹     

Television Characterizations of Homeless People in the United Kingdom

Media link events in society into meaningful plotlines for public consumption. For social issues such as homelessness this storytelling process continues until an issue is resolved or another concern takes precedence. This article investigates British Independent Television News ¹ (ITN) portrayals of homelessness from January 1993 to December 2002 ( n = 99). News items are explored as instalments in a larger news narrative through which the public is offered engagements with homeless characters. A quantitative content analysis was used to establish the general prevalence of items throughout the year, story locations, causes and solutions offered for homelessness, and character roles. A qualitative narrative analysis was used to explore the function of these story elements in the overall patterning of the ITN story of homelessness. Of particular note was the promotion of a philanthropic approach to service delivery through the characterization of homeless people as needy victims and the maintenance of estranged relationships between the viewing public and homeless people. The significance of ITN's exclusion of homeless people from public deliberations regarding their needs is discussed in relation to the failure of this wealthy nation to resolve homelessness.     

The social protection of the unemployed

Unemployment is the most basic risk covered by social security. Sickness, accident, maternity, incapacity, old age or even death can be considered as special cases of interruption of earnings. Unemployment is the standard case, where a worker loses earnings simply because he or she is unable to find gainful employment, without reference to any particular causality. Nevertheless, the unemployment branch is very often treated rather poorly, in comparison with other branches of social security. In most countries – except the United Kingdom – it was created much later than other branches, and it involves a larger part of assistance, as opposed to insurance. Usually, fewer people are covered against the risk, the conditions for entitlement are stricter, the benefits tend to be lower and shorter in duration, and controls and sanctions are more severe.¹ People are generally worse off when their loss of earnings is the result of a dismissal rather than disease or accident. In this contribution we try to analyse the reasons why unemployment has such a relatively poor status in social security. And we examine the extent to which this difference of treatment can be considered a form of discrimination and, in some cases, contrary to the basic principles of international social law.     

The Concept of Consciousness

Considered here is the last one of the six basic concepts of consciousness that The Oxford English Dictionary identifies in its several entries under consciousness . The referent of the sixth concept, which I call "consciousness₆", is rightly understood to be a certain general operating mode of the mind. Any psychological account of consciousness₆ must distinguish this operating mode from (a) the "particular consciousness or awarenesses", i.e., the specific thoughts, feelings, perceptions, intentions, and the like (including William James's succession of total states of consciousness), that occur while the mind is so operating, and from (b) the other, alternative, general operating modes of the mind: such as those that are sometimes in force in place of consciousness₆, when one is awake.     

Barriers to Integration in the Mississippi Delta: Could Charter Schools Be the New Vehicle for Desegregation?

This study explored the barriers to educational integration in the rural Mississippi Delta region. In Delta County , ¹ students have generally been divided between a black public school and an all white private academy. An earlier study ( Eckes, 2005 ) revealed that white parents in Delta County chose not to send their students to the traditional public school because they perceived greater discipline problems, less challenging academics, and fewer extracurricular opportunities ("the barriers"). The black parents, however, were choosing not to send their children to the private academy because it did not, in fact, offer greater educational opportunity. Black parents contended that the three articulated barriers were actually euphemisms for racism. In this current case study, the researcher sought to learn whether a new high-performing charter school, where the three barriers were not present, would encourage racial integration in Delta County. Specifically, the new public charter school offered parents a third option in addition to the private academy and public school. Through interviews and observations, the current case study explored whether the barriers articulated by white parents in the earlier study were simply rhetoric. The current study found that white parents were still not choosing the charter school, even though no barriers were present.     

宏观架构与立法审思--关于婚姻家庭制度的完善

婚姻家庭制度的完善,不仅需要解决立法技术问题,更需要解决立法观念与立法意识问题.要使<婚姻法>成为具有前瞻性、适用性、科学性的法典,则须认真思考如下问题<婚姻法>以独立法典的模式出现,既可兼顾立法传统,又能顺应制定民法典的趋势;确立婚约制度,不仅是婚俗生活的要求,也是完善婚姻家庭立法的要求;离婚损害赔偿制度是对婚姻自由原则的补充,有助于对善意当事人权益的维护;建立完备的亲权制度势在必行.     

Unravelling the Politics of Activation Reforms: Exploring the Unusual Israeli Trajectory

Contemporary active labour market (ALM) reforms are pivotal in the reorganization of the welfare state as they challenge and threaten some of the fundamental achievements of labour in capitalist societies: social programmes and entitlements that compensate for unemployment, and governance arrangements in which the social partners share authority and responsibility with the state. Consequently, ALM reforms may give raise to social unrest and political struggle that involves the state (the main proponent of ALM reforms), trade unions and political parties. These conflicts are important in the politicization of reforms, i.e. raising public awareness of and engagement with controversies of welfare state change. In this article, we use a non‐European perspective to ask more generally how distinct historical institutions create separate ‘politicization trajectories’ of ALM reforms, which in turn produce different policy designs and outcomes. Centring on the case of Israel, in which historically ‘abnormal’ class politics fostered indifference to the reform in both trade unions and political parties, we maintain that the preliminary de‐politicization made it possible for bureaucrats to control the reform, leading to an intra‐state conflict between competing agencies over its design and implementation. The usurpation of the reform by the Ministry of Finance made it conspicuously unbalanced, provoking many grievances. Paradoxically, the de‐politicization of the reform advanced its re‐politicization, led by non‐governmental advocacy organizations in civil society. These uncommon political actors in the politics of ALM reforms were able to lead a counter‐coalition, delegitimize the reform, and mobilize politicians to eventually terminate activation     

比较法视域下西方国家刑事搜查证明标准考察——以完善我国刑事搜查证明标准为视角

伴随我国司法体制改革的逐步深入和社会主义法律体系的全面建构,《刑事诉讼法》的再修改势在必行,特别是随着刑事侦查理论的不断完善,被搜查人的人权保障日益受到学界的普遍关注,而作为《刑事诉讼法》重要内容之一的"刑事搜查证明标准"部分的规定却极不完善,相关司法解释对于被搜查人权利实现之救济机制亦存在诸多缺陷。且这些缺陷在《刑事诉讼法》再修改草案中并未得到实质性的改变。当前应借鉴西方国家刑事搜查证明标准的合理内核,从不断完善我国搜查行为的证明标准、被搜查人权利救济途径以及相关配套制度等方面着手,重构我国刑事搜查证明标准。     

Reality and Challenges of Pension Schemes in Tunisia

This article tries to establish whether the statutory system of pensions based on the pay-as-you-go principle is financially defensible in the context of an ageing population. Our study uses the case of Tunisia. The hypothesis that the population is ageing has been confirmed by a prospective study of the Tunisian population to 2050. A simulation of the pension schemes reveals a deficit which is growing at an exponential rate and which must inevitably jeopardize the financial viability of the schemes. Pension reform is thus unavoidable. After studying a number of experiences from other countries, which we describe, we propose a switch to notional defined-contribution schemes and/or organized in tiers.     

Women and Underachievement at Work: A Study of the Internal Labour Market of the Civil Service

This article describes some of the major results of a study¹ which examines the complex problem of women's underachievement in paid work. Through an investigation of female clerical staff and their experience of one major Civil Service department, an analysis is made of the internal organization and processes and their effect on women's promotion success. The conclusion is that the internal labour market of the Civil Service is structured to men's conventional employment patterns and both formal and informal factors combine to keep the majority of women at a disadvantage in paid work. The very few women who do achieve have to accept and adopt conventionally male characteristics in both their work situation and their family life.     

Property Rights In Marriage and Property Distribution on Divorce: Room for Manoeuvre

The introduction in Australia of a system based on community of property in marriage would probably disadvantage women rather than be of benefit to them. Clearly, however, the present discretionary system of property distribution on divorce is in need of reform. This paper argues that reform can best be achieved by incorporating into the Family Law Act the guidelines and presumptions about equal sharing of family assets which have been established by the courts.     

Seeking the Theoretical Origins of Supply-side Structural Reform*

The theoretical origins of supply theory and supply-side structural reform lie in British and French classical economics, with their longstanding interest in supply, rather than in the later emergence of Jean-Baptiste Say and Say's Law, which attempts to deny the possibility of economic crises. Marx deepened supply theory, holding that production (supply) structure and product (income) distribution structure depended on the nature and structure of relations of production. This theory has been especially significant in guiding supply-side structural reform in China. The main reference value of American supply-side economics lies in some of its policy proposals for reforming and managing supply. Supply-side structural reform in China requires the development of a socialist supply theory with Chinese characteristics.     

The Concept of Consciousness4 The Reflective Meaning

In this article, which is fourth in a series of six articles, I address the fourth concept of consciousness that the Oxford English Dictionary ("the OED") defines in its six main entries under the word consciousness. I first introduce this fourth concept, the concept of consciousness₄. by (a) identifying the previous three OED concepts of consciousness, which I have already discussed in this series of articles, and (b) by indicating how that to which we make reference, respectively, by means of those three concepts is related to the referents of the concept of consciousness₄. I then address the latter concept more directly by pursuing for the remainder of the article where the OED's fourm entry leads. Among other things, I am led to consider two competing accounts of consciousness₄ that figure prominently in the OED entry, namely the intrinsic, self-intimational account of William Hamilton and the inner-eye, perceptionlike account of John Locke. Both kinds of account are very much with us today.     

国企公司制改革的现状与对策研究

国有企业在组织形式方面改革的重要一环是公司制改造,依照公司法建立完整有效的现代企业经营机制,最大限度地提高企业营运的效率。目前,在一些国企改制后的公司中,企业法人治理结构尚不完善。如政企不分,有相当一部分国有控股有限公司对行政依赖等。因此,在国企改革中不但要解决以上问题,还应该妥善处理好"老三会"与"新三会"的关系,落实股东大会的法律地位,完善公司内部的制衡机制和监事会机制,严格保护企业职工的合法权益。