What's in a service?

The measurement of ‘service’ in children's services is highly varied. We do not know in a meaningful sense what services children and families get. This paper sets out why it is important to measure services well. It outlines the dimensions of ‘service’, how they have been measured in research, policy and practice contexts, and the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. It then explores implications for the field and identifies potential applications of a more nuanced and consistent approach to measuring services.     

Marxism Is a Developing Theory

Marxisttheoryisintheprocessofcontinualdevelopment.ThiswaspointedoutbyEngelsalongtimeago.In1887hesaidinalettertoanAmericanlady:"ourtheoryisatheoryofevolution,notadogmatobelearnedbyheartandtoberepeatedmechanically."1Andfromthispointofview,Engelsoncewarnedthat,"...onemightexpectfixed,cut-to-measure,onceandforallapplicabledefinitions,"butthisisa"falseassumption."2WhatmakesMarxismscientificisthatfactsaretakenasthefinalcriterion,anditsteadfastlyupholdstheintegrationoftheoryandpractice.Thischaracte…     

Once a NEET always a NEET? Experiences of employment and unemployment among youth in a job training programme in Taiwan

Chen Y‐W. Once a NEET always a NEET? Experiences of employment and unemployment among youth in a job training programme in Taiwan Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 33–42 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Ten previous participants in a job training programme, ages between 15 and 20, were interviewed face‐to‐face to determine why they were not employed, in education or in vocational training (represented by the acronym NEET) at the time, as well as their related experiences. They were also asked about their experiences and opinions regarding the training programme and their ideas about work in general. Results of the study indicate that most of the respondents did not become NEETs by choice; they did so for economic reasons. Most thought the programme was of little practical help to them and did not increase their chances of employment, but that it did give them social and emotional support and helped them feel better about themselves. Many agreed that the monetary allowance offered by the programme was a good incentive for participation. Implications of the findings for social policy and programme development, especially to the socio‐cultural context of Taiwan, are discussed.     

Religiosity as a mediator of caregiver well-being: does ethnicity make a difference?

This study used an adaptation of the stress and appraisal model to examine the mediating effects of religiosity on caregiving strain and gain with an ethnically diverse sample of 384 Alzheimer's disease caregivers. While the regression analysis indicated that religiosity did not mediate the stress of providing care for the entire sample, there were significant differences in the use of religiosity depending on the ethnicity (African American, Hispanic, and White non-Hispanic) of the caregiver, as well as significant differences between the three cohorts in the levels of caregiving strain (depression) and gain (self-acceptance). Implications for the use of religiosity as a protective factor for AD caregivers are discussed.     

Towards a critical realist epistemology?

When critical realists consider epistemology they typically start from “epistemological relativism.” We find this position necessary, but we also find it insufficient because it lacks a critique of the highly unequal social relations among observers themselves—relations that shape the very production of knowledge. While it is indeed the case that all knowledge is fallible, it is also the case that all knowledge is positioned, with a particular standpoint. What is more, the social power relations between standpoints organize the production of truth in ways that produce systematic distortions. In this paper, we propose a critical realist social epistemology. We introduce feminist standpoint theory and postcolonial theory as our suggested interventions into critical realism and we use two case studies of existing work to highlight i) the social production of truth and the real, and ii) what is at stake for radicalizing epistemology in critical realism. In so doing, our paper emphasizes the epistemic complexities that continuously shape ontology, a commitment to subaltern voices or experiences, and a thorough interrogation of the relations between positions of knowledge production.     

Constructing a Marxist Theory of Culture

马克思主义文化理论的出发点和可能基础是马克思主义关于人的活动的统一理论。中国共产党人结合本国历史文化特点,对马克思主义文化理论作出了重大发展。毛泽东思想中关于思想政治工作和文化工作的理论,是马克思主义文化理论与东方社会相结合的典范之作。邓小平理论的形成,表明中国共产党已经形成科学的、成熟的文化和意识形态理论。     

The self-strengthening mechanism in the development of a resource-based economy： with a case study

资源型经济是以矿产资源开发为动力,以能源、矿产等资源部门为主导的经济体系。在资源丰裕区域,由于制造业部门人力资本投资门槛的存在,容易导致对资源部门的投资偏好。一旦资源部门成为主导部门,便会形成资源部门对经济要素特殊的吸纳效应、资源部门的扩张与延伸使产业家族形成粘滞效应、工业化演进过程中的沉淀成本与路径依赖形成对资源功能的锁定效应,产生发展的路径依赖,陷入资源优势陷阱,从而导致资源型经济的自强机制。突破资源优势陷阱的关键在于打破原有的资源自循环机制和路径依赖,引入学习与创新活动,调整资源收益分配机制,实现产业协调和经济转型发展。     

Population Control in a Market Economy

Itisofcriticalimportancetoestablishalinkbetweenthenewsocialistmarketeconomyandcontrolofpopulationreproduction,especiallythesizeofthepopulation.Thiswilldeterminethedirectionofreformsinpopulationcontrolinthefuture.Experiencesgainedfromthecoastalregions,whichinitiatedreformandopeningtotheoutsideworld,withtheirpopulationof200million,andfromsomeinlandareaswhichtooktheleadinestablishingamarketeconomy,allowthisproblemtobeexaminedinanewlight.Micro-populationControl:IncreasingtheWeightofBenefitRegula…     

What Makes a Good Decision? Robust Satisficing as a Normative Standard of Rational Decision Making

Most decisions in life involve ambiguity, where probabilities can not be meaningfully specified, as much as they involve probabilistic uncertainty. In such conditions, the aspiration to utility maximization may be self‐deceptive. We propose “robust satisficing” as an alternative to utility maximizing as the normative standard for rational decision making in such circumstances. Instead of seeking to maximize the expected value, or utility, of a decision outcome, robust satisficing aims to maximize the robustness to uncertainty of a satisfactory outcome. That is, robust satisficing asks, “what is a ‘good enough’ outcome,” and then seeks the option that will produce such an outcome under the widest set of circumstances. We explore the conditions under which robust satisficing is a more appropriate norm for decision making than utility maximizing.     

The Village Election Caught Up in a Road-building Project:Collective Action Involving a Dual Choice

This paper will follow the basic analyti-cal logic of collective action theory in itsresearch, taking as an example an electionand the building of a road in a village in HebeiProvince. The research addresses the issueof what changes take place in the logic anddynamic mechanism of a collective action     

Death and suicidal ideation among nursing home residents in a Chinese city – a pilot study

This paper examines death and suicidal ideation among nursing home residents in a Chinese City using a questionnaire survey data. Findings from the survey show that 17.4% of the participants have death and suicidal ideation, and the prevalence of passive and active ideation are 15.4% and 6.2% respectively. The presence of death and suicidal ideation among nursing home residents correlates with depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and satisfaction with nursing home services. As death and suicidal feelings are risk factors for suicide, the findings imply that implementing depression prevention programmes and improving service quality of nursing homes are vital in preventing suicides among nursing home residents.     

Private Pensions — a Viable Alternative? Their Distributive Effects in a Comparative Perspective

Pension reforms have been on the political agenda of governments and international organizations like the OECD and the World Bank for some time. The strengthening of private elements in pension systems is often believed to intensify existing inequalities in the distribution of pensions among the population and to contribute to the marginalization of large groups of older people. This paper explores the distributive effects of private pensions on the basis of Luxembourg Income Study microdata for 12 industrialized welfare states. While confirming that private pensions indeed tend to produce specific inequalities, its results also emphasize the importance of policy factors in mitigating the distributive effects.     

Is There a “Pessimistic” Bias in Individual Beliefs? Evidence from a Simple Survey

It is an important issue for economic and finance applications to determine whether individuals exhibit a behavioral bias toward pessimism in their beliefs, in a lottery or more generally in an investment opportunities framework. In this paper, we analyze the answers of a sample of 1,540 individuals to the following question “Imagine that a coin will be flipped 10 times. Each time, if heads, you win $10\texttt{C}\!\!\!\rule[2.3pt]{.4em}{.3pt}\!\!\rule[3.3pt]{.4em}{.3pt}It is an important issue for economic and finance applications to determine whether individuals exhibit a behavioral bias toward pessimism in their beliefs, in a lottery or more generally in an investment opportunities framework. In this paper, we analyze the answers of a sample of 1,540 individuals to the following question “Imagine that a coin will be flipped 10 times. Each time, if heads, you win . How many times do you think that you will win?” The average answer is surprisingly about 3.9 which is below the average 5, and we interpret this as a pessimistic bias. We find that women are more “pessimistic” than men, as are old people relative to young. We also analyze how our notion of pessimism is related to more general notions of pessimism previously introduced in psychology.     

Monday … Will be a Happy Day

The film is destined to have a happy life. It was being discussed even before it appeared on the screen. We are not speaking about professionals or about critics, who very often are ahead of developments. In this case the spectators themselves engaged in the debate right from the outset. Letters to the editors about the film "We'll Survive Till Monday" [Dozhivem do ponedel'nika] testify to this.     

Social security reforms in Kenya: Towards a workerist or a citizenship‐based system?

With social security provisions in Kenya remaining under‐reported in the more recent literature, this overview covers recent reforms in key areas of the country's social security system. In the health sector and in old‐age pension provision social security is still mainly workerist (biased toward those in formal employment), and attempts to expand coverage have had limited effect only – cash transfer programmes, for instance, have been expanded but in practice they do not universally cover the entitled categories. Thus, although the Kenyan social security system now has a considerable pro‐poor social assistance component it remains biased toward those in formal employment, to the benefit of the highest income quintile.     

Dalian:a City with Eternal Beauty

In the southern end of Liaodong peninsula, there is a city called Dalian. Embraced on three sides by the sea and with undulating hills, Dalian has very distinctive seasons. Dalian is a modern city, yet retains its natural environment. Lushun port, west to the urban sector, is the first open port. Numerous traces of Sino-Japanese