我国青年社会思潮新动向及政策建议

作为思想最开放与最活跃的群体,青年总是各种社会思潮的积极参与者、追随者、传播者和实践者。通过对来自三城市青年定量调查数据分析发现,青年社会思潮呈现多元化趋势,邓小平理论仍占主导地位;青年对民主社会主义思潮最熟悉,对新左派思潮最陌生;青年最易认同民主社会主义、新自由主义和新左派思潮;非主导社会思潮对青年的隐性渗透力普遍较强,以新左派最为突出;社会思潮对大学生、青年白领和青年农民的影响存在明显的群体差异。为此,以青年社会思潮的最新动向为基础,关注隐性渗透力和群体差异,将提升青年社会思潮的引导效果。     

显著影响大学生的主要社会思潮及原因分析

当前对大学生有显著影响的社会思潮主要有民主社会主义、新自由主义、民族主义和公共知识分子思潮;这些思潮对大学生产生影响不是因其科学性,而是因其新颖性、批判性和现实性,尤其是迎合了大学生的内在需求;网络是社会思潮得以深入影响大学生的主要渠道;大学生思潮旗手在社会思潮影响大学生过程中起到了很大的推动作用。     

新自由主义思潮影响下当代青年消费观念之思

随着经济全球化和改革开放的推进,新自由主义思潮在我国得以广泛传播。新自由主义思潮主张私有制、市场化、个人主义观念,在经济、政治、国际战略、价值体系等方面系统化,逐步演变成一种西方霸权主义理论,极易使当代青年形成消费至上、享乐至上、消费即社会地位等不合理的消费观念。分析新自由主义思潮的主要观点及其对当代中国青年消费观念的消极作用,用社会主义消费观念引导消费行为,发挥学校、社会和家庭教育的作用,促进当代青年的消费观念沿着良性轨道向前发展。     

当代社会思潮对青年的影响——基于对近十年相关研究的述评

研究社会思潮对青年的影响对于新形势下使青年树立和践行社会主义核心价值观具有重要意义。分析近10年的相关文献后发现,当代中国社会对青年有较大影响的思潮主要有新儒家思潮或文化保守主义思潮、实用主义思潮、自由主义思潮、历史主义思潮、新左派思潮、民族主义思潮、民主社会主义思潮和民粹主义思潮。此外还存在诸如后现代主义思潮、女权主义思潮、反全球化思潮、消费主义思潮等对青年影响力稍小但绝不容忽视的思潮。当代社会思潮深刻地影响了青年的信仰和价值观,导致青年政治意识表达方式变迁,影响青年文化体系的形成和变迁,而在这些过程中青年接受社会思潮影响的方式也在发生着变化。社会思潮影响下的青年思想引领主要有思想绝缘法、对象研究法、武器强化法和能力培养法。现有关于社会思潮对青年影响的研究存在着过分侧重定性研究和消极影响、到底如何影响是"黑箱"、研究成果呈现结构失衡等缺陷,需要针对这些缺陷寻找相应的研究进路。     

新自由主义思潮对大学生的影响

政治化、范式化了的西方新自由主义已不再是一种纯理论和纯学术问题,从本质上看它是资本主义的意识形态和主流价值观。随着我国改革开放的深入发展,新自由主义思潮对大学生社会主义理想信念的确立、社会主义核心价值观的践行等诸多方面产生了消极影响。对此,我们必须运用马克思主义理论来揭示新自由主义的实质及其现实危害,帮助大学生有效抵制新自由主义思潮的侵蚀。     

社会思潮对大学生创业价值观的影响及教育

社会思潮本身对大学生创业价值观的影响具有两面性,创业教育供给与需求的失衡则为不良社会思潮渗透提供了空间,历史虚无主义、新自由主义、个人主义等社会思潮在大学生中传播迅速,潜移默化地对创业观念产生着交叉影响。加强大学生创业价值观教育迫不及待,通过做好顶层设计,促进创业教育与思想政治教育的融合结合;开展公益价值取向的创业教育与实践,提升大学生社会责任感;注重增强文化自觉,重视我国创业文化,从中国传统文化中汲取智慧和养分。     

新自由主义对中国经济改革的影响

新自由主义是为适应国家垄断资本主义向国际垄断资本主义转变要求而涌现出来的理论思潮,该思潮的一个重要层面就是经济思潮,其理论观点和政策主张在我国经济学界乃至改革实践中都产生了相当大的影响。如果任其泛滥,必定会误导我国的改革方向,因而有必要认清新自由主义的潜在危害,并加以警惕和抵制。     

思潮激荡下的中国

改革开放30多年,是中国经济飞速发展的黄金时期,也是各种社会思潮争先涌动的全新时代。学者马立诚认为,除了和马克思主义一脉相承的邓小平理论这一主流意识形态之外,影响较大的思潮还有:左派思潮、新左派思潮、自由主义思潮、民主社会主义思潮、民族主义思潮、新儒家思潮、民粹主义思潮等。     

社会思潮影响下大学生思想政治教育对策分析

随着我国经济的不断发展,思想政治教育的改革也随之而来。新教育改革对教学策略提出了更高的要求,这就要求我们必须要坚持新教育改革的目标与宗旨,坚持新的教育理念,来促进新教育改革的发展。本文通过对社会思潮影响下大学生思想政治教育进行分析,帮助大学生树立正确的世界观、人生观和价值观,化解和抵御不良的社会思潮影响,使他们健康成长。     

新时期高校学生工作的重要地位、目标和任务

新时期高校学生工作面临许多新问题：一是在经济全球化的国际大形势下，青年大学生对西方发达资本主义国家的本质掌握不足，对复杂的国际环境缺乏清醒的认识，抵制各种错误思潮的能力有待提高；二是随着我国改革开放事业不断深入，金钱至上的拜金主义、唯利是图的个人主义等在影响学生；三是当前在校大学生多为独生子女，家庭教育出现了不同类型和特点，特别是发生倾斜或畸形的家庭教育，在青年大学生的心理上打下了深刻烙印，并成为日常生活中的“不良现实表现”，如娇生惯养，严格要求不足；只注重智力开发、特长培养，而忽视整个心灵的塑造，等等，都会影响学生的健康成长和发展；四是青年大学生身心发展的特点和思想品德状况更加接近社会，更加接近“前沿”，这对高校学生工作提出了更高的要求。因此，学生工作者对新时期学生工作的重要地位、目标和任务应有清醒的认识。     

Governmentalities of Volunteering: A Study of Regional Western Australia

The aim of this article is to investigate the governmentalities of volunteering in regional Western Australia. Drawing on interviews with 25 consenting volunteers and their managers, a thematic analysis revealed the experiences and perceptions of the research participants. Two distinct governmentalities exist: one reflecting neo-liberal governmentality and the other reflective of classic liberalism. Whilst this study is limited to regional Western Australia, the results suggest that there are variations in ‘governmentalities’ of volunteering comprising a mix of sometimes contradictory elements. This article also demonstrates the usefulness of governmentality for expanding the understanding of volunteering that has the potential to illuminate vital elements of the volunteer sector, which are being missed. There are many niches where volunteer groups exist or are emerging that are not visible and out of reach of the control techniques commonly used by governments adopting advanced (neo) liberal governmentalities.     

The Correspondence Between Religious Orientation and Socio-Political Liberalism and Conservatism*

Evidence of correspondence in the general population between religious and sociopolitical liberalism and conservatism is as yet inconclusive. This may in part stem from failure to appropriately assess both religious liberalism and socio-political liberalism-conservatism. Upon taking steps to correct these shortcomings, it was found that, for a semi-rural population in west-central Illinois, Christian conservatism was significantly and positively related to socio-political status quo orientation and to conservative political party preference. Conversely, Christian liberalism was found to be significantly and positively related to socio-political change orientation and to liberal political party preference. It was also found that a slight increment in the majority of these relationships occurred for individuals having experienced unfulfilled occupational expectations. This latter finding is interpreted to suggest that the encountering of adverse circumstances, potentially emanating from the social system, operates to increase the correspondence between religious and socio-political liberalism and conservatism.     

The Sociology of Inequality and the Rise of Neo-Inequality

Sociologists’ conventional approaches to understanding inequality and poverty do not adequately capture the causes, extent, and consequences of new forms of inequality that have emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Following a critique of conventional sociological theorizing on inequality and stratification, a synthesis of new sociological/social psychology thinking on inequality, and the use of case study data from Detroit, I explore, describe, and explain how neo-liberal ideology, neo-liberal systems of governance, and neo-liberal policies have created the neo-inequalities that now define our age.     

Liberal Positivistic Epistemology and Research on Women and Politics

This paper reviews conceptual difficulties in studying women and politics and assesses the impact that liberalism and selected research traditions have had on findings. The authors call for a broader epistemological and methodological base and for more openness to new approaches that will facilitate bridging the gap between qualitative and quantitative research.     

Finding the ‘Neo’ in Neoliberalism

‘Liberalism’ and ‘neoliberalism’ have become important shorthand terms in critical work that seeks to incorporate issues of economics into ideological and epochal analyses. Yet, these terms incorporate theoretical histories and refer to historical contexts so vast that they can seem ambiguous and boundaryless. This ambiguity threatens to reduce the analytical usefulness of the terms liberalism and neoliberalism. In this paper, I map the legacies and meanings of the terms liberalism and neoliberalism and diagram the complexity and specificity of what neoliberalism is today. First, I engage a small set of definitions and uses of these terms to try to make sense of liberalism and neoliberalism as historical-theoretical concepts. Second, I group current academic uses of the term neoliberalism into Foucauldian, Marxist and epochalist camps, explaining the limits of each. Third, drawing on a fourth minor strand of work on neoliberalism that opens a path to better defining and using the term, I present my own definition of neoliberalism that distinguishes between a theoretical mode and an articulation mode. I conclude by proposing that what is new in neoliberalism is what I call corporism, the privileging of the form and position of corporations.     

Multiculturalism, “political correctness,” and the politics of identity

American society, in the course of its earlier history, was shaped by the competing visions of nativism and cosmopolitan liberalism. The first defined the American identity in restrictive fashion, and sought to curtail naturalization and immigration. The second, taking an expansive view of American identity, pressed opposing policies. In the period following World War II, new visions of American society have developed in the course of the struggles of people of color to overcome their historical exclusion from the American cultural identity. The latest of these visions are expressed in the movements of multiculturalism and political correctness, which are seen here as facets of a new, and morally assertive, view of American society, revolving around the efforts of previously excluded groups to construct new identities. All of these forms of consciousness—nativism, cosmopolitan liberalism, and multiculturalism—now compete on the American scene in the politics of identity.An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting, Arlington, Virginia, March 1992.     

The passing of the Rex

This paper takes as its point of departure the ethical problematization of debating both sides – having students argue both affirmative and negative on a debate resolution – in order to highlight the role of communication as a cultural technology of liberalism. It argues that debating both sides contributed to the cultural governance of cold war liberalism by separating speech from conviction to cultivate the value of debate as a method of democratic decision-making. The valorization of free and full expression as a pre-requisite for ‘decision by debate’ prepared the ground for dis-articulating debate from cold war liberalism and re-articulating it as a game of freedom that contributes to the moral education of liberal citizens. In so doing, debate becomes a global technology of liberalism creating exceptional subjects by circulating the communicative norms of deliberative democracy.     

Liberalism(s) and the Critical Securitization of Development Debate

The securitization of development theme has developed substantially since the late 1990s within the critical global governance literature. To varying degrees, contributors to this debate argue that a liberal global governance complex links the discourses of security and development in what is described as the ‘security–development nexus’, such that the South is conceived as an international security threat. Whilst the security–development nexus itself has been thoroughly explored, the use of the central concept of liberalism has not. This paper addresses this issue through demarcating and critiquing the three readings of liberalism relevant to the securitization of development debate. Identifying and elucidating the three distinct strands of liberalism enable this paper to identify several weaknesses within the debate and propose a number of amendments. This includes proposing that the liberal discourse of global governance reflects complexity rather than consensus and that the centrality of ‘liberalism’ is at the expense of a robust investigation into how the structural power of global capitalism underpins the security–development nexus.     

Neo-Liberal Trade and Investment Policies,the ITGA and Youth Smoking Rates: A Cross-National Analysis of Developing Nations

Past evidence suggests that economic globalization and the spread of neo-liberal policies are leading to higher adult smoking rates in the developing world, but currently there are no cross-national analyses examining the impact of economic globalization and neo-liberal policies on youth smoking rates in the developing world. This study seeks to fill the gap in the literature regarding youth smoking and neo-liberal policies by conducting the first cross-national panel analysis of youth smoking rates in the developing world. Using data from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS), the World Bank, Freedom House, and United Nations for over 90 nations, this study expands the use of dependency theory to test for the negative externalities of neo-liberal trade and investment policies on health. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between increasing international trade, multinational corporate penetration, and membership in the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) on youth smoking rates in developing nations using first difference scores. The results show support for the hypothesis that increasing international trade dependency and membership in the ITGA are correlated with increasing youth smoking rates in the developing world.     

Status Discrepancy,Political Behavior,and Ethno-Religious Factionalism of Immigrants

Abstract

The kind and direction of reactions of status discrepant persons to their social position are conditioned by their self-perception which reflects the effects of background factors prior to the changes in their social standing. The greater the awareness of status discrepancy the greater the probability that status discrepant persons will intensify their social activities. Depending upon their self-perception and prospects for the realization of their aspirations, status discrepant persons may become attracted to either political liberalism or political conservativism. The negative status discrepancy which has resulted under the pressure of forces outside the control of status discrepant persons will most probably lead to political conservativism. If status discrepancy is accompanied by status ambiguity and role confusion of a significant number of members of a group anomic factionalism may ensue.