End of Life,Chronic Illness,and Trans-Identities

In this study, the experiences and needs of a sample of 1,963 current, global, English-speaking, transgender-identified adults responding to the Transgender MetLife Survey (TMLS) as related to a number of later-life and end-of-life (EOL) preparations and concerns were examined. EOL concerns are integrated with concerns and challenges around chronic illness and disability. Overall, this population was significantly ill-prepared for the major legalities and events that occur in the later to EOL time periods. The population was found to harbor significant fears around the future. Drawing on the author's decades of survey research in transgender aging and case data along with current scientific and online literature, illustrative quotations and case examples are provided.     

衰痛·哀恸·孤独:欧阳修晚年的生命底色

在政治家、经学家、史学家、文坛宗主等表象背后,与一般宋人笔记和当今文学史所显示的大相径庭,欧阳修晚年人生的底色其实是衰痛、哀恸与孤独.他外在的事功显赫,文学的成就辉煌,但他肉身的早衰病痛、面对小儿女相继死亡的精神哀恸,以及敏锐心灵所体会的生命孤独,种种忧伤缺憾却并不因此而得以抚平.论文拟藉由欧阳修诗文、书简、表状中并不完整的自我言说,对其迥异于表面风光的生命底色作深入幽微的掘发与阐释.     

家务贡献补偿:适用冲突与制度反思

家务贡献补偿制度,是我国2001年《婚姻法》修正案新增加的制度。该制度在司法实践中,表现出观念冲突、价值冲突和适用冲突。上述冲突导致家务贡献补偿制度的低效与悬置,无力救济离婚当事人的权益和婚姻当事人的利益。为确保家务贡献补偿制度的适用与科学,需对该制度进行解构与反思,以进一步扩大家务贡献补偿制度的适用范围,明确家务贡献补偿制度的计算方法,强化家务贡献补偿制度的实践原则,提升家务贡献补偿制度的救济力度,明晰家务贡献补偿制度的社会性别基调,促进社会性别平等与婚姻家庭的稳定与和谐。     

Unexpected Caregiving in Later Life: Illuminating the Narratives of Resilience of Grandmothers and Relative Caregivers through Photovoice Methodology

ABSTRACT

This research study implements photovoice methodology with unexpected caregivers to illuminate the lived experiences of female grandparents and relative caregivers who are raising young children in the later stages of their life. As they enter older adulthood, grandmothers are increasingly finding themselves taking care of their children’s children for various reasons, including, but not limited to, their adult child’s incarceration, mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, or child abuse or neglect. Informed by various feminist theoretical lenses, we use photovoice methodology to highlight the narratives of resilience and explore the ways in which grandmothers re-conceptualize their roles and identity as an unexpected caregiver and the sources of strength and resilience that inform the ways in which they navigate the various circumstances in their lives.     

知识、策略及权力关系再生产对鲁西南某景区开发引起的社会冲突的分析

对中国农村社会冲突的研究以实证研究居多。这些研究多集中在以下几个方面:一是农村社区内的人际关系;二是村庄与乡镇间的冲突;三是干群冲突;四是村庄“两委”(村民委员会和党支委)间的冲突;五是乡规民约与国家法律的冲突。此外,也有少数学者研究农村社会的文化冲突。但上述研究侧重于冲突的发展及冲突的解决,对冲突产生的原因以及冲突过程所隐含的权力关系均不够关注。张静和孙立平等人突破传统的研究视角,从国家与社会关系的角度重新审视了农村的社区冲突。张静(2000,2002)认为,“国家政权建设”在中国没有完成,因此,既没有构成强大的约束…     

Selection, optimization, and compensation: strategies to maintain, maximize, and generate resources in later life in the face of chronic illnesses

This qualitative study of 45 older adults examines how they allocate their resources in the face of chronic health conditions. Participants were recruited from 2 senior centers and interviewed about their repertoire of activities, any changes in those activities in later life, and meanings they ascribed to those changes. The Selection, Optimization, and Compensation model guided our analysis and interpretation of participants' responses. The findings demonstrate the complexity of participants' responses to age-related changes, particularly in how they adapted and negotiated both their perception and life goals when faced with changing social landscapes. We discuss some implications and nuances of our findings.     

Life satisfaction in the transition from care to adulthood: the contribution of readiness to leave care and social support

This research explores whether readiness to leave care mediates the association between social support – from peers, staff and biological parents – on the verge of leaving care and life satisfaction a year after among young people ageing out of care in Israel. The results represent two waves of a longitudinal study. Two hundred seventy‐two adolescents from residential settings in Israel completed a self‐administered questionnaire shortly before they left care, and one year later, 234 of them were interviewed to assess their life satisfaction. Readiness to leave care was found to mediate the relationship between most social support measurements and life satisfaction. At the same time, the findings also suggest that this mediating effect varies for different types of support and has a lesser amount of influence for profound emotional support than other types of support. These findings highlight the need to include both the preparation to leave care and the reinforcement of emotional support available to young people who aged out of care, before and throughout the transition from care to adulthood.     

Development of Empathy in Girls During the Second Year of Life: Associations with Parenting, Attachment, and Temperament

The development, antecedents, and concomitants of empathic concern in the second year of life were examined. Associations with parental sensitivity, children's fearfulness and attachment security were investigated. At 16 and at 22 months, 125 firstborn girls from middle‐class families were observed in their homes and in the laboratory. Empathic concern was assessed from the girls’ responses to simulated distress in their mothers and in an unfamiliar person. Temperamental fearfulness was observed when they were confronted with potentially scary items. Attachment security was assessed with the Strange Situation procedure, and parental sensitivity was measured in problem‐solving situations both at home and in the lab. From 16 to 22 months, empathic concern for the mother's distress increased, whereas empathy for the stranger decreased. A more fearful temperament and less attachment security predicted less empathic concern for the stranger's distress. Antecedent and concurrent measures of parenting showed disappointingly weak associations with empathic concern. Empathy for strangers in distress requires the regulation of negative emotions for which fearful and insecurely attached girls seem to be less well equipped.     

资本下乡与山林流转——来自湖北S镇的经验

伴随着林权改革的进一步深化,当前,牟利性资本正在大规模地进入山林开发领域,这正迎合了乡镇政府招商引资的需要,由此形成了山林流转的初始动力。在流转过程中,资本充分利用了乡村社会中的非正式资源和正式资源,从而使得流转的效率大为提高。虽然,从表面上看,流转是基于农户的自愿原则,但深入的实证研究可以发现,流转的发生大多是被动员、被操纵的结果,因而造成了程序正义与实质不平等的矛盾。由于基层社会的权力关系对权利形态的塑造,产权建设的孤军深入无法保障农户的实质利益。从某种意义上说,农户土地收益的增加不仅要有新的“权利束”的出现,同时关键还在于这种新的产权合约与其所嵌入于其中的政治环境之间能够相互协调。     

Trends in long‐term sickness absence in Sweden 1992–2008: the role of economic conditions,legislation, demography,work environment and alcohol consumption

Lidwall U, Marklund S. Trends in long‐term sickness absence in Sweden 1992–2008: the role of economic conditions, legislation, demography, work environment and alcohol consumption Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 167©179 © 2010 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. In Sweden, absence from work because of illness or injury has fluctuated considerably over time. This study aimed to identify potentially important factors behind variations in long‐term sickness absence. Aggregated data were used to assess factors correlated with the number of ongoing cases of sickness absence lasting more than 59 days. Trends were analysed using statistics from national social insurance records, labour force surveys and other official statistics. Although specific changes in the degree of generosity in the sickness insurance scheme were important in some cases, the results showed no consistent associations for the study period 1992–2008. Men were generally more sensitive to macroeconomic factors than women. Furthermore, compared with earlier findings, workforce composition had less impact on variations in long‐term sickness absence. Notably, public health indicators such as alcohol sales and working conditions were clearly related to long‐term sick leave during the period under investigation.     

Health and multidimensional disability at older age in South Korea: Applying the International Classification of Functioning,Disability and Health (ICF) Framework11

This study examined whether health conditions and service-related environmental factors (i.e. accessibility and infrastructure) affected multidimensional disability (i.e. body function, activity and participation), considering service-related environmental factors as moderators. The sample included 10,451 Korean adults aged 65 and older. The main findings revealed that the number of chronic illnesses negatively influenced multidimensional disability. Better accessibility positively affected all three disability dimensions, whereas infrastructure had different associations with each dimension. Additionally, only infrastructure moderated the associations between chronic illnesses and activity capacity and chronic illnesses and participation frequency. Theoretical, practical and policy implications are discussed.     

生命之迷与社会超越性：中国西南景颇人不可言说的痛、想象与口舌鬼

本文讨论了21世纪以来影响中国西南景颇人生活和社区走向的几个事件。这几个事件都有自身的逻辑,是主体选择和社会整合的结果,但在并置个体生命的起伏恩怨和变幻的社会历史后可以发现,这些事件呈现出无名和无关联性。这种“无”跳脱了自我和逻辑,逸出了结构和规律,成为生命的迷茫与贪欢以及社区的焦虑与新方向。对“无”的处理方式体现出社会超越性和生命之迷,凸显于旧结构将消未消、新结构将生未生之际,人在其中悬置伦理,可能迈向社会超越性,脱离集体表象控制,从而创造全新的社会事实,也可能陷入茫然、无所适从而又无所不用其极的生命之迷中。     

Aiming to keep poor Mexican families at the breadline (but no higher): The effects of minimum wage,tax, and social policy changes between 1994 and 2012

Welfare policy in Mexico has been transformed in recent decades. During the years of the import‐substitution industrialization economic strategy and the hegemonic party political regime, social policy was based on social insurance programs of limited coverage to urban formal sector workers and their families. In the mid‐1990s, an unprecedented expansion of social protection through social assistance programs was triggered, along with social insurance reform. This article assesses the effects at the household level of social policy changes, in combination with changes in taxes and the minimum wage, which also impact the welfare of the population. The research applies “model families” to establish effects of social, tax, and minimum wage policy changes across population groups, and their combined potential to combat poverty. Findings show that although taxation and social policy changes increased redistribution towards poor families, their capacity to lift and keep them above poverty thresholds was limited by the drop in the real value of the minimum wage and by strict targeting mechanisms, which exclude families that do not meet eligibility criteria but still fall below poverty lines. Social policy expansion merely subsidized the drop in real minimum wage, and poor families at best remained at similar income levels. Hence, the logic of the design of welfare policy changes can be characterized as aiming to keep poor families on the breadline, but no higher.     

Imperfect competition,border protection and consumer boycott: The future of the dairy industry in Israel

Recent increases in prices of dairy products in Israel led to consumer unrest and boycotts against dairy producers during the summer of 2011. The Israeli dairy industry is highly distorted with production quotas and administered prices for raw milk, tariff rate quotas and an oligopoly in dairy processing. Since the issue of self-sufficiency and food security is at the top of Israel's national priorities, the future of the dairy industry is generating heated debate. Thus, we use a general equilibrium model to estimate the effects associated with particular alternative policies actually discussed to liberalize the Israeli dairy industry.     

Hard to reach and easy to ignore: the drinking careers of young people not in education,employment or training

Young people's drinking in the UK remains a matter of medical, social, media and political concern. The notion of transition and drinking styles in the move from childhood to adulthood and from education to employment has been central to understanding young people's drinking behaviour, but little is known about how the drinking patterns of those not in education or employment, both men and women, develop over time. This paper reports on research which aimed to examine the current drinking habits and drinking careers of young people not in education employment and training who are traditionally described as hard to reach. In‐depth qualitative interviews were undertaken with 23 young people: 15 women and 8 men aged between 14 and 23. The findings are presented with respect to three stages of drinking: starting, continuing or increasing, and decreasing or stopping. The conclusions indicate that for the majority of these young people, alcohol is a significant factor in their lives and that peers, gender, time and place combine to structure both their current alcohol use and drinking career. The paper argues that an understanding of young people's drinking career development and current alcohol use will help target effective social work and multi‐agency intervention.     

Vulnerable children's rights to participation,protection, and provision: The process of defining the problem in Swedish child and family welfare

This study addresses the relationship between children's participation and the protection and provision offered to them by social services in Sweden. It applies a theoretical framework for analysing child welfare that is anchored in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. How child participation may affect child protection and provision is examined empirically using case documentation from 2 municipalities. The main finding is that when children are not given voice or opportunity to influence the framing of what “the problem” is, the design of protection and care tends to be poorly matched to the actual problems documented in the child investigation and vice versa; when children can influence framing, this is associated with well‐matched protection and care. This suggests that traditional child welfare ethos, to the effect that protection should be of such overriding concern that children even should be protected from participation, is misguided. The study further illustrates the intrinsic problems with the family orientation of Swedish social services and its reliance on partnership with parents, which makes it difficult to live up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Incorporating child participation into existing service models can transform Swedish social services to an augmented child‐focused system that by ensuring participation also promotes protection and provision.     

返回历史视野，重塑社会学的想象力:中国近世变迁及经史研究的新传统

从康有为到王国维和陈寅恪,中国现代思想变局的两次浪潮,确立了经史研究的新传统。康有为对《春秋》三世说的重解,旨在通过现代变革重塑大同理想,通过确立新的宗教教化化育民情,从而实现从据乱世到升平世的过渡。王国维藉社会科学之综合演绎方法,以《殷周制度论》等著作“以史治经”,确立了周代立制之源及成王周公所以治天下之意,从制度、民情乃至思想精神入手,重塑中国文明之本源、制度精神之普世价值。陈寅恪所治“不古不今之学”,则从中古史出发,运用历史研究的“总汇贯通之法”,考证中古之思想和风俗流变,构建出一部胡汉杂糅、各教混融、民族迁徙与文化融合的历史场景。     

It Takes Two to Fight in School,Too: A Social Relations Model of the Psychometric Properties and Relative Variance of Dyadic Aggression and Victimization in Middle School

Aggressive behavior has been well studied in terms of interindividual differences among aggressors and victims, but has been understudied, especially within naturalistic contexts, in terms of aggressor–victim relationships. The social relations model (SRM) is a powerful conceptual and analytic tool for studying dyadic phenomena, and we describe the use of multivariate SRM to study aggression. Boys and girls (N = 210) in middle schools (sixth and seventh grades) completed a newly created dyadic aggression and victimization inventory (DAVI). Results support the reliability and validity of the DAVI in assessing inter‐individual and inter‐dyadic differences in aggression and victimization. Occurrences of aggression were accounted for primarily by inter‐dyadic variability, indicating the importance of considering aggressor–victim relationships. We discuss the implications of this relationship focus for future research and intervention efforts.     

Organizational Form as a Mechanism to Involve Staff,Public and Users in Public Services: A Study of the Governance of NHS Foundation Trusts

In addition to introducing markets and market‐like structures into public services, New Labour wished to promote the involvement of users and the public in decision‐making in other ways than as individual consumers. One way was to involve the public in the governance of organizations. This could be done by removing public services from state control, and transferring them to mutual ownership; or by increasing public involvement in the governance of public bodies. NHS foundation trusts (FTs) were presented as mutuals. Our study shows FTs are not mutuals, as they continue to be owned by the state. Moreover, staff of FTs were generally not engaging with the new governance structures. In general, there was mixed experience of the new structures enabling governors to increase accountability of the hospitals to the public. On the other hand, having a membership did enhance the legitimacy of FTs, as opposed to other NHS organizations. The findings of the study are of current interest as the coalition government is continuing with the policy of FTs, and also encouraging mutuals and other forms of public involvement.     

利益威胁、政府工作满意度与市民对进城农民的接纳意愿——基于CSS2011数据的实证分析

本文讨论了当代中国城市本地人排斥进城农民这一问题的发生机制。通过剖析经典利益威胁假说，依托冲突理论以及中国的现实情境，本研究考察了市民与政府关系的演化及其对排斥进城农民的影响。通过对“2011年中国社会状况综合调查”数据的分析，本研究获得以下发现：（1）本地市民对进城农民的排斥部分源于其当前生活境遇的恶化，但更主要的原因是过去的利益受损经历以及对未来社会地位变化的悲观预期；（2）本地市民对政府供给公共服务的不满，会降低其对进城农民的接纳意愿；（3）在本地市民中，遭受利益损失的“失意者”对进城农民的排斥态度显著受到其对政府行政能力不满以及政府解决社会不平等问题低效的影响。本研究证实了市民对进城农民的排斥意愿中存在“替罪羊”机制。