Selection for Professional Training: The English and the American Experience

Summary Of the many issues arising from the Vyas case in England andthe Bakke case in the United States those of positive discrimination,selection on racial grounds, the nature and purpose of professionaltraining and the nature of fairness in selection for such training,are considered.     

The Multicultural Welfare State: International Experience and North American Narratives

Contemporary debates are increasingly pessimistic about the impact of ethnic diversity on support for the welfare state. A growing number of analysts argue that greater ethnic diversity in Western democracies is weakening public support for redistribution, and that this underlying tension is exacerbated by the adoption of robust multiculturalism policies. The purpose of this essay is to summarize early findings from several studies that bear on the questions at the heart of such debates. These studies analyse the implications of immigration and multiculturalism policies for the welfare state across OECD countries, and also focus more closely on the experience of two distinctively multicultural countries, the United States and Canada. The evidence points to more complex relationships than often assumed. OECD countries with large foreign‐born populations have not had more difficulty in sustaining their welfare states than other countries. The extent of change does seem to matter, however, as countries in which immigrant communities grew rapidly between 1970 and the late 1990s did experience lower rates of growth in social spending. But despite the warnings of some critics, robust multiculturalism policies do not systematically exacerbate this tension. Moreover, the United States and Canada reflect different patterns. In the US racial diversity does weaken support for redistribution; but Canadian experience suggests that immigration, multiculturalism policies and redistribution can represent a stable political equilibrium. These contrasting narratives from North America stand as a warning against premature conclusions based on the US experience alone. There is no inevitability at work, and policy choices do seem to matter.     

社会学与南方——拉丁美洲的经验

自20世纪中叶以来,拉丁美洲的社会学经历了重大的变革.然而,最新的观点却提到了迄今人们所能想到的更为极端的变化之一:不再认为这个区域"对立于"美国帝国,而认为它属于一个更大的区域,即作为南美洲为全球所知.在这个转变中,起决定性作用的是对时间、空间、地域、历史、认识以及社会主体,还有其他重要范畴的重新界定.一个新视域已经向社会科学开放,这似乎表明,创造性的新源泉(new sources for creativity)已经开始显现.     

美国知识产权制度的历史发展

知识产权及其保护在世界经济发展中的作用日益凸显。美国的知识产权保护制度的发展经历了一个由不重视到重视的过程 ,在知识产权保护方面突出制度建设并加大执法力度。发展中国家加强知识产权保护亟待解决的问题 ,就是进一步完善保护体制 ,增强保护意识 ,加快培养专业人才。     

疏解首都科技创新功能可行吗？--韩国的经验及其对北京的启示

自京津冀协同发展战略提出以来,各方关注焦点始终集中在疏解北京非首都核心功能方面。那么北京核心功能是否也能够被部分疏解？根据韩国首都圈治理经验,科技创新功能可以通过建设“创新城市”等措施向外疏解,从而实现缓解首都圈压力和推动地方经济发展的作用。据此,针对北京未来发展建设提出三点建议：找准特色,张弛有度;政府引导,整体规划;集中疏解,激发潜力。     

Agency Decentralization: Planning and Assessment

Summary Criteria are examined for the location of area offices in SocialServices Departments, drawing on the monitored experience ofdealing with voluntary callers to an area office in the ProbationService. Changes were observed in numbers of voluntary callersand the kinds of problems presented, together with developmentsin inter-agency relationships. The caller's subjective feelingsregarding the accessibility of the agency were found to be importantdeterminants of agency use. Implications are drawn out for planningdecisions in local authorities     

Storytelling as a Way to Work Through Intractable Conflicts: The German-Jewish Experience and Its Relevance to the Palestinian-Israeli Context

The storytelling method can be used to work through intractable conflicts. Working-through enables people who have suffered traumatic social experiences to learn to live with these painful events while developing an ability to listen to the pain of the "other." The storytelling approach focuses on the way personal storytelling facilitates the working-through processes in intractable conflicts. The storytelling approach was used in To Reflect and Trust (TRT), a dialogue group that began in 1992 and involved descendants of Nazi perpetrators and Jewish descendants of Holocaust survivors. The storytelling method was applied to a year-long Jewish-Palestinian student workshop held at Ben Gurion University in 2000–2001.     

Reflexivity, its Meanings and Relevance for Social Work: A Critical Review of the Literature

The concept of ‘reflexivity’ has become increasinglysignificant in social work literature in relation to socialwork education, theory and practice. However, our reading ofthe literature indicates that there is a lack of clarity aboutthe concept in terms of who is being exhorted to be ‘reflexive’,when and how. This article addresses these questions througha critical review of social work literature since the 1990sthat discusses the concept of ‘reflexivity’. Giventhat many authors seem to use the concepts of ‘reflexivity’and ‘(critical) reflection’ interchangeably, wealso apply this analysis to ‘reflection’ and ‘criticalreflection’. This article raises important questions abouthow the concepts of ‘reflexivity’, ‘criticalreflection’ and ‘reflectivity’ are definedand the different consequences such definitions might have forsocial work education, theory and practice.     

Disney World as Structure and Symbol: Re-Creation of the American Experience

It has been said that the Disney theme parks are the cities America wishes it had; immune to death and taxes, clean, orderly, crime-free family style environments of optimism and nostalgia, politically independent, with the advantages but few of the vices of real cities. Treatments of the amusement park in political terms, such as Michael Harrington's Atlantic article, “To the disney Station,” while invariably critical, indicate the important position these places have attained as complex institutions in themselves—living commentaries on society at Large, as well as important standard-setters for new social, political and economic philosophy for planning and control in all sectors of national life. In this way, Disney's worlds—and parks built under their influence—have come to be viewed as societies in miniature, reliable images of work, leisure, human relations and politics in the larger world outside. Here anthropologist David Johnson uses morphology as the key to discerning the meanings of these prototype parks for basic cultural values in many aspects, including work, class, economic order, technology, individualism, history, and cross-cultural adventure. In fact, these Disney versions have now themselves become a special mode of first-hand experience in the repertoire of the great national shared experience.     

统治风险与地方分权——关于中国国家治理的三种理论及其比较

在研究中国国家治理时,同时考虑中央政府关心的效率目标和政权稳定目标的理论有三种,即：周黎安提出的“行政发包制”模型,曹正汉等提出的“中央治官、地方治民”模型以及周雪光提出的“帝国的治理逻辑”。然而,这三种理论关于中央政府的效率目标和政权稳定目标能否兼容存在着明显分歧;此外,这三种理论在分析层面上也存在差别。导致分歧和差别的原因有两个：一个是关于兵民能否分治,三种理论隐含着不同的假定;另一个是关于中央政府着重防范的统治风险的来源,是来自地方分权本身（如地方政府的“各自为政”、“偏离”、“失控”等行为）,还是来自被统治的民众（如民众可能的抗议、反对或对抗等行为）,三种理论持有不同的观点。     

Stillbirth: The Mother's Experience and Implications for Improving Care

ABSTRACT

More children die as a result of stillbirth than all other causes of infant deaths combined (Ananth, Shiliang, Kinzler, and Kramer, 2005; Goldenberg, Kirby, and Culhane, 2004; Froen, 2005; National Institute of Health, 2004); yet, mothers experiencing stillbirth are often left without support afterwards (Kubler-Ross, 2004; Fahey-McCarthy, 2003; Fletcher 2002; Saddler, 1987; DeFrain, 1986; Kirkley-Best & Kellner, 1982). Despite social work's growing involvement in care at the end of life, parents of stillborn children have not experienced consistent, relevant, and competent professional care in coping with the tragedy of death. Forty-seven women between the ages of 19 and 51 were recruited through nonprofit agencies that provide bereavement care to grieving families. Results of this qualitative study suggest that stillbirth is emotionally complex with long-lasting symptoms of grief and significant struggles to find meaning. The findings also support the need for perceived psychosocial and spiritual support from professional caregivers, family, and friends. The women's own experiences argue for comprehensive approaches to support the grief and loss of stillbirth, and for the importance of social work involvement in both immediate and longer term interventions.     

Easy Sport: Research and Relevance

This paper is an analysis of the Final Report of the Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling. After discussing the origins and political environment of the Commission, the paper focuses on the relationship between the Commission's recommendations and the results of its own research. The author argues that the research was used only where it fitted the Commission's views and was ignored where it did not. The paper concludes with a discussion of the structural factors that led to this outcome.
Criticizing the banal and unsubstantiated policy views of public commissions is easy sport… I do so only to make a simple point: public commissions, on the record, have either made no use of social science… made some use but in ways irrelevant to its policy conclusions…, or made use of relevant but unconvincing research. (Wilson, 1978)     

美国电子政务立法及启示

20世纪80年代以来,美国以信息立法为主要内容、信息安全立法为重点、电子政务基础设施建设立法为基础、电子商务和知识产权保护法立法为补充,制定了一系列电子政务相关的法律法规,为美国电子政务发展创造了良好的法律环境。借鉴美国的经验,中国应积极营造电子政务发展的法律环境,特别是科学构建中国电子政务立法主体框架,加快电子政府工作创新。     

论马克思主义的创造性转换

文章探讨发展出一种民主的马克思主义的可能性。民主在此意味着“由人民做主”,即人民真正地参与影响其生活的社会—政治—经济—文化的决策。这可能采取任何可能形式的代议制民主或者直选式民主。民主也意味着对于公民自由——信仰自由、言论自由、集会自由、私人权利以及选举自由的保护。民主涉及到过程,但它也是一种生活方式——在生活的每个领域中所实践的生活方式。     

Betrayal of Trust: A Feminist Analysis of Power Relationships in Incest Abuse and its Relevance for Social Work Practice

Correspondence to Dr Lena Dominelli, Department of Applied Social Studies, The University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL. Summary Feminist analyses of incest have revealed that this is a highlyprevalent form of sexual abuse which is perpetrated primarilyby male assailants against young girls. Feminists have focusedon incest as the expression of unequal power relations withinthe family, and demonstrated that it is more than the genitalpenetration of a young girl by her father or step-father. Thispaper examines incest from a feminist perspective and highlightsthe significance for the incest victim/survivor of the abuseof power taking place within intimate ‘family’ relationships.This abuse of power cannot be seen as anything other than abetrayal of trust which undermines the young girl's view ofherself as a sexual being and reinforces her feelings of powerlessnessand subordination. These feelings are very difficult to overcomeeven after disclosure, though dealing with them provides a cornerstonefor feminist work with incest victims/survivors. Moreover, workfeminists have already undertaken in this area holds significantlessons for practitioners wishing to improve their practicewith those experiencing incest abuse.     

Decentralization of decision making: the case of payment policies for children's daycare

To bring about equality, the Nordic welfare states have provided a broad range of services with as homogenous eligibility criteria as possible. This homogeneity of social benefits has been obtained by centralized decision making and a high degree of statutory regulation. Recent trends in all welfare states veer towards greater local independence and decentralization. This article examines how the decentralization of decision making in Finland has affected the realization of basic welfare state principles. The specific aspect from which the topic is examined are user fee policies for children's daycare. The analysis gives a rather inconsistent picture of possible explanations for the differences between daycare payment policies. Municipal decision making is influenced by economic rather than political or structural factors. However, logical economic explanations are found only in large municipalities. This study highlights that decentralization of decision making has put families in very different economic positions in different municipalities - municipal traps are emerging. The relationship between welfare services and income redistribution has become ever more complicated as decision-making powers have been localized. A family may, for example, be paying the highest daycare fees but at the same time be entitled to social assistance.