Class, Attitudes and the Welfare State: Sweden in Comparative Perspective

One of the most important arenas for contemporary class politics is the welfare state. In this article, attitudes towards welfare policies among different classes in Sweden are compared with other Western countries and over time. In the first part of the article, attitudes towards state intervention among different classes are compared across four Western countries: Sweden, Germany, Britain and the USA. The data come from the 1996 survey on “The Role of Government” conducted within the International Social Survey Programme. In the second part of the article, more detailed national data sets are used in order to track developments within Sweden from the early 1980s until 2002. Attitudes towards welfare spending, financing of welfare policies and service delivery are used to track developments of class differences in attitudes over time. It is concluded (a) that class differences are particularly large in Sweden, and (b) that changes over time indicate stability in overall class differences, combined with changes in attitudes among non‐manual employees. The implications of the results for recent arguments about the restructuring of class relations and the impact of welfare policies on stratification are discussed.     

Tackling Inequalities in Physical Health: A New Objective for Social Work

Correspondence to Eileen McLeod, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. Summary We argue that tackling the impact of social inequality on physicalhealth should become a central objective of social work andintrinsic to the development of anti-oppressive practice. Thisis on three grounds. First, the suffering embodied in inequalityin physical health should be a cause of concern to social workers,as a pervasive social problem. Secondly, awareness of socialwork's complicity in contributing to such a problem, throughits historical role in implementing state policies, needs toinform assessment of social work outcomes. Nevertheless, thirdly,social work—not confined to health care settings—whichredresses social disadvantage and tackles its consequences forphysical well-being can contribute to greater equity in health.Indicative examples of such practice are provided in relationto health maintenance, living with ill health and terminal illness.Finally, consideration is given to the current wider politicalcontext in which social work addressing health inequalitiesis embedded and to the need for complementary organizational,professional and political initiatives to buttress its development.     

Anti-Semitic Attitudes in Europe: A Comparative Perspective

The article uses available survey data to depict the depth and spread of anti-Semitic attitudes across Europe. The main assumption is that European anti-Semitism, both currently and historically, is closely tied to issues and crises of national self-identification; for this reason, social identity theory is employed to study the varying configurations of anti-Semitic prejudice. In most European countries, Jews are a small and socially integrated minority. Attitudes toward them are determined less by concrete experiences of cultural differences, or conflicts over scarce resources, but rather by a perceived threat to the national self-image. This leads to an accentuation of the pertinent prejudices that blame Jews to be responsible for that threat. This perspective brings to light considerable differences between Eastern and Western Europe and the continuing influence of national traditions.     

Gender in/and/of Health Inequalities

The relationship between gender and health inequalities is potentially complicated, raising questions for health and social research, practice and policy. In this paper, I use two population health case studies – obesity and smoking – to explore the interplay between gender and socioeconomic position. The cases show that, on its own, neither dimension of inequality affords a comprehensive picture of these significant risks to public health. Furthermore, historical change in the socioeconomic and gendered distribution of these health risks suggests that gender is best considered as a dynamic and layered form of differentiation, rather than as a simple or stable dichotomy. A more nuanced approach to the analysis of gender and health has the potential to generate both more fruitful research and more effective health and social policy.     

Bilingual Education Programs: A Cross-National Perspective

We examine alternative forms of bilingual education that have significant implications for intergroup relationships and the reduction of prejudice in two different national settings: Canada and the United States. The Canadian programs are intended for English-speaking students from the culturally dominant group, whereas the U.S. programs we discuss are intended for language minority and language majority students. Both aim to promote proficiency in English and another language. These programs provide many of the conditions that are argued to be essential for the reduction of prejudice and discrimination. They also provide students with the communication skills and cultural awareness that facilitates intergroup contact. The history and current structure of these programs along with salient educational practices are reviewed, and research relevant to changes in intergroup behavior and attitudes is discussed.     

遵从抑或濡染？班级同伴网络视角下的心理健康研究

本文超越了既有研究的个体网络视角,通过使用中国教育追踪调查（CEPS）的两期数据,考察班级同伴网络对学生心理健康的影响及其条件机制。本研究有如下发现：首先,在中国行政班级制度下,班级整体心理健康水平（社会遵从效应）和快乐同伴比例（快乐同伴效应）能够对学生的心理健康产生显著的正向影响,抑郁同伴比例与学生的心理健康呈显著负相关（抑郁同伴效应）;其次,学生更倾向于受到与自己心理健康观念和行为类似的同伴的影响,对于班级相对心理健康状况较差、中等、较好的学生而言,抑郁同伴效应、社会遵从效应和快乐同伴效应分别发挥显著的主导作用;最后,班级同伴网络对集体融入、亲子交流状况不同的学生的心理健康具有差异化的影响,随着集体融入和亲子交流的提高,抑郁同伴效应逐渐减弱,而社会遵从效应和快乐同伴效应逐渐增强。     

Health care in post-crisis South Europe: Inequalities in access and reform trajectories

The European debt crisis stimulated debate about the future of national health systems. The objective of this article is to contribute to this debate by examining any changes in the scope and content of universal coverage and underlying pattern of solidarity in South Europe. Access to health care provides the vantage point for our analysis. Inequalities in access are scrutinized along a number of dimensions by using data from various sources. Our main conclusions clearly show that the public health care systems in Italy and, particularly, in Spain weathered the crisis pretty well and retained their universalistic features. Nonetheless, rising supplemental private coverage (of an “occupational-mutualist” type) adversely impacts access, but it is unclear how this will unfold in the near future. Tackling fragmentation through expansion and equalization of coverage, though for a comparatively “lean” basket of provisions, has been the focus of reforms in Portugal and Greece. This keeps private spending high and sustains inequalities, whereas any prospects for a stronger variant of universalism remain an open question.     

Inequalities of Gender and Health 1857–1985: A Long‐run Perspective from the Melbourne Lying‐In Hospital Birth Cohort

This paper reviews the Australian historical record in health and gender inequalities since the mid nineteenth century through to the end of the twentieth century, using survival data from an historical cohort of impoverished people born in the Melbourne Lying‐In Hospital between 1857 and 1900. This data reveals the long shadow cast by disadvantage in early life and the critical importance of secure households in supporting infancy and childhood. Above all, the income security and support of mothers, was critical to survival of infants and children, and those households trapped in the casual economy, remained the most vulnerable to premature death. Only the improvements in labour force regulation, government employment and trade education after World War II, broke the cycle of poverty that had persisted in Australia since the earliest days of European settlement.     

Quasi-markets in British Health Policy: A Longue Durée Perspective

Quasi‐markets in health care are generally associated with the period 1991–7 in the later years of office of the British Conservative Party. This paper aims to place such claims in a wider framework by exploring definitions of and conditions of success for quasi‐markets over a longer timescale, beginning in the 1930s and ending with the current New Labour government. It suggests a typology of quasi‐markets based on hard versus soft, direct versus indirect and internal versus external forms. It applies these categories and the conditions for success for quasi‐markets to seven historical periods. Both the typologies and the conditions for success of quasi‐markets varied over time, defying a simple linear development, suggesting a more nuanced historical narrative than simple continuity or discontinuity accounts of recent developments provide. Covering such a large topic over a long sweep of time, with the absence of clear evidence for much of the period, necessarily means that verdicts tend to be impressionistic. However, even at this level, the tentative conclusions provide important contextual elements in the debate on quasi‐markets.     

从心理健康教育角度浅谈独立学院思想政治教育工作创新

该文围绕独立学院思政教育工作展开探析,站在心理健康教育角度分析探讨思政教育创新问题,从心理健康与思政教育的结合、活动的开展以及心理测评的运用等多个方面阐述具体的创新策略,力求打造高品质心理健康与思政教育,推动二者有机融合,促进学生身心健康及正确思想三观的塑造.     

心理健康教育视域下高校劳动教育开展路径研究

在新课标中,明确要求教师在教学的过程中要注意训练学生的劳动能力,以帮助学生形成较好的劳动习惯,最后帮助学生树立正确的社会价值观。劳动教育是促进学生全面发展的重要活动,能够帮助学生养成良好的劳动习惯。另外,加强对学生劳动教育不仅能够提升学生的实践能力,而且还能够对学生的心理健康教育发挥积极的作用。因此,该文对心理健康教育视域下高校劳动教育开展路径进行研究,以期能够为这一方面的工作提供更多的依据。     

工人、资本与国家:理解工人阶级研究的关系视角

阶级实体和概念都是关系性的,工人阶级的状况和性质需要从工人、国家、资本三方关系的形成与变化入手进行考察。在资本主义国家中,国家在三方关系中占据中心位置,对劳资关系和工人阶级具有塑造能力,国家并非只会选择做优势阶级的刻板代言人;劳资矛盾是否激化以及工人阶级成为秩序合作者还是激进行动者,与国家如何定位和处理劳资关系有关。社会学的阶级分析在当代还有没有潜力很大程度上也取决于国家在劳资问题上的角色与措施,可能缓解工人对国家和资本的对抗性、促使工人转变成秩序的合作者,也可能激发工人的对抗意识。如果是前者,阶级分析会因劳资对抗问题的缓解而不再具有重大的政治和社会意义;如果是后者,阶级分析就不仅是恰当的理论分析工具,还具有重大的实践内涵。上述视角可能也适用于研究社会主义国家的工人问题。     

Social Policies for the Elderly in the Republic of Korea and Japan: A Comparative Perspective*

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) and Japan are highly industrialized and modern nations which are both influenced by the Confucian tradition of respect for the elderly and family responsibility for the care of aging parents. In both countries the proportion of the elderly population is increasing. Japan, since the end of World War II, has utilized its government bureaucracy to help develop the social welfare system and to formulate social policies and programs for the elderly. Japan's tradition of samurai Confucianism is congruent with the commitment of the Japanese government to such social development as a matter of national policy. The Republic of Korea has not assigned a comprehensive planning role to its government bureaucracy. Lacking the mix of industrial/post-industrial infrastructure of Japan and not yet faced with the immediacy of a very large elderly population, the Republic of Korea's government has developed its social policies for the elderly in a more incremental manner, usually emphasizing small scale and piecemeal initiatives. With respect to social support, it has emphasized voluntary family efforts as congruent with the Korean (and Chinese) variant of Confucianism. This paper will compare and contrast these different approaches.     

Student Imagery of Practice in Social Work and Teacher Education: A Comparative Research Approach

Correspondence to Dr N. Gould, SSRADU, University of Bath, The New Church, Henry St, Bath BA1 1JR Summary Within the fields of adult and professional education, the lastten years have seen the development of the reflective learningparadigm. This refutes a technical-rational model of the relationshipbetween theory and practice, and proposes that practitionerknowledge is experientially constructed and organized throughthe schemata of imagery and metaphor. This paper outlines somefindings 6om a comparative research study of social work andteaching students which adopted a phenomenological approachto understanding the self-imagery of student practitioners andits relationship to prior experience. Some implications forsocial worker education are considered, including the conceptof ‘imaginization’—derived horn postmodernistorganizational theory—as a strategy for empowerment.     

京港两地老年人健康状况比较研究

２０００年第五次人口普查表明 ,我国６５岁及以上的人口为８８１１万人 ,占总人口的６．９６ % ,同１９９０年第四次全国人口普查相比 ,上升了１．３９个百分点 ,我国将在短时期内形成规模异常庞大的老年群体 ,步入老龄化国家的行列。专家指出 ,预计我国６５岁以上人口比例将在２０１５年前后和２０３５年前后分别达到１０%和２０ %以上。与西方发达国家相比 ,中国的老龄化速度快 ,超前于工业化和现代化。今后 ,如何解决好老年人的经济供养、医疗保健、照料慰藉、学习教育、文化娱乐等问题是我国可持续发展中的一个重大问题。而老年人的健…