唐代货币思想述论

唐代的货币思想主要继承《管子》和两汉的学说 ,对货币的起源、本质、职能、作用等主要问题的思考研究虽有所进步 ,但总体认识水平并未取得实质性突破 ,仍停留在货币国定说和轻重论认知体系上。这在实践中不仅对唐代社会经济的发展造成了阻碍和破坏 ,也影响了唐代货币制度的创新和发展。     

The plight of international child support enforcement

Arising from the landscape of global development and fueled by the demographics of increasing rates of mobility and divorce, the international enforcement of child support is a challenging and growing problem. Current initiatives to rectify this critical problem cut across geopolitical divides and have resulted in the creation of uniform procedures for child support enforcement that are awaiting ratification in the USA: the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. In the following paper, we will trace the evolution of these efforts and extrapolate a framework for social work practice illustrated by examples drawn from a case study of a family's plight with international child support enforcement. While thousands of families are impacted by this issue, there is a gap in the social work literature about this critical issue.     

Applying the international wellbeing index to investigate subjective wellbeing of New Zealanders with European and with Maori heritage

Abstract

The International Wellbeing Index (IWI), a global measure for investigating subjective wellbeing, consists of a Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and a National Wellbeing Index (NWI). The index is applied to the two largest ethnic populations in New Zealand—New Zealanders with European heritage and New Zealanders with Maori heritage. Psychometric characteristics of the IWI for both subsamples compare favourably to those found in other countries. However, for both subsamples, the absolute value of reported subjective wellbeing is lower than expected. Consistent with other social indicators, New Zealanders with Maori heritage show even lower values of PWI and NWI than New Zealanders with European heritage.     

Privatising Foster Care: The UK Experience within an International Context

Foster placements for children in care in the UK are being increasingly provided by non‐governmental organizations. However, although local authorities are purchasing almost one third of their required placements from these external agencies, the UK has not yet followed the examples of other English speaking countries. In parts of the USA and Australia all fostering and other child welfare services have been wholly outsourced or transferred from the public to private and non‐profit organizations. A number of these initiatives have been independently evaluated and some of their findings resonate with what seems to be happening in the UK. This article explores these but also other factors which appear to distinguish the policy and practice of foster care in the UK from those of the USA and Australia. Using theory related to the privatization of welfare and relevant domestic and international research, the article examines the development of external commissioning of foster care in Britain. In the light of changing law, ideology and policy, the article concludes by speculating on how the future of fostering and wider child welfare provision in the UK may look, at a time of political change and economic austerity.     

The labour movement and mutual benefit societies: Towards an international approach

The comparative history of the mutualist and workers'movements shows up several notable points of convergence, from their beginnings up until the Second World War. They were branches of a common tree: tradesmen's and workers'guilds were more often than not at the origin of union and pre-union organizations and mutual aid societies. The two movements also developed in parallel over the course of the two industrial revolutions of 1780-1840 and 1880-1890. Despite this, their paths began increasingly to diverge. Setting out from the same essentially craft-based social milieu as the unions, the mutualist movement gradually took root among the lower-middle and middle classes, the civil service and the military. The mutualist ideology of a common good shared among the social classes was the antithesis of the prevailing ethos in the union movement, of which class struggle was the defining attribute. Finally, the aims of the two movements also diverged: on one hand the trade unionists, engaging in mass and sometimes violent action in support of immediate demands; on the other, the mutualists, working away at their necessarily long-term administrative tasks. From the last quarter of the nineteenth century on, therefore, the mutualist and workers'movements entered into a process of increasing diversification.     

作为美学范畴的怪诞

怪诞是现代美学的核心范畴之一。作为一种文化现象,它滥觞于象征型的原始文化。作为一种感性形式,它既可笑又可怕,既恐怖又滑稽。作为一种结构模式,它往往以喜剧的形式表演悲剧的内容,以滑稽的表象装饰丑恶的现实。     

Cognitive mapping as a technique for supporting international negotiation

This article explores the use of cognitive mapping as a tool for supporting international negotiation. Cognitive mapping was developed from the research tradition in cognitive psychology that was pioneered by Heider, congruity theory and attribution theory. Applied to political analysis, the technique can be used to represent causal and quasi-causal thinking about a specific policy area. Cognitive maps can be hand-drawn, or, in the case of maps consisting of more than 25 concepts, machine-generated for detailed and systematic analysis. Regardless of the format, cognitive maps can be examined to determine the most central concepts, the explanation of a problem in terms of its root causes and potential consequences, the use of evidence, such as historical analogies, internal consistency, and perceived consequences of policy proposals. Although the technique was designed to represent the views of individuals, cognitive maps can be aggregated to study collective decision-making. Applied to international negotiation, the technique can be employed as a substance-focused tool to represent and integrate knowledge about a specific policy area for use by negotiators. As a process-oriented tool, the technique can be used to help negotiators understand better their own assumptions about a problem, the viewpoints of other parties to the negotiations, and the ways others see their own position. In this mode, the technique has promise for promoting convergence of views and negotiated agreements.     

The welfare state as an institutional process

The main objective of this paper is to argue that the origins and formation of the welfare state should be reconsidered as an institutional process embedded in dialectical relations between given historical contingencies and institutional adaptations in response to welfare demands. Such relational processes can be categorized by the three isomorphic convergences of institutional adaptations to the welfare demands: national emergencies, economic challenges and political transitions. Existing accounts for the emergence of the welfare state – universalism, selectivity, and Marxism – are bracketed under a single heading of social control theory for two reasons: first, those three explanations commonly err in believing that an ideological intent is given as predetermined before actual analyses of social policy-making, thereby neglecting the process of institutional reforms; and second, the underlying implication of all three accounts ends in a common target of social policy – how to control welfare demands, and safeguard social stability. By comparing institutional adaptations with social control theory, the paper aims to explain and emphasize the methodological utilities and practical applicability of the institutional process approach in the studies of welfare development.     

How does policy advice of the international monetary fund differ along the income of advised countries?

ABSTRACT

The policy advice literature has paid little attention to the role of international organizations in policy advisory systems. This article offers a systematic analysis of policy advice provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the framework of the IMF’s regular Article IV consultations. The article argues that the content of IMF advice differs according to the income of the advised countries. Content analyses of the Article IV consultation reports of 18 countries show correlations between the gross national income (GNI) of the advised countries and the function of advice in the policy cycle, the specificity of advice, the recommended policy instruments and the targeted policy issues. Results show that the IMF rather points to policy problems, advices on policy goals and focuses on improving implementation when advising lower income countries. When advising higher income countries, the IMF’s advice focuses on means and specific policy tools.     

Who wins from an FTA induced revival of world trade?

The last decade has been characterized by a slowdown in globalization, referred to by some as "slowbalisation" and “deglobalization”. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced this impression. To overcome the deadlock in the Doha round negotiations at WTO the major players in world trade are negotiating or have already implemented several free trade agreements (FTAs) as a second-best solution. We analyze within a common framework nine mega FTAs, some of them are already in effect, others will be enacted soon. Overall, not the big players in world trade, the EU and the United States win by a simultaneous implementation of the nine FTAs. Japan would be the winner because it participates in four combinations (overlaps) of FTAs: EU-Japan, USA-Japan, CPTPP and RCEP. The United States hardly gain from further globalization. Similarly, the EU27 cannot profit much from further globalization.     

Rule of law and balance of power sustain US dollar preeminence

In the last few decades, and especially since the financial crisis of 2007–2008, uncertainty about the future of the US dollar has been mounting. A broad-based theoretical debate on the decline of the dollar and its consequences has begun. There is a large body of studies that sees the origin of an international money as a market-led process. In this view, because the United States will very soon lose its economic pre-eminence the US dollar will consequently share its international role with other currencies or even be replaced by the renminbi. In this paper we contest this argument, focusing on the conditions that make a fiat money acceptable in international transactions. Trust in a type of money like this needs an institutional framework that guarantees the property rights of currency holders. This framework implies a high level of rule of law domestically and a high level of state capability in the international balance of power. Since at present no other currency fulfils these two requirements at the same time, the dominance of the US dollar as an international money is going to last.     

The Market as an Object of Sociological Investigation

Sociologists often complain that economists produce distorted pictures of the economy and society, and in particular that they exaggerate the role of market relations. The representatives of sociology justly point out that, in addition to the market, other economic structures affect affairs of state and of households. Indeed, the market itself is presented by traditional economists in an excessively abstract manner or one derived from obsolete historical models. However, a sociologist can pose the question differently. Rather than reproaching economists and engaging in merciless criticism of market models, would it not be better for sociology to attempt to work out its own, specifically sociological understanding of what the market is? Especially as one paradox of economic theory is precisely the absence of a substantive theory of the market [1, pp. 342-44]. We might add that in Western economic sociology a new branch, market sociology, is gaining momentum. A number of directions are under development: the sociology of industrial markets [2], the sociology of the labor market [3], the sociology of international markets [4], and so on. This article presents an approach offered by economic sociology to the study of markets in Russia, some of the postulates of which are discussed in [5]. First, let us examine the empirical aspects of the problem.¹     

Liminality and learning: international placements as a rite of passage

This article reports findings from a collaborative study of UK student learning in Malaysia. We analyze the concept of liminality as a means of understanding the transitional process between states and statuses that social work students experience in practice learning. Here, in specific reference to immersion in new cultural contexts represented by international placements, the development and learning of students are explored in relation to the overlapping domains of familiar and unfamiliar ‘cultures’ and disciplinary practice. These findings carry implications in terms of the increasing popularity of international placements and the potential imposition of hegemonies of values and knowledge.     

The history of the family as an affective unit

Jacques Donzelot, La Police des Families (1977), 220 (Editions de Mimiit, Paris, 35F). (The Policing of Families).

Christopher Lasch, Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged (1977), xviii+230 (Basic Books, New York, $12.95).

Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500–1800 (1977), xxxi+800 (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £16.00).     

HIV prevention and sex workers: an international lesson in empowerment

This article examines the impact and influence of advocacy on HIV prevention efforts among sex workers in India. A novel project initiated in Songachi, a red-light district in Calcutta, was instrumental in reducing the rate of new infections among sex workers and increasing the use of condoms to significant levels. The Songachi Project utilised methods and techniques that empowered this stigmatised, exploited and disenfranchised segment of the population. The impact of this World Bank-aided project was far-reaching; a key benefit is that it can be duplicated in developing countries around the world. Social workers involved in harm reduction initiatives and HIV/AIDS prevention efforts with at-risk groups like sex workers can develop their own prevention programmes utilising this model as presented here.     

作为导论的哲学——《哲学要义》绪言

哲学的根本问题终归是有无问题,一切真正的哲学不是侧重于从无到有,就是着重于从有到无。如果说从无到有是创造、开显,那么从有到无则是摆脱、解放。但是,不管是创造还是解放,都是自由的体现,都以自由为前提。能从无出发或者能回到无,“我”才能面对真正的他者,并且也才能成为真正的他者。在这个意义上,他者问题也是一个存在论问题———当然是关于无的那种存在论的问题。