China's ‘Socializing Social Welfare’ policy: a study on service quality in society-run homes for the aged in Beijing

This study aims to examine service quality in the emergent society-run homes (SRH) in Beijing from the perspective of residents in the context of ‘Socializing Social Welfare’ policy reform. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were combined to provide a comprehensive approach. A novel instrument for measuring service quality was developed and validated. Nine dimensions and three domains of service quality were identified and explored. The measuring instrument reveals that service quality in the SRH is barely satisfactory. With the findings of this study and the corresponding recommendations, it is hoped that the quality of institutional care service for the elderly can be improved, the social capital of the SRH can be promoted, and an integrated system of diversified care services can be formed and serve the needs of the increasing population of aged people.     

The destruction of liberty in French Guiana: law,identity and the meaning of legal space, 1794–1830

Abstract

This article examines the colonial legal culture of French Guiana from 1794 to 1830 during a period marked by dramatic historical rupture; slaves in the colony who were liberated by decree of the French legislature in 1794 were returned to slavery under Napoleon. People who managed to remain free in the nineteenth century endured humiliating legal handicaps as well as challenges to their free status. In Guiana during this period, a person's access to the ‘rights of man and citizen’ depended on intricate and ultimately fragile legal structures. The perils besetting Guiana's freed people during and after the French Revolution often arose from the highly adjustable character of legal space – the legal status of imperial territory in relation to domestic soil. This article draws on archival materials including notarial documents and trial records to reconstruct the role of law and legal discourse in mediating everyday life, familial relationships and social encounters on the French colonial frontier.     

The Genesis of “The Meaning of the Classics”:On the Objectives and Methods of Jingxue Hermeneutics

In terms of the construction of meaning, what jingxue(study of the classics) deals with is precisely the hermeneutics of the Confucian classics. Jingxue hermeneutics is fundamentally practical statecraft; therefore, its specific objectives do not point to an objective existence unrelated to human beings, but to yi(meaning) or yili(principles), otherwise known as jingyi(meaning of the classics) or dayi(profound significance). “The meaning of the classics” is the product of interpretation. In jing...     

The influence of perception of school principal’s leadership on teachers’ job satisfaction in the interior of Sabah,Malaysia: a case study in Beaufort

This study investigates the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of the school principal’s leadership and their job satisfaction in Beaufort, a multiethnic semirural area in the interior of Sabah, Malaysia. Results of the research showed that there is a significant positive relationship between the perceived leadership of the school principal and job satisfaction among the teaching staff, and the relationship is not influenced by the demographic attributes of the study participants. The results accentuate the importance of developing the leadership of principals in public schools to enhance the commitment and job satisfaction of the teaching staff, which indirectly affects the overall performance of schools and students.     

Commentary on “The Effects of Financial Incentives in Experiments: A Review and Capital-Labor-Production Framework”

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty -     

Disability policy in Australia: a triumph of the scriptio inferior on impotence and neediness?

From the time that development of a National Disability Insurance Scheme arrived on the agenda of the Australian Labor Government's 2008 Ideas Summit, the lives of disabled Australian citizens have been widely discussed, consulted on, planned for and acted on. This discourse analysis (Fairclough 2003; 2010) critiques the ways in which disabled lives have been framed in these high profile policy debates, with detailed focus on two key policy documents. The Shut Out Report: the Experiences of People with Disabilities in Australia (2009) (2009) and Disability Care and Support (Productivity Commission 2011) are both grounded in extensive national consultations and provide significant evidence about the ways that disabled Australians talk about the problems they face and the solutions they advocate. The paper employs the well‐known recognition‐redistribution debate of Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth (2003) to interpret the findings that narratives of suffering, burden and marginalisation predominate in current policy conversations. This tends to push out discussions concerning the non‐redistributive aspects of disability reform, potentially contributing to non‐integrationist discourse entrenched over 150 years of policies of segregation. Minority voices advocating social integration are present but muted. At this stage, their influence is undetermined.     

Qin Huanming:The Trend to the“Restoration of Elegance and the Veneration of Elevated Moral Character”in the Poetry of the Song Dynasty

InSongdynastyPoetics,andspecificallyinthetrendtowards"therestorationofeleganceandthevenerationofelevatedmoralcharacter"(fuyachongge),ya(elegance)stressedthepoet'sinternalizednobilityoftaste.Therecognitibnoftheexistenceofthisqualitywasfoundedonanevaluation…     

‘As a slave woman and as a mother’: women and the abolition of slavery in Havana and Rio de Janeiro*

Abstract

This article explores how enslaved and freedwomen in Rio de Janeiro and Havana, the capital cities of the Americas' last two slaveholding territories, played a crucial and specific part in helping speed and shape the gradual emancipation processes that unfolded simultaneously in each context during the 1870s and 1880s. In each city, women were at the front line of legal battles for freedom waged by the enslaved and their freed relatives. The article suggests several reasons why. First, in both Brazil and Cuba, the abolition process was shaped by ‘free womb’ laws which, along with other subsequent legislation, created specific new opportunities for women to make legal claims on the basis of motherhood. Second, such petitions chimed not only with official legal stipulations but also with broader Atlantic anti-slavery rhetoric that sought emotive responses to the plight of slaves and appealed particularly to specific notions about maternal love. Third, these (ex-)enslaved women's struggles were shaped by their own understandings of the significances of freedom and of motherhood, and by their daily lives in these two Atlantic port cities, where women had long been a significant presence in each city's population and economic and cultural life. Looking beyond their ‘individual’ claims for freedom reveals how such claims emerged from a collective context of proximity, cohabitation and exchange of information and help. Despite the major differences between the broader economic and political trajectories of each country and city, it is the similarities between women's actions and contributions to the emancipation process that are particularly striking.     

The measurement and implication of the older people’s social function in the community: a Shanghai experience

Abstract

The study employed a quantitative approach to measure the social function of the older people. From a questionnaire survey in a Shanghai community, we found that participants’ party affiliation, education, age group, functional capacity (IADL) and occupational status were the major factors affecting older people’s social function. The older people participated more actively, tended to trust others more and enjoyed better social function in the community. These findings lead to implications for social work practices and policymaking procedures on active ageing.     

“Moved on”? An exploratory study of the Cashless Debit Card and Indigenous mobility

What is the relationship between the first two trials of the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) and Indigenous mobility? In Ceduna, Vincent conducted ethnographic research into lived experiences of the first CDC trial. In the East Kimberley, Klein conducted 51 structured interviews with people on the card and 37 semi-structured interviews with key informants. Markham used regression analysis of net migration rates at the Statistical Area 2 level to determine whether the CDC trial sites were associated with greater net population loss in 2016 census data than comparable locations. Our exploratory study finds significant local talk of displacement arising from the introduction of the CDC, as well as discussion of short-term trips away from the trial sites being made more difficult. The regression analysis found that the net migration rate was 9.3 per cent points (95% CI: 2.0, 16.5) lower in Ceduna, Wyndham and Kununurra when compared with a group of comparable towns, and 5.2 per cent points (95% CI: 0.9, 9.5) lower when compared with Australia as a whole, meaning that the populations of these towns declined faster than those of comparable towns. Policy effects on mobility should be taken seriously by researchers and policymakers when considering place-based welfare policy.     

The Institutional Environment of “Mutual Interpenetration of Scholars and Merchants” after the Mid-Ming:From the Perspective of Changes in Government Policy

The “mutual interpenetration of scholars and merchants” was a noticeable social phenomenon after the mid Ming. The appearance of this phenomenon had complex and deep-rooted social causes, among which institutional factors deserve attention, specifically, changes and adjustments in government policy     

The Academic History of Literature and Art as a “ Disease of Interpretation”: On the Paradoxical Nature of Interdisciplinary Boundaries

This article represents an academic response to Professor Zhang Jiang’s article “On Imposed Interpretation” published in Russian in the journal October (no. 1, 2015). It argues that the problems observed by Zhang arise from the reality of Western literary criticism over the past decades, and are associated with the contention between philosophy and philology that had its orgins in the West’s Platonic heritage. In outlining the complex symbiotic relationship between the two disciplines in Western literary history, this article finds that two theoretical motive forces catalyzed the process: the “philologization of philosophy” and the “philosophization of philology.” The writer argues that based on a full understanding of the paradoxical relationship between philosophy and philology, which are distinct from and yet attracted to each other, contemporary literary criticism can adopt the principles of “practical conservatism” and “cutting back of methodologies” as a means of healing the ever worsening “disease of intepreretation” in literary history.     

“Work Units” and the Commodification of Housing: Observations on the Transition to a Market Economy with Chinese Characteristics

Housin9Reforms:AWindowontheTransitiontoaMarketEconomvThe"workunits"phenomenonherereferstoworkers'dependenceontheirworkplaceorganizationstlnderaplannedeconomy(Walder,l986,l992;Bian,l994).Beforethereforms,urbanhousinginChina,whichwasbuiltbythestateandalloca…     

Integration and Innovation:The Avenue of Cultural Development─Review of a Symposium on“Integration and Innovation:A Cultural Concept,”Macao 1995

SponsoredbytheChinesePhilosophySocietyincooperationwiththeInsti-tuteofPhilosophy,CASS,thesymposiumwasheldinMacaofromthe28thto30thDecember1995.Thirtyscholarsfromthemainland,MacaoandHongKongpresentedmorethantwentypapersonthesubject.I.TheDefinitionofCultural…     

“The chug is coming through!” “There's two chuggas!”: A longitudinal study of the social function of imitation in children's play with siblings and friends

Imitation is argued to have an important affiliative function in social relationships. However, children's tendency to imitate different play partners during naturalistic play and associations with social understanding have been overlooked. We investigated the frequency and context of imitation in a longitudinal study of 65 focal children (T1: M age = 56.4 months, SD = 5.71) during play with their older or younger sibling and a friend in two separate play sessions. Children were observed again approximately 3 years later (T2: n = 46, M age = 94.6 months; SD = 6.6). We coded focal children's verbal and nonverbal imitation of their play partner, their partner's response to being imitated, the context in which imitation occurred (e.g., pretense), and the focal child's social understanding (i.e., mental state references). Verbal imitation occurred more often than nonverbal imitation and was used most often during the contexts of play negotiations and pretense. Although focal children's imitation of both their siblings and friends increased significantly over time, children imitated friends more than siblings at T1. All play partners responded positively (i.e., smiling, laughing) most often to being imitated. Associations between focal child imitation and mental state talk with friends at T2 approached significance. Our findings provide a deeper understanding of the nature of imitation during children's play interactions and support assertions that imitation is a process whereby children build affiliation, mutuality, and shared meanings in their relationships.     

The presence of philosophy and the position of economics： a review of the National Symposium of “Facing a Shared Future： A Dialogue between Economics and Philosophy”

To promote interdisciplinary communication and cooperation and find an academic growth area better able to explain reality and stimulate creative thinking amid the interaction and cross-integration of different disciplines and their different visions, Social Sciences in China Press sponsored in succession “Dialogue on Social Sciences Frontier Studies in China,” of which “Facing a Shared Future： A Dialogue Between Economics and Philosophy” was the second. It was co-sponsored by the College of Humanities and the Research Center for Economic Philosophy, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and held at the University between May 31 and June 2, 2008.