Values as constraints on affordances: Perceiving and acting properly

At the bottom of all human activities are "values," the conviction that some things "ought to be" and others not. Science, however, with its immense interest in mere facts seems to lack all understanding of such'requiredness.'… A science … which would seriously admit nothing but indifferent facts … could not fail to destroy itself. (Kohler, 1938/1966, p. 38-39)     

End of double taxation: Is the policy better when announced?

This paper examines the effectiveness of the “end of double taxation” (on dividends) policy in stabilizing an economy. Both announced and unannounced policies are considered. A reduction in double taxation stimulates investment and improves welfare, but its impact on output is moderate and it has a negative effect on work hours. A temporary cut creates an investment boom but also generates an investment slump when the tax cut expires. Announcements of future tax cuts are found to have important effect on output dynamics. Agents respond to the tax policy even before it is implemented. If the tax cut is announced to be temporary, its impact on output is greatly reduced. Our study suggests that a temporary dividend tax cut is most effective in stabilizing a recession stricken economy when the policy change comes as “news” to the economy.     

实现城镇化与工业化的协调发展

"加快城镇化进程"和"走新型工业化道路"是新阶段改善城乡二元结构,促进城乡统筹发展的重要途径。城镇化与工业化之间关系是一种相互联系、互相促进的互动关系。要正确处理城镇化与工业化之间的互动关系,切实完成新型工业化模式多重任务,逐步提高城镇化水平,走城镇化与工业化协调发展的中国式道路。     

先秦时期西安音乐文物述略

音乐在中国古代社会生活中占有重要的地位,由于其与政治、道德、教化等融为一体,所以受到历朝历代的重视。作为世界文明古城,西安不仅是人类文明的重要发源地,也是一个有着悠久音乐文明的城市,它不仅保存有丰富的文字资料,而且还存有丰富多样的地下考古实物,这些实物多角度地展示了西安音乐发展的活的历史。深入研究西安音乐文物,了解古代音乐文化生活,对今天音乐文化的继承与创新、发展以及西安音乐史的研究有着积极的现实意义。     

Reflections on China＇s Road of Peaceful Development and Its Significance for World History

中国的发展道路必然是和平主义性质的,这种和平主义虽然与中国的文化传统有着密切的联系,但本质上是由中国近代以来的历史性实践为其制订方向的;由于这条道路不可能依循现代资本主义的基本建制来为自己取得全部规定,所以它在批判地澄清现代冲突与战争之主要根源的同时,为中国和平主义传统的复活与重建提供了现实的可能性;中国发展的和平主义道路将具有这样一种世界历史意义：它把不以扩张主义为出发点也不以霸权主义为必然归宿的发展前景启示给人类向着未来的历史筹划。     

The Chinese Road in the Light of Historical Continuity

The Chinese road has deep historical roots. Its most striking feature is that it is marked by historical continuity rather than rupture, and the main force behind this continuity is its intrinsic dynamism and vitality. Unlike the paradigm of Eurocentrism or “Discovering History in China,” the comparative analytical paradigm discovers China through long-term comparisons with corresponding countries in the same time and space in an effort to find positive elements in the history of the Chinese road and to refute the long prevalent theory of Chinese stagnation. Seen over the course of world history, the impetus for the creation of the world’s most brilliant agrarian civilization was endogenous. This impetus was not a momentary “explosive force” but a sustainable institutional drive whose main constituents were the independent farming household, endogenous government capacity and adaptive national governance. In addition to the main theme of “permanent change,” Chinese development had a secondary theme of “cyclical change” which cannot be ignored. The roots of Chinese development are buried deep in the genes of this agrarian nation in the form of sticky institutions, bureaucratic inertia, arbitrary power, etc. Historical continuity provided a foundation for China’s creative revolution and development in modern times, ultimately laying down a socialist development road with Chinese characteristics, although this remains an unfinished relay process.     

Does Active Labour Market Policy have an Impact on Social Marginalization?

Countless evaluations of active labour market policy (ALMP) have been conducted in the last decade. The common denominator for most of these evaluations is a focus on employment (self‐sufficiency) as the dependent variable, where the success of ALMP is measured in terms of the number of unemployed finding ordinary employment after (or immediately before) participating in an activation programme. The main argument in this article is that this focus is inadequate. For many long‐term unemployed people, it would be an understatement to describe the road to employment as merely ‘bumpy’. Research must take this into consideration. This article therefore deals with the Danish activation policy from a new perspective by analyzing the impact on different aspects of social marginalization, focusing on long‐term social assistance recipients. Using data from a comprehensive, representative quantitative survey of Danish unemployed conducted in 2007, the first analysis convincingly reveals that we fail to find any systematic correlation between participation in ALMP and any of the social marginalization indicators. The second analysis presents a more mixed picture of the participant's own assessment of the impact of ALMP on their self‐esteem; some are quite positive, while others are more neutral or even rather negative. Taking the existing research into account, these results leave us with conceptual and methodological questions for further research.     

The long and winding road to assisted dying in Australia

Public opinion polling shows that Australians have long supported legalising assisted dying, but this has not generally led to legislative success. Since 1993, Australian parliament have considered legalising assisted dying over 50 times, with only two attempts being successful: Northern Territory in 1995 and Victoria in 2017. This paper describes the Northern Territory and Victorian legislation and the processes associated with the passage of the legislation in both jurisdictions. It suggests that one of the factors that contributed to the Victorian outcome was the extensive consultation involved prior to the introduction of the legislation into parliament. Political factors – including government support – also facilitated the legislation's passage.     

The Fallacy of Generalizing from Egg Salad in False-Belief Research

Geraerts et al. (2008)   reported that misleading individuals with false beliefs about having gotten sick on egg salad in childhood can reduce the probability of subsequently consuming egg salad. They concluded that their results "… have important implications for people's food and dieting choices…" (p. 752). We argue that their conclusion represents a fundamental generalization problem. We report new findings that, together with other recent studies, data on disgust and the fact that hard boiled eggs produce a chemical associated with rotten food, suggest that Geraerts et al.'s success in reducing individuals' interest in eating egg salad is likely restricted to less appealing foods that are less frequently consumed. Because of potential applicability of their results to public health and well-being, and the more general applicability of the false-feedback paradigm to legal cases, it is important to accurately limit these conclusions and generalizations.     

中国特色社会主义道路与世界文明发展

中国特色社会主义道路是以马克思主义为指导的发展道路,马克思主义的特性决定了中国特色社会主义道路离不开人类文明发展的大道,是参与经济全球化并对人类文明有巨大贡献的道路。     

"Not a Cigarette Paper Between Us": Integrated Inspection of Children's Services in England

Children's services in England are undergoing their most radical transformation since 1948 following the passage of the Children Act 2004. A key part of these changes is the legal requirement to have an Integrated Inspection Framework to assess the extent to which the new Children's Services Authorities have succeeded in meeting five key outcomes—being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well‐being. To this end, up to ten national inspectorates have to coordinate their activities to a hitherto unparalleled extent. This article describes the nature and scale of the new remit and identifies a number of unresolved issues that could impede progress. It is argued that the policy has the hallmarks and accompanying limitations of a top–down exercise in policy formulation and implementation.     

How robust is the rationality assumption in economics? A statistical test based on student grade distributions

This note re-addresses the question of the rationality of economic actors in a new setting. We examine the distribution of final course grades for a “Principles of Economics Class” in an effort to draw conclusions about rational student work effort. Based on the concepts of the opportunity cost of time, the relative reward for earning various grades (based on university codes for determining grade points) and the concept of rationality, we expect to find a greater percentage of grades at the lower end of the distribution for each grade level. We find statistical evidence that there are more students at the lower end of each grade interval than at the upper end. This result is consistent with what economists have long conjectured: students are rational in the allocation of study time.     

A Socialist Orientation

Today it seems that humanity has finally bid farewell to the greatest of delusions—the idea of constructing an ideal society in accordance with a specific model, a kind of paradise on earth. Of the once-powerful socialist camp (community), only Cuba and North Korea, both currently experiencing a deep crisis, as well as China and Vietnam—where economic achievements are attributable more to the logic of capitalist development—remain. But as long as one socialist country is left in the world, there are no adequate grounds for us to say that we have once and for all put an end to the phenomenon of alternative development (in this case, the phenomenon of Marxist-Leninist socialism)—or, as F[rancis] Fukuyama so loudly declared, that the "end of history" is upon us.¹     

坚定不移地走中国特色社会主义政治发展道路

中国特色社会主义政治发展道路,在理论层面是党的领导、人民当家作主、依法治国的有机统一,实践层面或制度载体是人民代表大会制度等四项政治制度。这是我国社会主义民主政治的特点和优势,实践证明是行之有效、富有生命力的。党的十七大明确解答了在当代中国发展社会主义民主政治必须走什么路的问题,并作了具体部署,意义十分重大。继续沿着这条正确道路走下去,我国民主政治建设一定能够取得新的更大的成就。     

The Research-Policy Gap on Latino Immigrant Issues: Impacts and New Directions on Social Policy: A Conclusion

In this final and concluding article, I focus on three broad and interwoven themes that cut across various articles in this issue. While these themes partially overlap with those highlighted in the introduction, it is their insinuation into policy discourses and actual formulations that informs their selection. These policy-oriented themes are language, immigrant integration, and the defiance of common sense; racialization, identity formation and second-generation educational achievement; and transnationalism and enforcement policies and immigrant responses. I end with a brief note on how academic research, and researchers themselves, can help further more fruitful and informed public policies.     

Family touch practices and learning experiences in the museum

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates how family museum visitors crafted learning through interaction with one another and the touch objects of an exhibition. Through a case study of seven families’ interaction, we show how families used touch to bring their interests and resources into dialogue with museum expectations and resources. Using a multimodal approach to analyze observational data, we generate a fine-grained account of differently configured family touch practices and ways of experiencing and knowing objects through their material, sensory tactile and affective qualities. We conclude by highlighting how our findings can inform the design of touch exhibits to support family learning, with attention to engagement, narrative creation, and embodied learning, and point to the paper’s methodological contribution to the analysis of visitor situated real-time interaction and learning in museums.     

Scaling the Socioeconomic Ladder: Low-Income Women's Perceptions of Class Status and Opportunity

This study examined how 69 low-income women enrolled in an educational training program perceived social class and upward mobility. Participants identified their social class during childhood, their current status, and their anticipated post graduate status. Beliefs about income inequality and attributions for wealth and poverty were also assessed. Respondents expected to achieve middle class status and perceived higher education as a route to upward mobility, although the accessibility of post-secondary programs was questioned. Consistent with previous research involving low-income groups ( Bullock, 1999 ; Kluegel & Smith, 1986 ), structural attributions for poverty and wealth were favored over individualistic causes. Also, respondents perceived income inequality as unjust. The construction of class identity and implications for class-based mobilization are discussed .

It [the American dream] means the opportunity to go as far in life as your abilities will take you. Anyone in America can aspire to be a doctor, a teacher, a police officer or even, as Oprah said, a President. But you can't get any of those important jobs if you don't have the opportunity to acquire the skills you need … . And that's why I believe that the key to the American Dream is education.
—————Former President George Herbert Walker Bush, 1997

     

北京什刹海地区中外游客抽样调查及分析

本文通过对北京什刹海地区的中外游客进行的抽样调查,应用统计软件SPSS对问卷结果进行了分析研究,得出了中外游客对什刹海地区不同的认知和旅游方式,并对该地区的旅游开发提出了建议。