Listening Education in the 21st Century

The 1999 tragic shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, served as a wake-up call for Americans that we need to listen to our teenagers. How unfortunate it is that it takes a tragedy to reawaken educational interest in listening as a crucial component of human communication behavior. As we enter the 21^st Century, this article re-emphasizes the crucial role listening plays in human communication.     

Elderly People's Perceptions of a Telehealthcare System: Relative Advantage,Compatibility, Complexity and Observability

The use of telehealthcare systems to promote independent living for elderly people is growing. The results presented in this article, derived from an initial user lab test of a telecare system—GiraffPlus—indicate that the crucial factor for adoption of telehealthcare systems is not usability but the system's ability to support autonomy in everyday life. Eleven users tested the usability and reported what they perceived as possible benefits of having such a system at home. To support autonomy, customization is crucial for the system to be perceived as meaningful for the individual. Our analysis confirms previous research.     

The Role of Hadramis in Post-Second World War Singapore – A Reinterpretation

Past scholarship has tended to portray the history of Hadramis in Singapore with that of the political, economic, social and religious prominence of the diasporic community in the pre-Second World War period, followed by declining significance and disenfranchisement. This article is a revisionist attempt at documenting the crucial roles played by members of a prominent Hadrami family, the Alsagoff, in shaping the course of Malay activism from 1945 to 1965. By employing previously untapped sources, three key areas in which the Alsagoff (s) played crucial roles are unravelled: the propagation and reassertion of Islam (da' wah), Malay politics and Malay literary movement. Through such an exposition, this study hopes to provide new inroads into the study of Hadramis in Singapore.     

Interviewing Elite Donors: Gaining Access,Developing Rapport and Dealing with the Dazzle

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Elite donors are a crucial and sought-after source of funding for many nonprofit organisations, but there is a dearth of...     

Co-production and Third Sector Social Services in Europe: Some Concepts and Evidence

The third sector is poised to play a leading role in public sector innovations in the twenty-first century. The third sector can enhance, facilitate, and promote greater citizen participation in the determination, provision, and governance of social services through co-production. This article explores some crucial conceptual issues related to the co-production of public services and the role of the third sector. It also provides some brief empirical evidence of the potential of the third sector, not merely as a service provider, but also as a facilitator of the re-democratization of the European welfare state. Here, collective action and third sector provision are crucial for distinguishing between co-production heavy and light. The conclusion focuses on the ability of the public, third, and for-profit sectors to embrace greater citizen participation and co-production.     

Transforming Korea into a multicultural society: reception of multiculturalism discourse and its discursive disposition in Korea

Since 2005, multicultural-based words such as multicultural society, multicultural family, and multicultural education have grown explosively in Korean society. Due to this social trend, adoption of the term multiculturalism has become a trend within the government and press to explain current social changes in Korea. Nevertheless, there have been few efforts to tackle multiculturalism as a crucial political project or a considerable academic theme of discussion. Thus, this study aims to examine how multiculturalism discourse in Korea has been received and draws its discursive disposition. It argues how the media, especially the press, incorporate other crucial issues such as ‘diversity’, ‘human rights’, and ‘minority politics’ in terms of multiculturalism. To analyse, a total of 275 journal articles were selected and scrutinised. This study contextualises Korean multiculturalism and suggests a meta-picture of the discursive economy of multiculturalism in Korea.     

EVALUATING SOCIAL LEARNING POTENTIALS GENERATED BY EU STRUCTURAL FUNDING PROGRAMMES

The EU structural funding programmes affect the circumstances in which people and organizations are to take part in regional development. The evaluation of this institutional impact poses a challenge to policy analysis. This paper suggests that the evolution of participation conditions can be evaluated by focusing on the social learning potential generated by the practices of programme implementation. Following Bourdieu, the context of social learning is described as a field; the crucial quality of a field is its level of autonomy. The analysis of the regional implementation of two Objective 5b programmes shows that the logic of structural funding restricts participation in many crucial ways. At the same time the constitution of social learning potential depends on the quality of the fields for which the programmes provide symbolic capital. However, policy implementation is non-linear by nature. The initiatives of civil actors and ‘reflexive practitioners’ can, for example, make a difference.     

Creating Cohesion from Diversity: The Challenge of Collective Identity Formation in the Global Justice Movement*

Collective identity formation is important because it plays a crucial role in sustaining movements over time. Studying collective identity formation in autonomous groups in the Global Justice Movement poses a challenge because they encompass a multiplicity of identities, ideologies, issues, frames, collective action repertoires, and organizational forms. This article analyzes the process of collective identity formation in three anti‐capitalist globalization groups in Madrid, Spain, based on 3 years of ethnographic fieldwork. The author argues that for new groups practicing participatory democracy the regular face‐to‐face assemblies are the crucial arena in which collective identity can form and must be both effective and participatory in order to foster a sense of commitment and belonging. The article raises the possibility that scholars should consider what seems to be an oxymoron: the possible benefits of “failure” for social movements.     

城市民生的制度保障

民生保障与收入相关,但更重要的是一种制度保障。中国城市发展要从＂中等收入＂进入＂中等发达＂水平,民生标准是一个必须逾越的门槛。＂排他性＂的民生安排必须转向＂包容性＂的民生保障。民生保障并不是＂均贫富＂,而是要保障社会弱势群体的基本权益。     

Paid Maternal and Parental Leave Legislation and Primary Prevention

Abstract

For child development, the first three years are crucial to foundations for emotional and mental health, for toilet training and vocabulary development, and for the precipitation of conscience and essential inner controls. For this reason, these are also the primary prevention years during which marital intactness and paid maternal and parental leave benefits are of crucial importance. A comparative social policy review of the status of parental leave legislation in North America and in Europe confirms that the United States is far behind.     

Care of the dying child. The demands of ethics

The identification of terminally ill children is a crucial task for e care providers--but one they resist. Acknowledgement of a child's impending death permits both family and caregivers to help the child come to terms with his or her "illness-reality."     

Constructing climate capitalism: corporate power and the global climate policy‐planning network

In this article, I analyse the corporate hegemonic structures of power underlying the project of climate capitalism. I present climate capitalism as an emerging regime of accumulation founded on carbon markets and the ecological modernization of production, which could replace the prevalent carboniferous capitalist regime and provide a deeply needed reduction of carbon emissions. I map out the network of corporate‐funded climate and environmental policy groups participating in climate capitalist knowledge production and mobilization to provide a critical appraisal of the possibility of such a transition. The positioning of these policy groups allows them to play a crucial role as intermediaries between regional and sectoral corporate interests and they provide a crucial link between energy and financial firms. However, energy–finance linkages are sparse, and a small number of individual capitalists carry a relatively thin network from the fossil fuel and nuclear sectors. These findings cast doubt on the hypothesis that a strong climate capitalist coalition is emerging.     

Gender and the Transmission of Civic Engagement: Assessing the Influences on Youth Civic Activity*

The study of civic activity has become a central focus for many social scientists over the past decade, generating considerable research and debate. Previous studies have largely overlooked the role of youth socialization into civic life, most notably in the settings of home and school. Further, differences along gender lines in civic capacity have not been given sufficient attention in past studies. This study adds to the literature by examining the potential pathways in the development of youth civic activity and potential, utilizing both gender‐neutral and gender‐specific structural equation modeling of data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey. Results indicate that involvement by parents in their child’s schooling plays a crucial, mediating role in the relationship between adult and youth civic activity. Gender differences are minimal; thus adult school involvement is crucial for transmitting civic culture from parents to both female and male youth.     

A note on current research of immigrant groups in Japan

"This article seeks to present a statistical summary of Japan's immigrant groups and a review of current research on these groups, with the aim of discovering what crucial ethnic problems are faced both by the immigrant groups and the Japanese people themselves."     

Clinical assessment of maladjusted preschool children

The authors stress that total assessment prior to intervention is crucial, including standardized testing, observations of behavior, developmental history, and play interview. Techniques presented provide a holistic approach for evaluating the referred preschool child.     

The terrible adventure of rehabilitation

Friendship with patients, caregivers are taught during their professional training, is to be avoided. Yet the capacity for friendship--to be "a person who emerges in her personhood and not simply as a professional"--may be crucial to effective therapy.     

稳中求进 开放转型——2012／2013年上海对外开放形势分析

2012年是上海创新驱动、转型发展的攻坚之年,也是加快推进“四个中心”建设、不断扩大对外开放的关键之年。上海认真贯彻落实国家宏观部署,正确处理快变量与慢变量、内变量与外变量的辨证关系,积极把握当前世界经济格局调整的重大机遇,充分利用先行先试的政策效应,坚持实施以开放促进发展、以开放带动改革的总体战略,努力营造经济社会文化协同开放、同步发展、共同繁荣的对外开放新格局。展望2013年,国内外不确定因素仍然存在,上海要积极把握客观规律,遵循国家战略引领,务实创新,大胆实践,稳中求进,蓄势转型,努力建设成为我国对外开放的新高地。     

Child welfare workplace: the state of the workforce and strategies to improve retention

Child welfare systems throughout the United States are being closely scrutinized as sensational cases appear in the media in nearly every state. At the federal level, with the Child and Family Service Review process, the government is documenting that states across the country are not conforming to federal child welfare requirements (DHHS, 2007) put in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children. One of the most crucial underlying causes of these inadequacies is a workforce that lacks the manpower for the tasks it confronts. To meet performance standards for the seven major Adoption and Safe Family Act child welfare safety outcomes, child protection agencies must stop the outward flow of staff from the workplace. This paper presents a study examining correlates related to retention. It was found supervisors and co-workers play a crucial role in the retention of workers. Strategies are presented aimed at assisting states in ways to slow the turnover rate of workers in child welfare.     

Foster parenting: A developmental model

This paper proposes a developmental framework for foster parents and outlines four distinct growth stages. Such a framework can be of value to program administrators who are required to assess foster parent development during the crucial matching process. To draw a distinction between each developmental stage, specific instrumental tasks and indicators are outlined.     

地铁经济与广州国家中心城市建设

地铁经济对城市的发展具有重要作用。广州正在建设国家中心城市,通过地铁建设带动产业发展,提升城市竞争力,是一个不容忽视的战略选择。文章就此提出了具体的政策建议。