From Social Insurance to Social Assistance

In attempting to establish a social security system that would function to smooth the transition from a planned to market economy, the government of China has, for most of the time in the past decades, focused its efforts on setting up social insurance programs in the urban areas. Along with the emergence of urban poverty since the mid 1990s, the emphasis of the government has shifted to means-tested social assistance programs as the major means to combat poverty and maintain social stability. However, with the absence of more equitable social and economic policies that can protect people against the many risks associated with a market economy, the role of social assistance is very limited.     

Questioning Contingency in Social Life: Roles,Agreement and Agency

Structure/agency theories presuppose that there is a unity to structure that distinguishes it from the (potential) diversity of agents' responses. In doing so they formally divide the robust social processes shaping the social world (structure) from contingent agential variation (agency). In this article we question this division by critically evaluating its application to the concept of role in critical realism and structural functionalism. We argue that Archer, Elder‐Vass and Parsons all mistakenly understand a role to have a singular structural definition which agents may then diverge from. Drawing on the work of Gross, Mason and McEachern we argue instead that if agents diverge in their conceptions of what role incumbents should do, there is no single role definition, but rather a range of diverse role‐expectations. Acknowledging this can help us to understand variation in role behaviour, with different incumbents potentially being more exposed to some expectations than others. We argue that considering roles in this way can extend the ability of social scientists to identify robust social processes shaping role behaviour and decrease the extent to which they need to call on contingent factors in such explanations.     

State Social Work and Social Citizenship in Britain: From Clientelism to Consumerism

Correspondence to John Harris, University of Warwick, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. E-mail: J.Harris{at}warwick.ac.uk Summary Marshall's formulation of ‘social citizenship’ embodieda depoliticized understanding of what was seen as a given, progressiveand irreversible stage of societal development, which encompassedthe provision of state social work. A consequence of this approachwas the failure to situate social citizenship in a specificpolitical and policy context; in Marshall's case, the post-warBritish social democratic welfare state. Within this, a morecentral position was secured for state social work, throughits unification and incorporation into bureau-professional regimeswhich were made responsible for responding to citizens' socialneeds as clients of the state. The New Right's attack on theinstitutionalization of social citizenship in bureau-professionalregimes included the accusation that state social work had infringedservice users' rights and produced a passive, dependent clientele.The New Right's alternative formulation of the ‘consumer-citizen’led to the development of a new political consensus on socialcitizenship. Beginning from an acceptance of this consensus,procedural rights are seen as one way of extending social citizenshipin state social work and as a precursor to the possibility ofwider participation by service users in its provision.     

从"论证性的哲学"到"描述性的哲学"——由超越语言使用过程中的"二分法"所想到的

"论证性的哲学"是以形式逻辑为基础的"有立场"的哲学传统,其语言使用上的特色是立足"真"与"假"对立的一分为二传统;"描述性的哲学"去除语言使用过程中包括形式逻辑在内的一切前提条件,诉诸一种不断自指或返回自身的"中性"语言,这种语言从古老的语言悖论现象中获得了巨大的启示,消解了各种人为划定的学科之间的界限,使哲学敞开了崭新的精神面貌.     

From Bawdyhouse to Cabaret: The Evolution of the Tango as an Expression of Argentine Popular Culture

While most readers will be generally familiar with the tango, few of us know very much about its fascinating history and evolution. Deborah Jakubs makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of this initially working-class cultural form, which was at first disdained and then appropriated by the Argentine middle and upper classes. She traces its origins in the lower class neighborhoods on the outskirts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, its exportation to major European cultural centers, and finally its repatriation to Argentina where it has become a symbol of tradition and national identity. The author ably leads us through the maze of studies that historians, sociologists, musicologists and others have generated over the last hundred years. She examines some of the tango's principal themes in order to delineate its cultural significance within Argentine society in general and within Buenos Aires in particular. We come away from this article much more cognizant of how a popular cultural form can function in the formation of a nation's identity.     

从理性选择到社会选择

基于“理性人”(或“经济人”)的基本 假设,经济学通过对变量的严格限制而发展 了一套解释人类行动的精致理论和数学模型,并在其学科发展的进程中将其解释范围和效力从最开始的微观行动过渡到宏观结构,从最开始的经济领域逐渐扩展到了整个社会领域,从而使自己成为“显学”,构筑起了“经济学帝国主义”的大厦。社会学作为后起之秀,虽然一开始就极力反对“经济人”的假设和以理性行动涵盖人类全部行为的处理方法,坚持自己的“社会人”假设,但由于非理性行动解释的困难影响以及个体主义方法论的推动,也逐渐把理性与理性行动作为一个十分重要的分析范畴。作为研究人类社会规律的社会科学,经济学和社会学在此解     

Convergence in the Social Welfare Systems in Europe: From Goal to Reality

The history of the social welfare systems in Europe in the postwar period appears as autonomous national processes because the construction of Europe which imposed common rules in many areas was equally consistent with the national development of social welfare systems, within each national culture. However, the idea of a common system of social protection has always remained linked to political and economic European construction which would create a more cohesive society. Many studies have analysed the trend of specific social policies and their convergence or divergence in Europe. Therefore, global convergence is often conceived as resulting from the domestic dynamics of each social risk. The paper focuses on one specific topic: the quantitative evaluation of convergence among the EU and OECD countries at the macroeconomic level. In the first part we explain the construction of social indicators which can assess the convergence or divergence of social expenditure in EU and OECD countries. In the second part we show many methodological problems and difficulties of interpretation of the social indicators. Then we see that the analysis of national trajectories of social expenditure and the link with economic development can enrich the analysis of convergence in social protection. Finally, the empirical analysis supports the idea of “adjustment” reforms rather than radical changes in a transitional period.     

从二元论到二重性:布迪厄社会观理论研究

布迪厄反对将社会看作实体性的物质结构,以为这一结构能够被感知和触摸;也反对将社会看作是种种表象和意志,呈现于主体性的感悟中.进而言之,他反对在社会与个人、物质与精神、结构与行动等二元论范式中寻求社会所在.就此而言,布迪厄的社会观,是将社会看作是实践者及其文化所型构而成的有机生命体.这一特定的社会观,建基于他对"doxa"概念的阐释.场域与习性则构成了一种具体的二重性存在.由此,布迪厄展开了其唯物主义人类学的分析.     

社会学研究方法论的转向:从实证传统到另类范式

在社会学研究中,如何确定研究对象,如何确立研究关系,以及如何才能获得对研究对象的正确认识和理解?这些是社会学研究领域一直争论不休的问题。从实证主义到人文主义,再到"另类"范式,社会学并未获得统一的方法论体系,对方法论进行探讨的目的是要在反思之中对研究方法保持足够的警觉,避免"为方法而方法"的倾向。     

From Pavement to Piazza: Grassroots Social Work to Counteract the Globalization of Marginality

This paper—inspired by the experience of grassroots social work in Naples begun by M. Borrelli in the 1950s—emphasizes that “consciousness‐raising” and “community development” can be useful processes to stimulate responsible social participation on the part of the most marginal individuals and groups. To overcome a bureaucratic and pietistic model of the welfare state which serves in the long run to increase their dependence and socio‐cultural subordination, there is a need for alternative social policies, capable of improving people's empowerment and social citizenship. Giving more resources and decision‐making power to the most marginal could amount to changing an unfair and oppressive society from the roots up. This goal remains a moral imperative for both professional and voluntary social workers who believe in a fair, non‐violent and ecological model of development. Unfortunately, in Italy as elsewhere, neo‐liberal reforms of welfare states are tending in the opposite direction, partly as a result of out‐of‐date functionalist theories and by means of a worrying process of welfare marketization and globalization that actually increases the exclusion and marginality of the lower classes. This paper takes issue with current neo‐liberal trends by returning to a territory‐based and resident‐focused image of social work. This way, non‐profit agencies can play a more active and stimulating role in support of communitarian networks and help avoid the risk of the Third Sector's alternative spur being compromised by the otherwise “commodification” of welfare. Only in this way might one stop the transformation of non‐profit organizations into mere private providers for a buyer/controller state, more business‐minded than really concerned with freeing the poor and the marginal “underclass” from subordination and exclusion.     

国家间信任研究的路径比较:从博弈论到社会网络分析

国家间信任是关乎合作与冲突的重要议题,对不确定的国际体系而言尤为重要。梳理现有的研究文献,笔者归纳出国家间信任分析的三种主路径,它们的思路存在较大差异:博弈论从理性选择角度分析信任关系对成本支出的改变,进而影响合作建立与维持;合法化机制一方面从强式制度主义出发解释制度结构对信任的制约,另一方面也从弱势规范意义上分析了信任与规范、身份的关系,它认为国家选择信任除了利益动机之外还有被社会承认的合法化需要;网络分析则关注社会关系如何孕育信任,"嵌入性"视角试图在宏观与微观分析之间建立"第三条道路"。梳理、评介不同的研究路径有助于促进国际信任研究的发展。     

Minimum income in the Western Balkans: From socialism to the European Pillar of Social Rights

In this article, we examine the evolution of minimum income programmes in the Western Balkans (comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). During socialism, Yugoslavia developed a rudimentary minimum income protection programme, while Albania did not have one. As countries moved towards a market economy, socialism's legacy remained relevant, but especially since 2000, governments have taken more direct responsibility for the minimum income schemes—typically under the influence of the World Bank. The attention was paid to strict targeting accuracy rather than to adequacy or sufficient coverage of the lowest deciles. In essence, neither socialist nor neoliberal policymakers ever recognised anything but the poverty relief function of the minimum income. Both ideologies were hostile, or at best indifferent, to increasing the adequacy and generosity of minimum income programmes, perceiving them as impediments and distractions that slowed socialist and neoliberal transformations. Despite some reform initiatives supported by the World Bank and, more recently, the European Union, the generosity and adequacy of minimum income programmes remain low, and coverage keeps declining. There have been very few efforts to develop inclusion function of the minimum income, while the activation aspect has achieved very little, sometimes degrading into punitive programmes of unpaid community work. In this dismal picture, the European Pillar of Social Rights action framework could serve as a guide for a long overdue third phase in the Western Balkans' minimum income policy evolution.     

批判诠释学视野下的社会工作——从对实证主义社会工作的反思谈起

实证主义在社会工作理论和实务的发展中发挥着重要的影响,而各种反实证主义思潮的论争则使社会工作有了更多视角和面向,在这其中批判诠释学是一支重要的力量。本文对实证主义传统下的社会工作模式进行了一些反思,在此基础上,讨论了批判诠释学对实证主义传统的批评和对社会工作理论和实务的影响。