Relationalism through Social Robotics

Social robotics is a rapidly developing industry‐oriented area of research, intent on making robots in social roles commonplace in the near future. This has led to rising interest in the dynamics as well as ethics of human‐robot relationships, described here as a nascent relational turn. A contrast is drawn with the 1990s’ paradigm shift associated with relational‐self themes in social psychology. Constructions of the human‐robot relationship reproduce the “I‐You‐Me” dominant model of theorising about the self with biases that (as in social constructionism) consistently accentuate externalist or “interactionist” standpoints as opposed to internalist or “individualistic”. Perspectives classifiable as “ecological relationalism” may compensate for limitations of interactionist‐individualistic dimension. Implications for theorising subjectivity are considered.     

Geriatric enrichment: guaranteeing a place for aging in the curriculum

Two years ago, the School of Social Work embarked upon a new and challenging initiative to create sustainable structural changes that enrich gerontological learning experiences for all our BSW and MSW students, faculty, fieldwork instructors and community practitioners. We envisioned that participation in this initiative would enable us to expand and embed geriatric content in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, to increase our geriatric fieldwork placement opportunities, to evaluate and enhance our teaching and learning resources on aging, and to develop two new aging specific courses. Having reached our third year of operation, we find ourselves reflecting on what have been our successes, what could we have done differently, and where do we go in the future. This article will describe our process of developing a model of curriculum change that will guarantee a place for aging in both our undergraduate and graduate curricula.     

Global Topographies: The Spiritual, the Social and the Geographical in the Missionary Movement from the West

The modern missionary movement has contributed profoundly not only to changing the religious topography of this globe—approximately one-third of the world's population is Christian now—but also, often enough, it has changed the social topography as well. Missionary activity is still one of the major agents of global transformation in the twentieth century. This paper looks at some of the driving machines of transformation, namely the images, visions, and concepts of time, space and global social change that were produced within the missionary movement as part of its spiritual topography. Three motivational trends are identified, each of which represents a fundamentally different way of approaching non-western space and time and thus leads to different models of missionary social intervention: the emancipative-integrationist approach, the racist-imperialistic attitude, and the egalitarian-inversionist trend. The overall findings of this paper are, perhaps, more or less ambivalent: visions of human salvation and global social change, missionary or other, are historically powerful. Necessary as they are for the life of humankind, global visions ought to be handled with care. They need to be tested and discussed, particularly with those who are targeted.     

“Playthings of the Brain”: Phantom Visions in Charles Bonnet Syndrome

Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS) is a condition of the visually impaired, in which hallucinations – or, more appropriately, visions – of geometric patterns, people, and objects appear within the visual field. Most people with CBS are older adults, a function of increased likelihood of visual deterioration in later life, but the condition can occur at any age. Diagnostic criteria vary among professions, but generally includes awareness that the visions are not real, the absence of other accompanying sensory hallucinations, and the absence of dementia or other neurological condition. The mechanism by which the phenomenon occurs is not well understood, although some speculation exists that it is akin to phantom limb syndrome. Although there has recently been increasing awareness about the condition, many in the fields of medicine, optometry, and social work have not heard of it. As front-line providers for clients, it is important that social workers be well informed about the condition to alleviate anxiety our clients may have about expressing their experiences with the condition.     

Ticking Boxes and Changing the Social World: Data Collection and the New UK General Practice Contract

The new General Medical Services contract was introduced into general practice in the UK in 2004, and it links pay to performance far more than in the past. As a result, accurate data collection about patients and the care that they receive is now not only important for good patient care but also to prove that targets are being met. The use of electronic records and information technology has thus become much more sophisticated. This article reports the results from an ethnographic study of the early stages of the new contract in two general practices. As expected, electronic data collection had increased in importance in both practices, with consequences both for clinician–patient interactions and for the structures and processes in the practices, as uniform data collection instruments are put in place that privilege ‘hard’ biomedical data that can be easily coded above ‘softer’, more patient-centred information. Roles and responsibilities had been changed to reflect the needs of the new systems, and new software applications allowed increased surveillance of both doctors’ and nurses’ performance; both of these had an impact on patterns of authority in our study practices. Furthermore, the structural changes that were found acted to embed the new ways of working, ensuring their reproduction in the future. In spite of these effects, we found little opposition to or critical reflection on the changes, and the doctors in our study continued to view their improved computer systems as neutral recording devices. The implication of these findings is discussed.     

Fighting the COVID pandemic: National policy choices in non-pharmaceutical interventions

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed countries to adopt various non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Due to the features of the pandemic, which spread over time and space, governments could decide whether or not to follow policy choices made by leaders of countries affected by the virus before them. In this study, we aim to empirically model the adoption of NPIs during the first wave of COVID-19 in the 14 European countries with more than 10 million inhabitants, in order to detect whether a policy diffusion mechanism occurred. By means of a multivariate approach based on Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis, we manage to derive three clusters representing different behaviour models to which the different European countries belong in the different periods of the first wave: pre-pandemic, summer relaxation and deep-lockdown scenarios. These results bring a two-fold contribution: on the one hand, they may help us to understand differences and similarities among European countries during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak and guide future quantitative or qualitative studies; on the other, our findings suggest that with minor exceptions (such as Sweden and Poland), different countries adopted very similar policy strategies, which are likely to be due more to the unfolding of the pandemic than to specific governmental strategies.     

论民营科技企业融资

民营科技企业以其灵活的内部机制,在我国向市场经济转型的过程中,成为促进高新技术成果产业化的生力军.然而,当民营科技企业向纵深发展时,资金匮乏成为制约其发展的瓶颈.解决融资难,应创造良好的融资环境,银行提供更有力的信贷支持、拓宽融资渠道、建立民营科技企业担保资金.     

The Techno-Thriller--Here and Now

The scholars who teach in universities and other higher schools are always concerned for the future: that is a function of their profession. To a considerable degree, their work is for the future. This is all the more true in our day, when the already major role of institutions of higher learning in the advancement of science, technology, production, and culture is rising at amazingly rapid rates. One of the most critical periods in the life of an educational institution occurs when it accepts people for admission. The quality of the specialists it trains is largely dependent upon the abilities of the new students it admits. The scholarly value of a lecture or seminar is determined, after all, not only by who is on the rostrum, but by who is in the audience.     

Promises and Possibilities: The Application of Research in the Area of Child Maltreatment to Policies and Practices

In this closing commentary, we discuss the policy implications of research concerning child maltreatment. We describe the links between the topics reviewed in this special issue and interventions for child victims as well as the state of research concerning consequences of maltreatment more broadly. We further discuss the implications of current research for policy and practice. We close by describing important directions not only for future research, but also for interventions to reduce adverse effects of maltreatment on children. Throughout our commentary, we highlight limitations in the application of empirical findings to actual child victims and we offer concrete suggestions for ways of improving this applicability.     

The ADHD treasure hunt: a group intervention using a social model approach to disability

ABSTRACT

This article describes the ADHD Treasure Hunt - a groupwork model that integrates the spirit of a social model of disability into therapeutic practice with parents and children. Following a discussion on the discourse and controversy over the nature and treatment of ADHD in Western society, we evaluate our intervention in terms of its usefulness in addressing a family’s sense of helplessness and frustration in the face of social interactions. The model also focuses on helping the families recognize the value of their own experiential knowledge. We examine the contributions of the model to current practice as well as offer future directions for its development.     

Under economic adjustment programs,do private sector wages respond to changes in public wages and employment?

We examine the spillovers from changes in public sector wages and employment on private sector wages. Using a panel VAR model, we show that changes in public sector wages have a greater effect on private sector wages than changes in public sector employment. We motivate our analysis using the Economic Adjustment Program for Greece, and a simple theoretical model. The empirical validity of these effects is verified through a series of robustness tests. These results have important implications on the evaluation of the recent EU Economic Adjustment Programs and the future design of Internal Devaluation strategies.     

论知识休闲的必然性

社会进步赋予公众更多的休闲时间,也赋予休闲更多的知识内涵,进步的社会观念推动公众选择高雅的休闲,因此,休闲活动的知识化是社会进步的必然要求。随着科学技术的发展,教育与其他知识活动都趋向休闲化,提供知识服务的公共场所,也越来越休闲化,而且必定在科技高度发达的未来社会里能够做到真正休闲化,因此,知识活动的休闲化是科技发展的必然结果。人类文明的发展方向是全社会成员都享有高度的自由,都能全面发展,并处于高度和谐的社会关系中,这需要通过知识休闲去实现。知识休闲必将成为全社会都享有的生活形态,知识休闲的社会化是人类文明发展的必然方向。     

农民工城镇化现状与前景

本论文运用年龄结构—生命周期方法分析农民工就业状况对他们城镇化的影响。基于中国企业用工年轻化、农民工失业中年化的现状,论文首先运用年龄结构—生命周期模型进行了估算,指出为了全家城镇化,农民工夫妻婚后一般需要连续工作30 年。在此基础上,论文构建了农民工工作寿命表,用以估算中国具备城镇化最低限度经济能力的农民工总量。考虑到未来企业用工年龄结构的变化,预计2006年时年龄在 30岁以下的6900多万农民工及其家属都已具备在城镇定居的最起码的经济条件。     

Arguments for the cognitive social sciences

This article analyses the arguments for the integration between the cognitive and social sciences. We understand interdisciplinary integration as an umbrella term that includes different ways of bringing scientific disciplines together. Our focus is on four arguments based on different ideas about how the cognitive sciences should be integrated with the social sciences: explanatory grounding, theoretical unification, constraint and complementarity. These arguments not only provide different reasons why the cognitive social sciences—i.e. disciplines and research programs that aim to integrate the social sciences with the cognitive sciences—are needed but also subscribe to different visions as to how these sciences might look like. We discuss each argument in three stages: First, we provide a concrete example of the argument. Second, we reconstruct the argument by specifying its premises, inferential structure and conclusion. Third, we evaluate the argument by analyzing its presuppositions, the plausibility of its premises, the soundness of its inferences and potential conceptual ambiguities. In the final discussion, we compare these arguments and identify the most compelling reasons why the cognitive social sciences are needed.     

On matrix probabilities in nonarchimedean decision theory

In an earlier paper, we axiomatized a lexicographic expected utility model for preference in decision under uncertainty that is patterned on the models of Ramsey and Savage but omits their Archimedean axioms. Our model has the unusual feature that subjective probabilities are matrices that premultiply utility vectors in the lexicographic representation of preference between acts. Our purpose here is to analyze the model in relation to the Ramsey-Savage theory along with other models that have a lexicographic feature. A point of departure is Savage's postulate P4, whose purpose is to weakly order hisis more probable than relation on events. This postulate does not hold in our model and we therefore encounter incomparability between events. The paper explores the nature of incomparability, which can be widespread in high-dimensional situations. We include special cases of our model that retain a lexicographic component but also satisfy P4.     

Money and Swedish inflation

Analysing the role of money for Swedish inflation, we apply a single equation “P-Star” model and a structural VECM for the period of the late 1980s to the beginning of 2005. Against the background of theoretical and empirical considerations, we find that money – when measured by the “price gap” or, alternatively, the “money overhang” – had a statistically significant impact on future price movements. The results suggest that money might have to play a more prominent role in monetary policy making in Sweden compared with the status quo.     

‘‘With the greatest respect and fidelity:’ a Cherokee vision of the ‘Trust’ doctrine”

The trust relationship is the conceptual/philosophical framework against which all relations between the federal government and indigenous groups are conducted. Yet despite the centrality of this concept, federal policymakers have no consistent or agreed upon definition of what the trust relationship actually entails (Wilkins, 1997). And, more importantly, indigenous conceptions of trust have rarely been assessed. This article analyzes and advances one tribe's—the Cherokee—perspective on trust. In focusing on how the Cherokee perceive trust, this section emphasizes that from an indigenous viewpoint the trust relationship embodies a complex and sophisticated understanding that both the tribe and the United States have reciprocal responsibilities to maintain positive relations towards one another. The leaders of the Cherokee people—one of the more diverse indigenous groups— understood in the federal government's actions, whether these were expressed in treaties, policy statements, congressional laws, or court decisions, that the federal government was pledged to protect Cherokee property and sovereignty, would act with utmost integrity in its legal and political dealings with the people, and would insure that the United States political and judicial representatives would act in a moral manner regarding the tribe's rights. Notwithstanding the federal government's tremendous variety of treaty and trust violations, the Cherokee conception of trust is regenerative from generation to generation. This breathes new life into a seasoned concept and offers hope for the often difficult political/legal relations between the federal, state, and tribal governments. And here we beg leave to ask of our father that, in future transactions of a public nature between the United States and our nation, the American Government will not require of our nation any thing which, as our protectors and guardians, they will not, after due deliberation, advise us to comply with; and having no doubt of the magnanimity and benignity of the Government, we shall return home satisfied, and report to our nation the result of our mission to this. With the greatest respect and fidelity, we subscribe our names (Going Snake, et al., 1817, p. 147)     

Citizenship, Volunteering and Active Ageing

Many voluntary organizations depend greatly on the unpaid services of older volunteers, a significant number of whom are women. At the same time, shifts in welfare policy have been towards emphasizing individual economic autonomy and self-provisioning, often to the detriment of older, more vulnerable members of society. Using data from an organization working for and with older people in the North-East of England and through in-depth qualitative interviews, our study found that volunteering is an expression of citizenship for older people. In our analysis, we identify two strands in the meanings of citizenship for older people: volunteering as leisure and work, and volunteering as care and civic consciousness. These correspond with liberal conceptualizations of citizenship and republican models of citizenship. Data from our in-depth interviews demonstrate a strong commitment to society and fellow citizens among older people that counterbalances individualistic and instrumental reasons for volunteering promoted by the state and market. Our findings suggest that government views of volunteering as a route to paid work, as a panacea for society and therefore needing to be more 'work-like', are discordant with the perspectives of older volunteers. Rather than the neo-liberal views of the 'citizen-worker' or 'citizen-consumer', citizenship that is based on the 'common good' and feminist perspectives of 'caring citizenship' are arguably more beneficial to society. Finally, we describe the pressures and constraints facing older people that could discourage formal volunteering in the future.     

Integration of Information Technology and Single-System Designs

This paper employs a model of innovation diffusion to examine current issues and concerns related to the use of single-system design and its relationship to information technology. The paper will review emerging work in the area of single-system methodology and information technology, and suggest future directions on how the integration of the two innovations might benefit practitioners and clients in the human services.     

Loss volatility,bankruptcy, and the demand for reinsurance

Insurers in our model reinsure to lower the risk of bankruptcy. In the conceptual part of the study, we show that given bankruptcy cost, reinsurance may be demanded even if the insurer is risk-neutral. The model allows us to assess how the insurer's surplus, size, and volatility of losses affect the amount of reinsurance the insurer purchases. As predicted by our comparative statics analysis, we find empirically that property/casualty and medical malpractice insurers with higher prereinsurance loss volatility, lower surplus-to-premium ratios, and smaller sizes demand more reinsurance.