John Dewey’s social psychology and neopragmatism: theoretical foundations of human agency and social reconstruction

John Dewey’s social psychology arose within the intellectual context of the nature-nurture controversy and the transition from laissez-faire to étatise liberalism. These ideas were themselves enveloped within the progression from competitive to corporate capitalism. Dewey’s Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology (1922/1957), argued that choice and deliberation–agency–characterized human nature rather than behaviorism and determinism. Dewey’s ideas also furnished a social-psychological justification for social reform through education as a way to imbue individuals with intelligent habits and, in the process, to reconstruct society. Neopragmatists Richard Rorty, Cornel West, and Charlene Haddock Seigfried charge that race, class, and gender, subsumed under the broader category of structural analysis, were ignored by Dewey and other pragmatists. Thus a final section connects this new line of inquiry to Dewey, highlighting differences and similarities.     

Levels or worlds of welfare? Assessing social rights and social stratification in Northern and Southern countries

Since Esping‐Andersen's Three Worlds, it has become a truism of welfare state research that welfare states do not vary linearly along a single dimension but have to be conceptualized as multidimensional phenomena that cluster into types caused by the political economy of class coalitions. However, when moving beyond the 18 original countries of Esping‐Andersen's analysis, the situation is less clear. Although additional worlds have been identified in the Global North and the Global South, these are usually not conceptualized along the same dimensions as the original three worlds and are rarely empirically compared with them. This paper tackles these omissions by explicitly comparing Northern and Southern countries within Esping‐Andersen's framework. It poses the question whether the central insight of welfare state research, namely, that there are not just gradual differences between welfare states, but different types with qualitative differences, expands beyond classic welfare states. Based on newly generated data on social rights and social stratification, we employ cluster analysis with 45 Northern and Southern countries. This analysis produces mixed results. We do find different types of welfare states with qualitative differences, but these do not fully correspond to Esping‐Andersen's Three Worlds. Moreover, our findings also point to a conceptual issue in welfare regime research: regimes are not just defined and measured in terms of different logics of welfare provision but also take into account degrees of welfare stateism. We argue that this issue is poised to become ever more pressing with the geographical expansion of welfare state research.     

Sensing Cittàslow: Slow Living and the Constitution of the Sensory City

ABSTRACT

In 2004 Aylsham, Norfolk, became Britain's second Cittàslow Town (Slow City). Embedded within the slow living ideology of Cittàslow is the assumption that the “better” life it advocates involves heightened sensory experience and concomitant pleasure. In contrast to contemporary fast life, it wishes that “suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment [may] preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency” (The Slow Food Companion 2005: 6). In the first part of the paper I analyze how the sensory elements of slow living are represented in the Cittàslow and related Slow Food movement's literature. Then, based on my ethnographic fieldwork centered on Aylsham's Cittàslow events and projects, I examine how the routine and creative sensory practices of the individuals who produce and participate in Cittàslow policies and activities are constitutive of a “sensory city.”     

Building professional competence – the new focus of social work education in Taiwan

This article aims at introducing social work education in Taiwan with the emphasis of required field work practicum in the programmes. The first section is an introduction with numbers and facts, using the passage of the Professional Social Worker Act in 1997 as the watershed to look at the pace and direction of social work education developments in Taiwan; the second section is a summary of a social work professional competence study in Taiwan to analyse the differences between school faculty and field supervisors in comprehending students' core competence; thirdly is to illustrate the response from education programme of enhancing scheme of social work field practicum, using the case of the National Taiwan University, followed by a conclusion.

本文旨在介紹台灣社會工作教育及在课程中尤為著重的必修科目 – 社會工作實習。 文章的第一部分是附有統計數字及事实的简介, 利用1997年通過的社會工作者專业法案作為分水嶺, 以分析台灣社會工作教育的發展步伐及方向; 第二部份是台灣社會工作專業能力的研究總結, 以分析學院及前線社会工作督導在理解學生的核心能力上, 有何差別; 第三部份主要引用台灣大學为例子, 說明在教育课程如何作出回应, 改善社会工作实习的课程, 最後是论文的结论。     

Public support for the social rights and social obligations of the unemployed: Two sides of the same coin?

In light of the ever‐growing shift towards activation in European welfare states, the present article examines the relationship between citizens’ welfare generosity (i.e., support for social rights) and welfare conditionality (i.e., support for social obligations) with regard to the unemployed. Using data from the 2014 Belgian National Elections Study, we found that generosity and conditionality appear to be two sides of the same coin. The two factors are negatively correlated, and most of their respective attitudinal drivers are quite similar in strength, yet opposite in direction. In addition to self‐interest and conventionally recognised ideational beliefs, such as egalitarianism and individualism, beliefs about welfare deservingness – an explanatory factor that has remained understudied in the field – are particularly influential in shaping people’s welfare preferences. A stronger emphasis on criteria of deservingness such as control, attitude and reciprocity considerably lowers support for social rights and strengthens support for social duties.     

Adolescents’ perceptions of social risk and prosocial tendencies: Developmental change and individual differences

Many prosocial behaviors involve social risks such as speaking out against a popular opinion, bias, group norm, or authority. However, little is known about whether adolescents’ prosocial tendencies develop over time with their perceptions of social risks. This accelerated longitudinal study used within-subject growth-curve analyses to test the link between adolescents' prosocial tendencies and social risk perceptions. Adolescents completed self-reports annually for 3 years (N = 893; M_age = 12.30 years, 10–14 years at Wave 1, and 10–17 years across the full study period; 50% girls, 33% White non-Latinx, 27% Latinx, 20% African American, 20% mixed/other race). The association between social risk tolerance and prosocial tendencies changed significantly across adolescence. Specifically, for younger adolescents, more prosocial tendencies were associated significantly with less social risk tolerance, whereas for relatively older adolescents, more prosocial tendencies were associated marginally with more social risk tolerance. Additional individual differences by empathy (but not sensation seeking) emerged. These findings suggest that prosocial tendencies across adolescence may be associated with an underlying ability to tolerate social risks.     

The cross-border portability of social security benefits: Status and progress?

The importance of the cross-border portability of social benefits is increasing in parallel with the rise in the absolute number of international migrants and their share of the world population, and perhaps more importantly with the much higher and rising share of the world population that for some part of their life is working and/or retiring abroad. This article estimates how the rising stock of migrants is distributed over four key portability regimes ranging from portability through bilateral social security arrangements to undocumented workers with no access to any scheme. The comparison of estimates for 2000 and 2013 indicate a modest but noticeable increase in the share of migrants under regime I (full portability) by 1.4 per cent, but the biggest change occurred under regime III (no access to social security but also no contributions required), which almost doubled to 9.4 per cent. Regime II (potential exportability without totalization) reduced by 3.0 percentage points but remains the dominant scheme (at 53.2 per cent). The estimates suggest that the scope of regime IV (informality) reduced by 2.9 percentage points, accounting for 14.0 per cent of all migrants in 2013. This trend is positive, but more will need to be done to progress on benefit portability and various potential solutions lie outside bilateral agreements that are difficult to establish.     

Falling through the social safety net? Analysing non-take-up of minimum income benefit and monetary social assistance in Austria

Non-take-up of means tested benefits is a widespread phenomenon in European welfare states. The paper assesses whether the reform that replaced the monetary social assistance benefit by the minimum income benefit in Austria in 2010/11 has succeeded in increasing take up rates. We use EU-SILC register data together with the tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD/SORESI. The results show that the reform led to a significant decrease of non-take-up from 53 to 30% in terms of the number of households and from 51 to 30% in terms of expenditure. Following the three-t's (threshold, trigger, and trade-off) introduced by Van Oorschot, estimates of a two-stage Heckman selection model as well as expert interviews indicate that the taken measures include both threshold and trade-off characteristics. Elements such as the higher degree of anonymity within the claiming process, the provision of health insurance, binding minimum standards, the limitation of the maintenance obligations, new regulations related to the liquidation of wealth, as well as the general coverage of the benefit reform in the media and in public discussions led to an improved access to the benefit.     

Secure attachment and social and personality outcomes: The moderating role of emerging adults’ autobiographical memories of parents

Schema-congruent positive autobiographical memories of past experiences with parents, a legacy of secure attachment, may operate jointly with secure attachment to predict social and personality outcomes. The current study examines the moderating role of emerging adults’ autobiographical memories of parents on the relations between maternal and paternal attachment and self-regulation, personal distress, and pathological narcissism. Undergraduates (N = 156, 66.7% female, 53.2% White, M_age = 19.3) completed a battery of measures assessing secure attachment, self-regulation, personal distress, and pathological narcissism (vulnerable and grandiose). Participants were instructed to recall brief autobiographical memories of experiences with their parental figures. Later, they were asked to name the primary emotion associated with each memory. These emotions were coded as positive, negative, or neutral in valence. For the final analysis, a positive emotion index was constructed by subtracting the number of negative memories from the number of positive memories. Regression models simultaneously examining four outcomes (self-regulation, personal distress, and vulnerable and grandiose narcissism) were examined for both female and male parental figures. Interactions between secure attachment and positive memories were only significant for maternal model outcomes. Secure attachment was positively related to self-regulation, and negatively related to personal distress and vulnerable narcissism, when more relative positive memories were recalled. Taken together, this study provides support for the continued influence of secure attachment on social and personality outcomes in emerging adulthood. Further, this influence of secure attachment appears buttressed by readily accessible positive (relative to negative) memories of female attachment figures.     

Society without the social: the Spanish labour movement and the rise of the social, 1840–1880

Focusing on the Spanish case, this article addresses two fundamental questions: why were many unionized workers sceptical about state intervention in labour issues throughout the nineteenth century, and why did this attitude begin to change from the 1860s onwards? Its main thesis is that workers’ attitudes derived ultimately from different historical notions of ‘society’ that shaped their perceptions and experiences of labour relations and their attitude toward the role of the state. Thus, a notion of society as an aggregation of individuals shaped unionized Spanish workers’ hostility toward state intervention since the creation of the first unions in the 1840s. From the 1860s onward, a new conception of collective relations, namely ‘the social’, began to transform some workers’ expectations of the role of the state in labour conflicts. The main factor that explains this change, it is argued, lies in the relationship between the workers’ imaginary, their actions, and their expectations about these actions.     

Why do tenants leave social housing? Exploring residential and social mobility at the lowest rungs of Australia's socioeconomic ladder

Historically, social housing in Australia operated as a springboard for social mobility. For many working families, public housing tenancy was an opportunity to save for a house purchase deposit. Latterly, tenant exits from public to private housing have declined to very low levels. This has raised concerns about systemic barriers to residential and social mobility for social renters, and about the consequent longer waiting times for applicants in need of social housing. Drawing on administrative data collected by social housing providers in NSW and Victoria, and in‐depth interviews with 95 former and current social housing tenants in both states, this paper examines tenant attitudes, intentions and motivations as regards future house‐moves. We argue that the primary disincentives to exit relate to affordability and security of tenure in private rental, rather than factors related to the social housing system itself.     

Innovation policy configuration – a comparative study of Russia and China

This paper presents a study of innovation policy configurations in two BRICS countries, Russia and China; the fastest growing and most innovative countries in recent years. Employing a three-dimensional framework which maps policy objectives, policy instruments and policy implementation, the research analyzes a database of 485 policy items issued between 1990 and 2013. Twenty-five innovation policy variables have been scrutinized vis-à-vis the three policy dimensions. The paper compares the experiences of Russia with China, across these three policy dimension areas, revealing the similarities and differences in innovation policy configurations. The research identifies how innovation management in both Russia and China has been shaped by contrasting histories, state institutions and economies. The paper offers an alternative perspective to the debate on the effective management of innovation, a debate currently dominated by the experiences of the USA, Japan and Western Europe.     

Merleau-Ponty and Nagarjuna – Ethics Within the Self of the No-Self

This essay explores the concept of the self in the philosophies of Nagarjuna and Merleau-Ponty by examining how it is that, according to them, the self is empty and only conventionally real rather than intrinsically so. By analyzing the similarities between their philosophies, the essay aims to shed light on new ways of understanding perception, ethics, and our relationships with others. It will include an analysis of the no-self and the emptiness of entities, as well as an analysis of Merleau-Ponty's writings and philosophy to see how it is that, according to him, in order to better understand ourselves, we must understand the reality of our intersubjectivity and intertwining with the world. It will clearly be shown that Merleau-Ponty's existential phenomenology and the Madhyamikan school of thought coincide and offer powerful moral philosophies, while seeing the world as being completely separate from the self, distorts both our notions of ourselves and the world we are interconnected with. Virtue must be sought in samsara (perpetually being born into the world) and sunyata (emptiness that is itself empty of inherent existence), for samsara and nirvana (the end of karma) are one. [Correction added on 03 April 2023, after the first online publication: First two sentences of the Abstract have been modified.]     

What drives successful social networking services? A comparative analysis of user acceptance of Facebook and Twitter

This study identifies perceived mobility, security, connectedness, system and service quality, usefulness, attitude, and flow experience as key motivational factors for using social networking services (SNSs), and develops a theoretical model that explicates the process in which users adopt Facebook and Twitter by integrating these factors with the technology acceptance model (TAM). While results of structural equation modeling (SEM) on the collected data (N = 2,214) verified the validity and reliability of the research model, Facebook and Twitter users were found to emphasize different motivational factors when deciding to use SNSs. The implications of notable findings and directions for future studies are discussed.     

Adolescents and their networks of social support: real connections in real lives?

Social support is widely seen as an integral component for coping with the stresses of everyday life. While there are various sources and types of support potentially available to young people, it is perhaps less obvious the extent to which young people differentially experience these sources and types. Anecdotal evidence suggests that context, culture and other factors unique to local life shape the many dimensions of social support for youth. In this paper, we seek to examine this research need in more detail by focusing on a broad range of factors shaping youth social support and youth well‐being. Drawing on mixed methods research, we examine social support evidence for adolescents in Florida, USA, and Offaly, Ireland. Through this research, we investigate how the connection between social support and well‐being bears out in these two different socio‐cultural contexts; second, we seek to understand whether types and sources of social support differ among youth in both countries; and what relationship exists between well‐being and types and sources of support. Comparing similar measures of social support across two distinct societal contexts allows us to determine similarities and differences, while also providing suggestions for application that can shape future programmes and policy.