When what you have is not enough—Acquiring Australian qualifications to overcome non-recognition of overseas skills

Skilled migration is an important strategy in developed economies seeking to address skills shortages and population ageing. Research on the labour market outcomes of skilled migrants tends to focus on employers' devaluation of skills without considering the role of immigration policy in the migration process. Moreover, there is little understanding of whether efforts to meet employer demands for local qualifications improve labour market outcomes. Drawing on a study on skilled migrants sponsored under the State-Specific and Regional Migration Scheme in the regional state of South Australia, we explore the shaping of skills and skills recognition in the migration journey, particularly migrants' strategy of reskilling in response to employer demands for local qualifications. Our logistic regressions on the association between the acquisition of Australian qualifications and labour market outcomes reveal only marginal returns to these efforts. We argue that Australia should consider developing a more coherent skilled migration process to better harness the human capital of skilled migrants.     

政府信息公开的理论基础——多学科视角的探讨

政府信息公开的理论基础,可以在多学科视野之下加以探究:从信息学基础来看,信息的共享与信息的便利决定了政府信息必须向民众公开;从经济学基础来考察,信息的可交易性以及低廉的成本决定了公众有权获取和利用政府信息;从政治学与行政学基础来分析,政府信息公开是民主政治、民主(参与)行政和电子政务的当然之义;从法理观之,信息是一种权利形态,公民享有知情权,与之相对应的就是政府的公开义务;从国际法观之,政府信息公开还是中国政府的一项国际义务.只有从法律上规定政府信息公开义务,才能保证公民知情权的实现.     

浙江省新生代农民工继续教育状况研究

中共中央、国务院印发的《新时期产业工人队伍建设改革方案》提出,要帮助"新生代农民工增加受教育培训机会,提高专业技能和胜任岗位能力",并将教育作为促进农民工融入城市,成为稳定就业的产业工人的重要路径。以浙江省11个地级市的服务行业、建筑行业、制造业的从业人员为主要调查对象,了解浙江省新生代农民工接受继续教育的现状与特点,发现新生代农民工存在自身接受继续教育的动力意愿不足、企业进行职业技能培训投资的动力意愿不足等问题,并据此提出要做好终身教育宣传、搭建继续教育平台、优化在职培训模式等解决办法。     

A Rejoinder to Forman on AHP,with Emphasis on the Requirements of Composite Ratio Scales*

In an earlier paper [11], the problems of rank reversals and invalid composite priorities in AHP were addressed by modifications to the AHP procedure. That solution was subsequently criticized [5]. In this paper, we rebut these criticisms, and we show how rank reversals in AHP can arise merely from the process of normalizing local priorities.     

中国人均碳排放权分配方案预测研究

气候变化是21世纪最严重的全球性问题之一.即使《巴黎协议》获得通过,仍有许多国家采取各种方式拒绝承担减排责任.已有减排分配方案也多是临时性的,尚有许多争议.为了能更好地完善后续减排分配方案,很多学者都对国家减排责任的分配进行了探讨,但是由于以下缺点:否认发达国家需要承担的历史减排责任或发展中国家对未来的减排责任,因此不能提供更为公平的分配方案.在此背景下,文章旨在预测中国到2050年碳排放量,以人均碳排放量为基础,分析中国的碳排放权.     

当代社会思潮对青年的影响——基于对近十年相关研究的述评

研究社会思潮对青年的影响对于新形势下使青年树立和践行社会主义核心价值观具有重要意义。分析近10年的相关文献后发现,当代中国社会对青年有较大影响的思潮主要有新儒家思潮或文化保守主义思潮、实用主义思潮、自由主义思潮、历史主义思潮、新左派思潮、民族主义思潮、民主社会主义思潮和民粹主义思潮。此外还存在诸如后现代主义思潮、女权主义思潮、反全球化思潮、消费主义思潮等对青年影响力稍小但绝不容忽视的思潮。当代社会思潮深刻地影响了青年的信仰和价值观,导致青年政治意识表达方式变迁,影响青年文化体系的形成和变迁,而在这些过程中青年接受社会思潮影响的方式也在发生着变化。社会思潮影响下的青年思想引领主要有思想绝缘法、对象研究法、武器强化法和能力培养法。现有关于社会思潮对青年影响的研究存在着过分侧重定性研究和消极影响、到底如何影响是"黑箱"、研究成果呈现结构失衡等缺陷,需要针对这些缺陷寻找相应的研究进路。     

社会组织创新研究述评

公民社会部门的出现是20世纪最重要的社会创新,是一场深刻的“全球结社革命”。社会组织研究国外源远流长,著述丰硕,影响深远;国内在社会管理体制创新的推动下,社会组织创新日渐吸引眼球。整体来看,研究的学科、研究的领域、研究的成员在不断增多,研究趋势渐从社会组织管理创新的思想观念、创新路径、管理体制、困境与出路等方面,逐渐转向推进社会管理创新的政治和社会层面,以期促进各种认同的和谐共生关系的形成。     

The Aging Semantic Differential in Mandarin Chinese: Measuring Attitudes toward Older Adults in China

ABSTRACT

The Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) is the most widely used instrument to measure young people’s attitudes towards older adults. This study translated the ASD to Mandarin and examined its psychometric properties. The Mandarin-ASD contains three latent factors (Personality and Mental Health, Societal Participation, and Physical) that have high internal reliability and reasonable discriminate validity. Social work researchers, practitioners and allied professionals may utilize the ASD-Mandarin instrument to measure young people’s attitudes towards older adults in China. We issue a call for a universal-ASD that can be applied across different cultural contexts.     

Ambiguous Criteria Weights in AHP: Consequences and Solutions*

Two related streams of criticism of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) have not yet been satisfactorily resolved, although both date from the early 1980s. The first relates to ambiguity in the meaning of the relative importance of one criterion as compared to another. The second is concerned with reversals of rank alleged to be possible when new options are introduced in an AHP problem. Both proponents and critics of AHP agree that rank reversals occur, but disagree on the legitimacy of such reversals. This paper shows that there is a necessary correspondence between the manner in which criteria importances are interpreted and computed and the manner in which the weights of the options under each criterion are normalized. In general, if this relationship is ignored, incorrect weights are generated for options under consideration regardless of whether new options are added or deleted. A rank reversal on the addition of an option is merely symptomatic of this fact, and such reversals do not occur when the correspondence condition is met.     

Adolescents' perspectives on relationships with grandparents: The contribution of adolescent, grandparent, and parent–grandparent relationship variables

There is limited research on adolescent–grandparent relationships, especially from the adolescent perspective and on large-scale samples. The study examined the associations between the adolescent–grandparent relationship (i.e., importance of, emotional closeness to, and respect for grandparents' views) and the characteristics of the adolescent, grandparent, and parent–grandparent relationship, as well as the interactions between several of these factors. It was based on a representative sample of 1478 students aged 11–16 from England and Wales who completed a structured questionnaire. Results supported the position that grandparents are a significant factor in the lives of adolescents. Findings of hierarchical regression analyses showed that more frequent contact, greater grandparent involvement, and better parent–grandparent relationships predicted adolescents' reports on higher levels of emotional closeness to, importance of, and respect for their closest grandparent's views. The interactions consistently emphasized the role of parents as gatekeepers of intergenerational exchange.