Corporate Governance in Asian Countries: Has Confucianism Anything to Offer?

Although Confucianism is a resilient cultural tradition in Asian societies, its role in their corporate governance systems is ambiguous. Confucian values have been pushed to the periphery because of a preoccupation in these countries to emulate corporate governance systems from the West. This article argues that Confucianism has much to offer in enhancing director conduct and corporate governance standards. As the attention of the global business community turns eastwards, it is opportune to revive interest in Confucianism and to explore ways in which it can be integrated formally into companies' governance systems.     

论和谐人口

1和谐人口的提出及内涵人口发展目标一直是人口学研究的重要课题,甚至可以说自有人口研究以来,关于人口发展目标的研究一直是人口研究的重要内容。这表明,人口发展目标是人类共同关注的重要问题。适度人口是人口目标研究中的重要成果。早在公元前300多年前,柏拉图就主张一个国家的人口应该适当,“必须不使人民过多而使国家过大,也不使人民过少而使国家过小”。现代适度人口思想发端于约翰.穆勒,他把“报酬递减规律”应用于农业人口规模研究,提出了人口增长过快超过一定点之后会导致人均产量下降的观点。系统提出和研究适度人口理论的分别是…     

The TUC,foreign labour and the labour government 1945–1951

In the early period of the Labour Government of 1945–1951, the British economy underwent a serious crisis, one dimension of which was a severe labour shortage in sectors identified as essential to national economic recovery. In an attempt to resolve this problem, the Labour Government recruited foreign labour from a number of different European sources, but was also required to gain the consent and co‐operation of the trade union movement for this initiative. This paper documents and explains the evolution of the policy of the Trades Union Congress towards this initiative, and the opposition that this stimulated within the trade union movement.     

‘Hidden identities’: perceptions of sexual identity in Beijing

This article draws upon responses given by volunteers who work in the Beijing LGBT Centre regarding perceptions of sexual identity, and how Chinese culture affects hidden or open sexual identities of Chinese lesbian and gay people in this region. The insights gained from those working carefully to create social change offers an important and original contribution to the field of gay and lesbian studies in China. The findings indicate the volunteers at the Beijing LGBT Centre are frustrated by the lack of acceptance of non‐heterosexual relationships among Chinese culture and society, and by the disregard of lesbian gay and bisexual (LGB) people by the Chinese government. The findings also illustrate stigmatization of homosexuality in China is enacted in structural terms (such as in the lack of policy, legislation and positive endorsement by governmental and socio‐political organizations), public expression (such as negative attitudes, beliefs or reactions towards LGB people) and internalized repression (through fear of stigmatization, and subsequent abuse due to negative societal attitudes and discrimination). Influenced by the Chinese tradition of conforming to group values, the findings from this study show that volunteers at the Beijing LGBT Centre believe LGB people in China are generally hesitant to disclose their sexual identities, and reject the idea that there had been a collective shift in Chinese culture regarding increased acceptance of LGB people. It also finds volunteers at the LGBT Centre in Beijing blame Chinese culture for its lack of acceptance of non‐heterosexual relationships, and state stigmatization of homosexuality in China is due to deep‐rooted cultural homophobia.     

Busy Signal: Effects of Mobile Device Usage on Pedestrian Encounters

Mobile communication technology plays an increasingly pervasive role in everyday life. This study examined one aspect of this role, specifically, the effects of mobile device use on the micro-interactions of pedestrians as they approached and passed a confederate. Over 400 participants were observed in a 2 (group: mobile device vs. control) × 3 [condition: look-only (L); look and smile (LS); look, smile, and greeting (LSG)] factorial design study measuring participants’ looks, smiles, nods, and greetings toward the confederates. Log-linear analyses of the dependent measures provided qualified support for the predicted decreased responsiveness from mobile device users. Specifically, a group by condition interaction on smiles showed that significantly fewer mobile device users than controls smiled at the confederates in the LSG condition. In addition, a group by sex of participant interaction on greetings indicated that significantly fewer female mobile device users offered greetings than males and females in the other conditions. The processes potentially mediating these effects are discussed and the broader influence of mobile devices on the micro-interactions of pedestrians is considered.     

Black widow spiders in an urban desert: Population variation in an arthropod pest across metropolitan Phoenix, AZ

The effects of urban disturbance are critical to understand, as the majority of the world??s population now resides in urban centers. For example, urbanization often leads to reduced species diversity at the expense of a few urban-adapted taxa. However, it remains unclear why some taxa thrive following human disturbance whereas others do poorly. The western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus, thrives in disturbed, urban habitat??often forming dense aggregations (i.e., infestations) relative to typical low-density, desert populations. We examined the population dynamics of ten black widow aggregations spread across metropolitan Phoenix, AZ, during the peak of the breeding season (June?CAugust). Here we show that prey abundance, female mass, web volume and population density exhibit minimal temporal variation across the breeding season, but that prey abundance, female mass and population density show significant spatial variation across the ten urban aggregations. Our measure of prey abundance and foraging success, the number of prey carcasses found in black widow webs, shared a strong positive relationship with female mass and population density, but not with web volume. Surprisingly, female mass, web volume and population density were not correlated with each other. The abiotic variables we measured at each site did a poor job of explaining black widow population parameters, although we did find a marginal trend for more recent developments to harbor denser black widow aggregations. Our findings support the generalization that urbanization heightens spatial variation, and we suggest that local urban prey abundance is influential in promoting urban infestations full of heavy, fecund female black widows. Studies of the population ecology of urban pests are necessary to identify the mechanisms allowing some species to thrive following human disturbance while much native biodiversity is lost following urbanization.     

Studying Responses to Disability in South Asian Histories: approaches personal, prakrital and pragmatical

Approaches and pitfalls are described in the nascent field of Asian disability historiography, focusing on mental retardation (learning difficulties) and blindness (visual impairments) in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. More substantial evidence has surfaced for study of responses to disability and disabled persons than for understanding historical concepts of disability. Critiques are considered of Orientalist information-gathering, of over-dependence on institutional sources, and of methodologies crossing disciplinary boundaries. With due attention to the range of hermeneutic variations, some recognition and understanding is possible of social and individual responses to disability and disabled people in South Asian history.     

What should we spend on health care?

For 5 years there has been debate about the need to re-organize the structure of the U.K. National Health Service. At last legislation has been agreed and the NHS Reorganization Act takes effect from 1 April 1974. In this article the author discusses a variety of relevant factors which he believes should be taken into consideration in implementing the Act.     

The Division of Labour and Inequalities Between the Sexes: An Ideological Dilemma

This article is concerned with the different assumptions and strategies that respondents in the banking sector and the police force use to account for the existence of inequalities between men and women. We search for a perspective that can theorize the different ways in which these employees deal with the existence of inequalities. We examine conceptualizations of the division of labour and of inequalities between the sexes in mainstream organization studies and in liberal, socialist and postmodernist feminist perspectives to organization studies. While these different perspectives highlight different types and causes of inequalities, no perspective can make sense of all the organizational practices in the banks and the police force. We are of the opinion that Billig's concept of ideological dilemmas offers a fruitful starting point to reflect upon the simultaneous existence of the different concepts and provides a valuable framework for our research. It sheds light on the ideological nature of theories, analyses how people think and argue with ideology by bringing in contrary and conflicting notions and opens the possibility of engaging in open dialogue about strategies for change.