Discursive Research and Clinical Realities,or the Eye of the Beholder

The comparison of four discursive and conversational analysis studies performed on the same couple consultation session, held by Tom Andersen, show a diversity of results. It can be argued the results are so varied that they constitute different realities, often incompatible with each other. This, far from being a shortcoming of these studies, can be seen as the true richness they can offer to the practicing therapist, who can use research to investigate the different perspectives we can adopt in viewing our clinical activity. The comparison of the four studies raises questions about the role of the therapist in such process. Clinical implications of this are also discussed.     

Effective transfer entropy to measure information flows in credit markets

Statistical Methods & Applications - In this paper we propose to study the dynamics of financial contagion between the credit default swap (CDS) and the sovereign bond markets through effective...     

A Network-Based Measure of the Socio-Economic Roots of the Migration Flows

Social Indicators Research - This paper provides a unified view for defining a measure of the reasons behind migration flows whose nature is of social and economic type. To this aim, worldwide...     

17至18世纪意大利人对中国的印象和想象

在意大利,关于中华帝国及其文化的详细知识是从16世纪就开始流传的,但这些信息为更多人所知却是在17和18世纪。对中国的大规模发现始于访问过中国的耶稣会士寄回的各种报告的出版以及他们向欧洲介绍中国经书的译作。这些知识在学术界被不断地讨论,最初是耶稣会士和宗教阶层,接着是启蒙运动的信徒。它们同时也成了整个欧洲就福音传道方法或"礼仪"的种类而引起的广泛辩论中所使用的工具:中国的贤明形象、自然神论、开明的专制政体,这些都为意大利及欧洲的思想家们的辩论提供了有趣的素材。同样的,关于"中国礼仪"的争论最初只限于教会内部和不同教派之间,但慢慢地就冲破了宗教论争和福音传道方法的限制,牵涉到了更广泛的议题:儒家学说本质上是一种道德体系还是一种宗教?讨论的对象也变成了对宗教本身的定义、文化与信仰的关系、对上帝的看法、不同社会的价值观相对性这些问题。这些信息从而被用于更深层次的辩论之中,中国的体系被当作是这样或那样的国家的和道德的观念的标准。启蒙运动将辩论的焦点集中于以儒家学说为基础的中国体系的"合理性"上。因此,一种或多种关于中国的传说就如在欧洲其他国家一样在意大利滋生出来。我们将介绍几种观点,其中从无条件的赞美到苛刻的批判都有。意大利的作家们参与了欧洲关于中国问题的论战并考察了最新出版的关于中国的著作。我们可以把他们分为三类:"亲华者"、"排华者",及以调和的方法破除关于中国的早期传说者。     

Present and prospective health status of older adults in the Philippines: The role of education

Utilizing current information to project prospective ill health prevalence can help prepare the country to ensure the well-being of older people. The prevalence of ill health in terms of physical, psychological, and cognitive health dimensions was estimated by age, sex, and education attainment level using the 2018 Longitudinal Study on Aging and Health in the Philippines. Subsequently, the said rates were integrated into population projection estimates from 2020 to 2080. It was observed that the depression prevalence rate among older people was highest at above 40%, while physical and cognitive limitations were at around 18% and 22% respectively. It was also found that prevalence rates of ill health increased with age and that ill health was more prevalent among women than men, particularly at more advanced ages. The use of population projections has shown that education differentials in the analyses estimate lower prevalence rates of ill health for both sexes. The findings provide estimates for the prospective care needs of the older population in the Philippines. It was also suggested that education may possibly have preventive effects on ill health. Utilizing present information in order to prepare for issues can be beneficial for securing the well-being of older adults.     

Integration and the struggle to turn space into “our” place: Homemaking as a way beyond the stalemate of assimilationism vs transnationalism

This article investigates homemaking as a set of practices and a perspective on migrants’ ways of local incorporation, with its own material, emotional and relational underpinnings. Homemaking has the potential to emerge as an original category of analysis in immigrant integration, moving beyond the contraposition between assimilationism and transnationalism. Based also on our ongoing research, both in the United States and in Europe, we argue for the significance of migrants’ interactions with specific local structures of opportunities, including people and institutions as much as the built and natural environment. The latter is a critical site where the meanings, opportunities and contents of integration are negotiated between immigrant newcomers and their local and transnational counterparts. Migrants’ stratified rights, opportunities and aspirations to make themselves at home open a promising research perspective on group relations, as embedded in everyday materialities. While integration is a multi-dimensional and multi-scalar effort, it still rests on place-bound fields of inequalities and interaction within and between groups, and on underlying differences in views, emotions and practices of home. These are both a mirror of larger asymmetries of power and of the opportunities available to challenge them.