Care in a Time of Austerity: the Electronic Monitoring of Homecare Workers’ Time

Austerity places intense pressures on labour costs in paid care. In the UK, electronic monitoring technology has been introduced to record (and materially reduce) the working time and wages of homecare workers. Based on empirical findings, we show that, in a ‘time of austerity’, care is reductively constructed as a consumption of time. Service users are constructed as needy, greedy, time‐consumers and homecare workers as resource‐wasting time‐takers. We point to austerity as a temporal ideology aimed at persuading populations that individual deprivation in the present moment, self‐sacrifice and the suppression of personal need in the here and now is a necessary requirement to underpin a more secure national future. Accordingly, women in low‐waged care work are required to eschew a rights‐bearing, present‐tense identity and are assumed willing to suppress their entitlements to lawful wages as a sacrifice to the future. By transforming our understandings of ‘care’ into those of ‘time consumption’, and by emphasizing the virtue of present‐tense deprivation, a politics of austerity appears to justify time‐monitoring in care provision and the rationing of homecare workers’ pay.     

论民族、民族国家与现代民族国家——以中国本土学术话语中的“民族”为中心

中国本土学术话语中的“民族”概念有一个演进的过程.古代“族”的概念以及“族类”观构成了中国传统文化中的一种群体分类体系.近代“民族”的使用始于西方术语翻译和汉语由文言向白话的转变,明显受到西方民族-国家和民族主义理论的影响.新中国成立后,马克思主义与苏联模式长期在我国民族理论研究中占据主导地位,围绕民族译名及民族形成问题出现过几次论争.20世纪90年代以来,国内学界对民族概念的讨论日益朝解构和多元反思的方向发展.综而观之,中国本土民族概念的传统导源于中华民族历史形成的多元一体格局,强大的包容性使其逐渐形成了内涵丰富、外延宽泛、使用灵活的独特话语体系.目前学界对民族国家与现代民族国家的使用不够规范,建议把民族国家作为特指性概念专门指称西欧早期民族国家,而把现代民族国家作为泛指性概念,用来指称所有时期和类型的民族国家.     

Violence against women in Spain and Cuba: The same reality,two different visions / Violencia hacia la mujer en España y Cuba: una misma realidad,dos visiones diferentes

This study aims to analyse the acceptance of gender violence in Spanish and Cuban populations. We analysed the influence of sexist beliefs and other ideologies that justify unequal gender relationships. A total of 230 men and women from Spain and 200 from Cuba participated by answering a questionnaire. The results showed the effect of participants’ gender and nationality as well as ideological variables (sexism, beliefs in a just world and codes of honour) that legitimise the status quo of gender violence. The male participants and the Cuban participants accepted violence against women more than the female participants and the Spanish participants. What is more, the results showed a pattern in the influence of the ideological variables that differed depending on the participants’ nationality. In Spain, the relationship between participants’ benevolent sexism and the justification of violence was mediated by codes of honour. In Cuba, the relationship between hostile sexism and acceptance of violence against women was mediated by beliefs in a just world.     

Influential factors in the choice of public transportation or cars as the mode of transportation in habitual commutes / Factores que influyen en la elección del transporte público o el automóvil como modo de transporte en los desplazamientos habituales

The goal of this study is to analyse the differences in attitudes towards habitual modes of transportation among users of public and private transportation. The explanatory capacity of attitudes when determining the mode choice, along with the structural and sociodemographic factors, are also verified. The study was performed in three Spanish cities with 742 participants. The results revealed that cars are better rated than public modes of transportation in the attributes associated with immediate advantages (i.e., speed and availability) and convenience. Subways are highly rated in both immediate and deferred advantages (environment, safety, cost and health). Buses are the mode rated the lowest of the three. Using logistic regression, it was verified that the variance explained by a model that includes attitudes (R² = .639) is higher than the variance explained by a model based solely on variables related to infrastructures (R² = .489). The discussion of these results includes proposals aimed at decreasing car use.     

‘My Parents told us that they will always Treat my Brother Differently Because he is Autistic’ – Are Siblings of Autistic Children the Forgotten Ones?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) does not only affect the child alone, but the family unit as well. This qualitative study explored the impacts of ASD on the relationship between parents and their neuro-typical children and how the neuro-typical children cope with the impacts of having an autistic sibling in the family. Utilising principles of the social relations theory, five Singaporean families (n = 10) consisting of five mothers and five neuro-typical children were interviewed. Both the mothers and the neuro-typical children were seen to be equal agents in influencing the interactions with each other, and contributed in maintaining the close relationship through various strategies. Findings revealed that having an autistic child in the family imposed certain constraints and additional responsibilities for the family members. Despite so, the neuro-typical children coped well with such constraints. The in-depth data highlight the value of considering both the agency of mothers and the neuro-typical children and how they bidirectionally influence each other while sharing the caregiving roles for the autistic child in the family. It is strongly recommended for practitioners to incorporate elements of child's agency when expanding their scope of psychosocial intervention work with the neuro-typical children.     

Legitimate Deficit: Competitive Bidding in a Residual and Semi-democratic Welfare Society

Competitive bidding for public subsidy allocation for welfare services has been widely applied in established welfare states since the 1980s. Studies conducted in these countries have inclined to understand competitive bidding as a financing initiative and use an array of “failure theories” to explain its challenges and failures. In contrast to these studies, the present study focuses on Hong Kong, a residual and semi-democratic welfare state, and investigates competitive bidding as a governmental policy instrument designed to increase the legitimacy of subsidy award decisions. Based on an analysis of submissions in a recent policy review and a review of existing policy documents, we suggest that the government may have increased its decision-making power over NGOs, resulting in little advancement, neither regarding welfare mix, nor concerning the legitimacy of resource allocation.     

Cultural Correlates of Gender Integration in Science

Gender integration within science has been uneven: some fields have integrated women to almost equitable levels, while others remain male‐dominated. Explanations for this variation abound, but few are able to assess empirically the relevance of disciplinary cultures in a systematic way. We take up this challenge by analysing accounts of scientific success in fields that integrated women to a large degree (Psychology and the Life Sciences) and fields that did not (Engineering and Physics). We qualitatively assess how the salience of relationships changed over time in these fields. We find that scientists from disciplines that have crossed the threshold whereby women are no longer tokens culturally value informal relationships more than those in which women remain a small numerical minority.     

德勒兹的“块茎”与阿多诺的“星丛”概念之比较

块茎和星丛这一对概念,分别是德勒兹和阿多诺用来取代既定体系的理想模式。这两种模型互有异同,其中最关键的重合点在于它们都聚焦在新事物的产生过程。同时,这两种关系模型都打破了传统哲学中占据统治地位的同一性逻辑,转而提倡一种非等级化的关系。然而,在对关系的强调中,它们各自的重点却有所区别:块茎强调逃逸线,而星丛则更关注成员之间的共存于互相中介的关系。这种区别造成了这两种生产性的关系模式在异质性生产方面的巨大的区别。德勒兹的"块茎"模式在一定程度上是对批判理论的悲观性的超越。而理解这一区别,对于如何在今天的社会现实中将批判性与建构性相结合十分重要。     

中国古代“类”观念与知识的关系及两种基本形态

中国古代“类”观念的形成和发展与知识密切相关,或者说,它是在知识的基础上建立起来的.具体地,“类”观念与知识的关系沿两条线索发展和展开,并形成两种基本的形态.其一是分类,其二是比类.这样两条线索早在远古时期就已经初露端倪.分类线索在春秋时期已经渐趋成熟,至战国时期已经形成逻辑学的成果;比类线索是在春秋战国时期充分发展起来的,到了战国末年和秦汉之际遂形成泛滥之势.     

信息基础、声誉机制与执法优化——食品安全治理的新视野

对于食品安全违法行为的威慑何以有效?这是破解食品安全监管困境的关键所在。基于繁重的执法负荷与稀缺的公共执法资源,食品安全迫切需要创新治理形式。声誉机制创设的威慑充分虑及企业的长期收入流,借助无数消费者的"用脚投票"深入作用于企业利益结构的核心部分,因而能够有效阻吓企业放弃潜在的不法行为,分担监管机构的一部分执法负荷,是一种颇有效率的社会执法。但是,声誉罚的要义在于信息高效流动,而现代食品行业与公众之间的信息鸿沟使得消费者很难自发形成强有力的声誉机制。应当以食品安全信用档案为中心,建立全程整合信息生产—分级—披露—传播—反馈的法律制度系统,确保企业违法信息迅速进入公众的认知结构,为消费者及时启动声誉罚奠定基础。同时,应当以声誉机制的适用为契机,积极探索食品安全的社会治理之道,回应执法历史发展所蕴含的成本逻辑,实现执法优化。