Uncle Long Legs' Letter Box; A Letter Counseling Service for Children in Hong Kong

During the growing up process, children face many challenges. They need support and guidance from adults whom they can trust. Uncle Long Legs' Letter Box provides a letter counseling service for children aged from around 10 to 14 years, who are mainly studying in primary four to junior secondary school. Using letters as the medium, children are encouraged to seek help from Uncle Long Legs when they are facing problems related to family, friendship, and study. In letters, children are often more willing to disclose their personal feelings and problems than they are in face-to-face contacts. The project was started in 1994 in a children and youth center. Up to July 2001, more than fifteen thousand letters have been received from about eight thousand children. Now the service has expanded to five centers and about 120 volunteer counselors are involved. This article summarizes the working experience of Uncle Long Legs' Letter Box and discusses the strengths and limitations of letter counseling to children.     

A characterization of the uniform rule with several commodities and agents

We consider a problem of allocating infinitely divisible commodities among a group of agents. More specifically, there are several commodities to be allocated and agents have continuous, strictly convex, and separable preferences. We establish that a rule satisfies strategy-proofness, unanimity, weak symmetry, and nonbossiness if and only if it is the uniform rule. This result extends to the class of continuous, strictly convex, and multidimensional single-peaked preferences.     

Tin recycling: Awareness,comprehension, attitude,intention and behavior

Which factors inhibit or facilitate participation in a tin-recycling program? In this study three theoretical points of view are integrated in a slepwise model of participation: (a) attitude change through communication, (b) the relationships between belief. attitude, intention and behavior, and (c) acceptance of responsibility. The variables in the model were measured by means of mailed questionnaires completed by 586 female inhabitants of a middle-sized town in The Netherlands. The results confirm the model. Facilitating and inhibiting factors are presented in detail. The theoretical points of view are discussed and practical recommendations are given to increase and facilitate participation in the recycling program.     

Welfare residualism: a comparative study of the Basic Livelihood Security systems in China and South Korea

Gao Q, Yoo J, Yang S‐M, Zhai F. Welfare residualism: a comparative study of the Basic Livelihood Security systems in China and South Korea Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 113–124 © 2010 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. In this article, the Basic Livelihood Security (BLS) systems of China and South Korea are compared. The purpose of BLS is to provide a safety net for poor families, particularly the unemployed and the retired who were hard‐hit by recent economic reforms and crises. A common characteristic of the two systems is residual welfare marked by strict eligibility rules and limited coverage. Both systems are subordinate to the primary goal of economic growth and therefore only compensate for the very disadvantaged left behind by market competition. Neither system is particularly effective in achieving its original antipoverty goals. However, South Korea's provision of self‐support programs to supplement cash transfers has helped individuals to move from welfare to work, and thus has implications for China's BLS system. Both countries need to put more emphasis on equity and social justice in their ongoing reforms and expansions of BLS.     

Well‐being among employed and non‐employed caregiving women in Taiwan

Chou Y‐C, Kröger T, Chiao C, Pu C‐Y. Well‐being among employed and non‐employed caregiving women in Taiwan This study addressed various groups of non‐employed/employed and non‐caring/caring women in Taiwan. Data from the 2006 National Taiwanese Women Survey (at age 16–64, n= 6,017) were analysed to determine whether there are differences in terms of well‐being, as measured by self‐rated health and family life satisfaction, between women who work and/or care and between different carer groups. Other factors associated with well‐being of carers of young children (n= 1,697) were also analysed. The results showed that non‐employed carers of disabled adults stood out as the most disadvantaged group. However, the importance of work has been replaced by support among carers of young children. This study suggests that unpaid carers, particularly carers of disabled adults who are non‐employed, ought to be supported by policies. To improve carers' well‐being, care–work reconciliation among working‐age women needs to be included in the future care scheme in Taiwan.     

Food,Memories, and Identities in Hong Kong

This article adopts a processual and relational approach to study food remembrance and investigates how different ways of appropriating food reveal the politics of identities in Hong Kong. It examines how food memories reveal relationships between the past and the present, reflect epochal transformation, and mark changing identities of various groups of people through new ways of appropriations. It takes the case study of pancai, a special banquet food for the villagers in the New Territories of Hong Kong, to examine the relationships between food and identities. This article investigates how pancai is remembered, popularized, and reinvented with different variations and embodies shifting meanings for the New Territories inhabitants as well as other Hong Kong people in changing socioeconomic and political environments. Pancai has been imbued with multiple layers of significance, involving linkages between local and national, emigration and Chineseness, urbanization and rural heritage, as well as decolonization and identity politics. As identities are by nature negotiable, situational, and fluidic, pancai's multiple layers of meanings correspond to different levels of identities—identities of the New Territories inhabitants, the rest of the Hong Kong people, and the mainland Chinese.     

Social Relationships of African American and Hispanic Older Assisted Living Residents: Exploring the Role of Race and Ethnicity

African American and Hispanic older adults are underrepresented in assisted living communities, so little is known about how they experience social relationships in these settings. The purpose of the study was to explore resident-to-resident and resident-to-staff relationships experienced and perceived by African American and Hispanic older residents in assisted living settings. In-depth interviews with 15 African American and 15 Hispanic older adults were conducted in seven assisted living communities in Central Florida. Three salient themes emerged using a grounded theory approach: formation of relationships: emotional vs. instrumental support; language as a facilitator or barrier; and avoidance of inter-racial relationships. Implications for providing culturally competent services in assisted living communities with diverse populations are discussed.