‘Let the King Save the Poor’: The Discursive Mechanism Underlying the Under‐exercise of Social Rights in South Korea

This study was prompted by discrepancies observed between the quantitative expansion and the qualitative stalemate in social policy in South Korea. Despite a revamped social security system, changes in South Korean social policies have not led to significant coverage expansion or improved income and poverty distribution. The frequent appearance of the Korean proverb that ‘even the King cannot save the poor’ in policy participants' narratives reflects a lack of confidence in the Government's ability to address persistent social disadvantages and the prevalence of a fatalistic policy perspective. This proverb has a conceptual affinity with an individualistic approach and has effectively functioned as a governance tool to oppress the progress of welfare rights. This research shows that an expenditure‐based model could lead to actual policy situations being misrepresented. Further, institutional policy arrangements may not be a sufficient condition for improving policy performance. It is suggested that a rights‐based approach should be adopted for both theorization of the transition of the welfare regimes and discursive practice for a policy paradigm change.     

How secular is Europe?

A large body of literature has developed, yielding evidence that religion in general and Churches and Church leaders in particular have lost their once dominant position in contemporary Europe. Evidence is often cited in declining levels of church attendance. Whether Europe should also be qualified as secularized in terms of religious beliefs remains unclear. In this paper we investigate the degree to which European people are secular, focusing not only on religious practices, but also on beliefs. We argue that trajectories of religious change occur all over Europe, but not at similar speeds. We formulate hypotheses regarding the differences in the degree to which individuals and societies are secularized. Data from the recent European Values Study surveys are used to empirically test these hypotheses concerning patterns of variation in religious beliefs and practices. The findings provide evidence in favour of secularization theories and in contradiction to rational choice theories. In Europe, religious pluralism produces not higher levels, but lower levels of religiosity. The findings also reveal that religious denomination as well as cultural and socio-economic heritages are important factors in explaining the patchwork pattern in levels of religiosity and religious participation in contemporary Europe.     

“世通”舞弊揭秘引发的思考

"世通"舞弊案揭秘过程分析后认为,上市公司实现理论上的法人治理结构任重道远,制度缺陷是上市公司造假的根本原因,美国上市公司在内部控制制度执行中仍存在诸多缺陷.过分强调监管的作用,不利于根治上市公司财务舞弊行为.净化监管环境,改变监管思路是优化监管效果的重要措施,为注册会计师重新定位是其履行监管职责的前提,责任心和勇气是监管部门能否履职的关键.     

The impact of manufacturing and supply chain improvement initiatives: A survey comparing make-to-order and make-to-stock firms

Manufacturing firms aim at improving both internal and external processes to improve the competitive advantage. Such initiatives include lean practices as well as supplier rationalization and integration. In this paper, we analyze these improvement initiatives and their impact on business performance. In particular, we explore potential differences between make-to-order (MTO) and make-to-stock (MTS) firms. We use data from 216 Australian manufacturing firms. We find a clear difference of improvement focus between MTO and MTS firms. MTO firms exhibit a significant impact of supplier integration on business performance, but not for lean practices and supplier rationalization. The situation is completely reversed for MTS firms, since they have significant effects for internal lean practices and supplier rationalization, but not for logistics integration with supplier. The results show that the distinction between MTO and MTS firms is important when analyzing manufacturing and supply chain improvement initiatives.     

Homophobia as a barrier to comprehensive media coverage of the Ugandan anti-homosexual bill

The Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of October 2009 caused an international outcry and sparked intense debate in the local media. This article explores to what degree a discriminatory social environment manifests itself in the Ugandan print media and discusses the potential implications for media's coverage of contentious policy options such as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. A content analysis of 115 items from two daily newspapers (the government-owned New Vision and the privately owned the Daily Monitor, between October and December 2009) indicates the existence of two separate house styles; this is in spite of the fact that both newspapers reproduce the surrounding society's homophobia, albeit with different frequency. Unlike the New Vision, the Daily Monitor includes coverage on homophobia and discrimination, as well as provides space for criticism of the Bill. By acknowledging discrimination and its negative impact, the newspaper de-legitimizes homophobia and problematizes the proposed Anti-homosexuality Bill for their readers.     

“Sleep is on the back burner”: Working students and sleep

The current study examines on a potential high-risk sleep loss population: working students at a metropolitan university in a mid-sized Midwestern city in the United States. Open-ended interviews with nineteen working university students provide insight into their beliefs and behaviors regarding how they think about and “do” work, attend university and sleep. Sleep diaries provide information on perceived sleep duration, latency and quality. While students value sleep and recognize the connection between sleep loss and ill health, they accept tiredness as “normal” for their situation. For many students sleep is the one demand that can be “put off”, in the struggle to balance work, school and family demands, “until the bill comes due” when they fall ill. Exchanging sleep loss for educational progress is explored through “health capital” as part of a human capital conceptual framework.     

Comparing rating paradigms for evidence-based program registers in behavioral health: Evidentiary criteria and implications for assessing programs

Decision makers need timely and credible information about the effectiveness of behavioral health interventions. Online evidence-based program registers (EBPRs) have been developed to address this need. However, the methods by which these registers determine programs and practices as being “evidence-based” has not been investigated in detail. This paper examines the evidentiary criteria EBPRs use to rate programs and the implications for how different registers rate the same programs. Although the registers tend to employ a standard Campbellian hierarchy of evidence to assess evaluation results, there is also considerable disagreement among the registers about what constitutes an adequate research design and sufficient data for designating a program as evidence-based. Additionally, differences exist in how registers report findings of “no effect,” which may deprive users of important information. Of all programs on the 15 registers that rate individual programs, 79% appear on only one register. Among a random sample of 100 programs rated by more than one register, 42% were inconsistently rated by the multiple registers to some degree.     

大学英语教师信念与教学行为失调原因

基于国内外学者对教师信念的研究和调查,归纳出5个致使大学英语教师信念与教学行为失调的原因：1）大学英语教学改革的客观条件还不够成熟;2）多数教师对计算机网络在大学英语教学中的作用认识还比较模糊;3）大学英语四、六级考试的影响仍然很大;4）选课制存在诸多弊端;5）大学外语教师面临教学、科研及收入三大压力。呼吁广大大学英语教师及学校重视过渡时期教师信念的调整及适应。     

Public (relations) disturbances and civil disobedience: Why I use “The Yes Men Fix the World” to teach public relations ethics

This “best practices” essay suggests that instructors consider using the movie “The Yes Men Fix the World” as a tool for teaching and discussion of public relations ethics. Although this movie appears at first to skewer the public relations industry and its uses in the corporate sector, in fact the movie provides a number of opportunities for discussion of important topics such as corporate social responsibility and professional ethics. Using this movie as a teaching tool for public relations ethics supports the suggestions of Karlberg (1996), Dozier and Lauzen (2000), and L’Etang (2005) that scholars and educators should consider the application of critical theory to the study and teaching of public relations.