Housing hardship and energy insecurity among native-born and immigrant low-income families with children in the United States

The costs for rent and utilities account for the largest share of living expenses, yet these two critical dimensions of material hardship have seldom been examined concurrently in population-based studies. This paper employs multivariate statistical analysis using American Community Survey data to demonstrate the relative risk ratio of low-income renter-occupied households with children experiencing ‘rent burden', ‘energy insecurity', or a ‘double burden’ as opposed to no burden. Findings suggest that low-income households are more likely to experience these economic hardships in general but that specific groups are disproportionately burdened in different ways. For instance, whereas immigrants are more likely to experience rental burden, they are less likely to experience energy insecurity and are also spared from the double burden. In contrast, native-born African Americans are more likely than all other groups to experience the double burden. These results may be driven by the housing stock available to certain groups due to racial residential segregation, decisions regarding the quality of housing low-income householders are able to afford, as well as home-country values, such as modest living and energy conservation practices, among immigrant families. This paper also points to important policy gaps in safety net benefits related to housing and energy targeting low-income households.     

少数民族流动人口突发事件风险管理体系研究简

对少数民族流动人口突发事件风险管理体系进行探讨具有重要的现实意义；对其管理过程中的风险识别、评估、处置及善后审视等几个环节的操作过程进行考察，是研究其之关键因素。     

Exploratory Study on Drug Users’ Perspectives on Quality of Life: More than Health-Related Quality of Life?

In drug treatment outcome literature, a focus on objective and socially desirable indicators of change (e.g. no drug use) has predominated, while outcome indicators that are important for drug users themselves (e.g. quality of life, satisfaction with treatment) have largely been neglected. Nonetheless, Quality of Life (QoL) has become an important concept to evaluate effectiveness of treatment in mental health care research and disability studies. Given the almost exclusive focus on Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in substance abuse research and the neglect of clients’ perspectives in this field, we explore in this study the concept of QoL as perceived by drug users. Focus group discussions (n = 9) were organised in various treatment settings and community services for drug users in the region of Ghent, Belgium to identify important dimensions of QoL and their interpretation by drug users. Data were clustered and analysed based on the theoretical framework of Robert Schalock (Quality of life. Volume 1: Conceptualization and measurement, 1996). The domains ‘personal relationships’, ‘social inclusion’ and ‘self-determination’ were discussed most frequently by the participants. They stressed the importance of a supportive social network in particular. It can be concluded that QoL is not primarily associated by drug users with health and it involves much more than the aspects typically represented in measures of HRQOL.     

Practicing What We Preach: Creating Groups for Ourselves

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the professional isolation faced by social group work practitioners and educators. It identifies the need for peer support and connection in an environment of limited opportunities for professional development. The paper describes and assesses long-term peer support groups initiated and developed by each of the authors, one for group work educators and the other for practitioners. It discusses the potential for expanding the development of such groups, which could benefit individual group workers as well as strengthen efforts to ensure the survival of group work.     

THREE STUDENTS SPEAK...

No abstract available for this article.     

青岛市社科类社团发展状况调研

青岛市社科类社团数量居山东省前列，与全国同类城市基本持平，社团设立具有时代特色，学科建设工作均衡发展。与此同时，青岛市社科类社团在自身和管理方面还存在一些问题，社团自身要逐步建立适应市场经济发展规律的工作和运行机制，加强学习，提高自律水平，不断强化人才队伍建设，引导社科工作者将研究重心转到地方经济社会文化发展上来，注重科研成果与社会联系的密切性和向现实转化的可能性。另外，政府也要进一步加大扶持力度，改善社科类社团发展的外部环境，提供财政支持，提供优惠政策，引导社会行为，出台有利于社科类社团发展的人才政策，细化完善社科类社团的管理制度。     

Making foreign women the mother of our nation: the exclusion and assimilation of immigrant women in Taiwan

Citizenship awarding is politicised. Conceiving female marriage migration as a national threat, Taiwan's citizenship legislation is consciously designed and purposefully utilised to achieve exclusion and assimilation. Driven by a nationalistic impetus, it shows how Taiwan imagines itself as a modern, prosperous and homogenous nation and projects upon the immigrant outsiders as a threat to its self-identity. Examined through immigrant women's lived experiences, this citizenship legislation is biased by gender, class and ethnicity. The implementation of the legislation is not only an example of symbolic politics but also banal nationalism realised at grassroots level in the private domain. Immigrant women's lived experiences show that exclusion and assimilation stemmed from banal nationalism is not just an operation of symbolic politics but is also enmeshed with their everyday life.     

关于明代西北民族地区土地所有制的结构及其特点

明代西北民族地区土地所有制结构,是以封建领主土地所有制为主体,多种封建土地所有制同时并存和发展的。本文对此进行了全方位深层次的剖析,认为此时的土地所有制结构具有区域性、延续性、复合性、庞杂性等特点。     

外商直接投资对民族地区经济的影响及对策

目前对于民族地区吸收FD I(外商直接投资),学界尚存在着许多错误看法,这些看法片面地夸大外国直接投资给民族地区带来的好处,低估甚至根本抹煞它对民族经济的负面影响。认为FD I对民族地区的经济发展只存在正面效应,因此主张越多越好。笔者认为,对于FD I对民族经济的影响应该从正、反两方面进行考察,应客观地剖析两大利益主体之间的博弈。     

"阴阳合德":壮族传统文化的精华——《布洛陀经诗》的性别哲学研究之二

《布洛陀经诗》虽然已超越"孤雌繁殖"的认识阶段,但却没有完全陷入男性"惟我独尊"的窠臼。其中关于男女祖神并尊的唱颂,以及对妇女地位和作用的某种肯定,都在一定程度上体现了壮族性别哲学的精髓。这些思想是我们在寻求性别和谐发展之道时可以借鉴的。