Taiwan's identity in formation: in reaction to a democratizing Taiwan and a rising China

The formation of Taiwanese identity is a good example to make sense of the theoretical debate between primordialism and constructivism. Based on the two-level multinomial logit results, this paper proves that primordial ethnicity in Taiwan becomes less salient; rather, changing sociopolitical contexts turn out to be the dominant factor in shaping ethnic identity. Specifically, it indicates how the democratic transition has brought about various types of mechanisms, which smoothly disenchant the dominant Chinese identity. As the Taiwanese renaissance emerges to take a leading role in Taiwan's political platform, ethnic identity might be reshaped in accordance with this mainstream Taiwanese ideology. This study also shows that reformation of ethnic identity in Taiwan relies as much on cognition of state boundaries as on the evaluation of political-economic conditions on both sides of the Taiwan straits.     

Measuring social capital accumulation in rural development

Using a theoretical framework, the study proposes an index that can measure the social capital of local action group (LAG) projects. The index is founded on four indicators: number of ties, bridging social capital, recognition, and diversity, which are aggregated into one social capital index. The index has been tested in LAG-Djursland, Denmark, and the study further investigates whether the organisational affiliation, project financing, and LAG co-financing can explain the degree of social capital accumulation. Furthermore, the author has tested if there are connections between motivation for pursuing development projects similar to those implemented previously and the degree of social capital. The paper concludes that there are indications that projects hosted by municipalities tend to show the most social capital, there is no connection between the amount of project financing and social capital, and a high level of motivation leads to increased social capital.     

朝鲜战争与东北亚格局

东北亚的钥匙是朝鲜半岛,谁掌握了朝鲜半岛,谁就掌握了东北亚地区。朝鲜半岛局势每一次大的变化,无不影响到东北亚格局的变迁,而东北亚格局的演变,也必然左右着朝鲜半岛局势的发展。朝鲜战争的爆发与结束正是这种相互关系的最好诠释。在一定程度上而言,朝鲜战争是东北亚格局演变的结果,而战争的爆发与结束又促进了东北亚格局的重建。     

Trust and Ethnic Tolerance in the Face of Social Change

The primary goals of this article are to examine conceptual approaches to the study of trust, summarize the tools that can be used in such studies, and use empirical data to elucidate the concept of a “culture of trust.” It also discusses certain problems involved in the empirical study of generalized trust and concludes that ethnic tolerance is one element of a culture of trust. The article presents the results of a 2014 sociological study of Muscovites that was carried out using formalized interviews. This study examined the attitude of trust and subjective bases of trust and mistrust that have developed within Moscow society. A three-stage random territorial probability sampling was used, distributed across administrative districts proportional to their population sizes. The 800-respondent sample was representative in terms of sex and age. Using a simple 4-point scale, our study found that Moscow’s population is strongly polarized in terms of trust—47.6 percent are inclined to be trusting while 46.5 percent are not. Trust networks in Moscow are primarily built around close family and friends. There is a clear lack of basic trust. The study’s results suggest that generalized trust and ethnic tolerance are interrelated. What links these processes are the collaborative relationships that form based on ties of friendship and neighborliness.     

Robust inference for parsimonious model-based clustering

We introduce a robust clustering procedure for parsimonious model-based clustering. The classical mclust framework is robustified through impartial trimming and eigenvalue-ratio constraints (the tclust framework, which is robust but not affine invariant). An advantage of our resulting mtclust approach is that eigenvalue-ratio constraints are not needed for certain model formulations, leading to affine invariant robust parsimonious clustering. We illustrate the approach via simulations and a benchmark real data example. R code for the proposed method is available at https://github.com/afarcome/mtclust.     

Subethnic interpersonal dynamic in diasporic community: a study on Chinese immigrants in Vancouver

ABSTRACT

Ethnicity is a social construct that can be conceptualised as a social classification delineating certain boundaries between an ethnic group and the dominant group. Members of an ethnic group are assumed to share similar cultural characteristics and to be homogenous among themselves. Many studies in ethnic organisations have indicated that subethnicity also exists within an ethnic group, but research on subethnicity is scant. Based on the findings of an exploratory study conducted in Vancouver, Canada, we examined how, at an interpersonal level, place of origin, language, mutual bias and discrimination and transnational politics divide the Chinese diasporic community subethnically. Meanwhile, being Chinese in the Canadian context and willingness to break the subethnic boundaries are noted as counterforces to the subethnic divide. We contend that interpersonal interaction is an imperative dimension for the understanding of the shaping of boundary between different subethnic groups.     

Conceptualizing Adoptive Parent Support Groups: A Mixed-Method Process

Indubitably, the process of adopting a young person, no matter the context, can be challenging. To assist adoptive parents in coping with these challenges, entities (e.g., social service/adoption agencies, etc.) have historically fostered the development of support groups. Despite the intent of these efforts, many adoptive parent support groups utilize frameworks that are not congruent with meeting the needs of group participants. This paper examines the process for using Concept Mapping to conceptualize effective support groups based on the perspectives of adoptive parents in one southeastern state.     

走向回归的自然——王月圣短篇小说集《撒尔嗬》乡土风情解读

恩施本土作家王月圣的短篇小说集 撒尔嗬 以生动的笔调描绘了土家族的人文景观、动人的故事,演绎出土家族痛苦而完整的生命流程。作品充分体现了作家的民族文学观念和民族改造意识,有力推进了鄂西南民族文化的发展。     

农村老年人健康服务可及性研究——基于海南省三个民族自治县的调查

城镇化进程中农村老年人的健康状况令人担忧。通过对海南省琼中、保亭和白沙3个黎苗族自治县的入户调查，深入了解被调查地区黎苗族老年人的健康状况和当地的卫生资源配置情况，从供给和需求两个视角分析发现，收入水平、健康服务费用、服务便捷性和主观意识等是影响农村老年人健康服务获得的主要因素。要解决这些问题首先要提高农民收入、增加农村基层卫生资源和改善服务水平，关键的是把精准扶贫政策与健康保障制度协同推进满足农村老年人健康服务的有效需求。此外，老年人的精神健康问题迫切得到重视，巩固家庭责任的同时，农村社区培育各类社会组织开展志愿服务，吸引和利用社会资源来提升老年人的幸福感。     

Emotional school engagement among minority youth: the relevance of cultural identity,perceived discrimination,and perceived support

ABSTRACT

Minority student school dropout represents a challenging issue for educational systems in many countries. Notwithstanding minority families' overall high academic aspirations, there is a stable achievement gap between majority and minority students. Minority students who are emotionally engaged with their school tend to be psychologically and socioculturally better adapted to their country of residence and, as a result, report higher academic success. Therefore, emotional school engagement represents a relevant factor for integration into the host society. The goal of this paper is to investigate the interrelation between ethnic and national identity, perceived discrimination, and perceived support from parents, peers, and teachers with emotional school engagement. Results indicate that cultural capital within the family, cultural self-identification, and perceived support from peers and teachers play an important role for students’ emotional school engagement.