A personalised approach in activation. Workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation practitioners

ABSTRACT

In activation work – supporting jobless people to perform activities that are supposed to lead them back to paid work – a personalised approach is deemed crucial. What a personalised approach entails, however, remains unclear. In this article, we try to further develop the notion of a personalised approach in activation work, by analysing Dutch workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation. Our interviews show that a personalised approach appears as a process with three stages. In the first stage, personalised means paying attention to welfare clients’ personal histories, particularly their ‘violated life story’. In the second stage, personalised means being sensitive to the new reality of them being volunteers. In the third stage, personalised means paying attention to the future, especially to the prospect of paid work. Our findings contribute to the theorisation of a personalised approach in activation work to which time turns out to be a crucial dimension.     

Gratitude,indebtedness, and reciprocity: an extended replication of Bartlett & DeSteno (2006)

ABSTRACT

In a landmark study in 2006, Bartlett and DeSteno found that receiving help promoted reciprocal behavior and that this effect was mediated by gratitude. Recent research, however, suggested that indebtedness is more closely associated with reciprocation than gratitude. Therefore, we examined whether reciprocal behavior could (also) be attributed to indebtedness. Specifically, we attempted to replicate and extend Bartlett and DeSteno’s Study 1 by additionally including a measure of indebtedness. Surprisingly, the replication was not successful. We did not find support for the idea that receiving help promoted reciprocal behavior, and neither gratitude nor indebtedness was associated with reciprocal behavior. Finally, we call for attention that the extant literature may be inconclusive regarding the presumed prosocial effects of gratitude.     

人情消费与农村居民的幸福感——来自2015年CSS的经验证据

人情消费是中华民族的传统习俗,并在社会互动过程中扮演着重要角色。结合2015年中国社会状况综合调查（CSS）数据,以人情消费作为代理变量,采用有序Logit模型、有序Probit模型,在考虑个体异质性因素、地区因素基础上,考察人情消费对农村居民主观幸福感的影响。研究表明：人情消费与农村居民幸福感呈现典型的“倒U型”关系,人情消费具有福利效应的“拐点”出现在家庭人情消费占总消费支出的比例约为42%处。通过变换估计方法、替换被解释变量进行稳健性检验后,这一结果依然成立;当人情消费位于均值11.41%处,农村居民自我幸福感评价为“非常幸福”的概率显著提高8.8%;人情消费对农村居民幸福感的影响表现出鲜明的群体差异,西部地区、低收入、已婚、中老年群体人情消费超过“拐点”的比例更高,党员超过“拐点”的比例则明显低于普通群众。     

《易》、《老》兼治现象探析

~~《易》、《老》兼治现象探析@宗明华$烟台大学人文学院!山东烟台264005~~~~~~     

Give and take in major gift relationships

This article investigates the complex phenomenon of major gift giving to charitable institutions. Drawing on empirical evidence from interviews with 16 Australian major donors (who gave a single gift of at least AU$10,000 in 2008 or 2009), we seek to better understand donor expectations and (dis) satisfaction. Given growing need for social services, and the competition among nonprofit organisations (NPOs) to secure sustainable funding, this research is particularly timely. Currently, little is known about major donors' expectations, wants and needs. Equity theory, with the concept of reciprocity at its core, was found to provide a useful framework for understanding these phenomena. A model of equitable major gift relationships was developed from the data, which portrays balanced relationships and identifies potential areas of dissatisfaction for major donors. We conclude by offering suggestions for NPOs seeking to understand the complexities of major gift relationships, with practical implications for meeting donors' needs.     

When Getting Something Good is Bad: Even Three‐year‐olds React to Inequality

Fairness is central to morality. Previous research has shown that children begin to understand fairness between the ages of four and six, depending on the context and method used. Within distributive contexts, there is little clear evidence that children have a concept of fairness before the age of five. This research, however, has mostly examined children's explicit verbal responses to questions about unequal distributions—a method that often underestimates children's knowledge. In the current study, we instead examined emotional and behavioral signs that children notice and dislike inequality. We distributed an unequal number of rewards (stickers) among pairs of children (the ages of three to five years) and probed their responses to the inequality. Both implicit and explicit measures revealed that children as young as three years old notice and react negatively to an unfair distribution, particularly when they receive less than their partner. The few age trends that were found involved verbal (explicit) responses, providing evidence that although children do not explicitly talk about fairness until the age of five or six, this talk is an effort to explain emotional reactions that emerged earlier in development.     

从休谟的正义理论看正义的多重特征

正义问题是人类永恒的问题之一,文章从休谟的正义理论出发,考察了亚里士多德和密尔以及罗尔斯的相关论述,刻画出正义所具有的多重特征——交互性、涵摄性、功利等级上的高阶性以及动机上的低阶性,并最终分析了这些特征之间的内在关联。     

小农户与新型农业经营主体如何有机衔接--基于共生理论的阐释

党的十九大报告提出要实现小农户和新型农业经营主体的有机衔接,这为中国现代农业的发展指明了方向。但从目前学界的研究成果来看,构建何种模式有助于实现小农户和新型农业经营主体的衔接尚处于研究空白状态。基于此,本研究从共生理论的视角出发,认为农业经营对称互惠一体化共生模式是实现小农户和新型农业经营主体有机衔接的策略选择。在具体构建路径上,除了需要健全国家相关农业政策、加快推进信息技术运用、完善社会服务体系建设、培育农村先进人才成长以及破除小农意识的滞后性;更需要秉承小农户和新型农业经营主体两者共生单元的地位平等、共生模式的互利共赢、共生环境的协同发展以及共生界面的整体推进,才能真正实现农业农村的现代化目标。     

Spontaneous evolution of social exchange—An experimental study

Each of several exchange partners owns a specific commodity which she can share with others. Unlike in other social dilemma scenarios like prisoners’ dilemma, public goods games, etc., voluntary cooperation relies on bilateral exchanges whose profitabilities are interdependent. How will mutual sharing evolve? Will it include all group members or will smaller groups be more efficient? Our experimental data shed partly new light on older topics: cooperation is now relation specific, allowing for discrimination; group size effects are explored dynamically rather than in one-shot interaction; and, finally, we have weakened demand effects for voluntary cooperation by realistic efficiency gains.     

From obligations to negotiations: reciprocity and reflexivity in informal financial support

This article examines the processes of informal support exchange in wider social network relationships with a particular focus on conditions that are of significance for financial support. The intention, with a point of departure in 24 qualitative interviews with single adults in Sweden, is to present an interactionist model to explain how such support is formed and how it can be analysed and understood. The article shows that such support is by no means purely dependent on financial considerations and resources. The types of relationship and the specific situations in which individuals are placed in positions that demand reflection upon, and communication about, their need for support, can be likened to a negotiation and are of equal importance. Furthermore, the provision of informal support is also influenced by moral and social norms relating to responsibility, care obligations, self-sufficiency and independence, which are, amongst other things, embedded in our social political system.