Three Korean perspectives on U.S. internet public diplomacy

This study identifies perspectives of relationships publics have about countries other than their own and examines whether publics engaged through social media-based public diplomacy programs demonstrate different relationship perspectives. Q methodology and survey research were used to investigate these issues. Data come from South Korean adult internet users, including members of Café USA, an online community run by the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. Three relationship perspectives were identified: outcome-based, sincerity-based, and access-based. Compared with other groups, Café USA members put more emphasis on sincerity in their relationships with the United States. The results of this study indicate that individuals’ subjectivity should be considered as far more contextualized and nuanced than has been the case in previous research on national image or country reputation.     

Social Work Student Views on Palliative Care Learning Resources

Abstract

Many social workers are expected to work with individuals and families who are dealing with life-limiting illnesses, yet during their university education they may not have been exposed to materials that address issues related to death and dying. The Social Work Department of University of New England in Armidale, Australia designed and delivered a palliative care teaching and learning session using publicly funded online materials. Themes emerging from questionnaire and focus group data analysis included appreciation for the importance and emotional demands of the materials, sensitivity and flexibility among educators who ideally have work experience in the field, expanding presence of social work philosophy in curriculum materials and exploring spirituality, and examining culture-informed practice in greater depth. Among the implications is the need for concerted efforts to teach about death and dying using high quality accessible materials, while ensuring social work values and approaches are reflected in the content.     

Pathways to happiness: From personality to social networks and perceived support

The present study attempts to incorporate individual personality into a social network account of subjective wellbeing (SWB) by proposing and testing a path model in which social relationships (egocentric social networks and perceived social support, PSS) mediate the relationship between personality and SWB. We found that network characteristics (including network size, emotional closeness, and proportion of new contacts) are related to SWB largely via the mediation of PSS. Additionally, network size and proportion of new contacts function as important mediating mechanisms linking extraversion, agreeableness and openness to PSS and SWB.     

Engagement of the Elderly in Time Banking: The Potential for Social Capital Generation in an Aging Society

Community currency systems attempt to empower the economically marginalized and build social capital. This research explores the role of the elderly in a local voluntary organization. The elderly are potentially very important contributors, yet we know little about their participation in these local exchange networks. Eighty-seven months' worth of transaction data from a “time bank,” which has had a total of 950 members, was examined in social network analyses. Measures of quantitative engagement in the system were constructed. The elderly were found to be as active as other members. Qualitative characteristics of the network were also explored. The organization is rather homogeneous, yet exchanges within it tend to connect diverse actors. Male and female seniors undertransact with themselves and with one another, generating bridging social capital. The evidence presented suggests that the participation of the elderly in local currencies is mutually beneficial.     

Feminism,globalization and the global justice and solidarity movement

The paper begins with a theoretical-political positioning regarding globaliz­ation, as a multidimensional phenomenon, loaded with power relations with unequal and ambivalent impacts producing dramatic exclusions but, at the same time, opening possibilities for profound changes in the gender order and in social subjectivities. The effects of globalization on social movements have also been multiple and ambivalent, producing fragmentation and particularization but at the same impelling new ways of articulation, more flexible and inclusive, as well as mobilizations at a global level oriented to ‘dispute’ its hegemonic contents and struggle for an alternative globalization. In the second part, the paper analyses the new dynamics of intervention of feminist movements that follow from this new reality. The Social World Forum is a privileged space for this analysis, due to the convergence of new tendencies and new ways of existence of feminisms, expressing the new conflicts and challenges faced by feminisms in the collective construction of alternative proposals towards globalization.     

西方青年的“先进性”初探——以青年在新社会运动中的角色为视角考察

2008年起席卷全球的经济危机为资本主义制度下的普通民众套上了沉重的枷锁,在这一背景下,不少西方国家的工人、群众甚至包括大量青年发起了多次社会运动,旨在表达对资本主义制度的不满,为自己的权益进行斗争。本文通过分析青年在"阿拉伯之春"、"占领华尔街"运动、法国"反对养老金改革"运动等社会运动中的角色,认为西方青年已经成为当代社会运动的重要参与者,并发挥着积极作用,体现了一定的先进性,具体表现为:通过合理利用网络媒体为传统左翼政党和组织进一步开展社会运动提供新的思路;反抗资本主义制度;在社会运动过程中目标明确等。此外,青年参与社会运动对资本主义社会价值观的重建也具有一定意义。     

从社会回应模式看青少年离家出走现象

青少年离家出走问题已经成为全球性的社会现象,以西方研究社会问题的社会历史视角为基础提出的两个核心观点为"社会现象成为社会问题经历了发展的过程"和"社会各种人群或组织在社会问题的发展过程中给与了回应",从中可提炼出新的社会问题的研究模式,即社会回应模式。并通过应用中国"青少年离家出走"现象的发展过程来探讨这一社会回应模式在中国的适用性十分必要。研究发现,20世纪80年代至21世纪初期间(1980-2003年),青少年离家出走这一社会现象在中国经历了六大阶段的发展过程,并且在整个过程中,社会各人群对这一社会现象都有回应,但相应的社会回应和社会回应的研究仍存在不足。因此,对理论的进一步验证需要填充更多实证的数据,未来研究要进一步关注社会现象新一轮的发展历程和社会回应。     

Black Lives Matter: Racialised Policing in the United States

Abstract

In August 2014, 18 year-old Michael Brown was shot in his hometown of Ferguson, Missouri, launching a series of events that would lead to increased media scrutiny of police interactions with people of colour in the United States. Since then, the news has been filled with accounts of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, and more than a dozen other African-Americans who have died at the hands of police. This article examines how the events surrounding Michael Brown’s death shifted the American public’s knowledge of police brutality, creating an opportunity for change. Using social movement theory and a comparison with other historical racial movements in the US, the article analyses how BLM both fits and defies the expectations of a social movement. I conclude with a discussion of some changes that are a direct or indirect result of BLM’s efforts.     

社会转型期社会矛盾调处机制的系统建构——以“十一五”期间江苏徐州地区为研究场域

“十一五”期间,江苏徐州地区经济呈跨越式发展,社会处于急剧转型时期,以经济利益矛盾为主要形态的社会矛盾显著增多,各类社会纠纷数量持续高位运行。这在全国具有一定的典型代表性。针对社会转型时期社会矛盾的主要特征,调处社会矛盾必须坚持以人为本与社会公平、利益均衡与利益共享、民主法治与安定有序、政府主导与社会合作的基本原则,建立健全社会矛盾调处的责任分担机制、源头治理机制、多元化解机制和工作运行机制,推动经济社会的和谐发展与共同进步。     

网络社群意见表达失范现象的探析与应对——基于微博特定语境的思考

微博凭借强大的集聚效应,为群体的形成提供了便利条件,已经成为虚拟社会公众实施意见表达的首选载体。基于微博语境下的网络社群,其意见表达经常会因结社自由和言论自由失控泛滥而出现失范,引发出了对网络社群意见表达的批判性思考。功利意识、责任缺失、无序传播和情绪失控,降低了网络社群意见表达的有效性、可信性、可控性和合理性,需通过加强网络社群文化建设、强化制度体系的创新与供给、构建多元主体协同治理模式、提升网络社群的表达均衡、推进网络生态文明建设等途径加以应对,从而促进虚拟社会的繁荣与稳定。