公民社会：一个概念的历史考察

纵观西方“公民社会”概念的历史演变过程，可以发现其理论内涵先后发生了三次重大的转变。在古代，公民社会是一个与自然状态相对应的概念，但到了近代，西方思想家开始提出一种建立在国家和社会二分法基础上的公民社会观，而在现代，人们又开始用国家-市场-社会三分法来代替国家和社会二分法，并在此基础上重新界定了公民社会的内涵。     

Cold wars and hot issues: management of responsibilities

This paper provides a review of the Ninth International Conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (Asia Chapter) that took place in Shanghai, China on 11–14 November 2010. In addition to providing a brief review of the pre-conference workshops and keynote addresses, this paper presents the outcomes of the conference using four main themes: (1) corporate training; (2) the development of key personnel; (3) career development and work-life balance; and (4) organizational learning and learning organization. In conclusion, the authors share their thoughts on the contributions of international conferences to the field of human resource development.     

论市场经济转型中的政府职能转变

在中国市场经济转型过程中，如何正确认识处理市场与政府关系、促进政府职能转变一直是困扰我们的关键问题。文章认为，当今的中国社会仍处在如何从早先极端政治化的“全能国家”与“全能政府”中“侧生”出一个市场经济条件下相对独立的“非政治化”领域的阶段，即由改革前的计划经济体制与无所不包的“全能国家”、“全能政府”为搞活经济不断让利放权、自主限权，收缩权力触角并让渡和创造出越来越多的公民个人世俗活动空间。只有逐步摒弃并祛除由来已久的“人治”和“官本位”传统，依靠制度法治建设压缩政府权限，维持把握市场与政府行为的边界，中国市场经济才有可能稳定健康地发展下去。     

Normative Beliefs as Risk Factors for Involvement in Unhealthy Weight Control Behavior

Objective: The authors' aim in this study was to determine, after adjustment for the effects of body mass index and sociodemographic measures, whether sex-specific weight control norms would have significant independent relationships with the weight control behavior of college women and men. Participants: The authors used an anonymous questionnaire to assess a sample of 470 college students, aged 18 to 26 years, attending either a 2- year community college or a 4-year public university. Methods: To calculate body mass index, the authors objectively measured the height and weight of each participant. They conducted separate discriminant function analyses for women and men. Results: The discriminant function analyses clearly indicated that weight control norms of same-sex, close friends were the best discriminators of involvement in weight control. Conclusions: The findings indicate that perceived peer norms may be important but overlooked risk factors for engaging in unhealthy weight control practices. The authors discuss the implications of these findings in the context of student health promotion.     

Patterns of Informal Help and Caregiving in Sweden: A Thirteen-Year Perspective

This article analyses informal help and caregiving in Sweden with a focus on the scope and trends of change over time. The discussion is based on the results of three national surveys and of one survey conducted in the county of Stockholm. The results indicated that informal help and caregiving was common throughout the period under study. In the 1990s, the figures were fairly stable, while from the late 1990s to 2005 there seems to have been a dramatic increase in the prevalence of such support. Two interpretative perspectives are used to discuss this pattern. One locates its point of departure in recent welfare state changes and in the substitution argument, according to which cuts in welfare services put more pressure on people to provide informal help and care. The second perspective relates to the present debate on civil society and to its possible role in contemporary society. According to the civil society perspective, an increase in the prevalence of informal help and caregiving might be interpreted as an expression of growing civic involvement 'in its own right', without a straightforward and simple relationship to changes in the welfare state. It is argued in the article that the two frames of interpretation should not be viewed as mutually exclusive, but rather that they represent two partly complementary approaches to the understanding of the complex dynamics of unpaid work in contemporary Swedish society.     

论公民社会与社会工作——公民社会视角下的中国社会工作

回顾改革开放以来的几十年,中国正在由一个高度政治化的社会向一个多元化的公民社会演变,政府职能开始转变,民间社会从政治权力中逐渐分离出来,并显示了巨大的能量。大政府、小社会的政治格局正在发生变化,社会工作在这一背景下也在悄悄的改变。本文就是具体论述在这一转变之后,社会工作和公民社会间的关系。首先对公民社会中的社会工作进行宏观考察,分析公民社会下社会工作、国家权力和公民三者之间的关系。公民社会与社会工作之间存在互动的关系。两者之间相互影响,相互作用。社会工作对公民社会的作用有:社会工作为公民提供帮助,救助公民于危难之时;社会工作帮助公民解困;社会工作帮助公民更好地发展。公民社会对社会工作的作用:公民社会监督社会工作组织;公民社会监督和保护社会工作者;公民社会在经济上支持社会工作。     

Harnessing civil society's knowledge for development policy: Potential and challenges for the Republic of Yemen

This exploratory case study investigated Yemeni civil society actors’ actual and potential contribution to policy‐making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, in the sectors prioritized in Yemen's national development strategy. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted in Sana'a between January and July 2015 with policy‐makers, researchers from academic institutions and civil society organizations. More specifically, this article discusses the role that YPRIs play in the public policy landscape of Yemen; the challenges they face in their interaction with policy‐makers; the opportunities they represent for policy actors in Yemen; and the factors enabling and limiting their influence, communication, inclusiveness and capacity. The authors conclude by contextualizing their findings within the ongoing conflict and drawing lessons for post‐war policy‐making in Yemen.     

Paradigm lost: Reinvigorating the study of organizational culture

In spite of the importance of organizational culture, scholarly advances in our understanding of the construct appear to have stagnated. We review the state of culture research and argue that the ongoing academic debates about what culture is and how to study it have resulted in a lack of unity and precision in defining and measuring culture. This ambiguity has constrained progress in both developing a coherent theory of organizational culture and accreting replicable and valid findings. To make progress we argue that future research should focus on conceptualizing and assessing organizational culture as the norms that characterize a group or organization that if widely shared and strongly held, act as a social control system to shape members’ attitudes and behaviors. We further argue that to accomplish this, researchers need to recognize that norms can be parsed into three distinct dimensions: (1) the content or what is deemed important (e.g., teamwork, accountability, innovation), (2) the consensus or how widely shared norms are held across people, and (3) the intensity of feelings about the importance of the norm (e.g., are people willing to sanction others). From this perspective we suggest how future research might be able to clarify some of the current conflicts and confusion that characterize the current state of the field.