Ethical uneasiness and the need for open-ended reflexivity: the case of research into older people with a wish to die

This article focuses on research ethics in highly intimate research with possible impact on life and death. In order to stimulate an open-ended dialogue about research ethics, we reflect on four ethical challenges that came up during our research into older people with a wish to die. Drawing on our experiences, we discuss (1) the possibly confirming influence of our research on the death wish (moral experience of whether or not to disregard responsibility); (2) the suggested duty to intervene (moral experience of whether or not to compromise the person’s autonomy); (3) the researcher’s authority and power over the data (moral experience of threatening a person’s self-narrative) and (4) the dilemma of intimacy (moral experience of encountering the tragic). For guidance in addressing these challenges, we draw upon work on research ethics from phenomenological and care ethics scholars, as well as from those writing about relational ethics in health research. We suggest that being open about ethical uneasiness is important, because in most cases of a grey area, there are only open-ended answers needing an enquiring mind, rather than clear and fixed guidelines. Acknowledgement of ethical uneasiness and open-ended reflexivity are indispensable to constitute a morally good research practice.     

The Symbolic Dilemmas of Suburban Poverty: Challenges and Opportunities Posed by Variations in the Contours of Suburban Poverty1

Poverty has increased significantly in U.S. suburbs since the 1990s. What we know about suburban poverty is largely limited to demographic and economic information. Building off the organizational perspective approach, I use in‐depth interviews with nonprofit, antipoverty organizations in eight Pennsylvania suburbs to better understand the suburban poverty experience. My focus is on how organizations compete for external resources. By working directly with the poverty problem while also working in broader metropolitan political and economic fields of decision making, this “middleman” role ( Marwell, 2007 ) gives us insights into contemporary poverty dynamics for suburbs. I find that how suburban organizational leaders perceive the challenges they face, and what strategies they adopt to confront such difficulties, revolves around symbolic dilemmas posed by the history, distribution, and politics of poverty in the suburbs. Symbolic dilemmas cluster around three different situational contexts of poverty in the suburbs. I use this to develop a three‐part typology of suburban poverty: symbiotic suburbs, skeletal suburbs, and overshadowed suburbs. This typology has implications for future research and for policymakers interested in developing tools to appropriately address this pressing issue.     

Deliberate Trust and Intuitive Faith: A Dual‐Process Model of Reliance

Drawing on the dual process framework from social and cognitive psychology, this paper reconciles two distinct conceptualizations of trust prevalent in the literature: “rational” calculative and irrational “affective” or normative. After critically reviewing previous attempts at reconciliation between these distinctions, we argue that the notion of trust as “reliance” is the higher order category of which “deliberate trust” and “intuitive faith” are subtypes. Our revised approach problematizes the conflation of epistemic uncertainty with phenomenological uncertainty while providing sound footing for a key sociological insight: that reliance on the routine social order is both the cognitive default and based on substantial practical evidence. We develop two broad suggestions for future research from these implications: (1) sociological research should examine the role of intuitive faith—as opposed to deliberate trust—in late modern societies, and (2) analysts should challenge the role of deliberate trust as the “modal” form of reliance in contemporary research.     

Evidence-Based Social Work Practice with Mentally Ill Persons who Abuse Alcohol and Other Drugs

Abstract

The current article outlines a comprehensive approach to evidence-based social work practice, and applies it to persons with severe and persistent mental illness who also abuse alcohol and other drugs. Representative empirical literature is summarized within a framework that delineates the three major functions of evidence-based social work practice: assessment, intervention and evaluation. Assessment protocol, which incorporates the use of valid scales to complement the qualitative interview, is based on domain-specific research that outlines relevant psychosocial risk factors, and highlights those that are amenable to change. Intervention strategies are derived from the growing body of controlled research findings, but flexibility in implementation is recommended to accommodate clients' individual needs and the vagaries of daily practice. Naturalistic evaluation methods are used to capitalize on the use of brief, valid process and outcome measures to augment individual qualitative evaluation and to aggregate data for program evaluation. The implications of this integrated evidence-based strategy for social work practice are discussed.     

湖北自贸试验区的制度创新:实践特征、理论内涵与政策启示

建设湖北自贸试验区是新发展阶段全面深化改革、扩大开放的系统性探索和战略实践,从动态演进论与制度变迁、制度经济学的交易成本论以及公共经济学的公共物品供需视角,对自贸试验区制度创新的理论逻辑与实践意义予以系统研究。研究发现,湖北自贸试验区围绕加快转变政府职能、深化投资领域改革、促进贸易转型升级、推动金融开放创新、创新驱动发展以及服务国家战略等方面展开了一系列制度创新实践,逐步形成由浅入深、由线下向线上线下协同发展、由共性领域向特色领域逐步延伸、从前项到末端统筹安排、借鉴与创新并举以及集中推广与自主运用相结合的改革创新发展路径。研究认为,推动湖北自贸试验区的制度创新,充分发挥其在破解地方深层次结构性发展矛盾和扩展增长赋能空间上的功能内涵,需要在顶层制度设计方面,加强与国内国际双循环新发展格局相互衔接,通过完善监管体系设计、提升行政服务效率来转变政府监管职能和健全市场监管,构建由法律法规、行政规章、规范性文件共同组成的、与国际规范兼容协调的法制框架和政策体系,统筹为国家试制度、出经验的全局性战略目标与谋求为地区经济发展注活力、添动力的局部性现实需求之间的激励导向; 在具体实施路径层面,持续优化开放平台、营商环境和加强口岸智慧功能建设,着力培育和强化大城市、大枢纽、大口岸、大平台、大产业以及一流的营商环境等,构建开放型经济新体制和多维量化评估指标体系,实现自贸试验区制度创新实践探索、经验成效审视验证、赋能社会经济发展以及长远建设规划目标的有机协调统一,助力湖北建设新时代内陆开放新高地。     

Behind the ethnic–civic distinction: Public attitudes towards immigrants’ political rights in the Netherlands

Public opinion research has sought to distinguish between ethnic and civic conceptions of citizenship and examined the differential associations of these conceptions with policy preferences in the realm of immigration. What has not been examined empirically is why exactly these conceptions are related to people’s preferences. In two survey studies conducted among national samples of native Dutch we tested the proposition that the endorsement of ethnic citizenship is related to lower acceptance of Muslim immigrant rights (Study 1) and their political participation (Study 2) because of a weaker normative sense of common national belonging and higher adherence to autochthony (primo-occupancy) beliefs. In contrast, the endorsement of civic citizenship was expected to be associated with higher acceptance of Muslim immigrant rights and their political participation because of a stronger sense of common belonging and lower belief in autochthony. The findings of the two studies are similar and in support of these expectations.     

失地少数民族遭遇的结构二元困境——基于贵州溪村四次征地事件的分析

边疆民族地区现代化进程的推进导致很多少数民族群体的农地被征用,催生了一个新的边缘化群体即失地少数民族。该群体不仅丧失了生存与发展的基础,而且面临着组织与制度资源的匮乏,陷入了一种新的结构二元困境中。要打破失地少数民族面临的二元困境,不止要限制地方和基层政权组织的权力,积极培育和加强少数民族自身的组织建设以扩大地权,在征地中还应遵循程序正义和差别正义的理念,尊重少数民族生存与发展的权利。     

"玄同"之境与"社会状态":两种不同的主客超越路向

马克思在其《1844年经济学-哲学手稿》中发动了哲学革命,克服了西方两千余年的形而上学传统,超越了二元对立的世界观,实现了哲学向现实的人的世界的回归。这同老子的“玄同”之境十分相似,但又超越其上,老子的玄同论是“未完成的人道主义”或者“未完成的自然主义”。     

就业需求与工业化：一个新的分析框架

继 90年代初始 ,我国工业化进程中出现生产能力相对过剩 ,工业总产值增长率持续下降 ,从供给角度描述工业化过程的传统二元经济理论 ,已难以解释我国现阶段生产能力过剩的问题。因此 ,本文提出工业化就业与需求假说 ,构建二元经济理论模型 ,并实证分析改革以来我国就业需求与工业化变动 ,说明非农就业等需求因素对工业化的影响 ,为二元经济下的工业化过程提供了新的分析框架。     

论基于利益分析的“环境优先”原则

从可计量、可对比角度而言,“环境优先”常被人们模糊地界定为环境利益优先于经济利益。环境利益和经济利益均应“分别兼具”人身与财产两方面的价值属性,即人身性环境利益与财产性环境利益,人身性经济利益与财产性经济利益。人身性环境利益与人身性经济利益同等重要,财产性环境利益与财产性经济利益之间也无所谓谁优先或者谁不优先。基于此,利益视角下的“环境优先”实质上是应指人身性环境利益优先于财产性经济利益。