离婚调解话语中男女权力失衡问题研究

作为离婚审判的必要程序,调解的设立是为了减少或避免纠纷并公正地解决争端。研究发现调解中的男女当事人存在权力差异,而且男性在权力的两个维度上均显示为强势。首先就社会生活维度来说,男性在收入、职业、社会地位和教育程度等方面较女性处于优势。其次,在语言使用层面,以评价理论为指导,本研究发现不论是针对女方还是法官,男性在情感词汇、义务型情态词汇以及级差词汇的使用上都体现出了强势的特征。然而,在调解过程中,双方权力的失衡没有得到法官的重视和正确对待,妇女的权益也没有得到较好的维护。因此,有必要让法官意识到男女权力在社会生活维度,尤其是语言使用维度的差异,确保能够在审理过程中做到公正公平,更好地保护妇女的正当权益。     

Occupy the government: Analyzing presidential and congressional discursive response to movement repression

I examine the role of Occupy Wall Street in shifting presidential and congressional discourse on economic fairness and inequality. Using data from 4646 presidential speeches and 1256 congressional records from 2009 to 2015, I test different mechanisms, including repression, media coverage, public opinion, and presidential agenda-setting by applying a novel combination of web scraping, natural language processing, and time series models. I suggest that movement success can be measured in its ability to shape discursive opportunity structures, and I argue that the role of the president should be at the forefront of social movements research. Ultimately, I demonstrate (1) that the repression of Occupy protesters not only predicts media coverage but also increases discursive opportunities through President Obama and Congress, (2) that media coverage of Occupy predicts presidential discourse, (3) that the president's rhetorical shift increases congressional response, and (4) that this change persists after the movement faltered.     

Children's participation in post-divorce decision-making: The role of conflict and attachment

Increased child participation in decision-making about custody and visitation when parents separate is an explicit political goal. This study delineates central family processes associated with child participation in post-divorce decision-making, both in mediation and in the home. Children recruited to the Dynamics of Family Conflict Study at Norwegian family counselling centres (7–15 years, n = 554) completed surveys about interparental conflict, attachment security and whether they had been invited to participate in mediation and share their views at home. Results showed a strong correlation between the two decision-making arenas as children who were invited to participate in mediation were also more likely to have been asked about their views at home, and vice versa. Mixed-effects logistic regression analyses indicated that attachment security to mothers predicted that children were invited to participate in mediation. Older children were more likely to have been invited to participate both at home and in mediation. More child-related interparental conflicts predicted that children did not know if they had been consulted at home. The study points to the need for developing better practices for including younger children.     

Effects of mediator competence and mediation process on user satisfaction with child custody,finances, and property outcomes

This study draws on survey data from 205 family mediation service users concerning their satisfaction with the outcomes of mediation to address two research questions: (a) how satisfied are service users? and (b) what factors account for users' satisfaction with the outcome of child custody arrangements and the allocation of finances and property? Overall, users' level of satisfaction with outcomes was high. While the mediation process explained a significant variance in satisfaction with the outcomes for child custody and for finances and property, the mediator's perceived professional competence did not predict user satisfaction with the outcomes for either issue. This study contributes to our knowledge on the significance of mediators' process skill, specifically their calm and clear responses to the socioemotional needs of the mediated parties, on the service outcomes for both types of dispute. The implications for mediation training are discussed.     

Social Worker Supervision with Novice and Experienced Workers

ABSTRACT

This empirical study compares the perceptions of social work supervisors about the needs of novice and experienced social work supervisees. The respondents, 211 supervisors in public welfare agencies in Israel, provided novice workers more supervisory time in 6 of the 8 content areas examined: administrative matters; inspection and control; inter-organizational communication; client issues; job-related tensions; and personal tensions. Projects in the community were given priority to experienced rather than novice supervisees, and professional development was regarded by the supervisors as equally important for novice and experienced workers. Comparisons were also made between the actual and preferred supervisory time allotment.     

A Realistic Path to Implementing China’s Budget Law

The core issue for the implementation of modern budget law is to optimize the satisfaction of society’s demand for public goods. The form of implementation mechanism that will best achieve this goal has thus become a major topic in the field of legal research. To go beyond the Anglo-Saxon budget model and construct a realistic path for the implementation of China’s budget law, this issue needs to be explored from the perspective of Chinese citizens in a way that safeguards the fundamental interests of the people and is premised on upholding and improving the People’s Congress system, so as to achieve a balance between internal and external budget allocation relationships. There are three routes to implementing China’s budget law: the political, the social, and the judicial. Under the first, citizens’ political identity interests are represented by deputies who oversee the budgetary powers of administrative bodies through the People’s Congress. Under the second, citizens individually or collectively participate, influence or even decide the allocation of public economic resources through dialogue, negotiation, reasoning and argument with the responsible budgetary agency in the course of the budget’s compilation, examination and approval, execution and supervision. Under the third, the establishment of a system for budgetary litigation allows citizens to participate in and supervise the implementation of the budget law, individually or collectively. This provides judicial security for the law’s implementation. These three realistic implementation routes represent the dialectical unity of concerted institutional effort aimed directly at effective implementation of budget law. Judicial interpretations of budget law implementation indicate the importance and urgency of promoting national governance capacity through reform of the legal systems governing finance and taxation. This explains the significant role of finance and taxation law in national governance.     

Dyadic Cross-Sectional Associations Between Depressive Mood,Relationship Satisfaction,and Common Dyadic Coping

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the mediational role of common dyadic coping in the links between depressive mood and relationship satisfaction. We estimated two competing Actor–Partner Mediator Models, in which the dyad is the highest unit of analysis. The first model specified dyadic coping as a mediator in the association between relationship satisfaction and depression, whereas the second model specified dyadic coping as a mediator between depression and relationship satisfaction. Analyzing data from 198 couples, our findings provided a plausible approximation of the second model, representing the interactional model of depression. They showed that common dyadic coping mediates the link between depression and relationship satisfaction for men only.     

Ways out of the sewage sludge dilemma: Connecting administrative and participatory decision making

This paper examines the problem of decisions about the disposal of sewage sludge, in the face of stakeholder groups with varying viewpoints, based on a current case from the state of Lower Saxony in Germany. Like other developed countries, Germany faces the dilemma that sludge arisings are increasing (e.g., because of better water treatment) while disposal options are becoming more scarce. Lower Saxony relies heavily on landfill and agricultural application, but landfill of untreated sludge will be banned after 2005. The state Environment Ministry sees agricultural application as having various advantages, but it faces scepticism from various stakeholders. The ministry has therefore taken steps to encourage a long-term dialogue process with the main stakeholders, including farming organizations, food processors, other landowners such as the churches, and environmental and consumer organizations. The process began with a discussion forum in 1995 that led to the proposal of specific discussions with stakeholders. This paper focuses in particular on the dialogue with environmental and consumer groups. It analyzes the initial positions of the various stakeholders, describes the concrete steps taken so far, describes the ongoing efforts, and critically evaluates the procedures used as well as their implications in terms of the ideas of deliberation and analysis.     

Mediation and Minority Members of Academe

Focus groups are used to gather information from minorities in a university setting. Minority members of three campus groups (students, staff, and faculty) identified issues that could lead to relational conflicts. Alternative methods of dispute resolution are discussed in terms of their suitability and viability for use by minorities in academe. Mediation is presented as the preferred process for conflict resolution on an increasing number of college and university campuses. Mediation as a form of sociological practice in academia is a wide-open field of opportunity.     

Breadth of Vocational Interests: The Role of Career Adaptability and Future Orientation

The authors examined the relationship between career adaptability, future orientation, and vocational interests. Specifically, they tested the role of career adaptability and future orientation in promoting a broader range of vocational interests, based on the principle that experiencing more interests can be useful in giving one's best in multiple occupations and in planning a broad range of career goals. A total of 762 Italian adolescents (383 males, 379 females) participated in the study. Results highlight the mediating role of future orientation in the relationship between 4 career adaptability resources and breadth of vocational interests. These results underscore that specific interventions in career adaptability and future orientation may foster a broader range of vocational interests, providing more opportunity for adolescents to respond to the demands of the current job market.