The increasing importance of friends: Changes in core discussion network composition in post-communist Hungary between 1997 – 2015

In order to detect changes in social connectivity, we examined evolutions in the personal network structure by analyzing over-time trends in the composition of the population’s core discussion networks on four cross-sectional, nationally representative surveys between 1997 and 2015, in the era of post-communism, in Hungary. There has been a very significant change; in fact, a reversal of trends regarding the composition of the core discussion networks (CDNs) concerning kin and non-kin ties over the past decades. Our data suggest that friendship ties gained more importance. There seems to be a generation-specific aspect of the change: young people include family ties less often than older people and this effect strengthens over time. Women still have a higher ratio of kin ties compared to men and this effect does not change significantly during the analyzed period.     

东南亚国家气候变化法律应对之研究

气候变化问题的全球性决定了应对气候变化必须各领域通力合作,法律应对机制的构建必不可少。以往,我们常常将关注点放在气候变化国际法律制度领域的基本问题研究上,而未真正对气候变化国际法律制度进行认真剖析,找出其目前和未来发展阶段的不足之处,东南亚国家深受全球气候变化的影响,因此必须积极面对这一挑战。尽管有必要强调共同但有区别责任原则,但是东南亚各国也有必要提升＂道义责任理念＂,从自身法律完善做起,为温室气体的减排落实真正尽一份力。     

Balancing Efficiency and Legitimacy: Institutional Changes and Rural Health Organization in China

The aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the institutional arrangements within which China's rural health facilities are embedded and of the contribution of policy to the creation of these arrangements. Information collected through field observations and in‐depth interviews with the managers, staff and patients of a township health centre indicates that with the gradual evolution of markets, encouraged by state policies, health care in rural China took on more of the characteristics of a commodity. In order to adapt to this change, the health centre and its employees are adjusting their behavioural norms and reconstructing an institutional network within which daily activities of simultaneously fulfilling public health responsibilities and pursuing economic gain are legitimized. This article focuses on the interwoven relationship between politics and markets at the micro level and examines the negotiations between stakeholders in constructing new institutional arrangements. It also describes how health sector managers are creating regulations to influence the performance of their facility. The article argues that while government policies play a crucial role in shaping the direction of development, institutional arrangements strongly influence the attempts by rural health organizations to implement them. It concludes that it is critical to take institutional factors into account in analyzing China's rural health‐care reforms.     

Theory of change models deepen online learning evaluation

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have gained traction as resources for professional development. This article presents the method that we used to evaluate a professional development MOOC for postdoctoral trainees that was created by a university consortium in the US. Most approaches to evaluating MOOCs focus on analysis of participation, outcomes from course assignments, self-reported learning outcomes, course completion and user pathways through the online content or clickstream data. Few published evaluations describe in detail how learning happens within online courses and the anticipated medium and longer term cognitive and behavioral outcomes on participants. This work aims to guide those who are designing, implementing and evaluating MOOCs through applying theories of change to focus evaluation on the process of learning. This approach can be used as a complement to traditional approaches for evaluating MOOCs. We described how we worked with the MOOC team building the content to develop a theory of change for each module (or lesson) within the MOOC and used the theory of change to guide evaluation of short and medium term participant cognitive, affective and attitudinal, and behavioral outcomes. Finally, we share lessons learned and suggestions for implementing theories of change in both the design and evaluation phases of MOOC development.     

新媒体发展背景下的教育政策变迁及其多源流分析——以学前教育政策为例

我国学前教育政策资源配置调整变化的关键时期也是新媒体发展的黄金时期。以学前教育政策变迁为例，采用多源流理论探讨新媒体对学前教育政策变迁影响的逻辑。分析发现，新媒体对学前教育政策变迁的影响方式主要有：在问题源流上，通过提出和解释关键指标、强化焦点事件的影响以及促进问题反馈等方式影响政策制定过程；在政策源流上，通过促进形成政策原汤，促进官方与非官方的对话等方式影响议程；在政治源流上，主要有激发国民情绪、表明政府态度及理念等方式。三种源流耦合、交互作用，并在特定政策之窗打开时，共同促成学前教育政策的制定。     

Understanding how balancing autonomy and power might occur in leading organizational change

Leading organizational change involves many leadership skills. The literature indicates that there is one basic underlying skill: the ability to form and use judgment that is informed by analysis and experience. The literature also indicates that constructing and implementing good judgment from analysis and experience requires discretion in terms of autonomy and power. However, the findings from a field study of leaders with strong reputations as change agents demonstrated that it was difficult for change agents to have both autonomy and power. This result introduces critical but underexplored dilemmas associated with balancing autonomy and power in leading change. This article argues that balancing might occur when change agents have learned to understand and handle the dilemmas, and it describes enabling conditions for this learning. Furthermore, a future research agenda is indicated.     

Beyond continuity? Italian social assistance policies between institutional opportunities and agency

Madama I. Beyond continuity? Italian social assistance policies between institutional opportunities and agency The article addresses recent developments of social assistance policies in Italy with two interpretative aims. The first regards the approval of the long‐awaited framework law in 2000 and deals with the factors that made a path‐shifting national reform possible in a policy sector which had evolved through successive accretions and gradual revisions. The second regards the effectiveness of the reform, providing an assessment of the (scant) achievements subsequent to its adoption. The reform process was investigated through a model that combines factors of historical neo‐institutionalist derivation and agency dynamics, the latter of which is intended to overcome the structuralist bias of purely neo‐institutionalist explanations. The article draws two conclusions. The first concerns the resilience of Italy's backwardness in this policy field. The second, a theoretical consideration, is that if institutions function as constraint generators as well as opportunity generators for actors, agency dynamics are crucial in order to fully understand the timing and specific contents of institutional change.     

挑战与出路:东西方管理智慧整合的方法论探索

未来管理世界的基本特征是不确定性、模糊性、复杂性以及快变性。这一特征给组织管理带来巨大挑战:管理目标制定困难,管理机制设计不完备,管理操作过程难以设计,人的行为无法控制。东西方管理中应对上述挑战的智慧体现了不同的哲学和逻辑思路,二者之间具有互补性,如能有效整合可更好地应对挑战。基于近年来出现的二元型组织研究思路,运用和谐管理理论的基本思想,提出一套系统的方法论来整合东西方已有管理智慧和理论,为未来管理研究与实践提供了应对挑战的新思路。     

THE CONTRIBUTION OF PSYCHOANALYTICAL OBSERVATION IN CHILD PROTECTION ASSESSMENTS

In this paper I describe my role in undertaking child protection assessments for children in my work for a Family Centre managed by a national voluntary child care organisation. I explore how psychoanalytical observation provides additional knowledge informing assessments of risk for children. In an example that I discuss in some detail, I show how observation provides a means for assessing relationships between children and parents which leads to informed recommendations to court. In a second example I show how observation can be linked with a therapeutic approach to generate necessary change in parenting capacity. I conclude that observation is an important and effective training for professionals responsible for protecting children from harm.