African American family life in societal context: Crisis and hope

Since 1965 hundreds of articles and books have been published about African American families. Nevertheless, our understanding of these families continues to be limited. There is a tendency to gloss over important within-group differences; thus, monolithic, stereotypic and inaccurance portrayals of Black family life are common. This paper sets aside debates of Black family pathology or viability, focusing instead on these families' essential character. The paper seeks to understand Black families on their own terms, locating them in relevant social, historical, political and cultural contexts. Key empirical patterns and trends reveal dramatic changes in Black family geographic location, headship, quality of life and socioeconomic status since 1950.A complex picture is revealed. There has been gradual but steady overall improvement alongside persistent, extreme racial disparties and pronounced class disparities among Black families. The proposed Black Family Socio-Ecological Context model specifies and connects institutional, interpersonal, environmental, temporal and cultural facts that shape the essential character of Black family life in such a way as to produce characteristics simultaneously shared and idiosyncratic. The model also provides an organized, systematic accounting of research and public policy issues relevant to the study of African American families.An early version co-authored with Richard A. English was presented during the National Council on Family Relations Meetings in Portland, Oregon, October 1980.     

美国主流媒体对“一带一路”报道的话语建构研究

共建“一带一路”倡议如今已经走过十余年历程,取得了突出成就,为共建国家发展赢得新的机遇。随着美国对“一带一路”的关注度持续上升,分析美国主流媒体对“一带一路”的相关报道可以反映美国对该倡议的态度,便于中国做出有效应对措施。研究运用语料库文本挖掘方法,选取美国两大主流媒体《纽约时报》《华盛顿邮报》中涉及“一带一路”的报道文本,从主题分布、主体建构、搭配词和索引行等维度考察美国主流媒体对该倡议的话语建构方式。研究发现,十年间美国两大媒体对“一带一路”的报道包括“一带一路”建设内容和中国影响力等多个主题。根据时间变化,报道主题存在三个阶段的差异:初期突出中国与亚洲国家的合作,中期重点报道中国的世界影响力,近期涉及新冷战等主题。两大媒体通过勾勒基础设施建设与投资、大国关系和中美贸易等内容建构“中国”和“一带一路”形象,对该倡议的认知从早期的中性态度转向中近期的消极态度。基于此,一方面适时开展舆论反击工作是应对美国舆论的关键,向美国媒体传递高质量“一带一路”信息以回击不实言论;另一方面事实胜于雄辩,继续坚持共建“一带一路”是长期发展之要义,展现大国的胸怀与担当,吸纳更多国家参与“一带一路”,推动共建国家合作共赢,促进文明交流互鉴。     

从殖民地到20世纪中叶的美国人力资源开发与政策

人力资本是经济增长的重要源泉之一,重视人力资源开发是美国成功的一个重要因素。本文通过对殖民地时期到20世纪中叶美国人力资源开发过程和政策的回顾,来说明人力资源开发对美国经济发展的重要作用。     

从和平到和谐:中国外交理念的历史性飞跃

建国以来,我国的外交理念经历了从和平到和谐的飞跃。从建国后到20世纪90年代初的"独立自主、不结盟"、"和平共处、不称霸"、"建立国际新秩序",到90年代中期以来过渡到和谐,实现了质的飞跃。和谐理念是对和平理念的继承和深化,体现了中国外交的成熟与自信,是我国应对国际各种怀疑甚至敌对思潮的回应。     

美国原住民的称谓之争——当今美国"美国印第安人"与"土著美国人"的争议

自从20世纪60年代以来,针对美国原住民的称谓问题,围绕着“美国印第安人”和“土著美国人”这两个词产生激烈的争议。在分析这两个词的源起以及赞成和反对使用的理由后,我们认为,用特定的印第安部落成员身份来称呼美国印第安人是最佳方式。     

美国学界先秦道家美学思想研究

西人早在18、19世纪便接触到中国道家经典《老子》与《庄子》,但对其中美学思想之阐发则是20世纪之事。美国学者对先秦道家美学思想进行了一系列研究,主要围绕以下问题展开：道家美学与浪漫主义、道家美学中的＂与道合一＂说、＂神＂的观念、道家言意观、美学思想及其在全球化进程中之意义。其跨学科的研究方法与中西比较的视野有别于国内相关研究。     

Security branding and digital narrations. Security issues representation on Twitter

In the contemporary multicentric world, sovereign states have to manage carefully the construction of their image, defining their role and aspirations. With the re-definition of the state centric politics, stories become relevant: communication is a form of power, and networked forms of communication are becoming progressively a way to conquer the transnational public spheres. Through strategic narratives of foreign politics, states try to set up the ‘tales’ of international affairs and foreign strategies, to suggest a world vision, a causal interpretation, determining frames that affect transnational actors’ position in the international environment. Sovereign states develop these kind of frame using tools and theories referred to the commercial branding tradition to promote and support their own policies and identity. We decided to investigate how that process is made through information diffusion on digital platforms.

In this work, it has been analyzed the content presented through Twitter posts by the Foreign Ministries accounts of four different States dissimilar for geopolitical positioning and security concerns (USA; Israel; France; Sweden), for a period of three months (9/1/2015-11/30/2015); leading to the identification of different models and characteristic patterns of self-representation.

The thematic content analysis, based on the identification of macrocategories and micro-issues, has led to the identification of different models and characteristic patterns of self-representation, determined by domestic vicissitudes, and has shown some regularities, caused by the branding vocation of autobiographical online contents.     

Custom Epoch Estimation for Surveys

The paper provides a method for generating epoch estimates for time series survey data, allowing for different periods of time (or even point estimates) according to user demand. The method uses a modified kriging estimator, which suppresses the contribution of sampling error variability in order to guarantee that custom epoch estimates have an interpolation property. For the veteran population variable of the American Community Survey, we utilize a simple Brownian Motion model of the population process and derive the modified kriging estimator for this case. The tuning parameters of this population model can be calibrated to the data via simple formulas. We illustrate the application of this method to the generation of point estimates of veteran population, an important objective for Veterans Affairs.     

The business of writing: literature as a commodity in Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú

This article presents considerations about the status of literature as a commodity and writers as professionals in the twenty-first century. These considerations are based on an analysis of Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú (2011), which follows the story of an Argentine crime novel writer who becomes a ghostwriter after her latest novel receives harsh reviews for being considered commercial rather than literary. I argue that the novel in question points out misconceptions about the influence of the book industry on the aesthetic quality of literary writing, highlighting the need for literary criticism to look into everyday relations between readers, authors, and editors.     

叙述策略与历史重构——评《拉格泰姆时代》

当代美国作家多克托罗的后现代历史小说《拉格泰姆时代》,主要叙述策略是＂文本的历史性＂和＂历史的文本性＂,兼有其他后现代主义的叙事技巧。小说把虚构和事实杂糅,虚拟与历史并置,用语言结构来建构现实,不仅挑战历史话语的特权地位,也更为逼真地再现了历史真相。文本重述历史,对资本主义社会的政治、经济与文化等做了多方位的批评和嘲讽,面对当下,旨在未来,是一种成功的历史重构。