"后世俗社会"的批判理论——哈贝马斯与宗教

社会批判理论的主要代表尤根·哈贝马斯最近几年来频繁讨论与宗教信仰及其社会作用有关的话题,本文在澄清这些讨论的具体语境的基础上,着重探讨哈贝马斯在"内部超越"观念的语言学转译、"后世俗社会"对宗教传统的世俗转译、实现"内部超越"的社会文化条件观念等方面的观点,并设法表明,哈贝马斯以"超越性"的内在化作为重点的社会批判理论,有助于我们思考中国文化的当代意义,思考中国文化与西方文化进行沟通的文化前提,甚至还可能有助于我们思考马克思主义中国化的文化前提.     

新农合对四川藏区的减贫效应分析

The New Rural Cooperative Medi-cal System ( hereafter NRCMS) in Tibetan areas of Sichuan was started in Wenchuan in 2005 , and by 2008 covered all of the province’s Tibetan areas. This paper studies the effects of the NRCMS on im-proving the health of and alleviating poverty for farmers and herdsmen in Tibetan area of Sichuan. Most parts of the Tibetan areas of Sichuan are located in high altitude districts. Thirty two coun-ties of these areas are classified as “National Pov-erty Counties”. Poverty and disease go hand in hand in these regions. Kashin-Beck disease and hydatid disease are the major endemics in the pas-toral and agro-pastoral areas of Sichuan. Endemic, infectious and chronic diseases are widespread in Sichuan’s Tibetan areas. More than 70% of pa-tients are workers from 20 to 60 years old. Disea-ses are more prevalent in women than in men. Kashin-Beck disease and hydatid disease are cur-rently incurable. Patients suffer from health prob-lems, which leads to a decrease in their income and the heavy burden of medical expenses. The new rural cooperative medical system alleviates the negative effects of farmers’ falling into, or back in-to poverty due to disease. However, the existing medical compensation mechanism is not sufficient to solve the problem. The greatest impact of NRCMS on the farmers and herdsmen in Sichuan’s Tibetan areas is that the system has gradually changed local people’s medi-cal behavior, as well as their underlying ideas a-bout medicine: they begin to believe in hospitals. In particular, more pregnant women are choosing to give birth in hospitals, which reduces the rate of infant mortality and postpartum diseases, and im-proves the health of women. Since the full coverage of the NRCMS in 2008 , the number of people participating in the system has reached the overall average level of Si-chuan province. By analyzing the data before and after the implementation of this system, and meas-uring the impact of the system on people’s health, it can be found that the NRCMS’s role in serving the vulnerable population, such as the elderly and infant children, is more marked. Since the implementation of the NRCMS, all administrative villages in Sichuan Tibetan areas have established village clinics, which solved the problem of a shortage of medicines and doctors in those areas. Farmers and herdsmen have conven-ient access to medical treatment, enhancing the ac-cessibility of medical service. After the implemen-tation of the NRCMS, the health of the elderly population in rural areas has improved. Infant mor-tality rates have dramatically fallen. The implementation of the NRCMS improved the medical service capacity of township hospitals and village clinics. And the NRCMS has brought the township hospitals and village clinics into its scope of compensation, which greatly promotes the utilization of primary medical services in Tibetan areas. The poverty reduction effect of the NRCMS can be analyzed from two aspects:Firstly, the im-
provement in health leads to increased income, be-cause good health can promote labor productivity. Meanwhile, the increase in income will in turn im-prove the overall level of health. Secondly, the in-patient and outpatient compensation rate is raised year by year, which reduces the medical fees of farmers, and prevents them from falling back into poverty.     

Race and opportunity in a public alternative school

This qualitative case-study explores questions about the stratifying role of public alternative schools created for ‘at-risk’ youth by analyzing the school experience of students who attend a single continuation high school and the process of student enrollment and referral to that school. Drawing on the concept of whiteness as property, this article demonstrates how the continuation high school maintained and protected the property functions of whiteness through acts of symbolic violence and the systematic removal of non-white students from the school district’s mainstream high school. Instead, students were placed in a substandard alternative school lacking in material and intellectual resources. Furthermore, teachers, counselors, and administrative staff at the mainstream and continuation high schools alike drew upon the racial ideology of merit to rationalize the overrepresentation of non-white youths at the study school and to ‘deracialize’ the student referral process.     

Using best available science to protect critical areas in Washington state: challenges and barriers to planners

Urban development has profound impacts on ecological patterns and processes making the scientific information required for developing environmental ordinances central for mitigating these negative ecological impacts. Washington State requires that planners use the best available science (BAS) to formulate land use ordinances as part of the state’s Growth Management Act (GMA). We present empirical findings describing challenges to planners in defining “best available science” and using BAS to create local ordinances that balance development needs with natural resource protection. We interviewed city and county planners (and their consultants) in western Washington to determine what they find useful about BAS, whether or not BAS is applicable to their jurisdictions, and what constraints they experience in reviewing and using BAS to create or update their land use ordinances. Our results suggest that applying the BAS requirement is particularly difficult in urban areas. Specifically, planners had difficulty applying results from research conducted in systems dissimilar to their urban landscapes. These challenges to planners were exacerbated by (1) a lack of resources and (2) political tensions among stakeholders with competing values in urban settings. We conclude with recommendations for improving the consideration of science in statewide land-use planning.     

Naming,Defining, and Classifying the Condition (Formerly?) Known as Mental Retardation

Abstract

Key controversies and diverse perspectives are summarized regarding terminology, definition, and classification issues in the field of mental retardation. Six questions are provided to guide consideration of critical issues. Conclusions are drawn and implications for professional practice are discussed.     

The impact on taxpayer costs of a jail diversion program for people with serious mental illness

Mental illness is prevalent among those incarcerated. Jail diversion is one means by which people with mental illness are treated in the community – often with some criminal justice system oversight – instead of being incarcerated. Jail diversion may lead to immediate reductions in taxpayer costs because the person is no longer significantly engaged with the criminal justice system. It may also lead to longer term reductions in costs because effective treatment may ameliorate symptoms, reduce the number of future offenses, and thus subsequent arrests and incarceration. This study estimates the impact on taxpayer costs of a model jail diversion program for people with serious mental illness. Administrative data on criminal justice and treatment events were combined with primary and secondary data on the costs of each event. Propensity score methods and a quasi-experimental design were used to compare treatment and criminal justice costs for a group of people who were diverted to a group of people who were not diverted. Diversion was associated with approximately $2800 lower taxpayer costs per person 2 years after the point of diversion (p < .05). Reductions in criminal justice costs drove this result. Jail diversion for people with mental illness may thus be justified fiscally.     

A Bayesian Evidence Synthesis for Estimating Campylobacteriosis Prevalence

Stakeholders making decisions in public health and world trade need improved estimations of the burden‐of‐illness of foodborne infectious diseases. In this article, we propose a Bayesian meta‐analysis or more precisely a Bayesian evidence synthesis to assess the burden‐of‐illness of campylobacteriosis in France. Using this case study, we investigate campylobacteriosis prevalence, as well as the probabilities of different events that guide the disease pathway, by (i) employing a Bayesian approach on French and foreign human studies (from active surveillance systems, laboratory surveys, physician surveys, epidemiological surveys, and so on) through the chain of events that occur during an episode of illness and (ii) including expert knowledge about this chain of events. We split the target population using an exhaustive and exclusive partition based on health status and the level of disease investigation. We assume an approximate multinomial model over this population partition. Thereby, each observed data set related to the partition brings information on the parameters of the multinomial model, improving burden‐of‐illness parameter estimates that can be deduced from the parameters of the basic multinomial model. This multinomial model serves as a core model to perform a Bayesian evidence synthesis. Expert knowledge is introduced by way of pseudo‐data. The result is a global estimation of the burden‐of‐illness parameters with their accompanying uncertainty.     

Obtaining Informed Consent When a Profession Labels Itself as Providing Treatment for Mental Illness

Abstract

This paper examines when informed consent laws mandating explanation of the risks and benefits for proposed treatments (some talk intervention) and alternative to the proposed treatments (e.g., medications) apply to the social work profession. The reasons why an explanation of alternative treatments, including explaining medications, might be part of securing informed consent are proffered. Following this, consideration of how the task of explaining alternatives might be addressed is examined. The particular example of antidepressant medications provides a context for considering how to discuss medications as a treatment alternative. The kind of information a social worker might be obligated to possess and then impart to the client in fulfilling the task of obtaining informed consent is considered.     

Integrative Family Therapy With Childhood Chronic Illness: An Ethics of Practice

A challenge for contemporary family therapists is negotiating differences between modern and postmodern frameworks in the practice context. Modernists espouse a systemic metaphor; use evidence‐based and interventive approaches, including strategic, structural‐ or solution‐focused techniques, and believe in the therapist's knowledge, expertise and power to influence individuals or families to change. On the other hand, postmodernists follow a social constructionist, dialogical or narrative paradigm, which identifies the main ingredient of therapy as language, conversation, understanding and the therapist's ‘not knowing’ stance in eliciting a person's expertise and story Yet many practitioners adopt a middle way between these paradigm polarities, one that is less theory‐driven and more pragmatic, flexible, integrative and practice‐based. This is consistent with evidence‐based practice and research demonstrating common factors across all therapies. The value of preserving systemic thinking in family therapy is recognised while reaching forward to a postmodern social constructionist and dialogical approach. The article describes this integrative stance in family therapy as paramodern based on an ethics of practice. This is illustrated by a detailed case study of integrative family therapy, which addresses anxiety, anger and sleeping issues associated with a chronic childhood illness called Perthe's disease.