State carnivals and the subvention of multiculturalism in Singapore

Increasing attention is being paid to the specificities of Asian multiculturalism in relation to ethnic pluralism, citizenship and developmental state formation. This article examines these relationships by analysing three carnival events in colonial and postcolonial Singapore that were organized by the state to promote its official multiculturalism. Through its cultural logics of horizontal racial segmentation, cascading symbolic authority from the state to co-opted communal representatives and multi-modal ritual iteration, the 1937 King George VI coronation celebrations proffered an imperial multiculturalism based on mediating plural groups and procedural norms. Adopting the same cultural logics in the 1970s, the newly-independent nation-state revived and transformed Chingay, a creole Chinese religious procession, into an annual parade celebrating the nation as comprising racially plural groups bound together by the modern ethos of progress the developmental state exemplified. In the 2000s, Chingay has been turned into an international spectacle celebrating Singapore as a cosmopolitan global city of hybridizing multiculturalism. But indicative of new racial-class segmentation, the old nation-building pluralism is promoted by Racial Harmony Day carnivals held in suburban public housing neighborhoods. This bifurcated multiculturalism reflects the developmental state's attempts to deal with new citizenship trends as they grind against the old ethnic pluralism. While faced with the same issues globalization brings, this postcolonial multiculturalism is distinctively different from liberal multiculturalism, not least because the subvention of multiculturalism is achieved through the state appropriation of vernacular cultural practices through its carnivals.     

Child care policy: A need for greater advocacy

While some scholars have recognized the importance of child care to families in the United States (Kamerman, 2001; Waldfogel, 1998), child care has not been viewed as a core social policy concern in the United States. In this article, we provide an overview of child care needs in the U.S. followed by an analysis of three major federal programs that shape U.S. child care policy. The first, the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), provides financial child care supplements to low-income parents to enable them to engage in paid labor. The second policy, The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), is technically a universally applicable policy enabling people to care for a family member in need, including all parents who choose to spend a few weeks of unpaid leave with a newborn child. The third is the U.S. tax policy, including child care exemptions, deductions and credits. We suggest that, though all of these policies exist to help families care for children, they fail the children and families that they are purportedly designed to help. We then discuss the crucial role that professionals who work with families and children can play in shaping U.S. child care policies.     

Developmental outcomes after five years for foster children returned home, remaining in care, or adopted

A substantial proportion of children who enter foster care in the US are infants or toddlers and will exit from foster care before they have been in care for long, either returning home or to adoption. These first years of involvement may predict a significant amount about children's longer term development so understanding developmental outcomes after five years is valuable to understanding if child welfare services (CWS) are serving the intention of promoting the well-being of children. A subsample of 353 infants (less than 13 months of age when investigated by CWS) and subsequently placed into foster care were selected from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. After 66 months, these infants had been reunified, adopted, or were still in foster care. Bivariate comparisons were completed. Statistical controls for maltreatment type and severity, demographic traits, and current caregiver education were implemented to help clarify the role of terminal child welfare placement, current caregiver behaviors, and household income, on eight linear regression models of developmental outcomes. Results support the longstanding tenet of child welfare services policy that remaining in foster care is less developmentally advantageous than having a more permanent arrangement of return home or adoption.     

Non-income effects of welfare receipt on early childhood cognitive scores

Child poverty in America has become an enduring part of the social landscape that many families must navigate. As prior research has established that income transfers can affect child outcomes, we focus our attention on the conditions under which these transfers occur. Using panel data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examine the non-income effects of TANF participation on children's early cognitive development using methods to address statistical concerns about endogeneity and selection. Our results indicate that participating in TANF is negatively associated with cognitive development. Furthermore, we are able to identify maternal stress as a viable causal pathway between TANF receipt and cognitive development, a result that we are unable to replicate with a falsification test involving the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Our results suggest that the structure of cash transfers may have effects on early childhood outcomes.     

Predictors of child protective service contact between birth and age five: An examination of California's 2002 birth cohort

This study utilizes population-level birth data to describe those children who may be at greatest risk of maltreatment during the first five years of life. Based on a unique dataset constructed by linking California's administrative child welfare data to statewide vital birth records, a cohort study design was employed to track reports of maltreatment involving children born in 2002. Twelve variables captured in the birth record were selected for analysis. Generalized Linear Models were used to estimate adjusted risk ratios (RR) for each independent variable. Predicted probabilities of CPS contact were computed based on the count of risk factors present at birth. Results suggest that many of the associations previously observed between birth variables and subsequent maltreatment have sustained value in foretelling which children will be reported to CPS beyond infancy. Of the 531,035 children born in California in 2002, 14% (74,182) were reported for possible maltreatment before the age of five. Eleven of the twelve birth variables examined presented as significant predictors of contact with child protective services.     

对社会民主党政治文明观的理论思考

社会民主党在纲领上都是以政治民主为核心,主张政治多元化,在他们看来,政治民主就是要消灭阶级差别,实现人权和政治权利的平等,建立充分民主的政府,这种政治民主的表现形式就是多党制和普选权,公开反对无产阶级专政并且抹杀民主的阶级性,主张和平进入社会主义等等,其实质是维护资产阶级民主,走改良主义的道路,因此,认清社会民主党的政治民主观、人权观、国家观及政党观具有一定的理论意义。     

建设性后现代主义的宗教多元论

在全球化的时代,人们越来越关注文化多元论的问题,其中宗教多元论的问题最为棘手.作为怀特海过程哲学的传人和建设性后现代主义的代表人物,小约翰·柯布和大卫·格里芬在这方面有着特殊的贡献.在他们的阐释中,基督教不是排他论的,而是保持宗教真理的开放性.不仅如此,建设性的后现代主义宗教多元论还避免了相对主义和特殊主义的二元对立.     

The Role of Distributional Coalitions in Welfare Regimes: Chile, Costa Rica and El Salvador

Do social policies in Latin America promote or discourage distribution? And if they do promote distribution, are coalitions a prerequisite? Drawing from a typology of welfare regimes elaborated for 18 Latin American countries, this article explores responses to these questions by addressing three emblematic cases: Chile, Costa Rica and El Salvador – that is, countries where the management of social risks primarily revolves around markets, states and families, respectively. Although the article is exploratory, findings suggest that societal coalitions have been, and are likely to continue to be, weak in market welfare regimes, strong in state welfare regimes and contingent to policy sectors in familialistic welfare regimes.     

现代社会工作的利他行为：一个福利分析

本文讨论了现代社会工作利他行为的制度化、职业化特征。以效用函数作为分析工具尝试分析了社会工作助人活动中福利参与者个人福利的变化,以及根据帕累托准则带来的社会福利的增加。     

论多元主义对哲学社会科学研究方法的拓展

哲学社会科学研究方法不是屠龙术,它必须与其研究对象相伴而行,适时而作.哲学社会科学的研究对象极其宽泛,涵盖了人和社会以及宇宙万物.研究对象的多样性决定了研究方法的多元性.所谓多元主义,是美国当代哲学家法伊尔阿本德首先提出来的一种科学方法论.其核心理论就是"怎么都行",也称为"反规则".他的多元主义虽然在理论上有失偏颇,但却为哲学社会科学研究方法的创新打开了广阔的新天地.我们应当对他那"怎么都行"的主张进行改造,即知道什么方法对什么问题能行,就选择什么方法.