Nordic social workers' assessments of child welfare problems and interventions: a common model in child welfare?

In international comparison, the Nordic countries are characterised by similar policy goals and institutional contexts in child welfare. But is it also possible to talk about a common Nordic model in child welfare at the level of social work practices? And if so, to what extent do the results match the ideal model of ‘preventive and family service oriented Nordic child welfare’? This article investigates similarities and variations in Nordic social workers' assessments concerning child welfare problems and possible interventions by using vignettes and focus group interviews in case studies in four capital areas: Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm. The results seem to confirm the assumption of a preventive and family service oriented Nordic child welfare system regarding social work practices with smaller children, but not when adolescents are concerned.     

Social support and the working hours of employed mothers in Europe: The relevance of the state, the workplace, and the family

This paper studies the influence of state, workplace, and family support on the working hours of employed mothers and how these different support sources interact. Data taken from the European Social Survey 2004/2005 as well as country-specific information were used to estimate several hierarchical models. We find evidence that the availability of supportive workplace arrangements and family support positively impact the working hours of employed mothers and that state policies facilitating the traditional family have a negative effect. There is weak support for a positive relationship between state policies facilitating the dual-earner family and working hours of employed mothers. In addition, most of the sources of support appear to be complementary. Supportive family role models and supportive workplace arrangements have a reinforcing relationship, as do publicly funded child care and supportive workplace arrangements.     

East Asian Welfare Regimes: Testing the Hypothesis of the Developmental Welfare State

Following the three welfare regimes constructed by Esping‐Andersen, many scholars have addressed the question of whether there may be a further type of regime, differing from the categories of liberal, conservative and social democratic, pertaining to other parts of the world. Discussion has centred largely on East Asia and, in particular, on the notion of the developmental/productivist welfare regime. Yet these discussions have been based more on conceptual classification than empirical analysis. This article attempts to fill in the gap, with reference to the developmental characteristics of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. A set of 15 indicators is developed for the factor and cluster analysis of 20 countries, based on data from the 1980s and 1990s. The results indicate the existence of a new group, consisting of Taiwan and South Korea, which is distinct from Esping‐Andersen's three regimes – unlike Japan, which remains a composite of various regime types. Regime characteristics peculiar to the cases of Taiwan and South Korea include: low/medium social security expenditure, high social investment, more extensive gender discrimination in salary, medium/high welfare stratification, a high non‐coverage rate for pensions, high individual welfare loading, and high family welfare responsibility. When compared with Esping‐Andersen's three regimes, the East Asian developmental regime shows similarity with his conservative model, in respect of welfare stratification, while the non‐coverage of welfare entitlements is similar to his liberal model. There is virtually no evidence of any similarity between the developmental welfare regime and Esping‐Andersen's social democratic regime type.     

Programme Effectiveness in Activating Welfare Recipients to Work: The Case of Hong Kong

Some theories and research based on data in the West have implied the effectiveness of measures using the work-first approach, human capital development, community work experience, and financial incentives to promote welfare recipients’ transition from welfare to work. Nevertheless, the generality of the implication does not hold without examining the effectiveness in a non-Western setting. The present study thus employs survey data from 1,240 welfare recipients in Hong Kong to investigate the effectiveness of various measures for raising the recipients’ work motivation and diminishing their welfare dependency. The measures examined include the Intensive Employment Assistance Project (IEAP), Community Work (CW) Programme and Disregarded Earnings (DE) arrangements. Findings reveal the effectiveness of these three measures. Particularly, help received from various services of the IEAP was the principal factor in the effectiveness of the IEAP and the IEAP was effective for welfare recipients who were older or less skilled. The findings thus offer support to the generality of the claim about the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programmes.     

建设文学理论的中国学派——关于艺术哲学的一些想法

美学是对人类审美活动的哲学思考。美学要研究现实中审美活动的主观方面、客观方面以及现实中审美活动的集中、概括、提炼、升华,以及它的物化状态,即艺术。这就是艺术哲学。我们应该批判地继承中外已有的美学和艺术哲学的一切优秀学术成果,建立我们自己的、具有民族特点的、中国化的美学和艺术哲学。艺术哲学首先要从历史的和现实的艺术现象入手进行考察,最后深入艺术的本质,而以往我们的研究往往是颠倒的。我们以往的艺术哲学研究的弱点在于局限于认识论美学。应该突破这种局限,发展多元化、多样化的艺术哲学。     

略论战后初期英国的福利国家建设

英国的“福利国家”创始于二战后工党执政期间,由于当时的国际国内环境,工党政府的福利国家建设把平等置于较为突出的地位。然而,过分强调平等而忽视效率却使英国经济付出了沉重的代价,人们对福利国家的批评日益增多。但工党的努力依然具有历史意义,应该在肯定福利国家成就的前提下考虑这些批评的合理性。     

多元文化语境下的海外华裔文学

海外华裔文学的文化身份认同是近年来文学界比较关注的问题。通过比较分析,以“寻根”和“归化”为线索,对海外华裔文学在西方社会的多元化及所在国主流文化氛围的发展过程进行分析。分析认为,华裔文学从“寻根”到“归化”的发展历程是中国文学从民族的、封闭的走向国际的、多样性的文学现象。分析结果表明,中国文学要走向世界,必须克服民族文化中的地方性、局限性,走向多元化的普遍性和自然性。     

Economy-wide effects of cross-border labor mobility: The case of Palestinian employment in Israel

This paper investigates the economy-wide effects of cross-border movements of Palestinian labor for employment in Israel. The integration of Palestinian and Israeli labor markets is unique, as it differs from international labor migration and associated remittances described in the literature. Especially, it departs from the cultural and social dimensions associated with international migration because there is no shift in residence. We find based on an economy-wide model calibrated to a newly developed database of the West Bank economy that increasing Palestinian labor demand in Israel negatively affects the West Bank economy by bidding up domestic wages, reallocating labor away from tradable activities and reducing competitiveness of the Palestinian export sector. However, increasing labor income from Israel has positive welfare effects for Palestinian households. Considering these results, the paper identifies policy options for the Palestinian National Authority.     

英国学派中的基本制度概念与国际社会观念的关联：共识与争鸣

基本制度概念是国际社会理论的基石，也是英国学派有别于新自由制度主义的核心概念。长期以来，国际关系学界重视英国学派的制度概念与新自由制度主义机制理论的比较研究，而相对忽视该学派学者在基本制度概念上的认识差异及其与国际社会观念之间关系的研究。实际上，英国学派学者在基本制度概念的理解上虽然存有一些共识，如基本制度包括宪政性制度和共处制度两个层次，主权是国际社会的宪政性制度，外交和国际法等共处制度是从主权原则中派生出来的；但同时，他们在基本制度如何构成以及怎样互动的认识上，尤其是在主权与人权关系的认识上存在明显分歧，而这些分歧是导致他们在国际社会的认识上存在多元主义、社会连带主义等多元化发展的重要原因。英国学派学者关于基本制度概念及其与国际社会观念之间关系的争论，对当今国际社会推动人类命运共同体建设有着重要启示。