Labour geographies of the platform economy: Understanding collective organizing strategies in the context of digitally mediated work

The article examines the geographies of collective labour struggle in the platform economy. It distinguishes between the unique spatial features associated with place-based work and crowdwork to examine the divergent collective organizing strategies developed therein. Taking works councils, collective bargaining and multi-enterprise agreements as three examples of social dialogue, the article considers why different types of platform workers gravitate towards particular strategies, analyses the regulatory frameworks within which these workers' collective struggles are bound, and assesses the propensity for these expressions of solidarity to improve the terms and conditions of platform work.     

生态社会主义研究之评述

20世纪70年代,生态社会主义首先出现于德国。此后它以其独特的理论视角和深刻的理论见解而备受人们的关注,并对西方绿色政治起着日益重要的影响。它在西方的产生和迅速崛起,有其深刻的政治、经济、科学、文化背景并经历了相关的形成与发展过程。生态社会主义者对当今生态危机以及未来社会模式等纷纷提出了自己的观点和主张。这些观点和主张虽有许多不成熟和不现实之处,但对我国的社会主义现代化建设仍具有重要的参考价值和有益的启示意义。     

立法会与香港政制——香港政制系列研究之三

未来香港立法会的组建、地位、功能、作用及其与现在立法局的关系等，既是近年中英两国关于香港政制安排问题的争议焦点，也是“九七”后香港政制正常、有序运作的关键所在。本文通过《英皇制诰》、《皇室训令》与香港基本法的对比研究，揭示出只有按基本法办事，才能有效发挥立法会在香港政制运作中的特殊作用，广大港人也才能够最大限度地行使其民主权力     

分层走班制教学研究的回顾与展望

随着《基础教育课程改革纲要（试行）》《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要（2010-2020年）》等纲领性文件的颁布,我国教育界掀起了一场新的教育改革实践浪潮。"分层走班制"就是在这场教育改革实践活动中应运而生的一种新型教学模式,并逐渐成为教育研究领域的新热点。目前,对分层走班制教学的研究在一定程度上形成了一些有价值的成果,其中包括分层走班制的兴起与发展背景及原因的剖析、分层走班制教学概念的界定、实施分层走班制教学的价值及意义、实施分层走班制面临的矛盾及破解对策等。但是,分层走班制教学研究也存在实践研究片面化、研究方法单一化、应对策略理论化和空洞化等问题。未来我国分层走班制教学研究应更多基于实践研究以及多样化的研究范式,在探索切实可行的对策和与时俱进的应对思路等方面寻求突破。     

“人类命运共同体”话语的传播困境及突围策略

人类命运共同体,由话语到行动,由倡议到共识,由呼吁到引领,基于话语出场、话语丰富、话语深化三阶段,层层递进深化,逐步生成“人类命运共同体”话语的丰富意涵。从话语意涵看,人类命运共同体话语诠释了中国对“建设持久和平、普遍安全、共同繁荣、开放包容、清洁美丽的世界”的美好设想和伟大构想,体现为对话性和协商性、共建观和共享观、合作观和共赢观、交流性和互鉴性、绿色观和低碳观共5个方面的有机统一。从话语传播实践看,人类命运共同体话语主要面临文化思维差异与偏执、西方话语预设与框定、西方话语污化与扩散、话语权与话语体系薄弱等传播困境,须通过深化中国话语的学术研究,强化话语传播的顶层设计,扩展话语传播的平台渠道,构建话语传播的协同机制,做好话语传播的叙事融通,夯实话语传播的实力基础等举措来彰显中国话语深厚意蕴,增强中国话语国际声音,提升中国话语国际认同,推动中国话语落地进程。     

略论中国特色大国外交的思想内涵和践行路径

新中国成立以来,中国大国外交之路经历了“站起来”“富起来”和“强起来”3个阶段,日益形成具有中国特色的大国外交风格。其中,中华民族传统文化、党的领导、以人为本、为民服务分别是促成中国特色大国外交的“源”“基”和“本”。未来中国特色大国外交以“打造人类命运共同体”为建构路径和实践方向,必然能够在对外关系和国际事务中呈现新气象、体现新担当、展现新作为、赢取新成就,进而更好地彰显自身外交特色和大国外交作用。     

The Perceptions and Needs of Farm Dwellers Regarding Aging,Advanced Age,and Future Perspectives

Abstract

This article reports on a multidisciplinary study that was undertaken by the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. This study was done on certain farms in the North West Province of South Africa and called the FLAGH study, meaning the Farm Labour, Agriculture and General Health study. This article reports on a need assessment of farm dwellers done during the second half of 2002 and focuses specifically on perceptions and needs regarding aging, advanced age and future perspectives of aged farm dwellers.

The objective of this study was to ascertain the psychosocial needs and problems of farm dwellers in order to eventually design, implement and evaluate a programme aimed at the improvement of the quality of life of farm dwellers. An exploratory study was done, utilising in-depth interviewing according to a schedule of both quantitative and qualitative nature. Certain aspects, like the attitude of the community towards the elderly, relationships of the elderly with peers, children, grandchildren and spouses were dealt with in this study. Topics like the needs or problems of the elderly, nearing death, old age homes and retirement were also covered in this project.     

Students’ narratives of the future: Imagined mobilities as forms of youth agency?

In the context of the ‘iFuture’ research project, 341 18-year-old Sardinian students were asked to write an essay in which they imagined themselves at 90 and described what their futures (in the past) would look like. Such data allow us to investigate the notion of agency. Agency and the future are deeply intertwined: agency involves the idea of projection and implies anticipation; the ‘desired’ futures have an impact on the ways in which youth act in the world today. We focus on the analysis of one of the emerging findings, which expresses an interesting configuration of youth agency, namely the imagination of youth mobility. This finding expresses the desire to put some projects into place, yet it concurrently implies that youth believe that these projects are impossible to achieve in the current context. After offering an overview of imagined destinations, we identify two ways in which imagined mobility emerges from the rich material collected: (a) mobility as an entry ticket, to bypass the uncertainty associated with crude reality and (b) mobility as an occasion for self-experimentation and self-growth. We conclude by discussing in what ways these forms of imagined future mobilities may be seen as youth agency.     

A Year Then Forever: Personal Resolution Making and the Temporal Bridge of the Near Future

Based on in-depth interviews and drawing exercises with 25 resolution makers, this paper explores the use of time in structuring and enacting improvement projects of the self. Resolutions are intentional, identity-laden moments when people bring the future into the present. They provide a window into the identity work of the “near future”—an underresearched but fascinating site where individuals transition between what they see as an immediate, controllable future to a more distant one that is less certain. In attempt to mitigate the emotionally and cognitively daunting prospects of the distant future, resolution makers enlist time as a form of capital, constructing the “temporal bridge” of the near future by engaging in three interrelated processes: structuring and remembering, being flexible, and maintaining optimism.     

Cognition in Situations

The symbolic interactionist tradition can contribute to advancing sociological studies of cognition by setting dual process models on more solid ground. I draw on Blumer's epistemological statements and the interactionist tradition more broadly to consider how dual process models of cognition could be applied to naturally occurring situations. I suggest that attending to the ways the past and the future are handled and modified within social interaction provides a usable inroad for the sociology of cognition to engage with situational analysis. I identify “resonance” and “iterative reprocessing” as concepts that are suitable to this end.