Positivism,ethics and politics in Africa

Despite the fact that the study of African politics is dominated by ethical postures, as can be seen with the self-proclaimed qualifications of African states and leaders, the debate on ethics per se is not common. The first challenge of this article is to address ethics as an entry point for African political studies. The second challenge is epistemological. It is related to my efforts to examine values and ideals as facts that should be considered seriously in political science. Therefore, positivism is not incompatible with values and ideals. They are part of the political universe. In this regard, African politics shows the symbolic triumph of democratic ethics. Current facts militate for the upholding of those values.     

Pity and pragmatism: understandings of disability in northeast Thailand

Cultural models of illness causation and treatment inform community understandings of and responses to disability. Data collected as part of a multi‐country study, conducted in 2002–2007, illustrate how villagers from northeastern Thailand conceptualise disability (pikarn). Local understandings of causality are shaped by Buddhist beliefs in accumulated demerit, and this significantly influences attitudes towards illness, adversity and bodily states. Buddhist notions of love and compassion (metta and kurana) inform appropriate responses to people living with disabilities, while local distinctions of ability and disability inform expressions of sympathy and/or pity (songsarn), with implications for the social participation of people with a disability.     

Faking it: Personality and individual difference predictors of willingness to buy counterfeit goods

Counterfeiting is now widely regarded as a serious social, economic, and political issue. This study examined demographic, personality, and individual difference predictors of willingness to buy counterfeit goods (WBCG) in a community sample of British adults. Two-hundred and thirty-seven participants completed a questionnaire that assessed their willingness to buy 19 types of counterfeit goods, attitudes towards counterfeiting, material values, Big Five personality traits, and demographics. Structural equation modelling showed that attitudes towards counterfeiting were the strongest predictors of WBCG. In addition, material values predicted both WBCG directly and indirectly through attitudes towards counterfeiting. Older participants showed lower WBCG, although this effect was moderated by participants’ conscientiousness, material values, and attitudes towards counterfeiting. There were no sex differences in WBCG once participants’ age and conscientiousness had been taken into account. These results are discussed in relation to the extant literature on the profiles of consumers who buy counterfeit products.     

论传统文化与大学生核心价值观的培育

五千年生生不息的历史文化积淀是中华民族的根和魂。新时代高校如何用优秀传统文化涵养社会主义核心价值观,成为必须解决的重要课题。文章以山西警官高等专科学校2012、2013级学生为对象,进行了深入调查与研究,着重从教育改革新理念的树立、理想信念教育的加强、加大传统文化教育软硬件设施的投入和多元化教学渠道的开辟等四个方面进行了初步探索。文章认为传统文化教育与大学生社会主义核心价值观培育具有内在统一性。     

社会主义核心价值观教育研究

文章围绕主题从四方面展开了论述:一是阐释了社会主义核心价值观教育的内涵,并从教育目标凸显意识形态的主导性和实践性、教育内容的层次性和整体性、教育主体角色的多重性和重要性、教育受众的多广性和差异性四方面论述了它的特征;二是从应对西方敌对势力西化分化中国图谋、提升国家软实力实现中国梦和青年成长成才三方面的需要阐述了社会主义核心价值观教育的重要意义;三是论述了社会主义核心价值观教育应坚持的一元主导与差异分层、理论灌输与实践体验、正面引领与渐进渗透、尊重主体性与教育三贴近、现代化与通俗化等五个原则;四是提出了构建四位一体教育方式、整合新旧载体、营造先进文化氛围、完善保障机制四条实施社会主义核心价值观的路径.     

Social work and pastoral counseling: Empowering each other

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the divergent outcomes which can result from counseling services offered pastorally versus clinically. As faith leaders often have greater direct access than social workers to supporting religious populations, it is important to explore the intersection between religious pastoral support and clinical social work. Presenting six scenarios from the author’s own experiences as both a rabbi and social worker, this article processes each scenario first through the pastoral lens of an Orthodox rabbi, followed by the clinical lens of a social worker or other mental health professional. The client outcomes which are produced from each modality are radically different. This contrast demonstrates the distinction between the goals, values, and training of each profession, and highlights importance for future work to be done in linking religious and pastoral training to mental health services, as well as broadening the scope of cultural competence for social workers and therapists who may engage with tight-knit religious populations.     

Challenges of implementing restorative justice for intimate partner violence: An Islamic perspective

ABSTRACT

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is currently recognized as a critical public health concern and a human rights issue. Not surprisingly, Muslims – a religiously and socio-culturally diverse faith-based populace – are not an exception. To address this complex area of criminal justice and social policy, some scholars advocate implementing restorative justice (RJ) approaches. While RJ approaches have been traditionally used in Islamic cultures for conflict resolutions, to date, few studies have investigated how RJ operates in dealing with IPV in Muslim countries and communities. This article explores how RJ approaches towards IPV operate in some Muslim countries/communities, and offers insights into developing culturally and religiously appropriate ways of implementing RJ in IPV situations among Muslims. Given the prevalence of IPV among Muslims, the question is particularly important and timely. Taking exclusively limited examples of RJ approaches that have been used to mediate IPV cases in Muslim countries and communities, this paper found one significant challenge in the RJ approaches among Muslims: community acceptance of IPV. To reduce IPV in Muslim society, it is necessary to develop treatment models and techniques that meet cultural and religious needs. This paper found that since RJ is not alien to Islamic teachings, RJ approaches can be implemented effectively in dealing with IPV among Muslims by ensuring justice and equity of the abused woman. The findings of this paper will assist policymakers, practitioners, and service providers in providing religiously and culturally appropriate care when addressing IPV issues among Muslims.     

Permuting incomplete paired data: a novel exact and asymptotic correct randomization test

Various statistical tests have been developed for testing the equality of means in matched pairs with missing values. However, most existing methods are commonly based on certain distributional assumptions such as normality, 0-symmetry or homoscedasticity of the data. The aim of this paper is to develop a statistical test that is robust against deviations from such assumptions and also leads to valid inference in case of heteroscedasticity or skewed distributions. This is achieved by applying a clever randomization approach to handle missing data. The resulting test procedure is not only shown to be asymptotically correct but is also finitely exact if the distribution of the data is invariant with respect to the considered randomization group. Its small sample performance is further studied in an extensive simulation study and compared to existing methods. Finally, an illustrative data example is analysed.     

Competing Values Framework: A useful tool to define the predominant culture in a maternity setting in Australia

Objective

To identify the predominant culture of an organisation which could then assess readiness for change.