The Rhetoric of the State: Dependency and Control in a Malaysian–Indonesian Borderland Key Words:

This article examines dependency on cross-border labor and marriage along the international frontier in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo) and some local efforts to restrict outsiders. The international border in this remote region of Borneo is highly permeable, and border-crossing activities, including seasonal migrant wage labor and cross-border marriage, are crucial both to the local political economy and to the reproduction of the Kelabit family and farm. This article explores the unique position of the Kelabit as they attempt to appropriate aspects of state power or use the rhetoric of state power in their efforts to maintain a status quo with regard to neighboring, and closely related, migrant workers from across the border.     

Informal kin caregivers raising children left behind in rural China: Experiences' feelings' and support

The well‐being of children in informal kinship care and their caregivers is a growing concern globally. This study explored the lived experiences of 23 kin caregivers raising children left behind in rural Northeast China while their migrant parents worked and lived in cities. The findings show that the expected authority and responsibility caregivers carry sometimes conflict with their social role of being children's grandparents. Caregivers' feelings about and understandings of these roles are shaped through their social interactions in local communities. In view of their situation and caregivers' self‐conscious attitudes towards utilizing local resources' future formal service provision and social support should take caregivers' viewpoints into account. These views are embedded in and shaped by their rural living context and relationships with community members who influence caregivers' perceptions and child rearing practices.     

Child protection social workers' constructions of children and childhood: An integrative review

Social workers' constructions of children and childhood are central to how professionals interact with children and support their needs. The aim of this integrative review was to provide a comprehensive portrayal of child protection social workers' constructions of children and childhood. We analysed and synthesized 35 empirical studies with samples of social workers in the child protection domain where issues regarding the child or the child's situation were the study focus. The findings show that children and youth are constructed as a generalized group viewed in light of their parents. We see a fragmented and context‐free child produced by causal shortcuts strongly informed by specific and, at times, simplified and biased psychological knowledge. Moreover, we identify constructions of the child in need of protection and thereby position children as objects for intervention, separating that from children as subjects in their own rights. Although the participatory child is visible in the data material, the actual practice of involving children seems arbitrary.     

A court file analysis of child protection cases: What do children say?

Children's participation in legal proceedings affecting them personally has been gaining importance. So far, a primary research concern has been how children experience their participation in court proceedings. However, little is known about the child's voice itself: Are children able to clearly express their wishes, and if so, what do they say in child protection cases? In this study, we extracted information about children's statements from court file data of 220 child protection cases in Germany. We found 182 children were asked about their wishes. The majority of the statements found came either from reports of the guardians ad litem or from judicial records of the child hearings. Using content analysis, three main aspects of the statements were extracted: wishes concerning main place of residence, wishes about whom to have or not contact with, and children granting decision‐making authority to someone else. Children's main focus was on their parents, but others (e.g., relatives and foster care providers) were also mentioned. Intercoder agreement was substantial. Making sure that child hearings are as informative as possible is in the child's best interest. Therefore, the categories developed herein might help professionals to ask questions more precisely relevant to the child.     

Institutional evolution and abrupt change: Reforming the administration of social assistance in Finland

Historical institutionalist studies have explained institutional change as resulting from critical junctures that interrupt long periods of stability or from endogenous, incremental evolution. Building on these theories, discursive institutionalists have focused on the roles of agency, ideas and discourse as explainers of change. Combining these approaches, this article analyses Finland’s decision in 2014 to transfer the administration of basic social assistance from municipalities to the central government. This study demonstrates that institutional change can be both abrupt and evolutionary. Due to sudden, exceptional political circumstances, the decision in question was made quickly and under pressure, circumventing possible veto players. However, it was possible only because of the incremental, endogenous change that had occurred in the way in which social assistance was administered at the municipal level. It enabled a change in political discourse, which eroded the credibility of the ideational frames that policy actors had previously utilised to reject the centralised model.     

成就与不足:20世纪六七十年代河北省机井建设研究

1965年以后,中国的北方地区进入了长达50年干旱时期,为了解决海河流域长期干旱的问题,国家做出了抗旱打井的决定,并从1973年起纳入国家计划,在经费、设备等方面给予重点支持。河北是全国开展机井建设最早的省份,期间持续开展了大规模的群众性机井建设,是机井发展最快的时期。总的来看,河北省机井建设成绩很大,对改变农业生产面貌、扭转南粮北调起了重要作用。但也存在一定的不足,需要系统总结和深刻反思。     

INSIGHTS ON SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN FROM A NORMAL APPROXIMATION TO ERLANG'S DELAY FORMULA

We show how a simple normal approximation to Erlang's delay formula can be used to analyze capacity and staffing problems in service systems that can be modeled as M/M/s queues. The numbers of servers, s, needed in an M/M/s queueing system to assure a probability of delay of, at most, p can be well approximated by s ≅ p + z_***I-p+, where z_1-p, is the (1 - p)th percentile of the standard normal distribution and ρ, the presented load on the system, is the ratio of Λ, the customer arrival rate, to μ, the service rate. We examine the accuracy of this approximation over a set of parameters typical of service operations ranging from police patrol, through telemarketing to automatic teller machines, and we demonstrate that it tends to slightly underestimate the number of servers actually needed to hit the delay probability target—adding one server to the number suggested by the above formula typically gives the exact result. More importantly, the structure of the approximation promotes operational insight by explicitly linking the number of servers with server utilization and the customer service level. Using a scenario based on an actual teleservicing operation, we show how operations managers and designers can quickly obtain insights about the trade-offs between system size, system utilization and customer service. We argue that this little used approach deserves a prominent role in the operations analyst's and operations manager's toolbags.     

中国共产党“中华民族多元一体”话语的构建历程及其逻辑--以《人民日报》文本为中心的考察

"中华民族多元一体"是中国共产党政治话语体系中的一个重要概念。经过新民主主义革命时期的萌芽和20世纪90年代的孕育,中国共产党在2005年的中央民族工作会议上正式提出"中华民族多元一体"话语。随着中国共产党中华民族观念和理论的变迁,"中华民族多元一体"话语的内涵也日趋丰富和完善,2014年中央民族工作会议后成熟定型。不同时期,中国共产党通过大众传媒将"中华民族多元一体"的政治话语转化成大众喜闻乐见的生活话语,从而塑造大众的中华民族观念,有利于维系民族团结和国家统一。中国共产党"中华民族多元一体"话语的构建遵循话语生产以问题为导向的实践逻辑、话语传播从学术到政治再到大众的延展逻辑、话语内涵从单一到复合的发展逻辑。     

中日史前拔牙年龄和次数比较研究

探讨史前拔牙个体的年龄和次数,对了解史前社会生活和社会意识、宗教信仰具有重要意义。认为中国和日本新石器时代的原生拔牙应该是青春期或成年期拔牙。中国新石器时代只存在一次拔牙现象,而日本新石器时代存在多次拔牙现象。这说明虽然同处新石器时代,但社会结构和社会意识有所不同。     

中华民族共同体意识铸牢中的边地逻辑——基于云南省富宁县边境地区汉彝同村共寨现象的考察

中国境内“大杂居、小聚居”的民族分布格局,奠定了铸牢中华民族共同体意识的现实客观条件。同时,如何在普遍性的客观条件下,找寻相关经典跨族群关系建构中的历史演变特征、规律,进而在学理上论证中华民族共同体意识存在的历史逻辑问题,应为当前学界迫切需要开展的一项重大课题。再则,普遍性特征的背后,往往是“点”与“面”的衔接性,是“边缘”与“中心”的整体契合性。因此,中华民族共同体意识的彰显,既需要内地中心普遍案例的量化支撑,还需要边地社会经典样本的质性论证。可以说,边地社会样本的客观存在,方能直接印证中华民族共同体意识的普遍性存在。在此背景下,云南省富宁县边境地区普遍客观存在的汉彝同村共寨现象,不仅在跨族群关系建构层面提供了混融共生这一内在共同体意识的形象学理载体,更为中华民族共同体意识在边地社会的客观存在提供了现实实践层面的厚重支撑。