Hometown associations and the micropolitics of transnational community development

This article argues that a closer inspection of the historical trajectories and the evolving micropolitics of hometown associations (HTAs) expands our understanding of how community development is practised across borders. Drawing from six years of ethnographic, multi-sited fieldwork carried out in the Dominican Republic and the United States, focusing on the experience of three Dominican HTAs, the evidence presented demonstrates how working dynamics and decision-making responsibilities between internal, international, and non-migrant HTA members shift over time, and identifies the organisational strategies employed to achieve transnational cooperation for community development. The ethnographic data also highlight and explain how communal legacies based on home country agrarian traditions laid the groundwork for future transnational development practices.     

Checkbooks in the Heartland: Change over Time in Voluntary Association Membership

Numerous scholars documented declines in America's social capital through the mid‐1990s but we do not know whether the trend has continued. Further, despite warnings by Robert Putnam and Theda Skocpol that the quality of Americans' voluntary association memberships has also deteriorated—moving from active, “face‐to‐face” memberships to passive, “checkbook” memberships—data have not been available to test this claim. In this article, we use both the Iowa Community Survey and the General Social Survey to explore the changing nature of voluntary association membership between 1994 and 2004. We demonstrate that not only are declines in voluntary association memberships continuing in the new century but there has been a shift in the intensity of voluntary association participation over time. We observe a decline in active membership over time and an increase in checkbook membership over time. These findings provide support for Putnam's claim that checkbook membership is increasing at the expense of more active types of memberships.     

试论"宁波帮"与宁波同乡会组织

在"宁波帮"历史演进过程中,"宁波帮"与宁波同乡会组织如影随形;同时,宁波同乡会组织在"宁波帮"的形成、发展历程中也有着特殊的作用。通过揭示宁波同乡会组织与"宁波帮"的这种特殊关系,将更有助于我们了解、认识和评价"宁波帮"。     

The Effects of the Facial Expression of Beneficiaries in Charity Appeals and Psychological Involvement on Donation Intentions

To increase the effectiveness of fundraising campaigns, many human‐need charities include pictures of beneficiaries in their ads. However, it is unclear when and why the facial expression of these beneficiaries (sad versus happy) may influence the effectiveness of charity ads. To answer these questions, an experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of the facial expression on donation intentions, while considering the moderating role of psychological involvement with charities. It found that psychological involvement with charities moderated the impact of the facial expression on donation intentions in that seeing a picture of a sad versus happy person increased intentions to give among participants with lower levels of psychological involvement, whereas the reverse was true for highly involved participants. The moderating effect of psychological involvement was fully explained by the perceived efficacy of one's donation. The findings not only contribute to our understanding of the effect of the facial expression of people pictured in charity appeals on donation behavior, but also suggest that nonprofits should tailor their ads to target potential donors with various levels of psychological involvement with charities.     

孝养为主、慈善为辅、政府为助——农村养老方式的社会学思考

农村养老牵系亿万农村家庭和数以亿万计的农村老人；在21世纪的今天，农村养老不仅仅是一个个农村的家庭的家庭经济、伦理道德问题，它关系着社会主义的全面小康社会能否建成、社会能否实现和谐稳定的社会问题；而且还是一个重大的政治问题。解决好农村养老，必须从我国基本国情出发，采取中国特色的养老模式——以孝养老、政府调控、社会力量辅助多条腿走路，保证我国农村老人衣食无忧、精神愉悦，安度晚年。     

How Does the General Public Evaluate Risk Information? The Impact of Associations with Other Risks

There is a considerable body of knowledge about the way people perceive risks using heuristics and qualitative characteristics, and about how risk information should be communicated to the public. However, little is known about the way people use the perception of known risks (associated risks) to judge an unknown risk. In a first, qualitative study, six different risks were discussed in in-depth interviews and focus group interviews. The interviews showed that risk associations played a prominent role in forming risk perceptions. Associated risks were often mentioned spontaneously. Second, a survey study was conducted to confirm the importance of risk associations quantitatively. This study investigated whether people related unknown risks to known risks. This was indeed confirmed. Furthermore, some insight was gained into how and why people form risk associations. Results showed that the semantic category of the unknown risks was more important in forming associations than the perceived level of risk or specific risk characteristics. These findings were in line with the semantic network theory. Based on these two studies, we recommend using the mental models approach in developing new risk communications.     

叶澄衷慈善活动述略

叶澄衷是清末上海实业界颇具影响的重要人物。他在各地经商,积有余资后,广泛参与创办沪甬等地的慈善公益活动,将其商业上的成功转化为具有社会意义的实体。叶澄衷慷慨行善,热心公益,使其赢得生前声望和身后哀荣,也给后人留下了最丰厚的精神财富。     

新型职业农民权利实现能力建设研究——基于安徽五个县的调研

2012年,中央“一号文件”提出要“大力培育新型职业农民”。新型职业农民是指以农业为职业、具有一定的专业技能、收入主要来自农业的现代农业从业者。本次调查统计的结果表明安徽省新型职业农民的法律意识不强,知权、权利运用以及依法维权能力严重不足。而造成这一问题的主要原因有：农民文化水平整体较低、法制教育重视不足、小农意识及农村社会环境对农民的影响等。针对以上问题,结合当下安徽以及中国的实际,加强新型职业农民的权利实现能力应当采取以下措施：夯实并完善新型职业农民培训、加强新型职业农民自治组织建设、建设“权利本位”的新法律文化,等。     

大学生关于能力与热情的内隐混合性别刻板印象：来自IAT的证据

目的：考察大学生关于能力与热情的内隐混合性别刻板印象。方法：从某高校选取90名大学生,采用两个内隐联想测验（IAT）探讨大学生是否对男女两性存在热情和能力两个内容维度的混合刻板印象。结果：与女性相比,大学生更多地将消极热情和积极能力与男性相联系;与男性相比,被试更多地将积极热情和消极能力与女性相联系。结论：被试对男性存在着消极热情—积极能力的内隐混合性别刻板印象,对女性存在积极热情—消极能力的内隐混合性别刻板印象。     

Senior Grassroots Organizations in India

Summary

Organizations for the elderly at the grassroots level began to function in India from the third decade of the 20th century. They belong to two major types: Pensioners' Associations (PAs) and Senior Citizens' Associations (SCAs). PAs claim a membership of approximately 13 million and are structured and vertically organized. The SCAs are loosely organized and most are unitary. They have together a membership of less than 5 million. Programs of PAs are mainly confined to members; those of SCAs are wider but mainly urban-biased and middle-class oriented. Neither of them is powerful in lobbying. Of late, Government of India's (GOI) policy on the elderly (NPOP, 2000) has given a fillip to the SCAs which are gathering strength, and some, at least, are vying for availing GOI program benefits.