How biology became social,and what it means for social theory

In this paper I first offer a systematic outline of a series of conceptual novelties in the life‐sciences that have favoured, over the last three decades, the emergence of a more social view of biology. I focus in particular on three areas of investigation: (1) technical changes in evolutionary literature that have provoked a rethinking of the possibility of altruism, morality and prosocial behaviours in evolution; (2) changes in neuroscience, from an understanding of the brain as an isolated data processor to the ultrasocial and multiply connected social brain of contemporary neuroscience; and (3) changes in molecular biology, from the view of the gene as an autonomous master of development to the ‘reactive genome’ of the new emerging field of molecular epigenetics. In the second section I reflect on the possible implications for the social sciences of this novel biosocial terrain and argue that the postgenomic language of extended epigenetic inheritance and blurring of the nature/nurture boundaries will be as provocative for neo‐Darwinism as it is for the social sciences as we have known them. Signs of a new biosocial language are emerging in several social‐science disciplines and this may represent an exciting theoretical novelty for twenty‐first social theory.     

墓券与东汉民众的生死观念

东汉时期的世俗民众没有认识到人终有一死的本质特性,反而抗拒死亡,渴求长寿永生。当年寿久长的愿望破灭时,他们又深信异象生命自然会在幽界冥府绵延不绝。不过生者却刻意疏远逝者,直接把殁亡人遣送到彼岸世界,希求幽鬼永居墓穴,接受冥府行政官僚体制和宗族观念的管制和束缚,按照世人的要求和期望去经历冥府生活。     

教育民主的内涵、路径及限度

教育是实现民主社会最根本、最有效的途径，民主是教育的基本原则。学校是民主社会的“雏形共同体”，民主生活是学校日常化的生活方式。教育目的是民主，是培养共同体生活的民主社会的公民，教育过程、手段和方法等也都应该是民主的，通过非民主的方式实现民主，这既不可取也不可能。当前我们应该创造公平的受教育机会，剔除教学中专制的形式权威，消解教育管理中的命令化和行政化方式，促进教育走向民主，社会走向和谐。     

The Relationships between Activity and Quality of Life for Older Men and Women at Different Ages in Taiwan

This study investigated the relationships between types of activity and quality of life (QOL) for older men and women at different ages. Based on cross-sectional data that included 220 community-dwelling elderly persons aged 65 and older in southern Taiwan, the results showed that the participation rates in many activities declined with age for both genders. Social activity and solitary leisure activity were significantly associated with QOL for old-old men, but not for young-old men. Only social activity was significantly associated with QOL for young-old women, but there was no significant association between any activity and QOL for old-old women.     

Feeling disability: theories of affect and critical disability studies

This paper explores connections between affect studies and critical disability studies. Our interest in affect is sparked by the beginnings of a new research project that seeks to illuminate the lives, hopes and desires of young people with ‘life-limiting’ or ‘life-threatening’ impairments. Cultural responses to these young people are shaped by dominant discourses associated with lives lived well and long. Before commencing our empirical work with young people we use this paper to think through how we might conceptualise affect and disability. We present three themes; ontological invalidation in neoliberal-able times; affect aliens and crip killjoys; disability and resistant assemblages.     

Ethical living: relinking ethics and consumption through care in Chile and Brazil

Mainstream conceptualizations of ‘ethical consumption’ equate the notion with conscious, individual, market‐mediated choices motivated by ethical or political aims that transcend ordinary concerns. Drawing on recent sociology and anthropology of consumption literature on the links between ordinary ethics and ethical consumption, this article discusses some of the limitations of this conceptualization. Using data from 32 focus groups conducted in Chile and Brazil, we propose a conceptualization of ethical consumption that does not centre on individual, market‐mediated choices but understands it at the level of practical outcomes, which we refer to as different forms of ‘ethical living’. To do that, we argue, we need to depart from the deontological understanding of ethics that underpins mainstream approaches to ethical consumption and adopt a more consequentialist view focusing on ethical outcomes. We develop these points through describing one particular ordinary moral regime that seemed to be predominant in participants’ accounts of ethics and consumption in both Chile and Brazil: one that links consumption and ethics through care. We show that the moral regime of care leads to ‘ethical outcomes’, such as energy saving or limiting overconsumption, yet contrary to the mainstream view of ethical consumption emphasizing politicized choice expressed through markets, these result from following ordinary ethics, often through routines of practices.     

Impact of Gender Binarism on Hijras’ Life Course and Their Access to Fundamental Human Rights in Pakistan

This study adds to the growing body of knowledge on gender nonconformity aspects of heteronormativity by examining its impact on the life course of hijras and their access to fundamental human rights in Pakistan. Drawing on 50 semistructured interviews conducted in two sites, the findings suggest that the participants’ lived experiences associated with gender nonconformity significantly influenced the direction of their life course and their ability to have access to human rights. These experiences spanned from childhood to elderhood across a wide range of settings, such as family, school, guru dera (residence headed by a hijra guru), workplace, and interactions with authorities. The participants’ human rights were not recognized, resulting in abuse, social stigma, discrimination against them, and their exclusion from mainstream society. Finally, implications are drawn for public policy and future research on third gender concerns in Pakistan and elsewhere.     

苗延秀、包玉堂的生命意识对革命文学的贡献

由于政治环境、文艺政策等多方面的影响,新中国成立后的革命文学创作大多趋于模式化、程式化。时代环境无法改变,革命文学作家们也就无法完全摆脱主流意识的影响,但是广西当代少数民族革命文学作家苗延秀、包玉堂将自身的生命意识融入革命文学创作之中,在一定程度上使其作品呈现出有别于主流话语的独特抒写空间。他们在原生态的浪漫抒写、女性个体表现、民族民间化等方面对革命文学做出了特殊贡献。     

Classical estimation of hazard rate and mean residual life functions of Pareto distribution

Abstract

In this paper we find the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) of hazard rate and mean residual life functions (MRLF) of Pareto distribution, their asymptotic non degenerate distribution, exact distribution and moments. We also discuss the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimate (UMVUE) of hazard rate function and MRLF. Finally, two numerical examples with simulated data and real data set, are presented to illustrate the proposed estimates.     

基于动物秉性的人生启示*

动物和人一样，也具有不同的秉性。以动物喻人，自古即有。从辩证的角度看，动物秉性自然有好的一面，也有坏的一面。这里我们借助动物思考人生，专门探讨动物秉性中一些好的品质，狗-无比忠诚；猪-难得糊涂；狼-勇敢合作的典范；牛-勤劳奉献精神；狐狸-聪明智慧的象征；龟-勤恳踏实的榜样。可见，动物的许多秉性亦给人生带来诸多的启示，值得人们以思考和学习。