The Romance of Surrogacy1

This article seeks to demonstrate and analyze the cultural and emotional work surrogate mothers collectively engage in on the largest surrogacy support website, http://www.surromomsonline.com . Surrogate mothers’ online stories and discussions frame contract surrogacy as a “labor of love.” Women often describe their surrogacy as a “journey” of shared love; they hope for a lasting relationship with the couple they carry for. This article explores how the language of love, learned and internalized through online communication with other surrogates, creates both a cultural conceptualization of surrogacy and a ground for action. Love and altruistic giving are consistent with close interpersonal rather than market relationships; surrogates hope for a long‐term friendship with their couple. Surrogacy journeys, however, not infrequently end in disappointment; surrogates feel betrayed when couples cut ties. As a result of collective learning, surrogates’ discussions increasingly articulate the position that love, even when unreciprocated, can lead to repeated giving; love is noble and ennobling. Surrogates find appreciation and support in their online surrogacy community where they agree that giving life is a moral good. This stance has contributed to a renewed enthusiasm to bear children for others.     

Cultural capital or relative risk aversion? Two mechanisms for educational inequality compared1

In this paper we empirically examined two explanatory mechanisms for educational inequality: cultural reproduction and relative risk aversion, using survey data taken from secondary school pupils in Amsterdam. Cultural reproduction theory seeks to explain class variations in schooling by cultural differences between social classes. Relative risk aversion theory argues that educational inequalities can be understood by between-class variation in the necessity of pursuing education at branching points in order to avoid downward mobility. We showed that class variations in early demonstrated ability are for a substantial part cultural: cultural capital - measured by parental involvement in highbrow culture - affected school performance at the primary and secondary level. However, relative risk aversion - operationalized by being concerned with downward mobility - strongly affects schooling ambitions, whereas cultural capital had no effect. Thus, we conclude that 'primary effects' of social origin on schooling outcomes are manifested through cultural capital and not through relative risk aversion (in addition to other potential sources of class variations such as genetics). Relative risk aversion, and not cultural capital, affects schooling ambitions, which is relevant for our understanding of secondary effects.     

Intergenerational class mobility in contemporary Britain: political concerns and empirical findings

In Britain in recent years social mobility has become a topic of central political concern, primarily as a result of the effort made by New Labour to make equality of opportunity rather than equality of condition a focus of policy. Questions of the level, pattern and trend of mobility thus bear directly on the relevance of New Labour's policy analysis, and in turn are likely be crucial to the evaluation of its performance in government. However, politically motivated discussion of social mobility often reveals an inadequate grasp of both empirical and analytical issues. We provide new evidence relevant to the assessment of social mobility - in particular, intergenerational class mobility - in contemporary Britain through cross-cohort analyses based on the NCDS and BCS datasets which we can relate to earlier cross-sectional analyses based on the GHS. We find that, contrary to what seems now widely supposed, there is no evidence that absolute mobility rates are falling; but, for men, the balance of upward and downward movement is becoming less favourable. This is overwhelmingly the result of class structural change. Relative mobility rates, for both men and women, remain essentially constant, although there are possible indications of a declining propensity for long-range mobility. We conclude that under present day structural conditions there can be no return to the generally rising rates of upward mobility that characterized the middle decades of the twentieth century - unless this is achieved through changing relative rates in the direction of greater equality or, that is, of greater fluidity. But this would then produce rising rates of downward mobility to exactly the same extent - an outcome apparently unappreciated by, and unlikely to be congenial to, politicians preoccupied with winning the electoral 'middle ground'.     

就业优先:以"公平而有质量"的教育 在民族地区阻断贫困代际传递

“发展教育脱贫一批”是在民族地区实现共同富裕的重要方针。然而在“教育改变命运”的共识之外,布迪厄认为教育一代代地维持着对社会中下阶层的不公平的“文化再生产”理论,被一些学者应用于对我国少数民族教育的研究。如在“三区三州”等民族地区,代际间的贫困传递难以阻断,因家庭文化资本弱势而造成子女求学、求职受阻,看似可用“贫困文化的再生产”予以概括,但笔者不同意直接套用西方理论认定中国存在“教育不公平”的论述。因为我国社会实际与布氏提出“学校教育再生产社会阶层结构”观点之环境不同,有多项教育政策在切实保障着少数民族通过“教育改变命运”——当前在我国民族地区实现教育公平的主要障碍,并非 “文化再生产”的结构性阻力,而在于就业环节的阶段性困难。教育公平可分为起点、过程和结果三个环节,民族地区经多年教育扶贫,“起点”入学机会和“过程”教育质量已明显改善,而作为“结果”的就业环节亟待改善。以“就业优先”方针多渠道扩大少数民族就业,可激发内生动力、促进市场融入、巩固减贫成效和精准防控返贫,是助少数民族自主掌握教育“社会阶梯”和阻断贫困代际传递的有效路径。     

The risks and incentives of disciplinary neoliberal feminism: the case of microfinance

This article develops an analysis of the concept of disciplinary neo-liberal feminism through a focus on gendered poverty alleviation strategies and illustrates the value of this through a discussion of microfinance. By locating this study within an analysis of the expansion of global capital accumulation, the article argues that the liberal frameworks of female empowerment and entrepreneurialism that are central to these programs and to feminism in this form, mask their underlying political, social and economic objectives. In contrast, a Marxist Feminist approach more adequately explains the interplay of class and gender that underpins poverty alleviation strategies. This article argues that in the context of financial crisis and reduced social provision, women living in poverty in the Global South were identified as targets for the expansion of global finance. Their integration into global financial networks via microfinance and other pro-poor strategies has facilitated the expansion of markets for credit while at the same time disciplining market participation through the twin forces of risk and incentive. Disciplinary neo-liberal feminism has underpinned this incorporation of women into global capital accumulation creating profound effects for households and families, with microfinance programs representing important sites of contestation for the politics of class and gender.     

死后人工生殖的生命法学思考

随着生物科学和医学技术的发展,出现了死后人工生殖问题。死后人工生殖对社会伦理及法律提出了挑战。我们应该坚持保障子女权利原则、自我决定原则、生育责任大于生育自由原则及人工生殖技术医疗性质的原则,对死后人工生殖问题做出判断; 应该制定全面的人工生殖法律,明确禁止死后人工生殖。     

语篇理解中的信息认知研究

随着语篇语言学的深入研究和不断发展,人们越来越认识到语篇特定信息的把握在语篇解读中的重要性。本文从语篇的文化语境、语篇信息度、语篇组织中的隐喻功能、语篇连贯中的关联理论几方面来探讨特定的信息认知对语篇理解的作用。     

休闲农业在我国山区经济发展中的潜力分析

山区发展休闲农业潜力非常大,全国大多数大中城市周边农村都有发展休闲农业的条件。山区农村的生态环境是发展农村经济最好的资源,是发展休闲农业的生产资本,可以容纳一大批农民当地就业,可以大幅度增加农民收入,是一种新兴产业,是现代农业的重要组成部分,是解决三农问题的一种重要途径。农村现有的土地山林和生态环境是发展休闲农业产业的固定生产资本之一,农家小楼的投资建设加上生态环境构成完整的休闲农业的固定生产资本,其投资应该由国家财政来解决。农业财政方针转变为资本性投资功能,解决多年以来农业生产资本增长缓慢问题,国家应该承担投资的风险。只有劳动者获得所需要的生产资本才能够进行扩大再生产,才能够不断扩大农民增收的源泉。     

Conjuncture and cultural reproduction in the process of embedding: social work practice in the context of government purchase of services in China

This paper focuses on the Chinese government’s policy of purchasing social services and discusses how relevant organisations provide social work and develop it within local socio-political and cultural contexts. An ethnographic research method was adopted for the study by the first author while participating in social work development in Q City. We argue that the policy of purchasing social services succeeded in achieving “embedded development” but also created a “conjuncture structure” in cultural reproduction. However, due toprofessional social workers in China have, in practice, passively responded to the conjuncture there has been a failure to reproduce professional values of social work in the Chinese cultural context. Therefore, further development of social work in China needs to strengthen cultural reflection in practical actions, focus on the exploration of cultural connections between social work practice and local communities, and enhance the cultural capacity of social workers in the local cultural context.     

"性别"与"水是原则"命题的内涵和实质

“性别”是一个逐渐被认可的研究视角,泰勒斯及其哲学则是一段需要重新解读的历史。从性别角度分析“水是原则”命题我们可以看到,理性力量和生命本能在某种程度上同时存在,是哲学构成的特征。所以,生命本能和生存意志是哲学史研究中一个大有可为的领域。