Monstrosities and moral publics

Interdisciplinary scholarship on neoliberal urban governmentality has been attentive to the knowledges and techniques of government currently emerging at the interface of local state politics and invested claims of voluntary private actors such as corporate partners and philanthropic agencies. This article draws attention to the workings of the aesthetic as an epistemological grounding for the rationalization of urban rule. Specifically, I explore a Toronto, Canada-based philanthropic agency’s reliance on a mise-en-scene of urban terror to animate its own self-validated knowledges about targeted inner-suburban subjects and spaces. In their circulation and demand for public address, the agency’s graphic public service announcements, launched in 2007, herald what I argue is a moralized set of knowledges about municipal renewal that has its own normative orientations grounded in a neoliberal political rationality, and tangentially, in racialized security imperatives. I detail various dimensions of the social life of a video associated with this public service campaign targeting ‘youth at risk’, considering the ethical, political and economic valences it was expected to convey; its semiotic exchange with other images and representations of disenfranchised spaces, subjects and communities; and the publics it attempted to interpellate. Importantly, given the agency’s current standing as a prominent player in Canadian urban policy arenas, I pay analytical attention to the visual campaign as a site for the production of knowledges about proper urban citizenship and social governance, and as such, a strategic-orienting device for urban policy interventions and directives.     

100 key research questions for the post‐2015 development agenda

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) herald a new phase for international development. This article presents the results of a consultative exercise to collaboratively identify 100 research questions of critical importance for the post‐2015 international development agenda. The final shortlist is grouped into nine thematic areas and was selected by 21 representatives of international and non‐governmental organisations and consultancies, and 14 academics with diverse disciplinary expertise from an initial pool of 704 questions submitted by 110 organisations based in 34 countries. The shortlist includes questions addressing long‐standing problems, new challenges and broader issues related to development policies, practices and institutions. Collectively, these questions are relevant for future development‐related research priorities of governmental and non‐governmental organisations worldwide and could act as focal points for transdisciplinary research collaborations.     

The eligibility question – the real source of depersonalisation?

There have been a number of high-profile strategies over recent decades to raise social care above what is widely regarded as an unacceptable service in the United Kingdom. Quite apart from all too frequent high-profile scandals, it is seen as a service that is depersonalising and stigmatising. None of the strategies to bring about change, most of them introduced to great fanfares, have delivered the changes they promised. This article sets out a view that the reason why they have all failed is that none of them have identified or therefore tackled the underlying problem, which is the relationship between needs and resources. Underfunding has long been a serious concern for campaigning organisations. The article does not detract from that contention. However, it sets out how strategies to manage the gap between needs and resources, more than the funding gap per se, are themselves the root cause of depersonalised and chronically impoverished services. The unlikely source of these strategies can be traced to the unintended consequences of an Act of Parliament that had the best of intentions.     

Social Skills in Children Adopted From Socially-Emotionally Depriving Institutions

This study assessed social skills in post-institutionalized (PI) children with respect to age at adoption, age at assessment, and gender. Parent ratings of social skills (Social Skills Rating System) and behavior problems (Child Behavior Checklist) were obtained for 214 children and 127 adolescents who were adopted from socially-emotionally depriving Russian institutions. Results showed that children adopted before 18 months of age have better social skills than those adopted after this age; those assessed in childhood demonstrate better social skills than those assessed in adolescence. PI females, especially later-adopted adolescents, have particularly poor social skills. Children with poor social skills tend to have higher rates of behavior problems.     

Becoming the mother of a child with disabilities: a systematic literature review

The transition to motherhood starts early in pregnancy and is completed when the mother feels competent in caring for the infant. Becoming the mother of a child with disabilities is demanding as their needs are complex. The aim of the review was to appraise completed qualitative and quantitative reports on the challenges of mothers of children with disabilities regarding their own transition to motherhood. A review of the literature was carried out through, first, a computerized search strategy to identify relevant studies from selected databases and, second, quality appraisal and thematic analysis of selected studies. The transition to motherhood of children with disabilities takes place in the inside world at home, the outside world external to home and the ‘going-between’ world of travelling between the two worlds. The mothers are challenged at home to integrate basic infant care with technical care of their children. In the outside world they often struggled to ensure that their children got the necessary professional care. Travelling between their homes and healthcare services posed many problems.     

新常态下推进"撤村建居"的探索与思考

"撤村建居"是一个庞大的系统工程,与国家、集体和个人利益息息相关,稍有不慎就会造成社会的不稳定因素.要以有利于经济社会全面发展、有利于加强社会事务管理、有利于提高人民生活水平为要求,统一规划,合理布局,加快农村社区建设,推进新型城镇化步伐.在实施过程中应注意妥善解决好以下问题:"撤村建居"过程中原村集体资产的处置,"撤村建居"后的换届,"撤村建居"后的公益事业及工作经费,"撤村建居"后的社区划分和管理,失地农民的社会保障,建设资金的来源等.     

通过科学立法促进民族交往交流交融的法理探讨

在中华民族“多元一体”背景下,加强各民族交往交流交融,是铸牢中华民族共同体意识的必然要求。而通过科学立法建立完备的法律规范体系,则是运用法治思维和法治方式,促进各民族交往交流交融的根本前提。当前我国的民族法律规范体系虽已基本建成,但仍存在一些法律原则的表达不够严谨、法律概念的界定不够准确、法律规则的内容不够明晰和完整、规范体系的结构不够完备和和谐等缺陷和不足,难以满足在政治、经济、文化、社会和生态建设中通过法治方式有效协调民族关系,促进各民族交往交流交融的需要。这就要求立法者应遵循《立法法》确定的科学立法的形式合理性和实质合理性的要求,妥善处理法律规范体系与现实需要的适应性和可执行性,由此才能为通过法治促进各民族交往交流交融奠定坚实的制度基础。从科学立法与依法立法、民主立法的关系来看,遵循依法立法,是保障法的形式合理性的前提;坚持民主立法,则是保障法的实质合理性的根基。为提升立法的科学品质,必须健全违宪审查机制、协商民主机制和立法理论形成机制,确保依法立法、民主立法原则的有效落实。     

多元文化主义对族裔少数群体权利的理论建构

多元文化主义关注的核心焦点是族裔文化多样性和族裔少数群体权利保护的问题,它的发展过程就是对族裔少数群体权利保护的建构过程。贯穿多元文化主义建构族裔少数群体权利的逻辑始末的线索就是族裔少数群体的三重身份问题:差异公民身份是多元文化主义建构族裔少数群体权利的事实基础,公共公民身份是建构族裔少数群体权利的政治逻辑,而文化成员身份则是建构族裔少数群体权利的道德空间。族裔少数群体权利不仅保护了群体内的个人自由,而且还可以促进群体间的平等关系,它是对公民权利的有效补充。多元文化主义建构族裔少数群体权利具有突破性的积极价值,同时也存在潜在的结构性危险,它的发展需要进一步明确方向。     

传统行政文化对决策科学化与民主化的负面影响

传统行政文化是影响到决策的深层因素,其思维模式、权威型人格、差序格局和知识阶层的依附性对决策产生了负面影响,是决策科学化与民主化的主要障碍。决策要实现科学化与民主化,除了要进行制度上的改革,更应该从基础因素入手,即促进我国行政文化的创新。     

对文学作品中女性意象的心理机质探究

当代文学创作和文学评论对女性意象的描写与分析多从女性所处的现实社会环境入手,即按因果规律来解释女性意象,使得作品和评论中的女性意象缺乏人性美,未达到人性审美层次。女性个体不应仅仅从外部和个体分析,还应当从女性心理结构入手,分析女性深层心理因素。