Anticipating modernity: the Jewish ‘welfare state’ in biblical and medieval times

The impact of religion on social policies and its role in the development, structuring and functioning of welfare states has only recently attracted significant attention. Studies of the relationship between religion and the welfare state have given little consideration to whether the religious precepts and values of the major religions, and the ways of life which they have shaped, are consistent with the idea of the welfare state. This paper shows that the elements of the definition of the modern welfare state were reflected in Jewish communal life as either prescribed by Jewish law (halakha) or lived during both ancient and medieval times, and that communal life was ‘welfare‐state‐like‘. In doing so this paper demonstrates that the idea of the welfare state is consistent with Judaism.     

中国服务业显性比较优势测算——基于前向联系增加值出口

基于"前向联系增加值出口"方法,测算了1995-2011年中国服务业细分产业层面及按要素密集度特征分类层面的显性比较优势指数(RCA_F),并同基于"总出口"1的比较优势指数(RCA)进行了比较。研究发现,中国在全球价值链分工中,比较优势集中在资本密集型服务业领域,且实现了比较劣势向比较优势的转变;劳动、知识密集型服务业及健康教育公共服务均尚未取得比较优势,但是有迹象表明三个领域的比较劣势有改善的趋势。与基于前向联系增加值出口核算结果相比,基于总出口核算结果"高估"了劳动密集型产业的比较优势,其中对建筑业和零售贸易两个部门的估计偏差最大;同时,在资本、知识密集型两个领域存在不同程度的"低估"现象。     

儒家“义—利”价值结构与西方“财富”价值结构比较研究简

通过中国儒家和西方经济价值结构的比较研究，发现儒家以“义一利”为价值结构模型，西方以“财富”为价值结构模型。儒家价值结构的基本特征是“义体利用”，表现方式是：强国的道义在于顺天时、尽地利、忠人和；安国的道义在于民朴民富；治国的道义在于蓄储俭用。西方价值结构的基本特征是“利体义用”，表现方式是：鼓励获取财富、财富规则和财富责任。儒家“义一利”价值结构与西方“财富”价值结构是两种不同的价值评判话语体系，在中国现代“义利共体”的价值结构建构中，儒家价值结构提供着人文精神基础，西方价值结构提供着物质文明建设可资借鉴的经验。     

论对大学生进行财商教育的重要意义

传承传统重义轻利观念的大学教育,对学生的财富意识具有极大的压抑作用。改革开放以来,一部分人陷入拜金主义的泥潭,一部分人则保持着"饿死事小失节事大"的极端思想。调查的结果令人担忧,大学生财商整体水平较低。对大学生进行财商教育,是实现教育"使人更幸福地生活"目的之必然要求。     

Changing perceived importance of religion in mainland China, 1990–2012: An age-period- cohort analysis

The comprehensive social reform and relaxation of religious regulation in mainland China have encouraged scholars to propose a revival thesis of religion, predicting a rising prevalence of religious adherence in the Reform Era. This study extends the revival thesis by focusing attention on people's subjective religiosity, and investigates age, period, and cohort effects on the transition in perceived importance of religion from 1990 to 2012. Capitalizing on the repeated cross-sectional data of the China sample in the World Values Survey, this study shows that (1) The senior population, relative to the younger counterpart, attaches greater importance to religion. (2) The net period effect suggests that Chinese citizens' perceived importance of religion follows an upward trend by the early 2000s, but no significant growth is detected henceforward. (3) The cohorts who experienced the anti-religion Mao's Era in their adolescent life course stage have an evidently lower probability of viewing religion to be important, in relation to the cohorts of the Reform Era. Theoretical implications of the empirical age-period-cohort patterns for the religious economies theory and change of Chinese religious landscape are discussed.     

Women's Access to Property: A Comparative Study on Islamic and Kemalist Women in Turkey

This article uses a comparative approach to discuss women's access to property using evidence collected from field research conducted on two distinct communities of Istanbul: one secular and one Islamic. The two groups of women possess distinctly different views of the world and how it is organized. This is particularly the case concerning gender where secular women put forth a view rooted in the sameness of the genders where the Islamic women were clear in their commitment to the idea of difference. These attitudes toward the equality and difference of the genders structures the relations of these women to property and the process of inheritance.     

Taken in by the numbers game: the globalization of a religious ‘illusio’ and ‘doxa’ in nineteenth-century evangelical missions to India

While the Bourdieusian concepts of capital and relational configurations of positions and position-takings have recently been fruitfully employed to theorize global fields, this paper argues that the concepts of illusio and doxa are especially conducive to analyzing the globalization of a field as an expansion into and transformation of formerly independent national arenas. In deploying the concept of illusio as a (quasi-libidinous) investment in the game, globalization is here first and foremost framed as a process in which more and more actors in various contexts ‘succumb’ to specific field logics that orient them to transnational structures. By emphasizing the concept of doxa as the taken-for-granted fundamentals of a field, the paper furthermore calls attention to the mechanisms that help forge and globalize the tacit presuppositions and shared ontologies on which such logics build. Focusing on a field of global Christian missions that emerged during the nineteenth century, the paper illustrates how its competitive logic of proselytization was introduced into the religious arena of India. It highlights how Western notions of religion gained ground among local traditions and pulled them into a game in which numerical relations of adherents mattered.     

The role of titles in enhancing data visualization

Many in the data visualization and evaluation communities recommend conveying the message or takeaway of the visualization in the visualization's title. This study tested that recommendation by examining how informative or generic titles impact a visualization’s visual efficiency, aesthetics, credibility, and the perceived effectiveness of the hypothetical program examined. Furthermore, this study tested how simple or complex graphs, and positive, negative, or mixed results (i.e., valence of the results) affected outcomes. Participants were randomly assigned to one of 12 conditions, representing a 2 (graph: simple or complex) x 2 (title: generic or informative) x 3 (valence: positive, negative, mixed) between-subjects study. The results indicated that informative titles required less mental effort and were viewed as more aesthetically pleasing, but otherwise did not lead to greater accuracy, credibility, or perceived effectiveness. Furthermore, titles did not interact with graph type or the valence of the findings. While the results suggest it is worthwhile to consider adding an informative title to data visualizations as they can reduce mental effort for the viewer, the intended goal of the visualization should be taken into consideration. Considering the goal of the visualization can be a deciding factor of the type of graph and title that will best serve its intended purposes. Overall, this suggests that data visualization recommendations that impact evaluation reporting practices should be scrutinized more closely through research.     

Piety over Protest: Cognitive Liberation and Deflected Collective Action in Central India

Cognitive liberation is often treated in the social movements literature as a mediating factor through which political opportunities and mobilizing structures generate protest. This paper unpacks multiple dimensions of cognitive liberation and finds that they may operate in tension with one another. Building on scholarship that focuses on subjective factors in social movements, the paper examines the case of the Korku, an oppressed indigenous community in central India, who choose not to protest despite the presence of several dimensions of cognitive liberation. Rather than engage in collective political action, the Korku’s grievances are deflected toward depoliticized religious goals. The Korku seek communal improvement through Hindu piety in a context of the Hindutva cultural-nationalist ideology, rather than protest against the encroachment of this ideology on their community.