Learning basic employability competence: a challenge for the active labour insertion of adolescents in residential care in their transition to adulthood

The teaching of basic employability competence from a very early age is of preventive value in the transition of young people in residential care to adulthood. The present research relates employability competence (finding and holding down a job and gaining promotion in the labour market) with positive career outcomes and employment opportunities. In this study, conceptual methods for understanding employability are analysed and some existing international studies of employability skills are reviewed, although all of these are deemed partial approaches to the needs of children and young people in residential care. Our proposal, the IARS (Infancia y Adolescencia en Riesgo Social [Children and Young People at Social Risk]) Employability Competence Framework, developed by means of a collaborative and integrated approach with experts, provides a complete picture of how employability competences are important for preparing young people in residential care not only for active labour insertion but also in terms of their comprehensive development. A selection of a cluster of eight employability competences (self-organisation, decision-making and problem-solving, teamwork, communication, perseverance, professional project development, flexibility and responsibility) and their components are presented, as well as its educational implications within children's homes.     

Spaces for public orientation? Longitudinal effects of Internet use in adolescence

The article departs from an overarching research question: How does young people's engagement in different Internet spaces affect the development of their public orientation during adolescence? It analyses longitudinal panel data in order to explore how young people's public orientation develops during a phase in life (13–20) which is critical for political socialization. Data are derived from three waves of data collection among young people who were 13–17 years old at the time for the first data collection. The concept public orientation is measured by three indicators: young people's values, interests and everyday peer talk. These indicators are analysed with reference to respondents' Internet orientations, which we conceptualize as four separate but inter-related spaces (a news space, a space for social interaction, a game space and a creative space). The results primarily emphasize the importance of orientations towards news space and space for social interaction. Overall, the findings strongly suggest that orientations towards these spaces are related to adolescents' public orientation. The findings confirm the centrality of news and information in political socialization, but they also challenge the idea that social media facilities – such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging – enable forms of social interaction and creative production that have an overall positive impact on young people's public orientation.     

Facing an uncertain reception: young citizens and political interaction on Facebook

This article explores how the social ambiguities concerning audience and reception of posts on Facebook shape the forms of political interaction among young citizens on the site. Two sets of in-depth interviews are used to illustrate the ways that uncertainties about audience reception on Facebook inspire strategies for ‘inventing’ modes of political interaction on the one hand, and, for others, suppress opinion expression by creating the sense that talking politics on the site is a high risk endeavor.     

‘The outraged young’: young Europeans,civic engagement and the new media in a time of crisis

Public involvement in traditional political institutions has declined significantly over the past few decades, leading to what some have seen as a crisis in citizenship. This trend is most striking amongst young people, who have become increasingly alienated from mainstream electoral politics in Europe. Nevertheless, there is overwhelming evidence to show that younger citizens are not apathetic about ‘politics’ – they have their own views and engage in democracy in a wide variety of ways that seem relevant to their everyday lives. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, young Europeans have borne the brunt of austerity in public spending: from spiralling youth unemployment, to cuts in youth services, to increased university tuition fees. In this context, the rise and proliferation of youth protest in Europe is hardly surprising. Indeed, youth activism has become a major feature of the European political landscape: from mass demonstrations of the ‘outraged young’ against political corruption and youth unemployment, to the Occupy movement against the excesses of global capitalism, to the emergence of new political parties. This article examines the role that the new media has played in the development of these protest movements across the continent. It argues that ‘digitally networked action’ has enabled a ‘quickening’ of youth participation – an intensification of political participation amongst young, highly educated citizens in search of a mouthpiece for their ‘indignation’.     

微博空间的媒体知识分子与社会公益行动动员

2011年以来,“微博打拐”、“免费午餐”、“大爱清尘”等在网络上下都颇具影响力的公益活动,几乎都是由知名调查记者发起并调动众多社会人士参与并推动的.在中国的慈善公益事业因诚信危机而持续低迷的背景下,媒体人转身公益人并取得一定进展和影响力的案例,不仅仅是一种简单的社会现象的呈现,而且是媒体工作者与新媒介、社会变革之间建构的一种新型互动关系.深入分析调查记者的公益转型之路,反思媒体知识分子主导的社会公益行动背后存在的问题,对于思考新媒体与中国慈善公益事业的互动发展具有现实意义.     

从机械化到工业社会——20世纪三四十年代中国知识界对工业化内涵的阐释

所谓工业化,是指人类社会由农业社会向工业社会的转化过程,包括三个层面:机械化生产、工业经济、工业社会。然而,为学术界长期忽略的是,早在20世纪三四十年代,中国知识界就对工业化的这三个层面作了明确阐述。在20世纪30年代以至抗战初期,大家对工业化的理解比较狭隘,主要指作为大规模机械化生产的机械化。但是,抗战时期,尤其是自1943年以后,这种思想态势出现明显变化。首先,许多论者开始热衷于从整体经济变革角度全面阐释工业化概念。他们把工业化视为包括工业、农业、矿业、交通、金融等各方面的整体经济变革。在从整体经济层面全面阐释工业化概念的同时,自1943年以后,知识界又开始从整体社会变革层面认识工业化问题,并明确把工业化与整体社会变革联系起来,提出了工业化与社会改造命题,亦即今天所说的工业社会。从机械化、工业经济到工业化与社会改造,知识界对工业化的认识步步深入,这标志着中国知识界工业化理念的全面深化。     

A comparative study on Italian new communities abroad: the cases of Tunisia and South Africa1

This paper presents two case studies about Italian new communities abroad: one Tunisian and one South African. These case studies were conducted – in a larger international research project on 14 countries – with different types of interview: focus interviews, in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc. The mixed interview modes brought to light how – with a different research strategy (methodological triangulation): quantitative and qualitative data – our complex social experience can be inquired into, in particular migration processes. The authors decided to utilise semi-standardised and non-standardised techniques. This paper discusses how the mixed research logic – utilised in both of these cases – is very productive in terms of knowledge. It seems that focus group interviewing techniques (and others) have been used progressively more and more over the past years as both a self-contained method for conducting qualitative research and in combination with other research methods. In the authors’ opinion, mixed-methods research (or multiple research strategies) represents a smaller corpus of literature that is getting increased attention. The essays in our paper are grouped along four themes: (a) economic development and globalisation; (b) perceptions and discourses; (c) the new migration phenomenon; and (d) fragmentation of identity. The authors believe that rebuilding a morceau de vie of Italian emigration helps to better analyse the role of the communities of immigrants in the construction of national processes. As a result of this, their survey introduces reflections on theoretical—methodological logic and concurs with placing such aspects in a global and social structural dimension. However, the universal and social structural dimension can be extended to the specific case. Its contribution in the first part investigates a variety of linkages of migration with broader processes of social–economic development and social globalisation. That global patterns of migration and the processes of globalisation are linked in various ways has long been recognised. The second part of the paper stresses the meaning of perceptions and discourses linked with the migration phenomenon and underlines the importance of an accurate methodological approach in order to provide new sociological points of view and appropriate research strategies.     

高校学报青年编辑职业倦怠的成因及其化解

高校学报青年编辑由于工作超负荷、知识与经验储备不足及人际关系难以协调等原因,容易产生职业倦怠。化解职业倦怠的对策;合理配置人力资源,缓解青年编辑的工作负荷和压力;青年编辑要认识自身的性格弱点,营造和谐的人际关系;对编辑角色进行重新定位,促进青年编辑的职业成长;为青年嫡辑设立编辑导师。提高他们的自我效能;关心和爱护青年煽辑,为他们的职业发展创造条件。     

对少年儿童写书、出书热的思考

从20世纪90年代后期尤其是2000年以来,少年儿童写书、出书蔚然成风.其原因主要是:市场经济时代为少年儿童纷纷写书、出书提供了宽松的社会环境;信息时代,尤其是互联网的普及为少年儿童写书、出书创造了最便捷的途径;少年儿童所写的书适应了同龄人的阅读需求;出版社、新闻媒体和商家的炒作对少年儿童写书、出书热的产生起了推波助澜的作用.其意义主要表现在:对文学而言,少年儿童纷纷写书、出书应视为当代文学获得新生的一种成就;对教育而言,它是教育改革取得的阶段性成果;对出版而言,它是当今出版业繁荣的表现.对编辑出版人员的启示是:编辑出版人员应该把挖掘和培养少年儿童作者提上议事日程,应乐为少年儿童作者作嫁衣,全社会应建立和完善少年儿童作品评价体系.