Internet risks and expert views: a case study of the insider perspectives of youth workers in Hong Kong

This study collects and analyses the viewpoints of front-line youth workers regarding the notion of ‘Internet risks’. Previous studies have examined and discussed various dangers of the Internet. Parental, school, and governmental interventions are often called for by those concerned. The implicit assumption is that these are the people who possess the expertise to tackle the problems at hand. Through participation in three forums focusing on ‘Internet risks’, and in-depth interviews with 10 such ‘experts’ in Hong Kong, the study examines if this is a valid assumption. It finds that experts perceive Internet risks rather differently. In addition to the more conventional views about content, contact and conduct risks, our interviewees are aware that a new order is quickly emerging in the new media environment. Despite being considered as ‘experts’, they do not necessarily know how to tackle the so-called ‘youth-at-risk’. Rather, they are exploring how they would capitalize on the opportunities offered by the developments. The key findings highlight the need to critically review the notion of ‘Internet risks’. As with other risk frameworks, the ultimate aim is to develop intervention programmes. In this regard, risks are often treated as concrete problems that can be solved. Youth experts, however, find that the changing scope, speed and persistence of communication in today's information society present the biggest challenge in youth work. The existing framework of risks was unable to describe and account for such risks. In response, Internet risk has to be reconceptualized so that more updated, relevant and imaginative intervention can be introduced.     

What does wellbeing do? An approach to defamiliarize keywords in youth studies

Wellbeing has become a keyword in youth and social policy, a construct deployed as a measure of a good life. Often associated with physical and mental health, wellbeing encompasses numerous indicators, from subjective experiences of happiness and satisfaction to markers of economic prosperity and basic human needs of security. This article examines wellbeing as an organizing concept in discourses on young people and argues for defamiliarizing its truth claims and cultural authority by investigating what wellbeing does. We begin by examining the rise of wellbeing, drawing attention to its conceptual muddiness and ambiguity. Framed by the Foucauldian notion of problematization, the analysis proceeds along two routes: first, through an historical consideration of wellbeing as a relational concept with antecedents, focusing on ‘self-esteem’; and second, through a reading of wellbeing in contemporary educational policy. Informed by Somers' historical sociology of concept formation and Bacchi's critical policy analysis, we illuminate the mixed dimensions of wellbeing's reach, placing it within longer traditions of youth studies and psy-knowledges and showing its transformative promise as well as its individualizing effects. In doing so, we elaborate a methodological approach that can be adapted to examine other keywords in youth studies and social policy discourse.     

Comparing the effectiveness of respondent-driven sampling and quota sampling in migration research

We evaluate the effectiveness in empirical migration research of the respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and the quota sampling with regard to four criteria: quality of the data; sociometric diversity of the sample; geographic coverage of the sample; and cost-effectiveness. We review two surveys of ex-USSR migrants, conducted simultaneously in the Warsaw metropolitan area, each undertaken with the use of one of the two sampling methods. We find that although the RDS was considerably costlier, it enabled faster data collection and posed a lower risk of underestimating the cost of the survey. We also find that the RDS generated higher-quality data, and that it was more successful in surveying short-term circular migrants. This comparative evaluation contributes to the literature on social research methods in that it links the sampling methods with the quality and character of the data, and helps assess the usefulness and applicability of RDS in empirical migration studies.     

Regarding the Protests of Others

While much social movement research focuses on how activists actively cultivate affect and how social movements benefit from shared emotions, these ideas rarely intersect with research examining how race constructs emotional responses in a white settler society. I bridge this theoretical divide by examining the 2009 Tamil diaspora protests in Canada to study dimensions of suffering and apathy through the construction of the racialized protest(er). Drawing upon illustrations from a critical discourse analysis of 153 mainstream news articles and interviews with activists and journalists, this paper explores how racial logic frames media and public discourse through (1) the expression of protesters’ suffering and (2) the construction of racial apathy by the Canadian public. The paper theorizes why and how race frames the production of suffering and apathy, and offers considerations for social movement theory.     

‘Singing acts’ from the deep North: critical perspectives on northern exotics,contemporary ethnic music and language preservation in Sámi communities

This paper discusses the relationship of northernness and performances of contemporary ethnic popular music, within the context of critical geography and postcolonial theory. The focus is on the Sámi ethnic minorities of northern Finland. The North of Finland, ‘nature-Finland’, is understood here as an imaginative region which over the course of several centuries has been constituted through various forms of stereotyping, mystifying, exoticising and othering of Sámi minorities in accordance with the nationalist endeavours of Southern Finland. While these stereotypes and preconceptions of northernness have delimited northern cultural activity, contemporary ethnic music is conceived here as a strategic tool with which stereotypes of northernness can be contested and the work of the preservation of ethnic heritage put into action. The focus is on the works of Inari Sámi-singing rap musician Amoc, Skolt Sámi-singing heavy rock girl Tiina Sanila and the North Sámi-singing hard rock band SomBy. Their music is approached as ‘singing acts’ that work as tools for the preservation of ethnic culture and minority languages and for the deconstruction of stereotypes directed at northernness. The paper claims that contemporary contexts and genres within which singing in Sámi languages takes place may inspire the audience to ponder and reconsider their own ways of perceiving Sáminess and northernness.     

描述译学的语言学模式

始于20世纪70年代的描述翻译学,因其具有理论和应用双重属性,有助于翻译理论研究和实践研究之间的沟通.而系统功能语言学,作为一种基于人类学、社会学、符号学的现代语言学理论,与描述翻译学具有相通的语言观、系统观和功能观.由此,系统功能语言学的系统理论、功能理论、语境理论,能够为描述翻译学提供一种更为细致、有效的研究途径.     

创建黑水城出土文献研究新的里程碑

黑水城文书是20世纪继甲骨文、汉晋简牍、敦煌文书以后的又一次重大出土文献发现。对于这批珍贵文献,史金波从文物、文献和史料以及学术等三个方面对其价值进行探讨的同时,指出了在录文、定名和断代过程中需要注意的问题,并对黑水城出土汉文文献的研究情况作了探讨。白滨从文献出土地辨析与文献甄别、文献缀合以及文献残卷的拟题与断代等三个问题入手,以现有的研究成果为个例对黑水城文献整理与研究过程中应该注意的问题作了解析。孙继民对文献的朝代构成和学科定名问题进行探讨后认为,黑水城文献的朝代构成中可确定的是唐、五代、辽、宋、西夏、金、伪齐、元(包括北元)诸朝;目前流行的"西夏学"一语不足以涵盖黑水城文献的性质,围绕黑水城文献而兴起的专门学问用"黑城学"或"黑水城文献学"定名更为恰当;此外,他还对"黑城学"与"西夏学"的关系进行了辨析。杨倩描认为,俄藏黑水城宋代军政文书不仅可以对两宋之际以鄜延路为中心的西北地区史料作一定的补充,而且对一些具有普遍意义的宋代制度、事件、人物的研究也有相当的价值。     

英国马克思主义美学在中国的译介与研究

目前,中国学术界对英国马克思主义美学著作的译介与研究存在着不均衡的局面,即译介正在走向繁荣,而研究却相对薄弱。本文认为,在英国马克思主义美学著作的译介和研究过程中还存在探讨不够深入、留有空白领域、忽视方法论的研究与转换等问题,今后应予以修正与完善。     

试论加拿大英语的特点

加拿大英语是英国英语的重要变体之一,由于受到历史、政治、文化、自然环境和社会结构等因素的影响,在演变过程中加拿大英语语音、语法、词汇等方面逐渐形成了自己的语言特色,与英国英语有较明显差异。