Producing mobility: visual narratives of the rural migrant worker in Chinese television

This paper employs literatures of mobility to explore the ways which rural migrant workers in China are represented publicly via television drama. Through an analysis of the popular serial Mingong, the paper examines the underlying politics of contemporary migration in China through three themes: the territorialisation of rural and urban spaces; the embodiment of boundaries via corporeal practices and subjectivities; and the politicisation of rural migrant desires. This analysis demonstrates the significance of television in crafting discursive understandings of mobility and migrants that are suffused with contemporary governmentalities of generating but also managing and excluding migration.     

Challenges in mentoring at-risk young adults: caseworkers’ perspective

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study examines the barriers, challenges and needs of 30 caseworkers who mentor at-risk young adults during the transition to adulthood. Professional mentoring relationships are an important source of support for at-risk young people. However, literature concerning the mentoring relationship from the perspective of the mentors is scarce. The theoretical thematic analysis revealed two major themes. The first theme- included challenges related to the young adults’ personal histories and characteristics. The second major theme related to the mentors’ expertise within their own services. The most dominant needs during the mentoring process were broad and current knowledge and ongoing training and support. The findings are discussed in relation to the mentoring literature and emerging adulthood theory. Implications for practice highlight the importance of the design and assimilation of programs that enable the promotion of meaningful mentoring relationships via organisational modifications.     

Grandchildren's perspectives on grandparents in rural New Zealand

Within studies of ageing, rurality and family relations, the prevalent “point of view” is based on the perspectives of adults, particularly older people themselves. However, taking seriously the reciprocal nature of kinship relations also challenges researchers to find ways to explore younger people's views and experiences of intergenerational ties. The study on which this paper is based addressed this challenge, by considering the dynamics of ageing in rural families through the lens of young people's experience. In the South Island of New Zealand, Area Schools serve families in rural regions specifically defined in terms of a catchment area based on distance from any other state school. This research study selected five (from 16) of these schools, and invited the classes of Year 7 and 8 students to take part in a classroom activity, led by the researcher with support from the class teacher. The activity involved a total of 98 young people (aged 11–13) in written completion of a survey which outlined their relationships and contacts with the people they know as grandparents, along with basic demographics of their own age, gender, family and household situation, and length of attendance at the school. From this survey, information was derived about 380 grandparents (of whom 73 were no longer alive), the nature and frequency of their contacts, and the types of activities they shared with these grandchildren. Around 40 percent of the students have daily or weekly contact with a grandparent, one third “regularly do things together”, and one fifth say they have “a special relationship” with a grandparent. By controlling the age group of the grandchild, and focussing on rural families, this study adds insights and detail to a growing body of research interest in understanding the roles and contributions made by grandparents to New Zealand families, in particular those in rural communities.     

Let the countdown begin — Aging experiences of young adults in countdown blogs

This paper examines a particular blog phenomenon that has not yet received much attention: Countdown blogs which are written before a significant birthday (in this paper, it is the thirtieth birthday). The bloggers fill the remaining time, often a year, with the accomplishment of particular tasks, reflections on their lives or photo projects. In their blogs, the young adults demonstrate an age awareness that is often overlooked in aging studies. The paper argues that young adults use countdown blogs to cope with their aging experiences and, in doing so, they apply a particular economic rhetoric and emerge as entrepreneurs of themselves - an identity concept that Foucault presented in the late 1970s. Foucault, however, did not consider the themes of age as symbolic capital nor the marketing strategies that entrepreneurship of the self imply. In a close reading of a sample of twenty-one countdown blogs, the paper suggests new complexities in Foucault's concept. At the same time, it argues that young adults today have developed creative strategies in terms of multimedia projects and heightened self-scrutiny to cope with the finitude of time, the expectations of age-appropriate behavior and the coercions of neoliberal consumer culture.     

“事业线”：青年女性的职场新污名

“事业线”在现代社会背景下有了全新的意涵与表征。它从手掌这一中性的身体意象中“逸出”而投射到了女性的胸部,同时形成了对女性身体的物化和贬损,而这种现象在青年女性的职场生活中显得尤为突出。在身体社会学的视野中看来,“事业线“是一种青年女性的职场新污名。这一污名来源于男性的凝视、身体资本的积累逻辑以及身体消费便利性等因素间的相互作用,并负面地影响了青年女性的身体健康。探索新污名的生成机制、社会后果以及治理策略对青年女性在职场中的和谐发展有着重要的现实意义。     

新生代农民工群体特征研究

自2010年中央一号文件首次提出“新生代农民工”说法,新生代农民工开始成为社会各界关注的对象,通过梳理相关文献大致可勾画出新生代农民工所谓“四高”、“一低”、“一薄弱”的社会印象和群体特征。相对其他群体来说,新生代农民工受教育水平并不高,对于农民身份认同相对减弱,城市社区认同较高。对于新生代农民工群体特征的研究应该区分农民工的人口学特征与社会特征,并充分认识到新生代农民工群体的异质性,对其定义和特征把握要注意从与周围群体和代际关系中共同考虑。     

Analysis of the Behavior Logic of Young Migrant Workers＇ Flash Marriage when Returning Hometown during Spring Festival——Based on the Case Study of D Village in Henan

基于田野调查,考察了D村青年农民工春节返乡“闪婚”现象,通过对该婚恋模式程序性仪式的展示,力图全面透视当地青年农民工“闪婚”这一婚恋模式的实践背景和行为逻辑,以及在这种行为逻辑背后所彰显的子辈权利意识兴起与父权衰落的农村家庭代际关系变迁。     

大学生与务工返乡青年农村创业刍议

改革开放尤其是党的十六大以来,我国农村经济社会建设在取得显著成就的同时,城乡失衡的矛盾和问题在某些方面也日益突出。如何统筹城乡发展,缩小区域差距成为“十二五”时期重大攻坚课题。立足农村发展实际,对大学生与务工返乡青年农村创业进行相关研究有历史和现实意义,大学生和务工返乡青年创业竞合将成为农村经济社会发展的强劲动力源,是当前统筹城乡发展有效的途径之一。     

新生代农民工与城市居民的社会距离分析

本文运用2008年宁波城市新生代农民工调查数据,对新生代主体视角下与城市居民社会距离的现状及影响凶素进行了探讨。分析结果发现：以新生代农民工为主体视角的社会距离建立在融入意愿和排斥预期两个层面基础上;与上一代农民工相比．新生代农民工与城市居民的社会距离在增大。社会经济地位、社会关系网络、居住空间和社会文化会显著影响新生代农民丁的社会距离。要促进新生代农民丁的城市融人,缩短新生代农民工与城市居民的社会距离,需要新生代农民工、城市居民、政府和社会等多方行动者的共同努力。     

信任缺失:新生代农民工身份建构与政治认同

新生代农民工城市融入的本质是新生代农民工与城市市民、城市社会组织及政治的互动与认同,这种互动与认同以信任为基础。其中人际信任、组织信任与政治信任分别构成新生代农民工身份建构的基础、融入城市的社会资本与政治认同的基础。由于当前社会人际信任缺失、组织信任匮乏与政治信任偏低,导致新生代农民工陷入身份建构与政治认同困境。因此只有通过修复新生代农民工的人际信任、增进其组织信任、重构政治信任方能构建起积极的身份认同。