Whither practice-near research in the modernization programme? Policy blunders in children's services

In this article, we lament the effects of practice-distant research and associated policy initiatives on contemporary children's services in England. In the last decade, as a result of high profile inquiries into non-accidental child deaths, statutory children's social care services in the UK have been subject to a wide-reaching ‘modernization’ programme. We studied decision-making in the high blame environment of local authority children's services. Our research sought to examine the relationship between performance management and the impact of anticipated blame within the decision-making practices of those providing, supervising and managing these services. We show that systems and technologies can be developed which both assist the users in their daily work and achieve desired organizational goals, but without an ethnographically informed, practice-near approach, unsafe work regimes and practices can ensue.     

高职人文素质课程对接行业文化的路径

高职人文素质课程应该以与行业文化的对接作为其发展的关键举措,其能够实现高职人文素质教育与行业文化的相互渗透,能够使行业精神内化为学生的品格,使认同和接受行业文化的高职学生的职业生涯得到更好地发展。高职人文素质课程对接行业文化可通过以下路径:高职院校的人文素质显性课程与行业文化的对接,高职院校的人文素质隐性课程与行业文化的对接,高职院校的校园文化与行业文化的对接。     

地铁对城市现代化的影响

地铁是城市发展现代化的一个重要标志。本文分析了国内外城市地铁的构建、运营以及地铁在城市化进程中的作用，进而系统阐释了地铁对广州城市发展、社会生活及生态环境的影响和意义。     

Longitudinal relations between behavioral inhibition and social information processing: Moderating role of maternal supportive reactions to children's emotions

Utilizing multiple measures of interpretive biases, the current study examined the roles of toddlers’ behavioral inhibition (BI) and maternal supportive reactions to children's negative emotions in relation to children's interpretive biases across middle to late childhood. Toddlers’ BI was measured during several laboratory tasks (n = 248) at 2 and 3 years of age. Mothers reported on their reactions to children's negative emotional expressions when children were 7 years old (n = 203), and children's interpretations of social cues were assessed at 7 and 10 years of age (n s = 179 and 161, respectively). Toddlers with high levels of BI expressed less positivity toward social engagement with unfamiliar peers during discussion of ambiguous social situations. Further, children with high BI were less likely to attribute the cause of negative social situations to external factors, particularly when mothers were less accepting of children's negative emotional displays. Findings are discussed in terms of cognition related to the interpretation of ambiguous and threat‐related social situations among temperamentally at‐risk children.     

Dynamics of Young Children's Socially Adaptive Resolutions of Peer Conflict

How do young children negotiate conflicts with peers that result in mutually beneficial resolution and peaceful interaction after conflict? A few studies suggest that when children use conciliatory strategies in conflict, socially adaptive outcomes are more likely to be achieved. The present study explores the relative associations of types of children's conciliatory conflict resolution strategies (i.e., prosocial, compliance‐oriented, solution‐oriented, and verbal clarification/apology) with conflict outcomes to contribute to knowledge of the discrete behaviors that might have salience for conflict resolution training. Socially adaptive conflict outcomes were expected to strongly relate to children's resolution strategies of a prosocial nature as well as to teacher or peer interventions encouraging prosocial behavior or empathy. Sampled conflicts (N = 521) were collected through field observations of 107 ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse four‐ to seven‐year‐old children. Logistic regression analyses with bootstrap‐based inference suggested that children's prosocial behaviors in conflict were most strongly tied to mutually beneficial resolution and peaceful postconflict interaction, when controlling for relevant covariates. Other conciliatory strategies varied in their association with socially adaptive outcomes. The hypothesis regarding third‐party interventions encouraging prosociability or empathy could not be examined due to infrequent occurrence. Insights for future research on children's socially adaptive conflict negotiations are discussed.     

Gambling-related problems across life domains: an exploratory study of non-treatment-seeking weekly gamblers

This study uses content analysis to provide a qualitative exploration of how life roles are affected by frequent (i.e. at least weekly) gambling, based on in-depth interviews with a community sample of 161 non-treatment-seeking frequent gamblers. Over half (51.6%) of the participants indicated problems associated with gambling and 131 examples were identified. The majority of problems were relational (50.4%), followed by financial (19.8%), work (13.7%), and school related (8.4%). Slightly less than half of participants (41.7%) reported losses due to gambling and 92 examples were provided. The most frequently reported loss was identity related (54.3%), which included self-esteem/shame (38.0%), estrangement from family (34.0%), estrangement from friends (16.0%), and estrangement from work colleagues (6.0%). Additional losses included health (29.3%) and financial (8.7%). Almost two-thirds of participants (64.6%) reported difficulty concentrating in family (18.4%), work (16.8%), and school (9.6%) activities, whereas general concentration problems comprised an additional 48.8% of the examples provided. Half of participants (49.1%) discussed behavioral withdrawal due to gambling, which included withdrawal from work (44.3%), relationships (24.5%), school (15.1%), and personal (6.6%) activities. These findings paint a complex picture of how gambling interferes with different life roles for some frequent gamblers, identifying important areas for future research and practice.     

Explaining the Sexuality Gap in Protest Participation

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the relationship between sexual orientations and the protest actions of adults in the United States. Drawing from General Social Survey data from 1996 to 2004, we found that lesbians, gays, and bisexuals were more than twice as likely to protest as heterosexuals. To account for this sexuality gap, we used Patrick Egan’s (2008) political distinctiveness theories to identify possible underlying causes of these protesting differences. After running several regressions, we found that sexuality and protesting relationships were moderated by issues of educational attainment, marital statuses, metropolitan residencies, political partisanships, governmental grievances, and gender role expectations.     

COMMENTARY (12 YEARS ON) ON ‘THE CONTRIBUTION OF OBSERVATION TRAINING TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN SOCIAL WORK’ BY JUDITH TROWELL AND GILLIAN MILES

This article aims to stimulate discussion about relationships between the lives of professionals and of service users. The idea is that when parallels are explored and developed, power dynamics between professionals and social workers are reduced, the quality of interaction and work with service users can be improved, and professionals can also be helped in overcoming difficulties in their own lives. I start with an outline of my own personal background and highlight my development throughout, including my emerging identity as a Buddhist. I discuss a case study involving ‘Sally’ and her family and our work together while I was a social work assistant in a Children and Family's team. I try to show the interconnections between the different difficulties that we faced and how that informed my work. I look at some of the benefits, pitfalls and boundaries of working from the point of view that service user and professional are both working to overcome their problems. I also interweave interactions I had at the time with Carlos, a drug user friend in a crisis and the impact he had on me. Because I include my own situation I have called this article a ‘case experience’.

Throughout I refer to Buddhist and psychoanalytic thinking and particularly to agreement between the two around ideas that inner‐resistance is the main barrier to personal evolution. I argue that faith is the key to unlocking resistance, and that faith should be understood as the development of a belief within people that they are able to progress rather than be destroyed in the face of inevitable problems.     

论儒家伦理精神与自我教育意识

社会管理除了需要从社会外部加强政府管理职能的创新与制度建设,还必须从社会内部增强社会各阶层自我教育意识,从而提高其自我管理能力。外在社会制度管理与内在自我道德教育结合,才能实现社会管理长期和谐稳定的理想目标。自我教育意识的增强可以从儒家伦理精神中汲取其注重仁义、自觉服从社会整体利益和长远利益的精华,为现代社会成员自觉贯彻执行社会管理制度提供道德保障与内在动力。     

守望学术良知,爱护学术生态——论学术失范语境下高校社科学报的自律与发展

保持自律,恪守学术道德是学术期刊编辑的职责所在,更是高校社科学报构建良好学术生态系统的关键所在。在当前我国学术生态环境的部分恶化的语境下,面对批评与困境,增强高校社科学报的自律,提高学报编辑的综合素质,实现学术个体、学术群体与社会全体的联动机制,是提高高校社科学报的质量,促进其健康成长,营造和谐学术生态环境的不二选择。