Contested attachments: rethinking adoptive kinship in the era of open adoption

Since its legal inception in 1926, adoption work has been centrally concerned with the matter of the adopted child's ‘first’ or prior life, whilst also focussed on achieving a new and secure substitute family for that child. Adoptive kinship has been formed through this dual and contradictory concern, a concern that has produced diverse policies and practices over the last 90 years. Drawing on Foucault's concept of technologies of the subject, this paper is an exploration of adoptive kinship within the new context of open adoption, a set of practices that more actively promotes the involvements of the adopted child's former family. These practices both promote a radical reworking of adoptive kinship, as well as confirming its more orthodox moorings. Drawing on an adoption archive study, the paper concludes with an analysis of letterbox contact to explore how far this form of open practice transforms adoptive kinship in the contemporary era.     

Using complexity theory in kinship practice

This reflective discussion draws on data from a collaborative enquiry into kinship or family and friends practice. It introduces perspectives from complexity and chaos theory as a way of re‐examining the challenges of kinship practice. The discussion highlights the enduring challenges for practitioners, not least, managing anxiety and uncertainty, sustaining continuity and containment, becoming experienced and taking account of the complex developmental needs of the children and their families. The discussion particularly raises questions about appropriate settings for practitioners to undertake such a demanding area of child and family social work.     

Syllable-final /s/ as an index of language,gender, and ethnicity in a contact variety of Mexican Spanish

This study of syllable-final /s/ reduction in a 55-speaker corpus of Spanish in Juchitán, México, a contact variety, uses both language contact and social processes to explain its results. Contact with the indigenous Isthmus Zapotec language leads to decreased rates of syllable-final /s/ retention, creating a locally salient n+1-order index between “Zapotecness” and /s/ reduction that influences the indexical field for syllable-final /s/ reduction. Zapotec identity is associated with tradition and femininity. Therefore, in this new indexical field, syllable-final /s/ reduction comes to directly index Zapotec language dominance and indirectly index both femininity and tradition. This leads feminine and elderly speakers to reduce /s/ more frequently than “less feminine” and young speakers, even though the opposite pattern is usually found in other varieties. The results show, therefore, that language contact can influence the indexical field typically linked to socially meaningful variation and thereby cause unexpected patterns of variation to emerge.     

英汉语言接触中语法偏误现象研究——以地点名词和时间名词的后置现象为例

在语言学习中,因两种语言的相互接触而引起语法偏误的语言现象是普遍存在的。而语言迁移现象（language transfer）,即语言学习者在外语生成中常常运用母语的句型结构,是导致这一偏误发生的重要原因。     

What motivates adolescent bystanders to intervene when immigrant youth are bullied?

Pathways to bystander responses were examined in both generalized and bias-based bullying incidents involving immigrant-origin victims. Participants were 168 (M_age = 14.54, 57% female) adolescents of immigrant (37.5%) and nonimmigrant backgrounds, who responded to their likelihood of intervening on behalf of either an Arab or Latine victim. Models tested whether contact with immigrants and one's desires for social contact with immigrant-origin peers mediated the effects of individual (shared immigrant background, and discriminatory tendencies) and situational (inclusive peer norms) intergroup factors on active bystander responses. Findings indicated that desires for social contact reliably mediated effects across both victims; however, contact with immigrant peers was only associated with responses to Latine victims. Implications for how to promote bystander intervention are discussed.     

移民对喀喇沁地区民族构成及语言接触模式的影响

移民对喀喇沁地区民族构成和语言接触模式的形成有重大影响。平泉县移民开始早、规模大,蒙古族村落成为少数孤岛,在边缘孤岛中,蒙古语以蒙古族聚居的自然村为依托,不同程度地得以保存和传承。喀喇沁旗移民开始早,但受土地所有权限制,形成蒙汉杂居模式,程度逐渐加深,兼用、转用彼此的语言成为自然选择,随着汉族人口占优势,汉语替代蒙古语的趋势开始形成。宁城县的移民开始早,由于有清廷的支持和专门开发机构,移民可以大规模地、独立地建村并开发利用当地的土地和山林,居住模式是分离式的,蒙汉民族各保一方,杂居程度较低,蒙古族聚居村落较好地保存了蒙古语。喀喇沁左翼蒙古族自治县移民及其居住模式深受时局影响,在康熙之前蒙汉自然杂居,乾隆后汉族移民占优势,民国及新中国建立后出现一个调整过程,杂居程度加深,但程度不及喀喇沁旗。在蒙古族聚居的自然村中,蒙古语保留程度比喀喇沁旗好,但不如宁城县。     

回鹘式蒙古文文献中的汉语借词研究

借词是语言、文化接触的产物。然而,借词的研究价值不限于两种语言文化的研究,对借入和借出语言的历史研究也有特殊的意义。回鹘式蒙古文文献汉语借词的音译情况给我们传递了元代汉语和现代汉语截然不同的声韵母信息。     

线接触共轭曲面的类复向量矩阵算法

提出并利用类复向量矩阵方法计算线接触共轭曲面方程,只利用一个类复向量矩阵公式就完成全部坐标变换,消除了传统方法的多次坐标变换,使计算过程成倍简化.     

印度对中国崛起的认知

在中印共同崛起的大背景下,探究印度对中国崛起的认知尤为必要。通过皮尤＂全球态度调查＂项目的数据可见印度对中国崛起的认知呈现＂负面＂态势。究其原因,在个人层面,印度公众对中国的无知与冷漠以及某些媒体记者对中国的歪曲报道直接造成这一结果;在国家层面,中印之间在边界争端、西藏问题、中印巴和中美印这四个关键议题上存在分歧,而这些敏感的议题又通过媒体的肆意渲染而影响印度公众对中国崛起的认知;印度公众对中国崛起的认知源于中印之间存在的＂安全困境＂。     

Production Teams and Producing Racial Diversity in Workplace Relationships

Production teams have become a dominant form of work organization as labor markets have become increasingly diverse. This transition likely affects coworker networks—possibly undermining entrenched patterns of workplace segregation. Contact theory suggests that teams can foster network diversity when workers cooperate and share values emphasizing mutual respect. Yet variants of conflict theory, including the critical teams literature, contend that the benefits of teamwork may be eroded by associated factors, including peer discipline, work intensification, and job insecurity. This study uses 2006 General Social Survey data to assess whether and how teamwork affects the racial diversity of worker acquaintance networks, contrasting worker‐ and manager‐directed teams. We find a positive relationship between teams and diversity, but only when teams are worker directed. Despite countervailing tendencies highlighted in the literature, teams foster greater cooperation between workers, which in turn promotes cross‐racial friendships. African Americans tend to receive the greatest diversity payoffs from teams. These findings suggest that teamwork can undermine segregation, though only with certain implementations and with variation across groups.