A court file analysis of child protection cases: What do children say?

Children's participation in legal proceedings affecting them personally has been gaining importance. So far, a primary research concern has been how children experience their participation in court proceedings. However, little is known about the child's voice itself: Are children able to clearly express their wishes, and if so, what do they say in child protection cases? In this study, we extracted information about children's statements from court file data of 220 child protection cases in Germany. We found 182 children were asked about their wishes. The majority of the statements found came either from reports of the guardians ad litem or from judicial records of the child hearings. Using content analysis, three main aspects of the statements were extracted: wishes concerning main place of residence, wishes about whom to have or not contact with, and children granting decision‐making authority to someone else. Children's main focus was on their parents, but others (e.g., relatives and foster care providers) were also mentioned. Intercoder agreement was substantial. Making sure that child hearings are as informative as possible is in the child's best interest. Therefore, the categories developed herein might help professionals to ask questions more precisely relevant to the child.     

Exploring the essence of enabling child participation within child protection services

The chances that children have to participate in child protection services are largely contingent upon the attitudes and skills of case managers. They have a crucial role in ensuring that a child's voice is being listened to and acknowledged in often sensitive dialogues. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate what case managers need to facilitate child participation. By handing case managers a participation toolbox developed by children and through the use of reflexive monitoring in action, we elaborated on the barriers faced in practice. The results show that the intention to facilitate child participation is quickly overruled by often subconscious thoughts and beliefs, stemming from the complex interplay of child image, protection, and participation. Case managers need to be aware of this interplay and how this unknowingly steers their actions. Therefore, iterative reflection should be facilitated within organizations for an actual change in their daily practice and to amplify the role of children in the decision‐making processes within child protection services.     

The Quality of Stakeholder-Based Decisions

The increased use of stakeholder processes in environmental decision making has raised concerns about the quality of decisions these processes produce. Some claim that stakeholders make inadequate use of scientific information and analysis and are all too ready to sacrifice technical quality for political expediency. This article looks to the case study record to examine the quality of the decisions from stakeholder-based processes. The data for the analysis come from a "case survey," in which researchers coded information from 239 published case studies of stakeholder involvement in environmental decision making. These cases reflect a diversity of planning, management, and implementation activities carried out by environmental and natural resource agencies at many levels of government. Overall, the case-study record suggests that there should be little concern that stakeholder processes are resulting in low-quality decisions. The majority of cases contain evidence of stakeholders improving decisions over the status quo; adding new information, ideas, and analysis; and having adequate access to technical and scientific resources. Indeed, data suggest that it is the more intensive stakeholder processes--precisely those that have aroused recent concern--that are more likely to result in higher-quality decisions.     

The political activities of social workers in the context of changing roles and political transition in Hong Kong

The article reports on a fourth study on the political participation of social workers based on a methodology developed by Gray and Collett van Rooyen (2000). Thus far studies have been conducted in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The present study examined the political activities of social workers in Hong Kong. It begins with a review of the politicisation of Hong Kong's social workers, tracing developments from the 1960s onwards. It then examines the literature on political participation in social work, particularly various typologies of political activity, in order to add to theory relating to this important aspect of social-work practice. Thereafter, it outlines the conceptual framework and methodology used in the study, the results of which provide the basis for the discussion of the political activities of social workers in Hong Kong. It ends with an in-depth discussion of the implications of the findings for the political role of social workers in Hong Kong's changing political context.     

论公众参与中公众的范围——以《环境影响评价公众参与暂行办法》为视角

公众是公众参与中的前设性的基础问题。谁是“公众”？具体参与事件中公众的范围该多大？如何确定？这是关系公众权利真正落实、参与不流于形式而必须予以解决的前提性问题。本文以我国《环境影响评价公众参与暂行办法》为文本，通过法语义学的法律解释方法解读公众在两个层面的应用，厘清公众的范围及其确定，并结合价值研究提出现行立法的不足和完善的建议。     

Only joking? Online humour in the 2005 UK general election

Humour has long been a part of election campaigns but rarely has election humour been subject to scholarly analysis. The increasing popularity of new forms of Internet-based humour has, however, raised questions about the significance of humour in campaigning and whether online humour can be used as means of stimulating political engagement. This article assesses online humour in the context of the 2005 UK election, exploring both the motivations of the different actors who distributed web-based political humour and the nature of the texts themselves. We find that whilst the official party campaigns use humour very cautiously, there has been an upsurge in humour based campaigns from net activists as well as more traditional broadcasters. Yet, overall, the way that humour is used is paradoxical, since it often attempts to encourage participation but portrays politics as a cynical game, leaving the rationale for political participation unclear.     

The failure of education in preparing Tibetans for market participation

Since the Chinese government began implementing economic reforms in the late 1970s, China has undergone profound economic change and growth. However, this growth has not been equitable, and the present economic gap between east and west China is wide. The Tibetans, a minority group in the ‘west’, are in a particularly dire situation. Although China's strategic policy of developing the west has provided many business opportunities, Tibetans are poorly equipped to respond to and take advantage of these opportunities. The reasons restricting effective market participation are complex and difficult to assess. There are no easy answers. Many political, social, cultural and environmental factors explain the difficulties encountered by Tibetan communities. However, by studying current educational practice with a focus on secondary education in Tibetan areas of China, this paper argues that poor education is among crucial factors explaining the inability of Tibetans to compete economically with non-Tibetan migrants.     

治理集体产权:农村社区建设中的政府与农民

采用案例法、访谈法,以威海高区田和街道为例对集体产权改革下社区治理中公民参与转型进行研究。研究发现,由于集体产权的改革,重构了农民与集体、政府之间的权利关系,乡村社区组织和权力结构得以重塑,公民参与空间得以拓展,公民多元利益需求被激发,资源配置效率得到提高,促使威海高区田和街道公民参与由动员式、执行式、形式化、非常规化的利益驱动型参与转向了多样化、深层化、功效强的多维组织型参与,公民参与实现质的飞跃。但针对研究过程中所发现的缺乏公民对于权力的持续监督机制、成本与效率、公民参与的制度法律保障不完善等问题,提出需要进一步加强机制建设及后续监督工作,合理平衡参与成本与产出效率,完善相关制度法律建设。

     

基于EPR制度的逆向物流研究与应用综述

伴随着电子商务技术与服务的快速发展,低成本高回收的商品回收模式成为投资者和学者研究的热点。以在线零售商为研究主体,针对废旧零部件的循环再利用,充分考虑消费者在零售商回收过程中的角色,讨论了三种回收策略情况,即两阶段回收策略、竞争型回收策略以及“合作型”回收策略。通过考察这三种策略中在线零售商的最优利润以及供应链总利润等变量的变化情况,为在线零售商实施合适的逆回收策略提供依据。研究结果表明：回收策略不同,在线零售商、消费者以及整个供应链的利润不同;在线零售商及供应链总利润受利益共享比例以及消费者参与方式的影响。进而通过仿真分析为在线零售商根据自身实际情况实施废旧零部件的回收策略提供参考依据。     

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随着工程对世界的变革和对公众的影响不断增强,公众与工程之间的关系越来越紧密,特定的公众正在实现从理解工程到参与工程甚至影响工程的角色转变,而为了与这一逻辑演进相适应,内在地要求从工程到公众进行精准知识传播。在回溯公众理解工程概念提出的背景及其对工程知识传播的理论指向的基础上,指出工程知识的精准传播是公众理解工程的重要途径,针对工程知识传播的本质应精准把握传播重点、细分传播对象、设置传播内容和选择传播机会。