以人的全面发展为尺度的社会发展及其历史本原

在<1857-1858年经济学手稿>中,马克思提出的以人的全面发展为尺度的社会发展三形态理论,以宏大的历史尺度和深厚的历史底蕴成为他论述社会发展理论的哲学总纲领.马克思通过劳动性质、财富尺度和自由时间这三个基本维度,不仅从"自由个性"、"自由劳动"与"自由时间"相统一的角度揭示了人和社会互动生成的社会历史机制,而且从"实体"与"主体"相统一的角度论证了历史唯物主义的生产力本原.     

Cultural capital or relative risk aversion? Two mechanisms for educational inequality compared1

In this paper we empirically examined two explanatory mechanisms for educational inequality: cultural reproduction and relative risk aversion, using survey data taken from secondary school pupils in Amsterdam. Cultural reproduction theory seeks to explain class variations in schooling by cultural differences between social classes. Relative risk aversion theory argues that educational inequalities can be understood by between-class variation in the necessity of pursuing education at branching points in order to avoid downward mobility. We showed that class variations in early demonstrated ability are for a substantial part cultural: cultural capital - measured by parental involvement in highbrow culture - affected school performance at the primary and secondary level. However, relative risk aversion - operationalized by being concerned with downward mobility - strongly affects schooling ambitions, whereas cultural capital had no effect. Thus, we conclude that 'primary effects' of social origin on schooling outcomes are manifested through cultural capital and not through relative risk aversion (in addition to other potential sources of class variations such as genetics). Relative risk aversion, and not cultural capital, affects schooling ambitions, which is relevant for our understanding of secondary effects.     

Ordering competition: the interactional accomplishment of the sale of art and antiques at auction

Auctions provide an institutional solution to a social problem; they enable the legitimate pricing and exchange of goods where those goods are of uncertain value. In turn, auctions raise a number of social and organizational issues that are resolved within the interaction that arise in sales by auction. In this paper, we examine sales of fine art, antiques and objets d'art and explore the ways in which auctioneers mediate competition between buyers and establish a value for goods. In particular, we explore how bids are elicited, co-ordinated and revealed so as to rapidly escalate the price of goods in a transparent manner that enables the legitimate valuation and exchange of goods. In directing attention towards the significance of the social interaction, including talk, visual and material conduct, the paper contributes to the growing corpus of ethnographic studies of markets. It suggests that to understand the operation of markets and their outcomes, and to unpack issues of agency, trust and practice, we need to place the 'interaction order' at the heart of analytic agenda.     

The changing practice of eating: evidence from UK time diaries, 1975 and 2000

This paper examines some central themes about change in consumption behaviour through an empirical investigation of the practice of eating. It analyses patterns of food consumption in the UK using time diary data from 1975 and 2000. The practice of eating is decomposed into four component activities which are used to explore systematically the inter-relationships between social processes - such as commodification and temporal fragmentation - and ways of providing and consuming food. It charts the expansion of eating out, the degree to which it substitutes for other eating activities, and the implications of its development for social relations and the temporal organization of daily life. Analysis reveals that food consumption continues to be differentiated along established lines of social division, although the content of those divisions has changed and varies across components of the practice. Increasing commodification of the food chain is documented, but without appearing to have a corrosive impact on household organization or social relationships. While tendencies indicative of temporal fragmentation are revealed, counter-tendencies exist which suggest that the practice of eating is resilient to many forms of external pressure. Finally, the application of a practice-based analytical approach permits critical evaluation of theories of social transformation.     

Analysing non-doctrinal socialization: re-assessing the role of cognition to account for social cohesion in the Religious Society of Friends

To incorporate newcomers into membership, a group employs socialization strategies to transform the characteristics of the newcomers, so that it can admit them with the confidence that their behaviour will not endanger group unity. Analyses of socialization emphasize that novices' interiorization of an institutional definition of group behaviour is a necessary condition to ensure successful socialization. The contemporary Religious Society of Friends in Britain, however, is a non-doctrinal religious movement that avoids defining the content of its beliefs and practices. To analyse the socializing interaction between members and newcomers in this movement in Britain, and among co-religionists in the USA, this inquiry applies a model of socialization that does not include assumptions about the role played by cognition in socialization (Long and Hadden 1983). My results show that: (a) the diffuseness in Friends' collective explanations of institutional conduct supports novices' identification with institutional practice, and (b) experimental and affective components in socialization motivate novices to imitate institutional behaviour despite the fact that Friends have no authoritative explanations of such behaviour. The data suggest that socialization and social cohesion are not necessarily as strongly cognitive-oriented phenomena as they were previously thought to be. This finding has important implications for thinking about social cohesion in postmodern society.     

How far merit selection? Social stratification and the labour market1

The question of how societies allocate occupational positions and subsequent rewards has long been of interest to sociologists. According to one influential theory, the needs of modern industrial societies and economies demand that high-level and functionally important occupational positions are allocated according to meritocratic principles. I argue that, ultimately, employers get the final say about which characteristics are rewarded in the labour market. In order to examine which skills and attributes are required by employers for particular occupations I analyse data drawn from a content analysis of c.5000 British newspaper job advertisements. The results show that both merit and non-merit characteristics are requested by employers in job advertisements, even for occupations falling within the higher classes. I also find evidence that employers have similar requirements for similar occupations, cross-cutting class boundaries.     

Robust signed-rank estimation and variable selection for semi-parametric additive partial linear models

A fully nonparametric model may not perform well or when the researcher wants to use a parametric model but the functional form with respect to a subset of the regressors or the density of the errors is not known. This becomes even more challenging when the data contain gross outliers or unusual observations. However, in practice the true covariates are not known in advance, nor is the smoothness of the functional form. A robust model selection approach through which we can choose the relevant covariates components and estimate the smoothing function may represent an appealing tool to the solution. A weighted signed-rank estimation and variable selection under the adaptive lasso for semi-parametric partial additive models is considered in this paper. B-spline is used to estimate the unknown additive nonparametric function. It is shown that despite using B-spline to estimate the unknown additive nonparametric function, the proposed estimator has an oracle property. The robustness of the weighted signed-rank approach for data with heavy-tail, contaminated errors, and data containing high-leverage points are validated via finite sample simulations. A practical application to an economic study is provided using an updated Canadian household gasoline consumption data.     

城市社区异质性与邻里社会资本研究

我国社会结构的剧烈变迁加深了社区人口的异质性,这种结构性的变化将对城市邻里的社会资本产生重大影响。关于社区内部异质性对邻里社会资本的作用,国内外学者看法不一。在剖析争论的基础上,本文提出了一种分类研究框架,认为社区内部异质性对两种性质的社会资本具有不同的影响。社区内部异质性的增大会抑制整合性的社会资本,但有可能促进链合性的社会资本。     

人工智能与马克思主义理论融合发展的研究热点和动向分析

加强人工智能与马克思主义理论融合发展研究,具有重大的理论和现实意义。就现有研究而言,学界对人工智能科学内涵的马克思主义解读、马克思主义对人工智能的理论观照和人工智能助推马克思主义事业发展的实践向度等问题进行了积极探索,但仍存在人工智能与马克思主义理论融合发展问题意识不足、对话缺失、教育工作结合不紧密等问题。未来需要在辨识与辩证中明晰人工智能与马克思主义理论融合发展的问题域,在科技与文本中推进人工智能时代马克思主义理论话语形态建设,在阵地与场域中加强马克思主义理论教育等。     

完善我国养老保险制度的思考

在分析目前我国养老保险制度面临的问题的基础上,提出了健全和完善养老保险制度的对策措施,以期在加快建设社会主义市场经济体制的过程中逐步完善我国现行的养老保险制度,这既是社会和经济发展的客观要求,也是深化经济体制改革总体方案中的重要环节。