Robust testing with generalized partial linear models for longitudinal data

By approximating the nonparametric component using a regression spline in generalized partial linear models (GPLM), robust generalized estimating equations (GEE), involving bounded score function and leverage-based weighting function, can be used to estimate the regression parameters in GPLM robustly for longitudinal data or clustered data. In this paper, score test statistics are proposed for testing the regression parameters with robustness, and their asymptotic distributions under the null hypothesis and a class of local alternative hypotheses are studied. The proposed score tests reply on the estimation of a smaller model without the testing parameters involved, and perform well in the simulation studies and real data analysis conducted in this paper.     

Explaining with Intentional Omissions

Determining the human activity that social processes consist in is a central task for the philosophy of the social sciences. This paper asks: which conception of agency arising from contemporary action theory is the most suitable for social science explanation? It is argued that a movement-centered, Davidsonian picture of agency is not suitable for explaining certain social processes such as strikes and boycotts because, instead of intentional bodily movements, they are explained by the intentional omissions of agents. I propose that instead of intentional bodily movements, social processes are better explained by phenomena in which an agent is taking an active relation both to her mental or bodily processes as well as to what is happening around her. Thus, to fully explain social processes, a comprehensive theory of agency that can account for intentional actions and intentional omissions and a conception of agency that includes both materialist and volitionalist aspects is needed.     

利用信息技术实现券商经纪业务战略转型的策略研究

针对中国券商经纪业务进行经营模式转型的现实需要,本文提出了利用信息技术实现券商经纪业务战略转型的策略,论述了券商借助IT平台建设分步实现内部集成、业务流程再设计、业务网络再设计三层转型的过程,分析了在各阶段中相应IT平台的系统定位及在业务转型的角色、作用,进而揭示了一条券商基于信息技术实现经纪业务战略转型的途径。     

For an integrative theory of social behaviour: Theorising with and beyond rational choice theory

Most sociologists are not content with merely relating macrosocial phenomena to preceding macrosocial causes in their causal explanations of social phenomena. Instead they are seeking to provide (non‐reductive) microfoundations with which they can corroborate and make understandable the connection between macrosocial phenomena. In order to do so a theory (or theories) of human action is required. One such theory, rational choice theory (RCT), has long been viewed with strong suspicion in sociology. I show such suspicion to be partially justified. RCT cannot be a general theory of social behaviour. Nonetheless, there are important insights in various versions of RCT that should not be discarded. In order to improve upon RCT and move toward a more unified or integrative theory of action social‐psychological research has to be taken note of. I demonstrate how dual‐process theories and the research on heuristics can help sociologists move beyond RCT without contradicting some of its more basic insights.     

What might Normalisation Process Theory bring to policy implementation studies? Learning lessons and uncovering questions through a case study of the profound implementation failure of a new policing policy

Normalisation Process Theory (NPT), used nationally and internationally to explore implementation within health services research, is used for the first time within policing to understand profound policy implementation failure and to generate broader discussion of policy implementation theory. The policy in question (Police to Primary Care [P2PC]) was an intervention designed to notify GPs when women are assessed by police as at high risk of future domestic abuse. Designed to improve interagency communication, it took place amidst radical organisational change. Using qualitative interviews with domestic abuse specialist and frontline officers, this paper addresses how NPT helps to explain the (non)implementation of P2PC, how such an analysis differs from other policy implementation approaches, and what this means for our understandings of policy implementation more broadly. NPT proved useful in understanding mechanisms leading to (non)implementation of the intervention: fuzzy alignment with existing practice, faulty communication of purpose, and inattention to discretionary implementation spaces. It helped us understand why the intervention came to be invisible. Dwarfed by its organisational context, made institutionally hard to read by a lack of formal protocols, and given restricted view to police officers, it was compromised by a failure to instigate systems of organisational learning. More broadly, NPT helped reveal practices intersecting top‐down and bottom‐up implementation theory. The paper concludes by asking how NPT and theories of street‐level bureaucracy might be better used in tandem and, particularly, how this might help explorations of policy implementation where human actors are joined by technological actors in interpreting and making policy in vivo.     

Effects of mediator competence and mediation process on user satisfaction with child custody,finances, and property outcomes

This study draws on survey data from 205 family mediation service users concerning their satisfaction with the outcomes of mediation to address two research questions: (a) how satisfied are service users? and (b) what factors account for users' satisfaction with the outcome of child custody arrangements and the allocation of finances and property? Overall, users' level of satisfaction with outcomes was high. While the mediation process explained a significant variance in satisfaction with the outcomes for child custody and for finances and property, the mediator's perceived professional competence did not predict user satisfaction with the outcomes for either issue. This study contributes to our knowledge on the significance of mediators' process skill, specifically their calm and clear responses to the socioemotional needs of the mediated parties, on the service outcomes for both types of dispute. The implications for mediation training are discussed.     

社会网络对生活满意度的影响研究——基于京、沪、粤三地的分析

本研究以2008年和2009年在北京市、上海市和广东省进行的“中国家庭追踪调查”的数据为基础,运用多层线性模型和协方差模型探讨了社会网络对生活满意度的影响程度。研究表明,拜年网中朋友的比例、邻里互动频率和非正式社会参与都对生活满意度有积极影响,生活满意度与拜年网规模之间则呈现出“∩”型的相关关系。协方差分析结果表明,社会网络规模的扩大、朋友比例的上升和非正式社会参与频率的增加都有助于提高个人的生活满意度,但邻里互动频率的变化对个人生活满意度的提升作用还有待进一步的研究。     

基于工作过程的高职商务英语课程体系构建研究

针对目前我国高职商务英语课程体系存在的问题,在社会和市场广泛调研的基础上,从典型工作任务归纳、学习领域课程开发、学习情境设计和配套设施建设四个方面提出高职商务英语课程体系构建方案。     

一把尺子如何“量到底”:基层治理中的制度硬化——以一个城市更新试点项目为例

城市更新中日益增长的社会压力使基层政府产生制度硬化的需求,但持续的高压体制又使其延续制度弹性的逻辑,两者间张力凸显,构成当前的治理困境。本文通过对一个试点项目中制度硬化实践的观察提出核心问题：权力运作空间如何在日益增强的规范性约束下得以再生产。本案例中,制度硬化被拆分为“结果硬化”和“过程硬化”两部分,前者标识着鲜明的刚性边界,后者则暗中预留出弹性空间。通过外部条件硬化、让步规则硬化、加压底线硬化这三重机制,基层政府在与社会的互动中由表及里地拓展了硬化原则背后的边界,使权力运作空间以一种更为正式化、制度化、组织化的形式不断生产出来,展现出更深层、隐秘的治理技术及国家与社会的相互形塑过程。     

From victims to winners: strategies of negotiation among relocated residents in demolition-compensation events in local China

It has been well documented by researchers that in China’s continual quest for modernisation and urbanisation, many urban and rural residents became displaced and portrayed as victims. A more important question however needs to be explored: do evicted residents learn from others to develop strategies to protect themselves from becoming victims? Through in-depth interviews, primary data collection, documentary research, this study has confirmed that for some evicted residents in Southern China’s urban fringes, when their land was appropriated by local government and developers and they were offered resettlement elsewhere, they did not behave passively to accept the terms of compensation dictated. Instead, they actively learnt from other dwellers who were evicted earlier to become well-organised, resourceful, and sophisticated negotiators in bargaining for their compensation. The group of rural residents proved that they could do better than the evicted urban residents, especially in terms of compensation-negotiation.