超越现代和传统：发展的第三种模式

我们怎样理解世界(即我们形而上学的前提),在很大程度上决定了我们怎样对待世界。而我们怎样对待世界构成了我们的基本形态,这个形态影响着我们所做的每一件事情,我们的整个文化也来源于此。本文区分了三种基本形态:第一种是建立在宗教基础上的前物质主义社会或传统社会的形态,这是一种诉求的形态,即从超自然的资源中寻求帮助;第二种是物质主义社会或现代社会抑或非宗教社会的形态,这是一种工具主义形态,它主张按照人类的需要来主宰、统治和重塑世界;第三种是未来的(即将来的)后物质主义社会的形态,这些社会是后宗教的,但不是后精神的,它们的形态是让世界按照其本性自然发展,进一步说,是在人类意愿和非人类生命意愿之间寻找一种创造性的协同,参照道家的“无为”观点可以很好地阐述这种协同。     

Families with young children in times of economic downturn: Implications for social work practice

In response to the global financial crisis, social policies in Europe and elsewhere incorporated a logic of social investment to reduce (child) poverty and social inequality. Several critiques, however, have been raised against the narrowness of this discourse. In order to introduce another way of seeing, an interview study was conducted inspired by the interpretative paradigm of lifeworld orientation. This has allowed us to acquire a critical, in‐depth understanding of the consequences of economic downturn and unemployment for families with young children (0–3 years old), from their point of view. Findings highlight the importance of listening to parents here and now, in order to be able to take account of their concrete, lived realities within the context of the broader society and critically assess these realities according to principles of human dignity and social justice. Implications for social work practice are discussed.     

Men’s Work Efforts and the Transition to Fatherhood

In this paper we tested three hypotheses: (a) the transition to fatherhood is associated with an increase in work effort; (b) the positive association (if any) between the transition to fatherhood and work effort is greater for fathers who are married at the time of the transition; and (c) the association (if any) is greater for men who make the transition at younger ages. The data are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort. The transition to fatherhood was associated with an increase in work effort among young unmarried men, but not for married men. Among married men who were on-time fathers, work effort decreased. Among childless men, the marriage transition was associated with increased work effort.     

Evaluating the local impacts of recent immigration to California: Realism versus racism

Although past migration was often viewed with suspicion the implicit assumption was that new migrants would fill the jobs in the growing cities and contribute to the national wealth. There are those who still subscribe to the view that continuing migration will increase national wealth, indeed that new migrants are the work horses of prosperity. There is another view however, which focuses on the local impacts of migration. This view suggests that the migrations of the late twentieth century are in a different context and create substantial burdens on local communities and states. It may be too, that the mass migrations of the late twentieth century will lead to a new pattern of social exclusion, polarization and a new ethnic under-class. The analysis of recent migration in California documents the extent to which that migration is made up of very low skill, low income, and dependent groups and has the potential to create significant local dependency burdens.     

Personal concepts of stability in the second half of life

The study contributes to the conceptualization of stability in the development of later life by answering four questions: Are there certain concepts of no-change in the population of aging adults? What are the issues that people combine with the idea of no-change? Are the issues of different importance for different groups? What kind of time perspective is expressed in their expectations of no-change?Stability expectations were investigated within a representative sample of about 2934 Germans aged 40–85 who live independently in the community. By means of a sentence completion instrument subjects provided spontaneous statements about self and life conceptions.Content analysis indicated clearly two different concepts of stability among the respondents in the second half of life: One concerns the continuation of gains, the other the maintenance of the status quo. One third of the expectations deals with further gains. Two thirds of the statements, however, refers to the maintenance of the status quo. Expected maintenance of the status quo showed a strong association with older age. In terms of Raynor's [Raynor, J. O. (1982). A theory of personal functioning and change. In J. O. Raynor & E. Entin (Eds.), Motivation, career striving and aging (pp. 249-302). Washington: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation] theory of the time-bound sense of self, the concept ‘continuation of gains’ reflects a future sense of self, while the concept ‘maintenance of the status quo’ refers to a more present sense of self.     

Designing a household survey to address seasonality in child care arrangements

In household telephone surveys, a long field period may be required to maximize the response rate and achieve adequate sample sizes. However, long field periods can be problematic when measures of seasonally affected behavior are sought. Surveys of child care use are one example because child care arrangements vary by season. Options include varying the questions posed about school-year and summer arrangements or posing retrospective questions about child care use for the school year only. This article evaluates the bias associated with the use of retrospective questions about school-year child care arrangements in the 1999 National Survey of America's Families. The authors find little evidence of bias and hence recommend that future surveys use the retrospective approach.     

Future expectations of young people leaving youth care in Flanders: the role of personal and social capital in coping with expected challenges

What do young people leaving youth care think about their future? How do they view their transition between youth care and adulthood? These questions were answered by 71 young people leaving youth care in Flanders. The analysis of the interviews showed that three groups of young people can be distinguished when it comes to their expectations regarding the transition: those with positive future expectations that do not expect any difficulties during their transition, those with positive future expectations expecting difficulties that will eventually pass, and those with negative future expectations, who do not expect their transition difficulties will pass. Most respondents think the future is looking bright, because they are about to graduate or have graduated, and/or because they are intrinsically motivated to deal with their anticipated transition difficulties. Young people with negative future expectations do not stress their intrinsic motivation. Some of them think a (future) partner and their parents will be able to support them through their difficulties; they do not consider professional support as helpful, however.