从主权国家的兴衰看权力博弈形态的转型

传统的国际关系理论,无论是现实主义、自由主义、建构主义还是科学行为主义理论,都是把主权国家抽象成一个统一的国际关系行为体。这一行为主体有一致的利益,也自然要有一致的对外政策目标和手段。在20世纪,尤其是在两次世界大战和冷战期间,这一概念抽象是非常准确的。但冷战结束以后,尤其是进入21世纪以后,这一概念抽象逐渐与国际关系的现实相违背。一方面,国家综合实力并不能直接转化为具体领域的竞争优势;另一方面,很多国家,包括超级大国在内,其对外政策的主要阻力可能不是所谓的竞争对手,而是其国内不同的利益集团。这导致传统的国际关系理论,从假设到概念和推理层面,都已经无法解释和预测今天的世界,而权力小博弈理论可以为认识多元复杂互动博弈时代的国际关系提供一个新的解释框架。     

Responsibilisation,social work and inclusive social security in Finland

ABSTRACT

In this article responsibilisation in social work is studied by analysing two Finnish state-level policy documents (called final report and research report) which concern a current activation initiative called inclusive social security (ISS). It is asked how social workers and clients are constructed as responsible subjects in these documents. Responsibilisation refers to the advanced liberal mode of governmentality, which aims to strengthen citizens’ abilities to self-governance through various techniques that include the intertwined elements of surveillance and empowerment. It is demonstrated that the policy documents construct the social workers’ and the clients’ responsibilities partly in different ways. The final report leads activation to be based on shared responsibility and social work to be more community-based, whereas the research report strengthens more individual-based responsibility of clients and social workers. For the clients, the interpretation of ISS based on shared responsibility would probably be less stigmatising and paternalistic than the one based on individual responsibilities, i.e. approaching long-term unemployed citizens as being personally ‘at risk’ and thus a justified target group of individualised techniques for activation. For social workers and clients, future activation appears to be a wide mix of different techniques, moral expectations and possible ways of being a responsible subject.     

Does a universal non-contributory social pension make sense for rural China?

China’s pension reform during the past three decades has allowed a majority of China’s population to be covered by a pension scheme. Of particular note has been the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS), a voluntary programme introduced starting in 2009. One goal of our analysis is to assess that pension scheme, using a variety of sources of information including data drawn from recent (2013 and 2015) nationwide China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Surveys (CHARLS). Our analysis involves an exploration of differences between the generosity and structure of the NRPS and other pension schemes currently in place. We also explore the feasibility of reforming the current “quasi-social pension” component of the NRPS by substituting a universal non-contributory social pension pillar. In connection with our assessment of the NRPS, we note the unusually low benefit levels for rural China.     

Having it all overseas: Aid workers and the international division of reproductive labour

This article examines the dynamics of power and privilege at work in international development through the prism of domestic service for expat aid workers in developing countries. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork amid aid workers and their domestic staff in Dakar, Senegal, I argue that access to affordable care work greatly enhances the lives of women who work overseas in development. The postcolonial underdevelopment and poverty that aid work addresses is paradoxically critical to the aid workers' own access to affordable care, family balance and the means to do their jobs. I put this insight into the larger scholarly conversation about domestic work and global inequality, including on the Global Care Chain.     

Who Should Pay for Interdependent Risk? Policy Implications for Security Interdependence Among Airports

We study interdependent risks in security, and shed light on the economic and policy implications of increasing security interdependence in presence of reactive attackers. We investigate the impact of potential public policy arrangements on the security of a group of interdependent organizations, namely, airports. Focusing on security expenditures and costs to society, as assessed by a social planner, to individual airports and to attackers, we first develop a game-theoretic framework, and derive explicit Nash equilibrium and socially optimal solutions in the airports network. We then conduct numerical experiments mirroring real-world cyber scenarios, to assess how a change in interdependence impact the airports' security expenditures, the overall expected costs to society, and the fairness of security financing. Our study provides insights on the economic and policy implications for the United States, Europe, and Asia.     

Security Investment in Contagious Networks

Security of the systems is normally interdependent in such a way that security risks of one part affect other parts and threats spread through the vulnerable links in the network. So, the risks of the systems can be mitigated through investments in the security of interconnecting links. This article takes an innovative look at the problem of security investment of nodes on their vulnerable links in a given contagious network as a game‐theoretic model that can be applied to a variety of applications including information systems. In the proposed game model, each node computes its corresponding risk based on the value of its assets, vulnerabilities, and threats to determine the optimum level of security investments on its external links respecting its limited budget. Furthermore, direct and indirect nonlinear influences of a node's security investment on the risks of other nodes are considered. The existence and uniqueness of the game's Nash equilibrium in the proposed game are also proved. Further analysis of the model in a practical case revealed that taking advantage of the investment effects of other players, perfectly rational players (i.e., those who use the utility function of the proposed game model) make more cost‐effective decisions than selfish nonrational or semirational players.     

Urban cultivation in Accra: an examination of the nature, practices, problems, potentials and urban planning implications

The literature on urban farming in Sub-Saharan African cities reveals that most studies have been conducted in Eastern, Southern and Central African cities. A few have focused on West Africa, including Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, and Cameroon. In Ghana there is a paucity of information on urban farming. The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of urban cultivation in Accra, Ghana's capital, reviewing existing research, and to present new empirical findings on urban cultivation emphasizing on its history, nature, practices, problems, potentials and urban planning implications.     

信息时代国际传播的控制:从管制到治理

以数字化和网络化为标志的信息技术革命使国际传播环境发生了很大变化,也使得民族国家的传播管制面临挑战,而把治理的理念引入国际传播领域,有助于探索在信息技术革命条件下国际传播管理的新途径。国际传播控制从管制到治理,实际是对国际传播秩序的改造和完善:从参与的主体看,承担维持国际传播秩序任务的既有政府组织,也有非政府组织、跨国公司、私人企业、利益集团和社会运动团体等;从治理内容看,于侧重意识形态之外,又加入了保护民族文化、维护本国经济利益等新内容;从范围上说,它已不限于领土范围之内,而是积极参与国际传播领域的合作,以建立有利于完成国内传播控制目的的国际传播环境。     

新疆与中亚跨国民族问题对我国安全的影响

近年来,随着中亚国家的独立,以及由此而引发的各民族政治、经济生活地位的起伏和民族关系的变化,使新疆与中亚跨国民族问题表现得异常突出,其表现形式主要有三:一是民族意识增长;二是以哈萨克族为主的跨国民族向境外移民问题;三是民族分立主义倾向.它对我国的军事安全、政治安全和文化安全构成了程度不同的威胁.     

全球化与武术文化世界化发展

全球化不仅仅局限于经济领域,还包括政治、军事、文化等领域,它实质是以西方发达资本主义国家集团为主导的,西方强势文化利用其资本、技术和市场优势对其他弱势文化的渗入、控制或强制“输出”。在西方“文明示范”面前,“拿来”的精神气魄固然重要,但“拿出”也同样不容忽视。当前,武术世界化发展过程中存在着过分偏重武术技术的推广和交流,而轻视武术文化的传播。因此,我们要把握全球化为武术文化世界化发展提供的历史契机,“推武术以布中外,敷文化以及四方。”