Changing Frameworks in Attitudes Toward Abortion

For more than two decades, legal abortion has been the subject of heated political debate and adversarial social movement activity; however, national polls have shown little change in aggregate levels of support for abortion. This analysis examines how the determinants of abortion attitudes have changed between 1977 and 1996, using data from the General Social Surveys. While in early time periods, whites were more approving of abortion than blacks, that pattern had reversed by the late 1980s. After controlling for other factors, older people are more accepting of abortion throughout the two decades, while gender is generally unrelated to abortion views. Catholic religion weakens slightly as a predictor of abortion attitudes, while religious fundamentalism and political liberalism increase in explanatory power. The associations between attitudinal correlates and abortion approval also change over this time period. Religiosity becomes a less powerful predictor of abortion attitudes, while respondents' attitude toward sexual freedom and belief in the sanctity of human life increase in their predictive power. Support for gender inequality remains a weak but stable predictor of abortion attitudes. This pattern of results suggests that the public is influenced more by the pro-life framework of viewing abortion than by the pro-choice perspective.     

Tracing Differentiation in Gendered Leadership: An Analysis of Differences in Gender Composition in Top Management in Business,Politics and the Civil Service

The aim of this article is to discuss the relationship between the gendering of leadership positions and sector‐specific structures within politics, business and the civil service in Denmark in the context of differences between the Nordic countries and other western countries. The analysis is based on data from a survey of top male and female leaders within the three sectors. The theoretical point of departure of this article is constructivist. It looks at gender as constituted by actions in social space, orchestrated by structural processes and a symbolic order of gender. This constitutes a cultural discourse on gender reflected in gender conventions in society and in a range of possibilities of gender positioning. Expressions of this are discussed in the analysis of the patterns of difference in structural conditions for women and men in leadership positions to be found within the three sectors. The structural conditions encompass access conditions and conditions for gendered positioning and are analysed on the basis of data on social background, education, career course, family, children and distribution of housework. The analysis shows that there is a correlation between gender composition of leadership and possibilities of gendered positioning within a sector. The results are finally discussed as possible expressions of an egalitarian culture.     

Linguists and other animals

Book reviewed in this article:
Joan Dunayer, Animal Equality: Language and Liberation     

纪昀的西域谪戍生涯及《阅微草堂笔记》反映西域风土人情的特点

乾隆三十三年 ,纪昀因为“漏言”被谪贬至西域乌鲁木齐。与古代其他谪贬文人所不同的是 ,他并未完全沉浸于穷愁怨艾的情绪中 ,而是以积极乐观的人生态度面对现实。他的《乌鲁木齐杂诗》及《阅微草堂笔记》多方面地展示了西域的风土人情。但两者在内容及视角上有所不同 ,《乌鲁木齐杂诗》以丰富见长 ,但多粉饰之意 ;《阅微草堂笔记》以深刻取胜 ,真实而颇见其洞察力     

关于图书馆员的职业生涯与职业回报问题的探讨

探讨图书馆员的职业生涯与职业回报之间的关系，并提出图书馆员职业生涯中容易出现的一些问题的解决办法。     

Social identities and political cleavages: the role of political context

Summary. Using a novel method, the paper investigates the influence of social group identities on attitudes and on voting in a variety of political contexts. Examining the major regions of Britain, Canada and the USA, we find considerable national and regional diversity in the nature of social cleavages. For example, social class and race had widely different effects across societies, but within societies their effects on attitudes and on voting were very similar. However, despite that, age and religion had a similar effect on attitudes across societies; the effects on voting varied considerably. The significant within-country differences underline the importance of using region, rather than country, as the unit of analysis. More importantly, these results highlight the role of political context, especially competing cleavages and the structure of party competition, in the establishment of politically relevant social cleavages.     

Ethnic preferences and perceptions among Asian and White British middle school children

Asian and White middle school children were shown photographs of unknown Afro-Caribbean, Asian, and White individuals of approximately the same age as themselves, and asked which one wax most like them, which one they would prefer to be, which ones they would prefer to engage in various activities with, and finally, to allocate positive and negative traits to the three groups or to nobody. A similar majority of both Asian and While children selected an own-race photograph as being most like them, but only about a half selected the own-race photograph as the one they would most like to he. For sharing activities, children showed a strong own-tender preference, followed by an own-race preference. White children stated a greater preference for sharing activities with White children, then with Afro-Caribbean children, and least with Asian children. Asian children preferred Asian and White children the most, Afro-Caribbean the least. On a stereotypes test, similar trends were obtained; White children evaluated While children highest and Asian lowest; Asian children tended to evaluate Asian children highest but to a nonsignificant extent. The relative proportion of Asian/White children in school appeared to have little systematic influence on the results, thus arguing against the contact hypothesis of prejudice reduction in its simple form.     

一个中国知识分子的仕士适——《顾准文集》读后

通过顾准的人生境遇分析中国知识分子为官、为儒的命运 ,提出 :官有官道 ,文有文道 ;当代中国知识分子有追求 ,更有窘迫 ;思想大师来自于苦难和冷清 ;思想让人成为人     

认哲学对自然科学发展的影响

哲学的自然观与自然科学理论之间的关系是一般和个别的关系。这种关系决定了自然科学理论思维必然要受到哲学思想以及哲学思维方式的支配。自然观对自然科学理论研究起指导性作用。自然观;科学方法;科学研究之间有着密切的联系。没有科学方法,就没有科学研究,而科学方法受自然观的支配,只有在正确的自然观指导下形成的科学方法才能获得科学研究的成功。     

公益诉讼的程序难局

分析公益诉讼的败诉现象,可将其归于观念和法律制度原因,这两个原因使公民无法成为公益诉讼的原告。本文提出应针对不同类别的公益诉讼分别适用民事诉讼和行政诉讼程序,并在行政诉讼程序中将公益诉讼的原告资格同时赋予公民和检察机关。