Jewish power and powerlessness: Prague Zionists and the Paris Peace Conference

This article explores how perceptions of Jewish power shaped the negotiations between Czechoslovak leaders and Jewish minority representatives at the time of the Paris Peace Conference. In the aftermath of the First World War, Prague-based Zionists embarked on a mission to convince Czechoslovak elites that attacks on Jews were detrimental to the internal stability of the new state and to Czechoslovak interests abroad. As Edvard Bene?, the head of the Czechoslovak delegation in Paris, worked to cultivate an image of the new state as more “Western” and “civilised” than other successor states – a strategy meant to garner international support for Czechoslovak territorial demands and its projected absorption of large minority populations – Jewish activists encouraged his uncertainty with regard to Jews' influence on Western audiences and statesmen. They did so in order to convince him to accept their demands for special protection clauses for the new country's Jews. The paper thus shows that the unprecedented victimisation of Jews and the upsurge in antisemitism during and after the war coexisted with a new bold and public Jewish activism. Yet, Jewish leaders did not in the end have the ability to convince Bene? and his colleagues to give in to international Jewish demands for special protection. Instead, they sought to cultivate a strategic alliance between the state's Czech elite and the Jewish minority which centred on the claim that Czechoslovakia was a particularly welcoming and tolerant place for Jews, an image that would evolve into a significant component of the myth of Czechoslovakia as an island of democracy in Eastern Europe.     

Enhancing life satisfaction by government accountability in China

Finding the rationale for democracy requires not merely a conceptual task but also an empirical study. One rationale is that democracy maximizes people’s happiness by satisfying everyone. A further qualification of this is that democracy minimizes the maximum regret of the disadvantaged. This is compatible with the protection theory of government, which states that the government serves to protect the powerless. These arguments lead to hypotheses that perceived government accountability enhances the life satisfaction of the citizen, especially the powerless one. The hypotheses attain support from the present study, which surveyed 732 inhabitants in Beijing, China. Accordingly, government accountability including reducing corruption and inequality and increasing tolerance and democracy showed significant effects on life satisfaction in all economic, cultural, and political aspects. Furthermore, the effects are stronger on one with lower education and occupational status, and working outside the government. These findings demonstrate the salutary effect of the legitimation policy by enhancing government accountability or democracy in China. This article evolves from a research project, solely funded by the Strategic Research Grant of the City University of Hong Kong (#7000902). Its principal investigator is Kwan-kwok Leung and the other research team members are Glenn Drover and Chau-kiu Cheung.     

The Global Street: Making the Political

This article explores key vectors in the uprisings of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region from an urban perspective. The aim is to open up a larger conceptual field to understand the complex interactions between power and powerlessness as they get shaped in urban space. I argue that the city makes visible the limits of superior military power and, most importantly, that cities enable powerlessness to become complex, not simply elementary. In this complexity lies the possibility of making history and remaking the political. The question of public space is central to giving the powerless rhetorical and operational openings. But that public space needs to be distinguished from the concept of public space in the European tradition. This leads me to the concept of The Global Street.

Este artículo explora los vectores claves en los levantamientos de la región del Medio Oriente y África del Norte (MENA, por sus siglas en inglés) desde una perspectiva urbana. El objetivo es abrir un campo conceptual mayor para entender las interacciones complejas entre el poder y la impotencia, a medida que se forman dentro de un espacio urbano. Sostengo que la ciudad expone los límites del poder militar superior y más importante aún, que las ciudades permiten que la impotencia se vuelva compleja y no simplemente elemental. En esta complejidad reside la posibilidad de hacer historia y rehacer la política. El asunto del espacio público es primordial para darle a los impotentes una apertura retórica y operacional. Pero ese espacio público necesita distinguirse del concepto del espacio público en la tradición europea. Esto me conduce al concepto de la Calle Global (The Global Street).

本文从一个城市的视角探究了中东和北非（MENA）地区起义的关键向量。文章旨在开辟一个更加广泛的概念领域,以便理解强权与无权势之间复杂的互动,正如它们在城市空间中被塑造的那样。我认为,城市使得优势军事权力的限度显现,更重要的是,城市使得无权势变得复合化,不单单是不可再分。在这种错综复杂中存在着创造历史和重塑政治的可能。公共空间问题对于为无权势者提供言辞和操作机会来说至关重要。然而,这一公共空间需要与欧洲传统中的公共空间概念区别开来。这导致我确立了“全球街”的概念。     

社会工作充权视角下的释犯社区矫正政策分析

我国正在实施的社区矫正政策,是一项以释犯群体为执行对象的公共政策。该政策以司法效率化、行刑社会化、刑罚报应论为出发点和价值取向,决定了该政策的实质是司法矫正而非完全意义上的社区矫正。论文从释犯社会权利保障角度,运用充权理论进行分析,描述了该政策试点实施一年来存在的释犯失权状况,提出了对释犯进行政策性充权、行政性充权和个人充权的设想与建议。      

转型经济体制下创业团队的先前经验、无力感与适应能力

在资源依赖理论的基础上,从创业团队的先前经验出发,通过分析4家高科技创业企业的案例资料,考察了创业团队无力感与适应能力之间的关联性,并分析了创业团队的认知趋同性对该作用过程的影响机制,从而为新创企业提高在动态环境中的生存能力提供建议.研究表明,创业团队先前经验可以降低团队成员的无力感,从而提升团队的适应能力,且当创业团队认知趋同性越高时,无力感与适应能力的负向作用越强.     

Introduction: Queering Later Life

Summary

The field of sexual trauma developed from the sociopolitical movements of the feminist, rape, and child protection movements. As thinking in the field developed, however, it has been difficult to integrate the perspective of the male survivor of sexual trauma into these perspectives. Gay men, in particular, have been notably absent from the literature, except when their abuse history is discussed as an etiology for their sexuality. It is clear that gay men suffer violence and oppression in the form of homophobia—an abuse with a sexual focus. Integrating the experience of gay men who have suffered trauma into perspectives regarding sexual trauma offers a possibility to enhance understanding about, as well as prevention efforts against, the sexual abuse of children. This includes expanding definitions and vocabulary regarding sexual trauma, as well as recognizing the impact on mental health professionals of working with survivors of sexual trauma.     

Systemic Therapists' Experience of Powerlessness

In this article we explore and discuss the relevance of the concept of powerlessness in systemic practice. The views and concerns of systemic trainees' groups are compared with those of experienced therapists'. We interviewed 12 experienced systemic therapists and investigated what made them feel powerless and how they dealt with it. Extracts from interviews are quoted and summarised in the text. We argue that therapists' powerlessness is a marginalised subject in the systemic approach and that open discussion about the topic would enhance therapists' self‐reflexivity and contribute to a fuller understanding of the part that power and powerlessness play in the therapeutic relationship. We consider the place of gender, culture and wider sociopolitical contexts in the experience of therapists' powerlessness. Finally we discuss the implications of our findings for systemic therapy, training and supervision.     

Powerlessness and Abuse and Neglect of Older Adults

ABSTRACT

This article is a qualitative study which addresses the interacting relationship between the environmental context of care giving and abuse and neglect of older adults. These are examined through a thematic content analysis of risk factors identified in sixteen ‘in depth’ interviews of abused and neglected victims including two of their abusers. The interviews provide a portrait of their past and present situations, their roles and relationships and the process through which the interviewees move into their described process of powerlessness.

The interviewees are analysed through a critical, systemic, ecological analysis of the historical, gender and cultural perspectives of the interviewees. Through the relationships of the victims and their abusers in the macro, meso, exo and micro systems, questions are raised about the growing debate regarding changes in family patterns and demographics that affect how societies define the provision of care to their dependent adults. They demonstrate that violence is produced by complex interacting systems and significant events, that impact on the life courses of some older adults and some care givers leading them into powerless positions and resulting in abuse and neglect.     

抗争与毁灭的深沉撞击——论奥贡喀沃的悲剧美

奥贡喀沃是《瓦解》的悲剧性主人公,他贯穿一生的抗争命运及维护自身传统的战斗精神,他的多变的命运,他的令人痛惜的失败,他的悲壮的毁灭,使他成为一个具有典型悲剧美的人物。在他抗争与毁灭的深沉撞击中我们获得深刻的启示与思考。     

大学生疏离感和价值观关系的研究

译订价值观量表分为五个因素 ,分别为物质名利取向、个人幸福取向、自然保护取向、社会发展取向、人际和谐取向 ,与原价值观量表的维度基本一致。自我分离感高群者更重视物质名利取向的价值观 ,无能为力感高群者更不重视物质名利取向的价值观。疏离感与个人幸福取向、社会发展取向、自然保护取向以及人际和谐取向的价值观之间存在显著负相关 ;t检验发现 ,疏离感高群与低群在个人幸福取向、自然保护取向、社会发展取向、人际和谐取向的价值观方面均存在显著差异。