Cosmopolitanism and the relevance of ‘zombie concepts’: the case of anomic suicide amongst Alevi Kurd youth

Against Beck's claims that conventional sociological concepts and categories are zombie categories, this paper argues that Durkheim's theoretical framework in which suicide is a symptom of an anomic state of society can help us understand the diversity of trajectories that transnational migrants follow and that shape their suicide rates within a cosmopolitan society. Drawing on ethnographic data collected on eight suicides and three attempted suicide cases of second‐generation male Alevi Kurdish migrants living in London, this article explains the impact of segmented assimilation/adaptation trajectories on the incidence of suicide and how their membership of a ‘new rainbow underclass’, as a manifestation of cosmopolitan society, is itself an anomic social position with a lack of integration and regulation.     

从制度性底层到结构性底层——由威尔逊《真正的穷人》思考中国底层群体管理问题

美国在急剧的社会转型过程中,形成了以往的社会分层概念体系所不能准确把握的一类群体,即底层群体,他们的本质特征在于与主流社会的就业体系和行为规范体系相断裂。威尔逊敏锐地把握住了这一特征,将聚居区底层群体的形成归因为经济社会体系的结构性转型,颠覆了制度性底层的传统观点,并提出通过形成政治联盟,制定普遍性政策,运用隐秘议程的政治策略建构对底层群体有效的管理机制。本文在借鉴威尔逊理论分析的基础上,结合孙立平的“断裂”论,探析中国底层管理问题。     

The welfare politics of Charles Murray are alive and well in the UK

Prideaux SJ. The welfare politics of Charles Murray are alive and well in the UK
Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 293–302 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article takes a historical look at the ‘underclass’ debate that was prominently provoked and perpetuated in Britain by the American Charles Murray. It does so because the recent protestations about gun crime, welfare dependency and lone parenthood by David Cameron and the Conservative Party have not only echoed New Labour's New Deal logic, but have also reignited an argument that furiously raged in British policy debates during the 1980s and 1990s. Despite numerous criticisms and critics questioning Murray's selection of evidence, methodology and use of anecdotal vignettes, it is still apparent that the stereotypical assumptions about a section of British society who choose not to work, live a life of crime and produce inadequately socialised illegitimate children still persist. Consequently, the article revisits these arguments so that lessons from the past can now be brought to the fore and, hopefully, taken on board academically if not politically.     

Newcomer Migrant Workers in the Underclass: A Yokohama, Japan Case Study

Abstract  This paper will investigate how some undocumented migrant workers survive in Kotobuki, Yokohama known as the urban underclass. Since the latter half of the 1990s, Kotobuki itself has undergone structural changes. Once a center of day laborers it is now a center of older ex-laborers, mostly surviving on welfare. However, Kotobuki holds positive associations for many Korean and Pilipino migrants, many of whom arrived at the end of the 1980s. They regard the area as a place to earn high wages and as a center for building ethnic networks. Migrants tend to help their ethnic fellows find jobs and exchange information that they may otherwise be unable to acquire given that undocumented migrants are ineligible for public services in Japan. Additionally, ethnic-related self-help activities as well as NGOs play a valuable role in sustaining the livelihood of such migrants who are denied access to public services and assistance. This paper will illustrate the role of self-help among ethnic minority migrant workers. It also aims to demonstrate that contrary to prevailing assumptions, their social status as underclass is not lower than that of their Japanese counterparts.     

解读《史记·樊郦滕灌列传》透析刘邦用人之道

刘邦之所以可以建立汉王朝,与其用人之道有紧密的关系。他在秦末利用家乡丰、沛起兵,被拥立为沛公,跟随者先是任亭长时所押送的囚犯和逃亡归附之人,其后以一些低级官吏为助手,在有了一定声势时才接纳文人、儒生和旧贵族。刘邦用人之道是其得于建立汉朝的重要原因之一。     

独特视角下的底层关怀——江苏作家的农民工题材小说创作解读

江苏作家的农民工题材小说创作延续了"五四"乡土作家的文化视角,把笔墨更多集中于农民工进城以后精神层面的探讨,着力表现城乡之间的文化冲突。女性农民工和农民工子女作为农民工群体中相对特殊的人群,也成为江苏作家笔触最为集中之处,女性农民工进城之后的尴尬境遇,从一个侧面反映了城乡之间的文化冲突。农民工子女在父母进城之后,无论是否留守,其身份和精神总是流动的、无处安放的,由此突显了江苏作家独特视角下的底层关怀。     

一部别样的成长小说——评楚荷长篇小说《工厂工会》

楚荷的长篇小说《工厂工会》是一部别样的成长小说:首先它讲述了主人公从“孙猴子”成长为“孙政委”的故事,具有一般成长小说的共性;其次它讲述的是一个底层企业工人的成长故事,在题材上有别于其它常见的成长小说,而这种特别源自作家强烈的底层关怀意识和丰富的底层生活经验.     

王祥夫小说的底层经验和话语伦理——以小说《寻死无门》为例

＂底层叙事＂,是随着社会转型而逐渐形成的一股以底层视角来呈示现实、关注民生的文学思潮.王祥夫是书写底层经验的代表作家之一,他的小说大多以转型时期的焦点、难点问题为背景,冷峻地叙述＂底层＂特有的痛感经验,在深化主题的同时传达出话语的多个意义向度.以文化学、叙事学的角度寻绎《寻死无门》,其叙事所建构的底层经验中的多个意义向度统一于对社会转型合法性进程的理性认识及对底层真实窘境关注的吁求两方面.＂底层叙事＂实质上已显示出通过＂底层经验＂中生存伦理的呈示来进一步建构作家自己话语伦理的趋向.     

Family and neighborhood welfare dependency and sons' labor supply

This article tests four models of how parental and childhood welfare use affects sons' labor supply: the correlated disadvantages model, Wilson's structural-environmental model, Mead's welfare culture model, and Murray's incentives model. Past research is extended by including measures of all seven factors that these models predict will shape sons' labor supply: parental welfare use, neighborhood welfare use, parental income, family noneconomic resources, neighborhood resources, labor market conditions, and state welfare benefits. There are four main findings. First, welfare use in the childhood neighborhood has no effects on sons' work hours. Second, only one group of sons is affected by parental welfare use: black sons' whose parents average $7,500 or more in welfare income per year. Third, black sons' adult work hours are strongly predicted by parental poverty and by labor market conditions; together these account for half the estimated relationships between heavy parental welfare use and black sons' labor supply. Fourth, parents' and neighbors' work hours strongly predict nonblack sons' labor supply. This research was supported by Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services, by the Rockefeller Foundation, and by the Office of the Vice-President for Research at the University of Michigan. We are grateful to John Bound, Sheldon Danziger, Greg Duncan, Martha Hill, and an anoymous reviewer for helpful comments and advice, to Marguerite Grabarek and James Kunz for programming, and most of all to Wendy Niemi for her patient, accurate, and efficient typing. Her research interests include poverty, social stratification, and labor economics. His research interests include rural poverty, poverty neighborhoods, and intergenerational poverty.     

转型期农村离婚的类型、变迁及后果

以西部一个乡镇1978-2012年的离婚情况为分析对象,总体分析显示该镇的离婚率呈快速增长态势。依据个体离婚行为产生的主导因素将离婚分为身心缺陷型、性格志趣差异型、性行为越轨型与经济贫乏型,其中经济贫乏离婚,因男性经济条件无法满足女性的消费需求而引起的妇女提出离婚成为主要类型。打工经济背景下婚姻价值的嬗变、城乡消费圈的一体化、妇女在再婚市场的优势地位以及妇女离婚的社会支持网络共同推涨了妇女基于物质因素提出离婚的比例上升。经济贫乏型离婚的上升形塑了农村离婚区域分布的梯度效应与低洼地带,造成了经济困难家庭的弱势累积与心理焦虑,对其可能诱致的社会风险与道德风险需要引起反思与警醒。