城市贫困家庭的社会关系网络研究

本文在问卷抽样调查的基础上对北京城市贫困家庭社会关系网络的规模、关系构成、结构特点及网络成员与贫困家庭的交往频度和空间距离等特点进行了分析.研究发现,较小的网络规模、较高的亲缘比例、空间临近及交往频度高构成了贫困家庭社会关系网络的显著特点.     

社会支持网缺失与城市农民工的生存困境

农民工在城市生活中缺少各种社会支持网络,这是导致其陷入经济贫困、政治贫困、能力贫困和心理贫困状态的重要原因,也从根本上限制了农民工的城市融合。要促进农民工更好地适应城市生活,必须通过政府、非政府组织和人际和谐关系三个方面的共同努力,构建农民工社会支持网,进而实现社会融合和社会和谐。     

环卫工支持系统的缺失与构建——呼和浩特市环卫工的调查分析

环卫工人作为城市社会不可缺少的劳动群体,常被视为城市的底层人群。他们生活于城市社会的边缘,往往会被人们所忽视。这就造成部分环卫工人自我归属感的缺失。文中在分析环卫工生存状况的基础上,从心理、经济、社会、权益等方面具体分析了环卫工的社会支持的缺失,并探讨环卫工社会支持网络缺失的原因,为了改变环卫工弱势地位,必须构建环卫工社会支持网络。     

贫困大学生社会支持网络的个案分析

本文采用质的研究方法，通过对贫困大学生的个案访谈，分析其社会支持网络的特征发现：政府、社会、学校正式性的社会支持主要对贫困大学生以经济上的支持，但支持一定程度上导致了案主的压力。父母家庭这种非正式性支持也主要在经济方面给案主以支持，社会情感性支持较弱。而给于贫困大学生情感性支持的主要是同乡、老同学老朋友、现在的同学尤其是舍友。社会支持网络存在着经济支持力度不够、忽视情感性支持社会支持的负面影响，不同网络缺乏有机联系。     

“90后”青少年人性观实证研究

本研究采用实证研究方法调查了上海、武汉和天津三城市"90后"青少年的人性观。研究结果表明,"性本善"是当前青少年的主导人性观,其中女生比男生更倾向于"性善观";随着年级升高,人性观趋向于"性恶",初中生、高中生及大学生的"性善观"比例依次下降;青少年住区周边治安和家庭经济条件等因素与其人性观的发展显著相关;青少年的人性观与其日常生活关系密切,人性观越倾向于"性善",青少年所呈现出的网络生活、社会生活及精神状态就越正向。     

社会资本、区域经济发展与社会诚信

社会资本是寓于社会网络之中的一种社会结构性资源。社会网络和网络成员的信任是构成社会资本的两种重要形式。社会资本对于区域经济发展或产业集群的形成的重要影响力在于它所提供的镶嵌式背景———社会网络的结构差异会引致不同的结果。在中国社会经济转型期,只有构建符合现代意义的社会结构性资源以及更广泛意义的社会普遍诚信,整个社会才能达到一种高效率的秩序。     

技术与社会的互构——以信息通讯技术在商村社会的应用为例

技术与社会的关系是一个重要命题。本文以产业和社会结构发生剧烈变化的商业农村为个案,探讨技术与社会的关系,研究发现固定电话与手机的应用深刻地影响了商村的经济生产,它们在应用中的悖论现象则表明技术亦受社会的型塑:当熟人社会瓦解,信任机制发生改变时,固定电话因其完备的管理制度被使用者赋予隐秘的社会内涵;商村产业特征及经营策略压缩了经营者的私人空间和时间,致其将手机定位于商业信息传递的工具;漂泊的打工者在封闭的空间中更加渴求交流,因而在手机使用上表现出更强烈的情感倾向。此外,本文还想强调是使用者发挥了主体性,穿梭于信息技术产品与社会结构之间,赋予信息技术产品以生动的社会内涵,从而形成了具有地方社会特色的技术应用情况。     

缺失与重建:中国城市社区社会资本探析

社区社会资本的多寡决定了社区活力和凝聚力的强弱以及社区治理的绩效和效率,它包括关系网络、社区信任和社区规范三个基本方面。社会转型期我国城市社区社会资本普遍缺失,重建城市社区社会资本是城市社会发展和社区治理的必然选择。培育公民社会、促进居民利益的社区化、发展社区非政府组织、构建互动频繁的社区关系网络和平等交换的社区规范是重建城市社区社会资本的有效路径。     

新生代农民工社会支持网络的构建

新生代农民工社会支持网络的构建直接影响到城市化进程中新生代农民工城市融入的状态,是和谐社会构建的重要基础.本研究在对合肥市48位新生代农民工进行半结构化访谈数据信息分析的基础上得出,现阶段新生代农民工社会支持网络规模小,网络构成同质化的特征依然明显.除社会环境因素之外,新生代农民工自身因素也是导致其现有社会支持网络格局的重要因素.因此,必须从政府部门、社区、社会组织,新生代农民工自身多视角对新生代农民工的社会支持网络加以构建.     

社会支持与人格对聋哑学生应对方式的影响

通过了解聋哑学生应对方式的状况,并探讨应对方式与人格和社会支持的关系,结果发现:聋哑学生和普通学生在适应性、利他性和道德感三个维度上有显著的差异;聋哑学生比普通学生获得更少的社会支持,在客观支持上聋哑学生和普通学生差异显著;聋哑学生和普通学生在应对方式上都倾向于使用解决问题和求助等积极地应对方式,但是聋哑学生在消极应对方式上面的得分显著高于普通学生;人格对于聋哑学生消极应对方式影响显著;聋哑学生的社会支持与消极应对方式呈显著负相关,即社会支持水平越高,越不可能采用消极的应对方式。     

社会网络特性对被拆迁居民行为的影响分析

本文从社会网络特性出发,从成本和心理两个维度分析了搬迁家庭因居住空间的变化而对社会资源摄取的影响,借助社会网络理论和观点对城市房屋拆迁中搬迁家庭进行社会学分析,将有助于解决微观行动与宏观社会结构之间的理论鸿沟问题.本文认为,社会网络的改变和破坏将直接导致被拆迁家庭的成本支出增加,同时也会引起精神和心理的失落和压力.认为在制定和执行房屋拆迁政策时必须充分考虑搬迁家庭社会网络的特性,这样房屋拆迁政策才能得到认同和有效的执行.     

The abilities and decisions of regular and irregular voters in American presidential elections

While most of the voter turnout literature focuses on the differences between voters and nonvoters, scant attention has been paid to what separates regular voters from the “irregular voters” who move in and out of the electorate. This article shows that citizens who regularly vote will be more knowledgeable and involved in the political system than voters who turnout irregularly. In addition, the article supports the existing claim that it is easier for voters to understand social policies than economic policies. These two principles lead to the hypothesis that economic and social policy preferences will predict the decisions of regular voters while the decisions of irregular voters will be predicted by social policy preferences but not economic preferences. American National Election Studies data from 1988 to 2008 provide support for these hypotheses. Though poor economic conditions may bring irregular voters out to the polls, their ballots are cast for candidates with similar social policy preferences, not necessarily similar economic stances.     

Corporatism and Social Trust: Bringing Voluntary Organizations ‘Back In’

Abstract

In analyses of the sources of social trust, it has been found that voluntary organizations have no effect upon it. Such analyses have overlooked the role of civil society organizations as intermediary structures between the citizen and the state. This article explores how organizations, linked together in corporatist networks, help generate trust. Two mechanisms for this are pointed out. First, in societies with strong corporatist networks conflicts between employers and employees are perceived as less strong than in societies with weak corporatist networks. Second, as societies with strong corporatist networks also are more egalitarian, conflicts between rich and poor are also perceived as less pronounced than in societies with weak corporatist networks. This analysis provides definite indications that the perception of conflicts between workers and managers, and the perception of conflicts between rich and poor are intermediary variables between corporatism and social trust, and thus supports the hypothesis that voluntary organizations, through corporatist networks of negotiation and coordination, contribute to the growth of social trust.     

Why Progressives Should be Pro‐Family

For egalitarians, families are part of the problem. By bringing together advantages and passing on to their children, families redouble and (literally) reproduce inequalities. And, by cordoning off a private sphere into which government cannot roam, the family marks the limits of any progressive agenda. But defending families should be part of any answer to social injustice. Family relationships should be seen as a primary good: we need close, caring committed relationships no matter what else we want in life. Families are also increasingly important to one's chances in life. The gulf is widening between those rich and those poor in family life. This should worry egalitarians because lacking good, stable family relationships is a major disadvantage, and one that holds back progress towards other aspects of social justice.     

Economic strain and perceptions of social cohesion in Europe: Does institutional trust matter?

The degree to which different social groups get along is a key indicator of the cohesiveness of a society. This study examines perceptions of social cohesion among Europeans and explains variations in those perceptions by considering the separate and combined effects of economic strain and institutional trust. Analyses were conducted with the 27 member countries of the EU based on the Eurobarometer 74.1 on poverty and social exclusion conducted in 2010. Results show that individuals living in households experiencing economic strain perceive social cohesion to be weaker than their less economically hard‐pressed counterparts. By contrast, individuals trusting their political institutions perceived there to be higher levels of cohesion. Furthermore, institutional trust substantially moderates the negative relationship between economic strain and perceptions of cohesion. These results are robust to various model specifications. Moreover, extending the analysis revealed that this moderating effect held when considering social relations between the poor and rich and between different racial and ethnic groups. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Is the state social or the computer inhuman? Claims for state support and citizenship in post-socialist Georgia

In the discussions of citizenship in post-socialist Georgia, the topic of social entitlements predominates. Soviet social citizenship, which granted the full range of social rights, significantly shaped the people's current expectations of social rights in Georgia. In order to address the external and internal pressure for poverty alleviation, the Georgian government started reforming the social support system of the country. The cornerstone of Georgia's current social policy is a new social assistance programme, the main principle of which is to provide social benefits to the poorest families as identified by an evaluation system. This paper explores the enactment of the ‘targeted social assistance’ (TSA) programme in a village in north-western Georgia. By participating in the TSA programme, Georgian citizens exercise social citizenship as a practice of bargaining for universal social rights that at present are not achievable for all as the state provides social security only to extremely needy families. The category of social citizenship described by T.H. Marshall helps us to understand the claims of Georgian citizens for state support. The discrepancy between social security and social citizenship causes people to misunderstand the goals of the TSA programme and this ultimately leads to dissatisfaction among Georgia's citizenry.     

DO GROUP DYNAMICS INFLUENCE SOCIAL CAPITAL GAINS AMONG MICROFINANCE CLIENTS? EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED EXPERIMENT IN URBAN INDIA

As an intrinsic part of the classic microfinance model, group meetings are intended to employ social capital to ensure timely repayment. Recent research suggests that more frequent meetings can increase social capital among first‐time clients. Using randomized variation in group meeting frequency for 174 microfinance groups in India, we demonstrate that social capital gains associated with more frequent meetings continue to accrue across multiple lending cycles. However, these effects are reduced when group members differ in their borrowing history. In addition, clients who start with low levels of empowerment report higher social capital gains when matched with similar clients. We discuss how current microfinance policy debates overlook the creation of social capital, including through repayment meeting frequency, and we encourage regulators to undertake a holistic understanding of microfinance's impacts.     

Social Ties and the Incidence of Homelessness

Although almost all homeless people are poor, most poor people do not experience homelessness. We use a detailed national survey to explore the role of social ties—including connection to relatives, friends, and religious community—in explaining why only a subset of poor adults fall into homelessness. We find that lifetime incidence of homelessness is reduced by 60% for individuals with strong ties along each of these dimensions. Ties to relatives are most important, followed by ties to religious community, whereas ties to friends are not associated with reduced incidence of homelessness. We also find that among currently low-income individuals, social ties are not associated with income, providing evidence that our results are not explained by unobserved variation in historical depth of poverty that is potentially correlated with our measures of social ties.