Homeownership and Nontraditional and Subprime Mortgages

This article documents the growth and geographic distribution of nontraditional mortgages (NTMs) and subprime mortgages during 2000-2006, and examines the association between these products and homeownership at the county level between 2000 and 2012. It finds a significant relationship between the origination of NTM and subprime mortgages during the boom and changes in the number of homeowners (positive during the 2000-2006 period and negative during the 2006-2012 period) but no significant relationship with the change in the homeownership rate. Looking at specific categories of the population, the results indicate a positive relationship between the presence of NTMs and subprime mortgages and increased numbers of homeowners for young households as well as for low income and minority households, but the relationship is smaller than for the general population. Overall, the relationship between NTMs and homeownership is stronger than the relationship between subprime mortgages and homeownership during the boom and it is less negative during the bust.     

Civic engagement and participation among Ghanaian and Kenyan students and their correlates

This article examines levels of civic engagement among university students in Ghana and Kenya and identifies factors that may account for their civic engagement. Overall, the students reported low civic engagement, with the Kenyans reporting higher engagement. Demographic factors (gender and age) and personal values hardly contributed to the students’ civic engagement. Political interest and attentiveness, barriers and motivation towards participation made a consistent and significant contribution to political participation and future participation. Furthermore, trust, social endorsement and social efficacy showed a consistent and significant contribution to civic engagement. The findings underscore the need to work towards getting the youth more engaged.     

Concept and Politics in Derrida and Deleuze

Abstract

This paper points to significant similarities between the political orientations of Deleuze and Derrida. Derrida's appeal to a pure form of existing concepts (absolute hospitality, pure forgiveness, and so on) parallels Deleuze and Guattari's distinction between relative and absolute ‘deterritorialisation’. In each case, the absolute form of the concept is a condition of the possibility of change.     

Between ballots and bullets: elections and citizenship in and beyond the nation-state

This article approaches electoral acts and performances as central sites for the negotiation of citizenship relations. I argue that, in order to understand how these relationships are shaped, we must attend to governmental actors beyond the nation-state, from trade unions to criminal organizations. Focusing on the case of Jamaica, I show how non-state actors have come to play a central role in hybrid forms of governance, shaping citizens' allegiances to multiple, overlapping political communities. How are campaigning and voting affected by such multiple allegiances? What new understandings of citizenship can we develop if we take the role of non-state actors in the electoral process seriously? I suggest that we should study elections as a site where citizenship – understood here in its broad sense of membership of a political community – can develop both within and beyond the nation-state.     

Ontological Anti-naturalism and the Emergence of Life and Mind: Castoriadis and Deacon

This essay compares the ideas of Cornelius Castoriadis and Terrence W. Deacon. Castoriadis’s anti-Naturalistic ontology, with its conception of radical ontological creation and fundamental indeterminacy, along with his analysis of the category of the “for-itself”, comprising all subjective beings from the living organism to the social-historical, is compared to Deacon’s exploration of the emergence of life and mind, which sees the emergence of teleological beings as resulting from the creation of form-generating constraints that involve new types of dynamic process. Significant parallels and convergences between Castoriadis and Deacon are uncovered and explored.     

Beyond silence and voice: gender,sexuality and antimilitarism in Turkey and Israel

Turkey and Israel project two distinct military regimes which construct gender and sexuality in specific ways as part of their respective security agendas. Despite the differences, however, both entitle women and LGBTQs to certain exemptions from the military service, and in doing so silence their antimilitarist activism. Women and LGBTQs counter this process through their acts of conscientious objection, through which they claim a voice in matters of militarism, security and war. While doing so, however, they reproduce a dichotomous conceptualisation of silence and voice, which falls short of explaining their agency as well as its outcomes. Drawing on a comparative analysis, I argue that a more nuanced understanding of agency necessitates deconstructing the dichotomy between silence and voice, each of which may have multiple meanings, connotations and consequences. Whereas silent acts of grey objection do not always point to a lack of agency and resistance, or domination, and may indeed create change; voice and visibility that follow their declared acts of objection may entail costs and loss of agency, in that not only does it come at the expense of the masculinisation/militarisation of their acts but may also result in the immediate deterioration of their rights to refuse.     

道德与法律的冲突与和谐

道德与法律作为人类社会的两种重要的调整机制,各自具有独特的功能,同时又都存在着局限,它们之间既有着对立的一面,也有着相互依存的一面。本文重点探讨了道德与法律的这种矛盾关系,一方面分析了它们的矛盾冲突并探寻了缓解冲突的途径,一方面从目的、内容与功能三方面分析了它们之间和谐统一的另一面。     

Antisemitic and anti-Israel actions and attitudes in Canada and internationally: a research agenda

ABSTRACT

Brym’s article critically reviews data and the small body of published research on the relationship between antisemitic and anti-Israel attitudes in Canada and internationally with the aim of identifying key questions that Canadian and non-Canadian researchers who are interested in this contentious issue might profitably address. It derives a series of hypotheses from the literature review and discusses methodological approaches to testing them.     

Communist socialization and post-communist economic and political attitudes

We investigate the effect of individual exposure to communism on support for democracy and capitalism. We examine whether this effect varies across different types of communism, at different periods of people's lives, in different countries, and across different types of individuals. To do so, we propose a modified approach to solving the APC problem that relies on (a) survey data from multiple countries (b) historically defined cohorts and (c) variation in the time-periods related to these cohorts across countries. We provide a series of robustness tests for the method, and show that results are not very sensitive to panel structure. We conclude that generally communism had an indoctrinating effect, with more exposure to communism resulting in more opposition to democracy and capitalism.     

Social exclusion and employment among UK and Germany

The European Commission linked with the inadequate realization of social rights, aspiring to examine the ＂social rights of citizenship to a basic standard of living and to participation in major social and economic opportunities in society＂. Employment is a top priority for the European Union aiming to achieve an employment rate of 70% by the year 2010, and in so doing to make a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty and social exclusion. This essay will attempt to compare how Germany and United Kingdom address these issues, the different welfare regimes and how the social care response is handled in each country.     

Citizenship and disability: incommensurable lives and well-being

This paper explores a new political consensus promoting ‘active’ as opposed to ‘passive’ conceptions of citizenship, emerging from the late 1970s onwards, and marking the post-settlement/post-Marshellesque era of the welfare state. Reflecting this consensus, the disability rights movement critiques ‘passive’ conceptions, which are, it is claimed, supported by the medical model of disability and so-called objective accounts of ‘special needs’ and well-being – that is, accounts provided by non-disabled professionals and carers who frequently diminish the rights of disabled people to live autonomously. In contrast, ‘active’ conceptions cohere with the social model of disability supporting the values of agency and self-determination – derived, in part, from equalizing opportunities for disabled people’s social participation compared with non-disabled people; but also by promoting subjective accounts of well-being which are often incomparable or incommensurable, both between persons and across one person’s life.     

Salem with and without witches,and also Geneva and Berlin

Public Choice - Peter Bernholz’s cases of supreme values exhibit authoritarianism, totalitarianism and terror. Supreme values are, however, a necessary, but not sufficient condition for...     

中西跨文化交际障碍及对策

第二语言习得者处于目的语国家中往往会遇到语言外的跨文化交际障碍,因而文化教学是语言教学的重要组成部分。在中西交流中,不同文化在价值取向、思维方式、社会规范、生活方式等方面存在着差异,造成了中西方跨文化交际障碍。因此,要减少跨文化交际障碍,必须增强交际者的跨文化意识,培养他们的跨文化交际能力。文化教学的内容应注重交际文化的渗透。     

“一带一路”推动的时空变革及面临的挑战和应对

伴随着"一带一路"倡议的推进,国内外一直有不同的声音。"一带一路"倡议的推进已取得丰硕成果,推动了全球化发展的时空大变革和利益共享的新型全球化合作机制。现在中国的经济环境与改革开放之初相比已发生重大变化,我们的思想观念也要随之进行调整和转型。国际环境已发生变化,逆全球化趋势突显,给"一带一路"倡议推进造成阻碍和挑战。通过将各种不同的声音加以辨析和回应,系统地解读新时期"一带一路"有关问题,并对"一带一路"成功之处及推动的重大变革加以提炼和总结,针对"一带一路"倡议风险规避和可持续推进提出应对策略。     

Repression and reaction: militant democracy and the radical right in Germany and France

The June 2004 elections offered the British National Party unique opportunities for growth. There were three different elections being held at once: for seats on local councils, for the London mayor and the London Assembly, and for members of the European parliament (MEPs). Following boundary changes, the local council election was being conducted on a three-candidates-per-seat basis. The London and European elections were being run according to the rules of proportional representation. Both systems favour minor parties. The BNP went into the elections buoyed up by almost four years of considerable success. However, the party failed to achieve the gains anticipated. After several years that witnessed increasing votes, this was the first instance of the BNP vote stagnating. Renton explains the BNP's failure in terms of a series of factors: poor leadership, tactical errors, the hardening of Conservative anti-BNP voters, the press publicity garnered by the UK Independence Party, and the successful intervention of anti-BNP campaigners.     

科技文化与人和自然的和谐

科技文化是科学技术社会功能的理性结晶.人与自然关系的演化存在着科技文化的重要作用.人类一定时期认识的有限性、科技文化系统的复杂性以及近代偏颇的科技社会价值观是人与自然关系失衡的重要原因.在当代、科技文化在实现人与自然和谐共生中发挥着极为重要的作用.     

资本主义和社会主义两种现代化、全球化的消长

资本主义现代化、全球化在历史上具有巨大的进步作用 ,同时也造成了重大的灾难。资本主义现代化、全球化的第一个浪潮产生了马克思主义 ,第二个浪潮形成了列宁主义和毛泽东思想 ,第三个浪潮产生了邓小平理论。从世界历史进程来看 ,存在着资本主义和社会主义两种现代化、全球化的对接、对应和对比、对立的消长关系 ,我们只有坚持“一个中心 ,两个基本点”的基本路线 ,对内改革僵化的权力过度集中的体制 ,对外向资本主义世界开放 ,参与全球化进程 ,才能实现对接和对应。