The Regulatory Role of Social Policy: Macao's Social Security Development

Central to the regulation theory of social policy is the argument that the welfare state has played a key role in the maintenance of the proper working of capitalism. Starting from the core argument of the theory, this article attempts to demonstrate that the Social Security Fund, a cornerstone of Macao's social security system, achieved three major regulatory functions in relation to the perpetuation of capitalism from the establishment of the fund in 1990 to 2005: legitimisation, reproduction and disciplinisation. There was a watershed year in 2002 in which the predominant regulatory forms displayed a qualitative shift from legitimisation to reproduction and disciplinisation. The shift is explained in terms of different interplays of the political and economic forces within the basic structural constraint of the capitalist social system.     

Negative Classifications and the Symbolic Order of Social Inequality: Evidence from East Asia

ABSTRACT

This article explains a cultural sociological approach to research on social inequality. “Cultural sociological” means that we do not regard social inequality as resulting only from a distributive order of goods, income and positions, but also from an evaluative order created and reproduced by the actions of social groups. Concerning the topic of this thematic issue, this means that, from a sociological perspective, we see “weakness” not only as the social vulnerability of actors and groups resulting from a lack of material resources, education and power, but also as an attribution and assessment which can have a variety of social consequences. “Weakness” can compel others to help the weak and defend their interests. But if the weak are to be protected and empowered, they must be identified as “weak” in the first place, and this act of identification can have paradoxical consequences. As we demonstrate with evidence from East Asia, the social designation as “weak” can have many adverse effects for the weak groups themselves, because it blames them for their own weaknesses and publicly condemns, disparages, or stigmatizes them. Based on an analysis of the situation of victims of the Fukushima disaster in Japan and of rural migrants and their offspring living in Chinese metropoles, we show how social designations of weakness can produce negative classifications that signal disrespect to weak actors and limit their opportunities for action.     

Changing Attitudes about the Weak: Social and Legal Conditions for Animal Protection in China

ABSTRACT

The foundation of current legal protection for animals in China is based on the principle of “rational utilization.” This utilitarian attitude supports the exploitation of animals through the legal means of resource management. However, through a process of public education and the construction of recent legislation, attitudes toward animals are rapidly changing in China. After the introduction of the concept of animal welfare in China in 1989, preliminary socioeconomic events such as early laboratory animal science, animal cruelty reports, pet ownership, engagement in international trade, and the severe acute respiratory syndrom (SARS) epidemic helped spur a trend away from a purely utilitarian attitude toward more positive associations with animals among members of the Chinese public. This phenomenon will be analyzed through the actions of non-governmental organizations, the media, academia, and international business to influence education and the development of legislation to promote animal protection practices. In addition, recent events will be used to illustrate political realities in China that impede the full promotion of animal welfare protection.     

日本对华认识研究方面的社会分层问题探析

日本对华认识研究的前提是完成对概念的界定与对研究对象的分析。围绕中日邦交正常化的实现,考察日本政界、经济界、舆论媒体、学界、民界各自发生的作用,能够发现日本社会对华认识的生成路径:政界的对华政策与经济界的经济利益谋求结合形成某个时期的日本对华认识框架;舆论媒体在此框架之下展开具倾向性的宣传,使此认识框架更加明晰;在此基础上,学界的研究与其遥相呼应,推动了社会舆论的形成;信息化的发展及各层次之间的相互利益纠葛使民间团体和一般民众的社会地位日益提高。故应实现对日本社会各阶层对华认识形成的原因、过程、影响力等进行全面、综合、详尽的研究。     

日本典型劳动社会保障智库研究:主要类型与特征分析

中国特色新型智库建设已经成为国内外学术焦点,而率先步入少子高龄化社会的日本,其劳动社会保障智库建设可为中国提供有益参考。分别考察了日本具有代表性的劳动社会保障民间智库、官方智库和高校智库的发展演进历程。民间智库通过与公益财团法人结合,得以保持其专业性与财务可持续性;官方智库体现出较显著的整合趋势,由法律赋予其相对独立的法人地位;高校智库在财务可持续性上有天然优势,而有效整合内外部资源是其主要抓手。日本劳动社会保障智库的特征包括:重视田野调查与数据挖掘,依据智库性质分类治理,智库资金来源多元化,智库影响渠道多层次。     

COVID-19 and Social Protection in Latin America

The paper considers the role of social protection in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods and in addressing the impact of the economic crisis ahead.     

Social Assistance Under Capitalist Authoritarian Rule: Two Management Models in Chinese Municipalities

This study uses a micro set of Chinese city-level data to understand the varying choices taken by municipal officials in their distribution of a minimum livelihood scheme. It explores the variation in the apportionment of allowances offered to disparate types of poor groups in poor versus wealthy cities. The paper argues that in China, where profits, modernisation, competition and globalisation have become significant to leaders at all levels, there is a logic undergirding welfare allocation that has nothing to do with the calculus that spurs its delivery in democracies, and yet that is more nuanced than stylised models of dictatorship/authoritarianism presume. The paper also demonstrates that, where lower echelons of governmental administration have the authority to make rules about the rationing of social assistance, urban finances appear to have an impact upon (or at least to correlate with) administrators’ allocational decisions to groups among the poor. This influence of municipal financial health is exerted directly in the case of poor places, by enticing officials to attempt to save on funds; it also seems to operate indirectly in wealthier municipalities, by disposing richer cities’ authorities to design their urban areas as showcases, in the hope of attracting tourism and foreign investment.     

Social Struggles in Present Day Argentina

Since the mid 1970s, Argentine society has gone through a period characterised as counterrevolutionary. The conservative social forces, led by the financial oligarchy, seized power and government by means of the coup d'état of 1976, and imposed an economic and social policy towards the working class, based on wage cuts and a lengthening of the working day. When the military governments were replaced by civilian ones, physical coercion was replaced by economic coercion, through market laws with unemployment and wage cuts reaching unprecedented levels. Although the popular forces were weakened by the unfavourable development of social struggles since the mid–1970s, during the 1990s government policies were confronted by the people through different forms of struggle.
This article presents the results of research on the different forms of social struggle carried out by the working class and other popular classes since the end of the 1980s until today. It aims to conceptualise the forms of rebellion (foot riot, riot, strikes and roadblocks), to determine the different moments of social struggle and the likely trends of its development.     

The Totalisation of Human Social Practice: Open Marxists and Capitalist Social Relations, Foucauldians and Power Relations

This article critiques Open Marxism for an ontology which totalises human social practice—for Open Marxists, capitalist social relations are the singular constitutive source of human activity. Such a stance is superficially attractive yet ultimately inadequate, and I reinforce my case by demonstrating how other critical approaches—in this article, Foucauldian perspectives on power—suffer from similar deficiencies. Thus there is a need to resist the temptation of claiming to know how human social practice can be understood with recourse to a singular aspect (no matter how important) of such practice. I conclude that an excellent example of how to avoid such pitfalls is provided by Antonio Gramsci's writings, for they acknowledge the multifaceted yet nevertheless anchored existence lived by humans in capitalist societies.     

Sino-Mongolian relations and Mongolia's non-traditional security

The following article examines the effect China has on Mongolia's non-traditional security. Using the Copenhagen School's approach to non-traditional security, the article argues that Mongolia's economic dependence on China coupled with weak political security have allowed China to develop structural power over Mongolia's domestic institutions. This structural power also negatively affects Mongolia's societal and environmental security. Chinese structural power, therefore, has a net negative effect on Mongolia's domestic non-traditional security, despite Chinese policies that seek to maintain good relations with Mongolia. This suggests that China is not in complete control of its relations with Mongolia and that its use of economic ties to drive relations with Mongolia contains elements that ultimately undermine its position and Mongolia's security.     

日本《社会保险劳务士法》及其对中国的启示

中国《社会保险法》在实施过程中存在诸多问题。这些问题存在的原因之一就在于社会保险服务专业化与规范化不够。社会保险服务专业化和规范化已经成为影响中国《社会保险法》有效运行的核心因素之一。从国际经验的角度来看,日本的《社会保险劳务士法》很好地解决了这一问题。日本的《社会保险劳务士法》启示我们,建立社会保险师制度是社会保险服务专业化和职业化的客观需要,要在对社会保险师准确定位的前提下,完善相应资格考试制度,推动社会保险师制度的建立。     

上海合作组织与中国的石油战略

本文拟针对对中国的能源消费特别是石油消费的现状 ,分析上海合作组织对中国石油战略的重大意义 ,并进而探讨中国的石油战略。     

Introduction: Assessing the Social and Political Impact of the Internet and New Social Media in Asia

This paper introduces a special issue on the social and political impact of new information communications technologies (ICTs) in Asia, with specific attention paid to new social media. This paper provides some contextualisation of the broader questions that the principal literature on the subject raises, namely questions about the effectiveness of ICTs as tools for mobilisation and information exchange; mechanisms of censorship and control; and the nature of public discourse on the Internet. In doing so, the paper introduces and locates the articles that comprise this special issue within these debates.     

Social capital and support for the welfare state in Russia

Few tasks are more important in a post-communist setting than rebuilding the welfare state. We study individual preferences for increasing social welfare spending to reduce inequality. Using two surveys of about 34,000 and 37,000 Russians, we show the great importance of the “bridging” type of social capital for redistribution preferences in Russia, as it precludes possibilities of cheating and free-riding on the welfare state. Instrumenting social capital with education, climate, and distance from Moscow, we deal with endogeneity concerns and also contribute to our understanding of the deep roots of social capital in Russia. We claim that social capital in post-socialist countries could help mobilize public support for redistribution even where institutions are weak.     

Social Media and the 2014 Elections in Fiji

Abstract

After seven and half years Fiji returned to parliamentary democracy with elections on 17 September 2014. For the first time there was a ‘one’-day election, with the results confirmed a few days later. Reactions to the election results were swift, thanks to the media, particularly social media. While reactions to such events have often been sought from or dominated by political commentators and academics, a new trend emerged in post-election Fiji. Ordinary people through social media were actively participating in this process, extending conversations beyond their immediate family and community environments. Social media has been touted as a valuable tool for public participation. In Fiji the infancy of social media raises questions regarding whether it facilitates public participation and engagement, whether it has a place in Fiji’s new democracy and if it does, how it affects public discourse that, since December 2006, has been one-dimensional.     

不确定性与安全困境

不确定性是安全困境命题中一个最核心的构成要素。面对东盟国家对中国崛起后如何行动的不确定性 ,中国采取了积极参与国际多边合作的举动 ,这对于减少双方安全关系中的不确定性 ,缓解已经开始形成的安全困境具有积极的作用。     

新加坡公民社会组织的兴起与治理中的合作网络

新加坡的政治文化和国家意识正在经历变迁."新加坡21远景计划"的制定反映并强化了这一变迁的趋势.这是新加坡公民社会及其组织兴起所必需的结构性因素.新加坡各类公民社会组织积极回应政治系统发生的变迁.现有组织力图淡化传统的角色功能,寻求赋予其自身新的合法性.新兴组织则利用大好机遇和可待开发的广阔社会空间努力发展自己.公民社会组织的兴起,为新加坡在稳健而又似乎缓慢的民主化进程中重新界定国家与社会的关系提供了新的路径.     

德国社会保险自治管理机制:历史嬗变、改革及其启示

自治管理机制是德国社会保险制度中的一项重要组织原则,它是基于德国社会与政治领域深厚的自治传统以及政府对于直接介入社会保险治理的谨慎态度下产生的,其历史悠久,可追溯至德国著名的"1881年11月17日帝国诏书"。作为一项不断经历变革的机制,自治管理在整体性质上保持了连续性,只在具体内容及生效空间上发生一些变化。时至今日,虽然在各个社会保险项目中的表现不尽相同,但是自治管理机制仍包含着诸如法律上独立管理主体的存在、相关方的民主参与以及社会保险机构内部事务的自治三项基本内容。尽管中德之间在现实国情以及历史传统上迥然不同,正处在社会保险制度定型并走向法制化关键时期的中国仍能从德国社会保险自治管理体制中汲取养分,用以改善中国社会保险的组织治理。     

Theory, Practice and'External Actors'in the Making of New Urban Social Movements in Brazil

Abstract – Spontaneity and authenticity have often been key words in the analysis of the'new urban social movements'that emerged in Brazil in the course of the 1970s. The movement discourse was often taken at face value and the involvement of other than'popular'institutional and social actors tended to be concealed. Though in some analyses attention has been directed to the role of the Catholic Church and other institutional actors, very little has been said about the personnel involved and their class position. This article focuses on the latter aspect and in this manner draws attention to the role of segments of the emerging new middle classes in the social construction of the movements. It is argued that processes of professional affirmation in the context of the political conjuncture of the democratisation process contributed to a radical politicisation of segments of the emerging new middle classes. Such processes were related to the theoretical reflection on the new movements and the emergence of a'militant perspective in research'which imbricated with the development of grassroots activism, amplified its impact, and furthered expectations over its role in the democratisation process. It thus contributed to the shaping of the movements. With the return to civilian rule and the changing configuration of state-society relations the relations between middle class and popular grassroots activism changed and this initially reflected in disenchanted accounts of the new movements and their failure to live up to expectations. Analysis of such processes provides an insight into the epistemo-politics of research and theory production on social movements.     

Social challenges and progress in IBSA

The India–Brazil–South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum was launched in June 2003 to push for these countries' bids for a place on the United Nation' Security Council, but IBSA's attention has shifted over time towards development and economic reform. This article discusses the progress in addressing social development challenges within the member countries of IBSA. It examines the social achievements of IBSA members, in the context of their economic performance and the Millennium Development Goals. It also assesses the forces which propel these societies' social policies, especially the influence of civil society, and whether there has been benefit in this regard in their collaboration within the IBSA forum. Their experiences show the critical importance of civil society in design and execution of programmes directed towards the poor, an important factor to be kept in mind by multilateral and bilateral agencies involved in poverty alleviation projects in developing countries. The three nations could cooperate to share ideas for effective social welfare programmes, and join together in multilateral forums to form a powerful voice for change.