European Law Beyond ‘Ever Closer Union’ Repositioning the Concept,its Thrust and the ECJ's Comparative Methodology

The article investigates competing understandings of European law. It supports, against the prevailing EU‐centred understanding, an ecumenical concept that embraces EU law, supplementing international instruments, the European Convention on Human Rights and, importantly, various domestic laws enacting or responding to such transnational law, as well as European comparative law. To keep the concept in sync with European politics, it posits a new idea that binds the parts together: to provide for a European legal space rather than further European integration (the ever closer union). This idea can also serve as European law's functional equivalent to forming one legal order. European law thus conceived grasps the puzzling complex of interdependent legal orders, sets a common frame for corresponding reconstructions (European composite constructions, legal pluralism, network theories, federalism or intergovernmentalism) and allows forces with diverging outlooks to meet in one legal field, on one more neutral disciplinary platform. Within this framework, European comparative law finds a new mission as well as a sound legal basis.     

男性研究对性别平等教育的意义

实现性别平等是男女双方共同的责任。父权制的性别文化对女性不公的同时也使男性受到了伤害。本文在探讨男性研究的兴起、定位与内涵以及性别平等教育相关概念的基础上,反思男性研究与性别平等教育的内在联系,指出男性研究视角在教育领域的介入,有利于推动性别平等教育的深入发展和开拓新的实践可能,如深化性别角色社会化研究,拓展性教育的多元文化取向,丰富与再现校园中的性别文化等。     

The Evolution of the Theoretical Foundations of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory in Public Policy

Punctuated equilibrium theory in public policy replicated from biological punctuated equilibrium theory has concluded that public policies alternate between stasis and punctuation. However, recent research on Pacific Northwest forest policy, U.S. state tobacco policy, and U.S federal auto efficiency policy have found no punctuations despite an attempt to do so. What is the efficacy of using biological punctuated equilibrium theory to also explain punctuated equilibrium in public policy? Significant differences exist between biological and public policy punctuated equilibrium theory including time frames for change, what constitutes outside disturbances of equilibrium, venues of punctuated equilibrium, levels of analysis for change, and patterns of change. Most policy research on punctuation has focused on the “tone” of media coverage related to change. Some recent studies concluding no punctuation occurred have focused on government action or inaction. Proving strong inference in scientific research requires a clear and viable syllogism linked to appropriate methodology. Both of these crucial elements are now in question in punctuated equilibrium research in public policy.     

Twenty years after 1989: moving on from transitology

This article sets within a qualitative framework part of the social sciences research that has been carried out on Central and Eastern Europe since 1989. This qualitative study relies upon quantitative data from journal monitoring carried out on a number of thematic journals on post-Communist Europe. What the article demonstrates is that political science research on post-Communist Europe has advanced from the stage of transitology to methodological approaches more deeply entrenched within the European whole. Sociological research, on the other hand, has recently started to position the East European regional inside the European or global more emphatically.     

关于越战期间美国老挝政策的国外成果研究综述

冷战初期,老挝本不是美国东南亚政策的重点问题,但随着越南战争的爆发,美国对老挝的重视程度逐步加深,直至派出地面部队进行干涉。这一问题值得深思。国外针对该领域的研究已硕果累累,但国内的相关研究才刚刚起步。对国外相关研究成果的整理和推介,应有助于推动国内学者在该领域的研究取得更新突破。     

Representations of the family in postwar British amateur film: family histories in the Lane and Scrutton collection at the East Anglian Film Archive

This article examines the construction of the postwar British family in amateur film with reference to the Sidney Lane and Cecil Scrutton collection held at the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA), particularly the films covering 1948 – 1961. Heather Norris Nicholson argues that home movies contribute to ‘an understanding of leisure and visual-related practices of consumption as well as the social processes by which people came to give themselves, and others, identities’ in the mid-twentieth century (Nicholson, H. N. [2004]. At Home and Abroad with Cine Enthusiasts: Regional Amateur Filmmaking and Visualizing the Mediterranean, ca. 1928 – 1962’. Geojournal, 49, 323–333). By considering the social and historical contexts in which these home movies were produced, and using accompanying notes by one of the filmmaker’s sons, the leisure time films of Lane and Scrutton can be analysed in order to understand how the amateur cine hobby ideologically constructed family, community and national identity in postwar Britain. The images of Christmas parties, daytrips and holidays in these films reveal much about this particular family, and are therefore very illuminating to the social historian and film scholar of today.     

性别与方法：女性学者的质性研究路径

在经验研究中常常会发现,女性学者偏好选用质性研究方法探讨女性话题。通过比较国内外研究趋势发现,性别与研究方法偏好之间只是阶段性的相关;诸如父权制、消费社会、大众传媒等“想象的他者”是女性学者构建理论解释的重要切入点;而研究关系中,研究主体对研究客体的“情感剥削”与研究客体对研究主体的“权威依赖”,对于具有“天然优势”的女性研究者亦不能幸免,继而引发了对质性研究本土化及学者自省性的反思。     

Assessing the performance of quantity and quality metrics using the QIAGEN Investigator® Quantiplex® pro RGQ kit

The Quantiplex® Pro RGQ kit quantifies DNA in a sample, supports the detection of mixtures and assesses the extent of DNA degradation based on relative ratios of amplified autosomal and male markers. Data show no significant difference in the accuracy and sensitivity of quantification between this and the Promega PowerQuant® System, both detecting the lowest amount of DNA tested, 4 pg. Laboratory controlled mixed male:female DNA samples together with mock sexual assault samples were quantified across a range of mixture ratios. Analysis software detected mixed DNA samples across all ratios for both quantification kits. Subsequent STR analysis using the Investigator® 24Plex QS Kit was able to corroborate mixture detection down to 1:25 male:female DNA ratios, past which point mixtures appeared identical to single-source female samples. Analysis software also detected laboratory degraded DNA samples, with data showing a positive trend between the Degradation Index (DI) and length of time of sonication. When used on ancient remains the assay was able to triage samples for further analysis, and STR profiles were concordant with DNA quantification results in all instances. STR analyses of laboratory-controlled sensitivity, mixture, and degradation studies supports the quality metric obtained from quantification. These data support the use of the Quantiplex® Pro RGQ kit for sample screening and quantification in forensic casework and ancient DNA studies.     

Putting a price on drugs: An economic sociological study of price formation in illegal drug markets

Prices in illegal drug markets are difficult to predict. Based on qualitative interviews with 68 incarcerated drug dealers in Norway, we explore dealers’ perspectives on fair prices and the processes that influence their pricing decisions. Synthesized through economic sociology, we draw on perspectives from traditions as different as behavioral economics and cultural analysis to demonstrate how participants in illicit drug distribution base their pricing decisions on institutional context, social networks, and drug market cultures. We find that dealers take institutional constraints into consideration and search for niches with high earnings and low risks. The use of transactions embedded in social networks promotes a trusting form of governance, which enables strategic network management and expedient distribution but also uncompetitive pricing. Finally, dealers’ pricing decisions are embedded in three different cultures narratives: business, friendship, and street cultural stories, with widely varying implications for prices. Our findings demonstrate how an economic sociology of illicit drug distribution can extend insights from behavioral economics and cultural studies into a coherent criminology of illegal drug markets.     

Digital Infrastructure for Diversity—On Digital Bookshelf and Google Books

Diversity is a core value of cultural policy, and new global digital conditions for creative industries mean new challenges for diversity at a national level. Internet has become a new infrastructure for services and platforms, and global actors as Google and Amazon are changing the play. This article concerns digitization of books, the collection of the National Library of Norway and cultural policy. The results indicate the National Library's digital collection contributes to diversity in terms of demography, content, dissemination and techno-cultural aspects. For policy makers, libraries and researchers the study demonstrates a national digital service's contribution to expanded diversity.