Realising the Right to Health for Young People in South Africa—Some Reflections

Abstract

The right to health is enshrined in the South African Constitution as well as a range of international and regional human rights treaties which South Africa accepts. Yet empirical data reveals some of the challenges faced by South African youth—childhood diseases, HIV/AIDS and such like. There are evidently challenges realising the right to health in practice. Nevertheless, South African courts have led the international field in recognising the justiciability of economic and social rights such as the right to health. Having reviewed the applicable laws and jurisprudence, the paper will conclude that a more holistic human rights-based approach offers perhaps the best way forward.     

The political economy of Russian higher education: why does Putin support research universities?

This article argues that Vladimir Putin's regime launched support programs for the leading Russian universities in 2005 because of a perceived threat of the political mobilization of youth, similar to the one that triggered “color revolutions” in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine. The support programs created cleavages in the university community, covered an attack on university autonomy, and made the containment of possible anti-regime student mobilization a part of an implicit agreement between the regime and the universities. The historical coincidence of the “demographic hole,” which caused a shrinkage of the higher education market, and high oil prices, which provided the necessary resources for the regime, made this implicit agreement possible. The article contributes to the research on authoritarianism, youth mobilization, authoritarian backlash after the color revolutions, and the development of research universities in Russia.     

“Let's See What Happens”: Hope,Contingency, and Speculation in Nepali Student Activism

This article analyzes Nepali student activists’ resistance and resilience as strategies that foreground their aspirations within existing political constructs. While they may enter into party politics through student organizations, they downplay their roles as political party foot soldiers. By focusing on their creative strategies and coping mechanisms during the political movement that ousted the monarchy in 2006, I highlight the nature of hope in youth political action through a common phrase they use: “Let's see what happens.” Using the concept of “subjunctive instrumentality” and ethnographic engagement, I analyze students’ internal micro-politics alongside public protests to demonstrate how they interweave the categories of idealism and opportunism, simultaneously inhabiting both in a way that makes politics personal and the personal political. These student activists’ “not-yet” orientation, in which they mobilize political, temporal, and symbolic contingencies, provides alternative templates for the present and visions for the future.     

Juvenile Desistance and Community Disadvantage: The Role of Appropriate Accommodations and Engagements

In recent years, juvenile justice systems have shown renewed interest in ensuring effective programming and support for young offenders as they reenter the community. These services often focus on suitable accommodations, education, work-based employment, and engagement in conventional activities. Recent studies also suggest, however, that these services may not have the desired impact in the community (i.e. desistance) if underlying community-level risk factors are not attended to. This may especially be the case for young offenders. Given the developmental literature underscoring the heightened sensitivity of youth to external conditions, this study focuses attention on the recidivism of young offenders in the United Kingdom. Data from 2005 through 2009 show that changes in appropriate accommodation and engagement offered to ex-offenders in a community are both related to a community’s rate of youth reoffending; however, the strength of this relationship differs across level of community disadvantage.     

集体记忆情境下“80后”晒童年现象的社会学思考

作为青年亚文化的表现之一,2006年以来网络上风行的“80后”晒童年现象,是“80后”一代社会集体记忆情境的重要表现,它反映了当代青年思想的特征,折射出改革时代经济社会的变迁。对晒童年现象的表现、社会时代诱因和特征进行深入分析,有利于我们有针对性地引领青年文化和加强青年工作。     

延安时期青年妇女运动的基本经验

延安时期青年妇女运动的历史证明：共产党的正确领导是妇女运动取得成功的根本保证;实事求是、从实际出发是妇女运动取得成功的思想路线;艰苦奋斗、扎实工作是妇女运动取得成功的优良作风。这些经验对新时期青年妇女工作具有重要启示和借鉴意义。     

改革开放30年我国青年集体主义价值观变迁与趋势研究

改革开放30年,我国经济和社会环境日新月异,青年的价值观也不例外。在改革开放大潮的冲击下,我国青年集体主义价值观经历了否定之否定的过程之后,回归中的青年集体主义价值观呈现出明显的多元特征。其变迂的内在动因,既有转型经济飞速发展,也有传统文化的弱化,还包括多元的价值观冲击。以此为依据,我国青年集体主义价值观未来的发展趋势,一定会呈现出更加丰富和多元的特征,并进一步向理性的集体主义回归。     

Terrorism and Terrorist Leaders: Insights from Developmental and Ecological Psychology

A recent increase in terrorist actions where the terrorist's death is planned and intentional has raised interest in the psychological functioning, motivation, and reasoning of those who engage in terrorism and those who support it. No consensus exists among Western ¹ 1. That is, American or European. psychologists regarding terrorists who plan to die in their attack, and no Western psychological perspective has thus far contributed substantively to explaining or predicting it. Although most agree that groups engaging in such actions typically have a wider network of support, the psychology of supporters is also unexplained. This article proposes a developmental psychological model of the conditions that favor focused terrorist actions that have publicly discernible goals ascribed to a political or religious cause. The article describes a common pattern of cognitive complexity among terrorist leaders, using Osama bin Laden as a model, where entrenched cognitive simplicity in one key ideological domain (religious or political) is coupled with behavior reflecting the capacity for far greater complexity in other domains (organizational skills, planning, problem-solving.) This pattern, in specifiable historical and ecological context, makes terrorist tactics, including those in which the attacker intentionally dies, more likely, and increases the challenges associated with attempts at diplomacy or negotiated peace.     

五四青年教育探析——新文化运动倡导者的青年教育特点

在五四爱国运动中发挥了重要作用的五四青年的成长,离不开新文化运动倡导者的教育培养。新文化运动倡导者在五四青年教育实践中,体现出:充分信任青年,寄希望于青年,重视实现青年价值;以平等对话的方式,导引知识,启发青年思考,帮助青年认识真理、发现真理,重视唤起青年自觉;鼓励青年积极作为,热情支持青年行动,身先士卒,重视引领青年践行等三个方面的特点。     

新媒体和旧媒体在团青融合中的比较研究

随着新媒体技术的不断发展及广泛应用,新媒体以其成本低、自主性强、互动及时、覆盖率高、信息承载量大等特点,迅速改变着我们的社会形态,并逐渐成为青少年日常生活中相互交流与获取知识的最主要渠道。共青团组织需要利用新媒体的特点,发挥新媒体的正能量,通过创新共青团工作、创建宣传教育平台、培养青年志愿者、加强网络立法和青少年维权等方式,实现共青团引导青少年、组织青少年、服务青少年、维护青少年合法权益的工作总目标,实现团青融合。