社会组织参与政府购买公共服务的困境与优化--基于制度场域框架的分析

社会组织在参与政府购买公共服务时存在诸多困境,已有研究多从政府主导角度进行分析,这并不能真正解读相关困境。本研究以B市C区为个案,运用访谈和参与观察的方法收集社会组织参与政府购买公共服务的第一手资料,并提出社会组织运行的制度场域分析框架。研究发现,社会组织在服务供给中存在的服务目标、服务过程和服务能力等困境已经对政府购买公共服务制度实践产生了明显的消极影响。这些困境的产生是社会组织运行的制度场域中权力、规则和信息等资源的扩散机制综合影响的结果,涉及到政府、第三方评估机构和社会组织等三类代表主体。因此,社会组织参与政府购买公共服务的困境应当通过制度场域中各代表主体协商共治加以优化。通过解决社会组织运行的制度场域中存在的系统性困境,可以有效激发社会组织的理想功能,显著推动政府购买公共服务健康发展,进而对探索中国社会治理体系和能力提供路径选择。     

提高中国出口产业竞争力与生产性服务的发展

生产性服务发展的严重滞后是制约我国出口产业整体竞争力提高的一个重要因素。生产性服务对推动产业技术进步、提高产品的技术和知识含量、增加产品附加价值、形成产品差异性以及推动生产国际化、降低国际贸易的交易费用等方面都发挥着重要作用。大力发展生产性服务 ,是“十五”期间增强我国出口产业国际竞争力的重要措施     

通讯企业劳务用工管理探析

通讯企业用工形式多样,劳务用工是其当前主要的用工形式之一。这种用工形式一方面为企业减少了人工成本的支出,提高了人员管理效率,另一方面也给企业带来了一定的法律风险。如何完善劳务用工机制,避免不必要的劳动纠纷,使劳务派遣人员的既得利益不受到损害,促进企业健康发展,是通讯企业亟待解决的问题。     

Managing the MedUSA: comparing the political economy of US–Japan,US–German,and US–UK relations

Abstract

International experience tells that public services often fail to work for those in need. To make things work requires complex institutional changes that are difficult to come by, let alone sustain. This paper examines the situation of rural public service provision in China and a local attempt to revamp the service provision institution through adjusting the mix of state and the market. It reveals the dialectical process of policy evolution whereby innovation, and resistance to it, has emerged.     

Applications of Social Network Media in Medicolegal Death Investigation

With the increased popularity of online social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+, we propose that a wealth of new resources is available for medicolegal death investigation. Recognizing this potential, we identified cases in which social media had been useful in the past in our office and asked our investigative staff to consider using social media in current cases. These cases provided illustrative examples for this primer regarding how information from SNS was used in death investigations in our office. Information gleaned from online social media aided in establishing preliminary identification of a decedent, locating next‐of‐kin, investigating the circumstances of death as relevant to the manner of death, corroborating eyewitness accounts, and providing information relevant to time of death. Potential pitfalls were identified, such as shared accounts or online impostors. SNS proved useful to the medicolegal death investigator and medical examiner, so long as their limitations were recognized.     

Correlates of Pre-College Males' Sexual Aggression

Abstract

Current literature suggests that the causes of sexual aggression toward women lie in the fabric of a patriarchal society. The acceptance by males of negative, stereotypical and harmful myths about women, traditional sex-role stereotypes, the acceptance of interpersonal violence and the objectification of women foster an environment where sexual aggression can flourish. This paper explores several factors associated with male aggression and date rape in a sample of pre-college males entering a medium-sized Southern University. Indicators of the acceptance of rapemyths, hostility toward women, acceptance of interpersonal violence, adversarial sexual beliefs, drug and alcohol use and sexual history were examined in relation to three degrees of sexual aggression. Discriminant Analysis indicated that the four attitudinal and three behavioral variables successfully classified 56 percent of the original grouped cases.     

Carbon markets and the new ‘Carbon Violence’: A Ugandan study

Abstract

This article examines the expansion of the global carbon economy, including a critical evaluation of its local level impacts. The authors describe the growing international support for carbon markets amongst governments, international institutions and financial investors as a response to human-induced climate change. By putting a price on carbon, proponents argue that carbon markets represent a win-win-win scenario; delivering benefits to local landholders where ecosystem services occur, as well as conferring benefits to investors and the environment. Plantation forestry represents a rapidly expanding sector in the broader carbon economy, with plantations representing one of a number of ‘flex crops’ able to be variously sold on the basis of their value as fuel, timber and carbon storage. To examine the impacts of expanding plantation forestry carbon markets, we take the case of Green Resources, reportedly the largest plantation forestry operator on the African continent. Drawing from in-depth research in 2012-2013 with affected communities in Uganda, the article examines the diverse historical and contemporary structural violence on which expansion of plantation forestry allegedly relies. Building upon earlier literature on violence (for example, Galtung [1990] and Watts [2001]), the authors introduce a new term ‘carbon violence’ to frame the distinctive forms of reported violence occurring alongside the burgeoning plantation forestry industry.     

Health Services Considerations Amongst Immigrant Populations

Abstract

The foreign-born population comprised 11.5% of the U.S. population in 2002. Immigration to the U.S. has grown substantially and continues to grow. A close examination of the immigration data shows that immigrant community in the U.S. is not homogeneous and in fact is very diverse both within itself and from the native-born population. U.S. Census Bureau data reveal that these differences create pockets of divergent populations within the country. How these populations assimilate into the U.S. healthcare system is not clearly understood. Cultural values, beliefs, and practices often juxtapose the immigrant to the healthcare system. Religious differences coupled with educational and income disparities add to the challenge of developing and implementing healthcare programs. This paper concludes with suggestions for more research in healthcare to immigrants.     

Neo‐nationalism and Neo‐Atlanticism in Italian foreign policy

The European Union has low expectations for the international climate regime after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol effectively expires. The United States is not thought likely to sign up to new binding international commitments, whereas EU countries have experienced unexpected difficulties in implementing existing commitments. As a consequence, the European Union may be prepared to settle for a surprisingly weak follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, the European Union will pursue bilateral and regional climate agreements with like-minded countries, parallel to the UN framework and possibly independently of it. Collectively, such agreements could produce an international climate regime that is more robust than what could be agreed at the consensus-based UN level. Nevertheless, the European Union will continue to support the UN process as the only legitimate forum for international negotiations on climate change.     

Balancing domestic regulation and trade liberalisation under the GATS: universal access issues in South Africa's telecoms sector

The service sector increasingly has become the cornerstone of a great number of economies in both the developed and developing world. The main barrier to trade in services is the imposition of domestic regulations which are aimed at ensuring the affordability, availability and efficiency of services. Such domestic regulations are important for services and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) consequently recognises the right of countries to regulate in order to achieve these goals. The GATS, however, also seeks to discipline such regulations to ensure that they do not hinder trade in services. This article seeks to assess these seemingly competing interests in the context of South Africa's history and its burgeoning telecommunications sector.