Racial Solidarity and Political Participation

Studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s generally confirmed that racial group solidarity boosted rates of participation among African Americans. But since the 1980s, research has tended to conclude that the effect of solidarity on voter turnout among blacks and other minorities has moderated if not faded entirely. We hypothesize that part of this observed decline is explained by a dilution of measures of group solidarity in recent studies. We argue that a fair test of racial solidarity requires using a comprehensive measure that incorporates both psychological “identification” and the ideological beliefs that comprise “consciousness.” Moreover, we hypothesize that the effects of solidarity, will vary across forms of participation and be greatest on political activities that require group coordination. Our re-analysis of the 1984 NBES using separate measures of identification and consciousness indicates that the more narrowly circumscribed measures of these concepts used in recent studies are likely to have underestimated its influence on political participation. We show that racial identification and consciousness had a modest effect on voting turnout in 1984, but a significant influence on participation in several traditional campaign activities, petitioning government officials, and especially participation in protests and boycotts.     

宽为宜 宽有利——邓小平新时期统一战线大团结思想浅议

"宽为宜,宽有利"的实质是统一战线大团结、大联合的思想."宽为宜,宽有利"这一大团结思想是邓小平新时期统一战线理论的核心,也是深刻理解和领会邓小平新时期统一战线理论及其一系列方针政策的钥匙."宽有宜,宽有利"推动着新时期统一战线实践的不断发展.     

Generational Poverty Transmission and the Feasibility of Intervention of Children Development Policy——Based on the Empirical Evidence from Baishui County in Shaanxi Province

Generational poverty transmission is one of the most critical challenges in the anti-poverty policy practice and intervention by strengthening and innovation of the children development policy plays a positive role in poverty alleviation. Based on the questionnaire data of the survey in Baishui county of Shaanxi province, this paper analyzes the family asset, characteristics of financial capability and the effect of children self-development perceiving from the perspective of asset-based social policy. Meanwhile, with the project of children development accounts as the main policy intervention form, the paper discusses the feasibility of assets policy for children. The results show that currently anti-poverty practice in the rural area is in urgent need of more positive intervention policy to integrate the family and children development.     

代际公平视阈下的生态型政府构建

从代际公平的本义切入,寻求公共行政与代际公平的契合,就是要构建生态型政府。构建生态型政府是政府处理资源环境问题及维持社会代际公平的必然选择。构建生态型政府需要从斧正行政目标、强化政府环保责任、平衡政府权能、完善绩效评估指标体系、约束政府生态管理行为等方面加以实现。     

Thinking the crisis politically: lineages of resistance to neo-liberalism and the politics of the present conjuncture

Dominant forms of left theorizing in relation to the crisis have constructed emergent forms of resistance as limited and reactive. This depiction of resistances, however, is created partly by abstracting the crisis from ongoing contestation of neo-liberalism. This paper situates emerging resistances to crisis and austerity in relation to ongoing trajectories of the contestation of neo-liberalism. It examines some of the solidarities and antagonisms being shaped in relation to the crisis. The paper concludes that a focus on the dynamic trajectories of alternative politics can open up different possibilities within the current conjuncture.     

Identity,Solidarity, and Islam in Europe

Populists argue that Islamic immigrants are fundamentally different from Europeans. As evidence, they point to notions of religious and cultural identity. Such arguments have popular resonance. As more mainstream politicians pick up on these themes, they begin to take on an air of common sense. Nevertheless, they are mistaken. Europe has a long track record of reconciling competing identities. This has happened by focusing on patterns of interaction (solidarity) rather than obvious indicators of distinctiveness. Using the examples of the Netherlands and Turkey, this article illustrates the wide spectrum of European approaches to the challenge of getting different groups to share the same geographic space.     

Memories

SUMMARY

The Hawaiian Studies Program (HSP) integrates the learning of Hawaiian culture with more traditional secondary curriculum in science, social studies, and English. Students also participate in weekly community service-learning sessions. Fifty-five HSP students and 29 peers (who were not involved in the program), completed a survey measuring: students' connection to, pride in, and responsibility for their community; civic attitudes; and career knowledge and preparedness. HSP teachers, community members, and students were also interviewed about program outcomes. Compared to other peers, HSP students tended to report feeling more connected to their community and school and to agree that they had career-related skills. Participants believed that service-learning contributed to these outcomes by making connections between school and community life and by exposing students to a variety of careers.     

When the chickens come home to roost: The long-term impact of party positions on religious voting

Despite the widespread secularisation of West European societies, research has only found mixed evidence of a decline in the influence of religion on people's electoral preferences. A relatively recent line of inquiry has adopted a ‘top-down’ approach to this problem, arguing that the impact of religion not only depends on structural social changes, but also on parties’ convergence on moral issues. Drawing upon this ‘top-down’ approach and the ‘impressionable years’ model, this article argues that parties’ political strategies aimed at (de-)mobilising social cleavages have a lasting effect on voters’ party preferences. Using nine rounds of the European Social Survey for 19 West European countries, I find the impact of religiosity on voting for the centre-right (Conservative and Christian Democratic parties) to be significantly smaller for voters who were exposed during emerging adulthood (aged 15–25) to a centre-right party that adopted similar positions on moral issues to those of its main competitors. These findings have important implications because they highlight the role of generational replacement in bringing about electoral change, even when this is prompted by parties’ strategic choices.     

Introduction: theorizing different forms of belonging in a cosmopolitan Malaysia

This article introduces this special issue on new ethnoscapes of a cosmopolitan Malaysia. It investigates questions of belonging and analyses the conditions that make possible cosmopolitan solidarity between citizens and sub- and non-citizens in a globalized world. I posit several critical frameworks on cosmopolitanism, citizenship and the public sphere to theorize the relationship between citizens and non-citizens in Malaysia: ‘zones of sovereignty’, the refugee as homo sacer and ‘acts of citizenship’ that constitute rights and subjecthood for non-citizens. In an attempt to outline a more detailed ethnography of everyday ways of belonging, I touch briefly on Conradson's ‘spaces of care’. Lastly, I focus on the public sphere, which can be a barometer for gauging whether cosmopolitan solidarity and transnational crossings can occur.