Is there a global environmental justice movement?

One of the causes of the increasing number of ecological distribution conflicts around the world is the changing metabolism of the economy in terms of growing flows of energy and materials. There are conflicts on resource extraction, transport and waste disposal. Therefore, there are many local complaints, as shown in the Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJatlas) and other inventories. And not only complaints; there are also many successful examples of stopping projects and developing alternatives, testifying to the existence of a rural and urban global movement for environmental justice. Moreover, since the 1980s and 1990s, this movement has developed a set of concepts and campaign slogans to describe and intervene in such conflicts. They include environmental racism, popular epidemiology, the environmentalism of the poor and the indigenous, biopiracy, tree plantations are not forests, the ecological debt, climate justice, food sovereignty, land grabbing and water justice, among other concepts. These terms were born from socio-environmental activism, but sometimes they have also been taken up by academic political ecologists and ecological economists who, for their part, have contributed other concepts to the global environmental justice movement, such as ‘ecologically unequal exchange’ or the ‘ecological footprint’.     

Effects on Knowledge of Nudging Citizens with Information

Nudging is a policy instrument that can affect citizen behavior, often by providing information. We argue that nudging can also affect citizens’ knowledge, which can become the basis for future choices. In this manner, providing information can make the nudging initiative stick. We test the effect of an information treatment on three types of knowledge in a field experiment. The treatment consists of information on reading strategies designed to nudge parents to read with their children, randomly assigned to 1438 families. We show how nudging by providing information does in fact increase parents’ knowledge, irrespective of socio-economic background.     

Gender Differences in Political Knowledge: Distinguishing Characteristics-Based and Returns-Based Differences

This study assesses whether gender-based differences in political knowledge primarily result from differences in observable attributes or from differences in returns for otherwise equivalent characteristics. It applies a statistical decomposition methodology to data obtained from the 1992–2004 American National Election Studies. There is a consistent 10-point gender gap in measured political knowledge, of which approximately one-third is due to gender-based differences in the characteristics that predict political knowledge, with the remaining two-thirds due to male–female differences in the returns to these characteristics. The methodology identifies the relative contribution of the predictors of political knowledge to each portion of the gap, and then uses this information to elucidate the underlying sources of the political knowledge gender gap and its prognosis. Education is the characteristic that most clearly enlarges the gap, with men receiving significantly larger returns to political knowledge from education than women. Group membership reduces the gap as women obtain gains in political knowledge from belonging to organizations that do not accrue to men. However, these gains are not sufficient to significantly reduce the gap.

英语文化渗透式教学的实践与探讨

语言与文化具有紧密的联系。英语教学不应以通过考试为目的,而应注重提高实际生活中运用语言能力和交际能力。本文强调教学过程中应加强文化的渗透,利用多种渠道使学生了解中西文化的差异,并对英语教学中应注意的问题进行分析和探讨。     

知识经济背景下国际产业转移研究新趋势

新的国际背景下,传统产业转移理论对国际产业转移的新趋势的解释力逐渐失去了效力,迫切需要有新的突破和发展。文章从弗农产品生命周期理论、比较优势理论、雁行模式理论、产业梯度转移理论、国际分工理论、内部化理论、西方中心论、可持续发展理论等方面分析了国际产业转移发展的新问题,并提出了国际产业转移发展的新动向,认为国际产业转移理论正向东道国、知识因素、产业链、产业风险、跨国公司等方面的互动理论方向发展。     

犯罪学视角下的矫正社会工作专业性和有效性分析

当前我国矫正社会工作教育主要采取福利服务模式,且面临专业性和有效性的考问。西方犯罪学不同流派提出了不同的预防犯罪策略。实证学派之后矫正恢复成为主流,矫正社会工作由此得以蓬勃发展。然而,20世纪70年代中期后矫正社会工作的有效性受到空前质疑,由此兴起的反矫正运动导致矫正社工发展严重受挫。20世纪90年代起北美循证矫正运动开始全面量化检验影响犯罪和再犯的因素,得出了若干核心原则和因素。我国矫正社会工作福利服务模式集中体现在上海模式上,但最终被迫与刑事司法进行融合。我国本土性循证矫正得出,有效矫正应建立在实证知识和实践性知识与策略的结合上,这需要社会工作同犯罪学、法学和地方性知识的深度融合。     

经济的知识化、知识的权力化与法律的知识化

知识经济已经成为新世纪经济发展和法律变革的时代主题 ,社会经济的知识化以及由此带来的知识的权力化 ,引起了构成法律基本要素的“理”即生产方式与“力”即国家权力的相应变化 ,进而引起了法律的知识化发展趋势 ,建立在知识基础上的法律更具有合法性 ,未来法治的重心应是加强知识的法律化和法律的知识化建设。     

跨文化交际与英语教学

学习一种语言,交际是目的,语言是方法,文化是背景。为达到此目的,我们不但要学习语言本身,而且更应该了解以文化为基础的交际形式。本文初步总结了中西方文化在语义、语用中的若干文化差异,以加深学习者对语言本质的理解,避免交际中的文化冲突,以期顺利地完成交际。同时,努力为从事英语教学的工作者提供一些思路,使他们在英语教学实践中选择更好的方法和策略,以适应现代英语教育的需求。     

Prediction of violent and sexual offences: A replication study of the VRAG in Switzerland

Abstract

The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) is a widely used actuarial risk assessment instrument and has been validated in different countries. However, there is no investigation supporting the predictive accuracy of the VRAG in the German language area. The VRAG scores of 79 violent and sexual offenders in Switzerland were assessed based on data from their psychiatric expert opinions. The VRAG scores were compared to subsequent recidivism as shown in the official criminal records. Consistent with past research in the English language area, the VRAG yielded a satisfying predictive accuracy (ROC area = .73), demonstrating its usefulness for risk assessment of violent delinquency in the Swiss cultural and German language area.     

外交政策中的非物质诉求——国家声誉研究

国家声誉属于外交政策中的非物质性诉求当中一个重要因素。本文主要围绕国家声誉的本体实在、认识层次、前提假设以及作用条件展开论述。本文首先阐明国家声誉的理性基础是知识理性,然后对国家声誉因素展开本体论、认识论的分析,并指出声誉因素起作用的边界条件。文章最后就国家声誉在实践中的运用做了案例分析。