The belief in an unjust world: An egotistic delusion

The main hypothesis of Lerner's just world theory says that people are inclined to think that their physical and social environment is just and that individuals generally get what they deserve and deserve what they get. Contrary to Lerner's assumption, however, it is suggested in the article that in some situations, people may perceive the world as unjust because such a belief has a specific ego-defensive compoment for an individual. It is likely, for instance, that the belief in an unjust world, though in itself a legitimate block to success, may be aggrvated in conditions diagnostic for competence and hence can be used as a special form of self-handicapping strategy. This assumption has been tested in a 2 (low vs. high tendency to engate in self-handicapping behaviors) x by 2 (low vs. high opportunity to use the belief in an unjust world as a self-handicapping strategy) experiment. The results of the study fully supported the author's predictions.     

The power of small-scale solar: gender,energy poverty,and entrepreneurship in Tanzania

Energy poverty is a major challenge in the developing world, with an estimated 1.2 billion people lacking household electricity. Although energy poverty affects both men and women, the burden of household energy supply disproportionately affects women in low-income countries in the developing world. This article examines the impact of a women-oriented solar lighting social enterprise, Solar Sister, in Tanzania for both solar entrepreneurs and customers, demonstrating that solar lanterns positively impact household savings, health, education and women’s economic productivity and empowerment. Our study argues that Solar Sister’s approach is successful because of its explicit gender lens. Providing energy access to women translates to a pro-woman, pro-child, and pro-family development intervention.     

Debunking the myth of a “Traditional” gender gap in the electoral support for Silvio Berlusconi in Italy (1994–2013)

Despite increasing gender realignment in voting behavior of most Western democracies, women are usually believed to have disproportionally supported Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing party in Italy. Using a pooled dataset based on six post-election surveys (one for each general election between 1994 and 2013), we find only spurious evidence for such a traditional gender gap in voting. Going beyond a mere “gender gap” approach, we then look for possible intra-gender differentiation. We find that housewives tend to present those attitudes – voting for the center-right, more leader-oriented –, which were traditionally imputed to “women”. Showing the importance of this “intra-gender occupational gap”, we conclude that heterogeneity among women should be taken more seriously by research that combines gender and electoral studies.     

The gender gap in same-gender voting: The role of context

If parties nominate both male and female candidates, open-list PR electoral rules enable voters to engage in same-gender voting (i.e. select candidate of the same gender). In this regard, there is a gender gap in Finland, an otherwise highly egalitarian country: over time, men tend to support mostly male candidates, while women are roughly equally divided between male and female candidates. This study investigates whether voters' likelihood of selecting a candidate of the same gender is affected by contextual factors. Based on pooled cross-sectional data from five Finnish parliamentary elections between 1979 and 2011, it shows that gender differences in same-gender voting are substantially reduced when district magnitude and gender ratios among candidates and elected deputies are taken into account.     

父权的延续——基于对农民工家庭的质性研究

基于对34个农民工家庭的质性研究发现,农民工夫妻共同外出后,夫妻间的性别关系并没有发生根本性改变,原有的不平等关系复制到了城市。不平等关系得以延续的原因有:农村社区中传统的劳动性别分工及性别规范对农民工夫妻的影响并没有减弱;受家庭本位观念的影响,家庭的整体利益抑制了农民工夫妻对各自利益的追求;农民工夫妻基于各自的能力进行分工,夫妻间能力的差距不仅没有缩减反而有扩大趋势。     

Counting the costs of HIV and AIDS to civil-society organisations

HIV threatens the survival of many civil-society organisations (CSOs) in Africa. While we know the range of potential costs to such groups, we lack a detailed picture of the extent of the impact. This article highlights important findings from exploratory research in Malawi. Respondents perceived that overall performance in the four CSOs studied declined by an average 20 per cent because they were working in a context of high HIV prevalence. Yet the CSOs' workplace response to this threat was very limited, and they remain highly vulnerable to future impact. We consider why the CSOs have not been more proactive, and we recommend that donor policy should help partners to respond to the epidemic and enable them to remain effective.     

城市中学生消费中的性别社会化研究——以广州市某中学60名学生的个案研究为例

本文运用民族志观察和个案研究方法,从消费视角探索了城市中学生的性别社会化过程。研究发现,城市中学生消费具有显著的男女性别差异和性别成熟程度方面的特征;其性别社会化的形成机制是从媒体学习到消费体验继而在群体中相互传递,并以20-30岁单身同性的行为模式为学习目标,继而可能引发代际冲突与群体分隔。对于这一现象的研究,不但有助于克服中学生性别社会化研究的薄弱性,而且能够矫正国内中学生消费研究中的部分误导性解释。     

Time,labour, and the household: measuring “time poverty” through a gender lens

This article applies functional time use (FTU) analysis towards understanding inequalities in developing countries and the relevant relationships among the use of time, gendered divisions of labour, and the household economy. In so doing, it proposes one way of approaching the development concept of “time poverty”. The findings from an empirical study of an indigenous village in the Bolivian Amazon illustrate a heavier overall labour burden of the female population across all age groups. The paper also argues for FTU analysis as an analytic tool for gender-sensitive analysis with a potential to inform the work of development practitioners.     

On-the-ground perspectives of women’s land rights in Uganda

This article explores the significance and application of human rights in a local context, investigating the meaning and operationalisation of human rights on the ground. It focuses on the reality of women’s land rights in rural Uganda, when juxtaposed with international human rights instruments: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and its implementing covenants, the International Convention on Economic Social Cultural Rights (ICESCR), International Convention on Civil Rights (ICCR), and the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).     

降低评价尺度偏差：一项政治效能感测量的实验

评价尺度偏差是政治学评价类题目中常见的测量误差，“虚拟情境锚定法”被认为是一种降低此类误差的方法。本文依托北京大学中国国情研究中心2009年全国公民意识调查，在其中加入了一组采用“虚拟情境锚定法”测量外部政治效能感的题目来跟传统的效能感测量方法进行比较，实验结果发现：（1）运用传统效能感测量方法时，高效能感的比例为30．64％，而使用“虚拟情境锚定法”后，高效能感的比例占到了46．91％，这就验证了评价尺度偏差的存在。（2）效度检验发现“虚拟情境锚定法”得到具有更好建构效度的测量结果，从而验证了评价尺度偏差对测量质量的影响。通过实验对题目设计提出建议：（1）控制评价尺度偏差的基本思路是遵循测量指标设计上的具体化、标准化和高可比性原则。（2）对于能采取具体方式提问的变量，就要避免抽象题目；对于能用事实性问题测量的变量，就要避免态度性测量。（3）在测量问题选项的尺度设计上，要避免评价方向不一致，应尽可能地理顺一致的量尺向度．规避尺度不等距的问题。