Digitizing Peircean semiotics to analyze students’ peer-review comments: classroom use of an application in open-source R

ABSTRACT

Statistical software applications are increasingly used to measure student engagement in the classroom. However, more work remains to be done to clarify how meaning is created and measured in classroom settings. With the growing use of technology in the classroom, students’ peer review has become a standard practice to improve students’ writing skills. This article examines the use of an open-source R software application based on Peirce’s sign theory to analyze students’ peer-review comments. Peer review is the assessment of student or professional work by others. The importance of open-source R as a platform lies in the fact that users can extend its code without having to ask permission. The results suggest a new approach, based on computational and social semiotics, to the assessment of students’ peer-review comments in higher education.     

Aftereffects of Knowledge: Dogmatic Retreats and Sceptical Adventures

Abstract

A distinction between nature and culture is usually thought to be a condition of possibility of criticism. The idea is that, in comparison to natural laws, norms and conventions are merely relative and, therefore, susceptible to criticism and change. This paper contests this view and argues that critical practice is still possible, and even more productive, when nature and culture are seen to be continuous with one another. A general contrast is developed between ‘dogmatic’ and ‘sceptical’ modes of criticism. The suggestion is that theorists as diverse as Jürgen Habermas and Judith Butler adopt the dogmatic approach. An alternative, sceptical critical mode is elaborated in connection with Nietzsche and the ancient sceptics. This sceptical approach is based upon an identity between nature and culture, and has affinities with the aesthetic emphasis of some contemporary political theory.     

Women's interpretations of the right to legal abortion in Mexico City: citizenship,experience and clientelism

In April 2007, after a period of intense social debate, the Mexico City Legal Assembly legalized abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, which was an unprecedented development in women's rights in Mexico. Within the context of a proliferation of public discourses about women's citizenship rights changes in women's social status in Mexico, this article explores the extent to which the newly legalized character of abortion is interpreted by women as a right. Drawing on 24 interviews with women who had a legal termination of pregnancy between 2008 and 2009, this research shows that legalization opens up new and complex relationships between women as subjects of rights and the state. Such relationships are expressed as three discursive figures: legal abortion (1) as a concession from the government, (2) as ‘excessive’ tolerance by the state, and (3) as a right to be protected and guaranteed. The analysis shows that women's interpretations of the right to legal abortion are mediated by profound transformations, which Mexican society is currently undergoing. These include changes related to a shift from a clientist political culture to one more framed in terms of citizenship, the subjective effects of family planning policies, and their ambivalent relationships with Catholic notions of women and motherhood, and the effects of feminist discourses of women's citizenship, abortion, and reproductive rights.     

新形势下高校廉洁文化建设的困境与对策

高校廉洁文化建设是高校廉政建设和人才培养的重要组成部分,也是全体师生内化廉政知识、提升廉政素养、塑造廉政人格的过程。目前,高校廉洁文化建设虽然取得了一定成效,但仍然存在传承者角色缺位、接受者知行缺位、保障链协同缺位、同构性创新缺位、生态圈导引缺位等困境,需要采取完善管理保障体系、培植廉洁教育体系、创新载体平台建设、设计监督评价体系等措施,积极探索新形势下高校廉洁文化建设新路,为推进高校健康和谐发展提供坚强保障。     

论第三代中央领导集体反腐政治体系的构建——党的权力运行秩序视阈下的解读

基于社会主义市场经济的不成熟、不完善,从而滋生大量诱发腐败的劣变生态因子的情况,第三代中央领导集体在继承我党廉政建设有益经验的基础上,积极探索构建反腐政治体系。在政党文化层面,积极推进观念化意识形态的创新,为有效有序运行党的权力提供科学而恒定的价值方向和准则规范;在内政治社会化层面,强化对领导干部的政党文化内化教育;在政治制度层面突出准则和规范的实施以及源头防治功能,推进制度反腐新路径;在政治关系层面坚持"以法为轨"的准则,推动新形势下党的权力运行民主化和善治化;在政治行为层面加强对反腐工作规律的认识和继续实行群众参与制度化建设。     

廉政制度建构中廉政文化培育的传统阻碍与现实路径

从新制度经济学对正式制度与非正式制度的区分来看,培育廉政文化是中国廉政制度建构及其运行的灵魂。中国传统政治文化伴生的"官本位"盛行,"以善抑恶"的崇善制度伦理,对贪腐的"恨妒"心态,"潜规则"陋习泛滥,形成了廉政文化培育的阻碍。必须坚持人民主体地位的理念,创新性地推进廉政文化培育。要积极稳妥地推进以干部选拔制度为突破的政治体制改革,以破除官本位的阻碍作用;要大力培育以科学理性为主导的融人文精神于一体的当代科学精神,推动人伦型文化向科学理性文化的转型;要重塑国家廉洁价值观,奠定服务型政党和服务型政府发展的文化基础;要将高质量的制度建构及其良性运行作为重点,提高廉政制度建设的科学化水平。     

Concepts and conceptions of civil society

Abstract

This article takes issue with three rival approaches to conceptualizing the idea of civil society in the contemporary discussion, arguing that none of these succeeds as a general account of the concept. It argues instead that there is no general concept picked out by the expression ‘civil society’: uses of ‘civil society’ are theory-laden such that they can only be understood from within the theoretical, practical, and historical contexts in which they originated. This article concludes by arguing that the idea of civil society still retains critical value, provided that the theorist locates it in a particular context.     

Impact of the Arts on Individual Contributions to US Civil Society

Abstract

Many studies have emerged in recent years examining the impact of the arts on educational outcomes, physical and mental health outcomes, local economies, and community well-being. Yet considerably less attention has been given to the impact that participation in the arts has on social behaviour that promotes a civil society. This study seeks to remedy this gap in the literature by examining the effect that both audience-based arts participation and direct participation in the arts have on three measures of civil society. We rely on data from the General Social Survey, which offers information on the arts participation behaviour of a random sample of adults living in the USA (n?=?1.341). Multivariate analysis is used to estimate the effects of audience-based arts participation as well as personal participation in the arts (creating art) on three dimensions of civil society: Civic engagement, social tolerance, and other-regarding behaviour. We find strong evidence that the arts enhance civil society. Both audience-based participation in the arts and personal participation in creating art are linked to higher levels of civic engagement, higher levels of social tolerance on some dimensions of the measure, and higher levels of other-regarding behaviour. Our findings have important implications, in that they demonstrate a strong association between the arts and individual-level social outcomes that contribute to the health of civil society.     

Claims to the Past. A Critical View of the Arguments Driving Repatriation of Cultural Heritage and Their Role in Contemporary Identity Politics

Abstract

This article explores the role that the worldwide movement of repatriation of human remains and cultural heritage—from museums and other institutions to minorities and indigenous populations—plays in contemporary identity politics. Beyond the obvious positive outcomes of this process, including a significant democratization of the field of archaeology, the repatriation movement poses challenges, mainly because it relies on concepts such as past–present continuity that are sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly, problematic for legitimizing group identities and group claims to cultural heritage and human remains. It is argued that while archaeologists and anthropologists must continue to support the idea of increasing democratization of interpreting the past, they must also maintain the right to remain critical to all claims of the past by any particular group.     

“90后”大学生恋爱心理及矫正研究——以西安2000例“90后”大学生恋爱心理调查为例

恋爱是大学校园中持续被关注的热点话题,与前几代大学生相比,“90后”大学生表现出具有鲜明时代烙印的特点。通过对2000例‘90后”大学生的恋爱心理进行问卷调查,从恋爱现状、恋爱观、恋爱对象选择、恋爱行为、性心理及其行为等方面总结了其行为和心理表现,并在此结果上分析这一群体的心理特征,找出影响其特征的因素,旨在总结“90后”大学生的恋爱心理,对存在的问题提出矫正方法,寻求自我改变提升的方式。