Struggling to stay out of high-poverty neighborhoods: housing choice and locations in moving to opportunity's first decade

Improving locational outcomes emerged as a major policy hope for the nation's largest low-income housing program over the past two decades, but a host of supply and demand-side barriers confront rental voucher users, leading to heated debate over the importance of choice versus constraint. In this context, we examine the Moving to Opportunity experiment's first decade, using a mixed-method approach.

MTO families faced major barriers in tightening markets, yet diverse housing trajectories emerged, reflecting variation in: (a) willingness to trade location – in particular, safety and avoidance of “ghetto” behavior – to get larger, better housing units after initial relocation; (b) the distribution of neighborhood types in different metro areas; and (c) circumstances that produced many involuntary moves. Access to social networks or services “left behind” in poorer neighborhoods seldom drove moving decisions. Numerous moves were brokered by rental agents who provided shortcuts to willing landlords but thereby steered participants to particular neighborhoods.     

Reforming the Spanish Senate: Mission Impossible?

Attempts in recent years to reform the Spanish Senate have proven futile. Using an institutionalist approach, this article highlights some of the weaknesses of the Spanish Senate in terms of its constitutional design and institutional development. The article explains how attempts at reforming political institutions are influenced by the historical context in which the institution was originally designed and the political context in which it has subsequently developed. The debate over Senate reform is analysed by examining the Senate's institutional setting and its relationships to broader political settings such as the legacy of the transition to democracy, political party discourse, and a competitive culture in Spain's system of intergovernmental relations.     

New geographies and temporalities of power: exploring the new fault-lines of Southeast Asia

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, the international arena has witnessed two concurrent worldwide trends. One is the gradual prevalence of universalism under the banner of human civilization; the other is the gradual revival of nationalism globally under exactly the same heading. Both trends are evident in China, a country which in the twenty-first century is perceived universally as a rising nation. However, does Chinese nationalism necessarily pose a threat to the world? By examining two debates on the Chinese intellectual response towards Sino-American and Sino-Japanese relations in the early twenty-first century, this paper investigates the status of Chinese nationalism. It questions whether it is a fixed set of ideas embraced by a solid entity, or whether it possesses multiple layers with dual elements contributing to both security and insecurity internationally. The paper argues that three separate nationalist processes are occurring concurrently but independently of each other: the construction of civic nationalist values; the development of an international relations strategy assigning responsible power to China; and the detection of alleged anti-Chinese conspiracies. The effect of the first two would be to encourage regional peace, and they could offset fervent nationalist expression. A somewhat counter-intuitive result of Chinese nationalism might be that it also becomes a stabilizing force within and outside China's borders.     

Normalization and Anti-normalization： Value Differences in Sino-EU Relations

As a would-be normative power, the European Union （EU） has the willing to expand its values to the rest of the world, especially to the developing countries. However, China always adheres to sovereignty principle and cultural diversification, never accepting to be normalized by European values. This indicates that there is some ideological collision between these two global actors, which could undermine the base of their bilateral relations. The collision is reflected by the conflict of China＇s exceptionalism, modernity, and socialist-label with the EU＇s universalism, post-modernity and capitalist-label. In order to escape the ideological conflicts, both sides should concentrate on shared values, interests and global governance rather than only on the bilateral political issues.     

The Space of Civil Society and the Practices of Resistance and Subordination

Abstract

We argue that the majority of civil society conceptualizations employ a narrow concept of the state and a narrow concept of civil society. The life history of a Brazilian woman demonstrates that as individuals travel through state institutions and civil society organizations (CSOs), they carry conflicting worldviews with them which bear on the practices of CSOs. With Gramsci we recognize civil society as a space where movements and the state struggle for hegemony; beyond him we conceptualize CSOs as contradictory, being simultaneously of and against the state, while the state is simultaneously outside and within them.     

警察形象危机与媒体公关应对原则

警察形象是社会关注的焦点,重视和改善警察形象有助于协调警民关系,促进社会和谐。然而,在当前政府公信力普遍不佳的大背景下,警察形象并不乐观。警察形象危机问题不断引起警察组织自身及社会各界的重视,其中由涉警突发事件引发的警察形象危机问题尤为突出,并已然成为警察形象危机的集中体现。如何利用媒体处理其引发的警察形象危机,恢复并重获公众的信任显得尤为重要。     

对创建劳动关系和谐企业的几点认识

胜利油田胜南社区管理中心以创建劳动关系和谐企业为抓手,将建立“以人为本,利益兼顾,共谋发展,共享成果”的和谐劳动关系作为促进企业健康发展的一项社会化系统工程去抓,搭建沟通、维护、文化、关爱四个平台,提高创建质量,实现职工“体面劳动,尊严生活”,有力推动了企业的健康持续发展,巩固形成了“党委加强领导、社区重视支持、工会牵头运作、多方协作配合、职工积极参与”的工作格局。     

Child Welfare and the Courts

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study focuses on the relationships between professionals working in the juvenile dependency system, including judicial officers, attorneys, social workers, and court-appointed special advocates. It includes an examination of the quality of professional relationships, factors contributing to tensions, the consequences of difficult relationships, and strategies for improving relationships. It utilizes interviews and focus groups with professionals and focus groups with clients involved in the juvenile dependency system. The major findings address: (a) the nature and quality of professional relationships, (b) the structural and operational factors contributing to tension in those relationships, (c) client perceptions of professional relationships, and (d) respondent recommendations for improving professional relationships. This study is a contribution to the small but growing literature on the complexity of the interface between public child welfare services and the court system.     

简论政府对劳动关系的协调作用

劳动关系是市场经济条件下重要的社会经济关系,劳动关系的和谐对于构建社会主义和谐社会具有基础性的地位。本文分析了新形势下我国劳动关系的特点和政府定位,建议加强政府的执法和监督力度,对劳动关系实施政府干预,支持组建强有力的工会组织并充分发挥其作用,以维护劳动者合法权益,促进各类企事业经济组织的健康发展。