Looking for Sustainability: Environmental Coalitions across the State-Society Divide

This paper compares environmental policymaking in two Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and Cubatão. It examines the formation of state-society synergistic interactions in the public policymaking process and their effect on long term sustainability of social mobilization. It concludes that whereas social capital can be constructed in the context of policymaking, it is critically dependent on a concerted effort from both state and society actors to build trust in their daily interactions. The Cubatão and Carioca River cases show that state-society synergy had little effect on the ability of the policy coalitions formed for pollution clean up to sustain themselves over time. Instead, there are indications that rather than a constraint, the flexible and informal nature of such coalitions may have been a critical factor in their ability to carry out policy successfully.     

弱势群体与我国改革发展中的治安稳定

经济体制改革和政治体制改革将我国带入了一个复杂的社会转型期,在这个时期,一个特殊的群体———社会性弱势群体正逐渐产生、显现,并且规模渐大。对社会治安稳定也产生了不小影响。     

Philosophy and the resolution of equality conflicts

This article examines Rowan’s discussion of my earlier paper (Messick, 1995). His warnings about the naturalistic fallacy and self-interest are well taken, but they constitute less serious threats to the usefulness of my suggestions than he indicates.     

试论农民工社会保障权的法律保护

农民工是指具有农村户口在城镇务工的劳动者,它具有农民与工人的双重身份。农民工为城镇的发展和建设作出了重大贡献。由于农民工与城镇居民身份的差别,带来了许多问题。这些问题集中起来主要是农民工社会保障权等问题。农民工社会保障权保护差强人意,不仅有观念上的原因,也有体制和法律上的原因。解决农民工社会保障权保护问题,必须从制度创新入手,加强农民工社会保障法律制度建设,建立健全农民工社会保障法律机制,把农民工社会保障落实到法治层面上。     

当代大学生公众形象调查报告

中国青年政治学院青年发展研究院“大学生公众形象调查”结果显示:对贫困大学生现象,社会公众明显认知不足。相反,富足的适度消费与略显奢侈的高消费成为社会公众认知的主流。绝大多数调查对象认为大学生目前的主要心理问题是“精神萎靡不振,”原因是“就业压力过大”。对于大学生学习态度持积极评价的比例和持消极评价的比例基本持平。大学生在公共场合“情侣之间的动作过于亲密”被视为最普遍、最典型的有悖于公共道德或社会伦理规范的行为。     

Protection and Dignity in Johannesburg: Shortcomings of South Africa's Urban Refugee Policy

Since the end of apartheid, South African cities have becomedestinations for refugees and asylum seekers from across Africa.In line with its constitutional commitments to human rightsand dignity, South Africa has enacted a refugee policy intendedto maximize freedom and protection by promoting refugees' temporaryintegration into local communities. In doing so, the law guaranteesfreedom of movement, access to many social services, and rightsto compete in labour and housing markets. This article arguesthat because refugees and asylum seekers are effectively unableto convert these legal entitlements into effective protection,South Africa has failed to meet its domestic and internationalobligations. This argument draws particular attention to institutionalfailures in determining refugee status and issuing recognizableidentity documents; denial of essential social services; andabuse at the hands of law enforcement agents. It concludes bysuggesting a positive obligation for the state to counter thefull range of obstacles that prevent asylum seekers and refugeesfrom securing effective protection.     

Back Home? Refugees' Experiences of their First Visit back to their Country of Origin

This paper argues that the first visit ‘back home’is important for refugees because it acts as a catalyst forrenewed engagements with host country and country of origin.The study shows that conditions in both countries impact ondecision-making and ultimately that integration and return cancoexist. The first re-connection with ‘home’ isdescribed as a memorable event in and of itself. Marked by anawareness of the passing of time, it provides both an end towaiting and worrying and a measure of one's progress (or lackof) in life, thus enabling participants to move on. Establishmentof safety nets in both host and home countries as a conditionfor permanent return distinguishes the predicament of theserefugees from that of other migrants. As the meeting betweenimagination and reality, the first visit contributes to there-examination of the refugee cycle, the myth of return andthe meaning of home in a context where return encompasses onediscrete experience, the visit, and subsequent events. Overall,the paper provides a link between the literature on return asimagined while in exile and accounts of the reality of post-return.     

Medicalization and social justice

Most social justice critiques of medical care focus upon the allocation of extant, but scarce, resources. In contrast to that focus, this article explores the preallocative arena of factors which shape the supply and availability of medical care. We identify four such factors: (1)medicalization — the tendency to regard as biologically caused various human problems which were in earlier eras ignored or attributed to other causes; (2)social inclusion — the bringing of economically deprived and socially marginal groups into participation in the medical care system; (3)biomedical transcendence — the elevation of biomedically derived concepts of human function into a social and personal world view; and (4)health absolutism — the ideology which holds individuals accountable for their own health and which, contrary to the thrust of the other factors, deemphasizes access and social equity for professionally provided medical care. While these forces all enhance the place of health as a social value, it is by no means certain that they will lead to a society which is more medically just. The article concludes with an appeal for critical analysis of the processes which shape both the medical care system and the broad social concern with medical care.     

Japanese Network Capital: The Impact of Social Networks on Japanese Political Participation

Recent scholarship shows that social capital has a large influence on political behavior. Social capital’s definition includes trust, norms of reciprocity, and social networks. Most studies, however, ignore the networking component. Here, we test the influence of social networks on political participation using new Japanese survey data. We separately test the effects of involvement in formally organized voluntary associations and informal social networks. We also examine whether hierarchical networks have a different impact on participation than equal relationships. To determine if networks with bridging or bonding social capital affect participation differently, we also measure the openness to outsiders of these networks. Negative binomial regression models indicate a strong positive relationship between formal and informal social networking—including network hierarchy and some forms of openness—and political participation.     

以人为本论析

"神"、"钱"、"权"都是人的某种本质力量的对象化,"神本"、"物本"、"官本"都是人以人的某种片面性的本质为本.以人为本不能归约为以民为本和以人民为本.在全球视域中,人作为同一性和同质性的类,人为本意指人是人的世界、社会、历史和人自身的根源和根基,世界、社会、历史和人自身是以人为本的.在社会和阶级视野中,人作为具体的现实的人,以人为本则是具体的、历史的,只有到了共产主义才展现出它的完整的形态.以人为本理念的贯彻和落实,依赖一种社会经济政治制度的安排,依赖于一种真正以人为本的客观社会生存模式.