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Spirituality, religiosity, and happiness : identifying the nexus
Get PDFUsing data from 52 countries in wave 5 of the World Value Survey conducted during 2004 and 2008, we test two alternative approaches in spirituality measures. The first is based on the more traditional understanding that spirituality is associated with meanings, God, prayers/meditation, and formal religions. The second is based on the common spiritual teachings of all the major religions that is summarized by the LIFE (Love, Insight or Wisdom, Fortitude, and Engagement) framework proposed by Ho (2014). It was found that this alternative approach, which focuses on the spiritual teachings rather than theology, offers better explanatory power for Total Life Satisfaction (TLS). An interesting finding is that under this specification the coefficient on meaning turned negative, suggesting that those whose lives are weak in Love, Insight, Fortitude, and Engagement have yet to find meaning and are less happy. Through a series of stepwise regressions, we conclude that more spiritual people are indeed happier (H1); that religious people indeed tend to be happier mainly because religious people tend to be more spiritual (H2); that the essence of spirituality and meaning lies in Love, Insight, Fortitude, and Engagement (H3). These virtues are all grounded on transcending the narrow self and on a “reverence for Life” as propounded by Schweitzer. Finally, religious attendance does promote happiness. The effect is small but stable and statistically significant. It may have to do with the social network this offers (H4)
Xiaobei : a complex Sino-African site of anthropological knowledge production (and extraction)
No full textXiaobei, a neighbourhood area in Guangzhou’s Yuexiu district, was an important site of anthropological knowledge production in China for almost two decades. The place was full of entrepreneurial explorers, such as traders, travellers, fortune seekers, students, preachers, scholars, journalists, and film directors, who roamed in search of different types of knowledge. In this paper, I focus on the often problematic production of academic (and to a lesser extent journalistic) knowledge from the relatively small confines of this geographical location. I do this by providing a critical review of how scholars and journalists staked diverse claims to knowledge about contemporary social, cultural, local and global transformations that were epitomised by how what was taking place in the multilayered spaces of Xiaobei was represented
論過士行《鳥人》話劇中的文化迷惘主題
Get PDF過士行，1952年出生於北京，成長於傳統的圍棋世家。1979年從北京日報新聞班畢業以後，過士行成為《北京晚報》的見習記者，在責戲劇報導期間對於話劇產生濃厚興趣。過士行從1986年莎士比亞戲劇節中獲得啟發，並在話劇導演林兆華的鼓勵下開始走上創作的道路。1993年由林兆華導演的《鳥人》在北京人民藝術劇院上演，是過士行第一部面世的戲劇作品卻引起轟動。此後，過士行持續創作出聚焦於市井人物的戲劇作品，也擔任多部電視劇與電影的編劇。過士行擅於運用獨特的角度審視當代人的精神和生活狀態，揭露人在現代社會中的矛盾。
前人學者對於《鳥人》的劇本在人物形象、藝術風格、美學特徵方面都有深刻的研究，而在其主題意藴方面，則著重分析鳥人養鳥的悖論，強調人被自己的愛好所禁錮，人與鳥互為隱喻的關係。然而作品中除去鳥人與鳥之外，過士行運用不少筆墨於知識分子，而從知識分子的視角則能更深入理解鳥人的困境心理。本文將鳥人放在全球化時代背景下討論他們精神困境的原因。第一章簡述前人學者對《鳥人》的研究成果，論述將「知識分子」的角度及其所代表的西方文明引入來探尋鳥人的文化迷惘的正當性。第二章詳細解讀鳥人痴迷養鳥文化的行為，總結鳥人的異化中所體現出來的本土特徵。第三章則在第二章的基礎上分析鳥人的本土特質與全球化時代的矛盾，分析出鳥人入魔般養鳥行為的背後成因，並在解析知識分子與鳥人矛盾的符號化意義的同時引入「文明衝突論」來理解鳥人群體的痴迷與迷惘心裡
Soft infrastructure and happiness : toward a better world
Get PDFSoft infrastructure comprises values, customs, norms, and the laws and institutions of a society. It is part of our living environment and conditions the way we relate to one another in social, economic, and political life. Soft infrastructure is grounded by institutional logic, being “symbolically grounded, organizationally structured, politically defended, and technically and materially constrained.” Today our world is now very much constrained by an adversarial culture which many people in the west see as fundamental to the western civilization. However, the adversarial culture has a relatively short history and is not really intrinsic to western civilization. In order to build a more peaceful world that is conducive to peace and prosperity, we need a culture that emphasizes the public interest defined under the Rawlsian veil of ignorance, which asks us to momentarily forget our identities and look for institutional arrangements or policies that serve our best interests if there were an equal chance for us to be anyone within the community. This perspective asks us to put ourselves in the shoes of others and is commonly referred to as the Golden Rule, and it is cherished both in western and eastern cultures for at least two millennia. This paper, through a comprehensive review of historical examples and contemporary experiences, stresses the urgency of developing the “right soft infrastructure” as a means of alleviating social ills and pernicious polarization
An investigation of Africans and Hongkongers relationship : a social psychological approach
Get PDFWhen members of different social groups come into contact, interactions and intergroup attitudes are not always reciprocal between the groups. Within social psychology, intergroup relations research has long been a topic of interest. Yet, such research has mostly been conducted in Western cultural settings. There is scant research from an East Asian cultural context, where intercultural encounters have been on the rise. Existing psychological literature has put much attention on the experiences of migrants and minorities, while the views of the host majority members would often be neglected. This thesis addresses this lacuna by using social psychological theories and research designs to simultaneously examine and contrast the perceived intergroup relationships and attitudes between Africans and local Hong Kong Chinese in Hong Kong. In this thesis, social psychological research on intergroup relations forms the basis of the investigation, where several social-psychological variables, including power, intergroup perceptions, intergroup contact, threat perceptions, acculturation, and prejudice were examined in three studies to reveal the intergroup relation between African minority and Hong Kong Chinese majority. Study 1 involved an experimental manipulation of power perception among 78 local Hong Kong Chinese (Mage = 19.86, SD = 1.70) in testing the effects of power on explicit prejudice and stereotyping towards different ethnocultural groups. Results indicated a main effect of power on explicit prejudice and stereotyping towards ethnic minorities, where explicit prejudice and stereotyping were more pronounced among participants who were induced to perceive themselves as more powerful. This effect differed across various ethnocultural target groups. Study 2 involved an investigation of 60 African participants (Mage = 31.83, SD = 4.51) and 64 Hong Kong Chinese participants (Mage = 24.89, SD = 0.87), where the effects of ingroup identification and power perception on intergroup perceptual bias and evaluations were examined. The findings illustrated an overall ingroup bias in intergroup perceptions, with a more pronounced ingroup bias found in the Hong Kong Chinese sample. Further analysis also showed that perceived power of the outgroup was related to more positive outgroup evaluations. Study 3 examined the relationship between intergroup experiences and acculturation. Using a cross-sectional design, samples of Africans (N = 215) and local Hong Kong Chinese (N = 467) were surveyed, and the data were analysed using path analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). Results indicated that specific acculturation orientations are associated with contact experiences for Africans and Hong Kong Chinese. Additionally, for the Hong Kong Chinese, positive contact predicted less prejudice, while negative contact predicted stronger prejudice towards Africans. For the African sample, negative contact significantly predicted less prejudice towards Hongkongers. Intergroup anxiety and perceived threat mediated the effects of contact on prejudice in both samples. Notably, the relationship between intergroup contact and prejudice was weaker for Africans than for Hongkongers, highlighting asymmetries in intergroup relations between Africans and Hong Kong Chinese. These findings underscore the significance of taking into account the perspectives of both the minority and the host majority members in a shared framework when studying intergroup attitudes with the aim of enhancing intergroup relations. Overall, this research makes a significant contribution to the literature on intergroup relations by addressing the processes of bidirectional acculturation and reciprocal intergroup relations between minorities and majorities in a specific sociocultural context, which is an often-neglected approach in previous social-psychological research
Beyond economics and politics : a sociological review of local long-term care service provision in China
Get PDFThe socio-demographic transition presents a significant challenge that impacts the renewal of welfare arrangements and the reallocation of welfare responsibilities across sectors. Long-term care (LTC) services have emerged as a widely accepted strategy to promote the active daily living and human dignity of senior citizens. This study aims to assess the effective policy strategies employed in various Chinese contexts to address significant LTC policy concerns and synthesise lessons that can guide future policy decisions. The study addresses three questions to explore local variations in China\u27s LTC service provision: (1) What differences exist in the long-term care services provision? (2) How do the service patterns of local long-term care practises differ? (3) Why are local long-term care service arrangements varied among pilot cities? The study employs an actor-centred framework that includes five service dimensions to explore the dynamic arrangements and welfare interactions in local LTC service provision. Qualitative comparative analysis and process-tracing case study methodologies are employed to interpret local service variations. In-depth interviews and document reviews are performed to collect first-hand and secondary data.
The research findings reveal that, although local long-term care practises in China have achieved the national guideline standard, there are variations in service eligibility, content, expenditure, delivery, and regulation. China\u27s local long-term care service practises demonstrate distinctive features that challenge conventional economic and political paradigms. Firstly, it is noteworthy that developed coastal cities are not typically active in the development and investment of LTC welfare initiatives. Secondly, the effective welfare interactions and sufficient LTC service provision are more likely to occur in cities with well-established civil societies and pressing socio-demographic challenges. Lastly, the unequal distribution of welfare benefits is more pronounced in less developed cities. Moreover, the findings of Tsingtao city emphasizes that meso-level capacities and micro-level interactions strongly influence the pattern of LTC provision.
Accordingly, this study criticizes the previous debate on economic and political determinants and suggests that local LTC provision in China is contingent on multifaceted interplay, with the primary factor that influences the path of Chinese welfare localization being societal perception towards rapidly changing social policies. Practitioners in China demonstrate a high degree of professional autonomy and moral agency by navigating conflicting organizational agendas, investment priorities, and evolving service needs. However, local authorities have tended to adopt a more conservative approach in the development of welfare projects. As a response, this study offers deeper insights into the contradictory orientation of China\u27s LTC service provision and suggest the need for further emphasis on cross-sectoral interaction. The conclusion contributes to clarify China\u27s comparable position in welfare decentralisation studies and providing Oriental insights for future discussions on welfare localization in the social policy field
Brazil under Lula’s renewed presidency
No full textModerator: Rogério NAQUES FALEIROS (Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil)
Speakers: Rosa Maria MARQUES (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil) Victor Leonardo FIGUEIREDO CARVALHO DE ARAÚJO (Fluminense Federal University, Brazil) Allan Kardec DUAILIBE BARROS FILHO (Federal University of Maranhão and Maranhense Gas Company, Brazil
A qualitative study of approaches to implementing basic education internationalization in Shenzhen
Get PDFThe Chinese government’s Education Modernization 2035 plan puts forward goals for China to achieve education modernization and become an education powerhouse by 2035. As a cornerstone of education development, basic education internationalization is an essential part of the country’s educational reforms. In 2019, the Outline for the Development of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area explicitly called for building an internationalization education demonstration zone. However, in one of the cities in the Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen, the implementation of basic education internationalization has not been completely successful. The problem facing Shenzhen is that the traditional approach to internationalization, which is to introduce international curricula, open international schools, and organize various cross-border activities, generates an upsurge in younger students studying abroad for their basic education, which impedes the inheritance of China’s traditional educational advantages and the maintenance of national confidence in education. To address this problem, the Shenzhen municipal government lists the promotion of international competence among its training goals for primary and secondary schools.
Given the limited research that has been conducted against this policy background, this thesis explores implementation approaches and feasible development paths for basic education internationalization in Shenzhen. Adopting a theoretical model developed from Knight’s theory of approaches to internationalization at the institutional level, the global–national–local theory of Marginson and Rhodes, and Von Bertalanffy’s general systems theory, the thesis investigates the approaches to internationalization implemented in Shenzhen’s primary and secondary schools, the challenges faced by these approaches, stakeholders’ perceptions of basic education internationalization, and the factors driving primary and secondary schools to adopt internationalization approaches.
A qualitative study was conducted with a phenomenological approach, which describes individuals’ experiences of a phenomenon. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Using purposive sampling, 34 interviewees were selected from leaders, teachers, parents, and policymakers at four public and private schools in the Nanshan and Longgang districts of Shenzhen. A thematic analysis was performed on the interview data with the aid of NVivo (Version 12), focusing on the perspectives of policymakers, implementers (school leaders and teachers), and parents on basic education internationalization.
The findings showed that Shenzhen’s primary and secondary schools were implementing internationalization mainly by integrating international elements into their curricula and teaching (i.e., discipline penetration and school-based curricula), improving teachers’international competence, organizing cross-border exchange activities (i.e., summer and winter camps), and organizing a series of activities and competitions (e.g., the Model United Nations Competition). The main challenges facing internationalization efforts were out-of-date curricula and China’s single evaluation system.
The thesis addresses research gaps regarding stakeholders’ experience (i.e., practical experiences, attitudes, and perceptions) of basic education internationalization. Drawing on the findings of the qualitative study, the thesis suggests some beneficial approaches to internationalization in primary and secondary schools in Shenzhen. It is recommended that the Chinese government optimize the system for evaluating the high school entrance and college entrance examinations, incorporate international elements into the curriculum reform of primary and secondary schools, and cultivate teachers’ global competence and leadership
A comparative analysis of double reduction policy in China
Get PDFThe double reduction policy in China is designed to reduce the workload of students and prohibit out-of-school training. However, the results are not as expected. This study aims to identify potential factors that could contribute to the success of China\u27s double reduction policy. The data were analysed using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods (questionnaires for students and semi-structured interviews with teachers and parents). In total, 156 valid questionnaires were collected, and 3 teachers and 3 parents were interviewed. In addition, Finland and South Korea\u27s experiences have been used for comparison for better improvement. The results indicate that inconsistent after-school services, educational mechanisms, lack of teacher training, feedback channels, and policy support greatly influence the success of these initiatives
A comparison of public housing policies for the elderly in Hong Kong and Singapore
Get PDFWith the society’s development and progress, people are seeking a long and healthy life with improved life quality and a better living environment. Like many other economies worldwide, Singapore and Hong Kong are experiencing rapid population aging. The social welfare policy in Singapore is based on the individual and family as the foundation, the community as the middle-level organization, and the government taking a residual complementary role. In contrast, the elderly care model in Hong Kong can be divided into three types: aging in place, residential care, and aging out of Hong Kong. According to current statistics, Hong Kong has comparatively less government intervention, as well as a relatively small share of public housing and a small share of elderly housing. Such comparison can reveal that Singapore provides a more comprehensive public housing scheme for elderly residents through governmental, legal and institutional safeguards. However, it has to be acknowledged that while the Singapore model has merits, its applicability to a mature and developed market like Hong Kong is limited in consideration of the public housing model for the elderly. The Hong Kong government can learn from Singapore’s experience in the implementation of its elderly public housing policy and, by handling land supply issues flexibly and using large areas of land, make good use of resources for smoother operation of public housing