On Living in an Unjust Society

ABSTRACT Can it be wrong to simply live in an unjust society? Four moral principles: group responsibility, unjust enrichment, a general duty to prevent injustice and the need to preserve one's moral integrity indicate that it might be. I explore the implications of each of these principles and conclude that while the possibility of doing good might counterbalance the threat to moral integrity, a person who continues to live in an unjust society should repudiate the injustice to avoid being held responsible for it and has a duty to compensate those deprived if he is unjustly enriched. Moreover, the general duty to prevent injustice bears more heavily on those who are closest to it.     

The Relationship Between Size of Living Space and Subjective Well-Being

Against a background of shrinking new homes and forebodings of “rabbit hutch Britain”, the relationship between size of living space and subjective well-being has never been more topical in the UK. Using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and fixed effects regressions, this paper is the first to examine this relationship comprehensively. Two pathways are proposed between space and subjective well-being. First, space facilitates values and activities. Second, space signals wealth which in turn influences social status. It is proposed that wealth is a more important determinant of status for men than women, and that pathway two is therefore gendered. Part one of the paper examines the effect of a change in number of rooms per person on housing satisfaction and subjective well-being in the BHPS as a whole. Despite having a similar effect on the housing satisfaction of both genders, an increase in living space has only a (weak) positive linear effect on the life satisfaction and mental health of men. This suggests that space affects subjective well-being through pathway two, status. Part two of the paper tracks the housing satisfaction and subjective well-being over time of those individuals who move for “larger accommodation”. Consistent with various theories of adaptation, housing satisfaction increases in the year of the move; then decreases slightly before levelling out. Moving for “larger accommodation” has no positive impact on subjective well-being. Overall the results imply a weak positive relationship between size of living space and subjective well-being, but only for men.     

Urban Space,Representation, and Artifice

This article offers a semiotic approach to modes of representation and organization of urban space. With point of departure in the art historian Donald Preziosi’s account of art history as episteme of modernity, the aim is to characterise codes that regulate the representations of urban space in a development from modernity towards a post- or hypermodern condition. In order to understand especially developments in aesthetic representation, Roman Jakobson’s semiotic mode of “artifice” is reintroduced. It seems that the application of this semiotic mode is highly relevant to the understanding of aesthetic representation in general but also and especially to the understanding of the aesthetics of three-dimensional artefacts. The article concludes with a tentative matrix of urban spatial trends and a perspective to the impact of changes in communications technology on the developments of urban space. Although the article has a theoretical scope, it refers to a number of examples from and observations in the urban environment.

Community Involvement in Adapting and Testing a Prevention Program for Preschoolers Living in Urban Communities: ParentCorps

We describe a university-community collaborative effort to tailor and deliver a prevention program for families of preschoolers living in low-income, urban communities. ParentCorps, which builds on efficacious interventions with parents and young children, aims to promote child social competence and prevent conduct problems by strengthening parenting skills, enhancing support for parents, and empowering parents to access resources in their communities. Active community engagement and collaboration were viewed as critical to the development of the program and its feasibility testing. We present an overview of community involvement in the development of ParentCorps and approaches taken to involve community members during a feasibility study. Areas of success and lessons learned are discussed.     

城市退休老年人居家养老消费心理研究

针对当前我国老龄化社会所面临的养老方式难题:家庭养老基础不再牢靠,社会机构养老补充不够充分,推行社区居家养老仍有一定困难;就宁波市退休老年人对居家养老服务的消费心理现状进行了问卷调查和访谈调查。结果发现:退休老年人对居家养老服务的消费意愿不强、消费预期也不容乐观。研究认为,应认真分析这一问题的原因,并加强退休老年人对居家养老服务消费心理的引导。     

差序空间:政府塑造的中国城市空间及其属性

城市化进程是城市空间的塑造过程。中国城市建设不是单独的、碎片化的过程,而是在整体性的空间体系中展开。城市空间由政府通过宏观制度政策、城市规划设计、行政区划调整、公共服务而塑造,并形成分等级、有层次、次序和功能区分的"差序空间"。这一空间格局不仅将所有城市囊括其中,还深入到城市内部,构成了一个非水平的、纵横交错的空间结构。"差序空间"下的城市建设表现出"先后主次",也影响着城市社会和政府治理。     

展望俄罗斯的城市政策

在我国或者西方的各种不同类型的论坛和大众媒体上 ,对于俄罗斯的一些最重要的发展问题进行着广泛研究 ,但在这些问题中间 ,对于制订城市政策十分重要的战略纲领却几乎是一片空白。与此同时 ,不断侵袭着正在改革道路上前进的俄罗斯的种种危机 ,表现为必须实现的任务与我们所具有的文明水平之间的脱节。要提升我们的文明水平 ,只能依靠城市特别是大都市的战略作用。没有拥有发达的城市文化的名副其实的城市 ,我们所面临的经济、文化、社会或人权等种种问题 ,都不可能找到任何卓有成效的解决办法。众所周知 ,“城市居民”和“市民”概念基于“…     

Living with an other-race roommate shapes Whites' behavior in subsequent diverse settings

In a multi-phase research design over two academic semesters, White college students assigned to either a same-race or other-race roommate were tracked across two survey phases and a third phase involving an interracial interaction with a Black stranger. After four months, Whites who lived with an other-race roommate came to have more diverse friends and believe that diversity was more important than did Whites with a White roommate. After six months, self-reports, partner ratings, and nonverbal behavior indicated that Whites with an other-race roommate were less anxious, more pleasant, and more physically engaged during a novel interracial interaction. These results demonstrate that residential contact with other-race individuals not only affects race-related attitudes, but can also reduce interracial anxiety and positively influence behavior in subsequent diverse settings.     

A Gift Grows in the Ghetto: Reimagining the Spiritual Diagnosis of Black Men

This essay explores the spiritual diagnosis of Black men in the American ghetto. The ghetto is viewed as a place of desolation, a place where nothing of value thrives—quite simply, a place where it is hard to grow. But is it also something more? By using the biblical story of Hagar and her son Ishmael being abandoned in the wilderness, the author argues that it is within deleterious environs, whether the wilderness or the ghetto, that one’s gift is discovered and then, through divine assistance, allowed to develop. This offers a useful tool in terms of spiritual diagnosis, especially for Black men, because one of the main criteria to be assessed becomes the person’s awareness of his gift and how the gift is being developed. In the end, Black men are encouraged to become more aware of their specific gift and the ways in which this gift, when properly cared for, develops—i.e., grows up—in such a way that it protects them, above all, in an uncaring environment.     

Living in a Dissonant World: Toward an Agonistic Cosmopolitics for Education

As a flashpoint for specific instances of conflict, Muslim sartorial practices have at times been seen as being antagonistic to “western” ideas of gender equality, secularity, and communicative practices. In light of this, I seek to highlight the ways in which such moments of antagonism actually might be understood on “cosmopolitical” terms, that is, through a framework informed by a critical and political approach to cosmopolitanism itself. Thus, through an “agonistic cosmopolitics” I here argue for a more robust political understanding of what a cosmopolitan orientation to cultural difference can offer education. The paper moves from a focus on harmony to agonism and from cosmopolitanism to the cosmopolitical, and within each I discuss the questions of democracy and universality, respectively. Drawing on, the work of Chantal Mouffe, Judith Butler and Bonnie Honig, I discuss the basis upon which our agonistic interactions can inform education in promoting better ways of living together. This requires, in my view, nothing less than a clear understanding of the very difficulties of pluralism and a questioning of some of the ways we often reflect on the political dimension of these difficulties. I offer some reflections on what an agonistic cosmopolitics has to offer the debates surrounding the wearing of various forms of Muslim dress in schools in the conclusion. My overall claim is that cosmopolitanism as a set of ideas that seek more peaceful forms of living together on a global scale is in need of a theoretical framework that faces directly the difficulties of living in a dissonant world.