The Space of Argumentation: Urban Design, Civic Discourse, and the Dream of the Good City

In this paper, I explore connections between two disciplines not typically linked: argumentation theory and urban design. I first trace historical ties between the art of reasoned discourse and the idea of civic virtue. I next analyze discourse norms implicit in three theories of urban design: Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (1977), and Peter Katz's The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community (1994). I then propose a set of settlement issues of potential interest to both urban designers and argumentation theorists: size, density, heterogeneity, publicity, security, and identity. I conclude by suggesting that the good city be seen as both a spatial and a discursive entity. From such a perspective, good public discourse is dependent, at least in part, on good public space; and good public space is defined, at least in part, as a context conducive to good public discourse.     

Unequal but not separate: Emergence of rich–poor cooperation in resource exchange

Addressing inequality is a critical challenge for society as a whole and requires sustained efforts to promote fairness and opportunity for all. Filling in the resource gap across social classes is essential in reducing inequality. Previous studies have revealed that ingroup favouritism hinders the rich from cooperating with the poor and expands the wealth gap. Nevertheless, how to find ways of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor remains an open question. Inducing rich–poor cooperation could be effective in eliciting resource flow across classes. In this study, two experiments using a modified Prisoner's Dilemma game were conducted in Japan (N = 213) and China (N = 150) to examine whether highlighting partners' cooperativeness under permeable group boundaries induces rich–poor cooperation. All participants were allocated to the rich group and participated in the game with programmed rich- or poor-group partner bots, whose cooperation rates were manipulated. Despite the initial resource disparities between participants and the partner bots, participants were more likely to select and cooperate with cooperative poor-group partners than with non-cooperative rich-group partners. Generalized trust played an important role in the enhancement of rich–poor cooperation. The findings shed light on the possibility of reducing inequality and promoting social mobility in society.     

Construal level among poor children: Executive function implications

Poverty impedes children's executive function (EF). Therefore, it is necessary to mitigate the negative effect of poverty by developing efficient interventions to improve poor children's cognitive function. In three studies, we examined whether high-level construals can improve EF among poor children in China. In Study 1, we observed a positive relationship between family socioeconomic status and children's EF, which was moderated by construal level (n = 206; M_age = 9.71; 45.6% girls). In Study 2a, we experimentally induced high- versus low-level construals and found that poor children with high-level construals exhibited better EF than those with low-level construals (n = 65; M_age = 11.32; 47.7% girls). However, the same intervention did not affect the performance of affluent children in Study 2b (n = 63; M_age = 10.54; 54% girls). Moreover, we found that the interventional effects of high-level construals improved the ability of children living in poverty to make healthy decisions and delayed gratification in Study 3 (n = 74; M_age = 11.10; 45.9% girls). These findings may have implications for using high-level construals as an effective intervention to improve poor children's EF and cognitive capacity.     

Navigating Social Class Roles in Community Research

This paper describes the first author's attempt to collect data in a homeless shelter without attending to her role in the social class hierarchy of the organization. The author's egalitarian approach towards the homeless clients, and her lack of involvement in "staff-only" activities, transgress the social class norms within the organizational structure. While the author is successful in gaining the trust of the homeless clients, her approach alienates shelter staff, especially those in the higher echelons of the social hierarchy. The concepts of classism, world views, and Social Identity Theory, are utilized to discuss the dilemma faced by researchers who want to challenge, or work outside, a setting's status quo.     

What We Owe to the Global Poor

This essay defends an account of the duties to the global poor that is informed by the empirical question of what makes countries rich or poor, and that tends to be broadly in agreement with John Rawlss account in The Law of Peoples. I begin by introducing the debate about the sources of growth and explore its implications for duties towards the poor. Next I explore whether (and deny that) there are any further-reaching duties towards the poor. Finally, I ask about the moral foundations for the duties to the poor of the sort that earlier parts argue there are.     

文本信息的激活与整合：阅读优生与差生的比较

探讨阅读优生与差生文本阅读过程中文本信息的激活与整合模式,包括3个实验。实验一通过运用不一致实验范式（inconsistent paradigm）考察阅读优生与阅读差生能否形成整体连贯性与局部连贯性。结果发现,阅读差生难以形成整体连贯性。实验二运用探测－核证范式（probe-verification paradigm）通过比较在三个位置后（人物特征描述、填充段落、目标句）的探测句的反应时间,探讨阅读差生不能形成整体连贯性的原因是由于不能激活先前的信息,还是整合信息时出现了问题。结果发现阅读差生与优生一样都可以激活先前的信息,说明阅读差生不能形成整体连贯性的原因可能是整合的问题。实验三进一步验证了阅读差生不能形成整体连贯性的原因是由于不能把已经激活的信息很好地加以整合所致。     

外来工子女与父母养育方式关系的研究

摘要本研究以1128名四到六年级的外来工与城市居民子女作为被试,以儿童孤独感问卷(CLS)与父母教养方式评价量表(EMBU)为研究工具,对外来工与城市居民子女的社会孤独感与父母养育方式的关系进行研究。运用多因素方差分析与回归分析等统计方法对研究数据进行处理,结果表明:(1)儿童孤独感性别差异显著,男生的孤独感显著高于女生;(2)儿童孤独感年龄差异显著,随着年龄增长,孤独感强度呈现出显著的下降趋势;(3)外来工子女的孤独感显著高于城市居民子女的孤独感,父惩罚因子、父偏爱因子与母关心理解因子对儿童孤独感影响显著,能较好的预测儿童孤独感。     

公益组织课外辅导对流动儿童领悟社会支持的影响

通过对选自北京市打工子弟小学的159名流动儿童进行问卷调查,探讨公益组织的社会干预对流动儿童领悟社会支持能力及情绪情感的影响。结果表明:(1)在公益组织实施课外团体辅导后,干预组流动儿童领悟社会支持得分与积极情感得分均显著高于对照组流动儿童。(2)在消极情感得分上,干预组与对照组不存在显著差异。(3)领悟社会支持与积极情感存在显著正相关,与消极情感存在负相关。这表明,通过公益组织实施课外辅导方式进行的社会干预能够有效提高流动儿童的领悟社会支持水平。     

Recasting Stigma as a Dialogical Concept: A Case Study of Rural‐to‐Urban Migrants in China

The present study explores stigma against rural‐to‐urban migrants in China, drawing on a dialogical approach. It investigates the processes of stigmatization from two sides: that of the stigmatizer and that of the stigmatized. Open‐ended individual interviews were conducted with 138 participants (60 urban residents and 78 rural‐to‐urban migrants) in Tianjin, China. Findings from this study indicate that migrants were stigmatized by urban residents as having an unattractive physical appearance, potential perils of disease or crime, and discredited places of origin. Such stigma was embedded in China's unique hukou system and generated from a social categorization of superior and inferior groups. Migrants reported a number of coping strategies to counter such stigma: blaming fate, stigma reversal and upward mobility. However, migrants did not view themselves contemptuously and expressed positive feelings about their lives as migrants. They regarded internal migration as a way of pursuing happiness. Overall, urban residents stigmatized migrants legitimated by the hukou system, while migrants were surprisingly resilient against stigma, and did not internalize it, due to their economics‐driven internal migration. This study underscores that stigma in a given society is dialogically interdependent with its socio‐cultural context and that the perspectives of both the stigmatizer and the stigmatized need to be taken into consideration. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SCHOLARS,AMATEURS, AND ARTISTS AS PARTNERS FOR THE FUTURE OF RELIGION AND SCIENCE

We recommend that the future of religion and science involve more partnerships between scholars, amateurs, and artists. This reimagines an underdeveloped aspect of the history of religion and science. Case studies of an undergraduate course examining religious ritual and technology, seminarians reflecting on memory and identity in light of Alzheimer's disease, environmentalists responding to their guilt and shame about climate change, and Chicagoans recognizing the presence of nature in the city show how these partnerships respect insights and experiences of our varied partners, identify and resolve community problems, and advance scholarship. Sourdough starter, a new metaphor, describes these collaborative, nourishing partnerships.