Categories as Rhetorical Barriers and the Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina

I explore the role of categories as rhetorical barriers in organizations responding to crisis (Veil, 2011 Veil, S. R. (2011). Mindful learning in crisis management. Journal of Business Communication, 48(2), 116–147. doi:10.1177/0021943610382294[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). I analyze some problematic categories of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the categories’ impact on the organizations’ response to Hurricane Katrina. My analysis shows that unintended and perverse consequences (Giddens, 1984 Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. [Google Scholar], 1987 Giddens, A. (1987). Social theory and modern sociology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. [Google Scholar]) reversed the power of a key legitimated category (Orlikowski, 1995 Orlikowski, W. J. (1995). Categories: Concept, content, and context. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 3, 73–78.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Giddens, 1984 Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]) and exposed a set of reified categories (Giddens, 1984 Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]).     

The Generic Fallacy1

The ‘music appreciation as contemplation’ paradigm of traditional aesthetics and music education assumes that music exists to be contemplated for itself. The resulting distantiation of music and music education from life creates a legitimation crisis for music education. Failing to make a noteworthy musical difference for society, a politics of advocacy attempts to justify music education. Praxial theories of music, instead, see music as pragmatically social in origin, meaning, and value. A praxial approach to music education stresses that appreciation is seen in use; thus, it seeks to ‘make a difference’ that students and society find musically noteworthy.     

高校信息公开政策正当性分析

本文提出了高校信息公开政策正当性的标准,并从理论正当性及实践正当性两个方面对其进行分析,得出高校信息公开政策具有正当性的结论。     

A meta-framework for conducting mixed methods impact evaluations: Implications for altering practice and the teaching of evaluation

Educational interventions are becoming increasingly more complex, far-reaching, and high-stakes. Thus, there is a need for an evaluation meta-framework that is comprehensive, flexible, and meets enhanced complexity. Therefore, we provide a new and comprehensive definition of impact evaluations—what we call a comprehensive impact evaluation—that draws out the importance of collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, thereby resulting in a rigorous approach that can allow for strong inferences. Further, we provide an overview of impact evaluation designs that can be used in comprehensive impact evaluations along with a rationale for using both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. This leads to the central purpose of the article: to provide a meta-framework for conducting what we call a Mixed Methods Theory-Based Impact Evaluations, wherein mixed methods techniques are used at every phase of the process. Building on White’s (2009) work, we outline an 8-phase Mixed Methods Theory-Based Impact Evaluation.     

On the status of critical theory

Critical theory, while remaining in part a scientific social theory, is not just a scientific theory. The nature and distinctiveness of its criticalness is depicted. The logical status of a rationally reconstructed Habermasian critical theory is displayed, defended from some traditional criticisms (including charges of historical idealism), and contrasted with both historical versions of critical theory and purely scientific theories. Whether the critical theory articulated and defended is Habermasian, or a more historicized critical theory, in either case it is argued that it provides a sound basis forideologiekritik against postmodernist scepticism.     

The unintended and intended academic consequences of educational reforms: the cases of Post-Soviet Estonia,Latvia and Russia

In this paper, we try to unravel some of the unintended and intended academic effects associated with post-Soviet educational reforms by focusing on three cases: Estonia, Latvia and Russia. We have chosen this comparison because a unique ‘natural experiment’ in the three countries allows us to compare the changing academic performance on an international test of a largely similar population in the three countries—Russian origin students attending Russian-medium schools—subjected to three variations of post-Soviet reforms. We find that relative to students in Russia, Russian-medium students in the Baltics made significant gains in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test. In Latvia, these appear to be an unintended effect of somewhat ‘softened’ state language policies, the conditions surrounding minority rights, and the general context of maintaining social cohesion. In Estonia, the (later) relative gains of Russian students appear to an intended effect of locally grown educational (and language) policies and increased, more effective cooperation with Russian medium schools to further improve PISA performance in a relatively high scoring, PISA-focused country.     

关于"隐性采访"的思考

真实是新闻的生命,秩序是法律的追求。如何才能使那些暗访记者所进行的报道既满足社会公众的渴求欲,又在法律界限之内?就此对隐性采访存在的合法性和法律制约问题进行探讨。     

作为自由之翼的学科规训权力--论学术自由的本体性基础

学术自由是高等教育的“要塞“。但是传统中对于学术自由合法性的论证不外乎两种很成问题的逻辑程式；把学术自由或作为一种信仰，或者作为一种工具。其实，学术自由的本体性基石在于，高等教育在九十世纪初逐渐建立了一种可以在自身范围内独立自主地调控“学以致学“内部循环的学科规则 训制度。以该种制度为基础的学科规训权力能够依据特定的学科“范式“，从根本上捍卫学术自由。     

浅析非婚生子女的法律地位

由于人类对婚姻关系以外的两性行为的排斥,非婚生子女历来都受到社会的歧视。另外,家庭财产应由嫡亲继承的传统观念,也导致了非婚生子女的社会地位、法律地位及其在家庭中的地位都十分低下。直到20世纪初,人类对非婚生子女的态度才转向宽容。在现实生活中,非婚生子女虽然享有与婚生子女同等的权利,但还没有得到完全落实。因此。建立准正和认领制度,促使非婚生子女取得与婚生子女同等的法律资格就显得十分必要。