Perceived threat and exclusionary attitudes towards foreign workers in Israel

The present article focuses on determinants of attitudes towards granting social rights to overseas labour migrants in Israeli society. The analysis is based on a national representative sample of the adult population in Israel. The findings reveal that a substantial number of respondents (both Jews and Arabs) oppose granting equal social rights (i.e. education, welfare, health, housing) to foreign workers. These attitudes can partially be explained as resulting from perceived threat to social and economic well-being of individuals as well as threat to national identity and Jewish character of the state. Part of the exclusionary attitudes that cannot be attributed to threats, are explained by individuals’ socio-economic characteristics, ethnicity and political orientation. The findings are discussed within the context of Israel as an ethno-national state.     

Prejudice Toward Fat People: The Development and Validation of the Antifat Attitudes Test

LEWIS, ROBIN J, THOMAS F CASH, LORA JACOBI, CRISTINA BUBB-LEWIS. Prejudice toward fat people: The development and validation of the Antifat Attitudes Test. Although the stigma of obesity in our society in well documented, the measurement of antifat attitudes has been a difficult undertaking. Two studies were conducted to construct and validate the Antifat Attitudes Test (AFAT). In study 1, college students (110 men and 175 women) completed the preliminary 54-item AFAT and specific indices of body image and weight-related concerns. Psychometric and factor analysis revealed a 47-item composite scale and three internally consistent factors that were uncorrelated with social desirability: Social/Character Disparagement, Physical/Romantic Unattractiveness, and Weight Control/Blame. Several body image correlates of antifat prejudice were identified, and men expressed more negative attitudes than women. Study 2 experimentally examined the effects of information about the controllability of weight on the antifat attitudes of 120 participants. Exposure to information on behavioral vs. biogenetic control led to greater blame of persons who are fat for their body size. The implications of the findings and the potential utility of the AFAT are discussed.     

Symbolic boundaries,incorporation policies,and anti-immigrant attitudes: what drives exclusionary policy preferences?

This research empirically approaches symbolic boundary making in the form of individual assent to selective immigration policy. Distinguishing two such types of boundaries, restriction based on immigrant skills and race/religion, we approach the antecedents of such preferences. Do economic or rather cultural concerns about immigration drive boundary making? We furthermore assess whether social boundaries in the form of integration and multicultural policies are of importance. The results obtained from the European Social Survey show that on the individual level, both forms of boundary making are mainly driven by cultural concerns. On the country level, net of several measures of diversity, integration policies dampen skill-related boundaries, while multicultural policies weaken the strength of cultural boundary making along race and religion. These findings expose the political embeddedness of processes of symbolic boundary making into the very policies that approach the respective type of boundary.     

Stuck behind kitchen doors? Assessing the work prospects of latter-generation Latino workers in a Los Angeles restaurant

The disproportionate number of Latinos employed in unskilled US service industries appears to exemplify the bleak labour market prospects and inter-generational immobility facing this population. Yet as the children of immigrants enter “bad” service and retail jobs alongside the first generation, how might they be faring differently? Drawing on over two years of ethnographic research, this study examines the labour prospects of 1.5- and second-generation Latinos working at a Los Angeles restaurant. I show that while structural disadvantages initially funnel these workers into bottom-rung jobs at the restaurant, many are able to leverage their in-betweenness on a shopfloor divided into immigrant Latino and privileged white employee cohorts. Doing so has allowed some latter-generation workers access to new occupational mobility pathways virtually closed to the first generation.     

大学生生物实验技能竞赛的实践与探索

本文介绍了吉林省大学生生物实验技能竞赛的组织与实施过程,探究其对高校教学改革的推动作用。自2013年起,该竞赛在吉林省教育厅、吉林省生物化学与分子生物学会的支持下已经在吉林省范围内成功举办七届,生物技能竞赛的准备和参与工作提高了生物学科本科生的综合素质及实验技能,提升了教师与教辅队伍的实践教学水平,完善了生物实践教学体系,促进了实践教学改革,推动了生物学实践教学的标准化、规范化。该项赛事为吉林省高校生物学科类竞赛填补了空白,相比其他省份的同类竞赛,具有学生覆盖面更广、内容更加多样、自主选择性更强等优点。生物实验技能竞赛的举办对推进和深化生物实验教学改革产生了积极而深远的影响。     

技能大赛背景下高职生物制药技术综合实训课程教学改革

综合实训是高职学生将理论知识与生产实践有机融合的重要教学环节。本文介绍了技能大赛背景下,学院生物制药技术专业立足“以赛促教、以赛促建、以赛促学、育训结合”特色,以青霉素发酵工艺实验为例,从教学目标、教学内容、教学方法、考核等内容进行的改革与实践,将发酵设备的实践操作与虚拟仿真软件相融合,双向交互式开展课程。突破发酵过程控制的主观依赖性,建立发酵过程参数控制的量化管理和评价,更有利于实现技能大赛与实践教学的高效融合。通过近几年的改革与实践,取得良好的教学效果,为同类课程基于技能大赛的教学实践改革提供了新的思路和借鉴。     

山东省大学生生物化学实验技能大赛选题分析

通过分析山东省大学生生物化学实验技能大赛两届获奖课题的特点,找出目前大学生在该项竞赛选题中展现出来的不足,对大学生今后在此类实验技能比赛中的选题方向及方法提出了建议。     

Do Markets Worsen Economic Inequalities? Kuznets in the Bush

Integration into a market economy or economic development can erode the quality of life of indigenous people by, for example, increasing income inequalities. The Kuznets hypothesis predicts that the link between income inequality and income (a proxy for economic development) resembles an inverted U. We test the hypothesis using a survey of 511 households from 59 villages of Tsimane' Amerindians, a horticultural-foraging society in the tropical rain forest of Bolivia. We measure village inequalities of three economic outcomes: income, imputed annual value of rice production, and wealth. We used three indices of inequality: the coefficient of variation, the standard deviation of the logarithm, and the Gini coefficient. Explanatory variables include either income and income squared, wealth and wealth squared, or imputed annual rice production and production squared. We used village-to-town distance as a control. We find little evidence that integration to the market increases inequalities of economic outcomes, with two exceptions: Wealth bore the predicted inverted U-shaped relation with wealth inequalities, and imputed rice production bore a U-shaped relation to inequality, but only when (a) using adult equivalents to express household size and (b) the Gini coefficient and the coefficient of variation to measure inequality; in no case were results robust to different econometric specifications. We advance several explanations for why economic development might not accentuate economic inequalities among relatively autarkic rural economies.     

National numbers for transnational relations? Challenges of integrating quantitative methods into research on transnational labour market relations

Abstract

Research into transnational labour markets requires qualitative as well as quantitative research data. Yet there is little discussion on how to integrate quantitative methods into existing – overwhelmingly qualitative?– approaches to transnational research. This article seeks to identify some of the key challenges for the use of quantitative methods in research on transnational social relations. Selected problems regarding (1) sampling procedures and (2) questionnaire design are discussed using examples from emergent transnational labour markets in the Central European region, arguing that a transnational perspective necessitates a mixed-methods design. The ethnosurvey is identified as a starting point for an appropriate research design. Multi-sited ethnography and respondent-driven sampling methods are discussed as crucial complementing elements of transnational mixed-methods research.     

Skills,division of labour and economies of scale among Amazonian hunters and South Indian honey collectors

In foraging and other productive activities, individuals make choices regarding whether and with whom to cooperate, and in what capacities. The size and composition of cooperative groups can be understood as a self-organized outcome of these choices, which are made under local ecological and social constraints. This article describes a theoretical framework for explaining the size and composition of foraging groups based on three principles: (i) the sexual division of labour; (ii) the intergenerational division of labour; and (iii) economies of scale in production. We test predictions from the theory with data from two field contexts: Tsimane'' game hunters of lowland Bolivia, and Jenu Kuruba honey collectors of South India. In each case, we estimate the impacts of group size and individual group members'' effort on group success. We characterize differences in the skill requirements of different foraging activities and show that individuals participate more frequently in activities in which they are more efficient. We evaluate returns to scale across different resource types and observe higher returns at larger group sizes in foraging activities (such as hunting large game) that benefit from coordinated and complementary roles. These results inform us that the foraging group size and composition are guided by the motivated choice of individuals on the basis of relative efficiency, benefits of cooperation, opportunity costs and other social considerations.     

论如何提高青年教师临床课教学水平--参加全国高等医学院校青年教师教学基本功比赛有感

青年教师作为高校教学工作的中坚力量,其教学水平直接影响着教学效果和教学质量。对医学院校而言,提高青年教师教学水平是培养优秀医学人才的重要手段。而教学基本功比赛是交流教学经验,展示教学风采,提升教学能力的重要平台。通过比赛不仅能提升教学水平,激发教学热情,更能提升教师的全面素质,同时也为广大青年教师提供了良好的互相交流和沟通的平台,以取得共同进步。笔者结合自身多年来的教学实践,参加教学比赛及观摩体会,介绍了全国医学院校教学基本功比赛的背景及意义,同时从课堂设计、教学技巧、教学手段等3个方面深入探讨了如何提高教师临床课授课能力及教学效果,旨在更好的发挥教学比赛对日常教学的辐射作用,为提高广大青年教师临床课教学水平提供参考及帮助。