对研究者来说，“影响力”是在学术界决定科研基金的驱动因素。这里的“影响力”，往往指的是被引次数。但什么是真正的影响力呢？历史、商业、心理学、教育和哲学领域的研究人员如何在全球范围内影响社会变革呢？ 6 月，我们对当今的社会热点——LGBT群体问题进行研究。我们希望研究人员的发声能有助于社会的进步。 我们希望哲学家像那些在 The Hastings CenterReport 中提到的、在生物伦理学领域工作的专家一样，让治疗变性患者的医生在日常工作中感受到这种影响。我们希望在电影媒体研究领域，能多些对LGBT夫妇的学术科研报告，以帮助大众用批判性的视角看待这些电影和文学，从而促进LGBT文学和艺术的传播。 最重要的是，我们希望研究人员和专家们同其他学术团体一起，就LGBT领域的相关问题共同交流讨论，以加深在跨学科研究中的影响力。 “同性恋人群的故事还在继续，相关法律尚未完善，同性恋人群的生命伦理学意义研究还在进行。”—— Timothy F. Murphy, Hastings Center Report 我们诚邀您一起探索LGBT团体的学术内容专题。我们已同研究者，作者和专家合作，通过the Philosopher’s Eye blog 这一哲学和社会问题交流论坛，展开了跨学科的对话。整个月，学者和作家将致力于发表原创博文，讨论研究过程中提出的重要问题。我们希望大家都参与到博客讨论中，并鼓励大家在the Philosopher’s Eye上写评论，并通过社交平台分享这些内容。 正如 Journal of Popular Culture 期刊 编辑Ann Larabee 博客 中写的那样， “很多人都在关注卡戴珊家族男主人布鲁斯-詹纳的变性决定，这让我们思考接受变性人的重要性。” 与此同时，来自该期刊的BruceDrushel通过博客回顾了媒体和电影中对LGBT群体的诠释。Hypatia的地方董事会成员Annika Thiem也在重新审视哲学和酷儿研究中的学术声音。她还在博客中呼吁称呼的变化，来消除对酷儿群体的歧视。每篇博客都在发掘LGBT谈话中亲密的部分，并号召读者批判性地思考我们看待世界的方式以及我们应该如何看待LGBT群体。现在，对LGBT团体的关心涵盖了家庭、婚姻治疗、儿童心理学、教育等诸多方面，我们已请专家涉入相关的领域进行研究。 这项集中科研及博客交流活动探索了跨学科领域丰富的研究成果，并引起了对LGBT群体教育和实践问题的广泛关注。 就像Timothy Murphy在博客中所说， “同性恋者其实跟其他人一样，又跟其他人不一样。” (*LGBTQ: People often use LGBTQ to mean all of the communities included in the “ LGBTTTQQIAA ”: “ L ”esbian; “ G ”ay; “ B ”isexual; “ T ”ransgender; “ T ”ranssexual; ” T ”wo-spirited; “ Q ”ueer; “ Q ”uestioning; “ I ”ntersex; “ A ”sexual; “ A ”lly ) 作者信息： Kathryn Coble Community Marketing, Wiley 点击查看英文原文： http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2015/06/12/using-research-to-drive-social-change-on-lgbtq-issues/
E-commerce can ease social ills in China's villages By Wesley Wu-Yi Koo and Lizhi Liu Financial Times 2015-05-11 http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2015/05/11/e-commerce-can-ease-social-ills-in-chinas-villages/ “淘宝村”缓解中国城市化痼疾 斯坦福大学博士生 Wesley Wu-Yi Koo、刘立之 联合为英国《金融时报》撰稿 译者/许雯佳 Behind China's impressive economic rise is the biggest human migration in history. By 2013, some 269m rural residents had become migrant workers in cities, offering cheap labour and sustaining urban growth. However, unable to register and settle their family members in the cities, these migrant workers are forced to leave behind children, spouses, and old people in the villages. This has taken a tremendous toll on the rural society. Today, there are 61m “left-behind children” and 40m “left-behind elderly” in Chinese villages. Some 79 per cent of the left-behind children are under the care of grandparents, who are often uneducated and lack parenting resources and energy. As a result, the academic scores of 88 per cent of these children fall below what would be the passing line in cities. The rural elderly, separated from their children, record an average suicide rate of 0.5 per cent, five times the rate for urban elderly. Villages, which have been the backbone of Chinese society for thousands of years, are falling apart. Reality paints a bleak picture of marginalisation, but there exists a beam of hope. In the past decade, the rise of e-commerce has transformed China's economic landscape, with more than 300m active online shoppers today. A lesser-known trend is that e-commerce has begun to vitalise the rural economy as well. In 2013, roughly 2m out of the 8m online stores on taobao.com and tmall.com – two large e-commerce platforms – were registered in rural areas. In early 2014, China had just 20 “taobao villages”, classified as those villages in which at least 10 per cent of the population is involved in the selling of goods online or those in which annual revenues from those sales surpasses Rmb 10m. But by the end of 2014, there were 211 such villages. The impact of taobao villages extends far beyond the generation of wealth. It is also helping to moderate the more deleterious effects of urbanisation. Our field research has indicated that e-commerce in some areas has helped reverse the labour drain and brought families back together. A case in point is Dongfeng, a village of 1,200 households. Just ten years ago, most young people from Dongfeng were working in the cities. Some said that during that time if an elderly person died, the village “would not be able to muster four able-bodied men to carry the coffin”. However, since the creation of stores in Dongfeng selling Do-It-Yourself furniture online, the village's social structure has been transformed. Youngsters are now much more likely to stay in their village, and college students from Dongfeng also tend to make their way back after graduation. It is also common for the elderly to help with their children's online businesses, leading to a richer labour force and feeling of self worth. Another example involves Wantou, which is known for the traditional craft of willow-weaved baskets. In 2006, a few villagers started selling baskets online. Their initial success demonstrated that, through e-commerce, producers of baskets could skip the economic middleman, access the market directly, and retain a significant portion of the profit. Over time, villagers who had previously been migrant workers gradually came back to Wantou and set up their own stores online. Today, Wantou is known as a “three no village” – no lonely elderly, no left behind children, and no divorces due to physical separation caused by migration. How is e-commerce able to penetrate rural areas and drive social change? First, e-commerce allows villagers to work close to their families and with their families. This is because it can provide villagers with access to the national market in even the most remote locations. Second, e-commerce, compared to offline business, has a far lower barrier to entry. Initial requirements rarely exceed Rmb 5,000 and access to basic infrastructure (e.g. mobile phone, roads). Third, the development of an e-commerce ecosystem creates an ambiance for learning. Our preliminary results indicate that numerous taobao villagers, ranging from elementary school pupils to seventy-five-year-olds, are picking up computer knowledge and business communication skills. These learning opportunities not only render a village more competitive economically, they also help build, attract, and retain talent, safeguarding the village from the pernicious side of urbanisation. The social challenges associated with mass urbanisation are not unique to China. Regions such as Uttar Pradesh in India and Kentucky in the United States are also facing issues including mass brain drain and dwindling villages. The ongoing development of e-commerce in taobao villages demonstrates that, in an increasingly connected world, the rural society does not have to be overturned for urbanisation to take place. Instead, villages can ride the wave of urbanisation toward building an economically viable and socially integrated future. Wesley Wu-Yi Koo is PhD candidate at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program Lizhi Liu is PhD candidate at the Stanford Department of Political Science “淘宝村”缓解中国城市化痼疾 斯坦福大学博士生 Wesley Wu-Yi Koo、刘立之 联合为英国《金融时报》撰稿 译者/许雯佳 来源:FT中文网 2015-05-15 在中国令人叹为观止的经济增长背后，是历史上最大规模的人口流动。截至2013年，约有2.69亿农民进城当了农民工，给城市提供了廉价劳动力，支撑着城市的发展。然而，由于无法在城市落户和接家人来城市定居，这些农民工不得不将孩子、配偶和老人留在村子里。这给农村社会带来了严重损害。 如今，中国农村有6100万“留守儿童”、4000万“留守老人”。近79%的留守儿童由祖父母照料。这些老人往往没念过书，也缺乏养育孩子的资源和精力。结果，88%的留守儿童的学习成绩达不到城市里的及格线。 同子女分隔两地的农村老人平均自杀率达0.5%，是城市老人的5倍。几千年来一直是中国社会支柱的农村正在分崩离析。虽然现实勾画出了农村被边缘化的暗淡前景，但我们依然看到了一线希望。 过去10年，电子商务的兴起彻底改变了中国经济格局。如今，活跃的网购者已逾3亿。一个较不为人知的趋势是，电子商务也开始为农村经济注入活力。2013年，中国两大电商平台淘宝网(taobao.com)和天猫(tmall.com)的800万在线商户中，约有200万是在农村地区注册的。 2014年初，中国只有20个“淘宝村”。但到2014年末，这样的村子增加到了211个。所谓“淘宝村”，是指村中至少有10%的人口做网店生意，或者全村的在线商品销售年收入超过1000万元人民币。 淘宝村的影响远大于其创造的财富。它还有助于缓解城市化带来的较为负面的影响。我们的实地调研表明，在一些地区，电子商务已帮助逆转了劳动力的外流、让家人重新团聚。 有1200户居民的东风村就是一个例子。就在10年前，东风村的大多数年轻人还在城市务工。一些人说，那时候，如果村里有老人去世，整个村子“都凑不出四个身强力壮的人来抬棺材”。 但是，自从东风村村民开起了卖DIY家具的网店后，该村的社会结构就发生了彻底改变。年轻人现在远比以前更有可能留在村里，村里出去读大学的学生毕业后也倾向于回村。老人帮子女打理网店也很常见，这让村里的劳动人口变得更加富裕，也让他们感受到了自己的价值。 以传统手工草柳编篮子出名的湾头村是另一个例子。2006年，一些村民开始在网上卖篮子。他们的初步成功表明，通过电子商务，篮子的生产者可跳过经济环节中的中间商，直接对接市场，并保留很大一部分利润。 随着时间的推移，之前外出务工的村民逐渐返回湾头村，开起了自己的网店。如今，湾头村被称为“三无”村：无孤寡老人，无留守儿童，无夫妻因外出打工两地分居而离婚。 电子商务如何能够渗透到农村地区并推动社会变革？第一，电子商务让村民得以和家人一起在离家近的地方工作。这是因为即使身处最偏远的地区，电子商务依然能让村民直接对接全国市场。 第二，与线下生意相比，电子商务的门槛低得多。需要的启动资金很少超过5000元人民币，而且只需具备基本的基础设施（比如手机和公路）就可开业。第三，电子商务生态系统的发展营造了学习的氛围。 我们的初步结果表明，上至75岁的老人，下到上小学的孩子，无数淘宝村村民都在学习电脑知识和商业沟通技巧。这些学习机会不仅使村子更有经济竞争力，还有助于村子培育、吸引和留住人才，保护村子免受城市化负面影响的冲击。 大规模城市化所伴随的社会挑战不仅出现在中国。印度北方邦(Uttar Pradesh)和美国肯塔基州等地区，也面临人才大量流失和农村地区萎缩的问题。 淘宝村电子商务的不断发展表明，在一个日益互联的世界里，推进城市化不一定要以颠覆农村社会为代价。相反，农村可以搭上城市化的大潮，建立一个具有经济可行性和社会融合性的未来。 作者简介：Wesley Wu-Yi Koo是斯坦福大学(Stanford University)科技创业项目博士候选人；刘立之是斯坦福大学政治学系博士候选人。
标签: 社会变革
