Since housing choice and strategy are the result of both an individual’s financial capability in a particular life stage, as well as overall political-economic circumstances, the study of housing behavior has been used to emphasize processes of urban development and social change. However, housing behavior in the Chinese context has not attracted much research attention. Although many studies have been done on various topics surrounding China’s housing reform, only several quantitative studies have touched upon the topic of individual housing behavior. All of the existing literature is based on statistics before 1998 when work-unit housing distribution was officially repealed. This thesis offers an update of qualitative information on how young white-collar workers approach homeownership after 1998. Ten young homeowners from Beijing, together with some practitioners in the housing market and two governmental officials were interviewed. Based on the information offered by the interviewees, this thesis examines how state policies, market situations, family structure, and special characteristics of Beijing as a capital city impact the housing choices and strategies of young homeowners.

On April 17, 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was proclaimed into force. By including a set of constitutionally entrenched core legal rights (i.e. ss. 8, 9, and 10(b), and a remedial mechanism designed to enforce those rights (i.e. s. 24(2)), the Charter had the potential to alter certain repressive elements of the criminal justice system that had endured in Canada for over a century. Despite this potential, both the core legal rights and s. 24(2) were drafted using vague terminology. As a result, the Charter ‘s ability to succeed where previous attempts at instituting effective due process protections for Canadians had failed would depend largely on the judiciary’s ability to satisfactorily craft such protections out of imprecise statutory language. This thesis will argue that the Supreme Court of Canada has created a test for the exclusion of unconstitutionally obtained evidence under s. 24(2) that fails to adequately protect the core legal rights of the socially, racially and economically marginalized individuals to whom the Canadian criminal justice system is disproportionately applied. In advancing this argument, the relevant jurisprudence and academic literature will be analyzed according to a methodology inspired by the Critical Legal Studies movement. The issue of exclusion will be examined in its social context, primarily by analyzing the current system of Canadian criminal justice and acknowledging its over-application to the socially disenfranchised. It will be argued that the Supreme Court’s test for exclusion has developed as it has because of the judiciary’s subconscious tendency to interpret unclear constitutional provisions in keeping with the dominant conservative ideology, a method that favours maintaining the social status quo. The purpose of this thesis is to set out a framework for a reform of the Charter ‘s exclusionary mechanism. This new approach will attempt to situate social context at the forefront of the s. 24(2) decision-making process. It will be argued that the concept of “disrepute” within s. 24(2) must be redefined so that it captures investigatory practices made possible by unjust social, racial and economic divisions that render certain groups powerless, and thus more vulnerable to police surveillance.

Health care reform is important in order to modify health care systems so that they operate more efficiently. There are various studies that compare the reforms of different countries to understand how these countries adjust their systems. This capstone introduces the health care system in Taiwan, China, and the United States, discusses the challenges they meet, and offers a comparison of recent reforms. The health care systems are introduced through three sections: collection of funds, pooling of funds and purchasing of services, and providing of services and exemptions. All three countries face the financing burden of health expenditure. To offer universal coverage and comprehensive benefit to its citizens, these three countries makes changes to qualifications for those insured, services provided to beneficiaries and payment systems for physicians, and contributions to pooling of funds. These reforms address barriers in reaching universal coverage in the three dimensions which are indicated in a WHO issued paper, that explains how to remove financial risks and barriers to access, promote efficiency and eliminate waste, and raisie sufficient resources for health (WHO, 2010). Despite the research, reforming the health care system to offer the accessibility of affordable services to individuals and to maintain sustainability of the health care financing will continually to be an issue.

Los modelos de microsimulación de impuestos y subsidios sociales son instrumentos de análisis económico que permiten estudiar los efectos que las políticas fiscales tienen sobre la población. Para ello, utilizan bases de micro-datos con información detallada de individuos de una muestra que es representativa de la población estudiada. Al mismo tiempo, estos modelos simulan en detalle y de forma flexible cómo políticas fiscales (o su reforma) afectan la renta disponible de cada individuo. La combinación del uso de bases de micro-datos y el detalle de las simulaciones hacen de la microsimulación un instrumento riguroso y minucioso para el estudio de las políticas y las reformas fiscales tanto para la medición de agregados presupuestarios (gasto público o recaudación), como para la medición de efectos más complejos como la distribución de la renta, la pobreza, o los incentivos a decisiones económicas. Este trabajo desarrolla y utiliza el primer modelo integrado de microsimulación de impuestos y subsidios sociales para España - ESPASIM. Este modelo simula en detalle y de forma integrada el sistema fiscal español, y es comparable tanto en el alcance como en la fiabilidad de sus simulaciones a modelos de otros países con mayor tradición y experiencia en la microsimulación. El modelo español también ha sido integrado dentro modelo de microsimulación a escala europea - EUROMOD. EUROMOD fue desarrollado por 18 instituciones de los 15 países de la Unión Europea. Se trata de un instrumento capaz de llevar a cabo estudios comparados sobre sistemas fiscales de diferentes países usando una estructura común y consistente, y de analizar las políticas desde una perspectiva Europea. Esta tesis aplica ambos modelos en el estudio de dos reformas fiscales recientemente implementadas en España. La primera aplicación utiliza ESPASIM para analizar los efectos de la reforma del impuesto sobre la renta de las personas físicas de 1998 sobre la simplicidad. Los resultados obtenidos con ESPASIM demuestran que la reforma sólo alcanza parcialmente sus objetivos y que estos podrían ser mejorados con la eliminación de la declaración conjunta y de otras fuentes de diferencias entre el sistema de retenciones y la función impositiva de la declaración de la renta.La segunda aplicación utiliza EUROMOD para comparar las políticas de protección social a la familia utilizadas en España con las de otros países de la Unión Europea. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que España gasta significativamente menos en la protección familia y que dicho gasto tiene unos efectos de reducción de la desigualdad y de la pobreza muy inferiores al de los demás países estudiados. Los resultados con EUROMOD también demuestran que las recientes reformas han incrementado el gasto en políticas familiares, pero el impacto sobre la desigualdad y la pobreza se mantiene inalterado. Si España reformase sus políticas familiares equiparándolas a la de los demás países estudiados, manteniendo el nivel de gasto actual, la desigualdad y la pobreza disminuirían significativamente. / Tax-benefit microsimulation models are instruments of economic analysis that allow us to study the effects of fiscal reforms on the population. These models use micro-data with detailed individual information that is representative of the studied population. On the other hand, these models simulate in detail and with flexibility how fiscal policies (or their reform) affect the disposable income of each individual. The combination of micro-data and detailed simulation make microsimulation models a rigorous and comprehensive instrument to study fiscal policies and fiscal reforms. They are powerful tools measuring budget aggregates (such as public expenditure or revenue), as well as more detailed effects such as income distribution, poverty or incentives.This work develops and uses the first integrated tax-benefit microsimulation model for Spain - ESPASIM. This model simulates in detail the Spanish fiscal system and is comparable in terms of scope and reliability of simulation to the models of countries with greater tradition and experience in microsimulation. The Spanish model is also integrated within a European microsimulation framework - EUROMOD. EUROMOD is a multi-country microsimulation model developed by 18 institutions of the EU-15 countries. This instrument allows us to carry out international comparative studies on fiscal systems, as well as analyse policies from a European perspective.This thesis applies both models to study two reforms recently implemented in Spain. The first application used ESPASIM to analyse the effects of the 1998 personal income tax reform on simplicity. Results obtained using the Spanish microsimulation model suggest that the reform only partially achieves its objectives. The study also shows that significant improvements in terms of simplicity could be achieved with the elimination sources of differences between the withholding and the income tax function. The second application uses EUROMOD to compare the Spanish child-related benefits to those used in other countries from the European Union. Results demonstrate that the expenditure level and the poverty and inequality reduction effects of these benefits are significantly lower in Spain than in other analysed countries. The simulations with the European model also show that recent reforms in Spain have considerably increased social expenditure child benefits. However, this increase has not produced any change in terms of poverty or inequality reduction. On the other hand, if Spain had reformed it's policies making them similar to those from other EU countries, the inequality and poverty would fall significantly even under a expenditure-neutral constraint.

Adding to a growing body of research on women and religion in English Canada, this historical study offers a glimpse inside convent culture in 1950s and ’60s Ontario, an area seldom studied by Canadian historians. The oral histories of two teaching communities in the Diocese of London, Ontario - the Ursuline Sisters of the Chatham Union and the Ontario Province of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary - as well as textual records from their convent archives, form the basis of this study. This thesis seeks to examine both the external and internal factors which precipitated reforms to convent life during the 1950s and 1960s, that is, the years preceding and immediately surrounding the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church. The external factors on reform include the pre-conciliar and conciliar mandates of the institutional Church, as well as social factors such as educational reform and changes in the roles of women throughout the postwar period. The more internal factors affecting change include shifts in sisters’ communal and individual identities and changes in spirituality. Taken together, these catalysts of change are reflective of the interplay of religious belief, institutional power and gender in postwar Canadian Roman Catholicism. Analyses of Church mandates, community responses, convent discourses on girls and women, and the spiritual reading practices of sisters throughout this period of significant change reveal that the reform efforts of religious communities were not only official and prescribed, but were also unofficial and grassroots in nature.

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No description available.

This is a phenomenological study of the experiences of three teacher leaders in the context of high school reform. It examines the essence of teacher leadership and how these teacher leaders made sense of their experiences. At the outset is a portrayal of my position and connection to the phenomenon of teacher leadership. This study reviews literature within three distinct areas. First, the nature of school reform is examined, including the rationale for reform, the challenges associated with reform, how to achieve sustainable reform, and a review of six drivers for effective reforms. Then, an investigation of distributed leadership follows which includes a discussion of the processes and forms of distributed leadership and a description of the facilitators and tensions for distributed leadership. The third area of the review is focused on teacher leadership including the roles and characteristics of teacher leaders, their connection to staff development, issues of effectiveness, and tensions for teacher leaders. Following this review, the research design and methodology is presented. Transcendental phenomenology including the concepts of phenomenological reduction and imaginative variation are explored in detail. Protocol writing was utilized to select participants for this study. From collected writings by formal teacher leaders, participants suited for phenomenological research were selected. Three teacher leaders participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed by the researcher. Participants shared their experiences as teacher leaders. Additional questions were asked to elicit more details about their experiences and to find out how participants made sense of their experiences. In the experiences of the participants, five themes emerged: Grappling with teacher leadership identity, facing the uncertainties of sustaining the reform initiative, negotiating the tensions between management and leadership, experiencing challenges of leading, and feeling the empowerment of success. Participants made sense of their experiences in these four ways: learning, communicating, doing, and reflecting. Several forces that impact the experience of teacher leadership and facilitate the formation of teacher leadership identity emerged. Through the process of making sense of their experiences, teacher leaders came to understand theory, which they termed getting it, and then enacted their learning. The ways in which teacher leaders made sense of their experiences were influenced in part by their leadership persona and in part by the culture and context within which they lived. Among the implications for theory from this study is that more needs to be learned about the leadership identity of teacher leaders leading reforms. Implications for practice include the provision of time for teacher leaders to reflect on and discuss their experiences, as well as the provision of professional development focused on change praxis and leadership praxis for teacher leaders and instructional leadership for in-school administrators. Among the implications for research are the need to investigate teacher leaders association with administration, both in their aspirations and in how they are perceived towards administration, the cognitive changes that occur for teacher leaders, whether a context of instructional leadership eases tensions in teacher leadership, and whether formal teacher leader roles are an effective way for school divisions to plan for leadership succession. In addition, the phenomenological research method is reflected upon.

The study examined urban university faculty members’ perceptions of their presidents’ leadership role in urban school reform. The population for this study consisted of faculty members from five urban research universities. All of the universities are members of the Great Cities’ Universities (GCU) coalition, an alliance of 19 public urban research universities that are collaborating to address educational challenges in their communities. The study entailed a purposive sample with universities chosen on the basis of their membership in the GCU. The subjects were 245 faculty members from colleges of education and colleges of arts and sciences at the five urban research universities. All participants completed the Urban Faculty Questionnaire (UFQ), a confidential, web-based questionnaire designed by the researcher. The questionnaire consisted of five statements about general perceptions of urban school reform, 30 statements about perceptions of the university presidents’ leadership roles in the specific institutions’ urban school reform initiatives, eight statements regarding personal characteristics and a section for optional additional comments. The statements corresponded to seven internal scales of analysis. The seven scales were (a) Perceptions of Urban School Reform, (b) University Structure and Culture, (c) Presidential Awareness, (d) Internal Relationships, (e) External Relationships, (f) Resources and Support and (g) Accountability and Recognition. The data show faculty believe urban schools need reform. Faculty also believe universities located in urban communities should be involved actively in urban school reform. Faculty generally do not take personal responsibility, however, for urban school reform initiatives at their universities. Faculty seem more aware of their presidents’ external relationships than their internal relationships in urban school reform. Faculty tend to agree that their presidents build strong relationships with the local business community and with the local political community; however, they tend only somewhat to agree that their presidents build strong relationships with local public school representatives and local families and citizens. The study also reveals that no statistically significant difference exists in faculty perceptions of their presidents’ leadership in urban school reform by the faculty members’ academic college, academic rank, years of service at their current institutions, highest academic degree earned, gender and ethnicity.

Abstract It is important and urgent for government¡¦s discretion to make good use of Recruit /appointment system to introduce new blood into the government to cope with the needs of the society. This essay tried to analyze the problems that our civil servants¡¦ recruiting system has encountered. The similar systems of other developed countries were also discussed. This essay made several suggestions concerning government reforms in accordance with the latest world trend and the way to help civil servants realize their roles in democratic administration. This essay also tried to make clear what government can do to review and revise personnel laws as well as civil service systems, so as to recruit competent individuals into the government to provide better services to the people. Because the reform of civil servant personnel system is a part of government reform plan, and the reform of recruit/appointment system is a crucial link of civil servant personnel system, while present recruit/appointment system still has some flaws to be corrected, this essay made some suggestions on the issues of examination , appointment and promotion. A. Examination: 1. To abolish the prerequisite qualifications in all kinds of national examinations. 2. To increase the number of ¡§extra list¡¨ of passers of both common and higher national examinations. 3. To widen the range of recruits from those who have passed profession and technician examinations to serve in the public section. 4. To adopt examinations with diversity and elasticity. B. Appointment system: 1. To reasonably raise the ranking paradigm of local civil servants. 2. To modify the rules of deputizing. 3. To allow the interchanges of persons of public and private sections. 4. To give elasticity to the laws of personnel appointment according to different geography locations. C. Promotion: 1. To increase the weight of performance and potential of development in the evaluation for promotion. 2. To limit the chief¡¦s authority in the evaluation for promotion. 3. To develop a fast promotion mechanism. The goal of civil servant system reform is ¡§Government Reform and Elastic Recruit¡¨. Therefore, this essay suggested that related governmental departments should play a more active role in government reform and to engage in a brand new innovation of civil servant recruit/appointment system.