Experiences of Autonomy in Marriage and Divorce Within the Chinese Traditional System

The Chinese traditional system features a hierarchical familial culture. When confronted with individualization and autonomy in choices of marriage and divorce, the system remains resilient and intervenes in the lives of young families. To analyze the discourses of divorced urban young adults, 46 participants (23 women and 23 men) aged 24–39 years were recruited from various regions in China. Through an analysis of the stressors involved in marriage and divorce, the concrete values and the conceptions shared in a unitary system of traditions were elicited. The promise of stability in a marriage was the appeal of this system while the focus on offspring was the general interest with evolutionary elements that justify this system. The concept of the individual autonomy of divorce grew from marital experiences and would be confined to the traditional system if its appeal remains unchallenged.

The Role of Facial Expressions in the Art of Musical Conducting

"Facial expressions can be regarded as an accurate reflection of the inner emotions people manifest towards the surrounding reality, filtered through their own emotional „strainer”. The source of these feelings lies not only in external influences, but also in a man's own thoughts, experiences, level of education and culture, as well as the degree of development of their own volitional and emotional capacities, in which muscle movements are merely just a simple mechanical means of rendering. The entire array of facial expressions acts as a unitary system which does nothing but complete the movements of the conductor's hands, filling them with meaning. We can say that this type of communication represents a way of combining the most delicate, vibrant, profound, and subtle feelings. It would be impossible to imagine that the movement of the arms, unsupported by the expression of the eyes and face or by the position of the body, were able to express a large array of emotions (joy, pain, sadness, rage, fear, surprise, or confidence) accurately and unequivocally. Keywords: facial expressions, mimicry, nonverbal communication, conductor, performance. "

Beyond aesthetics: The long take as the nation-form in the cinema of Lav Diaz

This article argues that the extreme long take of Lav Diaz is not only his aesthetic method but also his ideological position as a filmmaker of Third Cinema, reinstating the theory’s critical arsenal in opposing the violent structure of the postcolonial nation state. It maintains that the Diaz shot is isomorphic to the nation-form and has two political dimensions: first, the extreme duration of the shot is Diaz’s resistance to the imperialism of mainstream cinema and its debilitating effects by employing ‘dead time’ which creates restlessness and reflexivity that disrupt absorption to enable a mode of critical spectatorship; second, the Diaz shot is a critique on Philippine postcolonial society which can be understood by examining the triadic structure of space, time and body. Using the film Mula sa Kung Ano Ang Noon (From What Is Before) (2014), this article proposes an anatomy of the shot as a unitary system of environment, duration and progression of actions, labouring bodies of subalterns in the state of bare life. It expands the possibility of the long take from the narrowly held study of time and space to include a study of bodies.

‘I am not beholden to anyone… I consider myself to be an officer of the court’: A comparison of the intermediary role in England and Wales and Northern Ireland

Intermediaries were first introduced by the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) to facilitate communication between individuals with communication needs and the criminal justice system. Yet, despite increased academic attention into this new criminal justice actor, the content of the role remains unclear. Findings from 31 interviews with intermediaries in England and Wales and Northern Ireland as well as judges in Northern Ireland indicate that two distinct systems of intermediaries have emerged between the jurisdictions. The picture is complicated by an inequality in intermediary provision between witnesses and defendants. In England and Wales, the statutory intermediary scheme covers only witnesses whereas the ‘unitary’ system in Northern Ireland covers both witnesses and defendants. Drawing on the data collected, this article highlights key themes which underpin differences in intermediary practice and suggests that lessons can be learned in how we conceptualise the role and its work.

UNITARIZAM VIDOVDANSKOG USTAVA – IZMEĐU PREDLAGANOG I USVOJENOG

After formation of the state, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, very first step to do was to adopt the new constitution. As a matter of fact, it was not so easy to do, because that piece of work showed all the lines of conflict in the new state. Among others, the basic conflict was between the supporters of the unitary and federal state system. However, despite the fact that, there were some proposals predominantly from Croatia to organize the state according to the federal model, the constitution-maker established a unitary system. In this paper, using the historical and to a lesser extent the normative method, the most basic conceptions of the most important constitutional proposals or projects, which came from both political parties and individuals, are presented. The intention of the author is to show that there were compromise proposals, as well as space to make a compromise. In the end, the author comes to the assumption of whether and to what extent the acceptance of certain federalist aspirations could have had an impact on later, it could be said, relaxation and mitigation of national conflicts. In other words, the author assumes that reaching an initial compromise could be the beginning of a later proper construction of the state structure, because a constitution tailored to the given moment and society has the greatest possibility to achieve its longevity and true realization of the legal order which it establishes.

Two routes to precarious success: Australia, New Zealand, COVID-19 and the politics of crisis governance

Australia and New Zealand are routinely presented as sharing more in common than the federal and unitary systems separating them. As two modernising Antipodean settler societies, their governing trajectories have embraced waves of public administration/management reform. Shared pathways seem matched by their relative, although precarious and fragile, early successes in the crisis challenges of COVID-19. This article contextualises and examines one crucial point of separation: two very different crisis governance routes to such outcomes. Australia’s federal variant of multi-level governance, more used to addressing diverse regional challenges than shared national threats, has been characterised by an evolving balancing act of multi-jurisdictional agendas and bureaucratic–political conflicts. By contrast, New Zealand’s unitary system of governance, well-versed in the centralisation of power, has produced lower levels of intergovernmental conflict. Our analysis of these differing pathways also makes a contribution to our conceptual understanding of successful crisis governance. Points for practitioners Administrative arrangements based around federal or unitary systems are both quite capable of contributing to successful outcomes. Essential for both are inclusive crisis discussions that are consistent with the norms of the respective systems. Success can be fragile, especially in a pandemic. Appropriate inclusive discussions can facilitate responses to cascading crisis developments and act as a safeguard against complacency.

England: England and PISA—The Long View

This chapter does not drill down in the minutiae of the PISA results for England. For that, readers can go to the NFER’s excellent report (Sizmur in Achievement of 15-year-olds in England: PISA 2018 Results DFE-RR961 2019) which comprises the UK Government’s commentary on the PISA outcomes. Rather, it tries to do something unique—it places the PISA results in the context of policy changes which may be associated with PISA outcomes, and seeks to explain the factors which determine the trends present in the PISA data. It looks briefly at the other administrations of the UK (Scotland and Wales in particular), but highlights the vital differences between those administrations. I maintain that ‘The UK’ cannot be treated as a unitary system.

Balancing Nigerian Federal System: The Politics and Economics of a Federation.

This paper discusses the efforts that have been made since Nigeria became independent in 1960 to balance her federal system. These efforts include balancing the territorial structure, creation of states, the power structure between the central and state governments, balancing inform of revenue allocation formulae and balancing by the adoption of federal character principle. Thus, to what extent have these efforts succeeded in balancing Nigerian federal system? Today, however, the efforts continue as Nigerian federal system is being confronted by the clamour for restructuring. The paper concludes by recommending a review of the current federal system which is being practiced more like a unitary system.