This volume examines the shifting role of the state and social organizations (e.g. NGOs) in providing social services in contemporary China. A series of case studies identifies a dynamic whereby the state increasingly withdraws from social service provision with social organizations taking up the slack. An interdisciplinary line up of contributors explore this dynamic, and how it affects the state-society relationship and the quality of social services provided. Based on current research, this book engages existing debates over state-society relations offering a new thematic framework to evaluate this relationship. Drawing on the framework, each chapter explores a particular aspect of social service provision including orphan care, migrant labor protection and infectious disease control. Differentiating between case studies of crisis and non-crisis social service provision situations, this volume argues that state and social organizations engage in ongoing negotiations to achieve shared social service provision goals -- a dynamic largely controlled by the state.
However during crises, the controlled relationship may alter as the priority becomes addressing the immediate demand for essential social services. The result is the potential for a rapid change in relations between the state and social organizations.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgements
Section I: Foundations
Chapter One: What is research?
Chapter Two: Defining and describing variables
Chapter Three: Designing sound research--variable roles, threats to validity, and research design
Chapter Four: How are research questions formed and what are the parts of well-written research reports?
Chapter Five: What is logical about statistical logic and what purposes does it serve?
Section II: Analyzing Differences Between Two Sets of Data
Chapter Six: The parametric t-test statistics
Chapter Seven: The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test statistics
Section III: Analyzing Differences Among more than Two Sets of Data
Chapter Eight: Introduction to the parametric between-group analysis of variance statistic (ANOVA)
Chapter Nine: The non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Friedman's Test statistics
Section IV: Analyzing Patterns within a Variable and Between Two Variables
Chapter Ten: The parametric Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient statistic
Chapter Eleven: The non-parametric Spearman’s Rho and Kendall's Tau statistics
Chapter Twelve: The non-parametric Chi-Squared statistics
References
About the Author :
Jean L. Turner is Professor, TESOL/TFL Program, Monterey Institute of International Studies, USA.
Review :
"The clear and systematic writing style and many concrete examples from language education research make this book an excellent entry point to quantitative research for even those who might be afraid of statistics. Its coverage of non-parametric statistics is particularly useful."
Ari Huhta, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
"This book helps readers to understand basic statistical logics and principles, and to analyze and interpret their data using, the freeware statistical program R, available online. It is suitable for language teachers who may not be satisfied with statistical resources that have many intimidating numbers and formulas but without relevant language learning and teaching contexts"
Sun-Young Shin, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
The strength of Turner’s book is that it never loses sight of the target audience: language teachers or novice researchers who want to conduct research in their individual contexts with nonrandom and small or unequal samples sizes, which are likely to require the application of nonparametric statistical procedures. In addition, those without access to expensive software like SPSS or with limited knowledge of how to get started using the free software R will find this book an invaluable addition to their personal library."
Aaron C. Sponseller, JALT Journal
