維菁 12/1/07

Time: 12/1 Sat 2PM
Location: 湘韻家 (UT Brackenridge Apt)
Speaker: 王維菁 (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Radio, TV, Film)
Host: 蕭靜慧

第一階段講題與綱要如下:
Origins of Economic Inequality in the Age of Information Society: Wage Structure, Unemployment, and Occupation Transformation in Taiwan after 1980

本週討論將從批判政治經濟學的認識論—社會變遷與歷史、社會整體性、道德哲學、以及實踐—出發，探討台灣自1980年代進入知識、技術密集的資訊經濟生產時期後，經濟不平等所生的變化，並探究此一演變發生的可能核心因素。在討論中我們也將簡短回顧台灣經濟發展史，以理解政策、經濟生產模式等如何影響財富分配。至於本文中所欲探討的經濟不平等將聚焦於勞動市場結構，包括薪資不平等、失業、以及職業結構變遷等。

Introduction
The purpose of this research is to explore the changes in economic inequality, if any, that occur when a newly industrialized country (NIC) such as Taiwan ushers in an information economy, defined as information intensive and information technology (IT) production-centric; and further, to track the possible origins of this changing inequality. In terms of economy inequality, this dissertation will concentrate on labor market conditions, including wage inequality, unemployment, and occupation structure alteration, to see how the state and its policies, informationalization, industrial transformation, global competition, changed labor market institutions, and other possible economic factors might go hand in hand to shape the changes in wealth distribution and economic inequality in the age of information society. Since the 1980s, Taiwan industries have undergone a dramatic conversion from traditional labor intensive manufacturing to IT, information and skill intensive industries, as well as service industries. Both government and domestic enterprises were eager to promote this industrial upgrade by adopting informationalization and by expanding skill and information intensive industries such as IT, telecommunications, and knowledge-based industries. Consequently, from 1990 on, Taiwan has become a key producer of IT products and ranks highly worldwide in information and communication technology (ICT) penetration. In 2006, Taiwan’s service industry accounted for 73.44% of the total GDP, manufacturing accounted for 24.99%, and agriculture accounted for only 1.57%; among these sectors, knowledge concentrated manufacturing and service industries were estimated to jointly produce at least 45% of the total GDP. At a time when there are few relevant empirical studies of NICs in transition, Taiwan, whose industrial and economic transformation has been complete and well-documented, provides an excellent case study of changes in economic inequality in the transition from a NIC to an “information economy.”
(Data is calculated based on the Output-Input Data provided by the Council for Economic Planning and Development.)

第二部分的台灣聊天室 討論題目為目前台灣經濟發展狀況
Tentative focuses are
1. 目前台灣經濟發展狀況在國際環境下的優勢與劣勢
2. 未來台灣經濟發展的方向與可能性
3. 經濟成長與公平如何平衡，經濟成長對台灣大多數人是否真有獲益？ 進而思考
我們要的是一個什麼樣的社會？

維邦 11/3/2007

Time: 11/3 Sat 2PM
Location: UTC 3.102
Speaker: 王維邦
Host: 陳湘韻

Talk:The Social Causes of Depression: The Example of Aging Vector Model by Wei-Pang Wang (sociology)
Taiwan Chatting Room: "Going to the doctor and paying for the insurance---comparing TW and the US."

第一階段由邦邦哥 主講　講題與綱要如下
The Social Causes of Depression: The Example of Aging Vector Model

健康與病痛社會學 (Sociology of Health and Illness)是西方社會學界與人口學界近年最蓬勃發展的領域之一。該領域認為生老病死不僅是個人的各別生命經驗，更呈現社會因素所塑造的健康與病痛之不平等階層。雖然此觀點已在西方社會獲得廣泛的實證支持，相關議題卻甚少討論於台灣社會學界。
本講題因此試圖介紹教育程度—身為影響台灣社會階層的核心因素—是否亦影響台灣社會心理健康如憂鬱症狀（Depression）的不平等。演講內容將藉由台灣地區中老年身心社會生活狀況長期追蹤調查所提供長達十四年的長期貫時性資料及運用潛在成長曲線模型與老化向量圖(Latent Growth Curve Model with Aging Vectors Graphs)為帥氣又美麗的壇友們提供實證例子。

第二部分的台灣聊天室 討論題目為　「台美看病/保險 經驗/制度 比較」
相信大家對美國的醫療花費昂貴都有相當的感受　在台灣看病相較之下方便又便宜許多
但或許大家也聽說過'健保破產'的說法　甚至親身體驗到從前只要看一次的病　現在醫生要求你去診所兩次
這次的聊天室希望大家能分享自己在台灣跟美國（或是其他地方）的就醫與保險經驗　以及提供對兩地不同制度的認識

龍男 10/20/07 Open House

Time: 10/20/2007 (Saturday), 2:00pm
Place: CMA 3.116
Speaker: 陳龍男（MFA Candidate, RTF- FILM PRODUCTION）
Host: 張凱滿 (Kai-man Chang)

紀錄片欣賞及討論

片名: UTaiwan
紀錄片 / DV / 彩色 / 20分鐘 / 台灣,美國 / 2007 / 世界首映

----導演簡介----

凡亞思‧以撒克（陳龍男），阿美族，執導並製作過多部得獎紀錄片及短片，其中描述年輕搖滾樂團的第六部作品「海洋熱」更分別得到台灣、美國、瑞士、南韓及香港等地影展的高度肯定；和台灣公共電視也曾有多項合作計畫。2005年獲教育部公費，目前正於美國德州大學奧斯汀分校(University of Texas at Austin)就讀電影製作學系碩士。


----影片介紹---- (王佩瑜)

你都用什麼樣的話語在異地他鄉對別人形容故鄉"台灣"呢?

馬德生，曾懷萱，和陳銘駒，三個來自台灣的UT留學生，用行動表達出他們對台灣的情感和認同。這部紀錄片不僅刻畫著他們對家鄉的愛，也描繪出我們每一個人對於家鄉的執著。

台灣聊天室

配合龍男的影片,這禮拜的台灣聊天室就以 "影像台灣" 為主題,台灣是我們的故鄉我們的家, 但在別人眼中又是什麼呢? 美國人看到的台灣是什麼樣子? 沒看到的又是什麼? 台灣是不被聯合國承認的國家, 是全球最大的晶圓代工國, 也是王建民的國家, 還有呢? 下面是我在Youtube上看到有關台灣的影像, 歡迎大家能提供各種不同的台灣影像, 来幫助我們看見其中的異同．

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvA-nKGbgzU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaSqgVIDdHo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_FG_pKH5Q8

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/tinyzhan/article?mid=2635&prev=3015&l=f&fid=58

Fall 2007 Schedule

date Speaker/Host
9/22 怡慧/維邦
10/13 guest speaker/志成
10/20 龍男/凱滿 Open house
11/3 維邦/承甫
11/17 維菁/靜慧
12/1 期末聚餐/湘韻

靜慧 3/17/2007

Time: 3/17/2007
Place: Ching-hui's apartment at Brackenridge
Speaker: Ching-hui Hsiao (蕭靜慧), Foreign Language Education
Host: Kaiman Chang


Do family Influences really matter?
--Researching the role of family influences on English education in Taiwan--

The purpose of this study is to investigate family influences on EFL education in Taiwan. Bourdieu (1977) uses the term, social reproduction, to analyze how the various forms of capital tend to transfer from one generation to the next. The children of privilege fit into the world of educational expectations with apparent “ease”, a process he calls “under-selection”. The unprivileged found the process to be “difficult”, presenting “challenges”, a process he calls “over-selection”. Yet both are dictated by their upbringing. Bourdieu regards this “ease” or “natural“ ability as the product of a great social labor, largely on the part of the parents, equipping their children with the dispositions of manner and ensuring they are able to succeed within the educational system and can then reproduce their parent’ class in the wider social system.

In his study conducted in a city in central Taiwan, Broaded (1997) nevertheless finds the standardized test scores of the entrance examination are not significantly correlated with students’ family backgrounds among a sample of 1,098 junior high graduates and concludes that institutional tracking in junior high schools in Taiwan reduces the influence of family background characteristics on the distribution to stratified senior secondary opportunities. Other than institutional factors, cultural (Confucianism) factors also help explain these differences--educational achievement values are more diffused into the lower levels of Taiwan’s class structure than the case in the U.S. because of the cultural legacy of Confucianism.