The challenges of incorporating Muslim women's views into development policy: analysis of a Dutch action research project in Yemen

This article discusses the Muslim Women and Development Action Research Project (MWDAR), an attempt by the Dutch government to introduce new discourses on Islam and the empowerment of women into their development policy. Based on a discussion of the project in Yemen, an analysis of its evaluation reports, and follow-up research with project participants, we argue that the project did not meet expectations or project goals because it failed to go beyond an essentialist view of Muslim women. The article begins with a discussion of Dutch and Yemeni discourses on gender, Islam and development, and goes on to explore how these discourses ultimately influenced the project outcomes.     

Assessing the impact of initial nonresponse and attrition in the analysis of unemployment duration with panel surveys

We show how register data combined at person-level with survey data can be used to conduct a novel type of nonresponse analysis in a panel survey. The availability of register data provides a unique opportunity to directly test the type of the missingness mechanism as well as estimate the size of bias due to initial nonresponse and attrition. We are also able to study in-depth the determinants of initial nonresponse and attrition. We use the Finnish subset of the European Community Household Panel (FI ECHP) data combined with register panel data and unemployment spells as outcome variables of interest. Our results show that initial nonresponse and attrition are clearly different processes driven by different background variables. Both the initial nonresponse and attrition mechanisms are nonignorable with respect to analysis of unemployment spells. Finally, our results suggest that initial nonresponse may play a role at least as important as attrition in causing bias. This result challenges the common view of attrition being the main threat to the value of panel data.     

Towards a Variety of Meanings – Multiple Representations of Reputation in the Small Business Context

This paper examines the discursively constructed meanings for reputation in the small business context – an area of reputation research that has so far attracted little attention. We argue that viewing reputation as a social construction makes it possible to uncover and understand the variety of meanings attached to the concept in small businesses. On the basis of 25 thematic interviews with owner‐managers we (re)constructed four meanings for reputation: reputation as an economic resource, as social recognition, as a restrictive control mechanism and as a risk for personal status. We also investigate the variety of discursive events in which these meanings are created. The study further emphasizes reputation as a phenomenon in which a small business becomes identified with its owner‐manager, adding to the complex and conflicting nature of reputation, including both positive and negative aspects.     

Recovery experiences as moderators between psychosocial work characteristics and occupational well-being

Abstract

This study examined the direct and moderator roles of recovery experiences (psychological detachment from work, relaxation, mastery, and control) in the relationship between psychosocial work characteristics (i.e. time demands, job control, and justice of the supervisor) and occupational well-being (need for recovery, job exhaustion, and work engagement). The study was conducted among 527 Finnish employees from several occupational sectors who were employed in a variety of different jobs. Of the employees, 53% were women and the average age was 42.4 years. The moderated hierarchical regression analyses showed that psychological detachment and mastery were protective mechanisms against increased need for recovery in a situation of lack of job control. Also, relaxation protected against increased job exhaustion under high time demands. In addition, recovery experiences – psychological detachment and mastery in particular – had direct links to occupational well-being. Altogether, the study findings suggest that recovery experiences play a significant role in maintaining well-being at work.     

Approaches for event history analysis based on complex longitudinal survey data

A researcher using complex longitudinal survey data for event history analysis has to make several choices that affect the analysis results. These choices include the following: whether a design-based or a model-based approach for the analysis is taken, which subset of data to use and, if a design-based approach is chosen, which weights to use. We discuss different choices and illustrate their effects using longitudinal register data linked at person-level with the Finnish subset of the European Community Household Panel data. The use of register data enables us to construct an event history data set without nonresponse and attrition. Design-based estimates from these data are used as benchmarks against design-based and model-based estimates from subsets of data usually available for a survey data analyst. Our illustration suggests that the often recommended way to use panel data for longitudinal analyses, data from total respondents and weights from the last wave analysed may not be the best way to go. Instead, using all available data and weights from the first survey wave appears to be a safe choice for longitudinal analyses based on multipurpose survey data.     

Dynamic Family System Trajectories From Pregnancy to Child's First Year

Family systems reorganize during transitional periods, such as the birth of a new child. Longitudinal research, however, on family dynamics during the transition to parenthood is lacking. Accordingly, the authors aimed to identify family system trajectories from pregnancy to the child's first birthday and to examine their contextual predictors. Both parents (N = 702) reported autonomy and intimacy in marital (wife‐to‐husband, husband‐to‐wife) and parenting (mother‐to‐child, father‐to‐child) relations during pregnancy and at child's ages of 2 months and 12 months. Finite mixture modeling revealed 7 unique family system trajectories: (a) Cohesive (35%), (b) Disengaged (5%), (c) Enmeshed Declining (6%), (d) Enmeshed Quadratic (5%), (e) Authoritarian (14%), (f) Escalating Crisis (4%), and (g) Discrepant (15%) families. Parental education in interaction with duration of partnership and parity predicted family trajectory membership. The study demonstrates how different family types reorganize during the transition to parenthood; this includes decline, growth, and stability in autonomy and intimacy.     

Moral panic,moral regulation and essentialization of identities: Discursive struggle over unethical business practices in the Finnish national media

The study sheds light on the language of moral panic and moral regulation in the Finnish news media over a 9-year period on the subject of cartels and cartel agreements. What makes the case particularly interesting is that the object of the most explicit moral panic was the introduction of new laws (leniency programmes) designed to regulate illegal cartel behaviour. The main argument is that the construction of both moral regulation and moral panic in news media takes place through essentializing discursive claims that contribute to national identity construction. The study contributes to current literature on moral panics as ideologico-discursive phenomena and throws some light on the power-laden discursive processes that work to reconstruct, essentialize and stabilize identities. In addition, there are some suggestions as to why some moral panics fail to develop.     

Change of Thought: Findings on Planning for Shrinkage from a Regional Design Competition

Shrinkage or ‘no growth’ is expected to condition the long-term perspective of many Western cities and regions. Planning for shrinkage differs substantively from planning for growth and therefore calls for a change of thought in spatial planning. In our paper, we analyse how planning professionals responded to a ‘planning for shrinkage’ challenge in a regional design competition. We found that they fully adapted to the shrinking perspective, took a strategic approach, and promoted a leading role for local inhabitants. Collaboration with local inhabitants and entrepreneurs, creating new alliances, and timing emerge as key themes for planning professionals in planning for shrinkage.