Ethnic Coexistence in Deeply Divided Societies: The Case of Arab Athletes in the Hebrew Media

This article examines the various elements affecting reconciliation and coexistence in deeply divided societies through the case of Arab soccer players in the Israeli media. We analyze the discourse surrounding the concept du‐kium (coexistence) in the Israeli media between the years 2002 and 2008. Our findings reveal that Jewish journalists and public figures interpret coexistence as Arab citizens' complete acceptance of the Jewish perspective and narrative. Arab soccer players are expected to underplay their Palestinian identity, master Hebrew, and identify with the Jewish narrative and views. We contrast the Israeli case with two other cases of prolonged conflict—Rwanda and Bosnia‐Herzegovina. The study highlights that cognitive perceptions and schemes may hinder genuine reconciliation even when various groups reject overt racism and profess candid desire for coexistence.     

Welfare Reform and Elderly Immigrants' Naturalization: Access to Public Benefits as an Incentive for Naturalization in the United States

Welfare reform in the United States restricted non‐citizens' eligibility for public assistance programs and strengthened economic benefits from naturalization. We examine the impact of these policy changes on elderly immigrants' naturalization, considering their level of need for public benefits. Using individual data from the Current Population Survey as well as state‐level data, we employ a differences‐in‐differences approach to consider variations in time, state policy, and probability of Medicaid participation. Results show that naturalization significantly increased among elderly immigrants who were likely to participate in Medicaid, suggesting that elderly immigrants in need of Medicaid became naturalized to maintain their eligibility for public benefits after welfare reform.     

“Infiltrators” or Refugees? An Analysis of Israel's Policy Towards African Asylum-Seekers

This article adopts a genealogical approach in examining Israeli immigration policy by focusing on the situation confronting African asylum seekers who have been forced back into Egypt, detained and deported but who have not had their asylum claims properly assessed. Based on immigration policies formulated at the time of Israeli independence, whose principle objective was to secure a Jewish majority state, we argue that Israel's treatment of African asylum seekers as ‘infiltrators’/economic migrants stems from an insistence on maintaining immigration as a sovereign issue formally isolated from other policy domains. Such an approach is not only in violation of Israel's commitment to the Refugee Convention, it directly contributes to policies which are ineffective and unduly harsh.     

Risk Preferences and Immigration Attitudes: Evidence from Four East Asian Countries

Economic interests, such as increased job market competition or tax burden in the host countries, often explain attitudes toward immigration. Some empirical studies that have adopted this economic perspective report, however, that an individual's economic circumstances are not directly linked to his or her attitudes toward immigration, emphasizing that people can have different interpretations even under the same circumstances. We argue that risk preferences (i.e., willingness to take risks) shape personal perceptions about the costs and benefits of immigrant workers in the job market and immigration. Using the 2008 East Asian Social Survey from China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, we find that individuals who like to take more risks are more likely to be positive about immigration. Our study indicates the importance of psychological tendency in the formation of native citizens' attitudes toward immigration.     

Policing the Boundaries of Sex: A Critical Examination of Gender Verification and the Caster Semenya Controversy

On August 19, 2009, Caster Semenya, South African track star, won a gold medal in the women's 800-meter event. According to media reports, on the same day, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ordered Semenya to undergo gender verification testing. This article critically assesses the main concepts and claims that undergird international sport organizations' policies regarding “gender verification” or “sex testing.” We examine the ways in which these policies operate through several highly contested assumptions, including that (a) sex exists as a binary; (b) sport is a level playing field for competitors; and (c) some intersex athletes have an unfair advantage over women who are not intersex and, as such, they should be banned from competition to ensure that sport is a level playing field. To conclude, we make three recommendations that are consistent with the attainment of sex and gender justice in sport, which include acknowledging that myriad physical advantages are accepted in sport, recognizing that sport as a level playing field is a myth, and eliminating sex testing in sport.     

The Political Values and Choices of Husbands and Wives

This article applies theoretical ideas in the literature on the household division of labor to the analysis of partners’ political preferences. We regress men's and women's political party preferences on their own and their partners’ characteristics using data from the 1991 British Household Panel Survey (N =2,846). We find a symmetrical pattern of influence: Men and women both give greatest weight to their own political values but also accord some significant weight to their partners’ values. Economically dependent men, however, place virtually no emphasis on their partners’ political values. Apart from this, we suggest that there may be a process of mutual accommodation within couples regarding political preferences that leads to greater concordance in the partners’ preferences over time.     

Choice and caring: The experiences of parents supporting young people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions as they move into adulthood

This paper reports findings about parents' experiences of caring for young people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASCs) moving into adulthood. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 38 parents of young people (15–21 years) with ASCs. Data were analysed thematically. In the perceived absence of service support, parents' acted as ‘care‐coordinators’ and ‘life‐supporters’ for their child as they moved into adulthood. These roles came with little choice, emotional demands and personal restrictions. Being supported was important for parents, but preferences differed regarding what this should look like. Implications for policy are discussed.     

What does the public want from agriculture and the countryside? A review of evidence and methods

Multifunctional agriculture attempts to establish a new balance between traditional commodity support and payment for the production of non-market goods and services that are increasingly demanded by the public. Supplying non-market goods presents particular problems for optimal policy design, not least the elicitation of consumer demand for those goods. The resulting configuration of support policy has potentially enormous implications for rural areas and yet surprisingly little is known about how the public would prefer public support to be allocated. This seems to have more to do with the political expediency than true public preferences. We review the evidence of consumer demand for non-market goods and consider the methodologies used for eliciting public preferences regarding the policy tradeoffs that are likely to characterise the agri-industry reform debate.     

Evaluation of a cross-sector community initiative partnership: Delivering a local sport program

Corporate community initiatives (CCI) are often established via cross-sector partnerships with nonprofit agencies to address critical social problems. While there is a growing body of literature exploring the effectiveness and social impact of these partnerships, there is a limited evaluative research on the implementation and execution processes of CCIs. In this paper, we examined the implementation and operational processes in the delivery of a professional sport organization's CCI initiative using program theory evaluation. The findings showed discrepancies between the associate organization and the implementers regarding understanding and fulfilling responsibilities with performing certain aspects (maintaining accurate records and program marketing) of the service delivery protocol. Despite program stakeholders being satisfied overall with the program delivery, contradictions between program stakeholders’ satisfaction in the quality of program delivery was found in critical components (marketing and communications) of the service delivery. We conclude that ongoing evaluations are necessary to pinpoint the catalyst of the discrepancies along with all partners valuing process evaluation in addition to outcome evaluation.     

Undisciplined: Tracing Criminology's Growing Divergence From Sociology

Several influential sociologists have questioned the wisdom of criminology's departure from sociology. Omitted from these reflections are the rationale explaining the schism. The present work grants a historical account to fill that absence. Oral histories with 17 leading criminologists, 13 of whom trained as sociologists, have been collected and analyzed. Two domains are explored, professional/organizational and informal/intellectual. First, the departments evidence different hiring patterns, journal content preferences, and journal structures over the past half‐century. Second, there are contrasts regarding ideology; sociology trends leftward. Criminological research concentrates on a dependent variable; sociology links to a unifying orientation. There are concerns that the field's training and research may be too narrow and that the lure of influencing policy could undermine its opportunity to offer critical commentary. Criminology's focus on addressing crime as a practical concern serves some advantages. However, many respondents were conflicted over the loss of an abiding identity. If the field fails to confront its preference for multitheoretical, policy‐driven discussion, it risks being pruned or subsumed without a more fixed sense of identity.     

Children's participation in national policymaking: “You're so adorable,adorable, adorable! I'm speechless; so much fun!”

Policymaking is one of the most challenging arenas in which children's participation rights are implemented. The goal of this study is to portray patterns of children's participation in public policymaking and characterize various adults' reactions to children's participation. The study draws on protocols of committees operating in the Israeli parliament and interviews with an advisory group of children and young people who had participated on the committees. The findings show the potential of children's participation in national policymaking to mobilize policy change and to contextualize policy discussions. They also demonstrate that children's comments in policy discussions may evoke extreme responses, expressed as either fawning or dismissing. The conclusions offer practices that may assist in preparing both the participating children and the policymakers and in diversifying the children's voices.     

Improving Child rights in the Gulf: Expectations from the brand-new child law of Oman

Located in the Arabian Peninsula, Oman has a unique place in the improvement of its citizens' life standards, including the recent child law projected by its Renaissance movement. The new law was issued on May 19, 2014—however, no reactions on expectations have been documented. In Oman, the main source for early childhood teachers is the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and graduates from the Early Childhood Education Department (ECED) are also expected to act as advocates for child rights in all sectors of the society. In light of these groups' prominence in advocacy efforts, it is important to understand their perspectives on changes in the law that could affect a child's life. This research study aimed to gain a better understanding of early childhood pre-service teachers' expectations of Oman's new child law. In addition, a detailed background on child rights and the new child law is offered here. The selective sampling method was deployed in this study—participants were 25 SQU students from ECED. Qualitative research methods were used. Findings showed that expectations of the new child law are abundant, yet a few concerns remain. Findings are discussed and recommendations for policy makers are made.     

The Varieties of Religious Significance: An Idiographic Approach to Study Religion's Role in Adolescent Development

We present a rationale and method for taking an idiographic approach to study the role religion plays in adolescent development. We theorize that adolescents harness qualitatively different aspects of religion to address idiosyncratic developmental needs. Therefore, analyzing religion's role in adolescent development necessitates a case‐by‐case holistic analysis. We introduce a systematic method using narratives to identify the personal ways that individuals attribute meaning in general and regarding religion in particular. We present three detailed case studies from a sample of 20 religious Israeli Jewish Orthodox emerging‐adult women who provided retrospective narrative accounts of their general and religious development through adolescence. Systematic analysis reveals that religion was significant to these women in diverse and personal ways, addressing markedly different adolescent developmental needs.     

Understanding the Importance of Organizational Resources to Explain Organizational Problems: Evidence from Nonprofit Sport Clubs in Germany

Nonprofit sport clubs experience organizational problems regarding the recruitment and retention of members, volunteers, and coaches, and the financial situation of the club. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of different types of organizational resources on the severity of organizational problems. A theoretical framework based on the concept of organizational capacity is presented, which explains the influence of human, financial, infrastructure, and cultural resources on organizational problems. The empirical evaluation is undertaken using data from a nationwide online survey of nonprofit sport clubs in Germany (n = 19,345). The regression results show that human resources (women on the board, secondary volunteers, etc.), financial resources (Herfindahl index), infrastructure resources (own facilities, and public facilities), and cultural resources (e.g., strategic policy, formation policy, value of conviviality, and variety of sports) are significant determinants of organizational problems. The findings of this study have implications for the management of voluntary sport organizations.     

Oriental Othering and National Identity: A review of Early Israeli Anthropological Studies of Palestinians

Israeli culturalism, like Israeli identity at large, is premised on a two-pronged negation-that of the Jewish diaspora and that of the Arab East. Its emergence was assisted, directly or indirectly, by academic anthropology. The formative cohort of Israeli anthropology, mainly male researchers who came of academic age in the 1960s and 1970s, displayed stronger preoccupation with the Palestinian citizens of Israel than is normally recognized. This preoccupation, and the marginal status of Palestinians as a minority trapped within the ethno-territorial Jewish project, render the relationship between anthropological knowledge, Israeli statehood and constructions of Israeli identity particularly suggestive. The combination of these elements, so deeply integrated into Israeli public discourse, resurfaces in a grotesque, exaggerated form, as Israelis grapple to make sense of the Palestinian Intifada of 2000-2001 and of Wahabist inspired terrorism and America's 'War Against Terror' further a field.     

Accident Prevention Among the Elderly

In 1980 the World Health Organization (WHO) published a set of health targets to guide the health policy of its member states as part of its "Health For All by the Year 2000" (HFA-2000) initiatives. However, the translation of health targets into health and social program guidelines is a complex process. This paper illustrates this process through an analysis related to accident prevention among the elderly as conducted by Israeli researchers. Several types of comparative data were used in the analysis. First, the health policy guidelines published by WHO, the United States, and Israel were compared along specific parameters. Then, mortality statistics on accidents among those aged 65 and over were compared for Israel, the United States, Sweden, and Ireland in order to examine the different components of mortaliiy and suggest different priorities for accident prevention. Specific health policy recommendations made to prevent accidents among Israeli elderly are noted; they are compared to those adopted by Israel's Ministry of Health. Finally, exemplary community accident prevention programs from several countries that can serve as models for translating general targets into specific social programs are described.     

Comparing States' Medicaid Nursing Facilities and Home and Community-Based Services Long-Term Care Programs: Quality and Fit with Inclination,Capacity, and Need

States employ home and community-based services (HCBS) increasingly in Medicaid support of long-term care and rely less on nursing facilities. We examine how states' nursing facilities and HCBS programs compare and whether states' long-term care responses match their ideological inclination toward, material capacity for supporting, and their citizens' need for these public social programs. We use cross-sectional panel data on structural, process, and outcome quality for nursing facilities and HCBS congregate residential programs. We rank states, correlate these measures, and use regression to link inclination, capacity, and need to quality. We find that states' nursing facility and HCBS program quality are not closely related and that state HCBS congregate residential program quality is independent of inclination, capacity, and need. This latter result underscores a need for uniform HCBS standards and better data on quality.     

Equality Bargaining: Where,Who, Why?

It is common to identify a role for trade unions in combating sex inequality at work through collective bargaining. This article uses a survey of paid union officers to identify the context in which equality bargaining by unions is likely to occur, using the specific issue of bargaining on equal pay. It concludes that equality bargaining is a function of women’s voice within unions, the characteristics and preferences of bargainers themselves and of a favourable public policy environment. Bargaining on equal pay is also more likely in centralized negotiations that cover multiple employers.     

An Initiators' Perspective on the Continuity of Citizens' Initiatives in Rural Areas

Against the backdrop of depopulation and the shift toward Big Society, citizens' initiatives in rural areas are believed to be able to mitigate the decline of service provision in rural regions. Consequently, this mitigation requires the continuity of such initiatives. However, so far, we lack an initiators' perspective on the relevance of this continuity and the factors influencing it. From a theoretical standpoint, continuity of citizens' initiatives can be understood at three levels: the participant, group, and initiative levels. Based on empirical data obtained from 157 questionnaires distributed to a variety of initiatives, and using regression analysis, the focus of this paper is twofold. First, how and at which level the initiators understand continuity of an initiative is considered. Second, factors influencing the expected continuity of an initiative are researched. The results reveal that continuity differs from merely being successful and is influenced by other factors as well. Furthermore, continuity on the initiative level—the realization of a certain goal—is most prominent in analyzing expected continuity. In conclusion, we explore the roles that citizens' initiatives can be expected to play in service provision and which levels of continuity align with these expectations.