Human capital and innovativeness of the European Union regions

The objective of this article is to analyze and classify European Union (EU) regions according to human capital and innovativeness. Innovativeness of 225 EU NUTS-2 regions within 2008–2010 is analyzed with special attention paid to human capital. Eighteen indicators of innovativeness and human capital were adapted and transformed into four mutually orthogonal components, with use of factor analysis. The use of factor analysis eliminated the portions of information overlapping in indicators proposed in the beginning of the analysis. It is one of the beneficial differences between the approach presented in this article and the Regional Innovation Scoreboard. A second difference is the scope, for in this article the specific meaning of human capital in the innovation process was highlighted. On this basis the EU regions were classified in five homogeneous groups. It enabled the authors to draw conclusions concerning the areas of innovativeness which need specific support and the potential to be exploited. On the basis of our article concerning the issue of relatively poor innovativeness of some EU regions’ economies, it's worth stressing that underinvestment in the field of human capital is one of the basic causes which determine different results obtained in innovation activity.     

Human capital,time use,and other family behavior

Human capital theory is recommended as a fertile theory to explain many aspects of family time use behavior. Some examples are given of the potential usefulness of the concepts of general and specific human capital. Investment of parental time in children is urged as a fruitful area of time use research.The criticisms of this article by my colleagues Rosemary Avery, Dean Lillard, and Dan Mont improved it materially. The views expressed are mine and not theirs, as they so ably pointed out, and I retain responsibility for them.Dr. Bryant's research interests include the consumption, investment and time use behavior of families and family members.     

The role of social capital in the job-related regional mobility decisions of unemployed individuals

Social capital is an important factor in interregional mobility. Although most prior research has focused on its role in the job-finding process, this study investigates the function of social networks and the social capital embedded therein after an interregional job offer has been received. This subject is particularly important for the unemployed, who should be able to exploit a mobility strategy to re-enter the labour market. Unemployed persons rely on their social networks to cope with joblessness, but there is evidence that social contexts can also act as mobility traps for this group (Windzio, 2004). We examine whether the unemployed weight social capital in a unique manner when making decisions regarding mobility.To investigate these issues, we combine a factorial survey module (FSM) with data from the German “Labour market and social security” (PASS) panel study to generate representative samples of both unemployed and employed persons with a randomised mobility stimulus in the form of hypothetical interregional job offers. Our results reveal the mobilising effects of exposure to conflict-laden relationships with the social network and the household. These are particularly pronounced for unemployed persons, highlighting the importance of factors that influence decision making about mobility beyond simple economic considerations.     

Human capital, social capital, entrepreneurship and disability: an examination of some current educational trends in the UK

Influenced by European policy, human capital and social capital are currently of interest in UK education policy and practice, expressed particularly in the concepts of lifelong learning and entrepreneurship. Human capital and social capital ideas are shown to be flawed by not taking disability into account. The characteristics of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education are examined for relevance to young people with disabilities or learning difficulties and it is concluded that more could be done to develop opportunities for entrepreneurship. The position of people when work is not an option is considered, leading to the question of whether there is a 'disability industry', and an acknowledgement of the importance to the economy of disabled people as consumers and producers. A wider definition of entrepreneurship, which includes people with disabilities and learning difficulties, is sought and the paper concludes by discussing the wider implications for the learning community.     

Suburban ethnicities: Home as the site of interethnic conviviality and racism

This article explores the ways in which the white working-class residents of a suburban English town reflect on their relationships with their British Asian Pakistani Muslim neighbors. Its focus is on how everyday constructions of home become sites for the intermingling of discourses of intercultural conviviality and racism. My contention is that the idea of home has not yet been given the detailed critical attention that it deserves in the sociological literature on everyday manifestations of multiculturalism, conviviality, and racism. My supposition is that a special focus on the idea of home as the site of conviviality offers a productive avenue to analyze how intercultural relationships are formed and how the norms of neighborliness are thought to break down, opening a space for commonplace racialized and racist stereotypes to take hold. The idea of home is central to the rhythm and landscape of the English suburbs. It conjures up the idea of a uniform and aspirational white space. Drawing on this imaginary of home, I shall trace how “white working class” “English,” “Scottish,” and “Anglo-Italian” residents’ everyday constructions of home become embroiled with their relationships with their British Asian Pakistani Muslim neighbors.     

Money in marriage

Abstract

Mrs Allonby: I dont't think we should ever be spoken about as other people's property. All men are married women's property. That is the only true definition of what married women's property really is. But we don't belong to anyone. A woman of No Importance, Oscar Wilde 1893

The author suggests that it is vital that we address money directly in our work with couples. It is an area that has been relatively neglected, both by practitioners and researchers. Everyday talk testifies to the meaning and importance that money plays in people's lives. It also conveys attitudes about the way men and women view each other and relate to one another. The psychological implications of these social attitudes for women are addressed and an agenda is suggested for further thought and research.     

Cohabitation before marriage

This study compares 159 married couples who had or had not lived together previous to marriage with respect to a number of demographic and personality variables. There were few differences between the two groups on background variables but many on personality traits. Males who had cohabited perceived themselves as more androgynous, attractive, and less religious than males who did not cohabit. Females who cohabited saw themselves as more interested in art, attractive, extroverted, intelligent, liberal, androgynous, and having more leadership qualities; while being less religious, clothes-conscious, and law-abiding than women who did not cohabit. Couples who cohabited showed significantly greater sexual experimentation and self-perception accuracy than the couples who did not cohabit. Cohabitors revealed some background and trait within-group differences as a function of the length of their cohabital experiences. The majority of differences between the groups were in terms of variables assessed on the females. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. Authors' Note: This investigation was supported in part by a Research Scientist Development Award (K02-DA00017) and a research grant (DA01070) from the U.S. Public Health Service. The assistance of Deborah Cabin is gratefully acknowledged.     

Changing marriage patterns

Abstract

In recent times marriage has seemingly become less popular, more fragile and less of an exclusive setting for having children. This paper examines recent changes in marriage, cohabitation, divorce and re-marriage patterns. It suggests that much of the decline in marriage rates, seen since the beginning of the 1970s, is likely to be due to people marrying at increasingly older ages, rather than a wholesale rejection of marriage. One of the more important elements influencing changes in marriage patterns is the rise in cohabitation. We track the development of cohabitation and note that it is now virtually a majority practice prior to marrying and commonplace prior to a re-marriage. Few cohabitations continue for extended periods

Cohabitation generally precedes rather than substitutes for marriage. However, a growing minority of couples are no longer marrying before becoming parents and this has contributed to the recent doubling in the proportion of extra-marital births. Over recent decades more people have been divorcing and divorcing earlier in marriage. Re-marriage remains a popular option, although there have been marked declines in re-marriage rates which may be due to more divorced people cohabiting and cohabiting for longer periods     

Relating European emigration and marriage patterns

This article discusses a number of the ways in which marriage and migration interacted in European sending areas for migration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also speculates as to some of the ramifications of those changes in marriage and migration patterns. In particular, it uses sources from the Netherlands in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to illustrate a few patterns, some quantitative ones already well known to scholars of demography and some qualitative ones which have received less attention, and poses some hypotheses which other researchers can pursue for other emigration regions and periods. Unlike international migrants from many sending regions, where single men dominated the migration of this period, those from the Netherlands at the turn of the century tended more often to move in family units. In discussing these issues, this article demonstrates the degree to which marriage in the sending country was affected by migration, offering a variety of insights into the way in which these changes were of a gendered nature.     

The future of marriage and hispanics

At least two important demographic changes will occur in the United States in the future: the growth of the Hispanic population and the growth of the second and third generations among Hispanics. We argue that the expansion of the Hispanic population is unlikely to slow the retreat from marriage, despite the pronuptial cultural orientations of some groups of immigrants and their native‐born coethnics. On the contrary, the second‐ and third‐generation descendents of immigrants will join in the retreat from marriage as a result of their exposure to the cultural and economic environment of the United States, as well as changes in the countries from which their immigrant parents originate. Sources of uncertainty about this scenario are noted.     

The transition to marriage

Cohabitation has often been viewed as easing the transition to marriage. The question is therefore asked, what characterizes relationships in which couples live together for an extended period of time prior to marriage, then decide to marry, and within two to three years are divorced? Four groups were interviewed (cohabitated/married; cohabitated/married/divorced; dated/married; dated/married/divorced) with the hope of analyzing the differences or similarities in the marital transitions made by individuals within these groups. The total sample consisted of 40 respondents who were given an in-depth, face-to-face interview. It was found that the degree of congruence between dyad members regarding perceptions and expectations surrounding marriage and marital life was an important factor in the success with which couples were able to make the marital transition.     

Marital power and quality of marriage

This Workshop was organized recently by the “Christians in Social Work-Social Welfare” group in Sydney and was led by Jim Crawley, a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Preston Institute of Technology. Although the Workshop was intended primarily for social workers, attendance was open to those working in related spheres of activity. The terms “interpersonal helping” and “counsellor” were used as they are indicative of a type of activity and are not associated with any one professional group.     

Revisiting asymmetric marriage rules

Although generalized exchange remains an emblematical model of alliance theory, characterizing matrimonial systems as pertaining to this model is tricky. The necessary condition of generalized exchange is the deliberate preference for asymmetric exchanges. Given a marriage dataset, can we determine whether the observed pattern is due to the realization of a social norm enjoining symmetric or asymmetric exchange or is the result of random processes? Here, relevant probabilities and indexes are established in the framework of graph theory, and are validated using a demographic individual-based model. The methods are applied to three datasets from the literature, allowing to assess with great confidence that the observed marriage configurations were not random.     

Heterosexual alternatives to marriage

The purpose of this study is to test perceptions regarding the sexuality of older persons and the appropriateness of alternatives to marriage for intimacy. Using data gathered from a random sample of 211 adult residents of a Southern city, we find that older persons are judged to be sexual beings and that some support exists for alternative outlets for sexual expression.