A Typology of Dutch Mothers’ Employment Narratives: Drifters,Privilegeds, Balancers,Ambitious

The sharp increase in Dutch mothers’ labour market participation in recent decades has led to remarkable heterogeneous working patterns. This variation makes the Netherlands an interesting case with which to explore how mothers differ in their ‘narratives of choice’ and (early adult and present) attitudes towards work, gender and motherhood. This was conducted through 39 semi-structured interviews with mothers living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The study builds further on the scientific work on relationships between attitudes and personal preferences on the one hand, and employment behaviour on the other (e.g. Hakim, in Br J Sociol 54(3):339–345, 2003; Hakim, in Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hants, 2003; Halrynjo and Lyng, in Br J Sociol 60(2):321–343, 2009; Hoffnung, in Sex Roles 50(9–10):711–723, 2004; Sanders and Beekes, in Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, 1993; Thompson, in J Sci Study Relig, 30(4):381–394, 1991). Most of these studies are based on large surveys which lack the details of behavioural steps, preferences and attitudes that mothers themselves underline as relevant while describing their employment decisions. This qualitative study reveals a typology of Dutch mothers, based on the variety of their narratives of choice and considerations regarding the ideal gender division of labour, work and motherhood. The study also reveals a ‘narrative of acceptance’ among all interviewees regarding their spouses’ contribution to the unpaid work, accompanied by a disappearance of gender concerns.     

A Critical Evaluation of Acupuncture Research

As Chinese medicine is going global, it is simultaneously adapting swiftly to local patterns of perception and interpretation, thereby being shaped into hitherto unknown forms. The globalization of Chinese medicine produces multiple localized visions of a healing system whose trademark is an “innate heterodoxy”. Barnes described the “psychologizing” of Chinese medicine in the USA (Barnes Cult Med Psychiatry 22(4):413–443, 1998). In Germany, however, biomedical instead of “holistic” patterns of perception and interpretation and a tendency to “physiologize” prevail among patients and Chinese Medical therapists. Here the recent German Acupuncture trials, and Acupuncture Randomized Trials (ART) and Cochrane data base metaanalysis (Linde et al., 2009a) shall serve as a prominent example of how German research centers around physiological phenomena and how these studies have triggered an international debate concerning the point-specific nature of acupuncture interventions. In order to evaluate the specific effect of acupuncture in randomized controlled trials, verum acupuncture, defined as acupuncture at “classical” acupuncture points, and sham acupuncture, defined as acupuncture at “non-acupuncture points”, are frequently compared. The anatomically exact location and specificity of acupuncture points are basic assumptions underlying this concept. But how clearly divisible are verum and sham acupuncture points if acupuncture physiology itself is a historical construct? To more adequately evaluate acupuncture’s effectiveness future clinical studies will have to tailor their methodology to the reality of the acupuncture encounter.     

Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together: Age and Sex-Specific Estimates of Migration amongst Countries in the EU/EFTA, 2002–2007

Because of inconsistencies in the reported migration flows and large amounts of missing data, our knowledge of international migration patterns in the Europe is limited. Methods for overcoming data obstacles and harmonising international migration data, however, are improving. In this article, we provide a methodology for integrating various pieces of incomplete information together, including a partial set of harmonised migration flows, to estimate a complete set of migration flows by origin, destination, age and sex for the 31 countries in the European Union and European Free Trade Association from 2002 to 2007. The results represent a synthetic data base that can be used to inform population projections, policy decisions and migration theory.     

Spatial Aspects of the Rise of Nonmarital Fertility Across Europe Since 1960: The Role of States and Regions in Shaping Patterns of Change

This article investigates the role of states and regions in shaping spatial patterns of nonmarital fertility in Europe since 1960 using a dataset of 497 European subnational regions and smaller countries. Almost all regions registered substantial nonmarital fertility increases over the last 50 years. Prior research has shown that in the first half of the twentieth century states played a dominant role in drawing the demographic map of Europe (Watkins, From provinces into nations: demographic integration in Western Europe 1870–1960. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1991). As a result, subnational regional variation decreased, while differences between countries increased. In this article, we investigate whether states continue to play such a dominant role in delineating patterns of nonmarital fertility between 1960 and 2007. We find that variation in nonmarital fertility levels increased as a whole across Europe, and states continued to be important for determining these patterns. However, the role of states relative to regions declined in the latest period examined (1990 and 2007). Possible explanations for the changes include increased supranational integration, for example, within the European Union, and decentralisation within states leading to increases in variation in subnational contextual conditions.     

Follow the Leader: A Relational Demography, Similarity Attraction, and Social Identity Theory of Leadership Approach of a Team’s Performance

While voluminous research exists on managerial successions and the decline of female head coaches, limited research has evaluated the impact of the coach’s gender on a team’s performance. Therefore, this study focused on gendered coaching successions to determine if the gender of the head coach influenced the team’s performance when controlling extraneous variables (e.g., revenues, expenses, and team statistics). Utilizing the theoretical foundations of relational demography (Tsui et al. in Productivity and interpersonal relations in work teams characterized by diversity, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 97–130, 1995) , similar-attraction paradigm (Byrne in The attraction paradigm. Academic Press, New York, 1971) and social identity theory of leadership (SITL; Hogg in Pers Social Psychol Rev 5:184–200, 2001), we hypothesized coaching successions to similar demographic leader-member dyad relationships would positively impact team performance. Data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Equity in Athletic Data Analysis websites were collected on all Division I women’s basketball head coaching successions from 2003 to 2010. Coaching predecessors and successors were coded by gender, win-loss ratios, and performance statistics. Analysis of variance and repeated measures analysis of covariance were used to analyze the data. Results indicated demographic similarities in leader-member dyadic relationships do not advance team performance.     

Population and labour force projections for 27 European countries, 2002-052: impact of international migration on population ageing

Population and labour force projections are made for 27 selected European countries for 2002-052, focussing on the impact of international migration on population and labour force dynamics. Starting from single scenarios for fertility, mortality and economic activity, three sets of assumptions are explored regarding migration flows, taking into account probable policy developments in Europe following the enlargement of the EU. In addition to age structures, various support ratio indicators are analysed. The results indicate that plausible immigration cannot offset the negative effects of population and labour force ageing.     

The Effect of Children on Men’s and Women’s Chances of Re-partnering in a European Context

This work examines what role children play in the re-partnering process in five European countries (Norway, France, Germany, Romania, and the Russian Federation) by addressing the following research questions: (1) To what extent do men and women differ in their re-partnering chances?; (2) Can gender differences in re-partnering be explained by the presence of children?; (3) How do the custodial arrangements and the child’s age affect the re-partnering chances of men and women? We use the partnership and parenthood histories of the participants in the first wave of the Generations and Gender Survey (United Nations, Generations and Gender Programme: Survey Instruments. United Nations, New York/Geneva, 2005) to examine the transition to moving in with a new partner following the dissolution of the first marital union, separately for men and women. The story that emerges is one of similarities in the effects rather than differences. In most countries, men are more likely to re-partner than women. This gender difference can be attributed to the presence of children as our analyses show that childless men and women do not differ in their probability to re-partner. Mothers with resident children are less likely to re-partner than non-mothers and a similar though often non-significant effect of resident children is observed for fathers. In most countries we find that as the child ages, the chances to enter a new union increase. In sum, our study indicates that children are an important factor in re-partnering and a contributor to the documented gender gap in re-partnering, and this holds throughout distinct institutional and cultural settings.     

Athletic or Sexy? A Comparison of Female Athletes and Fashion Models in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues

Using a modified version of Goffman’s (Gender advertisements. Harper Colophon, New York, 1976) gender display as a conceptual framework, this study examined the gendered body images of female athletes and female fashion models. We investigated sexualized female body images by comparing athletes with fashion models in Sports Illustrated (SI) swimsuit issues. Specifically, we used images of female athletes and female fashion models from SI swimsuit issues (n = 1,099) over the past 15 years (1997–2011). The variables analyzed included four photographic image categories: photo shot location, facial expression, body display, and hand display. The findings revealed few differences in sexual portrayals between female athletes and female fashion models.     

人口老龄化对国际移民政策的影响

以日本和欧洲发达国家为例,阐述人口老龄化对国际移民政策的影响。人口老龄化不仅带来劳动力的短缺,还带来老年护理需求的增加。中国的老龄化速度很快,政府应该提前考虑移民的相关问题,并加强对国际移民问题的研究。     

国际政治视角下的欧洲移民问题

移民问题是当今欧洲面临的最严重问题之一,但对它的既有研究往往只是在国别的或欧盟的层面上展开,而缺乏国际政治的视角,因此是不全面不完整的。而另一方面,以往的国际政治研究中也几乎没有将移民问题作为主题。但事实上,国际移民问题却是个不折不扣的国际政治主题。本文从国际政治的视角来看待欧洲移民问题,既是要为该问题的研究提供一个明确的国际政治视角,促进对它的更全面理解,也是为国际政治研究“找回”移民或欧洲移民这样一个不容忽视的主题。本文论述了欧洲历史上的向外移民及其对国际政治的塑造性影响,二战后欧洲移民问题的演进以及现状,并从国际政治视角对战后以来的欧洲移民问题进行了深入分析。     

Impact of Gender and the Stereotyped Nature of Illustrations on Choice of Color: Replica of the Study by Karniol (2011) in a Spanish Sample

Early acquisition of stereotypes that associate “blue” with boys and “pink” with girls can influence their preferences for these colors and also their choices in clothing, toys or objects in relation to gender stereotypes. In a Spanish sample (5–10-year olds, n = 614), this study reproduces the previous research conducted by Karniol (Sex Roles 65(1/2):119–132, 2011) for the purpose of analyzing whether gender-linked color preferences rule the choice of coloring booklets and if children’s choices of color are affected by their own gender. The results show that although boys used fewer female-stereotyped colors than girls, both genders colored in each figure with the stereotyped colors associated with them. This result indicates that boys and girls share similar gender stereotypes and use colors that agree with these stereotypes.     

论欧洲国家的技术移民政策

德国的绿卡政策、英国的新技术移民政策和法国的"优秀人才居留证"政策,被看作是进入21世纪以来,传统的欧洲民族国家、特别是西欧国家,实施国际人才战略、提高本国经济和技术创新活力的重要社会政策。欧洲国家的技术移民政策与以往的移民政策相比,具有强大的生命力,因此,吸引了数以万计的全球技术移民。但由于其固有的缺陷,若与作为传统移民国家美国的技术移民政策相比,其对全球技术移民的吸引力远逊于美国。作为亚洲传统的民族国家——中国,当借鉴欧洲国家和美国的技术移民政策的成功经验,制定、完善和实施中国的技术移民政策和国际人才战略。     

Confrontation des Statistiques de migrations intra-européennes: Vers plus d'harmonisation?

Each international migration stream can be enumerated twice: at the time of departure from the country of emigration and at the time of arrival in the country of immigration. In practice, errors in international migration statistics are a major obstacle to the accurate analysis of migration flows. In connection with the process of harmonization set in train by Eurostat several years ago, a method of correcting defective migration data is proposed here, which makes use of this double enumeration. The method is applied to available data in a preliminary analysis. The correction factors presented here through this mathematical approach should turn out to be useful in more than one respect: to illuminate substantial problems of incompatibility of migration data and to follow the progress of the harmonization of those data.     

Bombshells: Women and Terror

Terrorism is considered the ultimate “weapon of the weak”. Groups that could not possibly succeed using conventional tactics on the battlefield employ unconventional means to strike terror behind the battle lines. Increasingly, however, the “weakest” members of society, notably women and children, have been drawn into the fray as operatives. Once an occasional occurrence, the use of women is growing at an alarming rate. Using female recruits provides the terrorist organizations with a comparative advantage, particularly the element of surprise. At the same time, this strategy damages the psychological well being and morale of the soldiers opposing them. Soldiers have been trained to protect the civilian population. US Army doctrine specifies that, “preserving noncombatant lives and dignity is central to mission accomplishment in counterinsurgency” (Lt. Col. Perez in The embedded morality in FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency, Military Review, 32) The requirement to shoot people that soldiers are ordinarily trained to protect can have deep psychological impact disproportionate to killing adult men. This often results in higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and battle fatigue. The upsurge in female suicide bombers has occurred across a variety of nationalistic and secular groups but has also spread to the conservative religious terror networks. This article assesses the growing phenomenon of female terrorists and looks at the different roles that women play in terrorist organizations. It also analyzes the different mechanisms for women’s mobilization and briefly discusses whether women are coerced or are willing participants in terrorist violence.     

Assumptions for long-term stochastic population forecasts in 18 European countries

The aim of the ‘Uncertain Population of Europe’(UPE) project was to compute long-term stochastic (probabilistic) population forecasts for 18 European countries. We developed a general methodology for constructing predictive distributions for fertility, mortality and migration. The assumptions underlying stochastic population forecasts can be assessed by analysing errors in past forecasts or model-based estimates of forecast errors, or by expert judgement. All three approaches have been used in the project. This article summarizes and discusses the results of the three approaches. It demonstrates how the—sometimes conflicting—results can be synthesized into a consistent set of assumptions about the expected levels and the uncertainty of total fertility rate, life expectancy at birth of men and women, and net migration for 18 European countries.     

欧洲非法移民现象为何愈演愈烈

欧洲的非法移民现象愈演愈烈是由政治因素、经济因素和社会因素共同促成的。其政治原因是,冷战政治、后冷战时代的左右摇摆的移民政治、对待非法移民的不利政治因素和种族因素;其经济原因是,全球化发展不平衡、欧洲国家的经济发展需要外国移民;其社会原因是,完善的移民网络和国际人口走私集团的强力介入。     

荷兰战后移民及其影响

战后非殖民化运动导致印度尼西亚和苏里南大量人口移居荷兰;20世纪50年代中期开始到70年代初,荷兰从地中海沿岸国家输入大量劳工,随后劳工移民带来大量家庭移民;80年代中期以后,难民以及寻求庇护者纷纷进入荷兰,成为荷兰移民的重要部分。随着类型多样、来源广泛的移民不断进入,荷兰的人口结构发生重大改变,大量外来移民的存在,尤其大量穆斯林人口的存在,成为荷兰社会面临的重要问题。     

Changing family patterns in Europe: A case of divergence?

Over the past decades, European countries have witnessed rather uniform trends in basic demographic indicators of fertility and of family formation and dissolution. These trends have been summarized under the label of the second demographic transition, and bear an implication of between-nation convergence. Quite contrary to the ideas of the general public and the expectations of some experts, whatever the degree of convergence that is really there, the effect has not been a trend towards convergence of household and, especially, family patterns. Pluralization of household and family patterns can indeed be observed everywhere, but in each case this pluralization has another face, as it is influenced by cultural and policy differences. This will be demonstrated with the help of a presentation of preliminary results of an international comparative research project in ten European countries that was recently carried out.     

欧盟国家移民政策与中国新移民

从20世纪末叶移民欧盟国家的地缘群体中,可以看到欧盟主要国家移民政策与当代中国侨乡移民潮形成、发展具有互动关系。随着信息、资金、商品在全球化进程中空前活跃的势态,必然带来人口的相应流动。因此,应当认真追踪剖析欧美发达国家的移民政策,疏通人口流动的正常渠道,规范合法化的移民操作,积极顺应全球化形势下国际人口流动的大趋势。     

Factors Associated with Return Migration of First-Generation Immigrants in Belgium (2001–2011)

Belgium is a country with a long and diverse history of migration. Given the diverse context of immigration to Belgium, reasons for return migration will most likely vary as well. With this study, we want to quantify the return migration of Belgium’s immigrants and assess whether socio-economic, sociodemographic and health factors are related to return migration. Individually linked census and register data comprising the total Belgian first-generation immigrant population aged 25+?were used. Age-standardized emigration rates (ASER) by migrant origin and gender were calculated for the period 2001–2011. Additionally, relative return migration differences were calculated by country of origin and gender, adjusted for age group, length of stay, household composition, socio-economic indicators (education, home ownership and employment status) and self-rated health in 2001. Return migration was most common among immigrants from Spanish descent and from the neighbouring countries and higher among men than among women. Return migration was highly selective in terms of older age, lower length of stay in Belgium, not living with a partner or children, being high-educated, unemployed and in good health. Key issues for future research include examining the reasons for return migration, identifying the country of destination and accounting for household characteristics.