Increasing Inequality in Social Exclusion Occurrence: The Case of Sweden During 1979–2003

In this paper, we examine the risk of social exclusion among the Swedish population from a longitudinal perspective. In the empirical analysis, a person is considered socially excluded if he or she suffers from at least two of the following six welfare problems: chronic unemployment, economic problems, health problems, experiences of threat or violence, crowded housing and lack of interpersonal relationships. Our three main findings are as follows: There is no evidence that immigrants have been better integrated into Swedish society over time from the perspective of social exclusion risk. Instead, there are weak signs that their situation has become worse. Further, even though men are worse off than women as regards the odds for social exclusion, there are weak signs that their relative situation has improved over time. Finally, compared to couples without children, there is clear evidence that the odds for social exclusion for singles with children have increased over time and that the odds for social exclusion for couples with children have decreased over time. We can, therefore, conclude that among these groups, the inequality has increased over time. To be able to make these conclusions, we have fitted several specifications of a logistic regression model with random effects for panel data to our data set.     

A Structural Equation Model Estimation of the Role of Social Vulnerability as a Predictor of People’s Feelings of Unsafety

Social Indicators Research - People’s perception of insecurity is linked to a wide range of factors and up-to-date sources stress the impact of socially constructed concerns on feelings of...     

A Cross-National Analysis of Lifespan Inequality, 1950–2015: Examining the Distribution of Mortality Within Countries

Cross-national health research devotes considerable attention to lifespan and survival rate disparities that are found between countries. However, the distribution of mortality across the world is shaped mostly by what happens within countries. We address this striking gap in the literature by modeling length-of-life inequality for individual nation-states. We use life tables from the United Nation’s (2015) World Population Prospects to estimate inequality levels for 200 countries across 13 waves between 1950 and 2015. We find that lifespan inequality is steadily declining across the world, but that each country’s level of inequality, and the rate at which it declines, vary considerably. Our models account for more than 90% of the longitudinal and cross-sectional variation in country-level lifespan inequality during the 1990–2015 period. Maternal mortality is the strongest predictor in our model, while disease prevalence, access to safe water, and health interventions figure prominently, as well. Gross domestic product per capita shows the expected curvilinear association with lifespan inequality, while primary education (both overall enrollment and gender equity in enrollment), external debt, and migration also play critical roles in shaping health outcomes. By contrast, the distribution of political and economic resources (i.e., democracy and income inequality) is less important.

     

Social adversity in pregnancy and trajectories of women’s depressive symptoms: A longitudinal study

Background

Sound evidence has linked the experience of adversity with depression. Less is known about this association over time.

Housing,Housing Stratification,and Chinese Urban Residents’ Social Satisfaction: Evidence from a National Household Survey

Social Indicators Research - In 20 years, housing reform in China has transformed its urban housing system from housing welfare into a housing market, which has led to a unique housing...     

‘Home is Never Fully Achieved … Even When We Are In it’: Migration,Belonging and Social Exclusion within Punjabi Transnational Mobility

ABSTRACT

Drawing upon transnational research in the UK and India, primarily over 150 semi-structured interviews in Newcastle, UK and Doaba, Punjab, as well as the ‘mobilities turn’ within contemporary social science, this paper examines the pursuit of ‘home’ within a diasporic British Indian Punjabi community. It is argued that this transnational pursuit of home is significantly shaped by the dynamic social context of South Asia, in particular processes of social inclusion and exclusion therein. Thus, returning Punjabi migrant attempts to distinguish themselves from the resident population through conspicuous consumption, and simultaneous attempts from Punjabi residents to exclude Non-Resident Indians from ‘real’ Indian status, lead to a continual reprocessing of home across different sites of mobility, as well as demonstrating the ‘never fully achieved’ nature of home.     

India’s Social Development in a Decade of Reforms: 1990–91/1999–2000

The economic reforms initiated in India in 1991 have brought about visible upliftment of economic conditions of the country. This paper examines if the economic process is associated with an enhancement of India’s social development in equal measure in the reform decade of nineties. Ray (1989) considered thirteen social indicators of India and constructed the country’s social development index (SDI) as a certain weighted average of the selected indicators, for the years between 1950–51 and 1975–76. The present work broadly follows Ray (1989) in tracking the social development in the decade of economic reforms from 1990–91 to 1999–2000. The movement of SDI in nineties has been compared with the movements of India’s per capita income and plan expenditure on the social sector. The results show that though there has been growth in the social sector, it is not by far quite encouraging and perhaps more needs to be done in the social sector. The views expressed in the article are those of the author and not of the institution he serves.     

Mapping the Super‐Whale: Towards a Mobile Ethnography of Situated Globalities

Abstract

In empirical discussion on global connections, frequent allusions are made to Michael Burawoy’s ‘global’ and George Marcus’ ‘multi‐sited’ ethnographies. While both have inspired transnational fieldwork, neither methodological approach has sufficiently analysed the local‐global dichotomy embedded at their core. Drawing on actor‐network theory (ANT), this article suggests an alternative framework for mobile ethnography, better suited to a social world conceived in network‐relational terms. Employing metaphors of mobility, scale‐making, and cartography, an empirically driven approach to situated and plural ‘globalities’ is outlined. These claims are developed drawing on the author’s inquiries into Japanese whaling practices, showing how ‘ethno‐socio‐cartography’ can contribute to the mapping of global‐scale micro‐cosmoses.     

A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of Differential Sources of School-Related Social Support and Adolescents’ School Satisfaction

School is an important context for early adolescents’ development. An overall positive sense of well-being in school, measured by school satisfaction in this study, should be one of the indicators of a good schooling experience. To address the importance of social support in the school context, this study examined the relationship between three sources of school-related social support (family support for learning, peer support for learning, and teacher-student relationships) and early adolescents’ school satisfaction across time. Participants were 547 middle school students from a middle school in the Southeastern United States who completed surveys of school social climate and school satisfaction on two separate occasions, five months apart. Results showed that overall school-related social support explained a substantial amount of the variance associated with students’ school satisfaction reports at both time points. However, there were differential effects among three sources of social support. Specifically, teacher-student relationships accounted for the largest amount of variance in school satisfaction at Time 1 and Time 2 (controlling for Time 1); peer support contributed a statistically significant amount of unique variance to school satisfaction at Time 1; and family support significantly contributed to students’ school satisfaction at Time 2 (controlling for Time 1). Recommendations for educators, childcare workers, administrators, and policymakers are discussed in light of the findings and developmental considerations.     

Correction to: Subsequent Migration of Immigrants Within Australia, 1981–2016

Population Research and Policy Review - The article Subsequent Migration of Immigrants Within Australia, 1981–2016, written by James Raymer and Bernard Baffour, was originally published...     

Cultures of Commuting: The Mobile Negotiation of Space and Subjectivity on Delhi’s Metro

Abstract

As part of Delhi’s redevelopment, aimed at creating a ‘global city’, new public transport infrastructure is being built. The Metro, in particular, has become iconic of what city authorities and developers refer to as Delhi’s ‘cosmopolitan’ and ‘world city’ status. Authorities have attempted to change commuting practices embedded in the culture of Delhi, a crowded, economically and culturally diverse city, in line with desired new behaviours including an emphasis on cleanliness, order and quiet. To explore these developments this paper presents findings from a qualitative study (conducted in 2009) analysing the urban mobility of a diverse group of young people. Their experiences of the Metro revealed interacting fields of power in the city, between passengers, and between passengers and those in control of the network. These relationships were situated within wider processes of urban reconstruction that intersect with global flows of capital, technology and ideologies of ‘modernity’ and development. The findings also highlighted the contestation of cosmopolitanism: its use to describe a desired urban imagination and its deployment as everyday competencies of negotiation and flexibility designed to manage change, unfamiliarity and inequality.     

Perceptions of Society’s Necessary Standard of Living: Are Perceptions Determined by What People Have,or Do They Reflect a Social Consensus?

Social Indicators Research - Analyses of material deprivation usually use lists of goods and activities to assess an individual’s possessions and to compare it with the society’s...     

The ‘Dark Side’ of Social Capital: A Cross-National Examination of the Relationship Between Social Capital and Violence in Africa

Social Indicators Research - Research and policy circles often emphasize the importance of social capital in achieving social transformation and economic development. There is also, however,...     

Mobile phones in children’s after-school centres: stretching of place and control

This article discusses the influence of virtual mobility on place. It examines the use of mobile phones in an after-school centre in Helsinki, Finland and the role of mobile phones in negotiations on space, control and boundaries. It investigates the function of the mobile phone in the coordination of children’s mobility in and out of the centre. It shows how the children make use of the capacity of mobile phones to connect to people and places physically separate for mobilising parental support by phone and use it as a resource in resolving conflicts in the centre. It shows how the different uses of the mobile phone grow into negotiations on the boundaries and space of the centre and cause tensions regarding the identities of the place.     

A Grounded Theory of Sexual Minority Women and Transgender Individuals’ Social Justice Activism

Psychosocial benefits of activism include increased empowerment, social connectedness, and resilience. Yet sexual minority women (SMW) and transgender individuals with multiple oppressed statuses and identities are especially prone to oppression-based experiences, even within minority activist communities. This study sought to develop an empirical model to explain the diverse meanings of social justice activism situated in SMW and transgender individuals’ social identities, values, and experiences of oppression and privilege. Using a grounded theory design, 20 SMW and transgender individuals participated in initial, follow-up, and feedback interviews. The most frequent demographic identities were queer or bisexual, White, middle-class women with advanced degrees. The results indicated that social justice activism was intensely relational, replete with multiple benefits, yet rife with experiences of oppression from within and outside of activist communities. The empirically derived model shows the complexity of SMW and transgender individuals’ experiences, meanings, and benefits of social justice activism.     

Ageing, Leisure, and Social Connectedness: How could Leisure Help Reduce Social Isolation of Older People?

This study investigates the relation between leisure activities and the social status of the elderly based on a heterogeneous sample of the Dutch population. Close relationships are also analyzed to identify which people could serve as successful stimulators of leisure participation. The social profile confirms that older people have fewer social contacts and often feel lonely. This study shows that leisure activities explain a significant part of older people’s social connectedness. Voluntary work, cultural activities, holiday, sports, reading books, hobbies and shopping are found to be successful predictors for social connectedness of older people. Watching TV, listening to the radio, and spending time behind the computer (passive activities) were not associated with social connectedness. Friends correlate positively to participation in leisure activities. Partners play a role in participation in cultural activities and sports; parents play a role in participation in voluntary work and holidays; siblings play a role in voluntary work and sports; and children play a role in cultural activities, reading books, and shopping. Local communities can use these close relationships and develop special programs to increase social connectedness and hence improve quality of life for older adults.     

Social resources and Arab women’s perinatal mental health: A systematic review

Background

Women’s mental health in the perinatal period is understudied worldwide and in Arab countries especially.

The ‘What’, ‘Why’ and ‘How’ of Employee Well-Being: A New Model

This paper examines the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of employee well-being. Beginning with the ‘what’ of well-being, the construct of mental health was explored with the aim of building a model of employee well-being. It was proposed that employee well-being consists of three core components: (1) subjective well-being; (2) workplace well-being and (3) psychological well-being. Following this, the ‘why’ of employee well-being was investigated; that is, why employee well-being should be an important matter for organisations. It was argued that employee well-being is an important precursor to organisational well-being, as indicated by its links to employee turnover and performance. The next section was concerned with the ‘how’ of employee well-being; that is, how well-being can be reliably enhanced. Drawing on two models of strengths and a practice model of psychological assessment, it was asserted that strength-based development can reliably enhance employee well-being. A solid framework for understanding and measuring employee well-being is offered in the hope that it will foster a more integrated approach to assessing and optimising employee well-being.

Emergent Uses of a Multiplayer Location‐aware Mobile Game: the Interactional Consequences of Mediated Encounters

This case study of the behaviours of players in an advanced location‐aware gaming environment provides a first glimpse of what the experience of living in a mobile‐based augmented urban public space might be like, and of the kind of social order and emergent ‘form‐of‐life’ that might characterize it. We have focused our analyses on three key features. First, game‐related mobility: how users adjust their movements to the ‘augmented’ ecologies that they encounter (augmented with localized informational objects relevant to the ongoing game activity). Second, ‘Onscreen encounters’, which occur when players notice one another's position on their mobile screen. The management of such interactions, where players are open to interaction because their location is a public matter, is a key feature of the construction of the social order in such a location‐aware environment. Third, the management of situations of actual or potential misalignment between ‘ordinary’ and screen‐mediated perceptions. The very possibility of such misalignment is also a peculiarity of location‐aware technologies. These technologies entail collaborative work by the actors to appropriately tame the power relationships that might emerge from such perceptual asymmetries.     

Zones of Difference,Boundaries of Access: Moral Geography and Community Mapping in Abidjan,Côte d’Ivoire

ABSTRACT

In Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 18% of men who have sex with men (MSM) are HIV-positive. Based on ethnographic research conducted among HIV peer educators and activists in Abidjan, I examine their narratives and hand-drawn maps of city space. I draw on a methodological process of map-making to examine research participants’ evaluations of neighborhoods and link these evaluations to debates over national and cultural belonging in Côte d’Ivoire. I suggest a moral geography emerges from the maps and narratives and ask what the bioethical implications of moral geography are in the context of service delivery and activism among sexual minorities.