INQUIRY

The following interview with Awash Teklehaimanot was conducted in June 2005. Dr. Teklehaimanot is Director of the Malaria Program at Columbia University and a member of the Task Force on Malaria for the UN Millennium Project. He is a senior staff member of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, where he provides leadership in the development of the global Roll Back Malaria program. Dr. Teklehaimanot has extensive international experience in public health with particular focus on Africa. He provides technical support to malaria-endemic countries, coordinates a number of WHO-funded research activities in Africa, and spent several years as the director of Ethiopia's National Malaria Control Program. He is a professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and has been lecturing at the Harvard School of Public Health since 1992.     

INQUIRY

The following interview with Gary Orfield was conducted in May 2004. Gary Orfield is a professor of education and social policy at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is the director of the Harvard Project on School Desegregation, and co‐director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project. Professor Orfield is the author of numerous books and publications, and has been consistently involved in government and court proceedings dealing with issues related to his research. He has been called to testify in civil rights suits by the US Department of Justice and many civil rights, legal services, and educational organizations. In 1997, Professor Orfield was awarded the American Political Science Association's Charles Merriam Award for his “contribution to the art of government through the application of social science research.”     

Changes in parental leave and young children’s non-cognitive skills

Review of Economics of the Household - This study examines the effect of substantial changes in parental leave regulations on the non-cognitive development of children aged between 0 and 3 years. I...     

European Public Perceptions of Food Risk: Cross-National and Methodological Comparisons

This article presents a comparative study of public perceptions of food risk across 25 European member states. A secondary data analysis is conducted on a Eurobarometer survey fielded to nationally representative samples in 2005. The survey included closed questions as well as free associations to map risk perceptions. Taking a quantitative approach, we find that people in a majority of European countries express similar levels of concern about food risks. However, outside this majority a North-South divide is evident, with the Northern countries worrying less than the Southern countries. Multilevel modeling shows that cross-national differences in individual respondents' level of worry are in part attributable to shared country effects and to generalized risk sensitivity about a range of personal risks. On the underlying structure of food risk concerns, factor analysis points to three dimensions described by groupings of risks related to adulteration and contamination, health effects, and production and hygiene. A qualitative analysis of respondents' free associations about problems and risks with food identifies three major themes that are consistent with the quantitative results. However, the free associations also point toward greater cross-national diversity and to striking variations in the range and importance of food risks. Overall, the picture is of a public that frames food risks in a wider context of beliefs about the links between diet and health. We conclude with some implications for research on food risk perceptions in particular and risk perception studies in general.     

Attitudes Toward Intergenerational Redistribution in the Welfare State

Which motivations explain attitudes toward intergenerational redistribution? This study presents two perspectives. The first one is demographic aging where individuals’ attitudes are influenced by short- and long-term self-interest. The second perspective is socialization into a certain institutional context where people internalize the reciprocity and the deservingness norms. Besides investigating the impact of these motivations, the empirical analysis assesses their relative importance for explaining attitudes toward intergenerational redistribution. The ordinary least-squares regression draws on data of the “Attitudes Toward The Welfare State” survey that was conducted in 2008 in Germany. The study investigates the working age group’s attitude toward relative governmental spending for older people. The empirical analysis yields that people are motivated by long-term self-interest and hold the state responsible to protect them from the perceived future risk of old-age poverty. Also, norms of reciprocity and of deservingness are important to support intergenerational redistribution, whereas the latter seems to be the relatively most important motivation. We can take this as a sign of intergenerational cohesion that is relevant against the background of accelerating demographic aging and resulting pressure on institutions of intergenerational redistribution.     

Migration Decisions Within Dual‐Earner Partnerships: A Test of Bargaining Theory

This article focuses on the problems faced by dual‐earner partnerships arising from the regional coordination of the partners' careers. It is still unknown whether the fact that couples are less mobile than singles is caused by homogeneous preferences within couples or by a process of balancing conflicting interests. Consequently, we analyze the potential conflicts provoked by work‐related migration incentives. We test hypotheses derived from bargaining theory using quasi‐experimental data from a factorial survey of nearly 280 European couples. Our results support the bargaining approach and confirm that asymmetrical shifts in bargaining power drive the potential for conflict. Women's willingness to move is generally less than men's, but the impact of employment prospects differs only slightly by gender.     

‘We have very different positions on some issues’: how child welfare workers in Norway and England bridge cultural differences when communicating with ethnic minority families

This article compares how child welfare workers in Norway and England experience and cope with communication problems resulting from cultural differences. This study is based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 53 front-line child welfare workers and draws on social theories that understand communication as a social act. We show cross-country variations in child welfare workers' perceptions of the communicative problems and coping mechanisms. In Norway, social workers think that minority parents' perceptions on children's needs and child-rearing and parents' lack of understanding of the child welfare system were challenging. Social workers in England perceive the physical abuse of minority children as problematic. They are also concerned about carers' fears of social workers forcing majority cultural values on minority families. While social workers in both countries spend more time with minority families, their approaches dealing with communication challenges correspond to their different problem perceptions. Social workers in Norway act as cultural instructors: they focus on the needs of the minority child and instruct parents about Norwegian values and the Norwegian welfare system. Social workers in England are cultural learners: they focus on practising in anti-oppressive ways, while protecting ethnic minority children from physical abuse. Both approaches avoid going into real communication about perceived problems and what a child might need. We also discuss the implications of these findings on social work practice.     

Doubled Homes — Doubled Social Ties? Children's Relationships in Post‐Divorce Shared Residence Arrangements

Although an increasing number of children live in shared residence arrangements after parental divorce, studies on their social relationships are rare. We address this research gap by relying on configurational approaches, social capital and social networks. Building on qualitative case studies (ego‐centred networks, interviews) with 14 children aged 10–14, results show that respondents constructed social ties based on two key categories: emotional closeness and constancy. Having two places of residence did not multiply close relations, and relations that entered the network after parental divorce (e.g. step kin) were particularly distant. Children's networks at both homes had limited interconnections.     

Die Coachingkultur als Wirkfaktor

The coaching culture as an impact factor on the efficacy of Coaching has rarely been addressed in scientific research so far. This article differentiates the coaching culture in aspects of the organizational embedding and attitudes towards coaching. The results of the quantitative study, where N = 49 members of organizations took part, show that the coaching processes are conducted in diverse ways, that the format is being applied for a broad range of issues and that the attitudes towards coaching lead into a positive direction. As a significant predictor for the judgement of coaching effects the reputation of the format in the organization was identified.