Gender differences in young adults’ inclination to sacrifice career opportunities in the future for family reasons: comparative study with university students from Nairobi,Madrid, and Reykjavik

This article addresses the question of to what extent young people show an inclination to accept some sacrifice in their career progression in the future in order to reach a better work–family balance. Data come from a survey conducted among a sample of 2383 university students who attended three universities: University of Nairobi, University of Iceland, and Complutense University of Madrid. After building a set of indicators about career and family involvement aspirations of respondents, and after conducting a statistical and regression analysis, this research shows that young women (on average) still have a greater predisposition than young men to make sacrifices in the future in their working careers in order to achieve a better work–family balance. Moreover, having a high degree of leadership aspirations and belonging to an egalitarian household tend to reduce the inclination to sacrifice career opportunities, whereas having a high inclination to be involved in childcare in the future and having the perception of a future work–family conflict tend to increase it. Gender attitudes have a differential effect on female and male students: having traditional gender attitudes tends to increase the inclination to sacrifice career opportunities in the case of female students and reduce it in the case of male students.     

Does past life matter? Social workers' views on biographical approaches

The article discusses the application of biographical approaches in social work practice and aims to identify issues that may need to be taken into account when implementing these approaches. The essays of 16 Finnish social workers, working in psychiatry, addiction treatment, rehabilitation, gerontology, pre-adoption counselling and vocational education, were analyzed regarding the respondents’ views on the benefits of biographical approaches, especially biographical interviewing (BI). Qualitative content analysis was used. The results indicate that biographical approaches can create a space for user reflection and social worker listening as well as provide a better understanding of service users’ situation. However, concerns regarding limitations of the approach, ethics and necessary professional competencies were raised. The conclusions drawn are that social work practice can benefit from BI done with awareness and ethical sensitivity and that ‘biographical lenses’ as a metaphor for a general attitude can be applied in most practice situations. The paper draws on a wider literature on biographical approaches in the social sciences.     

Exposure assessment in different occupational groups at a hospital using Quick Exposure Check (QEC) - a pilot study

In order to test the feasibility and sensitivity of the ergonomic exposure assessment tool Quick Exposure Check (QEC), a pilot-study was conducted. The aim was to test QEC in different occupational groups to compare the exposure in the most common work task with the exposure in the work task perceived as the most strenuous for the neck/shoulder region, and to test intra-observer reliability. One experienced ergonomist observed 23 workers. The mean observation time was 45 minutes, waiting time and time for complementary questions included. The exposure scores varied between the different occupational groups as well as between workers within the occupational groups. Eighteen workers rated their most common work task as also being the most strenuous for the neck/shoulder region. For the remaining five workers, the mean exposure score were higher both for the neck and shoulder/arm in the most common work task. Intra-observer reliability shows agreement in 86% of the exposure interactions in the neck and in 71% in the shoulder/arm. QEC seems to fulfill the expectations of being a quick, sensible and practical exposure assessment tool that covers physical risk factors in the neck, upper extremities and low back.     

From the employment office to the social welfare office: Social assistance recipiency among first-time unemployed in Sweden

Social assistance receipt among first-time unemployed in Sweden is investigated by analysing data files obtained by merging register data from the city of Goteborg. First-time unemployed males were observed during 1993 and 1994 and were followed in the register of social assistance recipients for 18 months after the debut. Many of the newly unemployed had no access to unemployment compensation. Slightly more than one out of five newly unemployed became social assistance recipients. Lengthy periods of unemployment combined with no access to unemployment compensation signify a high risk of becoming a social assistance recipient. This risk varies a great deal with age, citizenship, human capital and job search activity of the unemployed.     

A decision-theoretic approach to subset selection

The multiple decision problem of selecting a random non-empty subset of populations, out of k populations, that are close in some sense to the best population is considered in a decision-theoretic framework. Uniformly optimal procedures for non-negative semi-additive loss are derived. A class of likelihood-ratio type of procedures is shown to be admissible for monotone additive loss.     

Globalizing Consumption and the Deferral of a Politics of Consequence

The reform process doi moi (Engl.: renovation) in Vietnam has brought profound changes for the Vietnamese economy. Most notably the opening of a formerly centrally planned economy to the capitalist world market has made the country more accessible to foreign direct investment and integrated the country more strongly into the capitalist world system. Part of the overall modernisation and global integration strategy in Vietnam is the development of the Internet. However, the Internet in Vietnam is not a ubiquitous and widely available technology, rather it is a piece of infrastructure that is unevenly available across social and regional spaces. Aided by a regulatory environment that presents itself as providing opportunities for all, the Internet provides a business tool for a transnational capitalist class and its local affiliates to access the resources of Vietnam's periphery type economy. The Internet has contributed to a shift in economic control functions away from the state territorial level to a network of dispersed actors. The paper suggests close links between dependency and world-systems theories and Internet research and argues that the theories remain valid in their principle argument, but that the level of analysis needs to be shifted away from the state territorial unit to these dispersed sets of actors.

El proceso de reforma doi moi [renovación] en Vietnam ha traído profundos cambios a la economía vietnamita. Particularmente, la apertura de una economía de planificación anteriormente centralizada al mercado capitalista mundial, ha hecho al país más accesible a la inversión directa extranjera y lo ha integrado a un sistema capitalista mundial con mayor fuerza. En términos generales, parte de la estrategia de modernización e integración global en Vietnam es el desarrollo de la internet. Sin embargo, la internet en Vietnam no es una tecnología omnipresente y extensamente accesible, más bien es una pieza de infraestructura que se ofrece desigualmente a través de los espacios sociales y regionales. La internet provee un instrumento de negocios a la clase capitalista trasnacional y a sus afiliados locales, para tener acceso a los recursos de la economía de tipo periférico de Vietnam, ayudado por un medioambiente regulador que se presenta tal y como ofreciendo oportunidades para todos. La internet ha contribuido a un cambio en las funciones de control económicas, del nivel del estado territorial a una red de actores dispersos. El artículo sugiere enlaces estrechos entre las teorías de dependencia y de sistemas mundiales y la investigación de internet y sostiene que las teorías siguen válidas en su argumento de principio, pero que el nivel de análisis debe distanciarse de la unidad del estado territorial a esos grupos de actores dispersos.

     

Transnational Corporations and Human Rights: Silencing the Ontological Controversy

“Engines of development” or “tools of exploitation”? Both expressions have been used to describe the transnational corporation’s (TNC) activity in the developing world. In this paper, it will be argued that these extreme characterizations—each armed with their preferred method and unit of analysis—are merely assessing different aspects of the relationship in question. Moreover, theoretical issues can help shed some light on the Janus-faced nature of TNCs’ human rights’ effects. These issues suggest that FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) benefits are conditional and can help determine whether or not the presence of TNCs will be benign.

     

The population dynamics of the voleClethrionomys rufocanus in Hokkaido, Japan

Population dynamics of the gray sided-vole,Clethrionomys rufocanus, in Hokkaido, Japan were described on the basis of 225 time series (being from 12 to 31 years long); 194 of the time series have a length of 23 years or longer. The time series were classified into 11 groups according to geographic proximity and topographic characteristics of the island of Hokkaido. Mean abundance varied among populations from 1.07 to 21.07 individuals per 150 trap-nights. The index of variability for population fluctuation (s-index) ranged from 0.204 to 0.629. Another index for population variability (amplitude on log-10 scale) ranged from 0.811 to 2.743. Mean abundance and variability of populations were higher in the more northern and eastern regions of the island. Most populations, except for the southernmost populations, exhibited significant direct density-dependence in population growth. Detection rate for delayed density-dependence varied among groups from 0% to 22.6%. Both direct and delayed density-dependence tended to be stronger in the more northern and eastern populations. The proportion of cyclic populations was higher in the northern-eastern areas than that in the southern-western areas. There was a clear gradient from the asynchronous populations in southwest, to the highly synchronized populations in the northeast.