HIV-infected African families living in Stockholm/Sweden: their social network, level of disclosure and knowledge about HIV

Most HIV-infected parents in Stockholm are of African origin. Many of them have several children, but their social network is often limited. This article looks at the networks of these families in relation to different aspects of HIV in order to improve the support strategies. The theoretical basis of the study rests on network and ecological systems theory. The social networks of the families in the study were found to be generally of similar size in Sweden and in the home country. However, of 47 HIV-infected parents only 21 (45%) had disclosed their HIV status to friends and relatives in Sweden. The lack of a social network was especially prominent among single women. Contact with counsellors at the HIV clinic and the social welfare office increased the probability of disclosure about HIV infection. The lack of knowledge about HIV transmission and about whom to inform about the infection stresses the importance of improved counselling. The support strategies aimed at broadening the patient's network and breaking their isolation need to be continued and strengthened.     

The Role of Forgiveness in Divorce Adjustment and the Impact of Affect

The role of forgiveness and affect was investigated in relation to divorce adjustment. Ninety-one participants separated from their ex-spouse less than 30 months completed a background questionnaire, the Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI), the Self Forgiveness Scale (SFS), the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Inventory (CES–D), the Spielberger State–Trait Anger Inventory (STAXI–2), and the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale (FDAS). There were significant relationships between depression and the capacity to forgive and between being in an angry feeling state and harboring a lack of forgiveness toward the ex-spouse. The relationship that emerged as the most powerful was that between trait anger and lack of self-forgiveness. Forgiveness intervention that occurs early in the divorce adjustment process is implicated, particularly in relation to the self.     

旅游研究中的“真实性”:纷争之后

真实性的内涵如此多义,以致莱辛格与斯坦纳提出应摒弃该概念。然而自麦坎内尔将真实性引入社会学研究的30年来,相关研究蔚为大观,学界就客观真实性、主观真实性与建构真实性展开系列辩论与研究;另一方面,实践中的真实性样态层出不穷,譬如真实的复制与真正的赝品、生命历程中的真实性或人造景观的真实性。在后真实时代,旅游客体的真实性主要由旅游体验来裁决。     

On the Differential Attachments of Migrants from Central and Eastern Europe: A Typology of Labour Migration

In this article we develop an empirically grounded typology of labour migration patterns among migrants from Central and Eastern Europe, based on two dimensions: attachment to the destination country and attachment to the country of origin. We conducted a survey (N=654) among labour migrants in the Netherlands from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. We found four migration patterns in our data: (i) circular migrants (mostly seasonal workers) with weak attachments to the country of destination, (ii) bi-nationals with strong attachments to both the home country and that of destination, (iii) footloose migrants with weak attachments to both the home and the destination country, and (iv) settlers with weak attachments to the home country. Our findings demonstrate the relevance to the debate on transnationalism and integration of distinguishing different migration patterns. Successful integration in Dutch society can go hand-in-hand with ‘strong’ as well as with ‘weak’ forms of transnationalism. The bi-national pattern shows a tendency to strong transnationalism, while the settlement pattern demonstrates less transnational involvement with the country of origin.     

From exile to post-exile: the diasporisation of Swedish Chileans in historical contexts

The main focus of this article is how a set of practices revolve around the formation of an imagined community in dispersion – diasporisation. The study discusses the case of the Chilean diaspora in Sweden and its transformation from an exile context to a post-exile context facing a drastically altered historical situation. This transformation is analysed as a matter of agency where practices are framed differently as a response to the demand perceived in the context. The outcome of this argument speaks in favour of a diaspora concept that focuses on practices and how these are framed in order to mobilise a putative dispersed population.     

Inequality, Wealth and Health: Is Decreasing Income Inequality the Key to Create Healthier Societies?

The idea that the level of stratification of societies contributes to the well-being of their members is gaining popularity. We contribute to this debate by investigating whether reducing inequalities in the income distribution of societies is a strategy for improving population health, especially appropriate for those countries that have reached the limits of economic growth. We test this idea on a dataset covering 140 countries and 2360 country-year observation between 1987 and 2008 and formulate hypotheses separately for countries with different level of economic development. We indeed found that countries with higher levels of income inequality also have lower levels of life expectancy (our measure of population health), and this result was consistent both in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. However, the relationship was found only among low- and middle-developed countries. In the group of high-developed countries, the relationship between income inequality and life expectancy was non-significant, which contradicts the literature. Expectations on the relationship between a country’s wealth and health were confirmed: economic growth does contribute to improving population health, but this effect is weaker in more economically developed countries. These results imply that a decrease in a country’s income inequality parallel with an increase in its wealth can help to improve health in economically lesser-developed countries, but not in high-developed countries.     

Understanding selection bias,time-lags and measurement bias in secondary data sources: Putting the Encyclopedia of Associations database in broader context

Secondary data gathered for purposes other than research play an important role in the social sciences. A recent data release has made an important source of publicly available data on associational interests, the Encyclopedia of Associations (EA), readily accessible to scholars (www.policyagendas.org). In this paper we introduce these new data and systematically investigate issues of lag between events and subsequent reporting in the EA, as these have important but under-appreciated effects on time-series statistical models. We further analyze the accuracy and coverage of the database in numerous ways. Our study serves as a guide to potential users of this database, but we also reflect upon a number of issues that should concern all researchers who use secondary data such as newspaper records, IRS reports and FBI Uniform Crime Reports.     

From Customer‐Oriented Strategy to Organizational Financial Performance: The Role of Human Resource Management and Customer‐Linking Capability

Drawing on the organizational capabilities literature, the authors developed and tested a model of how supportive human resource management (HRM) improved firms’ financial performance perceived by marketing managers through fostering the implementation of a customer‐oriented strategy. Customer‐linking capability, which is the capability in managing close customer relationships, indicated the implementation of the customer‐oriented strategy. Data collected from two emerging economies – China and Hungary – established that supportive HRM partially mediated the relationship between customer‐oriented strategy and customer‐linking capability. Customer‐linking capability further explained how supportive HRM contributed to perceived financial performance. This study explicates the implication of customer‐oriented strategy for HRM and reveals the importance of HRM in strategy implementation. It also sheds some light on the ‘black box’ between HRM and performance. While making important contributions to the field of strategy, HRM and marketing, this study also offers useful practical implications.     

An Empirical Model of Growth Through Product Innovation

Productivity differences across firms are large and persistent, but the evidence for worker reallocation as an important source of aggregate productivity growth is mixed. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the structure of an equilibrium model of growth through innovation designed to identify and quantify the role of resource reallocation in the growth process. The model is a version of the Schumpeterian theory of firm evolution and growth developed by Klette and Kortum (2004) extended to allow for firm heterogeneity. The data set is a panel of Danish firms that includes information on value added, employment, and wages. The model's fit is good. The estimated model implies that more productive firms in each cohort grow faster and consequently crowd out less productive firms in steady state. This selection effect accounts for 53% of aggregate growth in the estimated version of the model.