A Comparison of the Well-Being of Agricultural and Non Agricultural Households Using a Multicriterial Approach

The territorial approach of rural development requires taking into account economic, social and environmental features. Therefore, among the goals of the rural development policy the well-being of the target population cannot be disregarded. However, well-being is a multidimensional phenomenon and its measure could be complicated since many indicators (with different scale, units of measure, burden, trends) have to be estimated and analyzed. With a composite indicator which summarizes a bulk of information this concern can be overcome. A multicriteria approach of aggregation is proposed because cardinal aggregation involving in undesirable compensatory property.     

Boards,governance and value creation in grant-giving foundations

The non-profit sector is a sizeable and highly dynamic component of economies and societies throughout the world. The expectations placed upon non-profit organizations raise fundamental issues such as the capacity of these organizations to deliver, their accountability to the various constituencies that they serve and their capacity to create value. The effectiveness of these organizations should not be taken for granted, and it is therefore important to understand which factors affect their ability to create value. This paper investigates the relationships between the specific knowledge and experience possessed by board members and foundations’ commitment to pursue high value-added activities, such as the improvement of the performance of grant recipients or social innovation. It uses an empirical analysis to apply statistical techniques to a sample of Italian banking foundations. Our results show that, of the various types of skills and background possessed by board members, the managerial skills of business experts are particularly relevant for value creation by grant-giving foundations. The article therefore contributes to the discussion on the relationship between board skills and organizational outcomes.     

Board leadership structure and diversity over CEO time in office: A test of the evolutionary perspective on Italian firms

An evolutionary perspective on CEO-board relations suggests that CEO objectives and interests change over time, and that board roles should shift accordingly, from CEO leadership development during the early stages of CEO time in office toward monitoring during the latest stages. This study examines how two board characteristics, board leadership structure and board diversity, shape innovation investment among Italian firms. Empirical results support the hypothesized effects, suggesting that the board’s effects are contingent upon CEO time in office.     

Social Protection and the Labour Market in Latin America: What can be Learned from Household Surveys?

Most social protection is provided through contribution-based programmes, which means that protection is usually linked to employment conditions in the formal economy. This article describes the levels, trends and structure of social protection for workers in Latin America, highlighting the relationship between protection and employment conditions. The study is based on a selection of household surveys carried out in various countries in the region: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. It emphasizes the usefulness of household surveys as sources of information for representative studies on social protection and employment, in spite of the problems of coverage and comparability that they raise.     

I would if I could: precarious employment and childbearing intentions in Italy

This paper carries out an investigation into the socio-economic determinants of childbearing decisions made by couples in Italy. The analysis accounts for the characteristics of both possible parents. Our results do not support established theoretical predictions according to which the increase in the opportunity cost of motherhood connected to higher female labour participation is responsible for the fall in fertility. On the contrary, the instability of women’s work status (i.e. having occasional, precarious, and low-paid positions) is revealed as a significant dissuasive factor in the decision to have children. Couples in which there is an unemployed woman are less likely to plan childbearing as well. Other relevant explanatory variables are women’s age, men’s work status and education, women’s citizenship, marital status and perceived economic well-being.     

Conservative Catholicism versus social Catholicism? Contrasting patterns in the political engagement of highly religious young Catholics in France and Italy

Current academic literature has proposed contrasting interpretations of the developments of youth religiosity. While some scholars have claimed increasing secularization of younger generations, others have noted the growing importance of religious values in young people's lives. To go beyond this debate, this article explores the restructuring of youth religiosity in Western European countries, characterized by the resilience of religion in secularized societies. With this purpose in mind, the article investigates the under-researched topic of the political activism of highly religious young Catholics and compares the political engagement of two recently established youth organizations: Sens Commun (SC) (rebranded Mouvement Conservateur, MC) in France and the Comunità di Connessioni (CdC) in Italy. Although both SC and CdC were founded by young Catholics, their engagement has followed diverging trajectories. While SC/MC's ideas and politics bear the imprint of conservative Catholicism, CdC's initiatives and values are inspired by social Catholicism. This article claims that the diverging trajectories of SC/MC and CdC are influenced by the long-lasting socio-historical factors that regulated the relations between religion, politics and civil society and the emerging post-secular reconfiguration that can open the way for a renewal of the forms of political engagement of young Catholics.     

Solving the crisis: When agency is the preferred leadership for implementing change

Glass-cliff research shows that female leaders are preferentially selected in a crisis to signal change and not for their leadership qualifications. In parallel, the management literature urges for agentic “masculine” leadership to turn around organizations in crisis. We hypothesized that, regardless of their gender, agentic leaders should be preferred to communal leaders if leadership qualifications and actual change potential motivate leader selection. Three experimental studies demonstrated that agentic (vs. communal) candidates were perceived to match poorly-performing (vs. strongly-performing) companies. This effect was accounted for by perceptions of agentic candidates' higher suitability, higher task-orientation (versus person-orientation), and higher change potential. We discuss that women face ambiguity as to why they become leaders in crisis contexts: because they are perceived as signaling change, stereotypically linked to their gender, or for their perceived agentic qualities as leaders. In contrast, men become crisis leaders due to their perceived agentic change potential.     

Developmental Trajectories for Mother–Infant Coregulation in the Second Year of Life

Ten dyads were observed biweekly from 10 to 24 months of infant age while playing together at home with a set of toys. The aim was to examine whether mother–infant coregulation changes over the second year of the infant’s life and whether there are individual differences in that process. Normative trends as well as variability between and within dyads were tested using a multilevel modeling technique. We found that unilateral coregulation, in which only the mother was actively involved in play, largely prevailed at the beginning of the year and then decreased linearly, while symmetrical patterns, implying that the infant was also involved, were for the most part absent at the beginning but then increased rapidly, overtaking unilateral from the middle of the year on and becoming predominant by the end. In particular, symmetrical episodes of shared affect and shared action increased first and then decreased, being replaced by shared language. Variability in data was significant between the dyads, with some dyads advancing toward symmetrical coregulation at an earlier age and more rapidly than the others. It was also significant within the dyads, as the increase in symmetrical coregulation unfolded in a quite irregular manner across the sessions, unlike the decrease in unilateral. Results are discussed with reference to a view of joint attention development as a gradual and complex process.     

Nostalgia: A sphere and process of contemporary ideology

This theoretical essay looks at the ahistorical elements of nostalgia as found in popular culture, with special emphasis on discussion within the Frankfurt School offered as alternative explanations. It is argued that the anti-critical thrust of nostalgia masks the crises of monopoly capitalism and redirects the conflicts in manageable channels. This conclusion is reached in light of analyses by Marcuse, Horkheimer, Habermas, Adorno and other critical theorists who have considered these issues.Revised version of paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association, Houston, Texas (April, 1978).     

A Bayesian bivariate hierarchical model with correlated parameters for the analysis of road crashes in Italian tunnels

Statistical Methods & Applications - An analysis of crashes occurring in 252 unidirectional Italian motorway tunnels over a 4-year monitoring period is provided to identify the main causes of...