Varying levels of anomie in Europe: a multilevel analysis based on multidimensional IRT models

Recent years have seen increased attention paid to monitoring social anomie and its dependency on micro- and macro-factors. In this paper, we endorse the theorisation of social anomie as a complex, multidimensional and multilevel phenomenon. To ensure a rigorous measurement of the varying levels of social anomie in the European countries, the current study relies on a multilevel multidimensional item response theory model which explicitly accounts for the presence of a non-ignorable missing data mechanism. This unified approach makes it possible to specify an analytical model of links between anomie features and their determinants and to explore how the latent traits of interest are influenced by individual-level factors, as well as by country-level indicators. Additionally, to avoid misleading inferential conclusions, the proposed model takes into account the respondent’s omitting behaviour, assuming that the missingness mechanism is driven by a latent propensity to respond. Data used in this study have been collected in the 2010 wave of the European Social Survey. To reduce the computational complexities, a Bayesian specification of the MIRT model is provided and the parameter model estimates are obtained through MCMC algorithms.     

人口普查净误差估计中的三系统估计量研究

本文针对作为当今人口普查质量评估领域主流方法的双系统估计量因受独立性不满足困扰而有偏估计总体人数的问题,明确提出了用三系统估计量替代双系统估计量的研究目标.三系统估计量指的是依据对同一时点上同一总体的人口普查、人口普查之后的质量评估调查和人口行政记录系统这三个不同途径获得的三份人口登记数据来估计总体人数所使用的估计量.为实现上述目标,采用实地调研、数理模型、抽样估计与实证分析相结合的研究方法,以及借鉴国际相关前沿研究成果的研究思路,研究了人口普查质量评估中三系统估计量的构建、三系统估计量应用操作等问题.通过理论与实证研究,得出如下结论:三系统估计量能够有效地摆脱双系统估计量的独立性约束从而解决估计量偏误的问题;将三系统估计量应用于人口普查质量评估,必须科学合理地解决三个人口登记系统定格在统一的标准时点、人口在三个登记系统等概率分层、用人口普查质量评估调查样本对三系统估计量再估计等实践方面的问题;基于Logistic回归模型的三系统估计量可以较好地实现人口等概率分层目标,但尚有较多的理论与实践问题有待研究解决,在这一问题上有着相当大的研究空间.建议我国在未来人口普查质量评估中应用三系统估计量.     

Perceptions of Difference Between Aging and Disability Service Systems Consumers: Implications for Policy Initiatives to Rebalance Long-Term Care

This study explores service professionals' perceptions of how and why older adults and younger persons with disabilities are different consumers and clients within the long-term care service sector. Data are from 2004, early in the history of federal long-term care rebalancing initiatives, reflecting perceptions at that time. Findings suggest professionals working within aging, developmental disability, and physical disability service networks believe significant distinctions exist related to age of clients and nature of service required and how it is delivered. Overall need for greater professional and organizational capacity to support provision of service to both aging and disability populations is reported.     

Negotiating Conflict through Music: The Case of the Tsonga Tingoma Ritual

Abstract

Tingoma is a three-day ritual conducted by Tsonga people to facilitate communication between the living and their Ancestor spirits, and to ensure that there is no disharmony between the beings in these two realms. Using a tingoma conducted for Eunice Maluleke as a case study, we argue that this ritual not only negotiates tension within an individual (body and spirit), and between an individual and his or her Ancestor spirits, but also functions as a site through which larger social and political tensions are addressed. Further, we propose that the structure of tingoma as it is practiced today inscribes and negotiates inter-ethnic tensions of the past. In the second part of this article we examine the ways in which tingoma has been affected by, and engages with, more recent power struggles and related identity politics, specifically those relating to the religious and political affiliations of people residing in South Africa's Limpopo province since the early 1980s.