More than a Theory: A New Map of Social Thought

In this article we revisit two different temporal phases related to the publication of Serge Moscovici's book La Psychanalyse, son image et son public, and we examine two key concepts of the theory: cognitive polyphasia and anchoring. The first phase, initiated by the Durkheimian circle, gives us an opportunity to retrieve traces of the intellectual debate about collective psychology and reconsider this debate in today's light. The second, more recent phase, is inspired by classical and modern research in the field of social representation, and it serves us as a basis for a new hypothesis about anchoring. We suggest that the traditional concept of familiarisation attributed to anchoring can also have an opposite significance: it can transmit and guarantee the non‐familiar and so establish strangeness. Finally, we argue that social representations are more than a simple theory, just like the symbol is always more than what it symbolizes.     

Recession,austerity and gender: A comparison of eight European labour markets

The collapse in GDP brought about by the global economic crisis in 2008 affected female employment less than male employment, whereas austerity has been particularly harsh on women, a gendered impact described in the literature as “he‐cession to sh(e)‐austerity”. This article analyses gendered trends in the labour markets of eight European countries, decomposing quarterly changes in labour participation of women and men and in employment by sector. The “he‐cession to sh(e)‐austerity” scenario is not observed in all countries. Other channels through which austerity policies can jeopardize gender equality and women's rights are identified with reference to a typology of such policies.     

Anti‐globalization movements and the European agenda

This article examines the relationship between the Europeanization process and the anti‐globalization agenda in Europe. Relying on the results of fieldwork research conducted since 2001 on the anti‐globalization demonstrations surrounding the European summits, it argues that these transnational protest movements are of a dual and, in part, contradictory nature. On the one hand, they have an agenda‐setting character, contributing to the formation of European public opinion. On the other hand, their influence in terms of agenda setting of European policy is constrained by their discourse style which bypasses or circumvents official discourse about European integration.     

Cultural Stereotypes and Positioning Theory

This paper addresses the application of positioning theory , a new emerging theoretical scheme on the issue of cultural stereotyping. First, a critical conceptual analysis of the words'cultural stereotype'is presented. Secondly, the basic tenets of positioning theory are outlined. Finally, it will be demonstrated how the framework of positioning theory can be used to analytically refine the concept of cultural stereotype. The main upshot of the article is that within social psychology, the concept of cultural stereotype is used in a conceptually vague and blurred way and that, with the necessary conceptual refinements, other research-agendas on stereotypes will have to be tackled if social psychologists want to contribute anything to the societal efforts of changing stereotypes.     

Variability of Travel Time,Congestion, and the Cost of Travel

The variability of travel time modifies the rush hour traffic and the cost of commuting. The bottleneck model of road congestion with fixed peak-load demand is augmented of an additive random delay. When individuals have (α-β-γ) preferences, there exists a unique Nash equilibrium. The variability of travel time leads to departure rates that are spread more evenly over the rush hour than when travel times are deterministic. This equilibrium mechanism mitigates both congestion and the cost of unreliability. This implies that “single-traveler models,” which treat congestion as an exogenous phenomenon, overestimate the value of reliability for the rush hour. The application with the uniform or with the exponential distribution helps appraise the overestimation.     

Model-based Clustering of Sequential Data with an Application to Contraceptive Use Dynamics

ABSTRACT

Multi-state models describe the transitions people experience as life unfolds. The transition probabilities depend on sex, age, and attributes of the person and the context. Empirical evidence suggests that attributes that cannot be measured directly may at most be inferred from a long list of observable characteristics. A cluster-based, discrete-time multi-state model is presented, where transition probabilities are estimated simultaneously for several subpopulations of a heterogeneous population. The subpopulations are not defined a priori but are determined on the basis of similarities in behavior in order to determine which women exhibit similar characteristics with respect to method choice, method switch, discontinuation and subsequent resumption of contraceptive use. The data are from the life history calendar based on the Brazilian Demographic and Health Survey 1996. The parameters of the model are estimated using the EM algorithm. Seven subpopulations with heterogeneous transition probabilities are identified.     

An approximation algorithm for the maximum spectral subgraph problem

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization - Modifying the topology of a network to mitigate the spread of an epidemic with epidemiological constant $$\lambda $$ amounts to the NP-hard problem of...     

Getting tuned in to those who are different: The role of empathy as mediator between diversity and performance

We present a theoretical model on the processes that mediate and moderate the diversity-performance relationship. Past research on this topic—for example the categorization elaboration model (van Knippenberg et al. 2004)—has often focused on information elaboration as mediator. Complementing this cognitive perspective, we propose that group diversity can also stimulate group members to engage with each other emotionally, resulting in higher levels of empathy—an emotional state which arises from the comprehension and apprehension of fellow group members’ emotional state. Empathy, in turn, is likely to enhance performance through processes within a single group member and through processes between group members. At the core of the model lies the proposition that group- as well as individual-level empathy mediate the relationship between diversity of organizational units and the performance of individual members and groups at large (multilevel mediation). Furthermore, we specify moderating conditions for the relationship between diversity and empathy. Diversity beliefs and diversity climates are introduced as second-order moderators.