Public Sociology on Twitter: a Space for Public Pedagogy?

Research has examined various elements of Twitter; however, no scholarship has explored how sociologists currently use the platform. This empirically driven paper explores how individuals that self-identify as sociologists on Twitter use the popular micro-blogging social media site. A total of 152,977 tweets from Twitter profiles of 130 sociologists were collected and examined using qualitative media analysis. The potential use of Twitter allows the sociologist to become both the generator and interlocutor of dialogue with publics. We frame our data analysis and discussion around the core theme of expertise - namely, the role that expertise plays in the use of Twitter by sociologists. Our findings indicate that when sociologists used Twitter as sociologists (i.e., drawing upon their stated research expertise) little direct engagement with publics occurred. Thus, while sociologists appear to be using Twitter as a space for public sociology, the use of this interactive platform is mostly limited to the generation of content, a finding consistent with Burawoy’s traditional form of public sociology. Suggestions for future research are noted.     

Contrasting strategies for tree species to cope with heat and dry conditions at urban sites

Street trees planted at tree pits with impermeable pavements are exposed to a high level of both, atmospheric and edaphic stress. For many species tree physiology, optimal growth, and consequently long-term vitality may be hampered under these harsh conditions. Therefore, maintaining the vitality and promoting the ecosystem services provided by urban trees, for example aesthetic values and microclimatic benefits, it is important to establish trees with a high tolerance to stressful urban environments. Measurements of leaf gas exchange, leaf water potential, leaf surface temperature and chlorophyll-fluorescence were used for identification of specific response of Corylus corluna L., Ginkgo biloba L., Liriodendron tulipifera L., and Tilia cordata Mill. ‘Greenspire’. The summer months in 2013 with a period of heat and drought over eight weeks only interrupted by two rainy days were appropriate to access tree’s strategies to cope with low water availability. During the measurement period, the influence of high temperatures, high values of vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and low soil water availability on stomatal conductance, water-use efficiency (WUE) and leaf water potential (Ψmin, Ψmax ) was highest for Liriodendron followed by Ginkgo. These species showed high reductions in WUE in case of higher air temperatures and high values of VPD. Results indicate an avoidance strategy under increasing heat and VPD. In contrast, Corylus and Tilia followed a tolerance strategy indicated by decreasing values of Ψmin and lower reductions of WUE. In conclusion, wide species-specific variation in response to high temperatures and high VPD indicates that substantial potential exists in the selection for dry and hot urban places.     

Career Engagement: Investigating Intraindividual Predictors of Weekly Fluctuations in Proactive Career Behaviors

This study applied a microlevel perspective on how within‐individual differences in motivational and social‐cognitive factors affected the weekly fluctuations of engagement in proactive career behaviors among a group of 67 German university students. Career self‐efficacy beliefs, perceived career barriers, experienced social career support, positive and negative emotions, and career engagement were assessed weekly for 13 consecutive weeks. Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that above average levels of career engagement within individuals were predicted by higher than average perceived social support and positive emotions during a given week. Conversely, within‐individual differences in self‐efficacy, barriers, and negative emotions had no effect. The results suggest that career interventions should provide boosts in social support and positive emotions.     

Der Schichtgradient von Morbidität und Mortalität

As in many other European countries a contradictory development can be observed in Austria, too: On the one hand, life expectancy increases continuously while incidence and prevalence rates of many groups of diagnoses decrease. On the other hand, differences in morbidity and mortality between the social classes are widening at the same time. This article’s aim is to develop a comprehensive theoretical model of explanation of this social class gradient including the current state of discussion on “health inequalities”. Aspects of material inequality as well as the socially unequal distribution of working and living conditions will be taken into account. In addition, the importance of cultural capital and class-specific lifestyles will be described in detail. Last but not least psychosocial and biological preconditions and potential selection processes will also be taken into consideration.     

Impact of the National Minimum Wage on Disabled People

The survey reported here found disparities in the impact of the introduction of the National Minimum Wage on disabled people. These were associated with age, gender, impairment and type of employment setting. The main determinant of whether individuals gained from the NMW was their status as claimants of welfare benefits. We also found evidence that paid hours had been reduced to implement the NMW with no net increase in earnings, possibly to enable people to retain benefits entitlements. We make recommendations about how the anomalies can be tackled. It may be unrealistic to expect the Act to have been implemented fully so soon after it became law and some of the anomalies found may eventually disappear. However, many of the inequalities uncovered by this survey are not addressed by the NMW, specifically those inequalities associated with impairment and gender.     

Note on the accuracy of local population estimates

Mr. Silcock's article will be of interest to all concerned with local population data. It may be useful to supplement it by a brief account of the fuller examination of the local population estimates made in 1951 by the General Register Office, since this covered all 1472 administrative areas in England and Wales and could be made in more detail than was possible for a private investigator.

Any census, of course, provides information not available, at least in such detail, at other times or from other sources, and also serves as a base from which estimates for succeeding years can be derived. In addition, however, the General Register Office takes the opportunity of a census to try and assess the accuracy of the various types of current population estimates made by the Department. In the case of local administrative areas the comparison of actual and expected populations made after the 1931 Census is discussed in the Text Volume of the Registrar General's Statistical Review for 1930 (pages 100-102).     

Understanding the demographic implications of climate change: estimates of localized population predictions under future scenarios of sea-level rise

Significant advances have been made to understand the interrelationship between humans and the environment in recent years, yet research has not produced useful localized estimates that link population forecasts to environmental change. Coarse, static population estimates that have little information on projected growth or spatial variability mask substantial impacts of environmental change on especially vulnerable populations. We estimate that 20 million people in the United States will be affected by sea-level rise by 2030 in selected regions that represent a range of sociodemographic characteristics and corresponding risks of vulnerability. Our results show that the impact of sea-level rise extends beyond the directly impacted counties due to migration networks that link inland and coastal areas and their populations. Substantial rates of population growth and migration are serious considerations for developing mitigation, adaptation, and planning strategies, and for future research on the social, demographic, and political dimensions of climate change.