Rating Threat Mitigators: Faith in Experts,Governments, and Individuals Themselves to Create a Safer World

This research explores public judgments about the threat-reducing potential of experts, individual behavior, and government spending. The data are responses of a national sample of 1225 to mail surveys that include measures of several dimensions of public judgments about violent crime, automobile accidents, hazardous chemical waste, air pollution, water pollution, global warming, AIDS, heart disease, and cancer. Beliefs about who can best mitigate threats are specific to classes of threats. In general, there is little faith that experts can do much about violent crime and automobile accidents, moderate faith in their ability to address problems of global warming, and greater expectations for expert solutions to the remaining threats. People judge individual behavior as effective in reducing the threats of violent crime, AIDS, heart disease, and automobile accidents but less so for the remaining threats. Faith in more government spending is highest for AIDS and the other two health items, lowest for the trio of violent crime, automobile accidents, and global warming, and moderate for the remaining threats. For most threats, people are not distributed at the extremes in judging mitigators. Strong attitudinal and demographic cleavages are also lacking, although some interesting relationships occur. This relative lack of sharp cleavages and the generally moderate opinion indicate ample opportunity for public education and risk communication.     

Social distress theory and teaching about homelessness: A retrospective analysis

This paper provides a retrospective analysis of our course: Homelessness in the United States: An Interdisciplinary Approach. It analyzes how such a course reveals social distress on two distinct levels: course content and course process. We deploy the concepts, tenets and insights of social distress theory to provide a retrospective analytical framework for the course. In addition, we extend the theory by presenting two corollaries to it and show how the literature on homelessness provides alternative connections among the major elements of social distress theory. Thus, we raise new questions for the theory to consider. We also make recommendations for potential teachers of courses on homelessness.     

Work–Family Conflict Among Employees and the Self-Employed Across Europe

This article examines the level of work–family conflict of self-employed persons, a changing but neglected group in work–life research, compared to employees in Europe. Differences between the two groups are explained by looking at job demands and resources. The inclusion of work–family state support makes it possible to examine differences between countries. Multilevel analysis has been applied to data from the European Social Survey (ESS 2010). The results show that job demands and resources operate differently for employees and the self-employed. The relationship between employment type and WFC is mediated mainly by job demands such as working hours, working at short notice, job insecurity and supervisory work. The results also reveal variation across countries that cannot be explained by state support, signalling the need for a more complete understanding of WFC from a cross-national perspective.     

Ghosts of Policing Strategies Past: Is the New Zealand Police ‘Prevention First’ Strategy Historic,Contemporary or the Future?

Since the 1990s the New Zealand Police have introduced three extensive change management programs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their core services; Policing 2000, Policing Excellence and Prevention First. Each program has been fundamentally different, with the more modern programs influencing the way that New Zealand Police deliver services. Policing 2000 evolved from implementation of the first strategic plan, while Policing Excellence and Prevention First were introduced in response to the 2007 fiscal crisis. The programs are compared to identify the differences, and whether these later programs can increase service delivery efficiency and effectiveness.     

Family Size and Parental Wealth: The Role of Family Transfers in Europe

European Journal of Population - As baby boomers enter retirement, an increasing portion of the population in Europe will rely on wealth as a source of financial security. We address two research...     

Collective Memory and Social Restructuring in the Case of Traditional Inuit Shamanism

This article explores the sociological processes of collective memory manipulation in unsettled times by analyzing a case study of the Church's displacement of traditional shamanism in Arviat, Nunavut. Collective memory studies, which examine regime transitions, focus on tracing the path of collective memory, rather than examining the mechanisms used to gain and keep control over collective memory. I argue that three elements are necessary for this kind of control: (1) shifting the “historical horizon” to temporally locate the competing institution firmly in the past within community memory, (2) manipulating the reputation of the competing, soon‐to‐be‐previous institution, and (3) establishing a new moral framework. I center my argument primarily on the accomplishment of these elements using narrative and rhetoric, which emerged through inductive analysis.     

The aura of charisma: A review on the embodiment perspective as signaling

Charismatic leaders have consistently been shown to affect followers' performance, motivation, and satisfaction. Yet, what precisely constitutes charisma still remains somewhat enigmatic. So far, research has mainly focused on leader traits, leader behaviors, or the leader follower-relationship, and the subsequent consequences of each on followers' self-concepts. All of these approaches share the notion that leader charisma depends on an explicit interaction between leader and follower. With the present review paper, we extend extant theorizing by arguing that charisma is additionally informed by embodied signals that flow directly from either the leader or the immediate environment. We introduce the embodiment perspective on human perception and describe its utility for theoretically understanding the charismatic effect. Correspondingly, we review studies that show which concrete embodied cues can support the charismatic effect. Finally, we discuss the variety of new theoretical and practical implications that arise from this research and how they can complement existing approaches to charismatic leadership.     

Cash‐for‐care policy in Sweden: An appraisal of its consequences on female employment

In 2008, Sweden introduced a cash‐for‐care benefit consisting of a flat‐rate sum paid by municipalities to parents whose children were between the ages of one and three and who did not use publicly subsidised childcare. The main object of the reform was to increase parents’ ‘freedom to choose’, but the policy was criticised because of its potentially negative effects on gender equality and mothers’ employment. This study focuses on the effects of cash‐for‐care on female employment in Sweden. The study shows that the adoption of this policy had negative effects on female employment, although primarily in rural areas. Cash‐for‐care was abolished in Sweden in 2016. To evaluate the effects that the policy had on female employment during the time it was in place is important as it indicates what may happen if the policy is introduced again.