Do Millennials Care About NPOs? Intergenerational Differences in Attitudes Towards Nonprofit Organizations

In this study, we analyse whether there are differences in attitudes towards nonprofit organizations (NPOs) between the generational cohorts of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. We do so by analysing survey data from Switzerland in two steps, a Bayesian estimation as well as a cluster analysis. The overall results suggest that there are, at best, only few and small intergenerational differences: the only consistent effect we find are the more negative attitudes of the Baby Boomer cohort towards professional associations and towards sports NPOs, but those differences could be due to life cycle rather than intergenerational effects. Overall, our results suggest that the Millennial generational cohort is at least as interested in and willing to engage with NPOs as previous generational cohorts.     

Optimal Monte Carlo integration on closed manifolds

Statistics and Computing - The worst case integration error in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of standard Monte Carlo methods with n random points decays as $$n^{-1/2}$$. However, the...     

Coffee by women: the ‘duty of ethical enjoyment’

This article explores the contemporary trend of deploying feminist values in the case of ethical branding. Using the psychoanalytical concepts logics of fantasy and enjoyment, we analyse the campaign by Swedish coffee brand Zoégas, Coffee by Women, to understand how a combination of development discourse, ‘women’s empowerment’ and the opportunity to ‘do good’ is employed to sell coffee. The analysis shows that the campaign depicts the threat of a future lack of coffee, creating anxiety in the consumer, supposedly motivating her to purchase Zoégas, as Coffee by Women is claimed to secure and educate new generations of coffee farmers. Simultaneously, this is presented as ‘empowering women’ in the global South. We argue that this narrative builds on a colonial fantasy of global sisterhood and shared interests that works to conceal the political conflicts connected to global trade and climate change. Through a commodification of feminist values and aesthetics, this fantasy works to redirect the desire for social change towards consumption, offering an enjoyable solution that disregards any wider responsibility. It has been argued that the structure of the social bond before the era of mass consumption was characterized by a prohibition on individual enjoyment for the benefit of the common good. After the arrival of mass consumption, the social bond instead became marked by a duty to enjoy. In the contemporary context of ethical capitalism, we suggest that the social bond is rather structured by a ‘duty of ethical enjoyment’, containing elements of both prohibition and pleasure.     

Job-strain and well-being among Finnish social workers: exploring the differences in occupational well-being between child protection social workers and social workers without duties in child protection

Work-related mental distress and its impact on employees’ working life is a mounting issue among Finnish social workers. This article focuses on identifying the factors associated with child welfare social workers’ occupational well-being. The occupational well-being of Finnish child welfare social workers (N?=?364) and social workers whose duties do not include child protection work (N?=?524) was explored and compared with each other using t-test statistics and logistic regression analysis. The data, collected in 2014/2015, were obtained from an ongoing longitudinal cohort study on work-related well-being among Finnish public sector employees. A multi-dimensional and holistic approach to occupational well-being was used as the outline for the analysis and comparison of the two groups. Child protection social workers reported higher levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress than social workers without child protection duties. Despite these burdens, both groups showed a similar level of general health, compassion satisfaction and overall occupational well-being. Individual and organizational factors associated with high occupational well-being were identified. Supervision was found to be an important supporting element. This study identified multiple determinants related to social workers’ occupational well-being, comprising positive and negative elements with regard to organizational and individual factors.     

Willentliches Vergessen – Voraussetzung für Flexibilität und Veränderungsfähigkeit in einer sich permanent verändernden Welt

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) - Dieser Beitrag im Journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. stellt dar, wie willentliches...     

Socioeconomic disparities in climate vulnerability: neonatal mortality in northern Sweden, 1880–1950

Population and Environment - The aim of this study was to analyse the association between season of birth, temperature and neonatal mortality according to socioeconomic status in northern Sweden...     

Family support services buffer the effect of child welfare notifications on child removals

Previous studies have found mixed results about the effects of family support services within the child protection system. The purpose of the study is to examine whether family support services are associated with the need for child removals at the community level. The material of the study consists of Finnish municipalities (N = 292) and their child protection indicators. Linear regression analysis was conducted to analyse the associations between the dependent variable (child removals) and the main predictors (child welfare notifications and family support services). It was found that family support services are associated with child removals. The more children there are in family support services, the more there are also child removals in a municipality. The key finding of the analysis is that a higher rather than lower proportion of clients in family support services buffers the increased effect of demand (child welfare notifications) on child removals better. In this sense, the demand for child removals is not only associated with the characteristics of children and families but may be partly explained by the role of family support services in a municipality. The present study underlines the significance of a system-level approach to child protection.     

Model Selection For A Family Of Discrete Failure Time Distributions

In recent years, a large number of new discrete distributions have appeared in the literature. However, flexible discrete models which, at the same time, allow for easy statistical inference, are still an exception. This paper makes a detailed analysis of a family of discrete failure time distributions which meets both requirements. It examines the maximum likelihood estimation of the unknown parameters and presents a goodness-of-fit test for this model. The test is used for the selection of an appropriate model for datasets of frequencies of the duration of atmospheric circulation patterns.     

Occurrence of breeding bird species in urban parks: Effects of park structure and broad-scale variables

Occurrences of breeding bird species in 54 urban parks were investigated in the city of Oulu in northern Finland. Park area, human activity, habitat, and landscape structure within a 9-ha square surrounding the study park were related to the bird species richness and occurrence of individual bird species. A total of 22 species was observed. The area of the park explained 39% of the variance of species richness. Seven species (wheatear [Oenanthe oenanthe], common rosefinch [Carpodacus erythrinus], garden warbler [Sylvia borin], lesser whitethroat [Sylvia curruca], linnet [Acanthis cannabina], redpoll [Carduelis flammea], and yellowhammer [Emberiza citrinella]) were not detected in parks of >0.75 ha. Species with lower area demands occurred closer to the town center than species with greater area requirements. Ground-nesting species were poor colonizers of urban parks, whereas high numbers of nest boxes in urban parks attracted many cavity-nesting species. The willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) and the magpie (Pica pica) bred more often in unmanaged than in managed parks, probably because of the greater vegetation cover in unmanaged parks. Park structure variables were entered into models for 7 of the 12 most common bird species, whereas broad scale variables were entered into models for 6 of the 12 species. The number of adjacent buildings had a negative affect on three bird species (the willow warbler, hooded crow [Corvus corone cornix], and spotted flycatcher [Muscicapa striata]). The occurrence of breeding species in urban parks depends on the size of the park, park structure, and landscape structure outside the park.