The specific value of freedom

This article examines the question of how to assess our overall freedom in terms of its so-called specific value, i.e., the part of its value that can be reduced to the value of the various specific things we are free to do or be. It is argued that existing preference-based freedom rankings may fail to capture this value adequately and, drawing on earlier work by Puppe (J Econ Theory 68:174–199, 1996; in: Laslier et al. (eds.) Freedom in economics. New perspectives in normative analysis, 1998) and Puppe and Xu (Soc Choice Welf, this issue, 2010), an alternative, more general framework is proposed. Two rankings of freedom’s specific value are axiomatically characterized. The article concludes with a discussion of possible extensions of the framework.     

Where is the exit? Intergenerational ambivalence and relationship quality in high contact ties

We challenge the common idea that solidarity has positive, whereas conflict has negative implications, by investigating intergenerational ambivalence – defined as the co-occurrence of solidarity and conflict – and relationship quality. We use representative data on non-coresident adult children and parents with high levels of contact (weekly or more; N = 2,694 dyads). Results show that over half of high contact parent–child ties can be characterized as ambivalent and of high-quality. The likelihood of negative instead of positive ambivalent ties is greater if adult children have few exit options because they are socially isolated or have a small number of siblings. Ties between fathers and sons, and those between caring daughters and aging parents also have a high probability of belonging to the negative ambivalent type.     

Social professionals' perceptions of activating citizenship

This article reports on qualitative research among 48 social professionals, managers and policymakers and their perceptions of activating citizenship, social work roles and responsibilities, carried out in Utrecht and Tartu. Professionals from both countries agreed to the idea of activating citizenship but stressing the perspective of personalised or lived citizenship, each person to his own capacities and embedded in the personal context. Nearly all respondents were critical about the recognition of social workers as a full profession, about the new management way of steering social work and about cooperation between different groups of professionals and services. Although both countries have quite different historical and cultural backgrounds, the authors found many similarities among social workers regarding their ideas on support, participation and commitment to the people they work for and work with. International research projects contribute to a more strongly recognised social work theory and social work practice by getting a better understanding, in particular of the way social work adapts to different contexts but from a highly recognisable international discourse within social work.     

Introduction to stochastic actor-based models for network dynamics

Stochastic actor-based models are models for network dynamics that can represent a wide variety of influences on network change, and allow to estimate parameters expressing such influences, and test corresponding hypotheses. The nodes in the network represent social actors, and the collection of ties represents a social relation. The assumptions posit that the network evolves as a stochastic process ‘driven by the actors’, i.e., the model lends itself especially for representing theories about how actors change their outgoing ties. The probabilities of tie changes are in part endogenously determined, i.e., as a function of the current network structure itself, and in part exogenously, as a function of characteristics of the nodes (‘actor covariates’) and of characteristics of pairs of nodes (‘dyadic covariates’). In an extended form, stochastic actor-based models can be used to analyze longitudinal data on social networks jointly with changing attributes of the actors: dynamics of networks and behavior.     

Random change point models: investigating cognitive decline in the presence of missing data

With the aim of identifying the age of onset of change in the rate of cognitive decline while accounting for the missing observations, we considered a selection modelling framework. A random change point model was fitted to data from a population-based longitudinal study of ageing (the Cambridge City over 75 Cohort Study) to model the longitudinal process. A missing at random mechanism was modelled using logistic regression. Random effects such as initial cognitive status, rate of decline before and after the change point, and the age of onset of change in rate of decline were estimated after adjustment for risk factors for cognitive decline. Among other possible predictors, the last observed cognitive score was used to adjust the probability of death and dropout. Individuals who experienced less variability in their cognitive scores experienced a change in their rate of decline at older ages than individuals whose cognitive scores varied more.     

The Effect of the Supply of Subsidized Day-care Facilities on Female Labour Supply

ABSTRACT: In this article the hypothesis that a higher level of subsidized day-care facilities leads to an increase in female labour supply is tested for the Netherlands on the basis of two surveys. The results show that (allowing for the women's wage rate, her non-labour income, her age, and the presence of children) labour supply is higher when subsidized day-care supply is higher. However, after including variables that reflect social norms the effect of day-care supply on female labour supply, though still positive and significant, becomes much weaker.     

Adolescents' trust and reciprocity toward friends,unknown peers,and community members

Using a newly developed version of the Trust Game among 196 adolescents aged 11–20 years, this study examined whether adolescents distinguish between trust and reciprocity to unknown peers, friends, and community members. We also tested for effects of age, gender, and individual differences in attending to others' emotions, emotional support to friends, societal contributions, and institutional and interpersonal trust beliefs. Results indicated that adolescents showed the least trust and reciprocity to unknown peers, more to a community member, and most to friends. Reciprocity increased with age, and individual differences in societal contributions and interpersonal trust were positively related to trust and reciprocity. This study was the first to show that community members are a specific target in adolescents' social world.