When Does Language Become Exclusivist? Linguistic Politics in Catalonia

This article traces the development of linguistic policy in Catalonia over the last few decades and argues that language and linguistic policy continue to be crucial elements in the Catalan nation-building project. In addition, the growing politicisation of language has increasingly become a divisive issue amongst Catalonia's political elite. The Catalan linguistic landscape has moved from one based on linguistic 'normalisation' to a situation where bilingualism is the norm, but the degree to which one language predominates or should predominate over the other continues to be subject to intense public debate. Finally, the article argues that the linguistic consensus which prevailed among Catalan political parties for nearly two decades has slowly begun to disintegrate, accompanied by a growing debate on the use of language as an exclusivist mark of identity in Catalan society.     

Impact of performance indicators on organisations: a proposal for an evaluation model

This work aims at giving some guidelines to assess the impact of performance indicators on organisations. Performance measurement systems are usually introduced into organisations in order to monitor goal achievement, to allocate resources and to implement a strategy. However, the implementation of performance indicators may generate an alteration in the rational behaviour of the monitored structure. The risk of this impact is always present, and must be considered very carefully in order to preserve the organisation from a counter-productive effect. In the present analytical work, a reference model is proposed as a first step. This model considers all the organisational dimensions on which an indicator may exert its influence. The method makes use of the four Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard perspectives in order to identify the dimensions on which an indicator may exert its impact. Previous works reported in scientific literature do not provide operational models for impact analysis, whereas, the proposed model is linked to an operative procedure in order to support management to make this analysis. The aim is to make the impact analysis less complex by structuring it in a sequence of predefined steps. The proposal is supported by some practical examples.     

Construction of a Frailty Indicator with Partially Ordered Sets: A Multiple-Outcome Proposal Based on Administrative Healthcare Data

Social Indicators Research - Given the progressive aging of Italian and European populations, the number of cases with chronic diseases is steeply increasing. This calls for new strategies for...     

人格性与动物

西方通常的假设是动物不能成为人。即使在动物伦理学中,人格性这一概念也经常被避免使用。与此同时,在认知动物行为学中,很多论证认为动物确实有心智（minds）,并且,动物伦理学提出了有说服力的论证来支持动物的个体性价值。尽管“动物人格性”可能看起来是一个荒唐的概念,更多的注意需要被放到为什么动物能或不能被纳入到人的分类中的原因上来。在通往人格性的三个不同方法——完美主义者方法、人本主义方法以及交互式方法一中,第三个方法是最强的。人格性定义经由相互作用为动物伦理学打开了新的一扇门。     

Consequences of work-family conflict on employee well-being over time

The effects of work-family conflict on the well-being of a diverse sample of 342 non-professional employees from the greater Los Angeles area were examined. Data were collected at two points in time, and a rigorous research design was employed. The effects of self-report bias were considered by controlling for social desirability bias, and by collecting two sources of data (i.e. self-reports and co-workers reports). The results revealed that work-family conflict predicted employee well-being over and above social desirability bias. In addition, analyses were consistent when both self-reports and co-workers reports were utilized. Finally, work-family conflict was a longitudinal predictor of employee's positive well-being. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were consistent across self-reports and co-worker reports.     

Early Family Transitions and Depressive Symptom Changes From Adolescence to Early Adulthood

Some research and theory suggest that early cohabitation, parenthood, and marriage have negative long‐term implications. Nevertheless, in the context of their resources and opportunities, early transitions may represent positive choices for some individuals. We studied the family and personal characteristics of young adults (N = 8,172) who did, versus those who did not, make early family transitions. We assessed changes in their depressive symptoms from adolescence to young adulthood. Individuals who made early family transitions were disadvantaged in many respects, but differed little from those who did not with respect to changes in depressive symptoms. That they stay “even” with those who do not make transitions suggests that some young adults make positive choices from among limited options.     

Adolescent Fathers' Parenting Stress,Social Support,and Involvement with Infants

The present study examined the relationship between concurrent measures of adolescent fathers' parenting stress, social support, and fathers' care‐giving involvement with the 3‐month‐old infant, controlling for fathers' prenatal involvement. The study sample consisted of 50 teenage father–mother dyads. Findings from multivariate regression revealed that fathers' parenting stress was significantly and negatively related to fathers' care giving as perceived by both fathers and mothers. The relationship between support for father involvement provided by the young man's parents and father reported care‐giving involvement approached significance. Social support from both teenagers' parents buffered the negative influence of parenting stress on fathers' involvement with the baby. Policy and intervention implications are discussed.     

A Fragile Guideline to Development Assistance

The concept of fragility has gained an increasing relevance in development discourse. Nevertheless, it remains a fuzzy and elusive concept. This article presents a review of the literature, and identifies two main sets of definitions of fragility, which substantially differ in their focus and breadth, and that reflect the evolution of the discourse around this developmental concept. The limited consensus that is found in the literature suggests that the analytical salience and the direct operational value‐added of the concept remain unclear. Nevertheless, the debate around state fragility has played an important advocacy role, and has offered key methodological insights with respect to the challenges that donors face, and what can be realistically achieved through external engagement.