How Do Efforts to Enhance Career Preparation Affect Peer Groups?

The present study investigated how efforts to enhance career preparation affect peer groups. The participants were 710 9th graders who were randomized into control and intervention groups and assessed 3 times during 1 academic year: at baseline (T1, Fall), immediately after the career preparation intervention (T2, 3 months after baseline), and 5 months after the intervention (T3, Spring). The results showed, first, that maintenance of a stable clique was more likely when most clique members participated in the intervention. Second, it was found that the members of adolescents' cliques resembled each other in respect of the strength of the intervention effect. Finally, the results showed that the similarity of the clique members in career choice preparedness first decreased as a result of the short‐term impact of the intervention but then increased after the intervention was over, suggesting that peer groups were partly responsible for weakening the effect of the intervention. These results have important implications for understanding how peer groups moderate external influences on their members and how the stability of peer groups is affected by these influences.     

A comparative study of social network models: Network evolution models and nodal attribute models

This paper reviews, classifies and compares recent models for social networks that have mainly been published within the physics-oriented complex networks literature. The models fall into two categories: those in which the addition of new links is dependent on the (typically local) network structure (network evolution models, NEMs), and those in which links are generated based only on nodal attributes (nodal attribute models, NAMs). An exponential random graph model (ERGM) with structural dependencies is included for comparison. We fit models from each of these categories to two empirical acquaintance networks with respect to basic network properties. We compare higher order structures in the resulting networks with those in the data, with the aim of determining which models produce the most realistic network structure with respect to degree distributions, assortativity, clustering spectra, geodesic path distributions, and community structure (subgroups with dense internal connections). We find that the nodal attribute models successfully produce assortative networks and very clear community structure. However, they generate unrealistic clustering spectra and peaked degree distributions that do not match empirical data on large social networks. On the other hand, many of the network evolution models produce degree distributions and clustering spectra that agree more closely with data. They also generate assortative networks and community structure, although often not to the same extent as in the data. The ERGM model, which turned out to be near-degenerate in the parameter region best fitting our data, produces the weakest community structure.     

Technology Effects on Wages in Finnish Manufacturing

In this paper we study the effect of technology on establishment‐level wages using a classification of manufacturing industries based on four technology levels. The technology wage premiums are estimated separately for non‐manual and manual workers using wage equations with available control variables for plant and workforce characteristics (human capital) over the time period 1974–93. The results do not show a straightforward increasing relationship between a plant’s average wages and its technology at higher technology levels. However, establishments with the lowest technology level paid the lowest wages during the whole period. We also find that the relative non‐manual to manual wage ratio increased over the time period in the highest technology levels. These findings are consistent with technology wage premiums and skill‐biased technological change found in studies for other countries     

Sustainability Evaluation Frameworks and Alternative Analytical Scenarios of National Economies

In this article a macro-oriented conceptual framework of the conditions necessary for the advancement of sustainability within an economy and society is formulated and analysed. The theoretical framework presented is a set of logical identities, which define relationships between the total environmental stress (TES) and the basic indicators of economic, technological and social development. The framework, called the Total Environmental Stress Approach, provides necessary but not sufficient conditions for advancing sustainability. Scenario alternatives utilizing the TES approach with data from Finland are presented to evaluate the theoretical framework.     

Women and men with intellectual disabilities who sell or trade sex: voices from the professionals

The phenomenon of women and men with intellectual disabilities (ID) selling or exchanging sexual services is poorly understood. In this study, the authors explored the knowledge and perceptions of this phenomenon shared by professionals working in the field. Focus group discussions demonstrated broad familiarity with the phenomenon. Different motives and contributing factors were identified for the behavior, blurring the boundary line between free choice and exploitation. Two distinct discourses emerged from the interviews based on the assumed "rationality" of the sex transaction and its rewards: Those with ID who traded sexual favors were presented as either conscious and autonomous agents or unaware and exploited victims.     

Trampling tolerance of understorey vegetation in different hemiboreal urban forest site types in Finland

The effects of trampling on the understorey vegetation were studied in boreal urban forests of different fertility in the greater Helsinki area, Finland. The three studied forest types in decreasing order of fertility were: 1) herb-rich heath forest, 2) mesic heath forest, and 3) sub-xeric heath forest. We inventoried the cover percentages of understorey vegetation in 40 herb-rich, 75 mesic and 40 sub-xeric biotopes located in 51 urban forests varying in size (0.6–502 ha). Cover percentages were compared to those of untrampled reference areas. In our study, trampling tolerance increased with increasing fertility of the forest type. Wear of understorey vegetation correlated positively with the number of residents (i.e. recreational pressure) around the forest patch. In general, understorey vegetation cover in all three forest types was lower than in the same forest types in untrampled reference areas. Ground layer cover in urban forests was less than half of that in reference areas. Mosses, lichens, and dwarf shrubs, especially Vaccinium vitis-idaea, proved to be sensitive to trampling and consequently decreased in cover. The cover of tree saplings, mainly Sorbus aucuparia, and some resilient herbs increased.     

Strengthening Local Governance in Developing Countries: Partnership as an Alternative Approach

One of the major current concerns in administrative science is the scarcity of partnership-based administration in developing countries, where the capacity of local government is generally weak. Due to the impact of globalisation, the growth of information technology and the rise of third sector organisations, public administration has adopted a new paradigm but given it different names i.e., partnership, public-private partnership, networking, sound governance, good governance etc. As a result, the notion of partnership has emerged as one of the key approaches to meeting the governance challenges of the new millennium focusing, in particular, on building and strengthening the capacity of local governance. As a model, the sustainability of a social system based solely on state capacity has failed in most developing countries. As such, this paper intends to analyse the prospects for partnership based local governance in the developing countries. We argue that there is no alternative to building partnerships at the local government level between the state, private and civil society in order to improve the capacity of local government, enabling it to better attain sustainability, ensure good governance and promote participation in an attempt to mitigate the problems of social exclusion and fragmentation in the delivery of services and products.     

The effects of trampling on assemblages of ground beetles (Coleoptera,Carabidae) in urban forests in Helsinki,Finland

The occurrence of carabid beetles in relation to trampling was examined in urban forest sites located in the city of Helsinki, southern Finland. The degree of wear of the forest floor was assessed and used as a measure of trampling intensity. In particular, we examined the following predictions: (1) carabid diversity should decrease with increasing trampling intensity, (2) mean body size of the dominating carabid species should decrease with increasing trampling intensity, and (3) opportunistic species should gain dominance in severely trampled sites. In total, 1,326 beetles representing 27 species were captured. The first prediction was not supported, as there was no correlation between species richness or Hill's N2 diversity index and trampling intensity. However, there was a positive correlation between number of carabids captured and trampling intensity of the site. The second hypothesis gained some support, as there was a marginally significant negative correlation between body size and trampling intensity. The hypothesis that opportunistic species should gain dominance in severely trampled sites was supported as one species was very dominant (Pterostichus melanarius, 60.0%) in the heavily trampled sites, while there were two equally and less dominant species in the less trampled sites. Individual species did show different responses to the effects of trampling, and the most sensitive forest species may not survive in the heavily trampled sites. We conclude that at the community level (e.g., species richness, diversity), the effects of trampling on carabids in urban forests are subtle, but impacts are pronounced for some sensitive species.     

Intelligent Public Organisations

The article explores the nature of the intelligence and organisational learning of public sector organisations with regard to both individual organisations and multiple organisational ecosystems. The main ideas behind modern systems theory (MST) and the logic developed by the MST theorists in the domain of organisational intelligence are pinpointed in the paper. The article presupposes that the basic structure of the organisational features of intelligence consists of leadership, strategy and foresight, people, partnerships and resources, and organisational processes, and the intelligence builds on these features. The article concludes with an explicit definition of the organisational activities that generate organisational intelligence, putting forward best practice examples with regard to these activities while also presenting scientific evidence to back up these claims.     

Hopes and Fears for the Future Among Chinese Adolescents

This study examined the contents of adolescents' hopes and fears for the future in a sample of 1,975 urban and rural 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in China. Chinese adolescents' hopes and fears were most often related to future education, occupation, parental well‐being, marriage and family, academics, leisure activities, wealth, interpersonal relationships, collective issues, and self‐related issues. Urban adolescents compared to rural ones reported more hopes for education and leisure activities and held fewer hopes and fears for parental well‐being and interpersonal relationships. Males reported more hopes and fears for marriage, whereas females reported more hopes and fears for parental well‐being. These results suggest the important role of the social and cultural context in adolescents' future thinking.