Young Norwegians and their views on climate change and the future: findings from a climate concerned and oil-rich nation

Young people represent the future, but little is known about their attitudes towards climate change, one of the most serious issues facing the world today. The purpose of the present study is to contribute with improved and new knowledge of young Norwegians’ understanding of and attitudes towards this issue, with a special focus on perspectives of the future. Of particular interest is the influence of divergent framings of the climate question in Norway, due to conflicting interests between the petroleum industry and climate concern. The young people's voices are elicited through two different surveys undertaken during the fall of 2013, one national (Norwegian Citizen Panel) and one local (School survey conducted among high-school students). The study generated both quantitative and qualitative findings, stemming from closed-ended as well as open-ended questions. The data were handled through a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. The results show that the voices tend to be oriented towards the opinion that Norway has a responsibility to help poor countries as well as a duty to prevent climate change and that the country should reduce its oil production. We further observe that young Norwegians have an optimistic view of the future, based on a pronounced belief in technology and science.     

‘When you're boxing you don't think so much’: pugilism,transitional masculinities and criminal desistance among young Danish gang members

This paper draws upon international research evidence that suggests a relationship between protest masculinity and the manifestation of violent crime among young males, and that criminal desistance may be linked to (inter-) subjective processes such as the reconstruction of masculine identity. The paper considers the potential that pugilism (the art and practice of boxing) may have on enabling young, disadvantaged minority male gang members to find avenues for alternative identity construction and to gain transitional experiences which trigger self-confessed desistance actions. Drawing upon an ethnographic study conducted in a boxing rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark, the paper reports on data gleaned from participant observation and qualitative interviews with 22 ethnic minority young men. Findings suggest that the masculine context within the rehabilitation programme provided the young men with a safe space to perform broader versions of locally dominated views on masculinity and to reflect on their current situations and dilemmas. The young men were clearly in transition and their desistance journeys were characterized by hope and ambition but also disappointment and despair. In some cases it appeared that the young men's dogged attempts to desist from crime became a new way for them to ‘do masculinity’. The authors draw upon the findings to make recommendations for policy, practice and research.     

Child protection and welfare: cultures,policies, and practices

Child protection and welfare have become international issues in a globalized world. Ideas about childhood and the upbringing of children vary widely, depending upon the prevailing economic, socio-cultural, religious, and political contexts. These have had dramatic effects on the way societies value children, and the role acquired by the state in their protection and advancing their well-being. Children, however, remain at risk. They are placed at risk by the breakdown of extended family systems as a result of urbanization, and as a result of impaired functioning of some nuclear families, in the absence of kinship safety nets. Some traditional cultural practices place children at risk, especially girl children. Poverty creates risks for all children but it can create specific catastrophic risks for girls. Countries can enact visionary laws intended to protect children, but they will be ineffective against entrenched social attitudes, especially if only limited resources can be provided to implement and enforce them. This is the ultimate challenge that the world community must address if the vision of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is to be realized.     

Household gambling expenditures and the Irish recession

This article examines the determinants of household gambling expenditures in Ireland and the effects of the recession on these expenditures using a large micro data-set, the Irish Household Budget Survey (HBS). Two gambling expenditures are examined, bookmaker tote betting and spending on the national lottery. Households with an older and a less educated head of household participate in and spend more on both forms of gambling while the presence of children in the households tends to reduce participation and spending in gambling. There is also evidence to suggest that households with an unemployed head of household have a higher likelihood of participation in gambling. The recession has affected the two forms of gambling in different ways. Lottery expenditures appear resilient to the effects of the recession. This is demonstrated in the estimated expenditure elasticities in particular. Bookmaker/tote expenditures have changed from a necessity to a luxury good, while lottery expenditures have increased in their necessity status. This can be explained by the fact that playing the lottery requires less time, knowledge and risk and has potentially greater benefits attached to it in comparison to bookmaker/tote betting. During a recession these factors become much more prevalent.     

The increasing happiness of US parents

Previous research suggests that parents may be less happy than non-parents. We critically assess the literature and examine parents’ and non-parents’ happiness-trends using the General Social Survey (N = 42,298) and DDB Lifestyle Survey (N = 75,237). We find that parents are becoming happier over time relative to non-parents, that non-parents’ happiness is declining absolutely, and that estimates of the parental happiness gap are sensitive to the time-period analyzed. These results are consistent across two datasets, most subgroups, and various specifications. Finally, we present evidence that suggests children appear to protect parents against social and economic forces that may be reducing happiness among non-parents.     

ON THE SOLUTION OF SPATIAL EQUILIBRIUM MODELS*

Recent advances in mathematical programming methods and computing technology have the potential for overcoming the many formidable barriers to the widespread solution of nonlinear spatial models. In particular, the recent public availability of the software package MINOS/AUGMENTED has major implications for both policy and theoretical research involving spatial models. In this paper, mathematical programming formulations of two highly nonlinear spatial models are provided, model solutions presented, and associated computational experience discussed. In addition, related work is discussed briefly and suggestions are advanced concerning the potential role of the package in furthering the objectives of this related work. Subject Areas: Mathematical Programming, Transportation, and Urban and Regional Planning.     

An Evaluation of Capacity Sensitive Order Review and Release Procedures in Job Shops

We investigate the performance of capacity-sensitive order review and release (ORR) procedures in job shop environments that have not been previously explored. Previous research has ignored the case of job shops which must perform to very tight due-dates because of time-sensitive customers. We propose and test a new capacity sensitive ORR procedure called path based bottleneck (PBB) in such environments, along with the modified infinite loading (MIL) procedure which has been shown to work well in several studies. We compare the performance of these two controlled release rules with that of immediate release rule under different conditions of capacity utilization and customer specified exogenous duedates. Our results indicate that PBB performs well in lowering total costs when due-dates are tight, while MIL is a better procedure with relatively loose to medium due-dates. We also show that in many cases, the shortest processing time (SPT) dispatching rule is a superior performer than a due-date based rule like critical ratio (CR); a conclusion which is contrary to the existing research in this area. In addition, the shop floor control policies recommended are shown to be sensitive to the cost structure of the firm. The managerial implications of this research in providing effective shop floor control in job shops operating under tight due-date conditions are also discussed.