Young people’s leisure patterns: testing social age,social gender,and linguistic capital hypotheses

We analysed young people’s leisure activities in order to identify their leisure habitus, discover how they combined activities into leisure patterns, and examine how leisure patterns were socially structured. We argue that the effects of age, gender, and language on how young people’s leisure patterns are structured are mediated by social class. We found that leisure practices could be classified in terms of three habitus: the frequent leisure habitus, the cultural activity habitus, and the social vs. entertainment habitus. The different combinations of these three leisure habitus by young people resulted in four patterns which we refer to as social, omnivorous, entertainment, and religious leisure patterns. The association of leisure patterns with indicators of social position suggests that, as predicted by our theoretical framework, age, gender, and language effects are diminished once we take into account the mediating role of social class. Young people’s leisure practices are therefore socially differentiated, with young immigrants forming a vulnerable group that should be the particular focus of youth leisure policies.     

Soccer, civil religion, and public relations: Devotional–promotional communication and Barcelona Football Club

The aim of this article is to provide a public relations perspective on the civil religion phenomenon through a study of Barcelona Football Club (BFC) as an institution and its public relations efforts. We believe that BFC can be seen as a form of civil religion that uses a devotional–promotional communication model which sets forth, upholds and reinforces relations with “faithful supporters”. The paper links to three main contributions: the work of [Salvador, J. (2004). Futbol, metàfora d’una guerra freda: Un estudi antropològic del Barça. Barcelona: Proa.] on anthropological approach to BFC, [Giner, S. (2003). Carisma y razón. Madrid: Alianza] on civil religion and its communicative dimension, and [Tilson, D. J. (2006). Devotional–promotional communicationa and Santiago: A thousand-year public relations campaign for Saint James and Spain. In J. L’Etang & M. Pieczka (Eds.), Public relations: Critical debates and contemporary practice (pp. 167–184). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.] on devotional–promotional communication. Thus, this article advances a public relations approach to civil religion.     

Forty years of doctoral public relations research in Spain: A quantitative study of dissertation contribution to theory development

In this article, doctoral dissertations on public relations written at Spanish universities (1965–2004) are examined in order to gain an understanding of the level of theory development within the discipline. The following subjects are studied: growth over time, universities where they were written, use of language, gender and the topics of doctoral dissertations. Although still in its early development, public relations doctoral research in Spain is a well-established and burgeoning field in terms of the total of theses examined (62). The conclusion, however, is that their contribution to theory building in public relations has been negligible, with the practical or operational side of public relations standing out more than the conceptual and theoretical side.     

NOTES FOR A NEW GUIDE TO KEYNES (I): WAGES,AGGREGATE DEMAND,AND EMPLOYMENT

I revisit the General Theory’s discussion of the role of wages in employment determination through the lens of the New Keynesian model. The analysis points to the key role played by the monetary policy rule in shaping the link between wages and employment, and in determining the welfare impact of enhanced wage flexibility. I show that the latter is not always welfare improving.     

“The adoption and implementation of performance measurement process in Italian public organisations: the influence of political,cultural and rational factors”

One of the main challenges in the field of performance measurement and management in public organisations is about how to use and manage performance measures effectively. This study aims to examine the stages involved in the process of utilisation of performance measures, i.e. adoption and implementation, and to investigate the political, cultural and rational factors that affect this process. For this purpose, a theoretical model from the literature has been extended and tested by using the data gathered through a survey involving the managers of several departments of Italian regions and municipal districts. The final sample has included 201 usable observations. The data analysis has been conducted using structural equation modelling. A significant cause-and-effect relationship was found between the stages of adoption and implementation. Moreover, it was found that adoption is driven significantly by rational factors. Otherwise actual implementation is influenced by factors addressed both by political considerations, such as external interest groups and by rational evaluations such as resources. The effects of other rational and cultural factors on implementation stage are mediated by adoption.     

The Office of Facts and Figures: Archibald MacLeish and the “strategy of truth”

This paper presents a man and a stage seldom cited in the history of public relations—Archibald MacLeish and the Office of Facts and Figures, and his idea of “strategy of truth” as an ethical contribution of propaganda to facilitate the dialogue and debate which are necessary in democratic societies.     

Measuring the adoption of innovation. A typology of EU countries based on the Innovation Survey

Based on the Community Innovation Survey, this paper suggests new indicators of innovation adoption. The magnitude of innovation adoption is assessed for 22 EU countries and different industries. The most striking feature is the correlation between the innovation activities and the adoption rate. Countries with strong R&D and human resources and high innovation output exhibit the highest adoption rates. This supports the idea that innovation adoption requires an absorption capability. In addition, the specificities of each country regarding the prevailing types of innovation and adoption (product or process, cooperation-based adoption or internal adoption) allow us to draw up a typology of the EU countries, for which a specific geographical pattern is observed.     

Variance reduction in the study of a test concerning the behrens-fisher problem

A simulation case study illustrating the implementation of a variance reduction technique appropriate for dichotomous response variables is presented. In this simulation study, concerning the power of the Cochran and Cox test for the equality of means under possibly unequal variances, variance reductions of around 80% or more are obtained. More importantly, a known property of the Cochran and Cox, its conservative character, is detected thanks to the use of variance reduction.     

Quality of Work and Aggregate Productivity

We inspect the relationship between quality of work and productivity. Using Spanish aggregate data for the period 2001–2006, we find that quality of work is an additional factor to explain productivity levels in sectors and regions. Consequently, quality of work is not only an objective per se, but it also may be a production factor able to increase the wealth of regions. In our work we use two alternatives definitions of quality of work, coming respectively from survey data and from a social indicators approach. Besides, we employ two different measurements of labour productivity, in order to test the robustness of our result. We estimate our model using a simultaneous equation model for our panel of data, and we find important differences in high and low human capital sectors. The former display a positive relationship between quality of work and productivity, while the latter show a negative relationship.