Integration of migrants — an extraordinary undertaking? An analysis of Swiss policy and handling of resident immigrants; a municipal example—Bern

Migration and multiculturalism are key topics in politics, in the media, in education and in the social sciences. It is a phenomenon that has been discussed again and again during the last fifteen years with the aim to find solutions. A theoretical set of points of consideration is established in the first chapter in order to understand how migration is running counter to the ‘normal’ condition and development of society, and tends to cause problems in various contexts. Case histories in the second chapter show how communities are handling the consequences of immigration in practice and in the framework of the specific prevailing national and welfare state structures, and especially how communities are meeting the challenge politically and with their system of social services. In the final chapter the most important findings are summarized.     

Inequality decomposition values: the trade-off between marginality and efficiency

This paper presents a general procedure for decomposing income inequality measures by income sources. The methods of decomposition proposed are based on the Shapley value and extensions of the Shapley value of transferable utility cooperative games. In particular, we find that Owen’s value can find an interesting application in this context.We show that the axiomatization by the potential of Hart and Mas-Colell remains valid in the presence of the domain restriction of inequality indices. We also examine the properties of these decomposition rules and perform a comparison with Shorrocks’ decomposition rule properties.     

Child protection social workers' constructions of children and childhood: An integrative review

Social workers' constructions of children and childhood are central to how professionals interact with children and support their needs. The aim of this integrative review was to provide a comprehensive portrayal of child protection social workers' constructions of children and childhood. We analysed and synthesized 35 empirical studies with samples of social workers in the child protection domain where issues regarding the child or the child's situation were the study focus. The findings show that children and youth are constructed as a generalized group viewed in light of their parents. We see a fragmented and context‐free child produced by causal shortcuts strongly informed by specific and, at times, simplified and biased psychological knowledge. Moreover, we identify constructions of the child in need of protection and thereby position children as objects for intervention, separating that from children as subjects in their own rights. Although the participatory child is visible in the data material, the actual practice of involving children seems arbitrary.     

Hong Kong managers' perceptions of American business values

This report describes empirical research conducted to study the research question, “To what extent do foreign managers' own cultural values influence their perceptions of the corporate values of companies in other cultures?” Using the authors' “Business Values Questionnaire,” business managers from Hong Kong gave their perceptions of publicly stated corporate values of very large U.S. service companies. A similar United States sample was used as a comparison group. Results gave partial support to the authors' hypotheses that an individual's own cultural values influence perceived values of another culture.     

On the detection of changes in autoregressive time series I. Asymptotics

Various test statistics are discussed which can be used for detecting changes in the parameters of an autoregressive time series. In this first part of our study, the limiting behavior of the test statistics is derived under the null hypothesis of no change as well as under alternatives. In a forthcoming second part of our investigation, these asymptotic results will be compared to some corresponding bootstrap procedures, and a small simulation study will be conducted.     

Engendering Inequality: Processes of Sex-Segregation on Wall Street

Women's numbers in high-paying, male-dominated occupations have risen in the past three decades, but they disproportionately hold lower-paying jobs within those occupations. A cohort sample of Wall Street securities professionals shows how sex segregation occurs over time, as men's and women's different experiences lead them to change functions, to change firms, or to leave the securities industry. While seemingly similar processes impinge on the careers of everyone in this exceptionally high-paid occupation, family constraints and gender discrimination produce differential results for similarly qualified men and women. Over time men disproportionately gain the very highest paying Wall Street jobs.     

Penalized contrast estimator for adaptive density deconvolution

The authors consider the problem of estimating the density g of independent and identically distributed variables X_I, from a sample Z₁,… Z_n such that Z_I = X_I + σ? for i = 1,…, n, and E is noise independent of X, with σ? having a known distribution. They present a model selection procedure allowing one to construct an adaptive estimator of g and to find nonasymptotic risk bounds. The estimator achieves the minimax rate of convergence, in most cases where lower bounds are available. A simulation study gives an illustration of the good practical performance of the method.     

The politics of sexuality: Toward a radical-critical approach

From a radical-critical perspective, the gap between the everyday world as experienced and the sociological world as theorized is nowhere so apparent as in the area of human sexuality. Conventional research on human sexuality appears atheoretical, ahistorical, and reductionistic. The viability of a radical-critical alternative is demonstrated with examples of research and theory in three sub-areas: (1) sexuality as identity (socialization approach); (2) sexuality as ideology (comparative and historical approach); and (3) sexuality as power (political-economic approach). The paper discusses three distinguishing characteristics of the radical-critical perspective. The approach: (1) is holistic and historical; (2) urges theoretical explanation for each topic of sexuality under investigation; and (3) offers a critical evaluation of thestatus quo and calls for radical change.     

Economic Recession and Mental Health: Some Conceptual Issues

The greatest burden of economic recession falls on the unemployed. Research in this area has resulted in a general consensus that the large majority of the unemployed are psychologically impaired. From the voluminous relevant literature, three conceptual issues are singled out for discussion: the research style—that is, the dominant questions investigated and the corresponding research procedures; explanations for the mental state of the unemployed and the role of theory; and the concept of mental health as involving more than the absence of mental illness.