Understanding circulation in Australia

Progress in the nascent field of inquiry concerned with understanding circulation in developed countries requires a balance between individual and aggregate modes of explanation. The sparsity and fragmentation of current studies is traced to the dearth of appropriate data sources and the complexity of circular moves, reflecting the integral connections between data, method and theory in migration research. It is argued that circulation, like permanent migration, can be divided into production-and consumption-related categories, but that measurement of circulation is complicated by three additional features: variable duration, repetition and seasonality. Four dimensions of population movement are identified: intensity of circular migration, movement distances, patterns of redistribution and migration networks. Census and survey data are used to quantify these dimensions. Revised version of Presidential Address to the Tenth Biennial Conference of the Australian Population Association, Melbourne, 29 November 2000.     

Leadership coaching,leader role-efficacy,and trust in subordinates. A mixed methods study assessing leadership coaching as a leadership development tool

In this study, we used a two-phase exploratory sequential design consisting of qualitative and quantitative research methods to assess leadership coaching as a leadership development tool. A focus group study combined with a review of theory resulted in hypotheses linking coaching to increased leader role-efficacy (LRE) and leader's trust in subordinates (LTS). Using data from leaders participating in a six month coaching program and a control group, the results showed that LRE and LTS increased in the coaching group, but not in the control group. We also hypothesized that increased trust in subordinates would be related to subordinates' psychological empowerment and turnover intentions. A significant relationship between increased LTS and reduced turnover intentions was found. Finally, we found that the degree of facilitative behavior from the coach positively affected the changes in both leader role-efficacy and trust in subordinates. While the results should be interpreted with caution as the sample is small, our findings support claims that coaching represents a promising leadership development tool. Furthermore, the results regarding trust in subordinates represent contributions to the development of a relational perspective on leadership development.     

Value of an urban habitat for the native Mediterranean avifauna

Mediterranean landscapes resulted from complex land uses that produced a mosaic of extensive crops, grasslands, scrublands and scattered woodlands. During the twentieth century the decrease in traditional agriculture triggered a decrease in open habitats and an increase in forests. In the meantime urban centres grew dramatically. Both spread of forest and urban areas have been suspected to participate in the decline of typical Mediterranean bird species and, in general, to cause faunal loss. However, modern cities offer a variety of landscape types and, in the Mediterranean, their value for native bird species has been little assessed. We compared the bird communities from an urban landscape, including built up and natural or semi natural units within the limits of the city of Montpellier, to the bird communities from non-urban habitats (cropland, grassland and woodland) located nearby but away from direct urban influence. Fifty four percent of the bird species recorded in the non-urban habitats also occurred in the urban landscape. On average, estimated species richness in the urban landscape was similar to values obtained for non-urban habitats. Within the urban landscape species richness was lowest in the dense historical centre and highest in the residential areas. The residential areas and urban woods were suitable habitats for most generalist species but also for several more specialized species recorded in the non-urban habitats. Some species actually reached their highest observation frequency in the urban landscape. Urban landscape was least favourable to the same farmland and open-habitat specialists that have been negatively affected by agricultural abandonment in the region. Finally, five of the species common in the urban landscape had an unfavorable conservation status in 2004 in the EU. This study emphasizes that Mediterranean urban areas have the potential to host a diverse native bird community. Finding ways to improve their carrying capacity for the local avifauna might be a worthwhile objective for animal conservation.     

Long-term Mortality of War Cohorts: The Case of Finland

The system of full mobilisation and the modest effects of the World War II events on the civil population make Finland a highly useful case for exploring whether war veterans have elevated long-term mortality risks. Using data from the Human Mortality Database and a register-based micro sample with main causes of death, we study men in the cohorts who participated in the wars against the Soviet Union in 1939–1944. For these war cohorts, we find no indications of reduced survival after the early 1950s, as compared with male cohorts without combat experience. The absence of a long-term effect might be an artefact of mortality selection. In the first few years after war-end, death rates remained relatively high because of infectious diseases that killed off the weakest of the survivors. The results are in line with a series of other studies and illustrate that in the potential presence of cohort inversion there are no visible long-term effects of war experience on later-life survival.