The implications of increased survivorship for mortality variation in aging populations

The remarkable growth in life expectancy during the twentieth century inspired predictions of a future in which all people, not just a fortunate few, will live long lives ending at or near the maximum human life span. We show that increased longevity has been accompanied by less variation in ages at death, but survivors to the oldest ages have grown increasingly heterogeneous in their mortality risks. These trends are consistent across countries, and apply even to populations with record-low variability in the length of life. We argue that as a result of continuing improvements in survival, delayed mortality selection has shifted health disparities from early to later life, where they manifest in the growing inequalities in late-life mortality.     

Income Affluence in Poland

This paper examines the evolution of income affluence (richness) in Poland during 1998–2007. Using household survey data, the paper estimates several statistical indices of income affluence including income share of the top percentiles, population share of individuals receiving incomes higher than the richness line, and measures that take into account both the extent and the intensity of affluence. Results show that over the period under study there was a statistically significant and socio-economically sizable rise in income affluence by between 9 and 50%, depending on the index used. The overall income distribution in the period has shifted in favour of the rich as relative poverty and relative size and income share of the middle class have declined.     

Social remittances and intra-EU mobility: non-financial transfers between U.K. and Poland

The massive rise in intra-European Union (EU) mobility in recent decades has spawned several important social and cultural phenomena that are still not covered by academic research. Social remittances – the transfer of ideas, practices, codes of behaviours, values and norms between the place of origin and destination are an important aspect of social change and modernity and they are still to be explored and documented. However, not all migrants acquire, transfer and implement them in the same way. Ongoing acts of resistance, imitation and innovation are involved, so that some migrants become ‘ordinary agents of change’ in their local microcosms, while others may contest that change. Tracing these processes in a transnational perspective through a three-year transnational multi-sited qualitative longitudinal research, this article offers an in-depth look at the consequences of human mobility within the enlarged EU.     

Politics of geographic exclusion: deinstitutionalization,hegemony and persons with intellectual disability in Israel

Deinstitutionalization is a core policy for the development of services for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in western countries. Nonetheless, although a western country, deinstitutionalization is not well advanced in Israel. In order to shed light on this phenomenon, we explore the hegemony of ID as reflected in Israeli legislation. The analysis shows a biomedical hegemony; ID is depicted as a form of medical and social deviance. Israel’s legislation reflects paternalistic views of persons with ID, who are largely seen as vulnerable objects of pity, to be cared for and protected.     

Holocaust Education in the Czech Republic, 1989-2002

The issue of the Holocaust in Czech education has undergone profound changes since 1989. While the topic was still widely ignored in Czech textbooks and school instruction during the early 1990s, it has slowly become--in the last few years--a standard part of history lessons and newer textbooks. Teacher training courses, as well as other activities, have served to promote and support Holocaust education. The paper also illuminates the difficulties that Czech historians and educators encounter when they try to incorporate the topic of the Holocaust into Czech history lessons, especially when they wish to address Czech anti-Semitism and racism. Further improvement of Holocaust education in the Czech Republic will depend on reforming Czech teaching and instruction in such a way that more modern teaching methods are adopted. Od roku 1989 prosˇ lo vzde é l´v´ní é o holocaustu v ? eskeé republice z´sadní émi zme é nami. Zatí émco na po? ´tku 90. let bylo toto teéma v ? eskyéch u? ebnicí éch a ve vyéuce v podstate é ignorov´no, v poslední éch ne é kolika letech se stalo standardní é sou? ´stí é u? ební ého procesu. Vzde é l´v´ní é o holocaustu podporují é ru? zneé projekty, v? etne é sˇ kolení é u? itelu? . Tento ? l´nek se ale z´roven é pokousˇí é uk´zat, na jakeé obtí éz é e nar´z é ejí é ? esˇ tí é historici a pedagogoveé, kdyz é se snaz éí é za? lenit teéma holocaustu do kontextu ? eskyéch de é jin a pr é edevsˇí ém kdyz é se mají é zabyévat citlivyémi teématy ? eskeého anti-Semitismu a rasismu. Z´roven é se v ? l´nku poukazuje na to, z é e dalsˇí é zlepsˇ ov´ní é vyéuky o holocaustu uézce souvisí é s reformou ? eskeého sˇ kolství é ve prospe é ch moderní éch vyéukovyéch metod.     

Life-Stage and Mobility: An Exploratory GPS Study of Mobility in Multigenerational Families,Ahmedabad, India

As the population of older adults in India grows, research is needed to plan a sustainable future for India’s older adults. This article reports results from a Global Positioning System (GPS)–based pilot study that examined the mobility of middle-class, older adults living in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Using mobility as a lens through which to examine the lives of older adults, we map potential research and identify policy areas of interest considering older adults in urban India. The study explores the role of life stage in mobility as well as the effects of gender and urban environment on mobility. Using this distinctive perspective on day-to-day life, we propose themes through which, using policy and planning tools, the living environments of older adults in Indian cities can be improved. These policy measures include focusing on walkability and pedestrian safety in residential areas and building on existing mixed land use to create high accessibility to goods and services in urban environments.     

Reprogramming Femininity? The Construction of Gender Identities in the Israeli Hi‐tech Industry between Global and Local Gender Orders

Based on the study of gender identities in the Israeli hi‐tech sector, this article sets out to explore the doing of gender in a context comprised of two cultural repertoires characterized by divergent and contradictory fundamental assumptions: the new masculine transnational economy and pro‐natalist Israeli society. The article demonstrates how, by manoeuvering and moving between these global and local cultural repertoires, privileged Israeli hi‐tech women enact and construct a ‘new femininity’ that simultaneously challenges both the discourse of the ‘ideal hi‐tech worker’ and that of traditional Israeli femininity. This new femininity, I argue, is grounded in a local translation of the ‘family friendly organization’ discourse.     

Service Users' Perspectives on the Benefits System in Israel: A Participatory Action Research

This article presents a position paper on Israel's benefits system. It was produced in the framework of a participatory action research with the collaboration of welfare services users and social welfare policy practitioners, academics, social practitioners, and social activists. Some 78 persons living in poverty, from various population groups, were asked, in group settings, to describe their experiences with the benefit system and services, their coping strategies, their perceptions and attitudes towards these services, and their recommendations for ways to improve them. The position paper which emerged from this process served as the basis for discussions between service users, social welfare policy practitioners, researchers, social activists and social practitioners at an academic conference. Issues such as benefits cuts, eligibility, and definitions of poverty are discussed and recommendations are presented.     

察合台汗国的外交与遣使实践初探

正就我所知,察合台汗国送往其他国家的信札均未被保存下来。然而察合台汗国位于诸蒙古汗国的中心,且与邻国的关系往往很紧张,许多不同的史料也提及察合台汗国的使臣和信件,可见察合台汗国与其他蒙古汗国,以及诸如埃及和叙利亚的马木鲁克算端、德里算端、教廷等同时代