Mainstreaming disability in policies: the Flemish experience

Although research on gender mainstreaming (GM) is extensive, literature on disability mainstreaming (DM) is scarce. This article builds on the experience of GM to explore the conditions affecting DM, focusing on the first Flemish policy cycle of DM (2010–2014) in two policy domains: employment and education. We found no substantive difference in the conditions necessary for the successful implementation of DM compared with that of GM. Also, developments specific to the policy domains had more influence on the inclusive character of policies than did the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities or the Flemish approach to DM.     

From historical injustice to local conflict: mobilization-countermobilization dynamics surrounding the 2005 Melbourne ‘Trianon Protest’

This article explores the key to the successful mobilization process of the Trianon demonstration, organized by local Hungarians in Melbourne’s CBD in 2005. I argue that mobilization–countermobilization (hereafter MCM) dynamics holds the key to the understanding of the relatively high number of protest participants. In particular, I argue that we need to take a closer look at the dialogic framing activities within the MCM dynamics in order to understand this case of mobilization. It was not until a particular form of frame developed within the MCM interplay between the organizers and the protest opposition that the mobilization attempts gained a clear local focus and target. Equally importantly, it is argued that emotions, embedded in and as a reaction to particular framings, significantly contributed to the success of the mobilization. The article shows that as a response to the CM framing toward the end of the mobilization process, a strong moral outrage was generated and felt, which allowed the supporters to focus their blame and anger on their opponents and to create a particularly resonant enemy figure.     

Benefits from Productive and Consumptive Activities: Results from the Berlin Aging Study

The aim of this study was to assess the subjective instrumentality and immediate process benefits afforded by regenerative, productive, and consumptive activities and thus to extend the microeconomic perspective on time use. Method: For six consecutive days, 33 women and 48 men aged between 72 and 97 provided signal-contingent self-reports on everyday activities, the reasons for performing them, their contexts and concurrent affect. Results: The dominant reason given for performing productive activities reflected Reid's (1934) third-party criterion. With aggregated data, we found consumptive activities to be associated with higher positive affect. This finding was not corroborated on the occasion level, where social context (in company vs. alone) rather than activity type had a reliable effect on positive affect in situ. The main effect was a function of the individual level of neuroticism, and the association between social context and positive affect was a function of the proportion of time spent alone. Results indicated that the level of neuroticism moderates the association between social context and positive affect, but this was not statistically reliable. Conclusion: Being alone or in company makes a difference to positive affect. This may explain the protective effect that social relationships have on health and well-being. Compared to earlier phases of life, the relationship between personality dispositions and indicators of social relationships may not be as strong in late life.     

Division of Labor in German Dual‐Earner Families: Testing Equity Theoretical Hypotheses

On the basis of 52 German dual‐earner couples with at least 1 child younger than 5 years, we tested the effects of an unequal division of labor on relationship satisfaction. We analyzed diary reports of time allocated to productive activities according to the actor‐partner‐interdependence model. Hierarchical linear models showed that rather than individual time allocated to household work, the absolute difference in partners’ contribution to productive activities influenced relationship satisfaction. This reduction in satisfaction disappeared after accounting for perceived social appreciation of individual contributions. Models with gender‐specific slopes showed the effect of input and output to be different for women and men. The findings indicate that a relative equity model best explains the effects of an unequal division of labor.     

Social ties and subjective performance evaluations: an empirical investigation

We empirically investigate possible distortions in subjective performance evaluations. A key hypothesis is that evaluations are more upward biased the closer the social ties between supervisor and appraised employee. We test this hypothesis with a company data set from a call center organization which contains not only subjective assessments but also several more objective measures of performance. Controlling for these performance measures, we find strong evidence that evaluations are upwards biased in smaller teams and some evidence that supervisors give better ratings to employees they themselves have evaluated before.     

‘I'm Mexican,remember?’ Constructing ethnic identities via authenticating discourse1

This paper examines how an ideology of cultural authenticity emerges in the casual but playful conversations of a bilingual Mexican American friendship group. Authenticating discourse, as illustrated here, is part of an ongoing, ordinary interactional routine through which speakers take overt (authentication) stances, which I call authenticating moves, to display, impugn, vie for, and enact forms of ethnic identity. In the data, issues of authenticity in relation to Mexicanness emerge as a result of the interactional exploitation of three ideological constructs: purity of bloodline, purity of nationality, and Spanish linguistic fluency.