Why Do Transnationally Mobile People Volunteer? Insights From a Swiss Case Study

Based on 44 qualitative interviews with transnationally mobile people engaged in 28 different associations in Switzerland, this article tries to understand the motives behind the choice to volunteer, i.e. to actively and regularly engage in associations. These interviews reveal the great importance of associations in fostering inclusion in both the new living place and the place of origin. They further reveal that mobile people, no matter where they come from or why they are on the move, turn to associations for similar motives. In order of importance, they turn to associations to secure material advantages, to find ways of defining their identity in a manner that is both coherent and compatible with the host society and to socialize with people who are thought of as trustworthy.     

Dimensions of social capital and subjective well-being: evidence from Italy

The concept of social capital was investigated as an explanatory variable of a number of significant socio-economic phenomena, such as economic development, the well-functioning of institutions, and school performance. This study proposes an analysis of the relation between social capital and well-being. The two concepts have been interpreted by social sciences in many different ways. In particular, as a result of its recent success, social capital has been the object of a great deal of interpretations. Social scientists have considered it either as a collective resource (macro social capital), or as an available resource amongst members of specific groups (friends, associations, local communities, etc.; i.e. meso social capital), or as a resource that individuals can achieve through their personal networks (micro social capital). Using data from a representative sample of Italian citizens (25–80 years old), this work investigates which dimension (micro, meso, or macro) of social capital has (if any) a major influence on subjective well-being. Data show some interdependence only with the macro social capital, and suggest that it is just the symbolic and cognitive qualities of the social capital, rather than its structural dimension, that could be associated with subjective well-being in a significant way.     

Assessing switchability for biosimilar products: modelling approaches applied to children's growth

The present paper describes two statistical modelling approaches that have been developed to demonstrate switchability from the original recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) formulation (Genotropin^®) to a biosimilar product (Omnitrope^®) in children suffering from growth hormone deficiency. Demonstrating switchability between rhGH products is challenging because the process of growth varies with the age of the child and across children. The first modelling approach aims at predicting individual height measured at several time‐points after switching to the biosimilar. The second modelling approach provides an estimate of the deviation from the overall growth rate after switching to the biosimilar, which can be regarded as an estimate of switchability. The results after applying these approaches to data from a randomized clinical trial are presented. The accuracy and precision of the predictions made using the first approach and the small deviation from switchability estimated with the second approach provide sufficient evidence to conclude that switching from Genotropin^® to Omnitrope^® has a very small effect on growth, which is neither statistically significant nor clinically relevant. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring Capacities for Community Resilience

The purpose of this study was to measure the sets of adaptive capacities for Economic Development and Social Capital in the Norris et al. (2008) community resilience model with publicly accessible population indicators. Our approach involved five steps. First, we conducted a literature review on measurements of the capacities. Second, we created an exhaustive “wish list” of relevant measures that operationalized the concepts presented in the literature. Third, we identified data sources and searched for archival, population-level data that matched our indicators. Fourth, we systematically tested correlations of indicators within and across the theoretical elements and used this information to select a parsimonious group of indicators. Fifth, we combined the indicators into composites of Economic Development and Social Capital and an additive index of Community Resilience using Mississippi county data, and validated these against a well-established index of social vulnerability and aggregated survey data on collective efficacy. We found that our measure of community resilience capacities correlated favorably and as expected when validated with the archival and survey data. This study provides the first step in identifying existing capacities that may predict a community’s ability to “bounce back” from disasters, thereby reducing post-trauma health and mental health problems.     

Analysis of the implementation of ergonomic design at the new units of an oil refinery

Ergonomic design is the adaptation of working conditions to human limitations and skills in the physical design phase of a new installation, a new working system, or new products or tools. Based on this concept, the purpose of this work was to analyze the implementation of ergonomic design at the new industrial units of an oil refinery, using the method of Ergonomic Workplace Assessment. This study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team composed of operation, maintenance and industrial safety technicians, ergonomists, designers and engineers. The analysis involved 6 production units, 1 industrial wastewater treatment unit, and 3 utilities units, all in the design detailing phase, for which 455 ergonomic requirements were identified. An analysis and characterization of the requirements identified for 5 of the production units, involving a total of 246 items, indicated that 62% were related to difficult access and blockage operations, while 15% were related to difficulties in the circulation of employees inside the units. Based on these data, it was found that the ergonomic requirements identified in the design detailing phase of an industrial unit involve physical ergonomics, and that it is very difficult to identify requirements related to organizational or cognitive ergonomics.     

Ethnomethodology in Italy

This article provides an overview on works that have come out in Italy in the field of ethnomethodology. General introductory works are considered first, with reference to their similarities and differences. Subsequently, the interpretations and discussions concerning the ethnomethodological perspective are briefly presented, and the limited amount of empirical investigations on ethnomethodological questions is mentioned. Garfinkel's ethnomethodology has been the object of a few specific introductory and interpretative contributions. The relationship between ethnomethodology and sociolinguistics has been a further and distinct research theme. Discourse and conversational analysis as a research field of its own has elicited a remarkable flow of research, which is—in contrast to ethnomethodology—not only methodological and epistemological but empirical as well. In particular, a number of authors have studied asymmetrical conversational exchanges in the institutional context provided by an Italian Court of Justice. Conversational analysis also has been instrumental in studying the production of social identity. In the final discussion, some theoretical points Italian students of ethnomethodology and the related disciplines have raised and discussed are presented in a condensed form .     

Collusion, renegotiation and implementation

We study the implementation problem for exchange economies when agents can renegotiate the outcome assigned by the planner and can collude. We focus on the use of sequential mechanisms and present a simple sufficient condition for implementation with renegotiation in strong perfect equilibrium. We present an application to optimal risk sharing, showing that the possibility of collusion and renegotiation does not in general prevent the implementation of efficient allocations. Received: 27 August 1997/Accepted: 29 October 1998