Respect,equality, and power: A social psychological perspective

In this article I outline a principled social psychological approach to respect. As a first definitional approximation, I suggest that respect for someone involves the willingness to include that person as a factor in the psychological equation underlying self-regulation. I then review and discuss the fairly recent, but thriving, career of the notion of respect in social psychological research, with particular emphasis on intragroup respect. Next, I turn to conceptual specification and purification necessary for a principled approach to respect and discuss promising efforts to identify the critical social psychological principle or active ingredient of respect. In particular, I make out a case for an equality-based conception of respect in which recognition as an equal plays a central role. The final section examines further theoretical and practical implications of this conception including its relation and relevance to issues of social power. Bernd Simon (Dipl.-Psych., Dr. habil.) is Professor of Social Psychology and Evaluation Research and one of the Directors of the Institute of Psychology at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel (Germany). He studied psychology, sociology and philosophy at the University of Münster (Germany) and the University of Kent at Canterbury (England). In his research, Bernd Simon investigates inter-and intragroup processes, with particular emphasis on issues of identity, power, politicization and respect. He is author/co-author of a number of research articles in international journals and books, including Identity in Modern Society (Blackwell Publishing).     

Regulation of the hours of work and its “Externalities” defenses

Journal of Labor Research -     

Barriers to returning to work for people with spinal cord injuries: a focus group study

The rate of employment for people with spinal cord injuries is relatively low, especially among Asians. To help individuals with spinal cord injuries return to work or retain employment, rehabilitation professionals must understand the barriers to employment and intervene to reduce or remove them. Hence, a focus group study was administered to 16 people with spinal cord injuries to explore return to work barriers. Various ideas, beliefs, responses, and values at different stages of work resettlement were elicited from both employed and unemployed participants, and then summarized. According to the results, several modifications of existing forms of rehabilitation intervention are necessary, as are further research directions.     

Telephone survey respondents' reactions to questions regarding interpersonal violence

Concerns have been raised regarding the appropriateness of asking about violence victimization in telephone interviews and whether asking such questions increases respondents' distress or risk for harm. However, no large-scale studies have evaluated the impact of asking such questions during a telephone interview. This study explored respondents' reactions to questions regarding violence in two large recently completed telephone surveys. After respondents were asked about violence, they were asked if they thought surveys should ask such questions and whether they felt upset or afraid because of the questions. In both surveys, the majority of respondents (regardless of their victimization history) were willing to answer questions about violence and were not upset or afraid because of the questions. More than 92% of respondents thought such questions should be asked. These results challenge commonly held beliefs and assumptions and provide some assurance to those concerned with the ethical collection of data on violent victimization.     

New Public Management Is Dead--Long Live Digital-Era Governance

The "new public management" (NPM) wave in public sector organizationalchange was founded on themes of disaggregation, competition,and incentivization. Although its effects are still workingthrough in countries new to NPM, this wave has now largely stalledor been reversed in some key "leading-edge" countries. Thisebbing chiefly reflects the cumulation of adverse indirect effectson citizens' capacities for solving social problems becauseNPM has radically increased institutional and policy complexity.The character of the post-NPM regime is currently being formed.We set out the case that a range of connected and informationtechnology–centered changes will be critical for the currentand next wave of change, and we focus on themes of reintegration,needs-based holism, and digitization changes. The overall movementincorporating these new shifts is toward "digital-era governance"(DEG), which involves reintegrating functions into the governmentalsphere, adopting holistic and needs-oriented structures, andprogressing digitalization of administrative processes. DEGoffers a perhaps unique opportunity to create self-sustainingchange, in a broad range of closely connected technological,organizational, cultural, and social effects. But there arealternative scenarios as to how far DEG will be recognized asa coherent phenomenon and implemented successfully.     

Sustainable consumption and third-party certification labels: Consumers’ perceptions and reactions

Compared with conventional products, sustainable products continue to attract relatively lower market shares. To increase customer acceptance, many sustainable products feature third-party certification labels (TPCL), yet it is unclear whether TPCL are effective and what processes and boundary conditions define their role in consumer decision making. Across three experimental studies, this research determines that sustainable products are characterized by credence qualities, associated with increased perceptions of risk, which negatively influence consumers' purchase intentions. Drawing on signaling theory, this study also shows that TPCL on sustainable products provide brand-like information cues that reduce the perceived risk of sustainable products. Finally, a third experimental study demonstrates that consumers must perceive TPCL as credible for them to reduce consumers’ risk perceptions.     

Using Generational Intelligence to Examine Community Care Work between Younger and Older Adults

Exploring the factors that contribute to sustainable forms of an intergenerational relationship is becoming an important conceptual and practical challenge, not least because of the growing need for an aged care workforce that is both motivated and suitably trained. Generational intelligence is a means of examining interaction between younger and older people which has been applied to community care settings. Dimensions of generational intelligence include recognising and valuing generational differences, finding common ground, plus negotiating social and practical outcomes from the situation. A case study plus a series of qualitative interviews are used to examine the value of this approach both as a means of exploring the processes involved in generational exchange and in providing recommendations for work preparation and training. It is suggested that intergenerational relations have been a missing factor in the understanding of sustainable care and that in future, service delivery should not simply be analysed as comprising professional and lay perspectives but also as containing generationally distinctive perspectives that require negotiation.     

Probabilistic linear solvers: a unifying view

Statistics and Computing - Several recent works have developed a new, probabilistic interpretation for numerical algorithms solving linear systems in which the solution is inferred in a Bayesian...