THE POPULAR IN THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

This paper suggests a systems theoretical re-reading of popular communication and the Popular in the political system. Luhmann' anti-humanist notion of communication helps to reframe the discussion of the Popular: it is not defined by an en- or decoding instance, but by a particular mode of ‘connectivity'. Drawing from heterogeneous material (Mars Attacks!, crowd psychology, theory of democracy), it is argued that the problem of the Popular arises when a functional system has to represent something that transgresses the system' universality. That which the system has to exclude to become a system re-emerges as ‘grotesque hybrid’, thus pointing at a universality that is, on the one hand, an opportunity for a further universalization and, on the other, a threat to the very universality of the system. The ‘Popular’ thus acquires a hybrid position by articulating these two dimensions.     

Sleep and Its Association With Socioeconomic Status,Health, and Risky Behaviors Among Ghanaian School Children

Socioeconomic differences in sleep and how sleep relates to health and risky behaviors among 12‐ to 18‐year‐old Ghanaians (N = 1,195) were investigated. Overall, 49.2% of boys and 60.8% of girls had inadequate sleep. Girls (OR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.3–2.0) and older (16‐ to 18‐year‐olds) adolescents (OR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.3–2.1) had higher probability of inadequate sleep than boys and younger (12‐ to 15‐year‐old) adolescents, respectively. High material affluence, low parental education, low parental occupational grade, drunkenness, marijuana use, drug use, and not having plans to continue schooling after graduation decreased the chances of inadequate sleep, while low school performance, low fruit and vegetable intake, and tiredness during daytime increased the probability of inadequate sleep. Promotion of adequate sleep and gender equality should be taken into consideration in adolescent health promotion programs.     

Beyond the Certainty of Security: On Dominant and Latent Conceptions of “Security” in Modern Societies

While other political programs have a relatively short history, the programatic logic of “security” is rather long-standing. This article argues that “security as a product” is a conception of modernity which came to its limits. The question arises, which kind of conception could he beyond those limits.     

Multisensory Emplaced Learning: Resituating Situated Learning in a Moving World

This article outlines the implications of a theory of “sensory-emplaced learning” for understanding the interrelationships between the embodied and environmental in learning processes. Understanding learning as multisensory and contingent within everyday place-events, this framework analytically describes how people establish themselves as “situated learners.” This approach is demonstrated through three examples of how culturally constructed sensory categories offer routes to knowing about the multisensoriality of learning experiences. This approach, we suggest, offers new routes within practice-oriented educational theories for understanding how human bodies become situated and embedded in cultural, social, and material practices within constantly shifting place-events.     

Understanding and influencing urban residents’ knowledge about wildland management in Austin, Texas

Due to increasing exurban settlement around Austin, Texas and subsequent land use changes, the City of Austin Wildland Division faces competing pressures from residential communities regarding land and wildlife management actions. Current environmental education and outreach efforts in Austin focus on developing environmental literacy about the city’s wildland areas adjacent to exurban settlement as well as their management program. The desired outcome is to promote more positive perceptions and motivate pro-environmental behaviors that are consistent with the city’s wildland program. We conducted a mail survey of 1,000 residents living near the urban wildlands to better understand factors that influence residents’ proficiency in four knowledge domains: karst aquifers, endangered species, rangeland ecology, and the city’s management program. Regression analyses identified positive associations between local newspaper readership and residents’ environmental knowledge of karst aquifer geology, rangelands, and city’s wildland program. Previous engagement in environmentally oriented education programs or organization was positively associated with all four knowledge domains. Some strategies for information dissemination about the wildlands include the use of local newspapers and homeowners association newsletters. Newer, younger residents are the suggested target audience for initiating a proposed environmental education and outreach program. Such programs should incorporate both local environmental organizations and homeowners associations.     

Q methodology in social work research

This article examines Q methodology as an empirical method for use in social work research. Q methodology applies statistical analysis to the qualitative study of human subjectivity such as attitudes, beliefs, feelings and opinions. Q methodology is effective for obtaining data from small samples, and it offers respondents a concise and valid way of expressing their viewpoints with minimal researcher interference. The article provides an overview of Q methodology and presents an actual example of a small‐scale Q study to facilitate a better understanding of the method. We conclude that Q methodology is especially suitable in social work research with respondents who may have difficulties in expressing themselves when more conventional research methods are used. Q methodology is an efficient tool in research involving the exploration and comparison of different points of view.     

Entry into Consensual Unions and Marriages Among Finnish Women Born Between 1938 and 1967

This study, based on a survey undertaken in 1989, clearly illustrates the dramatic changes in family formation behaviour that have occurred in Finland. Whereas only about one-tenth of the first unions of women born between 1938 and 1942 began as consensual unions, after the cohort of 1962 only one-tenth were formal marriages. These changes lagged some ten years behind the corresponding ones in Sweden, but were about five years ahead of Norway. In Finland, up to the present, most consensual unions have constituted a temporary state which precedes proper family life. Most couples married in connection with the birth of the first child. Consensual union as a permanent lifestyle is generally connected with a low level of education of women.     

Aussiedler and Ausländer:* Transforming German national identity

Abstract

I analyse the changing conceptions of German national identity since the idea was first articulated after the French Revolution. I distinguish between universalist concepts of national belonging and particularist ones, specifying at the same time their respective class articulations. Within this context, I address both historical and contemporary politico‐legal conditions for German citizenship. These conditions for German belonging entail differential treatment for ethnic Germans coming from beyond the borders of the German state (Aussiedler), whether West Germany before unification or united Germany since, and foreigners living under direct German jurisdiction (Ausländer). The claimed bases and inclusionary/exclusionary effects of these differentiations are interrogated, and their contemporary political implications assessed.     

Is Sweden Being Torn Apart? Privatization and Old and New Patterns of Welfare State Support

This article examines the potential impact of institutional change on popular welfare support. The encompassing welfare state of Sweden provides an interesting case where the privatization of social service delivery has been widespread over the last decades. We use survey data from five rounds of the Swedish Welfare State Survey (1992, 1997, 2002, 2006 and 2010) in order to study how public preferences for the financing and organization of welfare services have changed over time. Based on a theory describing an ideal‐typical pattern of public support for an encompassing welfare model, we derive three types of public preferences: support for a pure state model, a pure market model and a mixed model (welfare services are funded by taxes but provided by private firms). We begin by tracking the development of these ideal‐typical attitude patterns between 1992 and 2010. We then investigate how preference patterns vary across municipalities displaying different degrees of privatization of social service delivery. Our results show that welfare support among Swedes over the last decades is better characterized as dynamic rather than stable. Swedes seem to take an overall more ideologically based position on the role of the welfare state over time. The share of respondents expressing such ideologically based preferences has increased from 54 per cent in 1992 to 78 per cent in 2010. This change is principally manifested in increased support for the state and mixed models. This trend seems to be parallel to the increasing share of private welfare service providers over the last decade. We also find a link between the municipal degree of privatization and support for our three ideal‐typical welfare models. Public support for a mixed welfare model and, to some extent, a market model, is comparatively stronger in municipalities where welfare services to a large extent are carried out by private actors. Conversely, data shows that public support for the traditional Swedish state model is more widespread in municipalities having a low degree of welfare services privatization. Lastly, we discuss some theoretical implications of our findings.