Risk Perception,Experience, and Objective Risk: A Cross‐National Study with European Emergency Survivors

Understanding public risk perceptions and their underlying processes is important in order to learn more about the way people interpret and respond to hazardous emergency events. Direct experience with an involuntary hazard has been found to heighten the perceived risk of experiencing the same hazard and its consequences in the future, but it remains unclear if cross‐over effects are possible (i.e., experience with one hazard influencing perceived risk for other hazards also). Furthermore, the impact of objective risk and country of residence on perceived risk is not well understood. As part of the BeSeCu (Behavior, Security, and Culture) Project, a sample of 1,045 survivors of emergencies from seven European countries (i.e., Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, and Italy) was drawn. Results revealed heightened perceived risk for emergency events (i.e., domestic and public fires, earthquakes, floods, and terrorist attacks) when the event had been experienced previously plus some evidence of cross‐over effects, although these effects were not so strong. The largest country differences in perceived risk were observed for earthquakes, but this effect was significantly reduced by taking into account the objective earthquake risk. For fires, floods, terrorist attacks, and traffic accidents, only small country differences in perceived risk were found. Further studies including a larger number of countries are welcomed.     

Transforming the social order: The role of the university in social change

The contemporary multicultural and secular university in the United States is experiencing an array of value transitions as well as ideological contradictions. The present dilemmas and challenges confronting the academy appear to emanate from the preoccupation with new schools of explanation and interpretation and from arbitrarily defined appropriate speech. In the social sciences and in the humanities, value neutrality and traditional constructs are viewed as strategies for concealing and promoting anachronistic standards of conduct. Faculty interviewed express concern and skepticism about the direction and future of the American university in a postindustrial and a postmodernistic era. Many perceive the university as not assuming a leading role in constructive social change. This results from its absorption with political symbols and selectively perceived meanings of varied cultural interests. Some faculty sense a major transformation in the way the university and its culture are produced and arranged. The social sciences and humanities have the potential for coping with the current paradoxes.This paper is a revision of the presidential address delivered in Boston at the 1993 annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.     

Quality of life and sustainability issues as seen by the population of low-income housing in the region of Campinas, Brazil

This paper presents a study on quality of life and sustainability indicators relating to site-planning parameters for low-income public housing projects in the region of Campinas, Brazil. The study is based on a post-occupancy-evaluation (POE), conducted in five housing developments. Most of these housing projects are based on a repetitive model and are devoid of urban infrastructure. Users act on their own in providing for some elements considered necessary to create an identity and community spirit. Results show that the population relates quality of life to economic factors and sustainability is associated to reduce utility bills. Houses are preferred to apartments and satisfaction with the present housing conditions is high, despite low feelings of security in the neighbourhood. This work is part of a broader study, which aims to develop design evaluation tools. Most sensitive quality of life and sustainability indicators related to site-planning should permeate these tools and establish design guidelines. The inclusion of a large number of qualitative design issues into the decision-making process and the questioning of existing standardized solutions are seen as essential means to increase local housing quality.     

Der Fussballverein zwischen e.V. und Kapitalgesellschaft

The overcoming of the dilemma of members’ contribution and efficient goal attainment leads German soccer clubs to an organizational development process. Three patterns of overcoming this dilemma in clubs of the first German soccer league are discussed. After analyzing theoretical problems of clubs at the point of view of rational-choice-theory, we focus on the three patterns of overcoming the dilemma and illustrate each with a case study. For the case studies we choose three traditional soccer clubs from the Ruhr-area. The three patterns are: (1) The classical German club structure: In this case the control of the resource ‘provision of capital’ solves the dilemma ad hoc in favor of goal attainment. (2) The stock company structure without a joint investment structure: This pattern preserves the participation of the members only by representatives through the introduction of a supervisory board. (3) Limited liability company as the general partner of a public limited company (a typical German form of a joint stock company): In this pattern the soccer club is transformed into a company, which restricts the members’ participation possibilities to symbolic acts in favor of goal attainment. The organizational development process of the German soccer clubs leads in general to a democratic-flexible form of organization.     

Indigenous water rights in Australia

Indigenous rights in Australia have undergone enormous transition since the groundbreaking decision in Mabo vs. Queensland in the Australian High Court. This paper explores these changes with a particular emphasis on Aboriginal water rights—an important, and more complicated, corollary to land rights. Mabo opened many possibilities that Aboriginals could claim water rights for everything from irrigation to fishing and spiritual uses. Since 2000 claims of this nature have been made in the federal court system and have challenged the total scope of water law on this the driest inhabited continent on earth. Water law in Australia is primarily a function of state government and these policies have had differential impact on Aboriginal rights which will be explored in this paper.     

Principles for Developing Benchmark Criteria for Staff Training in Responsible Gambling

One approach to minimizing the negative consequences of excessive gambling is staff training to reduce the rate of the development of new cases of harm or disorder within their customers. The primary goal of the present study was to assess suitable benchmark criteria for the training of gambling employees at casinos and lottery retailers. The study utilised the Delphi Method, a survey with one qualitative and two quantitative phases. A total of 21 invited international experts in the responsible gambling field participated in all three phases. A total of 75 performance indicators were outlined and assigned to six categories: (1) criteria of content, (2) modelling, (3) qualification of trainer, (4) framework conditions, (5) sustainability and (6) statistical indicators. Nine of the 75 indicators were rated as very important by 90 % or more of the experts. Unanimous support for importance was given to indicators such as (1) comprehensibility and (2) concrete action-guidance for handling with problem gamblers, Additionally, the study examined the implementation of benchmarking, when it should be conducted, and who should be responsible. Results indicated that benchmarking should be conducted every 1–2 years regularly and that one institution should be clearly defined and primarily responsible for benchmarking. The results of the present study provide the basis for developing a benchmarking for staff training in responsible gambling.     

Socio-Environmental and Behavioral Correlates of Having Ever Had Sexual Intercourse Among Adolescents in Peru: A School-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: We assessed the socio-environmental and behavioral correlates of having ever had sexual intercourse among Peruvian adolescents aged 12–18 years in Lima. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014. Result: Of 950 participants, 26.5% of males and 13.0% of females had ever had sexual intercourse. Early adolescents who ever had sexual intercourse had higher odds of being insulted, being involved in a fight, and smoking; whereas late adolescents having sexual experiences were more likely to be male and to report smoking, alcohol consumption, involvment in a fight, and having no/low parental understanding. Conclusion: An integrated approach is useful in addressing risk behaviors in adolescents.