Sports,Poverty and the Role of the Voluntary Sector. Exploring and Explaining Nonprofit Sports Clubs’ Efforts to Facilitate Participation of Socially Disadvantaged People

Despite several decades of Sport for All policies, opportunities for sports participation are still unequally divided, with certain socially disadvantaged groups having less access to sports. To reduce this gap, structural efforts are needed. A question that arises is what role nonprofit sports clubs can fulfill in this matter. In this study, first, it is explored how nonprofit sports clubs perceive their role and responsibility towards socially disadvantaged groups and how they act on it. Second, it is investigated which factors predict the presence or absence of efforts from nonprofit sports clubs for lowering barriers. For this second question, we focus on people living in poverty. Data are based on a survey among 580 nonprofit sports clubs throughout Flanders (Belgium). The findings indicate that the human resources capacity of the club is not the main barrier. It is argued that local sports authorities and sports federations have an important part to play in supporting and encouraging sports clubs in terms of social inclusionary policies, for example by instilling awareness.     

Refining Population Health Comparisons: A Multidimensional First Order Dominance Approach

Protest parties are on the rise in several European countries. This development is commonly attributed to a growing dissatisfaction with life and associated with declining quality of life in modern society of the lowest social strata. This explanation is tested in a cross-sectional analysis of voting and life-satisfaction in 63 districts of the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where the share of protest voters increased from 10 % in 1994 to 31 % in 2009. Contrary to this explanation protest voting appeared not to be the most frequent in the least happy districts of Rotterdam, but in the medium happy segment. Also divergent from this explanation was that average happiness in city districts is largely independent of local living conditions, but is rather a matter of personal vulnerability in terms of education, income and health. These results fit alternative explanations in terms of middle class status anxiety.     

Do young children preferentially trust gossip or firsthand observation in choosing a collaborative partner?

From early on in ontogeny, young children hear things being said about particular individuals. Here we investigate the ways in which testimony with social content, that is, gossip, influences children's decision‐making. We explored whether five‐year‐old (N = 72) and seven‐year‐old (N = 72) children trust gossip or firsthand observation in a partner choice setting. Seven‐year‐old children preferentially trusted what they had seen firsthand over gossip; five‐year‐old children, in contrast, did not differentiate between these two sources of information. However, five‐year‐old children (but not seven‐year‐olds) generally gave negative information more weight, that is, they showed a “negativity bias.” These results suggest that at around school age, young children become more “epistemically vigilant” about gossip.     

Taking the measure: a participatory approach to measuring and monitoring psychological empowerment in social work practices

For years, the professional field has been searching for methods that could be used to chart the effectiveness of social services. Social workers report that their current systems for registration and measurement do not provide an accurate reflection of their practice. The measurement of client empowerment might offer an alternative method that could improve the evaluation of social services. This method links the need for measuring instruments to the paradigm of empowerment, which has shaped contemporary social work. A scale for measuring psychological empowerment was developed in consultation with social workers and people in poverty, based on validated and reliable measurement scales. It was subsequently tested in two Public Centres for Social Welfare in Flanders (Belgium). Results of confirmatory factor analysis indicate that the measurement model provides a good fit for the data and that the various latent factors are reliable and valid. We conclude that the factors emerging from the factor analysis reflect the three dimensions that form the concept of psychological empowerment: the intrapsychic, interpsychic and behavioural components. Results from the post-test survey indicate that this measurement instrument is promising, and that it could offer a response to current needs, although additional efforts are needed in order to improve the instrument’s handling.     

Do stepping-stone jobs exist? Early career paths in the medical profession

In the Netherlands, students who want to become a medical specialist have to enrol in a training program which is in limited supply. During the search for a position as trainee (or “junior medical specialist”), they may accept a temporary job as a medical assistant. We use a micro data set to investigate whether such work experience increases the probability of becoming junior medical specialist. To deal with selectivity, we simultaneously model the transitions from unemployment to trainee, from unemployment to medical assistant, from medical assistant to trainee and from medical assistant to unemployment. We find that a job as medical assistant helps to become a medical specialist. Received: 27 July 2000/Accepted: 31 January 2001 All correspondence to Gerard J. van den Berg. Responsible editor: John F. Ermisch.     

South Africa's `Rainbow People', National Pride and Optimism: A Trend Study

Since the first democratic elections of1994, South Africans are popularly known as the`rainbow people'. The paper reports theacceptance of the rainbow as political symbolof unity among the diverse people of SouthAfrica at three times: Immediately after the1994 elections, two years later in 1996, andfive years later in 1999 after the secondgeneral elections. The database for the studyare responses to items placed with a syndicatednational survey conducted countrywide. Thepublic discourse on the rainbow is reviewedthrough personal interviews with a panel of 25elites contacted in the run-up to the secondgeneral elections. The researchers revisitconclusions based on the earlier results(Møller, Dickow and Harris, 1999). The thirdround of research finds that the appeal of therainbow as political symbol has waned but isstill inclusive of all groups in society.Projections of national pride have shifted fromthe rainbow as symbol of unity andreconciliation to other icons of achievementsuch as the Reconstruction and DevelopmentProgramme and prowess in sport. Support for thepolitical symbolism of the rainbow ispositively associated with happiness, lifesatisfaction and optimism. Lack of a focus ofnational pride is associated with pessimism.Results support the conclusion reached earlierthat belief in the `rainbow nation' idealboosts optimism and promotes happiness duringSouth Africa's transition to a stabledemocracy, thereby preventing alienation amongthe losers under the new politicaldispensation. Linkages between acceptance ofthe rainbow symbol, subjective well-being andoptimism are discussed in the light of thesocio-political changes which have taken placein South Africa since democracy.     

Residential independence among older persons: community and individual factors

The objective of this study is to evaluate an expanded version of the resource model of living arrangements among older persons. This expanded model includes community-level measures of geriatric health services and housing market conditions. We employ the first two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to test static and longitudinal fixed effects models of residential living arrangements. We find that residing in areas with higher levels of geriatric health care services increases the likelihood of residential independence, net of other contextual factors and individual characteristics. Our results show that housing market conditions are not related to levels of or changes in residential independence when control variables are included in the models. The results for the individual-level resource variables show that persons with greater economic resources, more children, and better functional status are better able to maintain independence and are less likely to die or live in a nursing home. This study shows the utility of expanding on micro-level approaches to understanding community living arrangements among older persons. Future investigations should include measures of the policy environment, transportation constraints and opportunities, and a more complete array of indicators of health and social services oriented toward helping elderly persons maintain their independence.     

Mining mobility and settlement during an East African gold boom: Seeking fortune and accommodating fate

ABSTRACT

In light of Shiller’s concept of ‘irrational exuberance’, we interrogate migrants’ optimistic material expectations at artisanal and industrial gold mining locations during a period of exceptional mobility spurred by the international gold boom of 2000–2013. Our household survey and interview findings reveal miners’ and residents’ mobility and settlement patterns in three Tanzanian gold mining settlements, representing different stages and forms of mining along a trajectory of deepening gold extraction and increasing urbanization. Resident miners’, traders’ and service providers’ personal motivations, strategies and dilemmas surface. The constancy of migrants’ motivation for economic betterment and the contingency of their strategic thinking in the face of gold supply uncertainty emerges clearly. However, mining site residents’ highly mobile lives entail toleration of temporary, inadequate housing in infrastructurally deficient, polluted and unsafe mining environments, a situation at odds with their aims for lifestyle enhancement. Given the unpredictability of gold production, residents reconcile their expectations of striking it rich with the reality of sub-optimal outcomes. Those who gain satisfaction and esteem in their careers are likely to do so through high levels of mobility, ultimately rewarded with desirable housing and settlement locations, whereas others adapt to constrained mobility and unenviable settlement locations, or abandon mining.     

Making the hidden seen: A narrative analysis of the experiences of Assumption of Care at birth

Background

Being involved in any child protection system is complex and multifaceted and none more so than in non-voluntary Assumption of Care which occurs in New South Wales when, for child protection concerns, the Department of Family and Community Services removes a newborn baby from her/his mother.