Forms of Capital and Habitus in the Decision to Go on Academic Exchange

Although Canadian universities have made internationalization a strategic priority, only few Canadian students currently participate in any international study opportunities. Drawing on interviews with Canadian students who were about to spend some of their undergraduate education abroad as exchange students, or had recently returned from a study exchange, we argue that despite the importance of relatively high costs associated with international study experiences, cultural factors play a more important role in enabling the decision to study abroad. Being habitually exposed to travel in one's family, and having been encouraged to travel independently as a teenager or young adult emerge as important precursors to our participants’ decision to take part in study exchanges. Although one needs to engage critically with university administrators’ current preoccupation with internationalization, being exposed to an extended time abroad has shown to have positive effects, especially for otherwise underprivileged students. Given the exploratory nature of this study, we conclude with suggestions for further research aimed at confirming our findings and developing policy.     

Setting Priorities in the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse

In its ‘National Campaign Against Drug Abuse’, the Federal Government has decided to give top priority in the 1987 financial year to preventing the use of heroin and cocaine, particularly among the young. After reviewing the drug consumption habits of North Queenslanders, we conclude that this decision does not address the most immediate drug-related health problems of the region. Our data suggest not only that legal drugs pose a far greater threat to the health and welfare of Australian society but also that drug abuse is primarily concentrated within the adult population.     

The emergence of Sub-Replacement Family Size Ideals in Europe

Period fertility started to drop significantly below replacement in most Western European countries during the 1970s and 1980s, while most fertility surveys, value studies and opinion polls have found that the number of children considered ideal for society or for one's own family has remained above two children per woman. These surveys have led to the expectation that, sooner or later, period fertility would recover in Europe. The most recent data from the Eurobarometer 2001 survey, however, suggest that in the German-speaking parts of Europe the average ideal family sizes given by younger men and women have fallen as low as 1.7 children. This paper examines the consistency and the credibility of these new findings, which – if they are indeed indications of a new trend – may alter the current discussion about future fertility trends in Europe.     

Social Budgeting in Transition Economies

The first part of this paper portrays social budgeting as a pivotal tool in national social governance. The second explains the meaning of social budgeting, which, essentially, consists of two elements: a database and a set of interdependent tools for projecting social protection revenue and expenditure. The third part discusses the particular needs of the transition economies with respect to the financial planning of social protection, and it is argued that countries need models for social budgeting as a technical, non-ideological tool in order to prudently run social protection systems which are income redistribution mechanisms of potentially vast dimensions. The fourth part broadly explains the modular structure of the model, the advantage of this structure being that modules can intelligently be used as stand-alone submodels. It also further discusses the particular advantages of social budgeting in countries in transition and includes a number of examples of technical adjustments that would have to be made to the model structure when applying it in the context of transitional economies. The two main reasons for such adjustments are identified as the fast change of their socio-economic fabric over the past decade and the (related) changes in the collection and flow of data. The fifth part briefly presents social budget modelling projects implemented in central and eastern Europe, particularly focusing on the examples of Ukraine and Poland. Scenario simulations and policy experiments are presented and discussed. The conclusions summarize the advantages of social budgeting, using the ILO Social Budget Model (or a variant of it) in national and international contexts, and indicate the conditions required for successful implementation.     

Wirkungen von Führungskräfte-Coachings in der Sozialen Arbeit

The article analyses effects and changes of executive personnel in social work, who joined coaching trainings. Base of data are 18 Interviews with managers. Coaching training is realized effective for improving personnel management with regard to.     

Influencing support of charitable objectives in the near and distant future: delay discounting and the moderating influence of construal level

Two studies investigated the delay discounting effect in charitable giving situations, and whether construal level moderates this effect. In both studies, construal level was manipulated by inducing a concrete vs. an abstract mindset. Participants were asked how much time (Experiment 1) or how much money (Experiment 2) they would be willing to volunteer or donate, respectively, to a self-chosen charitable organization in either the near or distant future. Participants committed themselves to contributing more time and money in the distant than in the near future. Additionally, an abstract (vs. concrete) mindset reduced this delay discounting effect, particularly for monetary donations. Delay discounting of costs associated with altruistic behavior and the role of construal level in increasing donations and volunteering are discussed.     

Qualifikation von Ausbildungssupervisoren in der Sozialen Arbeit – Kontexte,Methoden und Erfahrungen

This article moots the issue of how to support students of social work and social pedagogy to develop the prerequisites for a professional exercise within their future vocational role by dint of supervision. Academical training has to offer spaces for reflecting the relationship between clients and their assistants and for the student’s self-development as well. Methodical settings are reflected for the vocational training of students. Of what kind are the relationships between knowledge transfer, practical guidance and supervision? This article pleads for supervision as an educational program and specifies the qualifications for supervisors.     

Multiple-discrepancies theory versus resource theory

The explanatory value of two theories expounding the quality of life are compared and discussed. To make this comparison possible, it is necessary to distinguish between rather clear theoretical assumptions and avoid a mix of theories: the variance explained by comparisons (multiple discrepancies) is compared with the variance explained by resource. Data obtained from the Vienna Student Survey (n=350) are presented. Although multiple-discrepancies theory (MDT) does explain far more variance than the resource approach, critical comments and proposals complete the study.