Being,feeling and acting: A qualitative study of Swedish home-help care recipients' understandings of dependence and independence

This article contributes to the debate on dependence and independence through a study of how a group of 29 cognitively healthy Swedish home-help care recipients between the ages of 77 and 93 perceive their situation. Two overall themes with regards to how the constructs of dependence and independence are understood were found. One of them concerns how being in need of help can be justified (i.e. the m>whym> of receiving help) and the other how the very situation of being in need of help and care can be regarded (i.e. the m>howm> of receiving help). The study reveals a clear distinction between receiving help and care and feeling dependent, as well as between receiving help and care and being able to remain an active agent. On the basis of these findings we argue for the fruitfulness of distinguishing between ‘being’, ‘feeling’ and ‘acting’ as aspects of dependence and independence.     

Should mothers work? Age and attitudes in Germany,Italy and Sweden

Welfare states are constructed around values and political and economic preferences, creating social relationships between the genders. As women increase their labour market participation, new patterns of conflict within families and around policies arise. In this article, attitudes towards family and gender relations among men and women in different age groups in Germany, Italy and Sweden are analysed. The findings show that national policies seem to influence the level of attitudes among men and women. Despite the differences between the countries, an overall pattern emerges in which both age and gender influence people's understanding of women's paid work within and between the three countries. Finally, some implications of changing attitudes on welfare state policies for gender equality are discussed.     

Niklas Luhmann: Contingency,risk, trust and reflection

The hurdle of Niklas Luhmann's extensive theories is their complexity and level of abstraction. These qualities are, however, exactly what constitute their empirical sensitivity to the interrelation between organization and society in today's hyper-complex society. Luhmann never theorized on public relations; yet his theories enable identification of frames for understanding public relations in interrelation to society's overall coordination processes. Contemporary society apparently tries to solve problems activated by the blind reflexivity of modernization by activating reflective forms of coordination. Correspondingly, practice ideals of public relations can be reconstructed as reflection—the specific worldview which facilitates self-insight in relation to the social context.     

Intra‐ and Inter‐generational Perspectives on Youth Participation in Sweden: A Study with Young People as Research Partners

In this study, intra‐ and inter‐generational perspectives on youth participation are combined and compared. Young people were invited to participate as research partners in an interactive research circle and conducted a survey about participation with other young people as respondents. The discussion concerns how an interactive methodology contributes to the understanding of the concept of participation. It is suggested that political definitions of participation be amended to include having a sense of being recognised in a communicative context, taking responsibility and share with other people one's experiences. This is based on the perspectives of young people.     

Does digitization lead to the homogenization of cultural content?

Using weekly music charts data in 10 countries over the period 1990–2015, we analyze whether digitization leads to a trend of homogenization of music content or conversely to a greater acoustic disparity. We split the digitization era in four periods that correspond to four new emblematic distribution models (Napster, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify). Our main result is that while acoustic diversity decreased during the iTunes and the YouTube periods, the period that begins with the introduction of audio streaming services, such as Spotify, represents a turning point and is marked by a significant increase in acoustic diversity.     

Ethnic and cultural differences in knowledge about HIV and AIDS: a study of 150 young women from Sweden, Chile and Ecuador

This article illustrates the differences in knowledge about HIV and AIDS and attitudes among 150 young women from three different countries (Sweden, Chile and Ecuador). In each country, 50 consecutive women, visiting a family planning clinic answered 23 structured questions. The questionnaire was translated into Spanish. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of age, education, ethnicity and religion on young women's knowledge of HIV and AIDS. This study shows that ethnicity is the most important independent variable influencing the level of knowledge (stepwise logistic regression). Also, in Chile and Ecuador, less than 10% of the women in the study required that their partner use a condom. In Sweden the use of condoms is often combined with another contraceptive, yet more than two thirds of the women in Sweden were unprotected from a sexually transmitted disease during coitus.     

A quantification of lobbying benefits with an application to the common agricultural policy

We employ an empirical general equilibrium model of the CAP to determine which factors and countries would be expected to be opposed to or support reform of the CAP. The objective is to determine who are the “friends” and “enemies” of the CAP. The analysis studies the extent to which lobbying activity by these interested parties could be expected to encourage or discourage internal EU reform of the CAP. Several alternative policies to reform the CAP are evaluated in this manner in order to determine if one or another set of policies has a greater chance of being accepted. Specifically, we study the Uruguay Round Agreement, as well as a number of stated negotiating positions presented during the Round. The result will be a summary assessment of the relative politico-economic acceptability of these reform proposals within the EU. Our results lead to a very simple policy conclusion. Given the set of policy packages considered here, there is little doubt that the EU was most inclined to adopt a proposal incorporating compensation payments. Without further disaggregation of the analysis to identify the United States or Japan, we can only note that such a proposal is also the best as far as overall welfare goes for the rest of the world. Our results confirm the importance of sidepayments in the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreement.     

Bling bling taxation and the fiscal virtues of hip hop

The article extends Ng’s (Am Econ Rev 77(1):186–191, 1987) model of optimal taxation of diamond goods—goods that are valued solely for their costliness. We extend his findings by analyzing how other goods should be taxed in the presence of pure diamond goods; modified Ramsey rules are derived in a basic single-type model as well as in a two-type model with redistribution. One key finding, that may be surprising and rather provoking, is that close complements (hip hop music) to diamond goods (bling bling) should be heavily subsidized.