Caring is not enough: the importance of Internet skills for online privacy protection

This article explains Internet users’ self-help activities in protecting their privacy online using structural equation modeling. Based on a representative survey of Swiss Internet users, it reveals past experiences with privacy breaches as a strong predictor of current protective behavior. Further, in line with the ‘privacy paradox’ argument, caring about privacy (privacy attitudes) alone does not necessarily result in substantial self-protection. Most strikingly, however, general Internet skills are key in explaining users’ privacy behavior. These skills enable users to reduce risks of privacy loss while obtaining the benefits from online activities that increasingly depend on the revelation of personal data. Consequently, Internet skills are an essential starting point for public policies regarding users’ self-help in privacy protection.     

South African NGOs and the public sphere: between popular movements and partnerships for development

This article examines the widespread notion that post‐apartheid democracy can be deepened and civil society strengthened by NGO activities in the sphere of public debate and participation. I focus on a number of interrelated processes which I argue may compromise NGOs' ability to expand the public sphere: first, donors' overwhelming focus on NGOs as the sole representative of civil society may contribute to a homogenous and institutionalised public sphere; second, the tendency for NGOs to be drawn into partnerships with government bodies and corporate sponsors casts doubt on their ability to open up spaces for critical public debate. By directing attention to popular movements as potentially offering a site for the production of critique, NGOs' relationships to such movements are examined. It is argued that attention must be paid to the processes of NGO‐isation and reformism by which NGOs themselves come to define what civil society should be and may consequently contain counterpublic spheres.     

Parental media socialization and educational attainment: Resource or disadvantage?

This article analyzes the long-term effects of parental media socialization on children's educational attainment. Data on 8316 individuals from 3257 families in the Netherlands is used to estimate hierarchical models that distinguish between family-specific (socialization) and individual-level effects. The study reveals that parental reading and television socialization plays a meaningful role in predicting children's success in education. Whereas parental time spent viewing television is disadvantageous for a child's educational career, parental reading intensity enhances educational success. Moreover, not only does media exposure play a relevant role, the content of parental media consumption also matters. Parents who prefer highbrow literature benefit their children's educational career, whereas a preference for watching popular TV programs is disadvantageous for a child's educational success. Next to the parental example of media consumption, media guidance provided by parents is scrutinized. Results indicate that parent-child interactions on reading positively affect children's educational attainment.     

Homelessness in Europe and the United States: A Comparison of Prevalence and Public Opinion

Random samples of 250–435 adults were interviewed by telephone in five different nations ( N = 1,546): Belgium, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the United States. The interview included questions on respondent attitudes, knowledge, and opinions regarding homelessness; respondents' own personal experiences with homelessness and homeless people; and demographic characteristics of the respondents. The highest rates for lifetime literal homelessness were found in the UK (7.7%) and United States (6.2%), with the lowest rate in Germany (2.4%), and intermediate rates in Italy (4.0%) and Belgium (3.4%). Less compassionate attitudes toward the homeless were also found on many dimensions in the United States and the UK. Possible explanations of these findings, drawn from various theoretical perspectives, and policy implications are provided .     

Explaining Gender Inequalities That Follow Couple Migration

By exploiting the unique social and economic differences between East and West Germany, the authors investigated how macro‐level opportunities interact with couple‐level decision making to explain gender differences in the determinants and economic outcomes of household migration. By incorporating regional socioeconomic conditions into household bargaining theory, 4 hypotheses for each region were derived. The hypotheses were tested using cross‐classified multilevel regressions and the German Socio‐Economic Panel (1992–2012) combined with regional economic indicators. First, gender‐specific determinants of couples' West–West (i.e., within West Germany) and East‐to‐West migration were analyzed; second, subsequent economic consequences were investigated by comparing couples with singles. The results confirm that gender differences in macro‐conditions can impose decision logics that seemingly contradict the initial power relation within couples. Despite more traditional gender arrangements in West Germany, well‐educated partnered women earn significant absolute and relative income gains from migration; their egalitarian East German counterparts suffer significant losses compared with single women and East German men.     

How Poverty Indicators Confound Poverty Reduction Evaluations: The Targeting Performance of Income Transfers in Europe

Community led local development and  community driven development played a mandatory role in rural development of both developed and under developed countries. The paper explores the relationship between community empowerment, sense of community and sustainability of community-driven projects. Looking at the record of social well at gross root level, very less attention was paid on development of deprived communities. Starting from the experience of community-driven organizations (i.e. the Citizen Community Boards in Pakistan), the paper attempts to answer two questions: (1) is there a relationship between community empowerment and project sustainability; and (2) is this relationship between community empowerment and project sustainability mitigated by the sense of community? Further, the paper elaborates on the concepts of “community empowerment”, “sustainability” and “sense of community”. A hierarchical regression analysis is used to test the relationship between community empowerment and sustainability of community-driven projects. This analysis highlights the central role of the sense of community in mitigating the relationship between community empowerment and sustainability. Community empowerment is significantly related to the sense of community. These relationships between sense of community, community empowerment and sustainability of community-driven projects are applicable to empowerment theory and measurement.     

A New Kid in Town? Active Inclusion Elements in European Minimum Income Schemes

This article assesses the current variation in activation strategies directed towards able‐bodied persons of working age relying on a minimum income guarantee in 19 EU member states. First, we argue that the active inclusion notion developed by the European Commission in its Recommendation on the active inclusion of persons excluded from the labour market provides a useful tool to categorize current activation strategies towards minimum income protection (MIP) recipients. Consequently, we assess the empirical viability of active inclusion strategies in a fuzzy set ideal type analysis of purpose‐collected institutional data. We find that there are only few countries where the activation discourse has remained a dead letter. Most countries implement policy measures that aim to discourage benefit dependency among MIP recipients. Nevertheless, behind the realities of activation strategies towards MIP recipients seldom lies the notion of active inclusion as defined by the European Commission. Particularly, many countries focus predominantly on incentives to increase labour market participation rates of MIP recipients, rather than enabling measures.     

Teachers’ multicultural attitudes and perceptions of school policy and school climate in relation to burnout

ABSTRACT

There is a growing number of ethnically and culturally diverse students in Dutch junior vocational high schools. This article examines teachers’ multicultural attitudes, their perceptions of cultural diversity related to school policy and school climate, and the chance of general and diversity-related burnout. The present research also characterises teachers in terms of their multicultural attitudes and perceptions of school policy and climate through cluster analysis. Results are based on questionnaire data of 120 teachers, working at five locations of a multicultural junior vocational high school in a highly urbanised part of the Netherlands. Correlational, regression, and variance analyses indicated that the highest levels of general and diversity-related burnout were found among teachers categorised as assimilationist in attitude and who perceived their school as pluralistic. Teachers could be divided into three types of profiles: (1) relative assimilative attitude, (2) no pronounced assimilative attitude, and (3) moderate assimilative attitude. Teachers with the second profile showed the highest chance for burnout.     

Mitgegangen – mitgefangen?

While previous research has provided general evidence on the positive outcomes of regional mobility for the labour market success of men and single women, most studies have also concluded that for married or partnered women residential relocation imposes severe disadvantages in terms of their economic situation and career. When accounting for these effects, most authors refer to microeconomic household theory – an approach that has been increasingly criticized for its restrictive assumptions regarding intra family decisions. Moreover most of these studies are outdated and do not fully capture the economic and social developments that have taken place in recent decade, especially in Germany. This paper contributes to the topic by extending the theoretical scope to a bargaining model of mobility decisions within couples and by using more current data. Additionally regional labour market structures are seen as important moderators of the effects of mobility and are explicitly considered in the analysis. Based on longitudinal data from the SOEP for the years 1992–2006 the following article focuses on the (longterm) income effects of regional mobility among East and West German couples with special regard to the economic situation of partnered women. The results of the panel fixed-effects estimations not only lend support to bargaining theory and stress the relevance of regional opportunity structures, but also indicate that the consequences of mobility for German women have changed. The paper discusses implications of the results for labour market processes and partnerships.