The Solidary Relationship’s Consequences for the Ebb and Flow of Activism: Collaborative Evidence from Life-History Interviews and Social Media Event Analysis,

Acting in solidarity with deprived others has become a central topic in social movement research. The explanations of solidarity activism or political altruism are few. However, social movement researchers have claimed that solidarity with out-of-group others is a by-product of in-group interaction. In contrast, we argue that out-group interaction with the deprived other and the formation of a solidary relationship is central to the ebb and flow of solidarity activism. We investigate the Danish refugee solidarity movement and show that the meeting with the deprived other 1) brings about an interaction order which makes an ethical demand on the activists to care for the other both within the bounds of the situations and in the future; 2) enacts and amplifies activists’ values and beliefs because the deprived other becomes an exemplar of the injustice and the need to help the broader group of people in the same fragile situation. We develop and test this theory drawing on 42 life-history interviews and a social media dataset containing a panel of 87,455 activists participating in refugee solidarity groups.     

Labor supply in the terminal stages of lone parents’ lives

Based on Norwegian register data, we show that having a lone parent in the terminal stage of life affects the offspring’s labor market activity. The employment propensity declines by around 0.5–1 percentage point among sons and 4 percentage points among daughters during the years prior to the parent’s death, ceteris paribus. After the parent’s demise, employment picks up again and earnings rise for both sons and daughters. Reliance on sickness insurance and other social security transfers increases significantly during the terminal stages of the parent’s life. For sons, the claimant rate remains at a higher level long after the parent’s demise.