The welfare state, the individual and the need for care: older people's views

The aim of this qualitative study was to study how older people experience aging and reflect on their need for care in the Swedish welfare context. Sixteen people were interviewed, aged between 77 and 92 years. Staying healthy and independent in their everyday lives were prized values for the informants. Some brushed aside thoughts of being in need of home help services in the future and others had a more reflecting attitude. The informants did not want to burden either society or their children. Through mass media and the experiences of their neighbours, they had gained a negative impression of eldercare. They were uncertain if there would be any helping hand of good quality in the future. On the other hand, informants who already had home help thought that it was helping them to maintain independence in everyday life and they were also satisfied with the help they received.     

Effects of biodiversity and environment-related attitude on perception of urban green space

Green space in cities contributes to the quality of life for city dwellers, e.g., by increasing the opportunity for recreation. However, perception of urban green space is influenced by multiple factors. We investigated effects of biodiversity and environment-related attitudes on visual and auditory perceptions of urban green space. Field measurements of biodiversity were conducted in six sites across an urban gradient in Gothenburg, Sweden, and three categories of biodiversity—high, medium, low—were established. Households were sent a survey on aesthetic perception of urban green space, sound perception and the importance of trees and plants for the perception of bird species. Each respondent focused on the site that was located nearby. The environment-related attitudes comprised “Nature-oriented” and “Urban-oriented” persons and were based on participants’ own attitude estimations. It was shown that participants’ “subjective” aesthetic and sound-related perception of urban greenery were in line with the “objectively” measured subdivisions of high, medium and low biodiversity. So also were their estimations of the importance of trees and plants for perception of bird species in urban greenery, although differing only between high and medium/low biodiversity conditions. Persons rating themselves as highly nature-oriented were shown to give higher scores to urban green space aesthetics and to value greenery-related sounds higher, and to attach greater importance to trees and plants in their perception of bird species in urban greenery, than less nature-oriented persons. Highly urban-oriented persons compared to less urban-oriented persons did the same, but only regarding urban greenery-related aesthetics and sounds of nature. We conclude that environment-related attitudes influence perceptions of green space. Moreover, our findings support the idea that biodiversity per se also influences perceptions; people value green space significantly more with high than with low measured biodiversity. Urban planning needs to provide city inhabitants with green spaces that are species-rich, lush, varied and rich with natural sounds.     

User‐oriented mental health reform in Sweden: featuring ‘professional friendship’

In developing new forms for society‐based support for mental health service users, authorities implemented a service in Sweden, called Personligt ombud (PO), with the assignment to support service users exercising their rights. The aim of this article is to describe what service users find to be significant features of their working relationships with their PO. Using a phenomenological approach, 23 users were interviewed sharing their experiences of their PO. The results show that service users describe their relationships with the PO as a ‘professional friendship’. The friendship‐like feature refers to reciprocity in sharing life experiences and forming a trustful relationship in which professional assistance can be offered, promoting well‐being and recovery. Conclusions are that the PO provides a service that calls for re‐interpretation of professional and user roles, where both give and receive.     

Direct Observation of Road Construction Worker Behavior

Many construction workers are paid with public dollars and typically earn large salaries within the manual labor workforce. The present study used a momentary time sampling procedure to directly observe the proportion of road construction workers engaged in work-related behavior and compared the observation to repeated observations of one worksite. Both observations suggested that a small number of highway workers may be performing work tasks at any time, suggesting a need for behavior analysts to devise more effective work-related contingencies to ensure taxpayers receive more return on their investment.     

Corporate social responsibility recognition and support for the arts: Evidence from European financial institutions

This research investigates whether financial institutions that have gained a good reputation in relation to their CSR activities also engage in significant corporate support for the arts (CSA). Using a sample composed of the 42 largest listed European financial institutions, data from 2004 to 2013 (i.e., 420 firm-year observations) and manually collected CSA disclosure information, our findings indicate that entities rewarded for their CSR initiatives are also those that engage in significant CSA. We also find that CSA disclosure reported in the social reports of financial institutions is a predictor for the attainment of a CSR award, whereas that reported in annual reports is not. Our findings suggest that annual and social reports have a different informative relevance, at least in relation to CSR initiatives in the form of CSA, for the stakeholders of financial institutions. Thus, our results provide useful insights for companies’ communication strategies showing, for example, that social reports are the best channel to communicate about CSA.     

Mental discounting and financial strategies

Subjective discount rates have been used as measures of time preference to explain saving behavior, with varying results. There is also a lack of agreement between different explanatory models of subjective discount rates. In this paper, it is argued that a better understanding of subjective discount rates can be reached by using groups with different financial strategies as domains. It is shown by PLS and regression analyses that the mental discounting process differs between groups practicing different financial strategies and that the explained variance of subjective discount rates and thus the understanding of such rates are improved by using financial strategy groups as domains.