Evaluating the impact of semantic technologies on bibliographic systems: A user-centred and comparative approach

This paper studies the gender gap in sport event attendance – characterized by higher male and lower female participation – using a macro-sociological and cross-national comparative approach. We argue that because gender is produced and justified in the realm of sport, gender gaps in sport event attendance may be more pronounced in some societies than others, depending on the position women and men have in the particular context in which someone ‘does’ his/her gender. So, in addition to individual attributes, one has to consider the societal, macro-level gender equality in order to understand the individual-level gender inequalities in sport event attendance. Using multilevel analyses on Eurobarometer data (2007), we evaluate whether the size of the gender gap in sport event attendance varies across European Union (EU) countries and how this variation relates to societal gender equality, as measured by the Gender Equality Index of the European Institute for Gender Equality. We find higher male than female attendance in all EU countries, but also conclude that higher levels of macro-level gender equality are associated with smaller gender gaps in sport event attendance.

Download Full-text

The Impact of National Culture on Employees' Attitudes Toward Heavy Work Investment: Comparative Approach Romania vs. Japan

www amfiteatrueconomic ro ◽

10.24818/ea/2020/s14/1014 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (S14) ◽

pp. 1014

Author(s):

Ion Popa ◽

◽

Simona Catalina Stefan ◽

Catalina Florentina Albu ◽

stefan Catalin Popa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

National Culture ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Heavy Work ◽

The Impact

Download Full-text

A call for comparative thinking: Crime, citizenship and security in the global South

South African Crime Quarterly ◽

10.17159/2413-3108/2009/v0i27a936 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Vanessa Barolsky ◽

Suren Pillay

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Violent Crime ◽

Crime Rates ◽

Democratic Governance ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Democratic Transitions ◽

The World ◽

Resource Poor ◽

International Comparative ◽

The Impact

This article argues for the importance of an international comparative perspective in terms of our analysis and response to violent crime. This is particularly important in the light of the fact that while an increasing number of countries in the global Southhave achieved formal democracy, they continue to be plagued by high levels of violent crime. In fact, transitions from authoritarian to democratic governance around the world, from Eastern Europe to Latin America and Africa, have been accompanied by escalating violent crime rates. In this context, we have much to learn from an international comparative approach in terms of understanding why democratic transitions are so often accompanied by increases in violence, what the impact of this violence is on the ability of these societies to deepen democracy, and what the most appropriate interventions are in relatively new and often resource poor democracies.

Download Full-text

E-Government in European Countries, a Comparative Approach Using the Principal Components Analysis

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy ◽

10.2478/nispa-2021-0015 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 65-86

Author(s):

Armenia Androniceanu ◽

Irina Georgescu

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

United Nations ◽

Public Administration ◽

Principal Components ◽

Principal Component ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Necessary Condition ◽

The European Union ◽

The United Nations ◽

The Impact

Abstract The digitalization of public administration is a necessary condition for the economic and social development of each country. In this context, e-government is developing and diversifying its forms of implementation, contributing significantly to the efficiency of public administration, to increasing the degree of transparency and to reducing corruption in public institutions. The aim of the research was to know how the states of the European Union evolved from the point of view of e-government and what influence it had on the economic development of the analyzed states and on the European citizens during the analyzed period. For this we selected ten research variables from several databases: Eurostat, the World Bank and the United Nations E-Government Development Database (UNeGovDD) of the United Nations. The period for which we did the analysis is 2010 – 2019. Using EViews 12 we applied panel Principal Component Analysis to reduce the 10-variable panel into a lower dimension of 3 principal components to find the underlying simplified structure. The three principal components retained explain about 76.5 % of the initial information. The research results show significant differences between the states analyzed, in terms of e-government, but also in terms of the impact it has on government effectiveness, controlling corruption, e-participation of European citizens and the economic development of Member States. In countries with a high level of e-government implementation, governance is efficient, corruption is low, citizen involvement is higher and economic development is faster.

Download Full-text

Hedge Fund Activism vs Other Activist Investors

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198840954.013.8 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 252-282

Author(s):

Ulf von Lilienfeld-Toal ◽

Jan Schnitzler

Keyword(s):

Empirical Analysis ◽

Hedge Funds ◽

Hedge Fund ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Large Sample ◽

Shareholder Proposals ◽

Target Firms ◽

Hedge Fund Activism ◽

The Impact

This chapter reviews the growing empirical literature on shareholder activism by hedge funds. The aim is a comparative approach contrasting the impact of hedge fund activism on target firms with outcomes for other types of activist investors. Following recent research, the chapter provides an empirical analysis based on the disclosure of equity blockholdings by activist investors in a large sample of all US listed companies. In addition, it summarizes which types of investors engage in other events linked to activism, such as takeovers, proxy contests, or shareholder proposals. Overall, there is evidence that not only hedge funds but also other types of investors can be effective monitors, but there are nuanced differences with respect to targeting decisions and payout policies.

Download Full-text

Remarriage among Jews and Christians

Families, Rabbis and Education ◽

10.3828/liverpool/9781874774853.003.0004 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 56-85

Author(s):

Shaul Stampfer

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

Russian Orthodox ◽

Late Nineteenth ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

The Impact ◽

Group Characteristics ◽

Over Time

This chapter investigates the phenomenon of remarriage in nineteenth-century eastern Europe, demonstrating its significance in Jewish marital behaviour. Patterns of remarriage deserve attention for a number of reasons: they influenced fertility levels, affected family structure, played a role in networking, and served as an indicator of the importance of marriage in a given society. Remarriage is highly revealing of group characteristics and behaviour, but remarriage in late nineteenth-century eastern Europe merits attention for an additional reason. Patterns of remarriage and their changes over time significantly diverged among various population groups. Eastern Europe is thus an excellent context for examining the impact of significant variables on remarriage by means of a comparative approach. The chapter then evaluates modes of remarriage among four major religious-national groups: Russian Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. It also considers important differences between Jews and Christians in specific patterns of remarriage.

Download Full-text

Social Trust in the Middle East and North Africa: The Context-Dependent Impact of Citizens’ Socio-Economic and Religious Characteristics

European Sociological Review ◽

10.1093/esr/jcz038 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (6) ◽

pp. 894-911 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Niels Spierings

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

North Africa ◽

Social Trust ◽

Context Dependency ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Mena Region ◽

Mena Countries ◽

Systematic Assessment ◽

Context Sensitive ◽

The Impact

Abstract Our knowledge of social trust's drivers in the MENA region is limited and there are good reasons to expect that theories based on Western countries cannot be copied to the MENA one-to-one. Arguing for a broader and at the same time context-sensitive comparative approach, I translate the ‘societal winners’, social capital, and religious beliefs mechanisms explaining trust to the MENA context. Moreover, I acknowledge intraregional diversity and test how the impact of these factors also differs among MENA countries. Empirically, I synchronize 47 surveys from 15 MENA countries, which provides the broadest and most systematic assessment of trust in the MENA to date. The results show that the societal-winner mechanism does not hold: employed, higher education and wealthier citizens are not more trusting. However, higher-educated citizens distrust other citizens more, particularly in the strongest autocracies. Religiosity seems pivotal too. Among others, service-attending citizens are more trusting, mainly where regimes regulate religious affairs. Overall, this study provides insight into what shapes generalized social trust in the Middle East and North Africa and it underscores that at a comparative level we need to consider inter-regional and intra-regional forms of context-dependency were we to formulate a broadly applicable theoretical framework of trust's drivers.

Download Full-text

The Left and the Revolutions

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199695669.013.6 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

David Priestland

Keyword(s):

Social History ◽

Ethnic Politics ◽

Historical Sociology ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

The Caucasus ◽

Revolutionary Era ◽

History Of ◽

New Interpretation ◽

The Impact

This article provides a new interpretation of Europe’s revolutionary era between 1917 and 1923, exploring the origins of the revolutionary wave and its diverse impact across Europe, focusing on the role of the Left. It seeks to revive the insights of social history and historical sociology, which have been neglected by a recent historiography, that stress the role of contingency, the impact of war, and the influence of militaristic cultures. Yet unlike older social history approaches which emphasised domestic social conflict at the expense of ethnic politics and empire, it argues that the revolutions were the result of a crisis of old geopolitical and ethnic hierarchies, as well as social ones. It develops a comparative approach, presenting a new way of incorporating the experience of eastern Europe and the Caucasus into the history of Europe’s revolutions, and a new analysis of why Russia provided such fertile ground for revolutionary politics.

Download Full-text

Evaluating the effect of income support policies on social health inequalities (SHIs) at birth in Montreal and Brussels using a contextualised comparative approach and model family method: a study protocol

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024015 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (9) ◽

pp. e024015

Author(s):

Mouctar Sow ◽

Myriam De Spiegelaere ◽

Marie-France Raynault

Keyword(s):

Health Inequalities ◽

Social Assistance ◽

Social Health ◽

Administrative Databases ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Income Support ◽

Poverty Level ◽

Social Health Inequalities ◽

The Impact ◽

Model Family

IntroductionAssessing the effects of social policies on social health inequalities (SHIs) is a complex issue. Variations in social policy between countries or regions provide natural experiments in policy implementation to perform comparative research. Comparisons are most enlightening when: the object of the evaluation is well defined (types of policies, population groups); the context of policy is analysed (history, implementation); the impact of policy on household poverty is outlined in detail; the influence of various factors (other than poverty) on SHI is taken into consideration.Methods and analysisThis study aims to understand how income support policies (ISPs) in Brussels and Montreal influence the poverty level of households receiving social assistance, and how they are associated with SHI at birth. Two cases studies will be carried out from a comparative perspective. The analysis includes four stages : (1) The model family method will be used to compare ISPs and their impact on disposable income and poverty of households receiving social assistance in both regions. (2) Statistical analysis of administrative databases will enable the description and comparison of SHI in adverse pregnancy outcomes across the two regions. (3) Analysis of databases and documents will allow for description of various factors which are likely to interact with poverty and influence SHI at birth. (4) Based on the Diderichsen model, results from the previous stages will be used to formulate hypotheses about the mechanisms by which ISPs contribute to increasing or reducing SHI at birth in both regions.Ethics and disseminationThis research was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee for Health research of Université de Montréal. In Belgium, the access to linked databases was approved by the Commission for the Protection of Privacy. Databases de-identified according to Belgian and Canadian legislation will be used. Results will be disseminated in scientific publications and will be shared with policy makers and field actors through collaborations with local organisations in Brussels and Montreal.

Download Full-text