Measuring Democracy

2014 ◽  
pp. 426-452
Author(s):  
Célestin Monga
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Economic Approach ◽  
Political Ethics ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Press ◽  
Comparative Theory

Despite increased academic and media interest in the continent and the intensity of the sociopolitical and administrative changes that have occurred in the past twenty-five years, analyses published in the press and by scholars are generally incomplete. Beyond the traditional dispute between “universalists” (theorists of a general model of liberal democracy to which all countries are expected to conform) and “relativists” (advocates of the sovereignty of individual cultural identities), the real problem lies in the inability of social scientists to develop a comparative method that is at once valid and acceptable to all. Rejecting the purely normative approach to political ethics that dominates the debate on democracy, this chapter uses an economic approach to advance a comparative theory of the notion of political well-being. It proposes a measurement index whose different components take into account both the viewpoint of universalists on human rights and the perspective of relativists on political utility.

The case for reinvigorating quality of working life research

2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gudela Grote ◽  
David Guest
Keyword(s):  
Working Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Advocacy ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Quality Of Working Life ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

The quality of working life became an important topic in the 1960s and 1970s, helping to stimulate an early approach to evidence-based policy advocacy drawing on interdisciplinary research by social scientists. Over the years it fell out of the limelight but much relevant, albeit fragmented, research has continued. We present a case for rekindling an integrated and normative approach to quality of working life research as one means of promoting workers’ well-being and emancipation. We outline an updated classification of the characteristics of quality of working life and a related analytic framework. We illustrate how research and practice will benefit from following this renewed quality of working life framework, using work design as an example. Concluding, we aim to stimulate debate on the necessity and benefits of rebuilding a quality of working life agenda for marrying academic rigour and practical relevance in order to support interventions aimed at fostering worker emancipation and well-being.

American History in Comparative Perspective

1977 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-44
Author(s):  
Walter Hugins
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
American History ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Past Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Past ◽  
States History

Comparative history is as old as Herodotus, but only in the past quartercentury has it come into its own as an academic discipline. Yet historians, scholars of American history in particular, have generally fallen behind their colleagues in the other social sciences in developing and applying comparative methodology or models which could illuminate their teaching or open new vistas in their research. As a result, teaching and scholarship in United States history tend to be characterized by parochialism, ethnocentricity and an emphasis upon American uniqueness or “ exceptionalism.” Political scientists, sociologists and economists have increasingly studied the process of development and modernization since the end of World War II, doing more to stimulate comparative studies than all of their predecessors during the past century. While many of these social scientists have demonstrated only a superficial knowledge of history, leading them often to deal statically with the societies they are studying, some of them have at least made the effort, avoided by most American historians, to apply the comparative method to American history.

Enabling Community Well-being Self-Monitoring in the Context of Mining: The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Klinck ◽  
Ben Bradshaw ◽  
Ruby Sandy ◽  
Silas Nabinacaboo ◽  
Mannie Mameanskum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Aboriginal Community ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Community Engaged Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mineral Development ◽  
Iron Deposits ◽  
Term Monitoring

The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach is an Aboriginal community located in northern Quebec near the Labrador Border. Given the region’s rich iron deposits, the Naskapi Nation has considerable experience with major mineral development, first in the 1950s to the 1980s, and again in the past decade as companies implement plans for further extraction. This has raised concerns regarding a range of environmental and socio-economic impacts that may be caused by renewed development. These concerns have led to an interest among the Naskapi to develop a means to track community well-being over time using indicators of their own design. Exemplifying community-engaged research, this paper describes the beginning development of such a tool in fall 2012—the creation of a baseline of community well-being against which mining-induced change can be identified. Its development owes much to the remarkable and sustained contribution of many key members of the Naskapi Nation. If on-going surveying is completed based on the chosen indicators, the Nation will be better positioned to recognize shifts in its well-being and to communicate these shifts to its partners. In addition, long-term monitoring will allow the Naskapi Nation to contribute to more universal understanding of the impacts of mining for Indigenous peoples.

Practical Pluralism in the Empirical Study of Social Investment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Burgoon
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Complex Character ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Active Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour

This chapter explores the empirical challenges of understanding the socioeconomic implications of social investment welfare reform. Such understanding is crucial to gauging the pay-offs and pitfalls of social investment, but is also extremely difficult, given the complex character of social investment and its multiple and interacting consequences for work and well-being. Such complexity, the chapter contends, yields an unusually strong tension between relevance and rigour that dooms any dialogue among social scientists and practitioners with clashing methodological commitments. The present study argues in favour of a practical pluralism to facilitate such dialogue. This pluralism entails combining and comparing empirical work across the full spectrum of relevance and rigour. The chapter illustrates the problems and pluralist solutions with a combination of macro-country-year and macro-individual-year analysis of how active labour-market policies (ALMP) affect the poverty of vulnerable citizens.

The Problem

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Alvesson ◽  
Yiannis Gabriel ◽  
Roland Paulsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Prestigious Journal ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Wide Gap

This chapter introduces ‘the problem’ of meaningless research in the social sciences. Over the past twenty years there has been an enormous growth in research publications, but never before in the history of humanity have so many social scientists written so much to so little effect. Academic research in the social sciences is often inward looking, addressed to small tribes of fellow researchers, and its purpose in what is increasingly a game is that of getting published in a prestigious journal. A wide gap has emerged between the esoteric concerns of social science researchers and the pressing issues facing today’s societies. The chapter critiques the inaccessibility of the language used by academic researchers, and the formulaic qualities of most research papers, fostered by the demands of the publishing game. It calls for a radical move from research for the sake of publishing to research that has something meaningful to say.

Capitalism Beyond Mutuality?

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Business Practice ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Economic Paradigm ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
Great Output

Our quest for prosperity has produced great output but not always great outcomes. The list of concerns is growing and familiar. Fundamentally, when it comes to well-being, fairness, and the scope of our humanity, the modern economic system still leaves much to be desired. In turn, trust in business and the liberal market system (aka “capitalism”) has been declining and regulation has been rising. A variety of forces—civic, economic, and intellectual—have been probing for better alternatives. The contributions in this volume, coauthored by eminent philosophers, social scientists, and a handful of thoughtful business leaders, are submitted in this spirit. The thrust of the work is conveyed in the volume’s titular question: Capitalism Beyond Mutuality? Mutuality, or the exchange of benefits, has been established as the prime principle of interaction in addressing the chronic dilemma of human interdependence. Mutuality is a fundament in the social contract approach and it serves us well. Yet, to address the concerns outlined here, we must help evolve an economic paradigm where mutuality is more systematically complemented by reasoned and elective morality. Otherwise the state will remain the sole (if inadequate) protector and buffer between market and society. Hence, rather than just regulate power we must also educate power. Philosophy has a natural role, especially when education is the preferred vehicle of transformation. Accordingly, the essays in this volume integrate philosophy and social science to outline and explore concrete approaches to these important concerns emanating from business practice and theory.

Temporal Focus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbie J. Shipp
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
The Future ◽  
Behavior Based ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Temporal Focus

Temporal focus is the individual tendency to characteristically think more or less about the past, present, and future. Although originally rooted in early work from psychology, research on temporal focus has been steadily growing in a number of research areas, particularly since Zimbardo and Boyd’s (1999) influential article on the topic. This chapter will review temporal focus research from the past to the present, including how temporal focus has been conceptualized and measured, and which correlates and outcomes have been tested in terms of well-being and behavior. Based on this review, an agenda for research is created to direct temporal focus research in the future.

scholarly journals Himalayan perceptions: Environmental change and the well-being of mountain peoples

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack D Ives
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Highland Forests ◽  
Development Paradigm

Preview of Himalayan perceptions: Environmental change and the well-being of mountain peoples by JD Ives Routledge, London and New York To be published in August 2004 Himalayan Perspectives returns to the enormously popular development paradigm that Ives dubbed the ‘Theory of Himalayan Degradation’. According to this seductive construct, poverty and overpopulation in the Himalayas was leading to degradation of highland forests, erosion, and downstream flooding. In the ‘Himalayan Dilemma’, Ives and Messerli exposed this “Theory” as a dangerous collection of assumptions and misrepresentations. While most scholars in the field promptly conceded Ives and Messerli’s points, the Theory has somehow survived as the guiding myth of development planners and many government agencies. In his new book, Ives returns to drive a stake through the heart of this revenant. His book not only reviews the research that, over the past 15 years, has confirmed the arguments of the ‘Himalayan Dilemma’; it also takes a close look at all those destructive factors that were overlooked by the conveniently simplistic ‘Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation’: government mismanagement, oppression of mountain minorities, armed conflict, and inappropriate tourism development. Himalayan Journal of Sciences 2(3): 17-19, 2004 The full text is of this article is available at the Himalayan Journal of Sciences website

Sexual harassment and psychological complaints: student- and class-level associations

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Brolin Låftman ◽  
Y Bjereld ◽  
B Modin ◽  
P Löfstedt
Keyword(s):  
School Climate ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
School Class ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
The Past ◽  
Class Level ◽  
Using Data

Abstract Background Students who are subjected to sexual harassment at school report lower psychological well-being than those who are not exposed. Yet, it is possible that the occurrence of sexual harassment in the school class is stressful also for those who are not directly targeted, with potential negative effects on well-being for all students. The aim was to examine whether sexual harassment at the student- and at the class-level was associated with students' psychological complaints. Methods Data from the Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) of 2017/18 was used, with information from students aged 11, 13 and 15 years (n = 3,720 distributed across 209 classes). Psychological complaints were constructed as a summative index of four items capturing how often the student had felt low, felt irritable or bad tempered, felt nervous, or had difficulties to fall asleep, during the past six months (Cronbach's alpha=0.78). Sexual harassment at the student-level was measured by one item concerning bullying at school: “Other students have exposed me to sexual jokes”. Students who reported that this had happened at least “2 or 3 times a month” were classified as exposed to sexual harassment at school. Sexual harassment at the class-level was defined as the school class proportion of students exposed to sexual harassment, reported in per cent. Two-level linear regression analysis was applied. Results Students who had been exposed to sexual harassment had higher levels of psychological complaints (b = 2.74, p < 0.001). The proportion of students in the school class who had been exposed to sexual harassment was also associated with higher levels of psychological complaints, even when adjusting for sexual harassment at the student-level, gender and grade (b = 0.03, p = 0.015). Conclusions Sexual harassment is harmful for those who are exposed, but may also affect other students negatively. Thus, a school climate free from sexual harassment will profit all students. Key messages Using data collected among students aged 11, 13 and 15 years, this study showed that sexual harassment at the student- and class-level was associated with higher levels of psychological complaints. Sexual harassment is harmful for those who are exposed, but may also affect other students negatively. Thus, a school climate free from sexual harassment will profit all students.

scholarly journals “You run out of hope:” An Exploration of Low-Income Parents’ Experiences with Food Insecurity using Photovoice

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Payge Lindow ◽  
Irene H. Yen ◽  
Mingyu Xiao ◽  
Cindy W. Leung
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Eating Behaviors ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Unhealthy Eating ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT Objective: Using an adaption of the Photovoice method, this study explored how food insecurity affected parents’ ability to provide food for their family, their strategies for managing household food insecurity, and the impact of food insecurity on their well-being. Design: Parents submitted photos around their families’ experiences with food insecurity. Afterwards, they completed in-depth, semi-structured interviews about their photos. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed for thematic content using the constant comparative method. Setting: San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA. Subjects: 17 parents (14 mothers and 3 fathers) were recruited from a broader qualitative study on understanding the experiences of food insecurity in low-income families. Results: Four themes were identified from the parents’ photos and interviews. First, parents described multiple aspects of their food environment that promoted unhealthy eating behaviors. Second, parents shared strategies they employed to acquire food with limited resources. Third, parents expressed feelings of shame, guilt, and distress resulting from their experience of food insecurity. And finally, parents described treating their children to special foods to cultivate a sense of normalcy. Conclusions: Parents highlighted the external contributors and internal struggles of their experiences of food insecurity. Additional research to understand the experiences of the food-insecure families may help to improve nutrition interventions targeting this structurally vulnerable population.

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