scholarly journals Offspring and later-life loneliness in Eastern and Western Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2-2019) ◽  
pp. 199-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thijs van den Broek ◽  
Marco Tosi ◽  
Emily Grundy
Keyword(s):  
Protective Effect ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Later Life ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Western European

Later-life loneliness is increasingly recognized as an important public health issue. In this study, we examine whether having more children and grandchildren is protective against later life loneliness in a group of Eastern and Western European countries. Drawing on data from the Generation and Gender Surveys, we estimated logistic regression models of the likelihood of being lonely among men and women aged 65 and older. The results showed a negative association between number of children and loneliness among men and women in both Eastern-European and Western-European countries. A mediation analysis performed using the KHB decomposition method showed that grandparenthood status partly explained differences in the loneliness risks of childless women, mothers with one child and those with two or more children. Among men, the mediating role of grandparenthood was significant in Eastern Europe and marginally significant in Western countries. Given the relatively strong reliance of older people on the family in Eastern Europe, we expected that the protective effects of offspring on loneliness would be stronger in Eastern-European countries than in Western-European countries. This hypothesis was supported only in part by our results. The protective effect of having four or more children was larger in the East than in the West. Overall, our findings indicate that having close family members, including more children and at least one grandchild, has a protective effect against later-life loneliness in both country clusters considered.

scholarly journals Transition from Cohabitation to Marriage. The Role of Marital Attitudes in Seven Western and Eastern European Countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuzana Žilinčíková ◽  
Nicole Hiekel
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Marital Attitudes ◽  
Marriage Formation ◽  
Western European

Using longitudinal panel data from the Generations and Gender Surveys on 2,847 cohabiters from seven countries, we examine the role of marital attitudes in the transition from cohabitation to marriage and compare the strength of this association between Western and Eastern Europe. We expect a positive attitude towards marriage to increase the likelihood of cohabiters marrying. We also expect the association between personal attitudes and marriage formation to be weaker among cohabiters from Eastern Europe, due to stronger normative pressure to marry in contexts where cohabitation is less prevalent. In both Eastern and Western European countries, we find a clear positive association between favourable views on marriage among cohabiters and their entry into marriage. Contrary to our expectations, we find evidence that this association is weaker in Western Europe. We discuss this finding in light of the greater postponement of marriage among Western European cohabiters, even among those with a positive attitude towards marriage, as well as the potentially greater significance of life course events and transitions that influence their decision to marry more strongly than is the case for their Eastern European counterparts. This study extends the literature on the relationship trajectories of cohabiters by drawing attention to the normative context that may shape cohabiters’ opportunities and constrain behavioural choice in the marriage formation process. Ultimately, it contributes to an understanding of the consequences of the societal diffusion of cohabitation in Europe.

Memory Wars in the East European Frontier: In Search of Research Methodology

2021 ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
Daniil A. Anikin ◽  
◽  
Andrey A. Linchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
East European ◽  
German Model ◽  
Western European ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Soviet Legacy ◽  
The Impact

Within the framework of this article, the theoretical and methodological framework of the philosophical interpretation of the concept “memory wars” was analyzed. In the context of criticism of allochronism and the project of the politics of time by B. Bevernage, as well as the concept of the frontier by F. Turner, the space-time aspects of the content of memory wars were comprehended. The use of Bevernage's ideas made it possible to explain the nature of modern memory wars in Europe. The origins of these wars are associated with an attempt to transfer the Western European project of “cosmopolitan” memory, in which Western Europe turns out to be a kind of a “referential” framework of historical modernity, to the countries of Eastern Europe after 1989. The uncritical use of Western European historical experience as a “reference” leads to a superficial copying of the politics of memory, which runs counter to the politics of the time in Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe, the idea of two totalitarianisms is presented as a single and internally indistinguishable era, and the politics of modern post-socialist states are based on the idea of a radical spatio-temporal distancing from their recent past. The article analyzes the issue of the specifics of the Eastern European frontier, the conditions for its emergence and the impact on modern forms of implementation of the politics of memory. The frontier arises as a result of the collapse of the colonial empires and becomes a space of symbolic struggle, first between the USSR and Germany, and then between the socialist and capitalist blocs. The crisis of the globalist project of the politics of memory and the transfer of the German model of victimization to the territory of the Eastern European frontier leads to the competition of sacrificial narratives and the escalation of memorial conflicts, turning into full-fledged memory wars. The hybrid nature of the antagonistic politics of memory in the conditions of the frontier leads to the fact that not only the socialist past, but also the national trauma of individual states becomes the subject of memory wars. The increasing complexity of the mnemonic structure of the frontier is associated with the emergence of a number of unrecognized states, whose memory politics, in contrast to the national discourses of Eastern European states, is based on a synthesis of the Soviet legacy and individual elements of the imperial past.

Sustainable business model in food and beverage industry – a case of Western and Central and Eastern European countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (5) ◽  
pp. 1573-1592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhanna Belyaeva ◽  
Edyta Dorota Rudawska ◽  
Yana Lopatkova
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Business Models ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Beverage Industry ◽  
Food And Beverage Industry ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
Western European ◽  
Eastern European Countries

PurposeThe presented study pinpoints transformation of business models of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the food and beverage sector depending on their sustainability strategy. This paper makes a novel contribution to understanding various instruments of sustainability implementation in SMEs’ business models operating in the food and beverage industry of well-developed Western European countries versus less-developed Central–Eastern European countries.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical basis is a survey of 770 European SMEs, of which 369 operate in Western European countries (including Great Britain, Germany and Spain) and 401 in Central and Eastern Europe (including Poland, Croatia and Russia). The nonparametric U Mann–Whitney test was used to examine the significance of the differences between the two groups of companies.FindingsThe study empirically confirmed that despite self-declared lack of skills and knowledge in managerial impacts of sustainability, it shapes business models of SME in both country groups in food and drink industry. At the same time, the motivation grounds for business models transformation toward sustainable models vary between mostly economic factors in Eastern Europe and social and cultural factors in Western Europe. The economic factor is formed due to smaller integration into social investments at the SME-level Eastern European countries, while Western European SMEs invest more in a variety of sustainability supporting instruments (R&D, new equipment).Originality/valueThis comparative study is the novel empirical research study on the implementation of sustainability into business models of food and beverage SMEs operating in two groups of Western and Central–Eastern European countries, which has not been previously observed in such a setting.

scholarly journals The comparative empirical analysis of the social protection system in selected Central and Eastern European countries: Emerging models of capitalism

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-175
Author(s):  
Piotr Maszczyk
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The Social ◽  
Western European ◽  
Institutional Architecture

AbstractThis article analyzes the institutional architecture and the level of similarity between the social protection system in 11 new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe and chosen Western European countries, representing four different models of capitalism identified by Amable. In the selected institutional area, a comparative analysis was performed, and based on it, similarity hexagons were created. They serve the purpose of comparing Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries with Western European countries of reference. The dynamic approach adopted in this study—two different time periods were compared—allows an analysis of path dependence and the evolution of institutional architecture over time. The analysis indicates that in 2014, in the area of social protection, almost all CEE countries, apart from Latvia and Romania, were most comparable to the Continental model of capitalism represented by Germany. Nevertheless, the variety of results for the individual variables (especially input and output variables) and substantial changes between 2005 and 2014 also show that the model of capitalism prevailing in Central and Eastern Europe in the area of the social protection system is evolving constantly at a very fast pace and thus currently may be called a hybrid or even patchwork capitalism.

scholarly journals Het beeld van Midden- en Oost-Europa in Nederlandse literaire non-fictie

Werkwinkel ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Jo Sterckx
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Literary Nonfiction ◽  
Strong Position ◽  
Dutch Literature ◽  
Eastern European Countries

Abstract Over the last 20 years, literary nonfiction has become increasingly popular among the Dutch reading public. Thanks to increasing sales, translations and literary awards the genre achieved a strong position in Dutch literature. This article analyzes the image of Central and Eastern European countries in Dutch literary nonfiction of the last ten years (2004-14). It searches for characteristics of an orientalist and balkanist discourse and the presence of the imagological centre-periphery model in the works of Geert Mak, Jelle Brandt Corstius, Olaf Koens, Joop Verstraten and Jan Brokken. Contemporary Dutch literary nonfiction contains a euro-orientalist discourse. Characteristics such as underdevelopment, hedonism, obscurity and authenticity are projected on Central and Eastern Europe, which is put in the periphery of Western Europe.

Airy Curtains

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 158-179
Author(s):  
Christian Henrich-Franke
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
Radio Stations ◽  
Western European ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Radio Free Europe ◽  
Second World

After the Second World War, the infrastructural connections between the Western and the Eastern part of Europe were subsequently cut. The sealing of the passages through the Iron Curtain did not, however, succeed entirely. One increasingly important breach was generated by radio frequencies, which carried broadcasting programs, for example, from Radio Free Europe, straight across the Iron Curtain. This paper analyses the negotiations on the broadcasting map of Europe by focusing on the broadcasting conference of Geneva 1974/75, which moved the “Airy Curtains” much more westward. Three factors explain the Eastern European success. First, Eastern European delegations followed a coordinated strategy in contrast to the Western European ones. Second, the hierarchical ussr leadership made sure that the Eastern European countries stuck to their strategy, whereas Western European countries preferred to depend on themselves. Third, the Eastern bloc let politics and politicians rule, while in Western Europe, to the contrary, frequency allocation was a battle that was largely fought by technicians. The gap between the “political East” and the “technical West” was an important advantage for the East. Focus in this article is put on the radio stations which were situated in Berlin because the city was an important bridgehead for Western broadcasters on socialist territory.

scholarly journals In Search of Originality in Central and Eastern European Legal Culture Culture(s). 4th Annual CEENELS Conference: Legal Innovativeness in Central and Eastern Europe, Moscow, 14–15 June 2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 141-155
Author(s):  
Piotr Szymaniec
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Definitive Answer ◽  
The Us ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
Eastern European Countries

The paper describes the debates which took place during the 4th Annual CEENELS Conference (Moscow, 14–15 June 2019). The aim of the conference was to analyse the issue of legal innovativeness in Central and Eastern Europe, the topic which was chosen as a continuation of previous CEENELS conferences. The organizers wanted to challenge the widespread belief that the legal culture of Central and Eastern Europe lacks original and innovative concepts and ideas. Even if the conference did not bring a definitive answer about the character of Central and Eastern European countries’ legal culture, it showed that the region is not only a territory of legal transplants and reception of legal ideas, concepts and institutions, created in Western Europe or the US.

scholarly journals PRIVATE CONSUMPTION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-62
Author(s):  
ONOFREI Nicoleta ◽  
PAŞA, Adina Teodora
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Private Consumption ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Western European ◽  
Eastern European Countries

The aim of this paper is to study consumption of households from an economic and cultural perspective in the European Union with 28 Member States during the period 2010-2019. For this purpose, we compared the Eastern European countries, dominated by rapid economic growth and development with the Western European countries, which represent the most developed countries in the EU-28. From this perspective, we proposed a multidimensional analysis of consumption that includes macroeconomic indicators of households’ wealth, which strongly influence their consumption together with an overview on expenditure by consumption purpose. Moreover, we have also considered Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory based initially on four cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, and uncertainty avoidance) to observe the impact national culture plays on households’ consumption in Eastern and Western European countries tracking the historical changes of these countries. Our methodological approach consisted in descriptive and inferential statistics based on the selected economic and cultural indicators. Pearson’s product-moment correlations were calculated to assess the correlations between the variables. Our analysis shows that the level of wealth is lower in Eastern European countries compared to Western Europe, which influences significantly the private consumption in these countries. Moreover, the systematic differences of national culture between Eastern and Western Europe influence strongly the private consumption of their population. Results of this paper indicate that in Eastern European countries the highest share of expenditure is allocated to primary needs such as food, non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and cigarettes to the detriment of health, education, recreation and culture.

scholarly journals The More the Merrier? The Causal Effect of High Fertility on Later-Life Loneliness in Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (2) ◽  
pp. 733-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thijs van den Broek ◽  
Marco Tosi
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Additional Child ◽  
Reverse Causality ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Eastern European Countries

AbstractLevels of later-life loneliness are high in Eastern Europe. We assess whether having more children is protective against later-life loneliness for Eastern-European mothers and fathers. Drawing on Generations and Gender Surveys data of 25,479 parents aged 50–80 from eight Eastern-European countries, we adopt an instrumental approach exploiting parents’ preference for mixed-sex offspring to estimate the causal effect of having additional children on feelings of loneliness. We find that having an additional child has a causal protective effect against loneliness for mothers. Ordinary least squares regression models also show a weak but statistically significant negative association between number of children and later-life loneliness among fathers. However, results of the instrumental variable analyses are inconclusive for this group. We thus do not find statistically significant causal evidence that having an additional child is protective against loneliness for fathers. Our results underline the importance of addressing reverse causality and selection bias when investigating the links between number of children and later-life loneliness, particularly among women. The causal evidence presented here suggests that the trend towards families with fewer children noted in several Eastern-European countries may place new cohorts of older Eastern-Europeans, and in particular Eastern-European women, at risk of stronger feelings of loneliness.

Other Administrative Traditions

2021 ◽  
pp. 154-177
Author(s):  
B. Guy Peters
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Central Question ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Western European

The four traditions constituting the bulk of this book are from Western Europe. This chapter expands the analysis to look at four other administrative traditions. One is Central and Eastern Europe. Some countries in this region have been heavily influenced by Western European traditions, especially those of the former Hapsburg Empire, but they also display a number of distinctive features. A second tradition is Islamic administration, which has been influenced both by religion and by national cultures. Third, there is Asian public administration, and the question of the importance of the Confucian model is a central question when dealing with this tradition. Finally, there is administration in Latin America, still influenced by its Iberian past but which has been influenced also by the Napoleonic tradition and to a lesser extent by the United States. The same elements of administrative traditions used in reference to Western European countries are applied to these four traditions.

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