scholarly journals Testing Common Knowledge: Are Northern Europeans and Millennials More Concerned about the Environment?

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Cristina Gómez-Román ◽  
Maria Luisa Lima ◽  
Gloria Seoane ◽  
Mónica Alzate ◽  
Marcos Dono ◽  
...  

This study explores whether there are differences in several environmental dimensions, when the European Region and Generation cohort are considered. In doing so, this study compares millennials in North and South Europe with members of Generation X in three environmental dimensions: attitudes, personal norms, and behavior. Using data from the European Social Survey (n = 6.216), the researchers tested the hypothesis that Northern Europeans and millennials have more pro-environmental standing than southerners and Generation Xers. The findings challenge the common belief that millennials are more committed to being environmentally conscious, showing that many millennials do not feel responsible for their climate footprint, nor do they behave in a way that shows more concern than previous generations to improve their environmental performance. Furthermore, contrary to expectations, Northern European participants are not the most committed, in all environmental dimensions, compared to Southern Europeans.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Czarnek ◽  
Małgorzata Kossowska

In this study, we investigate the relationship between values and political beliefs and how it varies as a function of cultural context and time. In particular, we analyzed the effects of Conservation vs. Openness to change and Self-transcendence vs. Self-enhancement for cultural and economic political beliefs using data from nationally representative samples of citizens from 34 European countries from eight rounds of the European Social Survey (data spans the 2002–2016 period). We found that the effects of values on political beliefs are moderated by the Western vs. Eastern cultural context and that there is a modest round-to-round variation in the effects of values on beliefs. The relationship between Openness and cultural beliefs was negative and largely consistent across the Western and Eastern countries. Similarly, the effects of Self-enhancement were positive across these Western and Eastern countries. In contrast, the effects of Openness on economic beliefs were positive for the Eastern countries but largely weak and inconsistent for the Western countries. Finally, the effects of Self-enhancement on cultural beliefs are weak for both cultural contexts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ran Xiong ◽  
Ping Wei

Confucian culture has had a deep-rooted influence on Chinese thinking and behavior for more than 2,000 years. With a manually created Confucian culture database and the 2017 China floating population survey, we used empirical analysis to test the relationship between Confucian culture and individual entrepreneurial choice using data obtained from China's floating population. After using the presence and number of Confucian schools and temples, and of chaste women as instrumental variables to counteract problems of endogeneity, we found that Confucian culture had a significant role in promoting individuals' entrepreneurial decision making among China's floating population. The results showed that, compared with those from areas of China not strongly influenced by Confucian culture, individuals from areas that are strongly influenced by Confucian culture were more likely to choose entrepreneurship as their occupation choice. Our findings reveal cultural factors that affect individual entrepreneurial behavior, and also illustrate the positive role of Confucianism as a representative of the typical cultures of the Chinese nation in the 21st century.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
MARIUS R. BUSEMEYER ◽  
ALEXANDER H. J. SAHM

Abstract Rapid technological change – the digitalization and automation of work – is challenging contemporary welfare states. Most of the existing research, however, focuses on its effect on labor market outcomes, such as employment or wage levels. In contrast, this paper studies the implications of technological change for welfare state attitudes and preferences. Compared to previous work on this topic, this paper adopts a much broader perspective regarding different kinds of social policy. Using data from the European Social Survey, we find that individual automation risk is positively associated with support for redistribution, but negatively with support for social investment policies (partly depending on the specific measure of automation risk that is used), while there is no statistically significant association with support for basic income. We also find a moderating effect of the overall size of the welfare state on the micro-level association between risk and preferences.


2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Hamplova

In this article, educational homogamy among married and cohabiting couples in selected European countries is examined. Using data from two waves (2002 and 2004) of the European Social Survey, this article compares three cultural and institutional contexts that differ in terms of institutionalization of cohabitation. Evidence from log-linear models yields two main conclusions. First, as cohabitation becomes more common in society, marriage and cohabitation become more similar with respect to partner selection. Second, where married and unmarried unions differ in terms of educational homogamy, married couples have higher odds of overcoming educational barriers (i.e., intermarrying with other educational groups).


Author(s):  
Annesha Enam ◽  
Karthik C. Konduri

In recent years, time engagement behaviors of two generations, namely Baby Boomers and Millennials have sparked much interest because these generations constitute the bulk of the American population today and they also exhibit “atypical” activity–travel patterns compared with other generations. The objective of the current research is to conduct a systematic study of the time engagement behaviors of five American generations: the GI Generation (birth year: 1901–1924), the Silent Generation (birth year: 1925–1943), Baby Boomers (birth year: 1944–1964), Generation X (birth year: 1965–1981), and Millennials (birth year: 1982–2000). Particularly, the study aims at isolating heterogeneity in behaviors associated with structural changes in the society from those associated with inherent generational characteristics. Using data from four waves (1965, 1985, 2005, and 2012) of the American Heritage and Time Use Study, the analysis explores the time engagement behaviors while accounting for the age, period, and cohort effects in addition to different socioeconomic and demographic variables. The analysis reveals that Millennials have generally delayed participation in life-changing events such as marriage and workforce entry, and have exhibited prolonged student status compared with previous generations. Millennials show lower participation in work and higher participation in discretionary activities compared with individuals of the same age group from previous generations. On the other hand, Baby Boomers clearly exhibited increased travel engagement compared with the previous generations at different stages of their lives.


Author(s):  
Dimiter Toshkov

AbstractThe link between age and happiness has been the subject of numerous studies. It is still a matter of controversy whether the relationship is U-shaped, with happiness declining after youth before bouncing back in old age, or not. While the effect of age has been examined conditional on income and other socio-demographic variables, so far, the interactions between age and income have remained insufficiently explored. Using data from the European Social Survey, this article shows that the nature of the relationship between age and happiness varies strongly with different levels of relative income. People in the lowest decile of the income distribution experience a ‘hockey stick’: a deep decline in self-reported happiness until around age 50–55 and a small bounce back in old age. The classic U-curve is found mostly in the middle-income ranks. For people at the top of the income distribution, average happiness does not vary much with age. These results demonstrate the important role of income in moderating the relationship between age and happiness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 190-211
Author(s):  
Anna V. Ermishina ◽  
Lyudmila V. Klimenko

This article analyzes the Russian people’s projective attitudes and behavior practices when it comes to participating in the funding and organizing of major renovations of apartment buildings. The empirical base for the study consists of data from sociological surveys conducted by VCIOM (2015-2020), the Institute of Sociology of the RAS (2003-2019), FOM (2015), Levada Center (2019), The European Social Survey (2016, 2018), as well as the authors’ own expert interviews conducted in 2020. The need to ensure the safety of housing, the complexity and high cost of renovations is a reasonable explanation for government interference in this sector. Russia’s housing legislature assigns responsibility for maintaining and renovating common property to apartment owners, while also stipulating a funding procedure for major renovations based on deposits made by property owners. The system currently in place in Russia for funding and organizing major renovations, which implies the existence of both a “common reserve” and “special accounts” for regulated property owner contributions (that resemble a tax), is far from perfect, it being associated with such issues as a lack of funding, low quality of major renovations, susceptibility to corruption, owners having insufficient control when it comes to decision making. While analyzing material from all-Russian and regional empirical studies, the gap becomes evident between projective attitudes and the actual behavior of Russian people in the realm of major renovations. Despite a marked critical attitude when it comes to evaluating utility service quality, not to mention the “common reserve” model (which is a way of pulling together funds for major renovations and keeping them on the regional operator’s account) being regarded as socially unjust, nevertheless property owners demonstrate a low degree of civic self-organization and meager capability when it comes to taking collective action (as in participating in apartment complex meetings to discuss major renovations, creating and transferring money to dedicated accounts, keeping track of the major renovation process etc.). The reasons why property owners are so slow to develop any efficiency largely lie in the specifics of the institutional collective decision-making environment in regards to the funding and execution of local public property renovation, which also includes major renovations of apartment buildings.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique M. H. Pollmann ◽  
Emiel J. Krahmer

According to common belief, friends communicate more accurately and efficiently than strangers, because they can use uniquely shared knowledge and common knowledge to explain things to each other, while strangers are restricted to common knowledge. To test this belief, we asked friends and strangers to play, via e-mail and face-to-face, the word-description game Taboo, in which objects need to be described without using certain “taboo” words. When descriptions were sent via e-mail, there was no difference in accuracy (number of correct answers) nor in efficiency (number of words per correct answer) between friends and strangers. When descriptions were given face-to-face, friends were more accurate than strangers, but not more efficient (number of seconds and words per correct answer). Shared knowledge did not predict accuracy or efficiency. Hence, our findings do not support the idea that friends only need a few words to understand each other.


Author(s):  
Constanta-Nicoleta Bodea ◽  
Vasile Bodea ◽  
Radu Mogos

The aim of this chapter is to explore the application of data mining for analyzing academic performance in connection with the participatory behavior of the students enrolled in an online two-year Master degree program in project management. The main data sources were the operational database with the students’ records and the log files and statistics provided by the e-learning platform. One hundred eighty-one enrolled students, and more than 150 distinct characteristics/ variables per student were used. Due to the large number of variables, an exploratory data analysis through data mining was chosen, and a model-based discovery approach was designed and executed in Weka environment. The association rules, clustering, and classification were applied in order to identify the factors explaining the students’ performance and the relationship between academic performance and behavior in the virtual learning environment. Data mining has revealed interesting patterns in data. These patterns indicate that academic performance is related to the intensity of the student activities in virtual environment. If the student understands how to work and she/he is motivated to communicate with others, then he might have a good academic performance. Based on clustering analysis, different student profiles were discovered, explaining the academic performance. The results are very encouraging and suggest several future developments.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document