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Societal Context (societal + context)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	40%

Selected Abstracts

Reducing complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Remote and proximate factors and the consolidation of democracy

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 5 2006
CARSTEN Q. SCHNEIDER
However, real-world research situations might make the application of fs/QCA difficult in two respects , namely, the complexity of the results and the phenomenon of limited diversity. We suggest a two-step approach as one possibility to mitigate these problems. After introducing the difference between remote and proximate factors, the application of a two-step fs/QCA approach is demonstrated analyzing the causes of the consolidation of democracy. We find that different paths lead to consolidation, but all are characterized by a fit of the institutional mix chosen to the societal context in terms of power dispersion. Hence, we demonstrate that the application of fs/QCA in a two-step manner helps to formulate and test equifinal and conjunctural hypotheses in medium-size N comparative analyses, and thus to contribute to an enhanced understanding of social phenomena. [source]

Political consumerism between individual choice and collective action: social movements, role mobilization and signalling

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 5 2006
Boris HolzerArticle first published online: 9 AUG 200
Abstract The notion of political consumerism has two implications. First, consumers wield some kind of power that they can use to effect social change through the marketplace. Second, political consumerism refers to and somehow combines the rationalities of two subsystems, politics and the economy. Yet regarding their everyday, individualized shopping decisions, consumers do not appear to command a great deal of power. What kind of influence, then, can individual economic decisions have on producers? Is that influence robust enough to attribute power to consumers? And if consumers do indeed have power, how can we conceive the implied translation of political concerns into the monetary logic of the economy? An answer to those questions needs to take into account the societal context of political consumerism. This paper analyses how political consumerism relates to the functional differentiation of modern society and how social movements are fundamental to understanding it. Through what I shall call role mobilization, social movements turn the role sets of their supporters into transmission belts for political objectives, and by authoritatively communicating those objectives, they provide signals to producers, who otherwise would not know a great deal about their consumers' preferences. [source]

Workers are people too: Societal aspects of occupational health disparities,an ecosocial perspective

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 2 2010
Nancy Krieger PhD
Abstract Workers are people too. What else is new? This seemingly self-evident proposition, however, takes on new meaning when considering the challenging and deeply important issue of occupational health disparities,the topic that is the focus of 12 articles in this special issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. In this commentary, I highlight some of the myriad ways that societal determinants of health intertwine with each and every aspect of occupation-related health inequities, as analyzed from an ecosocial perspective. The engagement extends from basic surveillance to etiologic research, from conceptualization and measurement of variables to analysis and interpretation of data, from causal inference to preventive action, and from the political economy of work to the political economy of health. A basic point is that who is employed (or not) in what kinds of jobs, with what kinds of exposures, what kinds of treatment, and what kinds of job stability, benefits, and pay,as well as what evidence exists about these conditions and what action is taken to address them,depends on societal context. At issue are diverse aspects of people's social location within their societies, in relation to their jointly experienced,and embodied,realities of socioeconomic position, race/ethnicity, nationality, nativity, immigration and citizen status, age, gender, and sexuality, among others. Reviewing the papers' findings, I discuss the scientific and real-world action challenges they pose. Recommendations include better conceptualization and measurement of socioeconomic position and race/ethnicity and also use of the health and human rights framework to further the public health mission of ensuring the conditions that enable people,including workers,to live healthy and dignified lives. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:104,115 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Social stratification and attitudes: a comparative analysis of the effects of class and education in Europe1

THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2007
Matthijs Kalmijn
Abstract A classic topic in the sociology of inequality lies in the subjective consequences of people's stratification position. Many studies have shown that education and occupational class have significant effects on attitudes, but little is known about how the magnitude of these effects depends on the societal context. There has been debate in the scholarly literature, with some authors arguing that effects of class and education are less important when societies are more developed, whereas other authors argue that effects are either stable (for class) or increasing (for education). We use a meta-analytical design to address this debate. More specifically we examine the effects of class and education for a broad range of attitudes (21 scales) in 22 European countries using data from the 1999 wave of the European Values Study. We pool summary-measures of association (Eta-values) into a new dataset and analyse these Eta-values (N = 453) applying multilevel models with characteristics of countries and characteristics of attitudes as the independent variables. Our results show that there is no evidence that the effects of class on attitudes are lower when countries are more modern, but we do find larger effects of education in more modern countries. [source]

The Consensus Conference and Combined-Integrated model of doctoral training in professional psychology, Overview of Part 1: Nature and scope of the Combined-Integrated model

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 9 2004
Craig N. Shealy
This special series of articles on the Consensus Conference and Combined-Integrated (C-I) model of doctoral training in professional psychology consists of 13 articles in two successive volumes of the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Six articles are presented in Part 1 (Vol. 60, Issue 9), which collectively describe the "nature and scope" of the C-I model (e.g., historic and definitional issues; the potential advantages of this model; implications for the profession). In Part 2 of this special series (Vol. 60, Issue 10), articles 7 through 12 address the broader implications and potential applications of the C-I model within a range of professional and societal contexts (e.g., for interprofessional collaboration; the health care field; development of a global curriculum; the unified psychology movement; issues of assessment and professional identity; and higher education); article 13 provides a summary of the series as well as a discussion of future directions. As an overview, this paper provides the abstract for each of the articles in Part 1, and describes the various topics of the articles in Part 2. Taken together, the articles in this special series are designed to provide a coherent account of how and why the C-I model is timely and relevant, and therefore warrants serious consideration by the larger education and training community in professional psychology. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol. [source]