Das Ehrenamt im Technischen Hilfswerk

Das Ehrenamt hat sowohl in der Forschung als auch in der Politik seit Ende der 1980er Jahre zunehmend an Bedeutung gewonnen. Durch ökonomische und soziale Veränderungen, insbesondere die Reduktion staatlicher Leistungen, rückten Wohlfahrts- und Interessenverbände, Bürger- und Umweltinitiativen, Stiftungen und nichtstaatliche Organisationen verstärkt ins öffentliche Interesse. Damit einher ging die Diskussion um freiwillige, unentgeltliche Tätigkeit und die Personen, die diese Tätigkeiten ausüben. Offensichtlich sind nicht alle Menschen bereit, sich ehrenamtlich zu engagieren. Je nach Datenmaterial wird von einer bürgerschaftlichen Beteiligung am ehrenamtlichen Engagement zwischen 13% und 38% ausgegangen (vgl. Rauschenbach 1999: 400). Deshalb stellt sich neben Fragen nach der Funktion des Ehrenamts für die Ausgestaltung der modernen Gesellschaft und der Stabilisationsfunktion für Non-Profit-Organisationen u.a. auch die Frage danach, wie Bürgerinnen und Bürger für ehrenamtliche Dienste rekrutiert werden können. Es interessieren die Gründe dafür, dass sich manche Menschen freiwillig engagieren, während dies andere nicht tun. In der vorliegenden Arbeit soll das Augenmerk auf Personen gerichtet werden, die bereits freiwillig und unentgeltlich tätig sind. Dies schließt auch jene ein, die sich als Freigestellte in den entsprechenden Organisationen engagieren. Gefragt wird nach der Bedingung für die Motivation freiwillig tätiger Menschen, ihr Engagement aufrechtzuerhalten. Die langfristige Bindung Ehrenamtlicher an die Organisation steht damit im Vordergrund. Hiermit wird ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um die Aufrechterhaltung der Effizienzfähigkeit von Freiwilligenorganisationen geleistet, deren Ziel- und Zweckerreichung, so die These, durch die Motivation der Mitglieder maßgeblich getragen wird. Arbeits- und organisationstheoretische Arbeiten messen der Zufriedenheit von Personen dabei entscheidende Bedeutung zu. Die Besonderheit dieser Arbeit liegt in der Auseinandersetzung damit, Ansätze, die in der Forschung auf die Motivation von Angestellten in Unternehmen angewendet werden, auf die Motivation ehrenamtlich Tätiger theoretisch zu übertragen und diese Übertragung empirisch zu überprüfen. Am Beispiel des THW soll untersucht werden, ob die Motivation ehrenamtlicher Mitglieder von der Zufriedenheit mit dem Engagement abhängt.

The shaping of foreign policy: Vietnamese grand strategy after the Cold War

This study examines the case of Vietnam and uses the method of process tracing to explore the sources of foreign policy choice and change. Foreign policy is derived from grand strategy, which refers to the full package of a state’s domestic and foreign policies. I argue that a state’s grand strategy results from the interaction of four factors—its society’s historical experience, social motivation, international power, and political contest among domestic groups. Grand strategies emerge as a response to perceived shifts in the balance of international economic, political, and military power. However, this is not to say that international pressures and incentives are translated into foreign policy. Rather, pressures and incentives are given meaning by worldviews, which reflect a society’s historical experiences of its place in the international system at traumatic junctures of its encounter with the outside world. Strategic changes in foreign policy follow what I call the “strategic algorithm,” which incorporates four major mechanisms—balancing against threat, bandwagoning with power, learning, and survival by transformation. This case study generates hypotheses for a theory of strategic choice, a theory of foreign policy transformation, and a theory of grand strategy emergence.

Energizing the Oak Ridges Moraine? Analyzing the Policy Implications of Three Wind Energy Developments on the Oak Ridges Moraine and their Potential Impact on the Coordinated Land Use Planning Review through the Involvement of First Nations and Environmental Non-governmental Organizations

This research explores the policy implications of the approval of three wind energy projects on the Oak Ridges Moraine, and their impact on the Coordinated Land Use Planning Review process. Specifically, it focuses on the involvement of First Nations and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). This research was conducted through analyzing submissions to the Coordinated Land Use Planning Review, related legislation and policy, Environmental Review Tribunal hearing documents, and interviews with key informants. This research culminates in a number of recommendations to the Coordinated Review informed by the analysis.

Energizing the Oak Ridges Moraine? Analyzing the Policy Implications of Three Wind Energy Developments on the Oak Ridges Moraine and their Potential Impact on the Coordinated Land Use Planning Review through the Involvement of First Nations and Environmental Non-governmental Organizations

This research explores the policy implications of the approval of three wind energy projects on the Oak Ridges Moraine, and their impact on the Coordinated Land Use Planning Review process. Specifically, it focuses on the involvement of First Nations and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). This research was conducted through analyzing submissions to the Coordinated Land Use Planning Review, related legislation and policy, Environmental Review Tribunal hearing documents, and interviews with key informants. This research culminates in a number of recommendations to the Coordinated Review informed by the analysis.

How Much Does It Cost? Optimization of Costs in Sequence Analysis of Social Science Data

One major methodological problem in analysis of sequence data is the determination of costs from which distances between sequences are derived. Although this problem is currently not optimally dealt with in the social sciences, it has some similarity with problems that have been solved in bioinformatics for three decades. In this article, the authors propose an optimization of substitution and deletion/insertion costs based on computational methods. The authors provide an empirical way of determining costs for cases, frequent in the social sciences, in which theory does not clearly promote one cost scheme over another. Using three distinct data sets, the authors tested the distances and cluster solutions produced by the new cost scheme in comparison with solutions based on cost schemes associated with other research strategies. The proposed method performs well compared with other cost-setting strategies, while it alleviates the justification problem of cost schemes.

REGSTATTOOLS: freeware statistical tools for the analysis of disease population databases used in health and social studies

Background: The repertoire of statistical methods dealing with the descriptive analysis of the burden of a disease has been expanded and implemented in statistical software packages during the last years. The purpose of this paper is to present a web-based tool, REGSTATTOOLS http://regstattools.net intended to provide analysis for the burden of cancer, or other group of disease registry data. Three software applications are included in REGSTATTOOLS: SART (analysis of disease"s rates and its time trends), RiskDiff (analysis of percent changes in the rates due to demographic factors and risk of developing or dying from a disease) and WAERS (relative survival analysis). Results: We show a real-data application through the assessment of the burden of tobacco-related cancer incidence in two Spanish regions in the period 1995-2004. Making use of SART we show that lung cancer is the most common cancer among those cancers, with rising trends in incidence among women. We compared 2000-2004 data with that of 1995-1999 to assess percent changes in the number of cases as well as relative survival using RiskDiff and WAERS, respectively. We show that the net change increase in lung cancer cases among women was mainly attributable to an increased risk of developing lung cancer, whereas in men it is attributable to the increase in population size. Among men, lung cancer relative survival was higher in 2000-2004 than in 1995-1999, whereas it was similar among women when these time periods were compared. Conclusions: Unlike other similar applications, REGSTATTOOLS does not require local software installation and it is simple to use, fast and easy to interpret. It is a set of web-based statistical tools intended for automated calculation of population indicators that any professional in health or social sciences may require.

Quality of Qualitative Research in the Health Sciences : Analysis of the Common Criteria Present in 58 Assessment Guidelines by Expert Users

The number of qualitative research methods has grown substantially over the last twenty years, both in social sciences and, more recently, in the health sciences. This growth came with questions on the quality criteria needed to evaluate this work, and numerous guidelines were published. The latters include many discrepancies though, both in their vocabulary and construction. Many expert evaluators decry the absence of consensual and reliable evaluation tools. The authors present the results of an evaluation of 58 existing guidelines in 4 major health science fields (medicine and epidemiology; nursing and health education; social sciences and public health; psychology / psychiatry, research methods and organization) by expert users (article reviewers, experts allocating funds, editors, etc.). The results propose a toolbox containing 12 consensual criteria with the definitions given by expert users. They also indicate in which disciplinary field each type of criteria is known to be more or less essential. Nevertheless, the authors highlight the limitations of the criteria comparability, as soon as one focuses on their specific definitions. They conclude that each criterion in the toolbox must be explained to come to broader consensus and identify definitions that are consensual to all the fields examined and easily operational.

Concept analysis in social studies

This project was undertaken because of a need to analyse concepts in social science more specifically and sequence them more carefully in a social science program. Concepts have been identified vaguely on many curriculum documents or left in isolation from each other when they are specifically identified. The project's aim was to identify a method for analysing concepts and sequencing their teaching on some rational basis. Once the method for analysing concepts was identified a questionnaire was designed and administered to a random sample of students at the grade three, five and eight levels. The questionnaire attempted to measure their comprehension of specific social science concepts at several levels which became progressively more complex. The major hypothesis was that there would be a direct correlation between age and achievement on the questionnaire. The raw scores were seriated and correlated with the ages of the students using the rankdifference- squared method. For the majority of areas tested it was found that there was a significant correlation between age and achievement on the questionnaire. Variation in the correlation coefficients generated suggests that comprehension of social science concepts is not simply a function of age but is probably a function of several inter-related factors such as reading ability, skill in Basic Thinking Skills and age. Thirty students completed each test. There were three tests in the questionnaire.

Applications of Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis for Social Science Research

Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) is the measurement of variation in different isotopes of same elements in a material. This technique is well-established in the natural sciences and has been long part of the methodological arsenal in fields such as geology and biology. More recently this technique has begun to be utilized in the social sciences, moving from initial applications in anthropology to potential uses in geography, public health, forensic science, and others. This presentation will discuss the techniques behind SIRA, examples of current applications in the natural and social sciences, and potential avenues of future research.

Does upward social mobility increase life satisfaction? A longitudinal analysis using British and Swiss panel data

A main assumption of social production function theory is that status is a major determinant of subjective well-being (SWB). From the perspective of the dissociative hypothesis, however, upward social mobility may be linked to identity problems, distress, and reduced levels of SWB because upwardly mobile people lose their ties to their class of origin. In this paper, we examine whether or not one of these arguments holds. We employ the United Kingdom and Switzerland as case studies because both are linked to distinct notions regarding social inequality and upward mobility. Longitudinal multilevel analyses based on panel data (UK: BHPS, Switzerland: SHP) allow us to reconstruct individual trajectories of life satisfaction (as a cognitive component of SWB) along with events of intragenerational and intergenerational upward mobility—taking into account previous levels of life satisfaction, dynamic class membership, and well-studied determinants of SWB. Our results show some evidence for effects of social class and social mobility on well-being in the UK sample, while there are no such effects in the Swiss sample. The UK findings support the idea of dissociative effects in terms of a negative effect of intergenerational upward mobility on SWB.

Osiris III; an integrated collection of computer programs for the management and analysis of social science data.

v. 1. System and program description.--v. 2. Error Messages.--v. 3. Summary of control cards.--v. 4. Sample jobs.--v. 5. Formulas and statistical references.--v. 6. Primer.

Diskurzuselemzés a politika- és vezetéstudományban (Discourse analysis in the political and management sciences)

A XX. század második felében lejátszódó nyelvi fordulat révén egy újfajta posztmodern irányzat jelent meg a társadalomtudományok területén. A diskurzuselméleti megközelítésmód sajátos nézőpontjával az 1990-es évekre már diszciplínateremtő igénnyel is fellépett. Az új tudományos szemlélet számos társadalomtudományi területen jelent meg. Jelen tanulmány a különböző elméleti irányzatokat és a hozzájuk kapcsolódó módszereket tekinti át, és célja a diskurzuselemzés alkalmazhatóságának bemutatása a politika- és a vezetéstudományok területén. ____ Due to a new linguistic revolution occurred in the second half of the twentieth century new post modern tendencies appeared in the field of social sciences. Discourse theory with its unique perspective has succeeded in building up a discipline at the 1990s. This new scientific approach has appeared in several social sciences. This study surveys different theoretical trends and related methods and aims to demonstrate the applicability of discourse analysis in the field of political and management sciences.

Long-term social recognition memory in adult male rats: factor analysis of the social and non-social behaviors

A modified version of the intruder-resident paradigm was used to investigate if social recognition memory lasts at least 24 h. One hundred and forty-six adult male Wistar rats were used. Independent groups of rats were exposed to an intruder for 0.083, 0.5, 2, 24, or 168 h and tested 24 h after the first encounter with the familiar or a different conspecific. Factor analysis was employed to identify associations between behaviors and treatments. Resident rats exhibited a 24-h social recognition memory, as indicated by a 3- to 5-fold decrease in social behaviors in the second encounter with the same conspecific compared to those observed for a different conspecific, when the duration of the first encounter was 2 h or longer. It was possible to distinguish between two different categories of social behaviors and their expression depended on the duration of the first encounter. Sniffing the anogenital area (49.9% of the social behaviors), sniffing the body (17.9%), sniffing the head (3%), and following the conspecific (3.1%), exhibited mostly by resident rats, characterized social investigation and revealed long-term social recognition memory. However, dominance (23.8%) and mild aggression (2.3%), exhibited by both resident and intruders, characterized social agonistic behaviors and were not affected by memory. Differently, sniffing the environment (76.8% of the non-social behaviors) and rearing (14.3%), both exhibited mostly by adult intruder rats, characterized non-social behaviors. Together, these results show that social recognition memory in rats may last at least 24 h after a 2-h or longer exposure to the conspecific.