Claire Wallace is Professor of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen. She is currently working on a project about growing up in Aberdeen, but has previously worked on the topics of work-life balance, quality of life, national and European identity, girls in Rwanda, social policy and European work systems. She has more recently been undertaking projects about rural areas, cultural heritage and tourism.
Background: Two population surveys were conducted in Belarus: The Living Conditions, Lifestyle an... more Background: Two population surveys were conducted in Belarus: The Living Conditions, Lifestyle and Health (LLH) in 2001 (n = 2000) and The Health in Times of Transition (HITT) in 2010 (n = 1800). Each survey included a question on health status. The LLH questionnaire provided a 4-point Verbal Response Scale, but the HITT questionnaire used a 5-point scale. When translated into Russian, only two response categories of these scales had identical wording. These differences made a direct comparison of self-reported health status between 2001 and 2010 difficult. Methods: We conducted a Health Category Response Scale (HCRS) survey in 2010 (n = 570) using a 100ths graduated Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to understand how the response categories of different scales are perceived by Russian speakers. We implemented the HCRS survey's data to calculate the weighted health status (WHS) for each of the original surveys and to compare health status in Belarus between 2001and 2010. Results: The WHS in Belarus showed a small, but statistically significant, improvement of 2.9 points on a 0-100 scale between 2001 and 2010 (56.2 vs. 59.1). Identical response categories were perceived differently on a 4-point and 5-point VAS. The category 'good' ('Umomwee') measured $12 points higher, and the category 'bad/poor' ('Ojmtme') measured $16 points lower, on the 4-point compared with the 5-point VAS. Conclusion: Our HCRS survey and novel method enabled a direct comparison of questions with different response options. When applied to the LLH and HITT projects, we concluded that health status in Belarus has improved between 2001 and 2010.
Österreichische Zeitschrift Für Soziologie, Nov 1, 1997
Moderated group discussions -so-called focus groups -have for some time been efficient and low-co... more Moderated group discussions -so-called focus groups -have for some time been efficient and low-cost instruments for carrying out commercial market and opinion research. The further development of qualitative research methods has enabled a reconsideration of this research method and its adaptation for use in educational, media and health research. Focus groups are often used as a method for supplementing quantitative research, either in the validation of results or in the further exploration of target groups identified through statistical investigation but also in generating or in testing hypotheses. However, focus groups are particularly useful as a method of understanding the way in which reality is constructed by groups and of analyzing the process of opinion development within a group. In this respect the advantages of using focus group discussions are still underdeveloped. Moderierte Gruppendiskussionen in sog. Fokus-Gruppen werden seit Jahren als effizientes und kostengünstiges Instrument in der kommerziellen Markt-und Meinungsforschung ver wendet. Die Weiterentwicklung und Verbreitung qualitativer Forschungsmethoden trugen zur (Wieder-)Entdeckung und Modifizierung dieses Verfahrens für die sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung, insbesondere durch die anglo-amerikanische Erziehungs-, Medien-und Gesund heitsforschung, bei. Obwohl Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen nach wie vor für explorative Zwecke einerseits und zur Validierung von Ergebnissen oder zur Untersuchung statistisch generierter Extremgruppen andererseits eingesetzt werden, sind sie längst nicht mehr nur ein Hilfsmittel für die quantitative Umfrageforschung. Insbesondere dann, wenn sich das Forschungsinteresse nicht nur auf die Hypothesengenerierung oder -Überprüfung, sondern darüber hinaus auf das Zustandekommen von Meinungen im Gruppenprozeß richtet, sind Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen ein anspruchsvolles Instrument für die Erforschung sozialer Wirklichkeitskonstruktionen. In dieser Hinsicht sind die Möglichkeiten der Fokus-Gruppenforschung noch längst nicht ausgeschöpft. 1. Einleitung Als der Pionier der Fokus-Gruppenforschung gilt Robert Merton, ein amerikanischer Sozio loge der Columbia University. Merton selbst aber distanzierte sich von dieser Zuschreibung, vermutlich auch aufgrund forschungsethischer Bedenken gegenüber einiger Anwendungen von Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen in der kommerziellen Markt-und Meinungsforschung.1 Stattdessen verweist er auf Forschungsarbeiten von Paul Lazarsfeld und Frank Stanton, bei denen es um die Untersuchung von Hörerreaktionen mittels sog. focus-groups ging. Andere Autorinnen verorten den Ursprung der Fokus-Gruppen-Technik in der amerikanischen Marktforschung der 20er Jahre (u.a. Kitzinger 1994). Die fälschliche Zuschreibung der Fokus-Gruppenforschung als Mertons Erfindung resultiert möglicherweise daraus, daß ein Kapitel seines Handbuchs über das fokussierte Interview diese Interviewtechnik auch als Gruppeninterview vorstellt, ohne allerdings von "focus groups" zu sprechen (Merton et al. (1956) 21990). Praktisch angewendet hatte Merton diese Methode in den 50er Jahren bei der Erforschung von Zuschauerreaktionen auf Kriegspropaganda (ebenda).2 Verstärkt zum Einsatz kamen die Gruppendiskussionen in sog. focus groups in den 70er Jahren zunächst in der US-amerikanischen Marketing-Forschung. Dieses Instrument eignete sich besonders, um schnell und kostengünstig Geschmäcker, Präferenzen, Einstellungen u.ä. von Konsumenten zu erforschen. Inzwischen ist in der anglo-amerikanischen Forschungslandschaft die Anwendung von Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen als Forschungsin strument nicht mehr auf die kommerzielle Marktforschung beschränkt. Insbesondere in der Erziehungs-, Medien-und Gesundheitsforschung hat diese Methode weite Verbreitung ge funden (z.B. Basch 1987; Kitzinger 1994; Flores/Alonso 1995; Vaughn et al. 1996). Aber nicht nur in diesen Wissenschaftszweigen. Insbesondere im anglo-amerikanischen Sprachraum werden Fokus-Gruppen mit der traditionellen Survey-Forschung kombiniert. Die Diskussionsgruppen werden dabei aufgrund spezifischer Sekundär-Auswertungen großer repräsentativer Befragungen zusammengesetzt, um im Gruppengespräch detaillierte Erkenntnisse über spezielle Bevölkerungsgruppen zu gewinnen. Ein weiteres Einsatzgebiet ist im Rahmen der angewandten politischen Forschung, speziell der Entwicklung von politi schen Strategien und der Überprüfung der Wirkung politischer Programme zu verorten. So wurden z.B. die Imagekampagnen für Bill Clinton und Tony Blair auf der Basis von Fokus-Gruppenforschung ausgearbeitet. Auch die Um-und Neugestaltung des politischen Pro gramms "New Labour" erfolgte aufgrund dieser Methode. Im deutschsprachigen Raum kommen Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen fast nur in der Markt-und Meinungsforschung zum 1 Merton erwähnt in der Einleitung zur Neuauflage seines Buches über das fokussierte Interview, daß er den Aus druck "focus-group" nicht explizit gebraucht habe (Merton et al., 1990, S. xxix). 2 Im Gegensatz zu den sozialpsychologischen Gruppenexperimenten von Kurt Lewin und seinen Schülern ging es Merton und seinen Kolleginnen mehr um die inhaltlichen Äußerungen der Teilnehmerinnen und um die Erforschung von Gruppenstrukturen und gruppendynamischen Effekten (vgl. Krüger, 1983; Lamnek 1989: 126 ff).
The participation of women in Chinese society over past decades has been shaped by the shifting r... more The participation of women in Chinese society over past decades has been shaped by the shifting relationships between state, market and society as these have impacted on public and private spheres of life. The paper looks at these relations from the point of view of the development of childcare policies for pre-school children by considering three main phases in the development of childcare policies in China. It then turns in more detail to the coping strategies available to working parents in contemporary times. It considers this in relation to new intersectionalities of gender, generation and income. Finally the paper looks forward to new policies to better enable the balance of work and care in the future. China and the implications for working mothers.
This article looks at the determinants of job satisfaction in 27 European countries at both the i... more This article looks at the determinants of job satisfaction in 27 European countries at both the individual and country level. Individual determinants include type of occupation, supervision responsibilities, working hours, and the assessment of various dimensions, such as intrinsic and extrinsic job characteristics. These factors already explain a large share of country-level variation which renders country differences in job satisfaction foremost the result of individual factors and the composition of the workforce. Notwithstanding this finding, some countries still have higher job satisfaction (country premium) whilst others have less job satisfaction (country penalty) once individual-level explanations are taken into account. To explain this, we considered the effects of country-level institutional factors, such as wage levels, extent of unionization, levels of unemployment and inequality, of which wage levels were the most important.
Some of the current gaps, data and capacity building needs include: 1. Mapping the growth and exp... more Some of the current gaps, data and capacity building needs include: 1. Mapping the growth and experience of new working practices, work places and business models' demand for skills, and provision of job quality and job security in the digital age. 2. Identifying good quality quantitative and qualitative, longitudinal and internationally comparative data about the experiences of employers, employees, job seekers and those not engaged in the paid work. This could include Big Data methods combining existing surveys, social security and administrative data, establishment surveys, and new innovative and experimental methods. 3. Analysis of the consequences of digitisation for different groups of workers by ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic background, migration status and other intersectionalities. 4. Building on comparative measures of job quality, productivity and social innovation to include social health in a digital culture and wellbeing over the life course. 5. Understanding the combinations and portfolios of different types of work across the life course in formal, established, and informal and gig economy work. 6. Understanding how employee voice can be incorporated into new business models. 7. Provide a broad, historical and theoretical contextualisation of work including caring, unpaid and voluntary work alongside employment on digital platforms and conventional firms. 8. Supporting the development of computational analytics for social research in the digital age from UG to PG level as well as for ECRs and established researchers. 9. Establish secondments and internships in government, businesses and NGOs. 10. Links to EPSRC and AHRC investments in doctoral programmes on the Digital Economy. Part 2: identifies key opportunities for interdisciplinary, international research including partners beyond the research community Investment to support interdisciplinary research from economic, sociology, psychology, law and business studies is essential in taking this research agenda forward, as well as creating incentives to work with those in software engineering, informatics and the humanities. Some evidence of this already existing with the EPSRC Digital Economy theme, but a stronger focus on the work dimension of these changes is required to make a significant contribution to our wider knowledge.
Surrogate employment, surrogate labour markets and the development of training policies in the ei... more Surrogate employment, surrogate labour markets and the development of training policies in the eighties, David Lee from new vocationalism to the culture of enterprise, Bob Coles and Robert MacDonald the transition from YTS to work - content, context and the external labour market, David Raffe trainers and tutors in the YTS environment, Ken Parsons interpreting vocationalism - youth training and managerial practice, Joan Chandler a decade of decline - social class and post-school destination of minimum age school-leavers in Scotland, 1977-1987, Andy Furlong class and gender divisions among young adults at leisure, Ken Roberts, Rosemary Campbell and Andy Furlong creating poverty and creating crime - youth policy in the 1980s, Mike Presdee youth homelessness in Wales, Mark Liddiard and Susan Hutson.
The chapter examines how cultural heritage has helped to create resilient rural communities in Sc... more The chapter examines how cultural heritage has helped to create resilient rural communities in Scotland - Portsoy and the Isle of Lewis. A particular focus is the digitisation of this heritage. There is no one model of how cultural heritage can be used just as there is no one form of digital communications and different communities approach their heritage in different ways. We analyse important factors such as local ownership and control of heritage and its repercussions for the wellbeing of the communities. Given the isolation of rural communities, digital communications are particularly important for linking communities with the outside world and community members with each other. We illustrate how cultural heritage provides a sense of identity as well as economic benefits through tourism. In particular, the chapter examines the challenges of community-based research into wellbeing and how best to theorise quality of life in different community settings.
Aufgrund der Entwicklung von EU-Richtlinien zur europäischen Jugendpolitik sowie der erfolgreiche... more Aufgrund der Entwicklung von EU-Richtlinien zur europäischen Jugendpolitik sowie der erfolgreichen Mitwirkung von europäischen JugendforscherInnen an einschlägigen EU-Forschungsprogrammen (z. B. dem Vierten und Fünften Rahmenprogramm) besteht mittlerweile ein gemeinsames Forschungsfeld der europäischen Jugendforschung. Dennoch gibt es immer noch erhebliche nationale Unterschiede in der Begriffsbestimmung von Jugend sowie in den Programmen, die sich auf diese Population richten, und in der Definition dessen, was als »Jugendproblem« zählt - sei es unter politischen oder theoretischen Gesichtspunkten. Die Erweiterung Europas in den 1990er-Jahren hat überdies eine Fülle von neuen Problemen, Theorien und Definitionen von Jugend mit sich gebracht, die nach dem Zusammenbruch der sozialistischen Staatengemeinschaft entstanden sind. Trotz dieser Heterogenität der Jugendforschung verfügen die JugendforscherInnen in Europa über gute und funktionsfähige Netzwerke, die von der EU-Kommission, dem...
This paper considers the creation of a new region in Europe since the opening of the borders foll... more This paper considers the creation of a new region in Europe since the opening of the borders following the so-called "revolutions" in East-Central Europe. The "buffer zone" consists of a privileged group of post-Communist countries sandwiched between some of the most affluent countries of the European Union on the one side and countries with collapsing, unreformed or backward economies on the other. This paper considers the countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia in terms of the circulation of GOODS, CAPITAL and PEOPLE around the region. The Central European buffer zone countries represent the most successful group of countries in terms of economic and political reform and social stability. This is both a cause and consequence of their attracting investment, tourism and other forms of economic and cultural communication from their neighbours to the west-. Especially Germany and Austria. For the countries to the East and South of the buffer zone, their prosperity and the possibility of crossing into the buffer zone but not further, creates an attraction for visitors from the East who arrive for settlement for work, for shopping, for trading or for establishing businesses. The establishment of cross-border communications depends to a large extent on reviving family, ethnic and cultural ties which were for many years severed by Communism.
Background: Two population surveys were conducted in Belarus: The Living Conditions, Lifestyle an... more Background: Two population surveys were conducted in Belarus: The Living Conditions, Lifestyle and Health (LLH) in 2001 (n = 2000) and The Health in Times of Transition (HITT) in 2010 (n = 1800). Each survey included a question on health status. The LLH questionnaire provided a 4-point Verbal Response Scale, but the HITT questionnaire used a 5-point scale. When translated into Russian, only two response categories of these scales had identical wording. These differences made a direct comparison of self-reported health status between 2001 and 2010 difficult. Methods: We conducted a Health Category Response Scale (HCRS) survey in 2010 (n = 570) using a 100ths graduated Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to understand how the response categories of different scales are perceived by Russian speakers. We implemented the HCRS survey's data to calculate the weighted health status (WHS) for each of the original surveys and to compare health status in Belarus between 2001and 2010. Results: The WHS in Belarus showed a small, but statistically significant, improvement of 2.9 points on a 0-100 scale between 2001 and 2010 (56.2 vs. 59.1). Identical response categories were perceived differently on a 4-point and 5-point VAS. The category 'good' ('Umomwee') measured $12 points higher, and the category 'bad/poor' ('Ojmtme') measured $16 points lower, on the 4-point compared with the 5-point VAS. Conclusion: Our HCRS survey and novel method enabled a direct comparison of questions with different response options. When applied to the LLH and HITT projects, we concluded that health status in Belarus has improved between 2001 and 2010.
Österreichische Zeitschrift Für Soziologie, Nov 1, 1997
Moderated group discussions -so-called focus groups -have for some time been efficient and low-co... more Moderated group discussions -so-called focus groups -have for some time been efficient and low-cost instruments for carrying out commercial market and opinion research. The further development of qualitative research methods has enabled a reconsideration of this research method and its adaptation for use in educational, media and health research. Focus groups are often used as a method for supplementing quantitative research, either in the validation of results or in the further exploration of target groups identified through statistical investigation but also in generating or in testing hypotheses. However, focus groups are particularly useful as a method of understanding the way in which reality is constructed by groups and of analyzing the process of opinion development within a group. In this respect the advantages of using focus group discussions are still underdeveloped. Moderierte Gruppendiskussionen in sog. Fokus-Gruppen werden seit Jahren als effizientes und kostengünstiges Instrument in der kommerziellen Markt-und Meinungsforschung ver wendet. Die Weiterentwicklung und Verbreitung qualitativer Forschungsmethoden trugen zur (Wieder-)Entdeckung und Modifizierung dieses Verfahrens für die sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung, insbesondere durch die anglo-amerikanische Erziehungs-, Medien-und Gesund heitsforschung, bei. Obwohl Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen nach wie vor für explorative Zwecke einerseits und zur Validierung von Ergebnissen oder zur Untersuchung statistisch generierter Extremgruppen andererseits eingesetzt werden, sind sie längst nicht mehr nur ein Hilfsmittel für die quantitative Umfrageforschung. Insbesondere dann, wenn sich das Forschungsinteresse nicht nur auf die Hypothesengenerierung oder -Überprüfung, sondern darüber hinaus auf das Zustandekommen von Meinungen im Gruppenprozeß richtet, sind Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen ein anspruchsvolles Instrument für die Erforschung sozialer Wirklichkeitskonstruktionen. In dieser Hinsicht sind die Möglichkeiten der Fokus-Gruppenforschung noch längst nicht ausgeschöpft. 1. Einleitung Als der Pionier der Fokus-Gruppenforschung gilt Robert Merton, ein amerikanischer Sozio loge der Columbia University. Merton selbst aber distanzierte sich von dieser Zuschreibung, vermutlich auch aufgrund forschungsethischer Bedenken gegenüber einiger Anwendungen von Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen in der kommerziellen Markt-und Meinungsforschung.1 Stattdessen verweist er auf Forschungsarbeiten von Paul Lazarsfeld und Frank Stanton, bei denen es um die Untersuchung von Hörerreaktionen mittels sog. focus-groups ging. Andere Autorinnen verorten den Ursprung der Fokus-Gruppen-Technik in der amerikanischen Marktforschung der 20er Jahre (u.a. Kitzinger 1994). Die fälschliche Zuschreibung der Fokus-Gruppenforschung als Mertons Erfindung resultiert möglicherweise daraus, daß ein Kapitel seines Handbuchs über das fokussierte Interview diese Interviewtechnik auch als Gruppeninterview vorstellt, ohne allerdings von "focus groups" zu sprechen (Merton et al. (1956) 21990). Praktisch angewendet hatte Merton diese Methode in den 50er Jahren bei der Erforschung von Zuschauerreaktionen auf Kriegspropaganda (ebenda).2 Verstärkt zum Einsatz kamen die Gruppendiskussionen in sog. focus groups in den 70er Jahren zunächst in der US-amerikanischen Marketing-Forschung. Dieses Instrument eignete sich besonders, um schnell und kostengünstig Geschmäcker, Präferenzen, Einstellungen u.ä. von Konsumenten zu erforschen. Inzwischen ist in der anglo-amerikanischen Forschungslandschaft die Anwendung von Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen als Forschungsin strument nicht mehr auf die kommerzielle Marktforschung beschränkt. Insbesondere in der Erziehungs-, Medien-und Gesundheitsforschung hat diese Methode weite Verbreitung ge funden (z.B. Basch 1987; Kitzinger 1994; Flores/Alonso 1995; Vaughn et al. 1996). Aber nicht nur in diesen Wissenschaftszweigen. Insbesondere im anglo-amerikanischen Sprachraum werden Fokus-Gruppen mit der traditionellen Survey-Forschung kombiniert. Die Diskussionsgruppen werden dabei aufgrund spezifischer Sekundär-Auswertungen großer repräsentativer Befragungen zusammengesetzt, um im Gruppengespräch detaillierte Erkenntnisse über spezielle Bevölkerungsgruppen zu gewinnen. Ein weiteres Einsatzgebiet ist im Rahmen der angewandten politischen Forschung, speziell der Entwicklung von politi schen Strategien und der Überprüfung der Wirkung politischer Programme zu verorten. So wurden z.B. die Imagekampagnen für Bill Clinton und Tony Blair auf der Basis von Fokus-Gruppenforschung ausgearbeitet. Auch die Um-und Neugestaltung des politischen Pro gramms "New Labour" erfolgte aufgrund dieser Methode. Im deutschsprachigen Raum kommen Fokus-Gruppendiskussionen fast nur in der Markt-und Meinungsforschung zum 1 Merton erwähnt in der Einleitung zur Neuauflage seines Buches über das fokussierte Interview, daß er den Aus druck "focus-group" nicht explizit gebraucht habe (Merton et al., 1990, S. xxix). 2 Im Gegensatz zu den sozialpsychologischen Gruppenexperimenten von Kurt Lewin und seinen Schülern ging es Merton und seinen Kolleginnen mehr um die inhaltlichen Äußerungen der Teilnehmerinnen und um die Erforschung von Gruppenstrukturen und gruppendynamischen Effekten (vgl. Krüger, 1983; Lamnek 1989: 126 ff).
The participation of women in Chinese society over past decades has been shaped by the shifting r... more The participation of women in Chinese society over past decades has been shaped by the shifting relationships between state, market and society as these have impacted on public and private spheres of life. The paper looks at these relations from the point of view of the development of childcare policies for pre-school children by considering three main phases in the development of childcare policies in China. It then turns in more detail to the coping strategies available to working parents in contemporary times. It considers this in relation to new intersectionalities of gender, generation and income. Finally the paper looks forward to new policies to better enable the balance of work and care in the future. China and the implications for working mothers.
This article looks at the determinants of job satisfaction in 27 European countries at both the i... more This article looks at the determinants of job satisfaction in 27 European countries at both the individual and country level. Individual determinants include type of occupation, supervision responsibilities, working hours, and the assessment of various dimensions, such as intrinsic and extrinsic job characteristics. These factors already explain a large share of country-level variation which renders country differences in job satisfaction foremost the result of individual factors and the composition of the workforce. Notwithstanding this finding, some countries still have higher job satisfaction (country premium) whilst others have less job satisfaction (country penalty) once individual-level explanations are taken into account. To explain this, we considered the effects of country-level institutional factors, such as wage levels, extent of unionization, levels of unemployment and inequality, of which wage levels were the most important.
Some of the current gaps, data and capacity building needs include: 1. Mapping the growth and exp... more Some of the current gaps, data and capacity building needs include: 1. Mapping the growth and experience of new working practices, work places and business models' demand for skills, and provision of job quality and job security in the digital age. 2. Identifying good quality quantitative and qualitative, longitudinal and internationally comparative data about the experiences of employers, employees, job seekers and those not engaged in the paid work. This could include Big Data methods combining existing surveys, social security and administrative data, establishment surveys, and new innovative and experimental methods. 3. Analysis of the consequences of digitisation for different groups of workers by ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic background, migration status and other intersectionalities. 4. Building on comparative measures of job quality, productivity and social innovation to include social health in a digital culture and wellbeing over the life course. 5. Understanding the combinations and portfolios of different types of work across the life course in formal, established, and informal and gig economy work. 6. Understanding how employee voice can be incorporated into new business models. 7. Provide a broad, historical and theoretical contextualisation of work including caring, unpaid and voluntary work alongside employment on digital platforms and conventional firms. 8. Supporting the development of computational analytics for social research in the digital age from UG to PG level as well as for ECRs and established researchers. 9. Establish secondments and internships in government, businesses and NGOs. 10. Links to EPSRC and AHRC investments in doctoral programmes on the Digital Economy. Part 2: identifies key opportunities for interdisciplinary, international research including partners beyond the research community Investment to support interdisciplinary research from economic, sociology, psychology, law and business studies is essential in taking this research agenda forward, as well as creating incentives to work with those in software engineering, informatics and the humanities. Some evidence of this already existing with the EPSRC Digital Economy theme, but a stronger focus on the work dimension of these changes is required to make a significant contribution to our wider knowledge.
Surrogate employment, surrogate labour markets and the development of training policies in the ei... more Surrogate employment, surrogate labour markets and the development of training policies in the eighties, David Lee from new vocationalism to the culture of enterprise, Bob Coles and Robert MacDonald the transition from YTS to work - content, context and the external labour market, David Raffe trainers and tutors in the YTS environment, Ken Parsons interpreting vocationalism - youth training and managerial practice, Joan Chandler a decade of decline - social class and post-school destination of minimum age school-leavers in Scotland, 1977-1987, Andy Furlong class and gender divisions among young adults at leisure, Ken Roberts, Rosemary Campbell and Andy Furlong creating poverty and creating crime - youth policy in the 1980s, Mike Presdee youth homelessness in Wales, Mark Liddiard and Susan Hutson.
The chapter examines how cultural heritage has helped to create resilient rural communities in Sc... more The chapter examines how cultural heritage has helped to create resilient rural communities in Scotland - Portsoy and the Isle of Lewis. A particular focus is the digitisation of this heritage. There is no one model of how cultural heritage can be used just as there is no one form of digital communications and different communities approach their heritage in different ways. We analyse important factors such as local ownership and control of heritage and its repercussions for the wellbeing of the communities. Given the isolation of rural communities, digital communications are particularly important for linking communities with the outside world and community members with each other. We illustrate how cultural heritage provides a sense of identity as well as economic benefits through tourism. In particular, the chapter examines the challenges of community-based research into wellbeing and how best to theorise quality of life in different community settings.
Aufgrund der Entwicklung von EU-Richtlinien zur europäischen Jugendpolitik sowie der erfolgreiche... more Aufgrund der Entwicklung von EU-Richtlinien zur europäischen Jugendpolitik sowie der erfolgreichen Mitwirkung von europäischen JugendforscherInnen an einschlägigen EU-Forschungsprogrammen (z. B. dem Vierten und Fünften Rahmenprogramm) besteht mittlerweile ein gemeinsames Forschungsfeld der europäischen Jugendforschung. Dennoch gibt es immer noch erhebliche nationale Unterschiede in der Begriffsbestimmung von Jugend sowie in den Programmen, die sich auf diese Population richten, und in der Definition dessen, was als »Jugendproblem« zählt - sei es unter politischen oder theoretischen Gesichtspunkten. Die Erweiterung Europas in den 1990er-Jahren hat überdies eine Fülle von neuen Problemen, Theorien und Definitionen von Jugend mit sich gebracht, die nach dem Zusammenbruch der sozialistischen Staatengemeinschaft entstanden sind. Trotz dieser Heterogenität der Jugendforschung verfügen die JugendforscherInnen in Europa über gute und funktionsfähige Netzwerke, die von der EU-Kommission, dem...
This paper considers the creation of a new region in Europe since the opening of the borders foll... more This paper considers the creation of a new region in Europe since the opening of the borders following the so-called "revolutions" in East-Central Europe. The "buffer zone" consists of a privileged group of post-Communist countries sandwiched between some of the most affluent countries of the European Union on the one side and countries with collapsing, unreformed or backward economies on the other. This paper considers the countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia in terms of the circulation of GOODS, CAPITAL and PEOPLE around the region. The Central European buffer zone countries represent the most successful group of countries in terms of economic and political reform and social stability. This is both a cause and consequence of their attracting investment, tourism and other forms of economic and cultural communication from their neighbours to the west-. Especially Germany and Austria. For the countries to the East and South of the buffer zone, their prosperity and the possibility of crossing into the buffer zone but not further, creates an attraction for visitors from the East who arrive for settlement for work, for shopping, for trading or for establishing businesses. The establishment of cross-border communications depends to a large extent on reviving family, ethnic and cultural ties which were for many years severed by Communism.
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Papers by Claire Wallace