The aim of the thesis is to examine contemporary constructions of mixed race in the United States and Britain through the examination of two types of racial projects: the national census and voluntary and community organisations focused on mixed race. Using a combination of critical discourse analysis and qualitative interviews, the research analyses the ways in which mixed race is being described, conceptualised, and constructed through macro- and meso-level racial projects in each nation, in order to compare the racial formation processes that are occurring in the early twenty-first century's "mixed race moment". The thesis builds upon racial formation theory, which argues that the concept of "race" is never fully fixed, but rather is made through socio-historical processes that create, inhabit, transform, and destroy racialised notions over time and context (Omi and Winant 1986, 1994, 2015). The theory examines the struggles over racialised meanings that occur between macro-level and micro-level racial projects. This thesis aims to fill the gap left by this focus through examining racial projects that occupy the socio-political "middle ground" between macro- and micro-level projects: the "meso-level."The research examines the ways in which the state constructs mixed race in the United States and Britain. Each nation's census allowed for mixed race self identification in 2000 and 2001, respectively. The thesis examines the social, historical, and political processes that led to mixed race options at that particular time. It argues that the ways in which the census organisations report upon mixed race functions as a discursive practice that provides an official construction of mixed race through simultaneously reflecting and shaping racialised descriptions and narratives within each nation. The thesis examines the usefulness of "meso-level" projects by exploring the role of mixed race organisations in racial formation processes through the examination of six meso-level mechanisms of racialisation: social identity, social capital, collective action, idioculture, extended networks, and civil society (Fine 2012). Incorporating Michel Foucault's notion of "governmentality" (Gordon 1991), the thesis highlights the ways that mixed race organisations have interacted directly and indirectly with macro-level bodies during and after the addition of the mixed race census options as well as other routes of interaction specific to each national context. The thesis argues that the racialisation that occurs at the macro-level holds a "default" role with which mixed race organisations then engage. This highlights the relative roles of power the institutions have in each national context and the ways they are managed through relations fostered through governmentality. The thesis also examines the discourses used by mixed race organisations in the US and Britain as meso-level racial projects and poses the argument that the varied usage of multiple racialised paradigms leads to an increased relative fluidity in the constructions of mixed race than their respective macro-level projects. The systematic cross-national comparison of the ways mixed race is constructed in the US and Britain highlights the ways in which both macro-level and meso-level organisations articulate and promote racialised ideology through their relative levels of power in society. By analysing and comparing these racial projects and their interactions, the paradigms and discourses used reveal the particularities and overlaps by these organisations as they contest, negotiate, and accept formations of mixed race.

Dissertation explores the structure and level of financial support addressed to families with children in the Czech Republic and 19 other European countries as of December 2008. Attention is paid primarily to the "new" European countries, i.e. the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Through analysis of tax-benefit system this study examines where the Czech Republic stands in respect of family support within the European context and assesses which European policy is most similar to the Czech model of financial family support. There are two main parts. First one introduces the welfare state and family policy typologies and theories. Second one uses the model family method to answer the following questions: Which kind of family composition benefits most from the state support? Does the Czech tax- benefit system prioritize the traditional male-breadwinner family or does it encourage the dual-earner model? What is the position of Czech lone-parent families in comparison to other European countries? Is the Czech family policy aimed at the same types of family with children as is the Slovakian family policy or any other state policy in CEE? Are these two countries still following the same trend in respect to the financial family support? And where do the new European countries fit within the existing...

Enligt forskning är ständiga förbättringar ett väsentligt element i olika kvalitetsledningssystem, medan arbete med ständiga förbättringar i organisationer har undersökts vara ofta för begränsat i omfattning och svårt att hålla igång. Därmed var syftet med denna studie att bidra med kunskap om hur organisationer kan arbeta för att hålla ständiga förbättringar igång. Det empiriska materialet samlades in med kvalitativa, halvstrukturerade intervjuer av sju ledare som representerar till-verkande företag antingen i Sverige eller i Finland. Dessa företag har tagit i bruk Lean management och arbetar med ständiga förbättringar framgångsrikt. Resultatet visade att de studerade organisationerna har sina unika sätt att arbeta med och hålla igång ständiga förbättringar, även om det finns likheter. Enligt de studerade organisationerna gällde de mest viktiga faktorer som möjliggör att hålla igång ständiga förbättringar ledarskap, ledaregenskaper och strategisk planering; processer, arbetssätt och verktyg; samt arbetsmiljö och kultur. Kritiskt för att hålla igång ständiga förbättringar är att ledare prioriterar ständiga förbättringar och visar sig prioriteten på flera olika sätt, visade resultatet. Engagemang för ständiga förbättringar på lång sikt är nödvändigt och kan tränas upp. Medan viktigt för ständiga förbättringar är att alla arbetar med gemensamma praktiker, viktigt för att hålla igång ständiga förbättringar är att engagera medarbetare i att använda sina kompetenser till att utveckla dessa praktiker. Det finns olikheter i hur de studerade organisationerna ser att deras arbete med ständiga förbättringar skulle se ut om de hade de bästa möjligheterna att arbeta med ständiga förbättringar. Här hittades det också dock några liknande teman. I studien drogs slutsatsen att ständiga förbättringar har anpassats efter behoven och omständigheterna i organisationerna. Att utveckla praktiker själv är ett medel för att överföra principer som stödjer ständiga förbättringar i handling och att utveckla kulturen gentemot dessa värderingar och principer. För ett framgångsrikt arbete med att hålla igång ständiga förbättringar är det viktigt att utforma och utveckla strukturer och praktiker i anslutning till organisationens strategiska objektiv så att man beaktar organisationens kontext. / According to research, continuous improvement is an essential element of different quality management systems, while work with continuous improvement in organizations has been studied to be frequently too limited in scope and difficult to sustain. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to contribute with knowledge on how organizations can work to sustain continuous improvement.   The empirical data was collected through qualitative, semi-structured interviews of seven leaders representing manufacturing companies either in Sweden or in Finland. The companies have adopted Lean management and work with continuous improvement successfully.   The results showed that the studied organizations have their unique ways of working with and sustaining continuous improvement, even though there are similarities. According to the studied organizations, the most important factors that enable sustaining continuous improvement were related to leadership, leadership attributes, and strategic planning; processes, techniques, and tools; as well as working environment and culture. The results showed that critical for sustaining continuous improvement are leaders prioritizing continuous improvement and manifesting the priority through several ways. Commitment to continuous improvement in the long term is vital and can be trained. While everyone working along with shared practices is important for continuous improvement, involving employees to use their capabilities to develop these practices supports sustaining continuous improvement. The studied organizations have differences in how they see that their work with continuous improvement would look like if they had the best opportunities to work with continuous improvement, even though some similar themes were found. The study concluded that continuous improvement has been adapted to the needs and situations of the organizations. Self-developed practices are means of putting the principles supporting continuous improvement into practice and developing the culture towards the values and principles. For a successful work with sustaining continuous improvement, it is important to build and form structures and practices in alignment with the strategic objectives of the organization, taking into account the organizational context. / <p>2018-06-27</p>

The aim of this thesis is to determine what affects cross-national differences in attitudes towards immigrants and immigration in Europe while using mainly theoretical framework of the Ethnic Competition Theory and the Human Capital Theory. We use multilevel models to test the hypotheses based on these theories. We use individual level data from European Social Survey 2014/2015 and country level data from World Bank, Eurostat, and MIPEX. The thesis finds a support for the Human Capital Theory, but does not find a clear support for the Ethnic Competition Theory. Even though economic vulnerability of a person is associated with attitudes towards immigrants, this association can be due to education. It seems in this thesis that people with higher education tend to hold more positive attitudes towards immigration of both skill levels of immigrants, professionals and laborers, than individuals with less years of education. Therefore, we find a support for the Human Capital Theory. On the contextual level, more permissive migrant integration policies seem to have positive effect on attitudes towards immigrants. Further investigation of the association between attitudes towards immigrants and immigration, and education and migrant integration policies is needed.

This article reports the results of a cross-national investigation of patterns of comorbidity between substance use and psychiatric disorders in six studies participating in the International Consortium in Psychiatric Epidemiology. In general, there was a strong association between mood and anxiety disorders as well as conduct and antisocial personality disorder with substance disorders at all sites. The results also suggest that there is a continuum in the magnitude of comorbidity as a function of the spectrum of substance use category (use, problems, dependence), as well as a direct relationship between the number of comorbid disorders and increasing levels of severity of substance use disorders (which was particularly pronounced for drugs). Finally, whereas there was no specific temporal pattern of onset for mood disorders in relation to substance disorders, the onset of anxiety disorders was more likely to precede that of substance disorders in all countries. These results illustrate the contribution of cross-national data to understanding the patterns and risk factors for psychopathology and substance use disorders.

À la croisée de la sociologie de l’enseignement supérieur, de la sociologie des professions et de la socialisation, cette thèse a pour objectif d’interroger la sociogenèse du corps professionnel des assistantes de service social (ou, plus communément, des assistantes sociales) au prisme de sa formation et selon une approche comparative. Formations initiales, continues, professionnelles ou universitaires, ces curricula sont, dans les deux pays, structurées autour de la tension entre forme scolaire et apprentissage professionnel. Cette recherche sur la fabrique des assistances sociales explore cette tension à partir d’une sociologie des étudiantes et des institutions qui les (con)forment. Le dispositif d’enquête combine méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives : entretiens, questionnaires et observations ethnographiques au sein de quatre instituts de formation. Dans la perspective d’une sociologie comparée d’espaces disciplinaires et par suivi longitudinal des étudiantes, de l’entrée à la sortie des formations, on a essayé d’éclairer les mécanismes de socialisation en service social. Dans une première partie, par une socio-histoire des deux espaces nationaux de formation en service social, il s’est agi de s’intéresser à la genèse de ces curricula. En France, cette formation se construit à l’écart de l’enseignement supérieur (à l’exception de certains parcours en IUT), alors qu’en Italie, après être longtemps demeurée à l’extérieur du champ universitaire, elle y a été intégrée au cours des années 1990 et 2000. Explorer les luttes et les échecs dans l’institutionnalisation de cette formation, permet de dessiner des parallèles entre l’universitarisation de cette filière et l’injonction à la professionnalisation dans l’espace de l’enseignement supérieur. Dans une deuxième partie, on a porté notre attention sur les aspirations et les orientations dans le service social. En resituant d’abord chaque choix scolaire dans la hiérarchie des filières du supérieur national, on a identifié trois types d’orientation étudiante dans les deux contextes nationaux en fonction des parcours scolaires, des appartenances de classe et des discours mis en avant par les étudiantes enquêtées. D’une typologie statistique aux récits de vie, on a montré les conditions sociales, individuelles et collectives des raisons d’agir et des parcours socio-scolaires des étudiantes qui s’orientent vers ces formations. À l’aide d’une analyse comparée et transversale de dix trajectoires, on a pu repérer pour certaines une continuité socio-scolaire, pour d’autres un réajustement professionnel ou encore une réorientation sociale. La troisième partie s’intéresse aux mécanismes de sélection, à l’entrée et tout au long du cursus, aux contenus et aux savoirs transmis au sein des quatre centres de formation des deux pays. La sélection, axée selon les structures sur une distance, partielle ou revendiquée, avec les connaissances scolaires, permet de cibler des étudiantes aux profils spécifiques, relevant d’origines et d’expériences sociales distinctives. Tandis que les instituts identifiés comme relevant du pôle scolaire visent davantage des étudiantes d’origines populaires, plus conformes à l’institution scolaire, les instituts du pôle professionnel ciblent les dispositions interactionnelles et une adaptabilité aux conditions professionnelles qui concernent davantage des élèves plus dotées en capitaux. Au final, les instituts de formation participent à un tri progressif des populations, toutes les étudiantes n’arrivant pas jusqu’au diplôme. Entre docilité sociale et adaptabilité au marché de l’emploi, l’apprentissage progressif du métier d’assistante sociale passe par des ajustements, des résistances et des réappropriations d’un ethos singulier, au sein d’un espace professionnel en constante redéfinition. / The goal of this dissertation is to question the social origins of social service assistants (or social workers) in France and Italy. Based on a cross-national comparative design focusing on social workers’ training trajectories, this research combines approaches from the sociology of higher education, sociology of professions and theories of socialization. While social workers’ curricula in the two countries vary across forms of “pre-service”, “in-service”, vocational as well as university training, they generally stem from the tension existing between academic and professional educational systems. This study addresses this tension, focusing on the interplay between students’ social background and the logics of education in social assistance. The research design combines qualitative and quantitative methods, including face-to-face interviews, questionnaires and ethnographic observation at four educational institutions. By comparing the configuration of the disciplinary field in the two countries, and by following students longitudinally from entry to graduation, hence, this study aims to shed light on the process of socialization in social work education.The first section offers a social history of training in social service, investigating the background of the different types of curricula in the two national contexts. While social work training in France generally takes place outside of the high education system, in Italy it was ultimately integrated in the university field throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Exploring the more or less successful process of institutionalization of this specific form of training, allows elaborating on the academization of the social service sector in light of the progressive professionalization of higher education. The second section focuses on aspirations and orientations among social service students. By classifying students’ choices hierarchically in the two national higher education sectors, we identify three main types of orientation, which have to do with a student’s educational trajectory, their class membership, as well as her preferred justification.Based on a statistical typology of students’ life stories, we illustrate the social and academic background, as well as the individual and collective conditions, in which students embarking in this type of education are embedded. The comparative, cross-sectional analysis of ten individual trajectories, in fact, shows that while some students display socio-academic continuity, others experience professional readjustment or even social reorientation.The third section addresses selection mechanisms at entry and throughout the educative path in the two countries, while also focusing on the content and skills within the curricula of the four training institutes under study. It shows that, albeit often claiming otherwise, institutes do not select students based on their school background (previous school experience), but rather target candidates with specific profiles stemming from distinctive social origins and experiences. While institutes belonging to the school cluster target primarily students of working class background in line with the tradition of school institutions, those of the professional cluster target specific interactional predispositions as well as adaptability to professional conditions, which are more frequent among students that are better off in terms of cultural capital. Furthermore, all institutes put forth a progressive selection, as not all of the students ultimately get a diploma. Learning social work takes place at the crossroads between social docility and adaptability to the job market, which implies adjustments, resistances and re-appropriations of the singular ethos of a professional space in constant redefinition.

No description available.

Elections to the European Parliament are characterised by a steady decline in voter turnout. To tackle this problem, in 2014, several groups of the European Parliament nominated pan-European Spitzenkandidaten who were expected to personalise the elections and mobilise European voters. Based on this development, this study analyses the media cov-erage of the 2014 EP elections with special focus on the role of the Spitzenkandidaten. A quantitative content analysis of European election campaign coverage in the opinion leading newspapers of three influential EU member states, Ger-many, France, and the United Kingdom was carried out. The results show large candidate- and country-specific differ-ences regarding the visibility and thematic coverage of the EP elections in general as well as the presentation of the Spitzenkandidaten. The Spitzenkandidaten were not very visible in either the German, French, or British newspaper cov-erage. With respect to the presence and media personalisation of the Spitzenkandidaten, the newspaper coverage of the EP election does not demonstrate any mobilising effect and thus does not reflect the high expectations the European Parliament attributed to the nomination of the Spitzenkandidaten.

學界普遍認為中國半導體產業在2000年以降快速崛起主要因素是中國各級政府仿效東亞國家八十年代扶持半導體產業模式。也就是「發展型國家」(Developmental State)角色。如中國中央政府推動半導體策略性產業政策：提供優惠稅賦（「國務院十八號文件」）以及進行大規模研發計畫(「八六三計畫」)；地方政府則提供半導體廠商建廠資金和低價建廠成本。然而，實際上，從跨國比較觀點分析在中國政府半導體產業角色，發現我們可以發現中國政府在半導體產業角色與「發展型國家」的理念型有所差異。基於上述討論有兩個主要研究目的： 1.建立國家機關角色類型學，了解中國個案與既有類型異同之處。以此，提出新理論架構：第一個指標：國家機關干預型式，主要指國家是否推動「策略性產業政策」；第二個指標、企業財產權關係: 企業財產權屬於國家或私人。兩個指標和各自有兩個變異，因此形成二乘二的四個國家機關角色類型學。 2.分析形成不同國家機關角色的因素：落後的程度、官僚體系特質和政策網路等因素如何形塑國家機關角色等因素對形成國家角色有何影響。 為進行跨國比較本文選擇了四個國家以及其時空分界點：1985-1990年的美國、1976-1980年的日本、1984-1988年的台灣與2000年以降的中國，進行國家角色干預前後的時空因素比較。 本文研究發現有三：一、一國落後的程度決定了其國家角色類型：。二、國家干預前的「韋伯式官僚」程度，影響了「發展型國家」和「企業家發展型國家」的要素之一「大規模研發計畫」是否完整，但不會決定屬於個案是屬於哪一類型國家。 / Scholars argued that the rapid development of China's semiconductor industry due to strategic industry policy, known as East Asian “Developmental State Model”. China central government provided preferential domestic sale tax (Circular 18) for China-based semiconductor firms and launched national R&D project (863); local government also provides loans and low building cost for semiconductor enterprises. However, as cross-countries comparing role of state in the semiconductor industry, China’s case still is different from ideal type of Developmental State. Based on the discussion above, this dissertation has two main research purposes: 1.Establishing the typology of state: what different China's case with other nations and propose a new theoretical framework. The first indicator is whether State to promote "Strategic Industrial Policy" or not; the second corporate property relations: the second indicator is property rights of enterprises, which is government owned or private. The two indicators have two variations, so the format a typology, three types role of state in two by two matrix. 2.Analyzing the causal factors of role of state: how does extent of economic backwardness, characteristics of bureaucratic system and types policy network influence roles of state. For a cross-nations studies, I selected four variety cases and time dividing points: United States (before and after 1985-1990), Japan(before and after 1976-1980), Taiwan ( before and after 1984-1988), and China (before and fater 2000-2005) to define role of state and its causal factors. This study has three main findings: First, the extent of backwardness of a nations determined its role of state. Second, level of Weberian bureaucracy level affected complete extent of Developmental State" and Entrepreneurial Developmental State" , but would not determined its role of state.

L’impact de la religion sur la violence demeure à ce jour ambivalent dans la littérature. D’un côté, les religions et leurs préceptes de paix sont identifiés comme des facteurs de dissuasion dans la commission d’actes violents. D’un autre côté, l’identité religieuse est historiquement décriée comme une source majeure de guerres. Cette étude propose de comparer dans 163 pays du monde l’influence sur le taux d’homicide de quatre aspects religieux : la religion principale, l’hétérogénéité religieuse, la liberté religieuse et la religiosité. Les taux d’homicide sont fournis par l’Organisation mondiale de la santé alors que les variables religieuses proviennent de sources variées. Les analyses de régressions linéaires tiennent également compte de quelques facteurs socio-économiques. Certains sont considérés dans la littérature comme des facteurs majeurs influant sur l’homicide et d’autres sont plutôt soupçonnés d’interaction sur la relation ici étudiée. Les résultats indiquent qu’il y a modérément plus d’homicides dans les pays qui présentent une forte hétérogénéité religieuse ou une faible religiosité dans la population. Par ailleurs, les pays musulmans, notamment chiites, présentent les taux d’homicide les plus bas, surpassant les pays bouddhistes et hindouistes, alors que les pays chrétiens, notamment catholiques, présentent des taux d’homicide très élevés. Ce constat s’oppose à la théorie libérale chrétienne qui démonise les États religieux musulmans. Néanmoins, l’interprétation des conclusions de cette étude invite à la prudence étant donné son aspect délicat et exploratoire. / The impact of religion on violence remains ambivalent in the litterature. On the one hand, religions and their teachings of peace or compassion are identified as deterrents in the commission of violent acts. On the other hand, religious identity has historically been criticized as a major source of violence and war. This study proposes to compare in 163 countries worldwide the impact on violence of four religious factors : religious denomination, religiosity, religious heterogeneity and religious freedom. The analysis is based on the homicide rates, supplied mainly by the World Health Organization, while religious variables are taken from various sources. Linear regression analysis also take into consideration few socio-economic factors. Some of these are considered in the literature as major factors in homicide and others are suspected of interaction in the relationship studied here. The results indicate that there is moderately more homicides in countries that have strong religious heterogeneity or low religiosity among the population. In addition, muslim countries, especially chiites, presents the lowest homicide rates, surpassing buddhist and hindu countries, while christian countries, especially catholics, have the higher homicide rates. This finding opposes the christian liberal theory that demonizes muslim religious states. Nevertheless, interpretation of findings from this study suggest caution in view of its exploratory and delicate aspect.