Every day, individuals commit acts which are considered immoral, unethical, even criminal, often to gain material advantage. Many people consider cheating on taxes, cheating on tests, claiming false benefits, or avoiding transport fare to be wrong, but they do them anyway. While some of these acts may not be formally illegal, they are, at best, considered morally dubious and is labeled “everyday crime.” Anomie theory holds that individuals make decisions based on socialized values, which separately may be contradictory but together, balances each other out, producing behavior considered “normal” by society. When one holds an imbalanced set of values, decisions made on that set may produce deviant behavior, such as everyday crime. RD theory holds that individuals who perceive their own deprivation, relative to someone else, will feel frustration and injustice, and may attempt to ameliorate that feeling with deviant behavior. Data from the 2006 World Values Survey were analyzed using logistic regression, testing both constructs concurrently. An individual was 1.55 times more likely to justify everyday crime for each calculated unit of anomie; and 1.10 times more likely for each calculated unit of RD. It was concluded from this study that anomie and relative deprivation were both associated with the tendency towards everyday crime.

Commons-based peer production is an activity that is emerging as a distinct mode of resource allocation and production of information, knowledge and culture ('social production' for short), potentially heralding a new stage in the development of information/knowledge-based economies. This paper presents a cross-country analysis of factors determining the information and knowledge output of the paradigmatic social production project, i.e. SETI@home. The main hypothesis explored is that the level of average subjective well-being in a country is a motivational proxy variable that can help explain the cross-country variation in SETI@home output levels. The hypothesis that trust might be of lesser importance is also explored. I find support for both hypotheses, but only for developed and advanced countries, not poor countries.

This study examines young Swedes’ support for democracy. Previous research suggests that many young people in Sweden are sceptical about the democratic governance as well as with democracy itself. However, there is a lack of qualitative studies within the subject - leaving the research field consisting of limited questionnaires. For a broader understanding, the study aims to go into depth with a qualitative semi-structured interview design. By applying the theory of postmaterialism carried out by Robert Inglehart, it is possible to gain an understanding of Sweden’s youth and their value orientation which might influence the support for democracy. The interviews were conducted with eight upper secondary school students at the Rudbeck school in Sollentuna, thereafter transcribed and thematically analyzed. The results are systematically divided into several categories, revolving around democracy as a state of governance and its principles, political participation and the functioning of democracy. The study finds that there is a discrepancy in supporting democracy in principle and instrumentally, among the participants. While there is a strong support for democracy as a form of governance as well as democratic principles, there is also criticism towards the government, the efficiency of the system, its availability and political institutions. The results are discussed and understood from a post-materialistic perspective, deepen our understanding of young individuals relationship with democracy.

Denna studie utförs med bakgrund i det demokratiska styrelseskickets dominanta status i världen och avser att blottlägga orsakerna bakom demokratiska regimers fortlevnad. Syftet med uppsatsen är att pröva trovärdigheten av instrumentella demokratiargument. I studien tillämpas en statistisk analys, i form av OLS-regression, för undersöka huruvida tillfredställelsen med demokratiskt styre kan förklaras utifrån individens välmående. Analysen är mestadels baserad på intervjudata från World Values Survey 2017–2020: Wave 7 och avser att generalisera till en global kontext. Resultaten finner stöd för sambandet och därmed även för instrumentella demokratiargument, då individens välmående förknippas med praktiska resultat och måluppfyllelse. Till skillnad från tidigare forskning analyseras dessutom effekterna av nationell stolthet, likaså effekterna av medborgliga rättigheters konsolidering. Nationell stolthet visar sig ha en positiv effekt på tillfredställelsen med demokratiskt styre och bör därför undersökas närmare vid framtida studier.

This thesis explores the possible impact of a postmaterialist value shift on the future of democracy in advanced industrial democratic countries. Research over the past few decades has questioned the responsiveness of representative democratic institutions in advanced industrial democracies to individual and communal needs in society. Radical democratic theorists have called for direct action, structural reform, and other social and political changes to make democracy "stronger." Increased education levels brought on by continued economic and physical security in advanced industrial societies has led to a change in the ability of citizens to access the political process. How the relationship between the citizen and the state is altered as a result of continued prosperity is a primary motivation for this research. Working with World Values Survey data, I examine individual and societal level relationships between postmaterial values and direct political participation and acceptance of participatory values. Empirical evidence supports the hypotheses that postmaterial values are positively associated with direct political participation and as the level of Postmaterialists increases in a given society the level of participatory behavior and acceptance of participatory values will also increase. Substantive analysis suggests that increase in the level of postmaterialism in a country will lead to increases in alternative political activity and other forms of direct participation. / Master of Arts

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(文学) / 甲第23638号 / 文博第895号 / 新制||文||717(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院文学研究科行動文化学専攻 / (主査)教授 太郎丸 博, 准教授 Heim Stephane, 准教授 柴田 悠 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Letters / Kyoto University / DGAM

This study examines changes in culture, economics and politics in Taiwan. Ronald Inglehart suggests that culture, economics and politics are mutually connected and these dynamics shape each other over time. Richard Florida argues that the driving force behind the transformation of a society¡¦s lifestyles, worldview and values is the rise of human creativity. In order to observe the changes over time, Inglehart and his colleagues have been collecting data through questionnaires (World Values Survey) in countries around the world. The purpose of this study is to measure and interpret the recent changes in Taiwan. Data collected from Taiwan is compiled in a unique database for analysis. This paper discusses the findings from this analysis and interprets the direction of change brought by intergenerational change. In addition, a cross-cultural analysis between Sweden and Taiwan is performed using the latest data collected from the two countries. Results suggest that Taiwan¡¦s shift is in the direction of Postmodernity. In addition, younger people are found to be more tolerant against different groups of people compared to the older generation.

The aim of this work is to provide a theoretical overview of research studies on cultural differences and their critical evaluation. The quantitative research on national and cultural comparison of generations X and Y in the Czech Republic will be implemented on the basis of a reduced questionnaire used in the research of European Values Survey in 2008. The data analysis will focus both on the current research and creating a time series of selected variables, using the results of previous research within European Values Survey. The starting point for comparing the behaviour of Generation X and Generation Y will be the national-cultural model of World Values Survey, and the results will be applied to marketing mix. The conclusion provides an overview and evaluation of the particular generations in terms of cultural performance as well as of marketing.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-08-17T13:18:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 André Nardy.pdf: 1963684 bytes, checksum: a82de1fcbde856de94ee26d68549f774 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T13:18:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 André Nardy.pdf: 1963684 bytes, checksum: a82de1fcbde856de94ee26d68549f774 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-07-04 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The objective of this work is to contribute to the discussion of culture as an independent variable in Finance. The relationship between economic and financial attitudes and conceptual models of culture is analyzed; so as the relationship between financial behaviors of saving and borrowing and conceptual models of culture, from the Brazilian sample of the World Values Survey in its last available wave (2014). Individuals are considered as social agents and their context is considered in this analysis. The models of culture tested are based on the literature of anthropology, sociology, psychology, finance and economics: Religious denomination, Religious practices, Practices and denominations, Religious values and denominations, Schwartz personal values scale and Capitalist Culture and Hierarchism. Binary logistic regression is used as the main analysis tool. There is evidence of a Protestant ethic for attitude toward work and wealth generation for the individuals of this denomination, in different models, even in a historically Catholic society such as Brazil. The same is not true for evangelicals. Social capital, in its dimensions of trust in group, network connectivity and cooperation also present statistical significance in the lastly mentioned model. Hierarchism presents little evidence of contributing to the understanding of attitudes and behaviors analyzed / O objetivo do presente trabalho é contribuir para a discussão da cultura como variável independente em estudos de Finanças. Analisa-se a relação entre atitudes econômicas e financeiras e modelos conceituais de cultura; e entre comportamentos financeiros de economizar e tomar emprestado e modelos conceituais de cultura, a partir da amostra brasileira da Pesquisa Mundial de Valores em sua última onda disponível (2014). Considera-se os indivíduos como agentes sociais e seu contexto para esta análise. Os modelos de cultura testados baseiam-se na literatura de antropologia, sociologia, psicologia, finanças e economia: Denominação religiosa, Práticas religiosas, Práticas e denominações religiosas, Valores e denominações religiosas, Escala de valores pessoais de Schwartz e Cultura Capitalista e Hierarquismo. Emprega-se regressão logística binária como principal ferramenta de análise. Verifica-se indícios de uma ética protestante para a atitude perante trabalho e geração de riqueza para os indivíduos desta denominação, em diferentes modelos, mesmo em sociedade historicamente católica como a brasileira. O mesmo não se verifica para evangélicos. Capital social, em suas dimensões de confiança in group, conectividade em rede e cooperação também apresentam significância estatística no último modelo citado. Hierarquismo apresenta poucos indícios de contribuir para o entendimento das atitudes e comportamentos analisados

Scholars have proposed the idea that trust influences individuals’ choice to vote or abstain. However, there is uncertainty about the composition of trust and its effect on voter turnout. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between interpersonal and institutional trust and voter turnout in South Africa. Examining presently unused data for South Africa from the World Values Survey 2006 through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the argument is advanced that trust is a multidimensional concept that may be modelled by multivariate measurements. A logistic factor score regression model shows that a one-unit increase of trust in public institutions on average increases the odds of voting by 9 % whereas trust in private institutions and interpersonal trust have no significant effects. The results imply that trust- strengthening actions may be of interest to South African public institutions to increase electoral participation and legitimise election outcomes.