Soc. Sci., Volume 7, Issue 6 (June 2018) – 19 articles

The rise in unemployment is an important and urgent task to be tackled for the growth of economy in Korea. Although prior studies have revealed some factors leading to the creation of employment, studies simultaneously considering various factors, such as small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs’) basic factors, technology innovation activities, innovation capabilities, and the government policies, have been limited. This study seeks to design an integrated model that focuses on both SME and government policy factors associated with the creation of new employment. For this, we use the Korea Innovation Survey (KIS) data on 2828 firms in the manufacturing industry in Korea for 2013–2015. Using the multivariate regression model, we identified the association of SME and the government policy factors on the creation of employment. We show that sales, product innovation, organization innovation, and the support program by the government contributed to the job creation, whereas a firm’s age had a negative correlation with the creation of employment. The statistical results and discussion of our findings facilitate a better understanding of the association between various SMEs’ factors and the creation of employment, and therefore, should help in designing better policies and strategies for employment growth. Full article

Feedback systems of key performance indicators (KPIs) are crucial for companies to monitor their goals. To stay successful and to improve performance, the employees of a company are a potential resource as they build the link between resources and outcome. A hidden assumption in goal-setting is that the employees feel to have full influence on KPIs. Hence, employees’ self-efficacy about believing in one’s own capabilities and expectations about being able to influence KPIs are needed for organizational performance as well as high job satisfaction and work engagement. The present study examined whether influence expectations on KPIs can predict job satisfaction and work engagement above and beyond professional self-efficacy. Results from 136 bank employees in Austria showed that job satisfaction can be predicted by professional self-efficacy and influence expectations on bank-specific KPIs. Furthermore, professional self-efficacy, influence expectations on economic KPIs, and the influence expectations of the branch manager predicted work engagement. This study contributes to the importance of employees’ belief in their own skills and in their influence on KPIs to be satisfied and engaged at work. Furthermore, it offers innovative and useful insights into the measurement of influence expectations. Full article

In today’s turbulently expanding business environment, during the fourth industrial revolution, it is necessary to respond to market trends and to adapt strategy and organisational structure appropriately. The article is focused on the reorganisation and optimisation of the business organisation structure of global companies. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and evaluate the use of the territorial business structure, within the framework of a global company, based on experimental research. Experiences with the introduction of a territorial organisational structure in a corporate enterprise have proven to be highly effective long-term, with productivity and sales volumes increasing. This territorial setting can be considered as a competitive advantage, which matches predicted market trends and is suitable for global businesses. Full article

In June 2016, China promulgated the “Opinions of the State Council on Strengthening the Work of Rescuing Children in Difficulty”, which broadened the coverage of child welfare in China. The document clearly encourages and supports the participation of nonprofit charitable organizations in improving and complementing the public support system for children living in difficulty. This paper reports an assessment study of the relief program for children with congenital heart disease, which was launched by the Red Cross in L Province. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews with six Red Cross employees and 10 parents of stricken families, and telephone interviews with 66 recipient families, were carried out. Additionally, a review of a large number of background documents was analyzed to assess interventions by social organizations in the rescue of children in difficulty. The project was shown to reduce poverty and improve medical treatment for children with congenital heart disease. The role of nonprofit charitable organizations in relation to the child protection system can be characterized as “leak-filling”. Full article

Microaggressions are subtle verbal and non-verbal slights based on group membership, and they are ubiquitous in the lives of racial minorities, women, and LGBTQ individuals. The goal of the current paper is to introduce a role-playing based exercise on effective responses to microaggressions. The workshop draws on two previous prejudice responding workshops but integrates research-based strategies. Full article

There is a gap in the literature linking waste management practices to social theory. This paper attempts to bridge this gap through a study of waste management practices in Ala Ajagbusi village, Nigeria. The study explores how members of households in Ala Ajagbusi handle waste. The relevant themes of the empirical findings are categorized and linked to a social theory, Michel Foucault’s governmentality. The aim was to investigate how members of the households handle and make sense of their waste management practices. This research adopts a qualitative approach and is inspired by phenomenology. These are the bedrocks upon which the data collection methods are chosen and the interview questions are informed accordingly. The results show that villagers collectively, every week in a rotational manner, sweep their households, dispose of, and burn waste in public spaces. Villagers walk some miles from their households before they can empty their waste receptacles. Sometimes waste management behaviours are adjusted to seasonal variations. The findings also show that the villagers have no engagement with the state and local government concerning waste management. The results are linked to social theory to understand the waste management behaviours of villagers in Ala Ajagbusi. Full article

The cost of work absenteeism (sickness absence) is high in Norway (120 billion NOK), which threatens the economic sustainability of the Norwegian welfare state. Social sustainability is also challenged with women having a higher absenteeism rate than men. I use system dynamics modeling to explore how women attain a high rate of work absenteeism. Care work is the chosen case because this is the profession category where women are most represented. The results do not support the double burden theory, though several structural mechanisms indicate that competing theories of female absenteeism illustrate different sides of the same phenomenon. Full article

The index of dissimilarity (D) has historically been and continues to be a widely used quantitative measure of residential segregation. Conventional interpretations of D imply that normatively desirable residential patterns occur when ethnoracial compositions of lower-order geographic units (such as neighborhoods) match those of higher-order units (such as metropolitan areas). However, it is likely that average preferences for same-group contact in neighborhoods sometimes exceed group population shares in metropolitan areas. In such situations, there is mathematical tension between the capacity for group preferences for co-ethnic neighbors to be satisfied and the degree of residential segregation. In this article, I quantify this tension by calculating DΔ, or the difference between D and the minimum segregation measure D*, which returns the lower bound on segregation for a given average in-group preference level and ethnoracial share. Positive scores on DΔ indicate that a metropolitan area is more segregated than necessary to satisfy average group preferences, while negative scores indicate that observed residential patterns do not satisfy such preferences. I use data from the 2010 decennial census and 2006–2010 American Community Survey to analyze the associations between predictors of residential segregation and DΔ. Full article

This paper is a policy brief with targeted interviews of older adults in urban Ghana with recommendations for future healthcare policy. Using qualitative explorative approach, the scope of the research is to examine opportunities that focus on healthy aging in order to enhance healthcare infrastructure in Ghana in preparation for an increased number of older adults. The paper mainly finds that improved healthcare solicitation and the social world of older adults are intricately linked. The healthcare needs of older adults are met through diverse mechanisms—the Pensioners’ Medical Scheme and ceragim concept. These depict a transformation in healthcare access and delivery with implications for wider healthcare, solidarity and efficiency. Active ageing strategies therefore facilitate the provision of supplementary healthcare access by seeking health solutions independently, including the creation of awareness about the challenges and the concomitant health resource opportunities for older adults. These have the tendency for the development of an acumen for healthcare-related resilience. I argue that health-related challenges depict opportunities for smarter solutions and mutual growth, further showing that aging is gain and a human development issue that fosters the emergence of an integrated healthcare system. Crucially, the paper reveals that health-related challenges are used to leverage entry and participation in the healthcare products’ market and by extension access to quality and holistic healthcare services. This encompasses innovative healthcare infrastructural resources that Ghanaian older adults patronize. These health resources are worth pursuing and may need to be incorporated into the National Policy on Ageing, with envisaged universal coverage in focus. Full article

I discuss the challenges that feminist activists in academia have raised about how to deal with violence against women and girls (VAWG) and gender-related violence (GRV) through education and training. Whilst VAWG and GRV have been on feminist agendas since the early days of the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) in the 1960s and 1970s they were rarely linked with key demands for equal educational opportunities. It is still the case that feminist work on VAWG is rarely coupled with feminist studies in mainstream education. Drawing on a European Union (EU) funded study in the Daphne programme III—the GAP-work project—I consider strategies to address questions of VAWG and GRV for children and young people through education. This entailed involving ‘youth professionals’ and educators in four countries, namely Ireland, Italy, Spain and the UK in training. Drawing on this international educational work, I present an outline of a Feminist Manifesto or a ‘femifesta’ for education. This brings together feminist demands for policy changes in mainstream education through sex and relationships education to deal with VAWG and GRV, with feminist pedagogies to transform social and sexual or gender relations in schools. Full article

Inclusive education is now firmly established as the main educational policy for children with special educational needs and disabilities, which emerges as the mean of creating an inclusive society in which equal opportunities are provided. However, there are concerns expressed on the effect of such a change in the educational system and on how possible it is to make this a reality. The concerns and objections of educators toward inclusion are mainly based on the diversity of learning disabilities, the learning outcomes that could be generated by applying this practice, and the lack of confidence of teachers to teach in an inclusive environment. In this study, we examine teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education, while at the same time, we analyze current inclusive policies and practices in the Greek educational system. Results revealed that teachers have generally positive attitudes toward inclusion. However, they indicated some issues and barriers to the implementation of inclusion. We consider that policy-makers in Greece should target educator training and increase funding for education. Full article

There is a growing movement to integrate conceptual tools from the health inequalities field into research that examines the relationship between inequalities and chances of child protection system contact. This article outlines the key concepts of an inequalities perspective, and discusses how these apply to inequalities in child protection in the Aotearoa New Zealand context. Drawing on existing research, this article shows that while there is evidence of links between deprivation, ethnicity, location and system contact, a more systematic research agenda shaped by an inequalities perspective would contribute to understanding more fully the social determinants of contact with the child protection system. An inequalities perspective provides balance to the current ‘social investment’ policy approach that targets individuals and families for service provision, with little attention to how structural inequalities impact on system contact. Directions for research are discussed, with some specific questions suggested. These include questions relating to the relationships between social inequalities and various decision points in the child protection system; if a social gradient exists and how steep it is; the inter-relationship between ethnicity, deprivation and patterns of system contact; and how similarly deprived children in different locations compare with each other in relation to child protection system contact, that is, is there an ‘inverse intervention law’ operating? Full article

While disabled people embody a classical figure of vulnerability, this paper shifts the focus of attention to the vulnerability of their social rights. I address this question normatively and empirically. From a normative point of view, a common framing of disability rights as civil rights, under the influence of the Americans with disabilities Act (ADA), has tended to impede the discussion on disability social rights. By re-asserting that social rights are fundamental human rights, the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) contributes to bringing them back to the forefront of disability research. However, the realization of disability social rights also needs to be empirically assessed. Based on theories of social rights as well as on Weberian sociology of law, I point to two major ideal-typical characteristics of social rights: they are expected to reduce uncertainty, especially regarding the evolution of one’s autonomy, and to foster a sense of citizenship. I then study the reception of two types of disability benefits in France, the Adult disability benefit (AAH) and the Disability compensation benefit (PCH), to assess to what extent these promises of social rights translate into the experiences of disabled citizens. My analysis is based on 30 biographical interviews with people with either visual or mobility impairments, conducted between 2014 and 2016. The results show the persistent vulnerability of disability social rights in France, pointing to the importance of the procedural dimension of rights realization. Full article

One of the main predictors of being a victim of cyber-aggression is engaging in high-risk behaviours on the internet. The main objective of this research is to analyse the relationship between two types of parental control (restriction and supervision) and engagement in high-risk internet behaviours during adolescence. To that end, and as a secondary objective, we designed and validated the High-risk Internet Behaviours Questionnaire for adolescents, used in this study. We analysed the responses of 946 adolescents aged between 12 and 18 to the High-risk Internet Behaviours Questionnaire and the Questionnaire on Parental Control of Internet Use in Adolescence. The results show that the questionnaire has appropriate metrics of reliability and validity, and show the existence of a statistically significant negative relationship, albeit small, between supervision and engaging in high-risk internet behaviours. We discuss the practical implications of these results. Full article

In Disney’s box office sensation Frozen (2013), Elsa conjures powers rivaling those of Zeus, which is an echo of the shifting gender dynamics at the time of the film’s release. By independently creating offspring Olaf and Marshmallow through whirlwinds, Elsa’s parthenogenesis (virgin birth) evokes wind-driven pollination, allowing her to circumvent any male role in creation. However, Elsa’s autonomy clashes with the traditional gender hierarchy, which is reinforced by a cultural context replete with latent symbolic meanings. Examples include both carrots and carats as phallic symbols, eggs as representations of the procreative potential that is appropriated by men and devalued in women, gender bias in perceptions of magic and enchantment, and the value of the nubile nymph over the tempestuous termagant. The normalcy of male dominance likely drives the resolution of the plot, in which Elsa learns to wield power in a non-threatening manner. In addition to having implications for gender roles, Frozen also portrays a mélange of gender symbolism through Elsa’s snowmen creations, which function as an expression of the storm of controversy surrounding the subversion of binary conceptions of gender. In the end, Frozen serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers inherent in an unattached female as the ultimate potentate. This content analysis suggests that the film reflects fears surrounding the maelstrom of societal changes including expanding fertility options and the re-conceptualization of gender identity--pressing issues likely to sustain Frozen’s relevance. Full article

This study examines the correlation between corporate governance and corruption (firm bribery) using 8885 firms in four emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRICs). The sample firms are collected from the World Bank Enterprise Survey database. To estimate the corruption of a firm, a logistics regression is used. The dependent variable of the logistics regression is a dummy variable on firm bribery while the test variables are a corporate governance metric composed of an ownership structure proxied by the percentage of the largest ownership and that of foreign ownership, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) characteristics proxied by CEO gender and CEO experience in the same sector, and an external audit on a firm’s financial statements. We find that firm bribery is negatively associated with the percentage of the largest ownership and external audit on financial statements, but is positively related to CEO experience. These results suggest that increases in the largest ownership, external audits on financial statements, and a shorter tenure of a CEO in the same sector are negatively associated with firm bribery in BRICs. Full article

This research examined the effects of voluntary factory audits on labor conditions. Sometimes referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR) codes of conduct, corporations impose voluntary labor standards coupled with regular auditing to help ensure the protection of workers throughout their global production networks (GPNs). While some believe that auditing factories ensures that CSR codes of conduct are followed and helps private corporations promote higher labor standards, others argue that factory audits have little effect on labor standards at the factory level. Using unique panel data of internal factory audit reports of factories in four Southeast Asian countries between 2003 and 2010, this paper sought to understand whether voluntary GPN audits improve labor standards at the factory level. The results showed that a factory’s number of audits between 2003 and 2010 did not improve factory working conditions significantly and that the local neighborhood in which a factory is located has a greater effect on changes in factory audit scores. These findings suggest that CSR codes of conduct and auditing alone are not sufficient to improve labor standards in GPNs. Rather, joint private-public collaboration is needed to improve labor conditions for workers in the global south. Full article

This paper presents the results of a quantitative study in the Czech Republic to understand travellers’ attitudes towards and motivation to use different means of transport. Two Czech cities, Olomouc and Ostrava, are compared from the point of view of factors influencing spatial and temporal patterns and citizen’s selection of transport mode and transport behaviour (range and daily movements of the population, perception of the quality of public transport etc.). The data for the analysis were obtained from the survey with more than 500 respondents in each city. Spatial and temporal behaviour represented by the pattern of the movement in Olomouc and Ostrava city was identified by statistical and visual analytics methods. Based on a case study of two cities of a different size, we conclude that the size and shape of the city centre (spatial structure) influence not only the distances travelled but also the average speed of public transportation (slower for a smaller city). Distances and choice of transport mode also vary with the density of urban areas but can also be influenced by the spatial structure of the city. The walking distance to a public transport stop does not influence the most frequently used mode of transport. Temporal patterns in both cities are very similar and are not dependent on city size or city spatial structure. The spatial patterns of the car and public transport flows are similar in both cities. Different patterns can be observed for walking and shopping routes. Full article

During the Cold War, two basic schools of thought emerged among U.S. Christian leaders and ethicists concerning the implications of the nuclear revolution for the use of force by the United States. The just war thinkers held that nuclear war could in fact be conducted within the bounds of traditional just war principles, particularly those of discrimination and proportionality. Since nuclear weapons could be used in war, it followed that they could and should be developed and produced for that purpose and for the purpose of deterrence. The nuclear pacifists held that nuclear war could not be conducted within the confines of traditional just war principles. Since by its nature nuclear war could not be moral, there was no reason for the development and production of nuclear weapons, except for the purpose of deterrence. And since nuclear deterrence required one to make threats of nuclear destruction that it would not be moral to carry out, and, moreover, carried unacceptable risks of miscalculation and inadvertent or accidental use of nuclear weapons, deterrence itself could not be justified, except perhaps as a temporary way station on the path to nuclear disarmament. Although the just war thinkers initially held sway, over time they became less dominant. By the middle of the 1980s, the U.S. Catholic Church and most of the largest Mainline Protestant denominations had formally adopted a nuclear pacifist position. This essay chronicles the victory of nuclear pacifism in these churches, explains it as a reaction to the nuclear weapons and doctrine advocated by the just war thinkers, and implemented by the U.S. government and military, as well as other events and trends in American society, and inquires as to whether or not the just war thinkers and nuclear pacifists influenced the course of U.S. policy. Full article