Ivan Harsløf, Mirela Slomic, Ole Kristian Sandnes Håvold
Several countries have introduced devices for coordination of complicated individual cases across care, health and welfare services. This study examined one such device: the individual care plan (ICP), introduced in Norway in 2001 to enhance user involvement and coordination across sectors and service providers. Despite strong political imperatives, however, ICPs have remained significantly underused. To understand why, this study investigated the experiences with ICPs among staff in municipal coordinating units, tasked with organising rehabilitation efforts and caseworkers in local labour and welfare services. In focus groups, participants discussed the fictitious vignette of a patient with traumatic brain injury, a person clearly within the ICP target group. They praised ICPs for advancing the rehabilitation process but acknowledged that they were applied too rarely. Through abductive-retroductive recontextualisation, this study identified a practice of de-facto self-targeting: in some municipalities, patients had to request ICPs themselves. We argue that this mechanism may have emerged from ambiguous propensities of rehabilitation, simultaneously emphasising needs and potentials, and ultimately from ambiguities in the Norwegian welfare model balancing universalism and local autonomy.
{"title":"Establishing Individual Care Plans for Rehabilitation Patients: Traces of Self-Targeting in the Norwegian Universal Welfare State","authors":"Ivan Harsløf, Mirela Slomic, Ole Kristian Sandnes Håvold","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2686","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2686","url":null,"abstract":"Several countries have introduced devices for coordination of complicated individual cases across care, health and welfare services. This study examined one such device: the individual care plan (ICP), introduced in Norway in 2001 to enhance user involvement and coordination across sectors and service providers. Despite strong political imperatives, however, ICPs have remained significantly underused. To understand why, this study investigated the experiences with ICPs among staff in municipal coordinating units, tasked with organising rehabilitation efforts and caseworkers in local labour and welfare services. In focus groups, participants discussed the fictitious vignette of a patient with traumatic brain injury, a person clearly within the ICP target group. They praised ICPs for advancing the rehabilitation process but acknowledged that they were applied too rarely. Through abductive-retroductive recontextualisation, this study identified a practice of de-facto self-targeting: in some municipalities, patients had to request ICPs themselves. We argue that this mechanism may have emerged from ambiguous propensities of rehabilitation, simultaneously emphasising needs and potentials, and ultimately from ambiguities in the Norwegian welfare model balancing universalism and local autonomy.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"249 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130733723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In Denmark, as in other welfare societies worldwide, the organisation and ideology of welfare are becoming increasingly influenced by neoliberal ideas. In practice, this means that the original intention behind the provision of social support, which was grounded in the notion of social responsibility, is gradually being pushed aside by notions of responsibilisation, with concepts such as deservingness and work ethic appearing to dominate the discourse. Based on long-term fieldwork and interviews conducted with socially disadvantaged Danes living on social security, this article engages with the current debates regarding responsibility and highlights some of the challenges arising from living a life that diverges from what has been termed Danish ‘in-between middle-classness’. We argue that the divergence between the promise of welfare, the current landscape of political regulation and expectations of individual responsibility leads to new forms of uncertainty, as experienced by those who depend on the services provided by the welfare state. One implication of this is that welfare seems to increasingly be tied to an agenda of sameness, whereby citizenship stems less from a imagination of sameness than from an expectation of sameness.
{"title":"Welfare transformations and expectations of sameness. Living on the margins in Denmark.","authors":"C. Merrild, R. S. Andersen","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2858","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2858","url":null,"abstract":"In Denmark, as in other welfare societies worldwide, the organisation and ideology of welfare are becoming increasingly influenced by neoliberal ideas. In practice, this means that the original intention behind the provision of social support, which was grounded in the notion of social responsibility, is gradually being pushed aside by notions of responsibilisation, with concepts such as deservingness and work ethic appearing to dominate the discourse. Based on long-term fieldwork and interviews conducted with socially disadvantaged Danes living on social security, this article engages with the current debates regarding responsibility and highlights some of the challenges arising from living a life that diverges from what has been termed Danish ‘in-between middle-classness’. We argue that the divergence between the promise of welfare, the current landscape of political regulation and expectations of individual responsibility leads to new forms of uncertainty, as experienced by those who depend on the services provided by the welfare state. One implication of this is that welfare seems to increasingly be tied to an agenda of sameness, whereby citizenship stems less from a imagination of sameness than from an expectation of sameness.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"111 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133257095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pınar Aslan, Nader Ahmadi, Stefan Sjöberg, E. Wikström
In this article, we examine family influences on occupational aspirations among employed descendants of Middle Eastern immigrants. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with native-born descendants of Middle Eastern immigrants. We present and analyse their interpretations of their parents’ experiences and living conditions before, during and after migration and demonstrate how these interpretations shaped their own occupational aspirations. We discuss parents’ high expectations of their children in relation to ethnic-community valuations of educational and occupational achievements. These high expectations may increase the chances of social mobility but can also become a negative pressure, especially if parents set high standards but cannot help their children to meet those expectations. In these cases, older siblings who possess valuable knowledge of the educational system and labour market can function as important transferrers of resources.
{"title":"What Works? Family Influences on Occupational Aspirations among Descendants of Middle Eastern Immigrants on the Swedish Labour Market","authors":"Pınar Aslan, Nader Ahmadi, Stefan Sjöberg, E. Wikström","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2235","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we examine family influences on occupational aspirations among employed descendants of Middle Eastern immigrants. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with native-born descendants of Middle Eastern immigrants. We present and analyse their interpretations of their parents’ experiences and living conditions before, during and after migration and demonstrate how these interpretations shaped their own occupational aspirations. We discuss parents’ high expectations of their children in relation to ethnic-community valuations of educational and occupational achievements. These high expectations may increase the chances of social mobility but can also become a negative pressure, especially if parents set high standards but cannot help their children to meet those expectations. In these cases, older siblings who possess valuable knowledge of the educational system and labour market can function as important transferrers of resources.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133245851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. M. Steigen, B. Eriksson, R. Kogstad, H. Toft, Daniel Bergh
Young adults with mental health problems who do not attend school or work constitute a significant welfare challenge in Norway. The welfare services available to these individuals include nature-based services, which are primarily located on farms and integrate the natural and agricultural environment into their daily activities. The aim of this study is to examine young adults (16–30 years old) not attending school or work who participated in nature-based services in Norway. In particular, the study analyses mental health problems among the participants and in-group variations regarding their symptoms of mental health problems using the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL-10). This paper compares symptoms of mental health problems among participants in nature-based services with those of a sample from the general population and a sample of those receiving clinical in-patient mental healthcare. A questionnaire was developed for the study and was completed by 93 participants in nature-based services. The majority of these participants were recruited from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), local mental health services, and school authorities. Results indicate that just more than half of the respondents exhibited symptoms of mental health problems based on their HSCL-10 scores. In general, they reported fewer symptoms than the clinical in-patient sample (18–30 years old) and more symptoms than the general population sample (18–19 years old). Among the participants in nature-based services, those recruited through NAV and local mental health services exhibited no differences in symptoms. Half of the participants older than 23 years in nature-based services had not completed upper secondary school. The participants, including those with symptoms of mental health problems and low expectations at the outset of their participation, generally expressed high satisfaction with the services.
{"title":"Young Adults in Nature-Based Services in Norway—In-Group and Between-Group Variations Related to Mental Health Problems","authors":"A. M. Steigen, B. Eriksson, R. Kogstad, H. Toft, Daniel Bergh","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2301","url":null,"abstract":"Young adults with mental health problems who do not attend school or work constitute a significant welfare challenge in Norway. The welfare services available to these individuals include nature-based services, which are primarily located on farms and integrate the natural and agricultural environment into their daily activities. The aim of this study is to examine young adults (16–30 years old) not attending school or work who participated in nature-based services in Norway. In particular, the study analyses mental health problems among the participants and in-group variations regarding their symptoms of mental health problems using the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL-10). This paper compares symptoms of mental health problems among participants in nature-based services with those of a sample from the general population and a sample of those receiving clinical in-patient mental healthcare. A questionnaire was developed for the study and was completed by 93 participants in nature-based services. The majority of these participants were recruited from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), local mental health services, and school authorities. Results indicate that just more than half of the respondents exhibited symptoms of mental health problems based on their HSCL-10 scores. In general, they reported fewer symptoms than the clinical in-patient sample (18–30 years old) and more symptoms than the general population sample (18–19 years old). Among the participants in nature-based services, those recruited through NAV and local mental health services exhibited no differences in symptoms. Half of the participants older than 23 years in nature-based services had not completed upper secondary school. The participants, including those with symptoms of mental health problems and low expectations at the outset of their participation, generally expressed high satisfaction with the services.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121060290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The article examines the challenges to self-organisation and upscaling of alternative economies from the viewpoint of defending and negotiating social space. Timebanks in Finland and the UK are presented as examples, analysing the difference of defending such social space in the contexts of a traditional welfare state (in the case of Finland) and an austerity-driven government with a “Big Society” ideology (in the case of UK). Both systems of government present different kinds of pressures on timebanks, pushing them to a given ontological categories and to action in accordance with pre-defined political goals. This difference, along with timebank reactions and the question of prospects of opening ontological space, is analysed through material from observation, interviews with timebanks activists and brokers, and survey data from timebank users.
{"title":"Social Space for Self-Organising: An Exploratory Study of Timebanks in Finland and in the UK","authors":"T. Eskelinen","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2148","url":null,"abstract":"The article examines the challenges to self-organisation and upscaling of alternative economies from the viewpoint of defending and negotiating social space. Timebanks in Finland and the UK are presented as examples, analysing the difference of defending such social space in the contexts of a traditional welfare state (in the case of Finland) and an austerity-driven government with a “Big Society” ideology (in the case of UK). Both systems of government present different kinds of pressures on timebanks, pushing them to a given ontological categories and to action in accordance with pre-defined political goals. This difference, along with timebank reactions and the question of prospects of opening ontological space, is analysed through material from observation, interviews with timebanks activists and brokers, and survey data from timebank users.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"79 4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115043564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aim: The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of and more knowledge about the experience of transgender women in terms of identity and self-understanding. Method: Data are collected from six Norwegian adult transgender women who have told their life stories. A narrative analysis is used to analyse the stories of the participants. The narrative focus is on themes relating to identity, self-understanding and belonging. Results: The results of the study show that the participants exclusively have a female identity and sense of belonging. Despite this, two of the participants prefer to live as males out of consideration for those in their surroundings. The self-understanding of the informants is expressed in different ways, depending on personality and life experience. Conclusion: Whether or not one has ‘come out of the closet’ seems to be important for both identity and self-understanding. The participants who are open about their identity seem more secure than those who are not. The more acceptance and recognition they get from the social environment, the more it appears that the women in this study dare to be who they are.
{"title":"Identity and self-understanding among transgender women in Norway","authors":"V. Moen, I. Aune","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2151","url":null,"abstract":"Aim: The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of and more knowledge about the experience of transgender women in terms of identity and self-understanding. \u0000Method: Data are collected from six Norwegian adult transgender women who have told their life stories. A narrative analysis is used to analyse the stories of the participants. The narrative focus is on themes relating to identity, self-understanding and belonging. \u0000Results: The results of the study show that the participants exclusively have a female identity and sense of belonging. Despite this, two of the participants prefer to live as males out of consideration for those in their surroundings. The self-understanding of the informants is expressed in different ways, depending on personality and life experience. \u0000Conclusion: Whether or not one has ‘come out of the closet’ seems to be important for both identity and self-understanding. The participants who are open about their identity seem more secure than those who are not. The more acceptance and recognition they get from the social environment, the more it appears that the women in this study dare to be who they are.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122424358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article asks whether legal rights provided through national legislation on services provision in Scandinavia have become, over time, more accommodating to the role of family caregiving to elderly relatives. The study is based on a comparison and analysis of changes in legislation between 1993 and 2014 in the three Scandinavian countries. It is limited to legislation on the right to eldercare services and on work-family facilitating policies in relation to the provision of care to an elderly relative. Work-family facilitating policies are those policies that enable the combining of employment in the formal economy with caring for family members without large prohibitive costs for the caregiver. The main findings in this article are that the Scandinavian countries strengthened the legal right to public care services between 1993 and 2014, but that there are few, if any, truly work-family facilitating policies. The existing schemes do not facilitate a combination of employment and care, but rather force the family caregiver to choose between them. The dilemma is whether to continue passively with a high, but declining, level of public service provision of eldercare, leaving unmet care needs to unpaid family carers, or to introduce work-family facilitating policies enabling remunerated family care in addition to extensive public services provision.
{"title":"Eldercare policies in Scandinavia between 1993 and 2014: increased facilitation of family caregiving?","authors":"C. Martens","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2145","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract \u0000This article asks whether legal rights provided through national legislation on services provision in Scandinavia have become, over time, more accommodating to the role of family caregiving to elderly relatives. The study is based on a comparison and analysis of changes in legislation between 1993 and 2014 in the three Scandinavian countries. It is limited to legislation on the right to eldercare services and on work-family facilitating policies in relation to the provision of care to an elderly relative. Work-family facilitating policies are those policies that enable the combining of employment in the formal economy with caring for family members without large prohibitive costs for the caregiver. The main findings in this article are that the Scandinavian countries strengthened the legal right to public care services between 1993 and 2014, but that there are few, if any, truly work-family facilitating policies. The existing schemes do not facilitate a combination of employment and care, but rather force the family caregiver to choose between them. The dilemma is whether to continue passively with a high, but declining, level of public service provision of eldercare, leaving unmet care needs to unpaid family carers, or to introduce work-family facilitating policies enabling remunerated family care in addition to extensive public services provision.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131553069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Introduction: The Norwegian government is addressing the need for increased voluntary work in the municipal care sector. Several reforms over the last decades have transferred important care tasks to the municipalities, as it is a political aim for people to live longer in their own homes. Despite important structural changes in the provision of public care services, less attention has been devoted to the investigation of how voluntary work interacts with the overall development of care tasks within municipal care services. This paper aims to discover how the contribution of volunteers matches the current needs of service recipients and the daily work of professional staff and, additionally, to discover what level of volunteer competence and qualifications are considered necessary when cooperating with staff.Method: Eight case studies addressing opportunities and barriers to voluntary work in long-term care were carried out. Our study included participants from both voluntary organisations and long-term care.Results: Volunteers were considered to fill important functions and gaps by providing social support, offering activities and by communicating with the service recipients. However, the poor health of service recipients risked putting undue strain on volunteers. Volunteers need to have personal qualifications, such as good observation and communication skills, in order to function well and be useful in their role as volunteers.Discussion: Care is seen as a complex task requiring time, effort, and technical and social skills. Relational care is not easily distinguished from the overall care needs of service recipients. Service recipients in the municipalities are seen as increasingly frail and have complex health needs. With the expected increase in the number of elderly with dementia in the future, we may need to question whether volunteers are equipped to take on such advanced health problems.
{"title":"Not just \"sweet old ladies\" - challenges in voluntary work in the long-term care services","authors":"Laila Tingvold, Nina Olsvold","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2174","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: The Norwegian government is addressing the need for increased voluntary work in the municipal care sector. Several reforms over the last decades have transferred important care tasks to the municipalities, as it is a political aim for people to live longer in their own homes. Despite important structural changes in the provision of public care services, less attention has been devoted to the investigation of how voluntary work interacts with the overall development of care tasks within municipal care services. This paper aims to discover how the contribution of volunteers matches the current needs of service recipients and the daily work of professional staff and, additionally, to discover what level of volunteer competence and qualifications are considered necessary when cooperating with staff.Method: Eight case studies addressing opportunities and barriers to voluntary work in long-term care were carried out. Our study included participants from both voluntary organisations and long-term care.Results: Volunteers were considered to fill important functions and gaps by providing social support, offering activities and by communicating with the service recipients. However, the poor health of service recipients risked putting undue strain on volunteers. Volunteers need to have personal qualifications, such as good observation and communication skills, in order to function well and be useful in their role as volunteers.Discussion: Care is seen as a complex task requiring time, effort, and technical and social skills. Relational care is not easily distinguished from the overall care needs of service recipients. Service recipients in the municipalities are seen as increasingly frail and have complex health needs. With the expected increase in the number of elderly with dementia in the future, we may need to question whether volunteers are equipped to take on such advanced health problems.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"95 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124627246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lill Susann Ynnesdal Haugen, Andreas Envy, T. Ekeland, M. Borg, N. Anderssen
Since the 1960s, deinstitutionalisation has been salient in mental health reforms across the West. In Norway, this culminated in the National Action Plan for Mental Health (1999-2008), where meeting places in community mental health care were deemed a prioritised strategy to counter social isolation among people in psychosocial hardships. However, during the same period in England, meeting places were beginning to be contested for contributing to social exclusion. This is an inquiry of meeting places in Norway guided by the following research question: How do service users discuss their encounters with the spaces and people of meeting places? Situated in community psychology and participatory research traditions, we engaged in a participatory discourse analysis of four focus group discussions with 22 service users from meeting places. We detail and discuss four central discursive constructions of meeting places against the backdrop of a civil society identified as fraught with sanism that stigmatises and excludes service users: a compensatory public welfare arrangement positioning service users as citizens with social rights; a peer community positioning service users as peers who share common identities and interests; spaces of compassion validating service users as fellow human beings who are precious in their own right; and greenhouses facilitating service users to expand their horizons of possibility. This inquiry implies that meeting places could mean everything to the people who attend them by facilitating opportunities considered less accessible elsewhere in their everyday lives in a sanist civil society.
{"title":"A participatory discourse analysis of service users’ accounts of meeting places in Norwegian community mental health care","authors":"Lill Susann Ynnesdal Haugen, Andreas Envy, T. Ekeland, M. Borg, N. Anderssen","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2149","url":null,"abstract":"Since the 1960s, deinstitutionalisation has been salient in mental health reforms across the West. In Norway, this culminated in the National Action Plan for Mental Health (1999-2008), where meeting places in community mental health care were deemed a prioritised strategy to counter social isolation among people in psychosocial hardships. However, during the same period in England, meeting places were beginning to be contested for contributing to social exclusion. This is an inquiry of meeting places in Norway guided by the following research question: How do service users discuss their encounters with the spaces and people of meeting places? Situated in community psychology and participatory research traditions, we engaged in a participatory discourse analysis of four focus group discussions with 22 service users from meeting places. We detail and discuss four central discursive constructions of meeting places against the backdrop of a civil society identified as fraught with sanism that stigmatises and excludes service users: a compensatory public welfare arrangement positioning service users as citizens with social rights; a peer community positioning service users as peers who share common identities and interests; spaces of compassion validating service users as fellow human beings who are precious in their own right; and greenhouses facilitating service users to expand their horizons of possibility. This inquiry implies that meeting places could mean everything to the people who attend them by facilitating opportunities considered less accessible elsewhere in their everyday lives in a sanist civil society.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131182468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abraham, Helms and Presser (2009) demonstrated that people who volunteer are more likely to participate in surveys. The apparent consequence of such a pattern among respondents is that estimates of volunteering could be biased. Surveys with voluntary work as the main topic could be further biased due to the volunteers’ interest on this issue compared with non-volunteers. The article uses panel data from Denmark in order to examine the bias due to panel attrition as a special kind of nonresponse bias and its consequences for estimates of volunteering. The results show that panel attrition leads to an overestimation of the share of people who volunteer.
{"title":"Getting it Right: Estimating the Share of Volunteers in Denmark","authors":"J. Hermansen","doi":"10.7577/NJSR.2146","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/NJSR.2146","url":null,"abstract":"Abraham, Helms and Presser (2009) demonstrated that people who volunteer are more likely to participate in surveys. The apparent consequence of such a pattern among respondents is that estimates of volunteering could be biased. Surveys with voluntary work as the main topic could be further biased due to the volunteers’ interest on this issue compared with non-volunteers. The article uses panel data from Denmark in order to examine the bias due to panel attrition as a special kind of nonresponse bias and its consequences for estimates of volunteering. The results show that panel attrition leads to an overestimation of the share of people who volunteer.","PeriodicalId":207067,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Social Research","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122447885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}