Mens & Maatschappij - Volume 88, Issue 2, 2013

Nadat ik enige tijd geleden met een collega een subsidie voor een onderzoeksproject ontving, gingen we op zoek naar een geschikte onderzoeker. Na bestudering van brieven en CV’s bleven er acht kandidaten over. Voor de zekerheid trokken we de kandidaten na via Google en binnen enkele minuten vonden we van twee kandidaten bijzonder gênante uitingen en foto’s. De sollicitanten leken ons zeer getalenteerd, maar we nodigden hen toch maar niet uit voor een gesprek.

‘Sociologie, dat is geen vak,’ poneerde een jonge prinses Beatrix ooit op de receptie na een academische plechtigheid, waarop Ivan Gadourek haar antwoordde: “Majesteit, dan moeten we er een vak van maken”. Het is een typerende opmerking voor Ivan Gadourek, die op 19 april 2013, bijna negentig jaar oud, overleed. Gadourek was ad rem, humoristisch en in welke situatie dan ook bereid zijn liefdes te verdedigen. En de sociologie behoorde tot die liefdes, naast zijn twee vaderlanden en de bergen die daar tussen lagen.

Financial strain and informal social isolation: The role of macro-economic circumstances and social protection expenditure in 32 European countries in the decade after the turn of the century.

This study examines to what extent financial strain, that is, difficulties to cope on one’s income, is related to informal social isolation, that is, lacking social contacts with friend, relatives and colleagues. We consider to what extent macro-economic conditions and social protection expenditure affect informal social isolation as well as the relationship between financial strain and informal social isolation. Moreover, we study to what extent the effect of social protection expenditure on informal social isolation is weaker or stronger under varying macro-economic conditions. We perform multilevel analyses, taking advantage of data derived from the European Social Survey (2002-2010). Our findings show that experiencing financial strain induces social isolation. In economically less developed countries, informal social isolation is higher; in nations with high levels of social security expenditure, it is lower. Finally, particularly financially strained people suffer in terms of informal social isolation when macro-economic conditions are disadvantageous and welfare state expenditure is low.

Intergenerational transmission of risk behaviour: the association between smoking, alcohol use, and unhealthy eating habits of parents and their adult children.

Employing information on more than 1200 individuals from the Family Survey Dutch Population 2000, we study to what extent risk behaviour (smoking, alcohol use, and unhealthy eating habits) is transmitted intergenerationally from parents to their adult children. Moreover, by building on theoretical notions on the socialization of risk behavior, we derive expectations on differential effects of parental risk behaviour for daughters and sons, and for low and high educated children. Our results show that risk behaviour of parents indeed has a stimulating effect on the smoking, drinking, and eating habits of their offspring. The transmission of abstinence and excessive alcohol use of mothers is stronger for daughters, whereas the transmission of excessive alcohol use of fathers is stronger for sons. Furthermore, higher educated children are less likely to be a smoker when they have a moderately smoking mother, and alcohol abstinence of the father leads to a lower risk of excessive alcohol use among higher educated children.

Integration and depression.

The relationship between social-cultural integration and symptoms of depression among Turkish and Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands.

In this study we described differences in the prevalence of depressive symptoms among first and second generation Turkish and Moroccan migrants and Native Dutch. Furthermore, we scrutinized to what extent differences in socio-cultural integration are related to differences in the prevalence of depressive symptoms. Hypotheses are tested using the NEtherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (NELLS). Results show that first and second generation Turkish migrants and first generation Moroccan migrants experience more depressive symptoms than Native Dutch. For migrants, maintaining weak and strong ties with native Dutch is related to less symptoms of depression. Ethnic and national identification protect against depressive symptoms. Living according to Islamic rules is not related to depressive symptoms. We did not observe that bicultural migrants – migrants who have strong ethnic and national identifications and migrants who maintain social relationships with ethnic ingroup members and with native Dutch – experience more depressive symptoms. Differences in socio-cultural integration hardly explain differences in depressive symptoms among first and second generation Turkish and Moroccan migrants.

Interorganizational collaboration in the public sector. A case study on a network of organizations around criminal youth.

Recently, the municipality of Amsterdam initiated the ‘Top600 approach’ in which more than 30 organizations should cooperate in order to get 600 young violent offenders back on the right track. This article describes the intended and the existing collaborative relationships and investigates which factors affect whether collaboration has come about. Hypotheses are derived from previous American studies on this topic. A social network analysis shows that there are three times as many collaborative relationships between the organizations as intended. And most of the factors that played a role in the American context, also influenced the degree of interorganizational collaboration in the Netherlands (Amsterdam). A history of collaboration and common organization goals – factors that exist regardless of the Top600 approach – are playing a major role. Among the specific policies of the Top600 approach especially the making of agreements on cooperation is effective. Finally, for the frequency of contact and for mutual respect, understanding and trust it is not clear whether they lead to collaboration or whether they are a consequence of collaboration. Most likely they mutually reinforce each other. 1. Inleiding