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This book deals with community-building as it manifested itself in early modern 's-Hertogenbosch. Citizenship and autonomous collective organisations were phenomena that were present in all West-European cities. Mostly men organised themselves in among others civic militias, craft-guilds and the reformed congregation: corporations that may be considered the most important institutions of the middling sort. The members of the corporate institutions rendered their services to a great extent to the master-corporation, their domicile. On the basis of the situation in 's-Hertogenbosch the following questions will be answered: 1. how was civil society formed in Dutch cities in the seventeenth and eighteenth century; 2. in what way did the corporate institutions contribute to the local community-building; 3. how did these social connections develop in time. Craft-guilds, civic militias and the church created a bond between the people. By their regulations members of these corporations took up a juridically clearly defined position towards the inhabitants who did not belong, and especially towards foreigners. In the corporations individual freedom was not sought as its highest goal, but the welfare of the collective. The corporations offered their members dignity, social acceptance, participation, sociability and protection in times of distress, and they bore responsibility for the organization of the city. In this book there is definitely a place for conflict as well. A harmonious and prosperous society is in the view of communautarists like Robert Putnam's almost the natural outcome from citizens cooperating in unions. Conflict forms an essential part of the interaction between people. In spite of the conflicts corporations did not collapse. Corporations underlined the importance of the social bond for the individual as well as the community. The main obstacle was religion. The policy of the town council was directed towards a fair and just treatment of the different confessions within the framework of the Capitulation Treaty of 1629 and the "laws of The Hague". The town council was the guardian of the common interest and it corrected the corporations that were inclined to serve their own ends. Skipping the details Robert Putnam draws attention to the corporations in North-Italian city-states that caused civil communities to bloom. Putnam relates this to the present American society. He just like Amitai Etzioni, another important community-thinker, recognizes the importance of social connections in which members cooperate, have discussions and in doing so keep democracy alive. Communautarists pay attention to the transmitting of norms and values. Corporations in early modern times also were emphatically engaged in this. What applied to Putnam's city-states in the late Middle Ages also applies to the corporations in early modern 's-Hertogenbosch. Members of the corporations created a lively culture of discussion, a necessary condition for a community on its way to democracy. (Jonathan Israel states that 'the democratic republic [started] in the Republiek') In order to deliberate with one another it is important that the partners in deliberation trust one another. Cooperating within social connections and delegating responsibilities is only possible, as Fukuyama points out, if there is trust. Both within the guilds and the militias this trust could grow because quite soon after the Reduction of 1629 the catholic and reformed members started to work on the ecumenicity of everyday life. Schilling and Blickle both ascertain, ignoring details, that changes into a democratic direction in early modern times were initiated bottom-up in small connections. The discussion that Tönnies started on Gesellschaft und Gemeinschaft is still very much alive especially when we take into account the 'golden rules' of Etzioni. He draws attention to the smaller connections - intermediary institutions - that a democratic communitarian society, a 'community of communities' needs if it is to stay alive.

Intro -- Industriële statistiek als technologie voor het oplossen van problemen -- 1. Professionele probleemoplossers -- 2. Statistiek als methoden en technieken om problemen op te lossen -- 3. Competentie in het oplossen van problemen als onderdeel van professionaliteit -- 4. Industriële statistiek als wetenschap -- 5. Rijles en onderwijs in de industriële statistiek -- 6. De name of the game -- 7. Tot slot: erkenning en dank -- Noten -- Referenties.

De overheid intervenieert in talloze maatschappelijke processen om sociale problemen op te lossen. De bedoelingen zijn goed, maar de resultaten zijn vaak teleurstellend. Veel overheidsbeleid brengt ongewenste, onbedoelde effecten met zich mee. In de studie Fatale remedies wordt specifiek ingegaan op het bijstandsbeleid, het migratie- en integratiebeleid en het grootestedenbeleid. Er wordt een pleidooi gehouden voor een sceptische beleidsanalyse en adviezen die geen genoegen nemen met simpele beleidsremedies als 'meer' of 'minder' overheid. Verder wordt aandacht besteed aan de relatie tussen we

Using online communities as a market research tool
Using online communities as a market research tool
This article describes the methodological advantages and disadvantages regarding the use of online communities as a market research tool.The advantages include the facilitation of an ethnographic approach due to the use of multiple research methods, the anonymity of a virtual environment, and the effect of unconscious thought processing. This allows for greater insights into the life worlds of consumers. Nonetheless, there are also disadvantages. The lack of body language makes the interpretation process more difficult. In addition, there is also loss of respondent interaction, especially in comparison to traditional focus group discussions.

The political map of Europe was transformed by the collapse of the Soviet Union & the reunification of Germany, ending four decades of stability & leading to new political configurations: the emergence of the independent Baltic states -- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania -- with regional links not only to neighboring Russia but to Western Europe as well. The recent political history of the Baltic states is summarized, from their interwar independence to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact & their renewed independence in the early 1990s. Also discussed are postindependence demographic & social problems & prospects in the Baltics: the presence of large Russian minorities, language tests for citizenship, & the states' aspirations for European Union membership. The European Union has tried to serve as go-between for the region, & there are especially close & positive ties between the Baltic states & the Nordic countries. A. Siegel

In het Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioral Research presenteren Tashakorri en Teddlie (2003) de term 'Mixed Methods-benadering' als aanduiding voor wat zij noemen de third methodological movement. Volgens hen verdient deze onderzoeksbenadering, die in de afgelopen decennia is ontwikkeld en toegepast om een veelheid aan praktische problemen op te lossen, een eigen benaming. Zij zijn niet de enigen. De afgelopen jaren is ook in andere handboeken Mixed Methods als een onderzoeksbenadering gepresenteerd (zie onder meer Creswell, 2003; Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2006). Het kenmerk van deze onderzoeksbenadering is dat het om de combinatie van de kwalitatieve en kwantitatieve methode gaat. Combinaties van verschillende kwalitatieve of kwantitatieve methoden worden niet als mixed opgevat.

In the public debate and amongst scientists anxiety prevails concerning the situation of modern parliamentary democracy regarding nearly all established of nearly democracies. The concern focuses on the electoral loss of middle parties and heavily fluctuating election results, and the rise of radical Left and Right, where words such as pallet democracy, crisis and Weimar republic are used. The author sketches the outlines of different research directions he studied regarding European politics: voter behavior; decreasing importance of the Left-Right antagonism; decreasing political faith; increasing numbers of extreme Right parties. This to study more closely the different aspects of the alleged crisis of European party democracies (do citizens have unrealistically high expectations of government; the evolution from cartel parties to campaign parties, including the growing importance of the media; lack of party representation for large groups of citizens). Foremost, the author mentions that neo-liberal economic policies of the European Union do not parallel public opinion of EU member states. Figures. O. van Zijl

Als redacteurs zijn we verguld met de positieve bespreking van ons boek door Ilse van Liempt. De focus op ethiek die zij waardeert, was precies een van de redenen om dit boek samen te stellen. Iedereen die korte of langere tijd 'in het veld' heeft gezeten, kent genoeg voorbeelden van ethische dilemma's waarmee hij of zij geconfronteerd werd. Het was niet de bedoeling om ethische dilemma's op te lossen (als het zo makkelijk was, was een boek misschien niet eens nodig geweest), maar wel om auteurs de gelegenheid te bieden de dilemma's open en eerlijk over het voetlicht te brengen, te bespreken en te laten zien hoe zij daarmee om zijn gegaan.We willen gebruik maken van de geboden mogelijkheid om te reageren door twee aspecten te belichten die Van Liempt naar voren brengt. Het eerste gaat over ons pleidooi voor 'slow research' en het tweede over seksuele intimidatie tijdens het veldwerk.Van Liempt stelt:

In a well-functioning democracy voters should elect parties and representatives with whom they agree on policy issues. The current paper investigates the extent to which Dutch voters in the 2017 parliamentary election had accurate information about parties' policy positions. We elicit the extent to which voters think they vote for parties with whom they maximally agree (subjective congruence) and the extent to which this is actually true (objective congruence). Results show voters in our sample to have accurate information about approximately half of the policy positions of a random large party. Only 21.5 percent voted for a party with whom they were maximally objectively congruent. Objective congruence does not increase with information accuracy. Voters appear to consciously accept losses in terms of subjective congruence, as only 34.7 percent votes for a party with whom they think to be maximally congruent. These results are compatible with the interpretation of voters first choosing a party, and then (to some degree) adapting their personal policy positions to those of the chosen party.

Public administration; Political science - De gangen van mensen worden steeds meer traceerbaar. Er is een bonte verzameling ict-applicaties op het toneel van mobiliteit verschenen, waarmee informatie over de locatie wordt gegenereerd. Het denken over de persoonlijke levenssfeer en de bescherming van privacy loopt bij deze ontwikkelingen achterop. Dat komt omdat locatie-informatie op het eerste gezicht niet echt privé lijkt. Wie zich in het openbaar beweegt, kan immers door iedereen worden geobserveerd. Waarnemen staat vrij, en de openbare ruimte heet niet voor niets openbaar. Desondanks is er reden genoeg - vooral door het voortschrijden van de techniek - om locatie-informatie als een urgent onderdeel van het privacydebat aan te merken. De studie analyseert de meest markante ict-applicaties die de overheid inzet om mobiliteitsvragen op te lossen. Dit zijn achtereenvolgens de verzamelcategorie 'intelligente transportsystemen' (its), de ov-chipkaart, de kilometerprijsregistratie en automatische kentekenherkenning (anpr). Deze systemen dragen bij aan de digitalisering van de openbare ruimte en daarmee van de levenssfeer 'onderweg'. Hoe het met die levenssfeer is gesteld, hangt af van een aantal factoren die de kracht of zwakte van de constructie van privacybescherming bepalen, zoals technologische betrouwbaarheid, secundair gebruik van informatie en accountability. Dit mondt uit in de diagnose dat realistisch gezien steeds meer locatie-informatie zal worden gegenereerd. Maar daarom komt het er des te meer op aan dat de kwaliteit van de institutionele omlijsting van de gebruikte technologie verbeterd wordt, en er dus verder wordt gekeken dan naar technisch kunnen alleen.

How does the use of ict affect the relationship between government and its citizens? This book analyses the developments of networking information and concludes that in everyday practice an iGovernment has gradually come into existence, overtaking the old paradigm of the eGoverment. The iGoverment, effectively running at full speed on information flows and networks, is however seriously out of step with the self-image of the digital government, and the existing structure and division of responsibilities. This book is based on the report on iGovernment that the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) presented to the Dutch Government in March 2011. "This book contributes powerfully to the understanding and evaluation of the development - beyond 'eGovernment' - of 'information Government', centred on highly complex flows and uses of information for public services, care and control, rather than technology itself. Sound empirical research and a concern to create better governance of iGovernment enable the authors to bring a sharply critical eye to their call for greater awareness by policy-makers, and for a strategic, reasoned and institutionalised relationship among the principles involved. These include ones that are often neglected: privacy, freedom of choice, accountability and transparency. Their recommendations are important, not only for the Netherlands". Charles D. Raab, Professor Emeritus and Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Edinburgh "This book will be a valuable resource for researchers and scholars seeking to understand the possibilities, dilemmas and challenges of bringing the Internet and related technologies to centre stage in government and public services. It offers a fascinating case study of electronic government and 'information government' in the Netherlands, with examples from local, national and eu government, a wide-ranging literature review and a number of recommendations as to how iGovernment should develop". Helen Margetts, Professor of Society and the Internet and director of the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford "Not only does this book offer an insightful analysis of the problems that ongoing digitization poses for citizens and the goverrnment itself (such as creeping loss of data quality), it also places highly valuable markers for the decisions that must be taken on the challenging path that lies ahead for iGovernment, in providing a new model for weighing up the various fundamental interests at stake". Alex Brenninkmeijer, National Ombudsman, The Netherlands - Het biometrisch paspoort, de Verwijsindex Risicojongeren, het Elektronisch Patiëntendossier, nationale en internationale gegevensuitwisseling tussen organisaties of het gebruik van digitale profielen van burgers: deze en vele andere toepassingen staan beleidsmakers en uitvoerders ter beschikking dankzij de inzet van ict. Maar wat betekent de inzet van ict in beleid en uitvoering voor de relatie tussen overheid en burgers? Wat zijn de gevolgen voor het functioneren van de overheid zelf? Hoe wordt in het proces van voortgaande digitalisering een afweging gemaakt tussen beginselen als veiligheid, privacy, efficiëntie en transparantie? In dit rapport concludeert de Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid (wrr) dat in de dagelijkse digitale praktijk een iOverheid is ontstaan die volop 'draait' op nieuwe informatiestromen die door ict mogelijk zijn gemaakt. Die nieuwe iOverheid loopt echter flink uit de pas met de bestaande structuur en de verantwoordelijkheden van de overheid. De wrr doet in dit rapport inhoudelijke en institutionele aanbevelingen om de noodzakelijke paradigmawisseling van eOverheid naar iOverheid in goede banen te leiden.