AbstractThe central question of our study is which determinants drive smoke alarm ownership and intention to purchase one, and whether we can increase smoke alarm ownership by addressing these determinants in a communication‐based intervention. We first made an inventory of possible determinants for smoke alarm prevention by consulting prominent prevention behavior theories protection motivation theory and Health Belief Model and other relevant literature. We expanded this list of determinants based on interviews (n = 15) and used survey data representative for the Netherlands to decide to focus on smoke alarm ownership (rather than installation or maintenance). We then tested the determinants of smoke alarm ownership and buying intention in a survey (n = 622). Based on these results, we ran an A/B test (n = 310) of two messages to stimulate smoke alarm ownership: one emphasized the determinants we found to be strong predictors in the survey (know‐how, social norm, annoyance) and one emphasized typical determinants that are often addressed in campaigns but were poor predictors in the survey (vulnerability, severity, benefits). Results showed that the message based on the strong determinants resulted in a significant increase in smoke alarm ownership (9.1%) compared to the control group (0.9%; p = 0.027), while the message using the typical determinants did not lead to significant effects. Taken together, our results give a promising direction for interventions to increase smoke alarm ownership, and above all, show that a comprehensive problem analysis for a specific target behavior is a necessary step to induce behavioral change.
AbstractHow does a crisis of the state and its 'emergency politics' lead to a crisis of the intellectual, or what does it mean to be an intellectual in our contemporary conjuncture beyond Western clichés and the universalistic bias of their declinist arguments? In responding to these questions, we draw upon data collected from Turkish and Syrian academics living in exile to argue that the critical commitments exiled intellectuals presume are under threat as rising authoritarianisms take hold globally and advanced neo-liberal practices tighten their grip on universities. The promise of Said's figuration of the 'intellectual in exile' and its political potential is also under threat as displaced scholars navigate democratic backsliding and structural precarity in the contemporary university and in the nation-states to which they have found themselves tied, eroding even further the conceptual idea of the critical intellectual and the potential power of the 'post-colonial intellectual'. In our research, this crisis of the intellectual is recounted by exilics paradoxically in both the autocratic and the 'nominally democratic' higher education (HE) context where in some cases the very idea of the intellectual can represent, at least in part, a banal political figuration epitomised in what Nancy Fraser refers to as progressive neo-liberalism. This is largely so because both authoritarian and nominally democratic states, whilst different in political charge, are simultaneously invoking 'states of emergency' and culture wars that are eroding their own intellectual constituencies' ability to disturb existing institutional norms and the taken for granted problems that emerge in everyday HE practices.
Abstract Beliefs in hostile conspiracies against 'Western civilisation' or 'white people' play a key role in tying divergent far-right tropes together under an internally coherent meta-narrative. Claims of having discovered this conspiratorial truth offer personal pride, create a sense of righteousness and urgency to stand up against these alleged secretive, malevolent forces, and help build a parallel counter-hegemonic community with its own distinct epistemology. Using qualitative interviews and a focus group, this study examines how actors engaged in 'ordinary' dissent in Australia developed an antagonistic fringe belief system, and the extent to which this alternative epistemology constitutes a manifestation of 'anti-publics' (Davis, 2021). The study found how participants' ideological mindset has grown from rather benign manifestations of dissent into a hostile, counter-hegemonic, conspiratorial meta-narrative through processes of 'doing their own research', sharing their learnings with significant others, and incorporating each other's ideological convictions. Their ideological radicalisation was characterised by personal feelings of pride and epistemic superiority, which created a sense of meaning, urgency, and purpose, as well as social recognition within their group. These psychological and social processes drew them further into a far-right 'anti-public' milieu and away from democratic expressions of dissent. The findings shed new light on how the complex and mutually reinforcing interplay between ideological and socio-psychological factors cements an alternative, oppositional epistemology. The study offers close-up insights into what drives radicalisation processes, creating or reinforcing a parallel 'anti-public' in hostile opposition to democratic processes and norms.
AbstractMercury is a toxic pollutant that exists in the atmosphere in several forms, operationally identified according to their chemical and physical characteristics. The problem of atmospheric mercury pollution has recently received increasing attention, as evidenced by the numerous European regulations issued in the last years. The normative question is closely related to the methodological one, as the quantification of the mercury species is strictly linked to the sampling and analysis methods. Due to their different bioavailability, airborne mercury forms detection is fundamental both in outdoor and indoor (i.e., workplace) environments. This paper presents an overview of European legislation on atmospheric mercury pollution, with particular attention to the Italian legislation. Starting from the regulatory protocols, the methodological framework for mercury quantification was reviewed, underlining the limits and the problems of the different methodologies and providing new guidance for the analysis. Regulatory and methodological updates have led to great specificity in mercury quantification, which is distinguished for the outdoor and indoor environments. For workplace environments, all mercury species (i.e., gaseous and particulate mercury) are required to be quantified by the Italian legislation; on the contrary, only gaseous compounds are monitored in outdoor conditions. It hence appears of primary importance that the monitoring operator chooses the sampling and analytical method for mercury sampling and analysis that correctly adheres to the normative regulations. Detailed norms describe how to carry on the monitoring in both outdoor and indoor conditions, preventing the operator's arbitrariness, which otherwise can lead to airborne mercury underestimation/overestimation.
AbstractThis study offers insights into factors of influence on the implementation of flood damage mitigation measures by more than 1,000 homeowners who live in flood‐prone areas in New York City. Our theoretical basis for explaining flood preparedness decisions is protection motivation theory, which we extend using a variety of other variables that can have an important influence on individual decision making under risk, such as risk attitudes, time preferences, social norms, trust, and local flood risk management policies. Our results in relation to our main hypothesis are as follows. Individuals who live in high flood risk zones take more flood‐proofing measures in their home than individuals in low‐risk zones, which suggests the former group has a high threat appraisal. With regard to coping appraisal variables, we find that a high response efficacy and a high self‐efficacy play an important role in taking flood damage mitigation measures, while perceived response cost does not. In addition, a variety of behavioral characteristics influence individual decisions to flood‐proof homes, such as risk attitudes, time preferences, and private values of being well prepared for flooding. Investments in elevating one's home are mainly influenced by building code regulations and are negatively related with expectations of receiving federal disaster relief. We discuss a variety of policy recommendations to improve individual flood preparedness decisions, including incentives for risk reduction through flood insurance, and communication campaigns focused on coping appraisals and informing people about flood risk they face over long time horizons.
AbstractIn light of increasing losses from floods, many researchers and policymakers are looking for ways to encourage flood risk reduction among communities, business, and households. In this study, we investigate risk‐reduction behavior at the household level in three European Union Member States with fundamentally different insurance and compensation schemes. We try to understand if and how insurance and public assistance influence private risk‐reduction behavior. Data were collected using a telephone survey (n = 1,849) of household decisionmakers in flood‐prone areas. We show that insurance overall is positively associated with private risk‐reduction behavior. Warranties, premium discounts, and information provision with respect to risk reduction may be an explanation for this positive relationship in the case of structural measures. Public incentives for risk‐reduction measures by means of financial and in‐kind support, and particularly through the provision of information, are also associated with enhancing risk reduction. In this study, public compensation is not negatively associated with private risk‐reduction behavior. This does not disprove such a relationship, but the negative effect may be mitigated by factors related to respondents' capacity to implement measures or social norms that were not included in the analysis. The data suggest that large‐scale flood protection infrastructure creates a sense of security that is associated with a lower level of preparedness. Across the board there is ample room to improve both public and private policies to provide effective incentives for household‐level risk reduction.
A mail survey on ecological risk perception was administered in the summer of 2002 to a randomized sample of the lay public and to selected risk professionals at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The ranking of 24 ecological risk items, from global climate change to commercial fishing, reveals that the lay public is more concerned about low‐probability, high‐consequence risks whereas the risk professionals are more concerned about risks that pose long‐term, ecosystem‐level impacts. To test the explanatory power of the value‐belief‐norm (VBN) theory for risk perception, respondents were questioned about their personal values, spiritual beliefs, and worldviews. The most consistent predictors of the risk rankings are belief in the new ecological paradigm (NEP) and Schwartz's altruism. The NEP and Schwartz's altruism explain from 19% to 46% of the variance in the risk rankings. Religious beliefs account for less than 6% of the variance and do not show a consistent pattern in predicting risk perception although religious fundamentalists are generally less concerned about the risk items. While not exerting as strong an impact, social‐structural variables do have some influence on risk perception. Ethnicities show no effect on the risk scales but the more educated and financially well‐off are less concerned about the risk items. Political leanings have no direct influence on risk rankings, but indirectly affect rankings through the NEP. These results reveal that the VBN theory is a plausible explanation for the differences measured in the respondents' perception of ecological risk.
Economic crisis and rigid austerity seem to have brought a long-lasting period of decentralization to an end. The comeback of centralist patterns offers the rapid implementation of austerity measures, while the lack of resources is challenging the sustainability of decentralized services. There is an obvious inconsistency between European decentralization policies, on the one side, and European austerity policies, on the other. Empirical evidence shows that local authorities were more responsive to citizens' demands for social services, but now municipalities without resources repulse decentralization. In spite of centralist patterns, case studies of fiscal consolidation have revealed a remarkable deviation of municipal responses to top-down fiscal policies. Visionary leadership, active citizenry and inclusive decision-making processes predict good performance, while reproductive leadership and a passive citizenry predetermine unproductive central–local conflicts over burden-sharing and blame-shifting.Points for practitionersOur results show that both decentralization and centralization policies are highly dependent on the attitudes and actions of local authorities. In the case of social services, the responsiveness of local authorities brings obvious performance gains. Attempts at burden-shifting to municipalities in times of crisis will, however, most probably face blockades. In the case of austerity policies, top-down unitary strategies with rigid norms and mechanisms cannot rule out performance disparities among the addressees of these policies. The responsiveness of municipalities is highly dependent on local leadership, actors' constellations and the attributes of the community involved. In case of functional reforms, the prior consultation and ongoing assistance of local authorities and involved communities should be a standard practice.
"Canonical theorists of sovereignty (Hobbes, Rousseau, and others) put the monopoly of power at the center of their definitions. These thinkers abstracted from western European experiences to universal norms. In the wake of their transformative contributions, states that did not fit the model appeared to be underdeveloped or deviant. Labels such as "provisional" or "irregular" rendered them irrelevant to theorizing and, worse, political problems that needed to be solved. One early "anomaly," says historian Natasha Wheatley, was the Habsburg Empire. Layered as it was with imperial, national, and regional sovereignty, its trajectory was not one of progress toward a unitary state. Instead, it encompassed compound polities, or states bundled together under experimental constitutional orders. Wheatley's aim in this book is to theorize from Central Europe to see how sovereignty can be produced in a complex world. In reconstructing this political and legal history, Wheatley treats Austria-Hungary as a crucible for modern legal theory. The serial remaking and eventual unmaking of imperial sovereigny in Central Europe showed how old-world dynastic conceptions of sovereignty were translated into abstract categories of modern legal thought. In so doing, she uncovers the irresolvable tensions and strategic silences in modern political theory: the presumed unity and timelessness of states. Eschewing explanations of "failure," she instead uncovers how the Central European experience crystallized legal questions that would arise again in the era of global decolonization, connecting the story of the end of empire to the birth of new nations throughout the twentieth century. In this respect, the work serves not only as a history of Central Europe but also a "prehistory" of the era of decolonization"--
This study aimed to investigate the effect of two main variables on specific attitudes and beliefs about mental illness. The first variable tested the labelling theory proposal that the label of mental illness per se is stigmatizing for those so labelled. The second tested the proposal of Rosenfield (1982) that males and females receive a more severe societal reaction for deviance when the deviant behaviour is inconsistent with traditional sex role norms. Questionnaires with vignettes describ ing four behaviour types were given to young adult respondents. The expected effect of a psychiatric diagnosis and of deviance from sex role stereotypes were not confirmed. It was concluded that while several variables combine to influence specific attitudes and beliefs about the mentally ill, the type of behaviour displayed is the crucial factor.
This article presents the current issues in the law of international organizations and contemporary international law in general. It is pointed out that the division of international law into branches and institutions, in order to ensure the effective legal regulation of new spheres of relations, led to the emergence of autonomous legal regimes, even within one region, namely on the European continent. To date, these include European Union law and Council of Europe law.It is emphasized the features of the established legal relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union at the present stage. It is determined that, along with close cooperation between regional organizations, there is a phenomenon of fragmentation, which is accompanied by the creation of two legal regimes within the same regional subsystem, proliferation of the international legal norms, institutions, spheres and conflicts of jurisdiction between the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union.It is revealed that some aspects of fragmentation can be observed from the moment of establishing relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union, up to the modern dynamics of the functioning of the system of law of international organizations, the law of international treaties, law of human rights. Areas and types of fragmentation in relations between international intergovernmental organizations of the European continent are distinguished.One way to overcome the consequences of fragmentation in the field of human rights is highlighted, namely through the accession of the European Union to the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950. Considerable attention has also been paid to defragmentation, which is partly reflected in the participation of the European Union in the Council of Europe's conventions by the applying «disconnection clause».It is determined that the legal relations established between an international intergovernmental organization of the traditional type and the integration association sui generis, the CoE and the EU, but with the presence of phenomenon of fragmentation in a close strategic partnership, do not diminish their joint contribution into the development of the law of international organizations and contemporary international law in general.Key words: defragmentation; European Union; European Court of Human Rights; Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950; conflict of jurisdictions; «disconnection clause»; Council of Europe; Court of Justice of the European Union; fragmentation; sui generis. ; У статті досліджено актуальні питання у праві міжнародних організацій та підкреслено особливості правовідносин між Радою Європи та Європейським Союзом. Визначено, що поряд з тісним співробітництвом між регіональними організаціями відбувається і явище фрагментації, яке супроводжується створенням двох правових режимів в рамках однієї регіональної підсистеми, профілірацією міжнародно-правових норм, інституцій та конфліктом юрисдикцій між Європейським Судом з прав людини та Судом Європейського Союзу.Визначено, що окремі прояви фрагментації можна почати спостерігати ще з моменту встановлення взаємин між Радою Європи та Європейським Союзом аж до сучасної динаміки функціонування системи права міжнародних організацій, права міжнародних договорів, права прав людини. Виокремлено сфери та типи фрагментації у взаємовідносинах між міжнародними міжурядовими організаціями Європейського континенту.Виділено один зі способів подолання наслідків фрагментації у сфері захисту прав людини, а саме шляхом приєднання Європейського Союзу до Конвенції про захист прав людини і основоположних свобод 1950 р. Також значну увагу приділено і дефрагментації, яка частково прослідковується в участі Європейського Союзу у конвенціях Ради Європи, шляхом застосування при цьому положення «про від'єднання».Ключові слова: дефрагментація, Європейський Союз, Європейський Суд з прав людини, Конвенція про захист прав людини і основоположних свобод 1950 р., конфлікт юрисдикцій, положення «про від'єднання», Рада Європи, Суд Європейського Союзу, фрагментація, sui generis.
В статті досліджуються функції Верховної Ради – Парламенту України в процесі легалізації інституту місцевого самоврядування шляхом реалізації законодавчої функції та функції надання згоди на обов'язковість для України міжнародних договорів. ; This paper investigates features Parliament Parliament of Ukraine in the legalization of local government institution by implementing legislative functions and features of consent to be bound by Ukraine of international agreements. Reported that the formation and development of local government in the independent Ukrainian state is a factor of revolutionary values that significantly and directly affect the establishment of a democratic legal state as well as civil society and social reasoning revitalization of its members citizens of the state and all individuals who are constantly within its territory. The value of the Institute of Local Government in the present conditions for: a) biological , social and political reproduction of the human potential of the state; b) proper implementation of constitutional rights , freedoms and duties of man and citizen; c) development and implementation of a democratic state; d) the proper development each person (individual) – Institute of local Government present oneself subject to constitutional and legal regulation. Evidence which is Article 7 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which fixes the position that in Ukraine is recognized and guaranteed by the local government, and that the Fundamental Law of Ukraine respective section XI «Local Government», which contains constitutional principles legalization and structural – object construction this important institution of a democratic state. In the course of studying the role of the Parliament of Ukraine in establishing local government institution in the country, drawing attention to its constituent role in this process. Its important evidence is mandatory provisions of Section 15 of Art. 92 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which enshrines the role of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, laws of Ukraine by the exclusive basis of local government. It effectively establishes the ontological, methodological, axiological, technological and communication aspects of the process of legalization of local self-government as an existing constitutional and legal institution that is in its infancy and the development and makes it multi-level, multiple and phenomenological description. It is claimed that the legalization of Local Government Parliament of Ukraine is going through its legislative regulation and control is the primary means, the legal and procedural form that uses a single legislative body of the state (Article 75 of the Constitution of Ukraine) for the implementation of this process. The main but not the only one. According to paragraph 32 of Art. 85 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are the statutory term agreement to be bound by international agreements of Ukraine and denouncing international treaties of Ukraine. We believe that this is another form of legalization of local government in Ukraine, which is used by the Parliament of the state. International agreements relating to the regulation and control of local government, have the status of international legal standards, that : a) the relevant model rules ( standards ) right; b ) they are norms of international law enshrined in the form of international agreements and is a product development and adoption member States, relevant international intergovernmental organizations; c) contain relevant international legal obligations of the Parties in the field of formation and development of local government; d) are justified by appropriate teleological and profile of the Parliament of the State Party using provided its organizational law legal forms should be introduced into national law of the state and reproduced in it to the practical implementation of international legal obligations of subjects of national law. Thus, an appropriate legal and procedural string that consists of a number of organizational and legal forms and profile of competence of the Parliament of Ukraine.
We present a theoretical framework that views learning as a process involving content learning (CL) <i>and</i> identity construction (IC). We view identities as lenses through which people make sense of, and position themselves, through stories and actions, and as lenses for understanding how they are positioned by others. As people become more (or less) central members of a disciplinary community (e.g., a science or mathematics classroom) and engage (or not) in various cultural practices, changes in identity and knowledge accompany changes in position and status. IC and CL share an important characteristic: they both involve meaning making. For IC, it is the development of reasoned, coordinated, coherent, and meaningful ways of seeing one's self in relation to communities, and for CL, it centers on the development of disciplinary concepts, processes, tools, language, discourse, and norms within practices. Focusing on Black students in mathematics and science classrooms, we claim that three intersecting identities are particularly important: <i>disciplinary</i> identity (as doers of the discipline, i.e., mathematics and science), <i>racial</i> identity (emerging understandings of what it means to be Black), and <i>academic</i> identity (as participants in academic tasks and classroom practices). In this paper, we elaborate on the CLIC framework as a useful tool for understanding how Black students negotiate participation in, and come to see themselves as doers of science and mathematics in their school classrooms. We synthesize empirical findings from our research with younger and older students, as well as with parents and community members, to illustrate dimensions of this framework.
