Suchergebnisse

The two sides of homeownership: security and insecurity. Uitbreiding eigenwoningbezit leidt tot minder solidariteit Het kopen van een huis is een belangrijke stap in het leven van veel mensen en wordt door sommigen gezien als de beste start voor huwelijk en gezin. Uit het proefschrift van Stéfanie André blijkt dat een koophuis echter ook voor onzekerheid kan zorgen en deze onzekerheid kan sociale en politieke gevolgen hebben. Een koophuis heeft veel voordelen ten opzichte van huren. Als koper heb je niet te maken met een huisbaas die binnen kan komen en mag je de muren in elke gewenste kleur schilderen. Nog belangrijker, door het afbetalen van de hypotheek en mogelijke prijsstijgingen bouwt de eigenaar woonvermogen op en bij een hypotheekvrij huis dalen de woonlasten aanzienlijk. Door de investeringen in het koophuis en hun belang bij een stijgende huizenprijs hebben kopers andere (politieke) voorkeuren dan huurders. Zo blijkt uit het proefschrift van André dat huiseigenaren in Europa vaker tegen het uitbreiden van de verzorgingsstaat zijn dan huurders. Vooral in landen waar het bezitten van een huis (potentieel) meer financieel gewin met zich meebrengt, zoals Nederland, is de kloof tussen kopers en huurders in opvattingen groter. Huiseigenaren worden door politici en beleidsmakers gezien als meer zelfredzame en dus goedkopere burgers. Daarom hebben veel overheden in Europa, waaronder Nederland, bewust ingezet op het vergroten van de koopsector: door sociale huurwoningen te verkopen, liberalisering van de hypotheekmarkt en de inzet van de hypotheekrenteaftrek. Hierdoor kregen ook mensen met een lager inkomen de mogelijkheid om huiseigenaar te worden. Dit heeft politieke gevolgen. In landen waar de markt een grotere rol speelt bij eigenwoningbezit, zoals in de VS, blijkt dat een koper een grotere kans heeft om te stemmen in nationale verkiezingen dan een huurder met dezelfde kenmerken. Kopers laten dus vaker hun stem horen in verkiezingen dan huurders, vooral in landen waar het verschil in kwaliteit en zekerheid tussen een koopwoning en een huurwoning groter is. De crisis van 2008 toonde aan dat eigenwoningbezit ook onzekerheid met zich meebrengt. De huizenprijzen daalden en in Nederland steeg het aantal mensen waarvan het huis onder water stond tot 34%. In de periode 2010-2012 werd woonbeleid, in de vorm van de hypotheekrenteaftrek, een politieke kwestie. In tegenstelling tot de verkiezingen van 2006 en 2010 was in 2012 onzekerheid voor kopers een doorslaggevende factor bij het uitbrengen van hun stem. Opvallend is dat deze onzekerheid om werd gezet in stemmen op fundamenteel verschillende partijen. Een deel van de huishoudens met negatief woonvermogen stemde op een partij die pleit voor een groter sociaal vangnet (GroenLinks, Partij voor de Dieren en SP). Een ander deel van deze groep stemde op de VVD, die als pro-woningmarktpartij inzette op een aantrekkende woningmarkt. Dit laatste deden ook huishoudens met weinig woonvermogen, die dus het risico liepen dat hun woning onder water kwam te staan, vaker dan te stemmen op een middenpartij of een sociaal-vangnetpartij. Een andere onzekere kant van een koophuis is dat bij (v)echtscheiding minstens één eigenaar moet verhuizen en dat vervolgens de waarde of schuld van het huis verdeeld moet worden. André heeft ruim 1700 Australische stellen gevolgd voor, tijdens en na hun scheiding. Daarbij bleek dat kopers die gingen scheiden ongelukkiger werden van hun scheiding en minder tevreden waren over hun financiële situatie dan scheidende huurders. Een koophuis maakt bij scheiding dus ongelukkiger dan een huurhuis. Wat betekent dit voor beleid? Voor behoud van solidariteit in de samenleving is het van belang een evenwichtig woonbeleid te voeren, waarin de koopsector en de sociale en private huursector zich allen kunnen ontwikkelen. Een beleid dat doorschiet naar de koopkant creëert een grotere kloof tussen huurders en kopers in opvattingen, electorale participatie en stemgedrag én deze risico's zijn ongelijk verdeeld over de bevolking. Ze zijn vooral groter voor kopers met een lager inkomen. We zullen ons dus meer bewust moeten zijn van de potentiële nadelen van kopen in plaats van ons enkel te richten op de voordelen.

The European Union Work-Life Balance Directive aims to promote a better work-care balance by introducing extensive parental leave. However, a change in policy does not necessarily mean behavioral change. Starting from the idea of gendered organizations and gendered policies within local government a conceptual model is developed to investigate under which organizational circumstances male civil servants in Dutch municipalities are willing to take parental leave. With a vignette experiment ( N = 572) among civil servants in the summer of 2021, the organizational characteristics that affect employees' decisions on the potential use of parental leave are investigated. Adverse career consequences have the largest influence, followed by managerial support and coworker support. Furthermore, the larger the work ambition is, the more negative the effect of career consequences is for using parental leave. That adverse career consequences hardly had an effect among male civil servants with low work ambition shows that the relationship to parental leave uptake is nuanced. The results of this study underscore the importance of contexts in implementing policy goals and achieving greater gender equality in local government.

The corona pandemic left its mark not only on public health but also on society at large. Sociological insights about the changes in, for example, inequality, sociability and social resilience are becoming increasingly clear now that the onset of the pandemic is further behind us. In this volume, sociologists and science press from related disciplines shine their light on the challenges of our time. In doing so, they focus on three questions: 1) what do we know about the social consequences of corona?, 2) what do we disagree on as scientists? and 3) what does the pandemic teach us about large-scale challenges in the future? Using the insights from this volume, we illuminate sociological issues and provide direction for the future.

Integrating housing tenure in Instrumental Motivation Theory predicts a tenure gap in electoral participation, as homeowners would be more motivated to vote compared with tenants. The empirical question is whether this effect is causal or rather due to selection into different housing tenures. This question is tackled using coarsened exact matching (CEM) on data for 19 countries, allowing us to better control for endogeneity. Even then, homeowners are found to vote more often than tenants. This association is stronger in countries characterized by a strong pro-homeownership ideology and/or where the financialization of housing markets turned houses into assets.

Electoral participation of immigrants is an important issue in Europe, particularly because immigrants vote less often than natives. This may suggest a lack of political integration and might result in proportionally lower representation in parliament, in turn affecting democratic legitimacy. This research analyses 8,132 immigrants in 24 European countries. We find that although the largest differences are at the level of the country of destination, the measured characteristics of the country of origin offer more powerful explanations. We conclude that immigrants from countries with more political and socio-economic opportunities have a higher propensity to vote. Immigrants who live in countries with a higher economic development level also vote more often.

Electoral participation of immigrants is an important issue in Europe, particularly because immigrants vote less often than natives. This may suggest a lack of political integration and might result in proportionally lower representation in parliament, in turn affecting democratic legitimacy. This research analyses 8,132 immigrants in 24 European countries. We find that although the largest differences are at the level of the country of destination, the measured characteristics of the country of origin offer more powerful explanations. We conclude that immigrants from countries with more political and socio-economic opportunities have a higher propensity to vote. Immigrants who live in countries with a higher economic development level also vote more often.

Support for traditional female roles in 32 countries. Family policy models and gender differences .Cross-national research on support of traditional female roles is scarce. This research fills this knowledge gap by studying 32 countries around the world, to provide insight into
categories that support or reject traditional female roles. We test individual and contextual explanations for differences in the support of traditional female roles within and between countries as well as between men and women. We find that the differences between individuals are larger than
between countries. We explain the differences with a combination of individual and contextual characteristics. Higher educated, employed people and those who do not adhere to a religion are the least supportive of traditional female roles. It turns out that people living under a dual earner
family policy model support traditional female roles least strongly. Furthermore, we do not find the gender gap to be significantly different in countries with a dual-earner family policy model as compared to traditional countries, but we do find smaller gender differences in countries with
other family policy models.

Perception of in-group discrimination among immigrants in 14 member states of the European Union .Drawing on the second and third wave of the European Social Survey, we analyse the perception of in-group discrimination of 7034 immigrants from 177 different countries of origin in
14 European Union countries. In addition to testing the effects of individual factors, such as education, religion, and migration history, we estimate the effects of macro-characteristics of both origin and destination countries. We distinguish four dimensions of explanations: immigration,
religion, economic circumstances and immigration policies. The influence of adherence to Eastern Orthodox, Jewish and non-Christian religions on perceived in-group discrimination is significant, and cannot be explained by characteristics of the origin or destination countries. The migration
history of these groups is also relevant for the perceived discrimination: immigrants who are citizens of the country of their destination, who speak the majority language at home and who are married to a native perceive in-group discrimination less often. There are strong effects of the macro-characteristics
of the country of origin. Immigrants from poorer origin countries perceive in-group discrimination more often. There are also a significant effects of immigration policies of the country of destination: easy access to long term residence, more relaxed rules for family reunion, no special policy
or a more easy entrance to the labour-market for immigrants and a higher level of job protection decreases perceived in-group discrimination among immigrants.

"This thought-provoking book provides a detailed exploration of work-life balance, considering the perspectives of specific groups such as parents, academics, the self-employed, and migrants. Moreover, it sheds more light on the dynamics of self-care, childcare as well as informal care. Collaborative and interdisciplinary in its approach, featuring researchers ranging from quantitative to interpretative scholars, it highlights the importance of a sustainable work-life balance and the instruments needed to improve this. Focusing on both working arrangements and life events, this book assembles a diverse range of researchers to provide a holistic understanding of work-life balance, with chapters covering the organisational aspects of work-life balance and the effects of digitalisation. The authors analyse the experiences of working parents and how work-life balance changes after retirement, and provide diagnostic instructions for employees and employers to re-organise the way they work across the life-span in order to maintain and enhance work-life balance. Exploring newly emerging work-life issues, this expansive book will be an invaluable resource for practitioners, scholars, and for students of business management, public administration, Human Resource Management, social policy and the sociology of work. Its extensive policy recommendations will also make it a crucial reading for policy makers and employers seeking to improve workplace support"--

One year after the European work–life balance directive, which recognises the need for work–family policy support, measures to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic began shaping parents' work–life balance in significant ways. Academically, we are challenged to explore whether existing theoretical frameworks hold in this new environment with combined old and new policy frameworks. We are also challenged to understand the nuanced ways in which the first lockdown affects the combination of paid work and care. We address both of these issues, providing a cross-sectional comparative analysis of highly educated mothers' perceptions of work–life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland and the Netherlands. Our findings show that highly educated Finnish mothers have more difficulty combining work and care during the first lockdown than Dutch mothers. The absence of state-provided care during the lockdown creates greater difficulty for full-time working Finnish mothers in a dual-earner/state-carer system than an absence of such care in the Dutch one-and-a-half earner system, where most mothers work part time. Further analyses suggest variation in part-time and (nearly) full-time hours mitigates the work–life balance experiences of highly educated Dutch mothers. Additional factors explaining cross-country variation or similarities include the presence of young children and the presence of a partner. We discuss these findings in light of current theoretical frameworks and highlight avenues for future research.