The influence of sense of coherence,self-care and work satisfaction on secondary traumatic stress and burnout among child and youth residential care workers in Switzerland

The present study aimed to investigate the incidence of post-traumatic and secondary traumatic stress as well as burnout symptoms among child and youth welfare workers in residential care in Switzerland and to assess the predictive value of sense of coherence, self-care, and job satisfaction. A sample of 319 child welfare professionals in Swiss child and youth residential care was assessed using questionnaires that addressed sense of coherence, perceived collective efficacy, self-care, and work satisfaction, as well as symptoms of traumatic stress and burnout. Linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the influence of sense of coherence, self-care and job satisfaction on symptoms of burnout and traumatic stress. Enhancing sense of coherence, work-related self-care and work satisfaction could reduce stress symptoms and increase the well-being of child and youth welfare staff. The authors discuss how child and youth residential care institutions could improve these factors among their staff.     

Examining the Links between Security Sector Reform and Peacekeeping Troop Contribution in Post-conflict States

This article examines the links between post-conflict states’ troop contributions to international peacekeeping missions and security sector reform (SSR). It shows how SSR and troop-contribution preparations are increasingly interwoven and at times perceived as complementary by both external and internal actors. Some of the objectives sought after in SSR, such as the modernization of the military forces and the institutionalization of international norms, overlap with the aim of external partners’ pre-deployment training programmes and formations. Yet, it is argued that there are several unintended consequences with establishing links between SSR and peacekeeping capacity-building that are too strong, including the reinforcement of the troop-contributing government which, in case the government has authoritarian tendencies, undermines democratic reforms and transparency. There is also a risk that donors increasingly prefer to support pre-deployment training that has tangible and rapid results rather than investing funds in SSR, which is politically difficult with few examples of success. Donors and national actors alike are therefore encouraged to reflect on whether post-conflict states should contribute troops in the immediate aftermath of conflict before SSR has been completed. The answer is likely to vary depending on context-specific issues, which makes it difficult to generalize across cases, but the question remains nevertheless essential.     

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Methods? Methodological Games and Role Play

In terms of gamification within political science, some fields—particularly international relations and American politics—have received more attention than others. One of the most underserved parts of the discipline is research methods; a course that, coincidentally, is frequently cited as one that instructors hate to teach and students hate to take. Given the well-documented merits of games in promoting student engagement and the key role of methods as a building block to student understanding of political science, this article attempts to rectify this oversight by introducing three games—Zendo, Murder Mystery, and the Archeologist’s Quandary— geared at teaching key concepts and approaches in research methods.     

Between particularism,universalism and transversalism. Reflections on the politics of location of European feminist research and education

Against the background of the intense cross‐national networking activities, which have characterized feminist research and education in Europe since the beginning of the 1990s, the article discusses politics of national and regional location. Illustrated by a discourse analysis of three Europe‐based feminist research journals with an explicitly marked international scope, it is pointed out that it seems to be a difficult task to avoid the pitfalls of universalism, on the one hand, and particularism, on the other. The three selected journals are: Feminist Theory, The European Journal of Women's Studies, and NORA, Nordic Journal of Women's Studies. Along the lines of Yuval‐Davis (1997 Yuval‐Davis Nira 1997 Gender & Nation London Sage  ), the article argues for a feminist approach to European networking, which should be based on a dialogic and transversal feminism. The assessments of the politics of location of the three journals are, moreover, inspired by the notion of transnational feminism, developed within the context of post‐colonial feminism (Grewal and Kaplan 1994 Grewal, Inderpal and Kaplan, Caren, editors 1994 Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press  ; Kaplan, Alarcón and Moallem 1999 Kaplan Caren Alarcón Norma Moallem Minoo 1999 Between Women and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms, and the State Duke University Press  ). The article has two main sections. First, it discusses tenacious universalisms, using examples from the journal Feminist Theory. Afterwards it proceeds to a complementary pitfall – that of particularism. Examples are here drawn from NORA and The European Journal of Women's Studies. In conclusion, some guidelines are suggested that might usefully be taken into account when engaging in European feminist activities such as publishing journals, organizing conferences and networks etc.     

Signalling Demand for Foreign Investment: Postsocialist Countries in the Global Bilateral Investment Treaties Network

A unique dataset on bilateral investment treaties provides a novel source of evidence on the link between neoliberal globalisation and market transition. We argue that postsocialist countries of Europe and Eurasia, more than other developing regions in the world, signed such treaties to signal demand for foreign investment in the spirit of neoliberalism. We calculated the density of the whole BIT network since its inception in 1959 to 2009, and density and centrality of different regional blocks within it, and found strong support for our argument. Yet, even if bilateral investment treaties are designed to promote foreign direct investment, dynamic panel regression models show that signing them does not automatically translate into foreign direct investment inflows for postsocialist European and Eurasian countries in the 1990–2010 period.     

The South Caucasus after Kosovo: Renewed Independence Hopes?

The recognition of Kosovo did not go unnoticed in other aspiring states, but did it necessarily lead to renewed hopes for independence? Drawing on interviews with key actors, this essay analyses its effect in Nagorno-Karabakh. It finds that separatist demands are shaped by a complex interplay of external and internal forces, including international norms and practices. This explains the rather surprising finding that the Karabakh leaders in response to the recognitions of Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia gave up on recognition, at least temporarily, and instead started championing non-recognition as an attractive, sustainable status.