Doing couples: Negotiating faith and gender. Ideals and strategies

How do young women and men do their couples when they have a different faith and gender from that of their partner? What kind of stories do they tell and how do they tell them, in order to present their relationships as modern and successful? Which ideals do their stories reflect? And what kinds of strategies do young women and men develop when they do couples?     

Gender and power in a post-nationalist European Union

The issue of gender and ICT and the concern about an emerging digital divide in Norway have been dominated by a fear that the symbolic content and practices around ICT—epitomized in the hacker stereotype—are turning women off by making them feel like entering a “boy's room” when using ICT. State feminist policies have been developed to cope with these challenges, directed at schools and universities in particular. This paper provides a critical discussion of the state feminist understanding of gender and ICT, to argue the need for a more heterogeneous approach.     

Trends in the Perpetration of Physical Aggression among Norwegian Adolescents 2007–2015

Most research on trends in physical aggression has shown declining levels among adolescents during the past two decades. However, few studies have attempted to explain such time trends. Based on two representative cross-sectional surveys of students in the final year of high school in 2007 (N?=?6631; 58.8% girls) and 2015 (N?=?4145; 60.3% girls), this study reports a substantial decline in physical aggression among Norwegian adolescents. Moreover, mediation analyses show that declining levels in problematic alcohol use and family violence during the same period are plausible explanations for some of this reduction. The results are discussed in light of contemporary changes in socialization of adolescents, and implications for violence prevention are presented.     

Bureaucratic dilemmas: Civil servants between political responsiveness and normative constraints

The interaction between political executives and civil servants rests on a delicate balance between political responsiveness and the duty of civil servants and ministers to respect legal and other normative constraints on executive authority. In Danish central government, this balance is stressed by norms that define the correct behavior when the civil service provides ministers with political advice and assistance. Organizational factors strongly influence civil servants' behavior when they have to balance responsiveness against constraints on their role as political advisers. Moreover, civil servants working closely with ministers pay more attention to legal constraints than their peers among agency officials and specialists. Agency officials and specialists are much more prone to prioritize professional standards. We argue that this pattern can be generalized West European systems.     

Exploring the foundational origins of public service motivation through the lens of behavioral genetics

Despite the proliferation of research on public service motivation (PSM), fundamental questions about its origins continue to evade scholars: Is PSM driven by genetics, socialized through experiences, or both? If PSM is socialized, when does socialization occur? Answering these questions is critical for reconciling the state versus trait debate, and for assessing the validity of practical implications prescribed by PSM studies. Utilizing “nature's own experiment,” we adopt a classical twin design with 1035 twin pairs to identify how genetic heritability, a common environment, or unique environment and experiences can explain variation in PSM. Results show that PSM is heavily influenced by individuals' unique environments and experiences; not by genetics. This lends strong evidence to PSM's uniqueness as a motivational construct as related “other-regarding” concepts show sizeable genetic components. Finally, our results corroborate that PSM is a human resource with dynamic properties organizations can cultivate to enhance productivity in public service workforces.     

Long-Term Absenteeism From Work: Disentangling the Impact of Sector,Occupational Groups and Gender

Absenteeism is critical to organizational performance. Although absenteeism is higher in the public than in the private sector, surprisingly little public administration research has studied this topic. We investigate and test potential explanations for these differences: is it because the public sector employs more women and occupational groups that have higher absence? Using register data, we find that for six out of seven occupational groups long-term absenteeism is more likely for public than for private sector employees; generally, this is true for both genders. We discuss potential explanations and future avenues for investigating these sector differences.     

Economic growth and political extremism

Public Choice - We argue that the growth rate, but not the level of aggregate income, affects the support for extreme political parties. In our model, extreme parties offer short-run benefits to...     

Intersectionality – A challenge for development research and practice?

“Intersectionality” as a concept is increasingly finding its way into development work. In order to develop an understanding of the concept, this article shows how intersectionality can be used as a conceptual framework to analyse identity-based development claims. The article builds on qualitative research with people living in the countryside in northwest Pakistan to develop an intersectional methodology to engage with development claims. It uses a three-step analytical model to identify subject positions from which different people negotiate “eligibility for development'' and ‘‘responsibility to develop”. The paper shows how frequently used categorisations such as gender and class should be complicated by development practitioners and worked with in a more nuanced way.     

Mediatization of Public Bureaucracies: Administrative versus Political Loyalty

This article analyzes the influence of the media on the central Norwegian immigration administration. Through behind‐the‐scenes ethnographic methods, it explores how key bureaucratic values such as impartiality, neutrality and loyalty are challenged and modified by the impact of the news media. A key question is to what extent this process of mediatization overlaps with a more general trend of politicization of the civil service. The article first documents that media pressure generates comprehensive strategies aimed at servicing the press, but also different types of information control and internal steering. Second, it describes how media management has become an important concern within public administration, which identifies strongly with the bureaucratic system and its values, and protects and defends it in the media. The article introduces the term ‘administrative loyalty’ to describe these practices and standards that go beyond the imperative to loyally serve the media‐related needs of political superiors.