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Studies on transnational families argue that the subjective well-being of migrant parents is negatively affected by living separated from their children. Most studies employ qualitative methods without a control group and hence are not able to distinguish whether the effects found are associated with separation only or with other factors. This paper investigates the association between parental subjective well-being and parent–child separation by comparing migrant parents who have at least one child in their country of origin with those who live with all their children in the Netherlands. The paper further investigates whether the same associations are found between migrant groups from Angola and Nigeria. Results indicate that transnational parents indeed report lower subjective well-being, as measured by happiness, life satisfaction and mental health for both groups and additionally, self-assessed health for Angolans. However, legal status, socio-economic status and the quality of the parent–child relationship are found to be important mediators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Diverse schools have become the norm throughout much of what is considered the West. Many urban classrooms feature few white European children but are located in nations dominated by Eurocentric epistemologies and discourses that oppress minority students by devaluing their cultures. Most European scholarship fails to analyse cultures of whiteness in educational settings. This paper addresses this gap by documenting cultural discourses of whiteness infusing a diverse primary school classroom in Amsterdam. Discourses reflecting white cultural norms of order, time, cleanliness, and Western and Christian superiority dominated a classroom containing only one white Dutch child. These discourses contribute to diverse students' explicit racialization while promoting the supremacy of white Dutch culture. They are both assimilationist and exclusionary, suggesting that many students, because of their backgrounds, will never be considered fully Dutch. Findings are of relevance to all nations dominated by white cultures with large populations of students of colour. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Agrobiodiversity has been decreasing substantially in Europe. Social scientific research in this area has paid limited attention to how citizens value agrobiodiversity and its decline, and how these valuations can be influenced. We explore the influence of different arguments for enhancing agro-biodiversity, delivered via short movies, on attitudes and behaviour of students, environmental professionals and people interested in nature conservation in the Netherlands. We conclude that information provision does not influence attitudes. However, it does influence values assigned to agrobiodiversity, but not always in the ways we hypothesized. Information about the intrinsic value of agrobiodiversity has the most effects on values assigned to agrobiodiversity. Among students, women and people with a low emotional attachment with agricultural landscapes ('place identity' and 'place dependence'), emphasizing the instrumental value of agrobiodiversity has a counter-intuitive effect. It does not influence the importance of this value but instead reinforces the intrinsic value they assign to agrobiodiversity. The latter finding is at odds with the instrumental biodiversity discourse in science and policy, which, under headings such as ecosystem services and natural capital, aims to mobilize support for nature conservation by emphasizing its instrumental, functional and economic values. Emphasizing the intrinsic value of agrobiodiversity seems more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the strategies, structures and performance of large Dutch firms in the period 1963-2003, and compares the results with those of other European companies. Did Dutch companies develop corporate strategies and structures comparable to other European companies in response to the Treaty of Rome 1957, which signalled the start of gradual European economic integration? In this period Dutch firms became larger and increasingly active outside their national borders. This article describes the strategies and structures of large firms in this period, in order to investigate how firms dealt with the changing environment and also how firms anticipated and benefited from these changes. In addition, it analyses the corporate performance effects of changes in the environment and strategies and structures. With a strong preference for related diversification, Dutch companies showed a strategy comparable with three large European countries. Initially, many Dutch companies opted for the multidivisional structure, but after the 1980s the functional holding gradually became the most important structure. The choice of structure, however, was not critical to performance, in contrast to the choice of strategy. The related diversified strategy turned out to be the best performing strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper examines the role and function of public–private interplay in the development of municipal initiatives in the broadband sector. The analysis of initiatives in the Netherlands and Italy shows how the interaction between public and private stakeholders can facilitate local broadband initiatives. This interaction has been vital in aligning the interests of different private and (semi-)public parties, in designing the network and in aggregating sufficient demand for broadband services. The comparative analysis examines the steps involved in these initiatives and the strengths and weaknesses of joint public–private activities. The paper shows that the challenge for cooperating stakeholders has been to foster further investment in the upgrading of the network and in the provision of advanced broadband services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While patterns of spatial segregation and concentration of ethnic minority groups in European cities have been well documented, more dynamic data on migration have been rare until now. In particular, little is known about the potential for different kinds of households to escape from poverty areas. Escaping these areas can be important in order to escape unwanted housing and living conditions. The analyses in this paper show that in the Netherlands the chance to escape such poverty neighbourhoods partly depends on ethnic descent: some immigrant groups are less able to escape than are Dutch households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the wave of conservative or neo-liberal governments in Europe in the 1980s, social democratic parties are back in government in most European countries. At the same time, with the 'third way' as its catch phrase, European social democracy seems to have regained the ideological upper hand. The questions posed in this article are, first, whether and to what extent European social democracy has, in fact, changed course and, second, what the policy content of the new course is. The article focuses on welfare state policies and offers an analysis of social democratic policies in the Netherlands and Denmark. Our main argument is that the 'third way' is more than a new slogan. A fairly coherent set of supply-side policy intentions can be identified, the core of which is found in job creation, active labor market policies, the promotion of high rates of labor market participation, macro-economic stability and wage moderation. The 'third way', understood in this sense, must be seen as a social democratic response to the economic conditions in which Keynesian demand management through fiscal stimulation is no longer possible. It is, however, more a break with the policies pursued in the 1970s than a break with basic social democratic principles of social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the universalization of long-term services and supports (LTSS) in three countries that have reformed LTSS funding in the past ten to fifteen years--Scottish and Spanish reforms extending public insurance to everyone needing LTSS, and the Dutch reform, which rolled back Europe's older funding system. Although universal systems save health systems money and improve the financial well-being of families, attention should be paid to subsidy designs, the role of needs tests to modulate demand, and the development of home- and community-based services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The aim of this study was to project educational inequalities in obesity and smoking prevalence to 2050 based on past obesity and smoking trends by education level. Methods: Data on obesity (body mass index ≥ 30) and smoking prevalence (current smokers) by education level (tertiary education and less than tertiary) from nationally representative cross-sectional surveys were collected for the following six countries participating in the Economics of Chronic Diseases project (EConDA): England, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland (obesity only) and Portugal (obesity only). A nonlinear multivariate regression model was fitted to the data to create longitudinal projections to 2050. Inequalities were measured with a prevalence ratio and a prevalence difference using projected obesity/smoking prevalence. Results: Educational inequalities in obesity prevalence are projected to increase in Finland, Lithuania and England for men, and in Lithuania and Poland for women, by 2050. Obesity prevalence is projected to increase faster among the more advantaged groups in England, Portugal, Finland and the Netherlands among women, and Portugal and the Netherlands among men, narrowing inequalities. In contrast to obesity, smoking prevalence is projected to continue declining in most of the countries studied. The decline is projected to be faster in relative terms among more advantaged groups; therefore, relative educational inequalities in smoking prevalence are projected to increase in all countries. Conclusions: Widening educational inequalities in obesity and smoking prevalence are expected in several European countries if current trends in obesity and smoking prevalence are unaltered. This will impact on inequalities in morbidity and mortality of associated diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understood as a philosophy counselling group rights and concomitant public policies undertaken by governments to preserve and enhance group identities, multiculturalism has little purchase in European immigrant integration debates. However, based on interviews with various actors engaged in policies that affect immigrants in the Netherlands and Germany, we argue that multiculturalism remains a going concern if it is understood as a problem-solving practice through which governments acknowledge and work with ethnic and religious groups to address issues of mutual concern, particularly on issues related to gender. We label this ‘multicultural governance’ and argue that it supports the principal ends of integration policy: the socialization of immigrants into prevailing national languages, norms and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Limtanakool N., Schwanen T. and Dijst M. Developments in the Dutch urban system on the basis of flows, Regional Studies. In this study, the 1992, 1995, 1999, and 2002 Netherlands National Travel Surveys are employed to examine the change in the configuration of the urban system on the basis of commute and leisure flows between 23 daily urban systems (DUSs). The results for commuting flows provide some evidence of smaller differences in the importance of DUSs in the system over the ten-year period in the Dutch urban system. Leisure flows, however, do not reveal clear evidence of such development. It is found that the development process occurs very slowly and the developments between DUSs in close proximity to one another take place at a faster pace than between those located further away... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In The Netherlands, the incidence and prevalence of heart failure are rising as is the case in most other European countries. Overall, there are 200,000 patients with heart failure in The Netherlands and around 25,000 hospitalisations annually with a discharge diagnosis of heart failure. Most of these patients are managed in primary care, often together with a cardiologist. There is an active guideline program in different professional organisations (e.g. general practitioners, cardiologists) and in 2002 a collaborative multidisciplinary guideline for management of chronic heart failure was developed. However, there is clearly room for improvement in the adherence to these guidelines both with regard to the diagnosis and the treatment of HF patients. For example, ACE-I and β-blockers are still under-prescribed. In particular, the more severely ill patients seem to be under treated. At present, general practitioners and cardiologists differ in their views on heart failure, resulting in differences in diagnosis and management. In addition to the multidisciplinary guidelines, several other initiatives have been developed to improve outcomes in these patients, such as rapid access clinics and outpatient heart failure clinics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]