Search

Abstract Interaction between citizens and government has traditionally taken place in community settings, government meetings, special town hall meetings, written correspondence in letters, emails, or texts, or via a phone call to a government representative. With digital media, citizens can instantly interact with the government. The mobile component of digital media will continue to be important in this interaction. This research operates with the assumption that digital media expresses a paradigmatic shift regarding how to govern and how to communicate. Digital media clearly is transforming the way governments think, plan, and carry out their policies but more importantly, how they communicate public policy. Our research intends to understand how local government institutions in rural settings use digital media and other communication channels to communicate with their citizens. The research employs a comparative perspective by investigating rural communities from the US and Romania. This was achieved by undertaking a content analysis of local government’s websites and social media platforms, as well as collecting primary data through interviews with representatives of local government, to assess the ways they use digital media, traditional media, and other communication tools, and whether they viewed them as effective strategies.

The article is devoted to the analysis of an extremely important topic under martial law, which is the characteristics of certain corrupt practices in relation to free and humanitarian aid in foreign countries and Ukraine, with the aim of finding optimal ways to combat corruption in the sphere of rational and effective use of free and humanitarian aid during armed conflicts. It has been noted that with the beginning of the first states existence, the initial forms of corruption abuse by officials, priests and other persons endowed with power also appeared. The first attempts to combat corruption date back to the times of Babylon and Ancient Egypt. However, corruption is a very specific phenomenon that skillfully adapts to any life circumstances, changes in political regimes, forms of government, etc. A complex of scientific research methods has been used, namely: comparative and legal, systemic and structural, logical, analysis and synthesis, generalization and prognostic. It has been substantiated that combating corruption in relation to humanitarian aid is an extremely important task in the context of military operations, since corruption: 1) limits the amount of aid that reaches people in need; 2) is one of the main factors preventing better and more direct funding of humanitarian organizations; 3) undermines support for aid in donor countries and negatively affects the international image of the state. Based on the analysis of the foreign states that are in armed conflicts and international donor organizations experience, it has been proposed to implement separate practical anti-corruption measures to ensure the leveling of corruption risks regarding the rational use of humanitarian and charitable assistance.

To sustain the welfare state, several EU countries agreed to take measures aimed at increasing the labor market participation of older workers (European Commission 2001). In this study, we developed a framework integrating individual, work, and institutional characteristics in order to explain the labor market participation of older workers. While prior studies focused mainly on individual characteristics, the present analysis investigated the impact of work and institutions more closely using the European Social Survey. Multilevel analyses across 21 countries showed that work characteristics increased the benefits from work, hence increasing the likelihood of participation among older workers, and that the generosity of institutions discouraged older workers to remain in the labor market.

Copyright of Papers: Revista de Sociologia is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent discussion in the UK about the place of doctoral work in social work education and research has been paralleled by some comparative research in Europe. This paper relates some of the findings to other literature and experience of comparative developments in social work education. While debates in some countries echo UK concerns, social work educators in other countries are struggling with more fundamental questions about the relationship between social work and other social sciences or with organisational arrangements which 'disadvantage' professional education. Unlike experience in the US, it seems that in Europe the extent to which social work is seen as a discipline that contributes research based knowledge to professional practice is variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]