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The development of the Cistercian Order in the twelfth century came as a product of a number of eleventh-century reforms. These reforms affected all strata of society, and they impacted the way in which medieval European Christians viewed themselves, their social, political, and theological structures, the world around them, and their relationship to the Christian narrative of salvation history and eschatology. The early Cistercians built their “new monastery” (novum monasterium) upon an apostolic foundation of austerity and poverty, informed by a “return” to the Rule of Benedict as the program for their daily ritual and liturgical lives. These Cistercians centered their monastic “way of life” (conversatio) around the pursuit of ascent into God, seeking to become “citizens among the saints and members of the household of God.” The language of twelfth-century Cistercian ascension theology drew from a number of scriptural motifs for its expression. For example, Bernard of Clairvaux described his monastery as the “heavenly Jerusalem” and his monks as “Jerusalemites”; Aelred of Rievaulx spoke of “living stones,” building up the Temple of Jerusalem and rising up as sacred incense; and Helinand of Froidmont exhorted his monks to climb the mountain with Christ and to raise up within themselves a Temple of “living stones,” becoming bearers of Christ like Mary, his holy mother. In the case of these and other Cistercian exegetes, the goal remained the same: by interpreting Christian scripture and tradition, Cistercian theologians sought to transform the monastery into a sacred space, bridging the gap between the human world and the realm of God, so that they, and their brethren, might ascend “as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.”
Treatment thresholds and minimal clinically important effect sizes of antiosteoporotic medication
(2022)
Background
Patient decisions to take preventative treatments for osteoporosis depend on their perceptions of fracture risk, medication effect sizes (ES) of benefits and harms. However, physicians and lay persons may have differing perceptions of risks and medication efficacy. Both tend to overestimate medication benefits. This study surveyed at what risk physicians would prescribe and lay persons would be willing to take bisphosphonates, the minimum ES both groups do demand and the physicians estimates of the actual benefit of bisphosphonates.
Design
Cross-sectional online questionnaire survey.
Methods
Respondents were confronted with a case vignette with an osteoporotic patient (10-year femoral fracture risk: 32%). They were asked at what threshold of 10-year-risk of femoral neck fracture they would prescribe or take a drug. They were asked for the minimum ES (absolute risk reduction, ARR) they demand from bisphosphonates to prescribe or take them. Physicians were asked to provide their estimate of the actual ARR of bisphosphonates.
Results
114 physicians and 140 lay persons answered (convenience sample/snowball distribution). The 10-year-risk threshold of lay persons (Mdnlay = 60%) willing to take medication was twice as high as the physicians’ threshold (Mdnphy = 30%) to prescribe it (p < .001). The median minimum ARR physicians demanded for bisphosphonates prescription was 17%, whereas lay persons demanded 22% (p < .001). Physicians estimated the actual ARR of bisphosphonates to be 12%. This estimated effect size was below their own minimum threshold for prescription.
Conclusions
Lay persons tolerate a higher fracture risk and demand a larger benefit of antiosteoporotic medication for fracture prevention than physicians. Physicians demand higher minimum benefits than their own estimates which in turn are above the benefit evidence suggests. Physicians should be more familiar with ES of antiosteoporotic drugs concerning patient outcomes and actively advise lay persons before preventive treatment decisions are taken.
Carmody was a prominent theater and film critic for The Washington (Evening) Star ca. 1934–1964. His career spans an important period in theater and film criticism, because Carmody helped introduce a new genre of American writing to a large audience. His writing combined Hollywood and Broadway appeal with a commitment to cutting-edge European cinema. His stance as a Catholic was morally conservative, yet his writing style was basically encouraging and friendly. Carmody received several awards and served on international film juries.
The Work of Fr. Raymond Flanagan, OCSO, Author of Historical Novels, Devotional Books, and Pamphlets
(2021)
Father Mary Raymond Flanagan (1903–1990), a monk of Gethsemani Abbey, was the widely- read author of dozens of books and pamphlets particularly popular in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. Numbering in the dozens, his publications were characterized by a hard-hitting, vigorous Catholic piety that accentuated American family values, fidelity to Catholic traditions, the beauty of religious vocations, anti-Communism, and the athletic asceticism he associated with the first Cistercians. His works lost their appeal to a wide audience during the cultural shift of the late 1960s and later, but several of his writings have been reissued in recent years.
This essay includes a short biography and a bibliography of Flanagan's books and pamphlets.
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This thesis examines the topic of access to justice from a contrastive perspective and observes how the capability of taking advantage of the judicial system is ensured for people through
the lens of the Capability Approach. The question addressed here is whether the constitutional
right to education enables the surpassing of a certain capability threshold and thereby promotes access to justice.
This approach offers a broad perspective of the implications of constitutional rights to education, and interconnects it with ethical considerations of justice.
The thesis begins with a short overview of access to justice (2.) and how it relates to the Capability Approach (3.). This is followed by a conceptualized functionalist comparison of the German and Indian constitutional rights to education (4.). Subsequently, the implementation in practice is analyzed using the 4-A scheme developed by the United Nations (5.). The final segment relates to the capability threshold and utilizes the results of the comparison to establish guidelines for policymakers in the education sector (6.).
Overall, this thesis finds that achieving the capability of literacy, a major aspect of legal literacy, can ultimately lead to the promotion of access to justice.
The Relevance of Religion in the Public Sphere - Religion and Migration in Educational Systems
(2019)
Current Social and Educational Situation in Germany
Schools in German immigration society must struggle with a lot of challenges. About one third of the refugees are school-age children and youth. At least 300,000 of them have entered the German educational system. Every third child has a migration biography and teachers are often hardly prepared to deal with these conditions.
Many of the refugee and displaced children and youth come from Arabic countries. They bring along their Muslim religion and culture into a secular society formerly moulded by Christianity. This situation requires a lot of special accommodations. Besides language barriers and being mindful of their traumatic experiences, teachers need to be sensitive in particular with intercultural and interreligious conflict situations.
According to the survey “Teacher Training in an Immigrant Society” 2016 , it is expected that they provide individual aid to the increasing number of young refugees and children who need assistance. The expectations are high, but the teachers receive very little support.
The authors of the study, the Mercator Institute at Cologne University and the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration, asserts that despite the normal case of diversity in classrooms, apprenticeship and in-service learning concepts for teachers are not modified accordingly. The survey revealed that deficits are evident in teacher education in German states and the lacks are responsible for this situation.
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Post-migrant societies in Europe are characterized by political, cultural, religious, and social changes. Where people meet under the conditions of migration and globalization, new places and spaces of negotiating are arising. They are formed by provocative questions, dynamic reorientation, and social transformation, in particular regarding religious affiliations, contexts and experiences. This article will consider challenges and the resources of religion in terms of coping with ambiguity and building up post-migrant community relations. In this context, the concept of the ‘contact zone’ as a post-migrant place or space provides an insight to social spaces where cultures and religions meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in emotionally charged contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, like displacement and their aftermaths. These contact zones offer a place of discussing power, oppression, and religious diversities, but also find innovative perspectives for post-migrant identities. With reference to this, three case studies based on experiences of refugees in Europe with contact zones in refugee centers, schools and educational institutions allow for an understanding of the significance of places, the feeling of rootlessness and the findings of new places of religious identity, of ‘embodied’ habitation and participation. Finally, this article emphasizes the meaning of public speech in post-migrant societies from a Christian perspective.
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Introduction
1. Blumenberg's Critique of Anselm's Ontological Argument
1.1 The Ontological Argument as a Proof of the Existence of God
1.2 Two Incompatible "Definitions" of God
1.3 Other Objections Against Anselm's Ontological Argument
2. Blumenberg's Critique of Anselm's Theological Anthropology
2.1 Hans Blumenberg's Anselm: Humanity as Ersatz
2.2 The Historical Anselm: Humanity as an End in Itself
2.3 Rational Theology
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Stem cell research has been a problematic endeavour. For the past twenty years it has attracted moral controversies in both the public and the professional sphere. The research involves not only laboratories, clinics and people, but ethics, industries, jurisprudence, and markets. Today it contributes to the development of new therapies and affects increasingly many social arenas. The matrix approach introduced in this book offers a new understanding of this science in its relation to society. The contributions are multidisciplinary and intersectional, illustrating how agency and influence between science and society go both ways.
Conceptually, this volume presents a situated and reflexive approach for philosophy and sociology of the life sciences. The practices that are part of stem cell research are dispersed, and the concepts that tie them together are tenuous; there are persistent problems with the validation of findings, and the ontology of the stem cell is elusive. The array of applications shapes a growing bioeconomy that is dependent on patient donations of tissues and embryos, consumers, and industrial support. In this volume it is argued that this research now denotes not a specific field but a flexible web of intersecting practices, discourses, and agencies. To capture significant parts of this complex reality, this book presents recent findings from researchers, who have studied in-depth aspects of this matrix of stem cell research.
This volume presents state-of-the-art examinations from senior and junior scholars in disciplines from humanities and laboratory research to various social sciences, highlighting particular normative and epistemological intersections. The book will appeal to scholars as well as wider audiences interested in developments in life science and society interactions. The novel matrix approach and the accessible case studies make this an excellent resource for science and society courses.
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The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of different coping styles on situational coping in everyday life situations and gender differences. An ecological momentary assessment study with the mobile health app TrackYourStress was conducted with 113 participants. The coping styles Positive Thinking, Active Stress Coping, Social Support, Support in Faith, and Alcohol and Cigarette Consumption of the Stress and Coping Inventory were measured at baseline. Situational coping was assessed by the question “How well can you cope with your momentary stress level” over 4 weeks. Multilevel models were conducted to test the effects of the coping styles on situational coping. Additionally, gender differences were evaluated. Positive Thinking (p = 0.03) and Active Stress Coping (p = 0.04) had significant positive impacts on situational coping in the total sample. For women, Social Support had a significant positive effect on situational coping (p = 0.046). For men, Active Stress Coping had a significant positive effect on situational coping (p = 0.001). Women had higher scores on the SCI scale Social Support than men (p = 0.007). These results suggest that different coping styles could be more effective in daily life for women than for men. Taking this into account, interventions tailored to users’ coping styles might lead to better coping outcomes than generalized interventions.
The history of the Congo Evangelistic Mission/Communauté Pentecôtiste au Zaïre from 1915 to 1982
(2008)
Geschichte der Congo Evangelistic Mission/Communauté Pentecôtiste au Zaïre von 1915 bis 1982. Zugl.: Aberdeen, Univ., Diss., 1983
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Although he was a major figure in the early development of the Cistercian movement, liturgical veneration for St. Stephen Harding (†1134) seldom took place in the Middle Ages. Legends rarely discuss him. But in the Early Modern Period, he was "discovered" and credited more and more with being the sole author of the Carta Caritatis, although there were certainly other authors. This article shows how Stephen's personality was assessed differently from one era to the next.
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Background: An ever-increasing number of patients seek health information via the internet. However, there is an overabundance of differing, often low-quality information available, while a lack of health literacy makes it difficult for patients to understand and assess the quality and trustworthiness of the information at hand. The web portal tala-med was thus conceived as an evidence-based, up-to-date, and trustworthy information resource for lower back pain (LBP), which could be used by primary care physicians (PCPs) and patients during and following consultations for LBP. The current evidence demonstrates that patients with LBP could benefit from web portals. However, the use of such portals by patients remains low, thus limiting their effectiveness. Therefore, it is important to explore the factors that promote or hinder the use of web portals and investigate how patients perceive their usability and utility.
Objective: In this study, we investigated the acceptance, usability, and utility of the web portal tala-med from the patient perspective.
Methods: This qualitative study was based on telephone interviews with patients who had access to the web portal tala-med from their PCP. We used a semistructured interview guide that consisted of questions about the consultation in which patients were introduced to tala-med, in addition to questions regarding patient perceptions, experiences, and utilization of tala-med. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through framework analysis.
Results: A total of 32 half-hour interviews were conducted with 16 female and 16 male patients with LBP. We identified 5 themes of interest: the use of tala-med by PCPs during the consultation, the use of tala-med by patients, its usability, added values derived from its use, and the resultant effects of using tala-med. PCPs used tala-med as an additional information resource for their patients and recommended the exercises. The patients appreciated these exercises and were willing to use tala-med at home. We also identified factors that promoted or hindered the use of tala-med by patients. Most patients rated tala-med positively and considered it a clear, comprehensible, trustworthy, and practical resource. In particular, the trustworthiness of tala-med was seen as an advantage over other information resources. The possibilities offered by tala-med to recap and reflect on the contents of consultations in a time-flexible and independent manner was perceived as an added value to the PCP consultation.
Conclusions: Tala-med was well accepted by patients and appeared to be well suited to being used as an add-on to PCP consultations. Patient perception also supports its usability and utility. Tala-med may therefore enrich consultations and assist patients who would otherwise be unable to find good-quality web-based health information on LBP. In addition, our findings support the future development of digital health platforms and their successful use as a supplement to PCP consultations.
Background: The measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic have led to significant changes in people’s daily lives. This paper examines changes in substance use during the first lockdown (March–July 2020) and investigates mental health burdens in substance users with increased consumption of alcohol, nicotine or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in Germany compared to users with unchanged or reduced consumption. Method: In a cross-sectional online survey, 2369 people were asked about their mental health and their substance use during the first lockdown in Germany. Results: Of the participants, 28.5% increased their alcohol use, 28.8% their use of tobacco products, and 20.6% their use of THC-containing products during the pandemic. The groups with increased alcohol, nicotine, and THC use during the first lockdown reported more depressive symptoms and anxiety. Individuals who reported increased consumption of alcohol or nicotine were also more likely to experience loneliness and have suicidal thoughts and were more often stressed due to social distancing. Conclusion: Alcohol, nicotine and THC increased in a subgroup of consumers who reported to have more mental health problems compared to individuals who did not increase their consumption. This increased substance use could, therefore, be understood as a dysfunctional strategy to cope with negative emotions during the lockdown.
This paper takes up ongoing discussions on the inequality of educational opportunities and formulates a conceptual model to link separate lines of research. Our particular focus is on combining motivational and structural approaches into a mediation model that explains differences in academic achievement. In the literature, four main mechanisms of social reproduction are discussed. Two main pathways refer to (1) parents’ expectations regarding their children’s academic success and (2) replicating cultural capital through intra‐familial cultural practices. (3) Parents’ perception of children’s abilities depends on social position and is influential for expectations of success. (4) For all three pathways, we expect effects on students’ motivational characteristics, which in turn influence academic achievement. We test our conceptual model by structural equation modelling using longitudinal data from primary school students in Germany. Empirical evidence is in line with the assumptions in the model. Cultural reproduction and expectations of success can be seen as the key components of the model. However, both chains of reproduction are related to each other by parents’ perception of child’s ability, and their effects are mediated by child’s motivational characteristics.
This paper takes up ongoing discussions on the inequality of educational opportunities and formulates a conceptual model to link separate lines of research. Our particular focus is on combining motivational and structural approaches into a mediation model that explains differences in academic achievement. In the literature, four main mechanisms of social reproduction are discussed. Two main pathways refer to (1) parents’ expectations regarding their children’s academic success and (2) replicating cultural capital through intra‐familial cultural practices. (3) Parents’ perception of children’s abilities depends on social position and is influential for expectations of success. (4) For all three pathways, we expect effects on students’ motivational characteristics, which in turn influence academic achievement. We test our conceptual model by structural equation modelling using longitudinal data from primary school students in Germany. Empirical evidence is in line with the assumptions in the model. Cultural reproduction and expectations of success can be seen as the key components of the model. However, both chains of reproduction are related to each other by parents’ perception of child’s ability, and their effects are mediated by child’s motivational characteristics.
Background Health information systems have developed rapidly and considerably during the last decades, taking advantage of many new technologies. Robots used in operating theaters represent an exceptional example of this trend. Yet, the more these systems are designed to act autonomously and intelligently, the more complex and ethical questions arise about serious implications of how future hybrid clinical team–machine interactions ought to be envisioned, in situations where actions and their decision-making are continuously shared between humans and machines.
Objectives To discuss the many different viewpoints—from surgery, robotics, medical informatics, law, and ethics—that the challenges of novel team–machine interactions raise, together with potential consequences for health information systems, in particular on how to adequately consider what hybrid actions can be specified, and in which sense these do imply a sharing of autonomous decisions between (teams of) humans and machines, with robotic systems in operating theaters as an example.
Results Team–machine interaction and hybrid action of humans and intelligent machines, as is now becoming feasible, will lead to fundamental changes in a wide range of applications, not only in the context of robotic systems in surgical operating theaters. Collaboration of surgical teams in operating theaters as well as the roles, competencies, and responsibilities of humans (health care professionals) and machines (robotic systems) need to be reconsidered. Hospital information systems will in future not only have humans as users, but also provide the ground for actions of intelligent machines.
Conclusions The expected significant changes in the relationship of humans and machines can only be appropriately analyzed and considered by inter- and multidisciplinary collaboration. Fundamentally new approaches are needed to construct the reasonable concepts surrounding hybrid action that will take into account the ascription of responsibility to the radically different types of human versus nonhuman intelligent agents involved.
Background: The present study examined the extent to which grit, self-efficacy, and resilience are present in newly immigrated adolescents and how they differ from the norm population. The data was also examined for gender differences and correlations with the variables.
Methods: The study examined newly immigrated adolescents (n=55) while using RS-13 (Resilience Scale), GSE (General Self-efficacy Scale) and the Grit-Scale. Furthermore, sociodemographic variables like age, religion and gender were collected. The study variables were self-reported and t-tests, asymptotic Mann-Whitney- U -Test and Bravais-Pearson correlation analysis were performed.
Results: The participants showed a lower score regarding grit and general self-efficacy compared to the norm population, but they exhibited a higher resilience-score. Female participants demonstrated a lower resilience-score than male participants. Male participants showed lower general self-efficacy compared to female participants. There were no gender differences with regard to grit. The data revealed a negative correlation between resilience and grit and resilience and general self-efficacy.
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Religious Literacy in Early Childhood Education as a Societal Resource in Immigrant Societies
(2022)
Western immigration societies are struggling with numerous of educational challenges. Every third, sometimes every second child has an immigration biography and teachers working in early childhood education are often minimally prepared to deal with the resulting diverse and complex conditions of cultural and religious diversity. Children and Childhood studies show that religion is an essential reference point for migrant families and their children. How could these empirical settings be transformed into intercultural and inter-religious competences and spiritual well-being in early childhood education? In which ways religious education in pre-schools provides a “safe place” or space of negotiating (religious) identity, value building, resilience, and the capacity to deal with pluralism and otherness? On the basis of empirical and theoretical results, the opportunities of religious education in early childhood education for developing an attitude of global citizenship should be taken into serious consideration
Religion, Migration and Educational Practice – Empirical, Postcolonial and Theological Perspectives
(2018)
Germany currently has the largest number of immigrants in Europe. This immigrant population represents a vast variety of ethnic and religious traditions. German society therefore, is currently facing urgent challenges presented by this very large, new, and diverse population. Issues such as enculturation, integration and participation into the “host”
communities are at the forefront of the public debates.
This scientific work reflects experiences in school pastoral in South India using categories of relationships. The practice oriented background is the starting point of the reflection and its target is to provide a relational paradigm as an orientation for the practical work.
The work proceeds in three steps. First, the theological and anthropological foundations are laid for a relationship-oriented education. From there the requirements towards the qualification of "pastoral care-giver" are described.
God has revealed Himself as a relationship-willing God. In the Old Testament God chose a people to enter into a covenant with him and to guide it in a covenantal relationship through history. In Jesus Christ, he takes the initiative to remain as a fatherly covenant partner in dialogue with the individual and the people. Last reason is the Trinitarian God who is loving relationship in itself. The author works out the relatedness of the Holy Spirit to the people and shows its relevance for Pastoral care.
Man, created in the image of God endowed the capacity of and the desire for relationships, is placed on a way of life, with the task and inner longing to gradually unfold and shape the variety of relationships for which he has been created. This route is risky, dangerous, obstaculized and often unsuccessful, but also much gratifying when it succeeds. The development of dialogue and bounding is multidimensional: it entails the relationship with yourself (identity) with fellow human beings, with God and with the creation and the environment.
To help develop the diversified bonding network makes high demands on the "pastoral care-giver". His expertise grows out of his own being and reflected experience; it arises from his ability to work on his own relationship skills. Intellectual training is indispensible; it may complement, but never can replace the inner competence.
The author invites to rethink one´s own experiences of diverse relationships in the light of theology, anthropology and psychology. He encourages to blaze new trails by making new experiences in today's context.
Introduction: In emergency care, geriatric requirements and risks are often not taken sufficiently into account. In addition, there are neither evidence-based recommendations nor scientifically developed quality indicators (QI) for geriatric emergency care in German emergency departments. As part of the GeriQ-ED© research project, quality indicators for geriatric emergency medicine in Germany have been developed using the QUALIFY-instruments. Methods: Using a triangulation methodology, a) clinical experience-based quality aspects were identified and verified, b) research-based quality statements were formulated and assessed for relevance, and c) preliminary quality indicators were operationalized and evaluated in order to recommend a feasible set of final quality indicators. Results: Initially, 41 quality statements were identified and assessed as relevant. Sixty-seven QI (33 process, 29 structure and 5 outcome indicators) were extrapolated and operationalised. In order to facilitate implementation into daily practice, the following five quality statements were defined as the GeriQ-ED© TOP 5: screening for delirium, taking a full medications history including an assessment of the indications, education of geriatric knowledge and skills to emergency staff, screening for patients with geriatric needs, and identification of patients with risk of falls/ recurrent falls. Discussion: QIs are regarded as gold standard to measure, benchmark and improve emergency care. GeriQ-ED© QI focused on clinical experience- and research-based recommendations and describe for the first time a standard for geriatric emergency care in Germany. GeriQ-ED© TOP 5 should be implemented as a minimum standard in geriatric emergency care.
Individuals decide to use healthcare when the expected benefits outweigh the perceived costs. One of these cost factors in this decision can be stigma. So far, it has not been researched how former soldiers of the German Armed Forces with a service-induced mental illness perceive stigma and how it influences their healthcare use. As stigma is shaped by the socio-cultural context, the setting of the potential healthcare use must be considered. Narrative interviews were conducted with 33 former soldiers with mental health problems. The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach, in which codes were formed and emerging themes were systemized. The relationship between stigma and healthcare use was analyzed. Occupational discrimination and social exclusion were experienced in both in the military and civilian context, but stigma functioned differently in each context. In the military context, former soldiers’ self-stigma of mentally ill individuals being weak was in stark contrast to their internalized military standards. This contrast let them avoid disclosure and subsequent healthcare use. In civilian context, the participants perceived 2 different stigma costs: mental illness stigma and former soldier stigma (i.e., stigmatization because of their military past). Both were perceived as barriers to healthcare use. A model, illustrating these different stigma costs in the different contexts, was developed. Further research on the link between stigma and healthcare use of this group is urgently needed.
Background
Reduced birthweight is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes later in life. Children of adolescent mothers are at higher risk for reduced birthweight. The current study aimed to identify the key risk factors affecting birthweight in a well-characterized sample of adolescent mothers to inform preventive public health efforts.
Methods
Sixty-four adolescent mothers (≤ 21 years of age) provided detailed data on pregnancy, birth and psychosocial risk. Separate regression analyses with (1) birthweight and (2) low birthweight (LBW) as outcomes, and pregnancy complications, prenatal care, maternal age, substance abuse during pregnancy, socioeconomic risk, stressful life events and the child’s sex as independent variables were conducted. Exploratively, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to investigate the quality of the discriminatory power of the risk factors.
Results
The following variables explained variance in birthweight significantly: prenatal care attendance (p = .006), pregnancy complications (p = .006), and maternal substance abuse during pregnancy (p = .044). Prenatal care attendance (p = .023) and complications during pregnancy (p = .027) were identified as significant contributors to LBW. Substance abuse (p = .013), pregnancy complications (p = .022), and prenatal care attendance (p = .044) showed reasonable accuracy in predicting low birthweight in the ROC analysis.
Conclusions
Among high-risk adolescent mothers, both biological factors, such as pregnancy complications, and behavioural factors amenable to intervention, such as substance abuse and insufficient prenatal care, seem to contribute to reduced birthweight in their children, a predisposing factor for poorer health outcomes later in life. More tailored intervention programmes targeting the specific needs of this high-risk group are needed.
Following Michael Lipsky's well‐known argument that policy is made in the daily encounters between street‐level bureaucracy and citizens, a growing body of research emphasizes that actors and organizations delivering social and labor‐market policy play a crucial role in welfare‐state politics. Using qualitative data collected at three local employment agencies in Germany, this article explores worker‐client relations as a crucial mechanism through which activation policies are translated into practice. The analysis investigates how caseworkers define their role and their relationships with clients. The findings show that it is essential for caseworkers to achieve client compliance. In such a context, building relationships of trust is a strategic instrument in overcoming possible barriers to co‐operation in the caseworker‐client interaction. Caseworkers develop strategies to create the impression of trustworthiness and to motivate both unemployed clients and employers to become trust‐givers in the caseworker‐client relation. While research has often stressed the dichotomy between disciplining and enabling elements of activation policies, our explorative study shows that persuasion and trust‐building are a further important dimension of the frontline delivery of activation policies. These strategies reflect the importance of emotional aspects of frontline work.
Employees of the public employment services (PES) are street-level bureaucrats who shape activation policy on the ground. This paper examines how PES staff use enhanced discretion in an innovation project carried out by the German Federal Employment Agency. Applying a bottom-up perspective, we reconstruct PES employees’ logic of action and the dilemmas they face in improving counselling and placement services. According to our findings, placement staff use enhanced discretion to promote more individualised support and an adequate matching of jobseekers and employers. The use of discretion is framed by organisational norms and reward mechanisms and by the current labour market situation. Our analyses are based on qualitative interviews and group discussions with placement staff.
Photovoice as a participatory method: impacts on the individual, community and societal levels
(2020)
We present the visual data collection method called “photovoice” in participatory research, and discuss its impetus for change and its possible impacts on work with different groups of people. Using three case examples
from PartKommPlus – Research Consortium for Healthy Communities, we report our experiences from joint research involving adults with learning difficulties and young people. Following the Photovoice Impact Model of
CATALANI and MINKLER (2010), we assigned the observed impacts to three categories: the individual, community and societal levels. In line with the model, we discuss the contribution that the photovoice method can make to the
individual empowerment of co-researchers, the understanding of community needs and assets, and to changing social reality by influencing political and other key actors.
In order to make justice work, participation and reconciliation is needed within and between societies, peoples, and nations. In this compilation, authors - senior academics as well as students from Bethlehem University, Israel, and the Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany – contribute to this important field. Thus, to some extent, the book in itself is an example of the subjects it deals with.
Background and teaching situation: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had a substantial didactic impact on medical teaching. In Erlangen, the lecture “General Practice” was offered asynchronously and digitally in an inverted-classroom concept. Contents were available via a learning platform. The lecture was presented using annotated videos, consolidation materials and control questions. A forum encouraged for discussions and feedback and collected in-depth aspects for a case-based video consultation. The aim of this work is to evaluate and critically examine the digital teaching concept during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Methodology: Two semester cohorts evaluated the lecture. Overall impression of the lecture, didactic elements, suitability and the desired future lecture format were surveyed quantitatively. Free text answers were evaluated by means of qualitative content synthesis.
Results: In terms of overall impression, the students (N=199) rated the lecture on average as “very good” (M=1.41, SD=.57). Digital methods were perceived as suitable for supporting self-study, and digital usage was rated as unproblematically (M=1.18, SD=.50). Desired future teaching formats were blended learning concepts (79.4%). Organisation, structure and content presentation were highly appreciated. The time for completing the course was perceived critically. The students urged for more practical and consolidating lecture work.
Discussion and implications: The results illustrate high acceptance of digital teaching and underline the demand for future blended learning concepts. It is particularly important to better consider the students’ time investment and practical relevance of digital self-learning mechanisms.