31,028 research outputs found
Parents and children talk: the family dynamics of English language proficiency
This paper extends the analysis of the acquisition of destination language proficiency
among immigrants by explicitly incorporating dynamics among family membersâ
mother, father and children. Single equation, bivariate, and four-state (multivariate)
probit analyses are employed. Immigrant English language skills are greater the
younger the age at migration, the longer the duration of residence, the higher the
level of education, and for immigrants not from Asia. Large positive correlations in
the unmeasured determinants of proficiency exist between spouses, between
siblings, and between parents and children, although the latter relationship is
stronger for the mother
The people of no religion: the demographics of secularisation in the English-speaking world since c.1900
This article argues for study of the decline of religion in western countries, not merely
in terms of loss and negative consequences for (predominantly) Christianity, but in positive terms for the individuals who have taken the decision to forsake organised religion.
It puts forward the need to consider ways of examining secularisation which grant respect
to categories of secularity selected by respondents. After contextualising an examination
of the category of âșno religionâč (also known as âșnoneâč) from state censuses and surveys,
the article compares the growth in the numbers of people adopting these labels in Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United States and the four countries of the United
Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). This shows ultra-low levels
prior to 1960, followed by a common pattern of rapid change in the late 1960s; however
the rates of change, and the destiny of the change, differ thereafter. The article concludes
by examining demographic information as to who âșno-religionistsâč were in terms of age,
gender and race, and explores some economic and religious-heritage determinants of
growth. It posits a key linkage between feminism and âșno-religionismâč, but acknowledges
the need for a vast increase in research
Enabling Spatio-Temporal Search in Open Data
Intuitively, most datasets found in Open Data are organised by spatio-temporal scope, that is, single datasets provide data for a certain region, valid for a certain time period. For many use cases (such as for instance data journalism and fact checking) a pre-dominant need is to scope down the relevant datasets to a particular period or region. Therefore, we argue that spatio-temporal search is a crucial need for Open Data portals and across Open Data portals, yet - to the best of our knowledge - no working solution exists. We argue that - just like for for regular Web search - knowledge graphs can be helpful to significantly improve search: in fact, the ingredients for a public knowledge graph of geographic entities as well as time periods and events exist already on the Web of Data, although they have not yet been integrated and applied - in a principled manner - to the use case of Open Data search. In the present paper we aim at doing just that: we (i) present a scalable approach to construct a spatio-temporal knowledge graph that hierarchically structures geographical, as well as temporal entities, (ii) annotate a large corpus of tabular datasets from open data portals, (iii) enable structured, spatio-temporal search over Open Data catalogs through our spatio-temporal knowledge graph, both via a search interface as well as via a SPARQL endpoint, available at data.wu.ac.at/odgraphsearch/Series: Working Papers on Information Systems, Information Business and Operation
Incentives for the adoption of e-government by Greek municipalities
Purpose: The research aims to identify the incentives that play an important role in the evolution of e-government in Greece at local scale and its actual development level. It also investigates the factors and the perceived barriers that affect the development of local egovernment in Greek Municipalities, as well as the benefits they derive from it. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is based on a survey that was conducted through a questionnaire to all 325 Municipalities of the country and includes data from 109 Municipalities that participated in the quantitative approach. Findings: While e-government is spread at a relatively satisfactory level, it appears that only a few Municipalities are performing well. Results highlight also the two main incentives that motivate Municipalities to adopt e-government: The first is the improvement of the efficiency of information exchange with the external environment and the second is managing internal issues-relationships in conjunction with the existence of prominent IT departments. Amongst the main factors that affect e-government adoption by Local authorities, budgetary constraints stand out, while the lack of personnel specialized in Information Technologies is identified as common obstacle. Practical Implications: Findings suggest that an integrated approach to e-government is needed in order to enable organizations to minimize failures and to overcome barriers and counter risks. The capacity to align e-government applications with the increasing and evolving needs and requirements of the citizens is the key to optimizing the benefits of eGovernment at local scale. Originality/Value: There is no similar empirical research in the context of Greece; hence, it seems important to increase the knowledge about the drivers of e-government adoption, especially in the public sector at the local scale.peer-reviewe
Religious Conversions and Religious Diversification in Interwar Yugoslavia and Slovenia
With the foundation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, the respective nationalities and ethnic communities were faced with the reality of a multi-confessional state. Internal migration and minority policy, in particular, set in motion a slow diversification in the religious sphere, even in the ethnically and religiously extremely homogeneous territory of Slovenia. This paper aims to analyze the role that religious convertsâwho were largely former Catholicsâplayed during the interwar period in Slovenian regions in the phenomenon of the gradual transformation of the religious landscape over a long period of time. Converts were an important part of almost all religious minorities: including in âtraditionalâ religious communities, such as the German Evangelicals (i.e., Lutherans of German nationality), as much as in religious communities that were new to this region, such as the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Old Catholic Church, and the Islamic religious community, and even in small communities, including the Baptists, the Nazarenes, and others. Religious conversions, above all, marked the contemporary and historical relationships among the various religious communities in Slovenian territory, and, in a broader framework, among Yugoslav nationalitiesâand often given the ethnic character of these religious communities, even cross-national and interethnic relations. Despite their conflictual hypostasis, it can be argued that these changes in relationships constituted the basis for further secularization, greater heterogeneity among the congregation of the majority Catholic Church, and germs of religious plurality
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