Hong Kong Summer Service Program (July 4-August 12, 2005)

Now in its second year, the Hong Kong Summer Service Program is sponsored by the Lingnan Foundation, and administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies (APIAS). After undergoing a competitive application and interview process organized by lIE, six students from Lingnan University, Sun Yat-sen University and Lingnan (University) College were selected to participate in the program, which involves a 6-week summer internship with a community/ social service organization in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Summer Service interns were placed in a non-profit organization that addresses a social concern related to their interests. With support and guidance from APIAS, each Fellow worked in their placement organization for the duration of the program, gaining practical experience in the operation of a social service organization. They worked with executives and administrators to learn all aspects of the operation of the organization as well as doing hands on work in the services provided by the organization. To enhance their program experience, interns worked with their organization and APIAS supervisor to propose and initiate at least one service project during their internship. This year, projects undertaken by the interns included creative art classes for children, intergenerational bridge-building activities between children and the elderly, and an outing to Lingnan University for residents of a local elderly home. Interns were required to submit program proposals, budgets and reports for their chosen projects. In addition to presenting their findings at the closing seminar, after the conclusion of the program interns submit final evaluation reports, detailing their experiences, findings and results of their internship

An exploratory study of the impacts on gardening to older people : case study to Tsuen Wan golden organic farming project

Aims This was an exploratory study to investigate how gardening could enhance and strengthen the physical health, psychological well-being and social networks of older participants. Design and participants Qualitative research methodology was adopted in this study. Interviews were conducted on ten elderly people. In order to check and confirm the information collected in the in-depth interviews and provide more useful information for our study, four older participants and four volunteer workers were invited to join our two focus group discussions (N=8) upon the completion of the in-depth interview. Data was collected between March and July of 2004. Findings In this study, we found that elderly participants benefited more in their psychological well-being and the enlargement of their social networks. On the side of psychological well-being, many older participants expressed that they felt happier and it brought a greater meaning to their life. Gardening distracted them from thinking negative thoughts, and helped them set goals as well as gain achievements in life. Another significant change was their enlargement of social networks, we found that the ties between older participants and their family members were strengthened. Moreover, elderly participants made new friends during gardening with both elderly participants and voluntary workers

CSES Module 3 Full Release

The module was administered as a post-election interview. The resulting data are provided along with voting, demographic, district and macro variables in a single dataset. CSES Variable List The list of variables is being provided on the CSES Website to help in understanding what content is available from CSES, and to compare the content available in each module. Themes: MICRO-LEVEL DATA: Identification and study administration variables: weighting factors; election type; date of election 1st and 2nd round; study timing (post election study, pre-election and post-election study, between rounds of majoritarian election); mode of interview; gender of interviewer; date questionnaire administered; primary electoral district of respondent; number of days the interview was conducted after the election Demography: age; gender; education; marital status; union membership; union membership of others in household; business association membership, farmers´ association membership; professional association membership; current employment status; main occupation; socio economic status; employment type - public or private; industrial sector; current employment status, occupation, socio economic status, employment type - public or private, and industrial sector of spouse; household income; number of persons in household; number of children in household under the age of 18; attendance at religious services; religiosity; religious denomination; language usually spoken at home; race; ethnicity; region of residence; rural or urban residence Survey variables: most important issues of election; candidates competencies to deal with most important issues; difference who is in power and who people vote for; evaluation of governments performance; party and leader that represent respondent´s view best; sympathy scale for selected parties and political leaders; assessment of parties and political leaders on a left-right-scale; self-assessment on a left-right-scale; differences of choice options; campaign involvement; satisfaction with democracy; party identification; intensity of party identification; respondent cast a ballot at the current and the previous election; vote choice (presidential, lower house and upper house elections) at the current and the previous election; respondent cast candidate preference vote at the current and the previous election; political information items DISTRICT-LEVEL DATA: number of seats contested in electoral district; number of candidates; number of party lists; percent vote of different parties; official voter turnout in electoral district MACRO-LEVEL DATA: election outcomes by parties in current (lower house/upper house) legislative election; percent of seats in lower house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of seats in upper house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of votes received by presidential candidate of parties in current elections; electoral turnout; party of the president and the prime minister before and after the election; number of portfolios held by each party in cabinet, prior to and after the most recent election; size of the cabinet after the most recent election; number of parties participating in election; ideological families of parties; left-right position of parties assigned by experts and alternative dimensions; most salient factors in the election; fairness of the election; formal complaints against national level results; election irregularities reported; scheduled and held date of election; irregularities of election date; extent of election violence and post election violence; geographic concentration of violence; post-election protest; electoral alliances permitted during the election campaign; existing electoral alliances; requirements for joint party lists; possibility of apparentement and types of apparentement agreements; multi-party endorsements on ballot; votes cast; voting procedure; voting rounds; party lists close, open, or flexible; transferable votes; cumulated votes if more than one can be cast; compulsory voting; party threshold; unit for the threshold; freedom house rating; democracy-autocracy polity IV rating; age of the current regime; regime: type of executive; number of months since last lower house and last presidential election; electoral formula for presidential elections; electoral formula in all electoral tiers (majoritarian, proportional or mixed); for lower and upper houses was coded: number of electoral segments; linked electoral segments; dependent formulae in mixed systems; subtypes of mixed electoral systems; district magnitude (number of members elected from each district); number of secondary and tertiary electoral districts; fused vote; size of the lower house; GDP growth (annual percent); GDP per capita; inflation, GDP Deflator (annual percent); Human development index; total population; total unemployment; constitutional federal structure; number of legislative chambers; electoral results data available; effective number of electoral and parliamentary partie

CSES Module 1-3 Harmonized Trend File

Für weitere Informationen zur Variablenliste siehe die Dokumentation (Codebook) des CSES Module 1-3 Harmonized Trend File. Informationen zum Inhalt können den Studiennummern ZA5179 CSES Module 1 Full Release, ZA5180 CSES Module 2 Full Release, und ZA5181 CSES Module 3 Full Release entnommen werden