Conceptualizing Organizational Domains of Community Empowerment through Empowerment Evaluation in Estonian Communities

The importance of community empowerment has been strongly emphasized in health promotion publications in Western societies. Only a few studies exist to highlight the empowerment processes in countries in transition in Eastern Europe. A multi-stage study was designed to develop a context-specific survey instrument appropriate for evaluating the changes in the community empowerment process within the context of health promotion programs in Rapla, Estonia. The current study comprises the first stage, which aims to identify and systematize empowering domains and activities perceived by community members during the empowerment evaluation process. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with sixteen participants from three health promotion programs. Purposive sampling was used, and data were analyzed using constant comparison. The findings suggest that there are four key organizational domains that characterize the community empowerment process in Rapla: activation of the community, competence development of the community, program management development, and creation of a supportive environment

Measurement of Community Empowerment in Three Community Programs in Rapla (Estonia)

Community empowerment approaches have been proven to be powerful tools for solving local health problems. However, the methods for measuring empowerment in the community remain unclear and open to dispute. This study aims to describe how a context-specific community empowerment measurement tool was developed and changes made to three health promotion programs in Rapla, Estonia. An empowerment expansion model was compiled and applied to three existing programs: Safe Community, Drug/HIV Prevention and Elderly Quality of Life. The consensus workshop method was used to create the measurement tool and collect data on the Organizational Domains of Community Empowerment (ODCE). The study demonstrated considerable increases in the ODCE among the community workgroup, which was initiated by community members and the municipality’s decision-makers. The increase was within the workgroup, which had strong political and financial support on a national level but was not the community’s priority. The program was initiated and implemented by the local community members, and continuous development still occurred, though at a reduced pace. The use of the empowerment expansion model has proven to be an applicable, relevant, simple and inexpensive tool for the evaluation of community empowerment

Når 'den gode medarbejder' er maskulint konnoteret. Køn og positioner i lønsamtaler

The article sheds light on how negotiations concerning gender take place in modern day work places where the discourse about equality of gender having been achieved is widely accepted. The article also unveils how the concept of equality of gender is redefined, e.g. in connection with the formation and utilisation of criteria concerning individual reward and salary negotiations. The article focuses on the impacts of gender neutrality by observing how employees and executives in 4 companies (Andersen & Bloksgaard 2004) talk about and use terms like ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘the good employee’. On this basis, organization, gender, work and work practices are analyzed

Individuel løn — reel forhandling eller symbolpolitik?

I lyset af tendensen til øget decentralisering af løndannelsen op igennem 1990'erne og med en mere udbredt grad af individuel løn er der kommet større fokus på det enkelte individ. Det enkelte individ er blevet centrum for lønudmøntningen-følges dette ideal, bør individet også have mulighed for at øve indflydelse på politikken, proceduren og forhandlingen omkring lønnen. Men er dette så tilfældet? Det søger denne artikel et svar på. Og samtidig rejser den et spørgsmål om, hvorvidt den stigende individualisering, der bla. følger med individuel løn, mindsker orienteringen mod kollektiv organisering og medbestemmelse? Med udgangspunkt i en analyse af lønsystemerne og løndannelsesprocesserne på tre store, private virksomheder, som har eller er i gang med at implementere individuel løn, diskuterer artiklen disse problematikker

arbejdsliv, alliancer og ambivalenser— En analyse af yngre ufaglærte kvinders syn på fagbevægelsen

Fagforeningerne står over for store udfordringer de kommende år. Medlemstallene indenfor LO's forbund er dalende, og den manglende opbakning og tillidskrise tilskrives primært de yngre medlemmer. Der tegner sig et billede af, at relationen mellem fagforening og de yngre medlemmer er svækket. Men hvad skyldes svækkelsen? Betyder tendenserne mod stigende individualisering og øget værdipluralisme, at fagforeningerne har haft sin tid, og hvordan harmonerer de individuelle interesser med kollektive målsætninger? Er faglige fællesskaber gået af mode-eller praktiseres de på nye måder? Artiklen analyserer, hvordan solidaritet og fællesskab praktiseres i gruppen af yngre ufaglærte kvinder, og analyserne kan være med til at illustrere, hvilke udfordringer fagforeningerne står overfor

Barriers among Danish women and general practitioners to raising the issue of intimate partner violence in general practice: a qualitative study

Thirty-five percent of Danish women experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. However, health care professionals are not in the practice of asking about intimate partner violence (IPV) in Denmark. It is currently unknown what hinders general practitioners from asking about partner violence and how Danish women would perceive such an inquiry. This aspect has not previously been explored in Denmark. An exploratory study was conducted to examine what hinders general practitioners (GPs) from asking and what Danish women\u27s views and attitudes are regarding being asked about IPV

The association between social position and self-rated health in 10 deprived neighbourhoods

BACKGROUND: A number of studies have shown that poor self-rated health is more prevalent among people in poor, socially disadvantaged positions. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between self-rated health and social position in 10 deprived neighbourhoods. METHODS: A stratified random sample of 7,934 households was selected. Of these, 641 were excluded from the study because the residents had moved, died, or were otherwise unavailable. Of the net sample of 7,293 individuals, 1,464 refused to participate, 885 were not at home, and 373 did not participate for other reasons, resulting in an average response rate of 62.7%. Multiple logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations between the number of life resources and the odds of self-rated health and also between the type of neighbourhood and the odds of self-rated health. RESULTS: The analysis shows that the number of life resources is significantly associated with having poor/very poor self-rated health for both genders. The results clearly suggest that the more life resources that an individual has, the lower the risk is of that individual reporting poor/very poor health. CONCLUSIONS: The results show a strong association between residents’ number of life resources and their self-rated health. In particular, residents in deprived rural neighbourhoods have much better self-rated health than do residents in deprived urban neighbourhoods, but further studies are needed to explain these urban/rural differences and to determine how they influence health

Implementing welfare technologies: On wash toilets and self-reliant citizens

Welfare technology, along with science and innovation, is often presented as a means to solve what is referred to as the demographic challenge: an ageing population with more chronic diseases, fewer re-sources and fewer hands to take care of their needs. In this paper, the focus is on implementation practices regarding the use of welfare technologies for elderly people, exemplified by the implementation of the wash toilet in a specific municipality. Adhering to a socio-material view on technologies, the article focuses on how welfare technologies are enacted in terms of what they are expected to do and what kind of elderly people they are expected to produce. Based on an analysis of national and local strategies, and interviews with employees involved in various aspects of implementation, it is found that legislations, policy strategies, rehabilitation and the business-case logic enact welfare technologies/the wash toilet with different expectations and notions of the citizen, namely the self-reliant citizen, the compensated citizen and the in-dependent (of rehabilitation) citizen. The paper discusses identified tensions within and between these enactments. The main contribution of the article is to make visible the various versions of welfare technology, enacted by different socio-technical techniques involved in the implementation of welfare technologies and thereby to question the naturalised link between welfare technology and self-reliance