Civic and political volunteering: the mobilizing role of websites and social media in four countries

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Beyond Planning: The Implementation of a Worksite Health Promotional Scheme

The aim of this article is to provide insight into how the presence of diverging organizational logics influences the outcome of worksite health promotion projects. The study is based on a one-year qualitative single-case study of the implementation of a health promotional physical exercise program in a transnational transport and logistics company based in Norway. While the program that was implemented was based on dominant logics in Norway, i.e., the emphasis on worker participation and influence, the organizational logics of the transport company defined company–worker relationships in other terms. We found that the logic of a highly specialized work organization that combined strict work distribution with a set of narrowly defined work tasks contradicted the logic that underpinned the health promotional program, and that this contradiction is an important reason why the initiative failed. We therefore conclude that in implementing health promotion projects at the workplace, there is a need to observe the relationship between logics related both to the project and to the organization

‘You can’t be careful enough’: Measuring interpersonal trust during a pandemic

Empirical results regarding the role of interpersonal trust in the pandemic setting have been inconsistent. We argue that one explanation may be an inherent weakness in the standard measure of generalised trust, requesting respondents to choose between the options ‘most people can be trusted' and ‘you can't be careful enough in dealing with people'. The item measures two inter-related yet separate dimensions - trust and caution. A sense of caution is likely to be activated within the pandemic; some respondents may interpret ‘being careful’ as avoiding infection or spreading the virus. This may lead to 1) exaggerated negative trends in trust after the pandemic outbreak and 2) misrepresentation of the relationship between trust and compliance with guidelines. This is more likely to occur if respondents are primed to think about the pandemic. Analyses of several survey data sets from Norway confirmed that the standard question showed a decline in trust levels after the pandemic outbreak and a weakly negative correlation with social distancing. Alternative operationalisations without reference to caution suggested a small increase in trust and neutral or a weakly positive correlation with social distancing. Our results imply that the standard question should be used with caution in pandemic research.‘You can’t be careful enough’: Measuring interpersonal trust during a pandemicpublishedVersio

Terrorism and Attitudes Toward Out-groups: A Political Perspective

How does terrorism affect attitudes towards out-groups? While research has found negative effects, these effects may be dependent on more factors than has been acknowledged so far. This thesis proposes a framework for understanding the consequences of terrorist attacks consisting of three parts; the terrorists’ group background, the framing of attacks and the public’s prior attitudes. Three empirical studies of surveys after attacks and of survey experiments explore this framework. The first investigates the reaction to the July 22, 2011 attacks in Norway and shows that the political response and people’s prior attitudes were central to the increase in out-group trust afterwards. The second studies the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks in Paris in 2015, showing that while people in France did not increase their opposition to immigration, people outside France did. This is interpreted in light of the French response with its emphasis on republican values such as tolerance. The last paper explores how the terrorist threat affects for support for counterterrorism and shows that this support increases even for measures that target other groups than the ones creating the threatpublishedVersio

Tillit,følelser,normerogsosial distansering:Enlongitudinell studie av den norskebefolkningenunderCovid-19-pandemien

Artikkelen undersøker forklaringer på etterlevelse av råd om sosial distansering under Covid-19-pandemien i dennorske befolkningen, med vekt på tillit, følelser og sosiale normer. I tråd med teoretiske forventninger er tillit til myn-dighetene viktig for etterlevelse av råd. Den sosiale tilliten mellom mennesker ser derimot ut til å ha vært svakt nega-tivt assosiert med etterlevelse. Også det å føle frykt eller håp i tilknytning til pandemien, og oppfatninger om at andrepersoner i ens sosiale nettverk også etterlever smittevernråd, bidrar til å forklare sosial distansering. Funnene er i trådmed hovedtrekkene i den internasjonale forskningen fra pandemien og viser at de samme forklaringene som er funneti andre land, også gjør seg gjeldende her. Analysene er basert på longitudinelle surveydata i fire runder i perioden mars2020 – januar 2022.Tillit, følelser, normer og sosial distansering: En longitudinell studie av den norske befolkningen under Covid-19-pandemienpublishedVersio

Perceived societal fear and cyberhate after the November 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks

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Perceived Societal Fear and Cyberhate after the November 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks

Fear is one of the negative outcomes of terrorist attacks. Currently, there is a need to understand how societal fear and fear of terrorism might be shaped and induced by social-media discussions. This study analyzed how exposure to cyberhate was associated with perceived societal fear after the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. Demographically balanced data sets were collected from France, Spain, Finland, Norway, and the United States four weeks after the attacks. Cyberhate exposure was associated with higher perceived societal fear in all countries studied even when adjusting for confounding factors. This was particularly evident in the case of cyberhate related to terrorism. Hateful online communication after disruptive events may contribute to a social climate of fear and escalate societal uncertainty. There are, however, indications that social trust may bolster against perceived societal fear, hence enhancing resilience.</p

Global Terrorism and the Civil Sphere in Norway: Renegotiating Civil Codes

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