Migrants at School: Educational Inequality and Social Interaction in the UK and Germany

We test potential social costs of educational inequality by analysing the influence of spatial and social segregation on educational achievements. In particular, based on recent PISA data sets from the UK and Germany, we investigate whether good neighbourhoods with a relatively high stock of social capital lead to larger 'social multipliers' than neighbourhoods with low social capital. Estimated 'social multipliers' are higher for the German early tracking schooling system than for comprehensive schools in the UK. After aggregating data and employing the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, the results suggest that the educational gap between natives and migrants is mainly due to the 'endowment effect' provided by the socioeconomic background of parents and cultural capital at home. Some adverse 'integration effects' do exist for female migrants in Germany who lose ground on other groups.peer effects, identification, social interaction, reflection problem, empirical analysis, education, migrants

Endogenous Social Interactions: Which Peers Matter?

This paper compares endogenous social interactions models to determine which one fits the classroom reality best. The analysis uses data from German 9th-graders and considers the effect of the best and worst peers scores, the peers sum and peers average scores on own achievement. Although each model seems plausible when estimated separately, comparison and a selection test point to the classmates average model, meaning that group-based policies are effective. The worst peers model comes second, followed by the best peers and the sum of peers models. Examination of different-ability students responses to increases of average peer achievement reveals either competition for the first place or last-place aversion. Conditional on own course preferences, own and peer characteristics, spillovers transmit only through cognitive ability. Therefore, regrouping on the basis of characteristics such as immigration background is obsolete. Policies should aim at low achievers in small enough classrooms because only then single-student influences can change the social norm. By improving the average through the worst, the best become even brighter

Muutused muuseumipõhises kultuuriekspertiisis (Eesti Rahva Muuseumi näitel)

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Doktoritöö analüüsib muuseumi kui kultuurilise asjatundja rolli muutumist kaasajal. Inspireerituna eeldusest, et iga tänapäeva külastaja võiks olla muuseumis aktiivne osaline, on analüüs keskendunud osaluse võimalustele ja piiridele Eesti Rahva Muuseumis. Lisaks osalusvaatlusele kasutati uurimistöös aktiivselt sekkuvat eksperimentaalset meetodit, mille ülesandeks oli ühtaegu luua ja analüüsida olukordi, kus muuseum pakub külastajatele osalemiseks mitmekesiseid võimalusi. Üheks keskseks eksperimendiks oli “Oma näituse” konkurss, mis võimaldas inimestel, kes igapäevaselt muuseumitööga ei tegele, välja pakkuda oma originaalse näituse idee. Publikuhääletuse võitjad teostasidki ERMi näitusesaalis muuseumi toel oma näitused. Muuseumitöötajate jaoks avanes tänu konkursile uus viis näitusi teha ja rikastas kuraatori rolli. Teisalt tõstatus küsimus kuraatori rolli piiridest: kui igaühest võib saada asjatundja, kas ei alaväärista see teadmisi, mida oleme harjunud pidama tõeliselt professionaalseteks? Klassikaline näituse tegemise protsess – nagu ka uue püsinäituse ettevalmistus ERMis – on hoolikalt valitud professionaalide pärusmaa, mille tulemuseks on kindla sõnumiga näitused. Uurimustöö tulemusena saab välja tuua, et kuigi erudeeritud muuseumikuraatori kadumine pole olnud eesmärgiks omaette, eeldab kodanikuühiskond ka muid, võrdsematel alustel sisuloomise võimalusi. Koostööd ja mitmehäälsust edendav rahva muuseum püüab luua tingimused, et erinevad inimeste rühmad ja vaated oleksid demokraatlikult esindatud. Muuseumi asjatundlikkus täieneb seeläbi oskusega “dirigeerida” mitmehäälsust ja koostöövõrgustikke. Eesti Rahva Muuseum võiks 21. sajandil olla ühtaegu nii rahvast kokku toov “laulupidu” kui ka igaühe oma arvamust sisaldav sotsiaalvõrgustik.The dissertation looks at the transformations of museum and its expertise. The focus is especially on how those who are not professionally affiliated with museum institution can participate in content creation and how this participation diversifies expertise embedded in museums. The transformation is related to broader sociocultural processes and the study theorises it through the communicative and participatory (power relations) dimensions. The empirical data is obtained through research interventions (experimental actions attempting to increase participation) as well as observant participation in the production processes of the exhibition spaces of Estonian National Museum' new building. Analytical close reading and theoretical meta-analysis concluded that while expert identity is formed through mainly monovocal museum communication and authoritative power relations towards the visitors participatory actions diversify communication towards multivocal communication and collaborative power relations. Allowing active audiences to participate extensively results in a mix of assimilation and resistance by current museum professionals. Embedding expertise in museum is a process, with opportunities to enhance the identity of curating professionals with curating communities. Not only by expanding contributory participation but also through open collaborations where key decisions are made together and participatory qualities legitimise content

Eating psychopathology and cognitive functioning

The nature and scope of the current thesis is to cross-culturally explore whether non-eating disordered females with a restrained eating style exhibit deficits in executive functioning. A mediating role of potential mechanisms has been further investigated within this thesis. In contrast to the previous studies, this research is the first investigation which employs a well-established self-report measure of executive functions grounded in the everyday environment, rather than laboratory measures based on Baddeley’s model of working memory. The findings have clearly provided evidence for cultural- and dietary restraint-related differences on the domain of executive functions (EF). Overall, English females have reported poorer performance on components of a self-reported EFs, except on Emotional Control than Greeks. Restrained eaters have found to perform worst on all components of EFs than unrestrained eaters. More specifically, this research has revealed that nationality has an overall impact on EFs; and in particular on i) emotional control, namely on the way people modulate their emotional responses in everyday life, ii) self-monitor, specifically the extent to which people observe their own attitudes and behaviours and the negative effects of these on others, iii) working memory, specifically adults ability to hold information in mind for the purpose of completing a task, and iv) task-monitor, namely the degree to which people keep track of their own problem-solving success or failure. With the exception of emotional control, these nationality-related differences on self- and task-monitor, as well as WM are at least partially mediated by or co-vary with BMI, preoccupying thoughts about food, diet, and body shape, depressive symptoms, and fluid intelligence. Regarding restrained eating, the current research has provided evidence for its negative role on i) shift, ii) initiate and ii) working memory. These findings suggest that females with a restrained eating style face difficulties in their flexibility related to shifting problem-solving set, to begin a task or activity, and to independently generate ideas, responses, or problem-solving strategies, as well as difficulties on their working memory performance. When the variance attributable to BMI, preoccupying cognitions, depression, and fluid intelligence, the observed differences within the restrained eating group on shift, initiate, and working memory have been reduced. To conclude, the findings presented in this thesis point to potentially fruitful directions which future research in the domain of eating psychopathology and cognitive functioning within non-clinical populations cross-culturally might follow

Spatial Nexus in Crime and unemployment in Times of crisis: Evidence from Germany

Space is important. The recent global financial crisis has vividly pointed to spatial patterns in economies’ reactions to the global economic shocks. This paper focuses on labor market responses and its interactions with criminal activities in a causal and spatial framework. we study the case of Germany as evidently this country’s economy has demonstrated resilience during the whirl of economic crisis. Our contribution is twofold: first, we lay down a parsimonious labor market model with search frictions, criminal opportunities, and, unlike earlier analyzes, productivity shocks which are important in explaining empirical regularity of criminal engagement. Second, we seek empirical support using data on the 402 German districts for 2009-2010, the years following the global financial crisis, in a setting that allows not only crime spatial multipliers but also inherent endogeneity of unemployment. Adverse income shocks clearly unfold a spatial nexus between unemployment and crime rates. More specifical ly, we find that youth unemployment plays a prominent role in explaining property crime, namely housing burglary. Our results are in line with previous research: neglecting endogeneity of unemployment understates its impact and employing the youth unemployment share instead of rate points to distinctive effects. The analysis offers important implications for countries that are currently undergoing fiscal consolidation and are experiencing high unemployment rates

The violent crime in the 21st century

no abstractno abstrac

Migrants at school: educational inequality and social interaction in the UK and Germany

We test potential social costs of educational inequality by analysing the influence of spatial and social segregation on educational achievements. In particular, based on recent PISA data sets from the UK and Germany, we investigate whether good neighbourhoods with a relatively high stock of social capital lead to larger 'social multipliers' than neighbourhoods with low social capital. Estimated 'social multipliers' are higher for the German early tracking schooling system than for comprehensive schools in the UK. After aggregating data and employing the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, the results suggest that the educational gap between natives and migrants is mainly due to the 'endowment effect' provided by the socioeconomic background of parents and cultural capital at home. Some adverse 'integration effects' do exist for female migrants in Germany who lose ground on other groups

The violent crime in the 21st century

no abstractno abstrac