International Comparative Research Project Research Articles

Intensification of university–industry relationships and its impact on academic research

This paper analyses the intensification of university–industry relationships and its impact on university research. The paper consists of recent follow-up research to an international comparative research project conducted in the 1990s. It deals specifically with the Quebec (Canada) situation. Twenty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted in the winter of 2003 with university researchers and an additional five interviews with technology transfer officers. The interviews were conducted in six francophone higher education institutions in Quebec. With regard to university–industry relationships, the interviews revealed that university researchers in scientific and technological fields conducted innovation-oriented research, which benefits their graduate students and the institution itself. Freedom of publication is somewhat conditioned by intellectual property constraints. Thus, a majority of university researchers adopt an “entrepreneurial ethos” which they find compatible with their academic values. The intensification of university–industry relationships may also have latent dysfunctional effects with regard to conflicts of interest, as some university researchers have created start-up companies which act both as research funding sources and as beneficiaries of research results. Thus, intellectual property and conflict of interest issues evolve in a grey zone and are often sources of stress and tension for researchers. However harsh some disputes may become over these issues, they are resolved, at least in the context analysed in this research, in ways that satisfy both the researcher and the institutions.

Informal Exchange Relations in Post-Soviet Russia: A Comparative Perspective

In this article I compare the informal exchange of favours, goods and information in St. Petersburg and Helsinki. The study is part of a larger international comparative research project coordinated by the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. This text is based on data collected in the two cities during 1993 - 94: Forty secondary school teachers in St. Petersburg and thirty-eight in Helsinki kept a diary of their important social relations for two weeks. Each evening during this period they recorded their significant social encounters of the day in structured questionnaires; eg. whom they met and what they did or discussed together. After the two weeks, they added to the diaries persons whom they had not encountered during the study period but whom they nevertheless considered as significant for their social life. In addition, a complementary theme interview concentrating on their life course was carried out. Clear differences were found between the informal exchange practices of Russian and Finnish respondents. Compared to their Finnish colleagues, Russian teachers exchanged more favours, goods and important information. Moreover, the content of the informal exchange in St. Petersburg was both of a different nature and more diverse than in Helsinki; cases abounded of Russian respondents having to use their relatives, friends, colleagues or acquaintances in order to obtain informally products or different kinds of services (eg. medical care). Similarly, half of the Russian respondents reported blat exchanges - a particular Soviet/post-Soviet phenomenon of arranging things through informal connections, and a practice not found in the Finnish data. The informal exchanges reported in the St. Petersburg data were more often carried out with colleagues or other work-mediated relations, thereby stressing the importance of the Russian workplace as a social milieu. In the Russian data the informal exchange relations also involved more examples of informal exchange mediated by a third person, whereas in Helsinki the relations were more of a dyadic nature. The results support the view proposed by previous research according to which informal exchange and patterns of behavior inherited from the socialist era still continue to influence the transition society. The continuing lack of trust in official institutions and social services was compensated for by our Russian respondents with the use of their personal relations. The trust necessary for informal exchanges to take place was guaranteed either through the use of brokers or a common social context, particularly the workplace. The resulting forms of social life can be characterized as personalized (since abstract and therefore replacable relations were turned into personal and unique ones) and mediated (since the brokers were often used). Though changing in forms and functions, the networks of personal relations still continue to play a significant role in the life of post-Soviet citizens.

Social policy and forms of family life in Europe

This paper presents unpublished data from an international comparative research project. A ten‐country study analysed change and diversity informs of private life during the 1980s in comparable age groups of women (women of young parental age and women at the start of the postparental phase). Changes in forms of private life and their international diversity make up the sociological background for demographic change. The scientific and political assumptions view demographic diversity in Europe as an expression of the simultaneity of the non‐simultaneous, of a unidimensional trend in changes informs of private life as a result of the dissolution of the traditional family and the subsequent increase in such forms. We show that although Europeans have to deal with similar trends, they are framed by various national and cultural traditions and different social policy guiding principles and actions. Social policy profiles define various “normality weightings” for (prospective) parents’options. Of particular significance is how States differ in reconciling the demands of family and work. Differences in compatibility between family and professional life are exemplified by what Kaufmann (1990) calls the “structural lack of consideration” that politics and society have for the family.

Ecological Urban Restructuring: Method and Action

Cities are “built thought”; they represent the most materialised form of the relation between society and environment. Thus, in a special sense, cities worldwide have become a symbol of the environmental crisis, of the transformation of valuable natural resources into waste and pollutants. Cities, however, have also always been places of innovations. Solutions emanate from people whose living conditions are threatened. Many signs indicate that the time is ripe for basic changes in production and consumption processes, in people′s attitudes and behaviour, and also in the built‐up structures of cities. This article, therefore, introduces the concept of “ecological urban restructuring”. The concept was theoretically developed and empirically tested in an international comparative research project. The three main elements of the concept are: (1) eight points of orientation as general guidelines; (2) fields of action and building blocks as methodological aids for integrated strategies; (3) concept of ecological neighbourhood development as a concept for action on the urban neighbourhood level. Finally, an overview is given on recent initiatives by international organisations on the topic of urban ecology.

Economic socialization: Basis for international comparisons

The aim of this article is to discuss some theoretical backgrounds concerning children's development and socialization, particularly centered on economic socialization; this paper also describes how an international comparative research project reached maturity. The joint object is to investigate, through cross-cultural comparisons, a general picture of children's economic socialization throughout the world. Common points and differences according to specific social, economical and political situations in the countries are brought to the fore by an international comparative research project. A common method based on interviews centered on economic understanding, economic reasoning and economic attitudes was applied in 15 different countries.

Cultural differences in the perception of magazine alcohol advertisements by Israeli Jewish, Moslem, Druze and Christian high school students

This article describes the Israeli part of an international comparative research project conducted simultaneously in 1988 also in Australia and in the U.S.A., in order to determine the attitudes of high school students from different nations and cultures toward alcohol advertising. The Israeli study used a set of 64 magazine alcohol advertisements from 10 countries and with the help of an open-ended questionnaire examined differences and similarities in the perception of Israeli and foreign advertisements by Jewish, Moslem, Druze and Christian teenagers. Each response was coded twice. The first code indicated the general tone of the response and the second code indicated its theme. The article presents selected general results and conclusions. The results have implications for designing alcohol abuse education messages and can aid alcohol advertisers interested in responsible advertising to find advertising standards suitable to each culture.

TRENDS IN THE URBANIZATION PROCESS

Matthiessen, Christian Wichmann: Trends in the urbanization process. The Copenhagen case. Geografisk Tidsskrift 80: 98–101. Copenhagen, June 1980. Within the framework of the international comparative research project (Cost of Urban Growth) new trends in urban development have recently been observed. The object of this article is to discuss the trends and give impirical evidence on Danish data.