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The European population practice insufficient physical-sports activity. A possible influential factor is work activity. This paper intends to know the association between compliance with WHO recommendations and labour variables, using data from the European Social Survey with a sample of 18,240 active workers from 20 countries. The results demonstrate that people who worked less hours were physically more active. In the same way, women and people with low incomes were more negatively affected by long work days. The geographical area, incomes and age were more conditioning for physical activity than work hours. Finally, the independence to organize daily work could contribute to a higher level of practice in women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on public policy making for homosexual unions in Europe. It addresses these policies from the perspective of recognition, a concept drawn on the literature on civil rights and minorities. As a criterion for evaluation, the test of recognition demands the satisfaction of a twofold condition: firstly, democracies must be prepared to accept even the most costly of the demands as presented by the representatives of sexual minorities (in this case the right of joint adoption); secondly, public policies must show respect to the prevailing model of citizenship, not imposing visions of difference when difference-based claims are treated with disregard in the political community, and, conversely, not pursing assimilation and homogeneity where the prevailing tradition points at policies based on the recognition of difference and diversity. Ultimately, this article seeks the development of a new interest on this subject among political scientists and sociologists. The paper draws on the analysis of law-making in Europe since 1989. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of democracy is probably one of the easiest to get consensus about in contemporary societies, while at the same time there are clear symptoms of political disaffection. The explanations for this political disaffection phenomenon are quite varied. While some argue that the lack of political implication is a consequence of individualism and «civic privatism» that threatens to break the bonds within the political community, others argue that this is a consequence of the crisis of the politics led by elites, which gives way to new forms of political participation driven by the masses. Lying behind these contradictory explanations there is a debate about the normative concept of citizenship or the «good citizen». In this paper I analyze empirically different conceptions of citizenship in Europe, as measured by how much value individuals attach to different civic duties that belong to the definition of citizenship from a normative point of view. In order to do that, I distinguish one dimension of normative commitment and one of community commitment. I then explain the value attached to each dimension at the individual level using multilevel analysis techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results of an empirical and theoretical analysis intended to determine the current state of religiosity in Europe, that is, the degree to which Europeans give their allegiance to either a religious world view or a secular one. Applying multiple correspondence and cluster K-means analysis to the data gathered from the ISSP European survey «Religion-II», a new typology based on five basic cultural positions has been developed: religious; believers; skeptics; agnostics and atheists. These results show the quantitative extent and the qualitative importance of skepticism. Through an interpretation of the contents of each type, it shows that the skepticism regarding both religious and secular world views represents, at this particular moment in time, an essential key to European culture. We cannot affirm that there is a return to religious matters, but it is clear that the secularisation process has lost some of its original strength. Post-modern Europe is immersed in a cultural crossroads, and will have to decide about its future. The article ends by showing the three possible strategies for settling the doubt: the Kierkegaardian resolution, whereby Europeans will take up either exclusive religious or secular positions; the Borgian solution, whereby religious and secular content and forms will be hybridized; and the Hegelian dissolution, through which Europe may possibly develop a new cultural synthesis built from the remains of the old secular and religious world views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]