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Research on the electoral personalization of politics has stressed a trend towards a greater role of top prominent political figures (party leaders and ministers). This trend was described as centralized electoral personalization. Yet, this trend is merely one side of a more complex story. No leader attracts all voters' support, and other candidates manage to stand out despite lower resources and visibility. Using a unique dataset of 47,239 actual ballot papers cast for the 2018 Belgian local elections, we show that candidate-level, list-level and district-level factors result in distinct preference voting behaviour. While these factors lead to unmistakable forms of (de-)centralized personalized forms of elections, we furthermore, show that intermediary situations distinctively emerge. A significant number of 'subtop' candidates stand out among candidates, by attracting support from voters who do not support the mere leader of the list. This 'oligarchized personalization' would deserve greater attention in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Western societies, human existence and illness are mostly constructed from the perspective of mind-body dualism: body and mind are considered to function independently, and the body/the physical as primary and more real. Research shows, however, that mind-body dualism is no longer tenable, especially in healthcare contexts. This led to the rise the biopsychosocial model, in which bodily experiences, including illness, are seen an interplay of the physical and the psychological, and the social. This model is the current gold standard for treating chronic pain. As these perspectives on the body and illness are potentially conflicting, and discursively constructed, this paper examines whether they are a source of misalignment in interactions between chronic pain patients and their doctors in a pain clinic. The analysis shows these perspectives indeed lead to misalignment, for instance when discussing the relevance of psychotherapy, and lead to intricate uses of argumentative resources to account for the differing perspectives on (the treatment of) pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Multilingual families are often challenged with the transmission of their heritage language (HL) to future generations. Departing from this observation, this study aims to investigate which factors correlate with multilingual families' HL maintenance efforts. The variables taken into account are the families' language policy (FLP), advice from both Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) professionals and other (informal) sources, the parents' linguistic and educational resources, as well as their migration generation. Methodology: Exclusively quantitative in nature, the data for this study involve 776 multilingual families in the Flemish community of Belgium. Analysis: These data have subsequentially been subjected to two inferential analyses: a bivariate correlational analysis followed by a logistic regression for a more detailed understanding of the relations at play. Findings: The results indicate a positive correlation between families' policies and their HL maintenance efforts, in addition to confirming the independence of FLP's three components (beliefs, practices, and management). Furthermore, contrary to advice from ECCE professionals, advice from other sources is positively and significantly associated with HL maintenance efforts. Finally, families comprised of parents with access to higher linguistic and educational resources are less likely to try and pass on the HL to their children, probably favouring the acquisition of the institutional language (IL). Originality: This paper quantitatively explores factors that correlate with parental HL maintenance efforts using a large and language-diverse sample. This quantitative approach facilitates generalizations for future (qualitative) research and advice-giving bodies to build on. Significance: Our findings bring about greater insights into the motivation of parents concerning HL maintenance and could contribute to the advice given to multilingual families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationships consumers cultivate with mass-market commodities while caring for their authenticity. Drawing on a six-year ethnography of classic Mustang owners communities in France, Switzerland and Belgium, the authors show that, far from being a symbolic value only, or a resource into which people can "invest" in a mechanism of social distinction, authenticity can also appear as a burden that weighs constantly on the relationship between people and things. Indeed, throughout their uses and maintenance, the material integrity of classic Mustangs is of great concern for their owners, who apprehend every breakdown or maintenance intervention as threats that could jeopardize their car's authenticity. For the sake of security, comfort or health, because new regulations come up, or because some original parts are not available anymore, classic Mustangs owners compose with heterogeneous elements, constantly reshaping both their cars and their concerns for authenticity. The authors draw on Hennion's notion of "attachement" to describe the intimate relationship that grows through these arrangements. The notion particularly helps to grasp the ambivalence of the bonds between people and things: while they get more and more attached to their classic Mustang, owners are getting more and more worried. Moreover, throughout this growing relationship and the recurrent material interventions it draws on, the car does not remain passive. It progressively reveals itself, sometimes surprising its owner. Therefore, not only is authenticity "in the making" in this process, the contours of the thing itself evolve, as well as the knowledge of its owner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses and medication use has increased over time around the world, but significant regional differences remain. This paper aims to determine and explain disparities in ADHD prevalence and medication use among school-aged children in two distinct school systems, in Flanders (Belgium) and Québec (Canada). We present detailed descriptive and comparative analyses of data from 35 schools, 114 teachers, and 1046 parents (children) that were collected as part of a comparative international project. The data concern teacher and parent suspicions, teachers' ratings of ADHD-related behaviors in children, teachers' views of medication use, and teachers' beliefs about ADHD. The results show that, compared with Flanders, Québec had significantly more children diagnosed with ADHD and more frequent suspicions of ADHD in children by teachers and parents. We refer to the conceptual, institutional, and interactional levels of medicalization to interpret our findings and conclude that social and cultural readings of children's behaviors differ greatly between regions. Medicalization of children's behaviors is more common in Québec than in Flanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, disappointing poverty trends and welfare state limitations in many European countries – including constraints on minimum income benefits – have paved the way for a larger role of the third sector. An interesting but controversial form of third-sector in-kind support is food aid provision. In Europe, food aid is, so far, a non-rights-based practice displaying worrisome discretionary and stigmatizing characteristics. Yet, the phenomenon of food aid in Europe has spread, professionalized, and penetrated the institutions of the welfare state. This raises the question if, how and to what extent food aid plays a role in bypassing structural constraints on minimum income protection. This article applies an exploratory case study approach to estimate the monetary value of food aid in relation to statutory minimum incomes in four EU-countries. We use cross-nationally comparable food reference budgets to price food aid packages in Belgium, Finland, Hungary and Spain. The results show that food aid, although not sufficient to close the at-risk-of-poverty gap, is non-trivial for some European households. In Spain and Belgium food aid packages can reach up to €100 a month (expressing 7% to 11% of respective minimum income benefit levels). Importantly, we perceive (formalized) cooperation and interaction between local welfare agencies and food charities in all countries, suggesting that welfare state actors use non-rights-based food aid for filling gaps in the social safety net. The large between- and within-country variation of the monetary values of food aid packages points, however, to food aid as a problematic discretionary practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adopts an interpretive approach to investigate how local policy-makers portray and justify their own visions of digital governance initiatives at the municipal level. Our investigation focuses on smart city projects submitted by various Belgian municipalities in the framework of the 'Intelligent Territory' call for proposals initiated in 2019 by the Walloon Region. We use Boltanski and Thévenot's theory of orders of worth and combine quantitative and qualitative content analysis to categorize the different justifications elaborated by municipal governments. The empirical results point to the polysemic nature of the smart city concept and highlight the diversity of opportunities offered by smart city policies according to municipal policy-makers. Overall, our study contributes to the understanding of the varieties of interpretations underpinning the construction of digital governance initiatives. It therefore supports the argument according to which there is no one-size-fits-all approach to smart city policies as local policy-makers may attribute different meanings to them and may formulate place-based ICTs solutions to what they perceive as the most pressing problems of their territories. Points for practitioners: Smart city projects can be used by governing authorities as instruments to achieve a variety of policy goals Examples of policy goals are to boost local economic development, to improve the effectiveness of municipal service provision, to strengthen social bonds across local community members, to promote the ecological preservation of urban environments and to improve the collaboration between citizens and public administrations Local governments can adaptively use smart technologies as instruments to overcome multiple place-based environmental, social and economic problems Local governments should frame smart urban technologies as means to solve different societal problems and achieve different policy goals – rather than an end per se [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What makes politically dissatisfied citizens enthusiastic about deliberation? And what makes them hate it instead? Based on a picture task embedded in a series of focus groups conducted in Belgium, we argue that differences in sense-making help to explain why dissatisfied citizens (do not) support deliberation. We focus on two groups of dissatisfied citizens: non-partisan activists and politically disadvantaged citizens. For both groups, we find that when they thought of deliberation as low-key, informal discussion, they linked it to respectful communication and beneficial outcomes; when they thought of it as formalized, structured discussion, their appraisals became much more negative. For researchers of deliberation, our results make clear that we should be careful in asking citizens what they think about 'deliberation' without inquiring into the way they interpret it. For deliberation practitioners, our findings underline the relevance of integrating informal interactions into the design of deliberative institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research on the impact of post-migration experiences on the mental health of migrant populations has shown a predictive link between post-migration living difficulties and psychological distress. While many studies have focussed on refugees and asylum seekers, there is a considerable gap in the literature concerning undocumented migrants. Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the differences in mental health between documented and undocumented migrants in Belgium. It identified the post-migration difficulties encountered by these two groups and measured their impact on their levels of trauma, resilience, anxiety, depression and their assumptive world. Method: This study involved 69 participants, aged 18 to 68 years, who were either documented or undocumented resident in Belgium. Our data collection included the Post-Migration Living Difficulties Checklist for the measurement of post-migration difficulties, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist – DSM-V version for the measurement of trauma, the World Assumptions Questionnaire for the measurement of the assumptive world, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 for the measurement of depressive and anxiety disorders and the Adult Resilience Measure – Revised for the measurement of resilience. Results: Our analyses showed that the mental health of undocumented migrants was poorer than that of documented migrants, with higher levels of trauma, anxiety and depression, a more negative assumptive world, a lower sense of control and lower total and personal resilience. Our results also revealed that post-migration living difficulties were more severe and more numerous for undocumented migrants, and that they were associated to different themes in both groups. Conclusions: The fact that post-migration experience plays such an important role in the mental health of migrant populations raises significant clinical, political and societal considerations. Furthermore, it would appear that undocumented migrants represent a distinct migratory group with their own specificities in terms of migration journey and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Union representatives were surveyed throughout Belgium between August and December 2021 through an online questionnaire (N = 469) to assess the relationship between trade union representatives' perception of social dialogue quality and change in workers' physical and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use a modified Poisson regression for binary outcomes controlling for company characteristics, pre-pandemic self-reported health and pandemic-related measures. A total of 30.1% of the sample reported the social dialogue quality has deteriorated during the pandemic. Relative risks (RRs) of poor physical and mental health when social dialogue has worsened are 1.49 (95%CI (95% confidence interval) = 1.03; 2.15) and 1.38 (95%CI = 1.09; 1.74). Controlling for pandemic-related measures slightly reduces the risk of both poor mental (RR = 1.25; 95%CI = 0.84; 1.87) and physical health (RR = 1.18; 95%CI = 0.94; 1.49). Although based on self-reported variables, the study shows an association between poor social dialogue quality and health and underlines the need to look at company-level collective negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personalization refers to a shift over time in attention and/or power from collective actors to individuals. I focus on personalization in voting behavior, measured by the use of preference voting in flexible list-PR systems. I will argue that in a multi-level context this kind of personalization can take place at different policy levels, which could influence each other. In local elections, voters can be attracted by the mayor and/or other local figureheads, but also by the national party leader and/or national politicians figuring on the local list. Therefore, scholars should not only focus on the number and importance of people to which personalization applies ('person level' of personalization), but also on how processes at one policy level impact on other policy levels ('territorial level' of personalization). By combining literature on intra-party competition and personalization on the one hand, and on electoral patterns in multi-level states on the other, I engage in a conceptual discussion about the nature of personalization. I add empirical evidence to this conceptual discussion by analyzing preference voting patterns in local elections in Flanders (Belgium). As such, we gain more insights in the remarkable decline of preference voting that took place there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ministerial cabinets hold a central place in the Belgian politico-administrative system, carrying out the bulk of policy formulation. However, they do not operate in isolation and rely on other actors of the policy advisory system for information supply and advice. They request, receive and use various advisory inputs. This article investigates how ministerial advisers utilize policy advice when they formulate policies. Based on a unique survey targeting ministerial cabinet members, it shows that policy advice utilization varies according to the source and its location in the policy advisory system. The sample consists of ministerial advisers from 11 ministerial cabinets in the two Belgian federated entities' governments of Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Ministerial advisers still predominantly use advice from the civil service, which points to the continued importance of advice provision from internal, in-house sources. However, advice from external actors – such as trade unions, civil society or consulting firms – have been observed to have rather high repercussions on policy formulation activities too. Advisory bodies appear to be very much active in supplying advice, but this same advice does not yield comparatively higher utilization scores. Points for practitioners: This study focuses on policy advice utilization by members of ministerial cabinets in Belgium, especially when they formulate policies. It shows that internal, in-house sources remain important advice-providers and their advisory inputs still abundantly feed into the policy work carried out at the level of government. However, this article provides evidence that external sources might also supply advice that directly finds its way to decision-makers working in ministerial cabinets and that have considerable repercussions at that level too. This is the case for advice from trade unions, (organized) civil society or consulting firms, among others. Quite importantly for practitioners, our results suggest that ministerial advisers sometimes prefer controlling advisory exchanges and running separate consultations with one stakeholder at a time, instead of having to deal with collective, internal institutions that represent multiple interests, like advisory bodies. We did not observe striking differences in the degree of utilization between solicited and unsolicited advice, which means that for civil servants or stakeholders, sending policy advice previously unrequested by ministerial cabinets is not necessarily a fruitless strategy to follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The impact of various psychosocial factors (sense of coherence, illness perception, patient enablement, self-efficacy, health literacy, personality) is not fully understood across a wide range of chronic diseases, and in particular in patients with multimorbidity. As such, this study assessed the key psychosocial factors associated with impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with one or more chronic diseases based on cross-sectional data collected in Flanders (Belgium). Methods: Cross-sectional data on 544 chronically ill patients were analysed. Multiple linear regression models were built to analyze the key psychosocial factors associated with HRQoL (EQ-5D-5Lindex as dependent factor). Results: Overall, the strongest independently associated factor with HRQoL was illness perceptions (β = −0.52, P < 0.001). In addition, sense of coherence (β = 0.14, P = < 0.05) was independently positively associated with HRQoL. Moreover, after stratification for multimorbidity, the negative association of illness perceptions with HRQoL was stronger when multimorbidity is present compared to when it is absent (β = −0.62, P < 0.001 vs β = −0.38, P < 0.001). Conclusions: This study revealed interesting associations of the modifiable psychosocial factors of illness perceptions and sense of coherence with HRQoL in a population of chronically ill persons. Given that the burden of chronic diseases will rise in the next decades, designing and implementing interventions that enhance these psychosocial abilities of patients, especially illness perceptions in multimorbid patients, is needed in order to reduce the burden of chronic diseases in terms of impaired HRQoL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persisting high poverty and social exclusion rates remain a key challenge of European welfare states. The socio-economic consequences following the COVID-19 crisis are challenging the protection of social citizenship and social rights of the most vulnerable. We examine the role of the European Union (EU) in supporting the most vulnerable citizens by focusing on the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD). Our key question is, if and in which ways the EU strengthens social citizenship and social rights through FEAD. We base our analysis on a document analysis of the Regulation, Member States' operational programmes and results of a survey with food aid organizations in Belgium, Lithuania and Portugal. Our findings suggest that FEAD represents a contradictory case of European action in the field of social citizenship and social rights. On the one hand, FEAD is a highly targeted social policy instrument. On the other hand, food aid, as the main provided instrument, is based on charity and not on social rights. Accompanying social inclusion measures could support beneficiaries in the take-up of social rights, but these measures lack clear rules for implementation and monitoring. We conclude that FEAD seems to contribute to the institutionalization of charitable food aid within national welfare systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seen as an alternative to precarious, informal work or no job at all, several European countries have started to use tax money to boost the demand for domestic services. This article asks whether this makes sense. We consider the case of the heavily subsidized and highly popular service voucher scheme in Belgium. Close to a quarter of households there employ domestic service workers under the scheme, making it in relative terms the largest scheme of its kind in Europe. The workers employed under the scheme enjoy extensive labour and social security rights. Does the service voucher scheme provide a model to be followed if we care about labour market exclusion and precariousness or is this a case of institutionalized second-tier work? To that end we trace workers' labour market pathways over a considerable length of time. We find that a substantial share of women find a way out of vulnerable labour market situations through the scheme. However, a very significant number enter from steady employment. This is clearly at odds with the original objective of offering a stepping stone to women with a precarious labour market position. The scheme also plays an ambivalent role in the labour market integration process of immigrant newcomers. At least in part, the Belgian scheme can be seen as a case of policy overshooting. We suggest some potential improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses othering discourses in the news media coverage of an alleged homophobic murder in Belgium. The case study is based on a critical discourse analysis of news articles published in Dutch-speaking Belgian news media. Using the framework of homonationalism, this analysis finds that Belgium's LGBTI-friendly status is deeply anchored in the national identity. Discourses in mainstream news media following the murder appeal to a unified imagined community of Belgians based on the assumed shared value of tolerance. This LGBTI-friendly status spills over in the exclusionary discourse in right-wing alternative media towards groups that are represented as a homophobic threat outside the nation (Central and Eastern Europe) and within it (Muslims and migrants). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many relationship theories assume some form of interdependence between relationship partners. Partners are thought to continuously influence each other and to be influenced by each other over time. These influences are not expected to be constant, but dynamic (sometimes partners influence each other a lot, and sometimes they do not influence each other). To investigate such changes in interpersonal dynamics, we showcase the value of using a change point detection approach, which can be used to monitor virtually any preferred quantification of interpersonal dynamics across time. Concretely, we introduce the KCP-RS method, which scans times series for changes in user-specified statistics, in interpersonal emotion dynamic research. We used KCP-RS to investigate changes in 96 couples' emotional experiences during two 10-minute conversations, which were meant to elicit a negative and a positive interaction context. Based on participants' continuous reports of the valence of their emotional experience, we looked for changes in three statistical measures, aiming to capture emotional similarity between partners (i.e., does their valence fluctuate together). Specifically, we investigated the occurrence, frequency, and direction of change in partners' linear correlations, instantaneous derivative matching (IMD), and signal matching (SM). While correlation changes were only observed in 2% of the couples, IDM changes were detected for about one third of the couples (34%), and SM changes were detected in about half of them (49%). Most couples demonstrated one change point, and the direction of the change differed depending on the specific emotional similarity measure. In a first validation of this method, we demonstrated how such change points can pinpoint to subtle but meaningful dynamic processes in couples. We end by discussing the added value of change point detection analyses for relationship research and interpersonal research in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparative study explores whether and how institutions can become a source of influence on accumulation dynamics in the labor process. It examines how employer strategies for the realization of value within the warehousing, parcel, and transport business divisions of a lead logistics multinational are operationalized in Germany, Belgium, and Sweden. Findings indicate within (and across) country variation in the operationalization paths we identify: compliance, avoidance, and exit. We explain the cross-country variation of each path by pointing to the strategies and negotiation processes pertaining to the usage of flexible labor at each workplace. We also illustrate that this usage relates to the mechanisms of optimization by standardization and of relational management used by employers to contain costs within the scope of each division's managerial regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In privacy research, much attention has been devoted to the online privacy practices of adolescents and college youth. Less is known about the privacy management of children and Muslim children in particular. In this study, we gave a voice to Muslim children in the northern Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, and how they negotiate information about their Muslim culture and identity using focus groups and interviews. The empirical studies clarify how different privacy management strategies are used to manage and hide Islam-related information. Overall, our results illustrate how besides managing boundaries around the self, Muslim children take into account the minority group they belong to as well as the representation of that particular group when sharing information. Building further on Petronio's communication privacy management theory and Cohen's perspective on privacy as critical and playful subjectivity, we argue to move beyond individual-centric conceptualizations to understand privacy of minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an analysis of gender equality provisions in national collective agreements, this article investigates the influence of European Union (EU) gender and macro-economic policy on gender equality outcomes in Belgium since the signature of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. We show that, over time, EU gender equality policies have led to the adoption of provisions promoting formal gender equality and the integration of women in the labour market. At the same time, EU macro-economic policies have stimulated labour flexibility, promoting part-time work largely filled by women, and imposed wage moderation, which has fundamentally hampered the correction of historical indirect gender discrimination in wages. Overall, EU policies have stimulated the transformation of the conservative male breadwinner model of this coordinated market economy (CME) into a gendered 'one-and-a-half earner' model, a transformation partially enforced through the increased interference of the state transposing EU policies. Our study advances the current literature by pointing to the limitations of prevalent methodologically nationalist explanations of gender equality outcomes in CMEs. More specifically, it shows that the gender equality provisions of national collective bargaining agreements in CMEs cannot be understood independent of EU gender and macro-economic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Political consumerism, that is, the buying or boycotting of goods and services for political or ethical reasons, is now firmly accepted as a form of political participation increasingly adopted by the young. In this article we investigate two claims often made concerning the democratic potential of political consumerism. First, visibility bias would imply that political consumerism mainly targets visible and often symbolic goods, without real economic impact. Our results suggest that participants indeed tend to focus on goods, and neglect services, despite the growing importance of the service sector. Second, it has been argued that political consumerism is only a weapon for the 'happy few'. Our results indeed show that especially higher educated and progressive respondents tend to use political consumerism. Although our findings are based on specific samples in Belgium, and therefore cannot be generalised, we close with some observations on the broader democratic impact of political consumerism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses national postal services unions' strategic capacity in Spain and Belgium in response to the effects of liberalization and changes in the postal sector. The analysis shows, first, that despite having had to operate in a hostile context, Correos and bpost unions have been able to mobilize their power resources to resist the impact of market pressures on employment and working conditions. Second, it detects the relevance of national industrial relations institutions in order to understand the strategies unions adopt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young EU citizens are encouraged to enhance their 'employability' by taking advantage of intra-EU mobility, but, for many, moving to another EU country can instead generate disadvantages in the labour market. Drawing on a qualitative study on the experiences of university-educated young Nordics and southern Europeans working in precarious jobs in Brussels, we examine how their access to income support in the context of mobility shapes their access to financial independence. We argue that the variation in European welfare models regarding young peoples' social entitlements impacts this access in multiple and complex ways. The article advances a tripartite approach that looks at the regulation and enforcement of conditionality of social entitlements on the levels of EU, their country of origin and their country of destination. The analysis shows how, in Belgium, precarious EU migrant citizens are denied access to income support due to the interplay between general welfare conditionality for all claimants and recently reinforced conditionality affecting EU migrant citizens in particular. In these situations, the de-familialising Nordic welfare models showed an aptitude for shielding their young citizens. The young southern Europeans, on the other hand, often had no access to income support in any country, which forced them to choose between family dependency and unfiltered exposure to precarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]