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Til að vinna gegn kynbundnum launamun og stuðla að jafnrétti á vinnumarkaði var jafnlaunavottun lögfest með séríslenskum jafnlaunastaðli og lögum nr. 56/2017 sem tóku gildi 1. janúar 2018. Markmið staðalsins er að skipulagsheildir komi sér upp stjórnkerfi launa sem tryggi að ákvarðanir í launamálum byggist á málefnalegum sjónarmiðum og feli ekki í sér kynbundna mismunun. Meginmarkmið rannsóknarinnar er að skoða hvort jafnlaunastaðallinn hafi skilað árangri. Viðtöl voru tekin við starfandi vottunaraðila til þess greina framkvæmd og gagnsemi vottunarinnar. Jafnframt var þróun launamunar kynjanna í launarannsókn Hagstofu Íslands greind fyrir tímabilið 2012-2020. Skipulagsheildir sem höfðu fengið jafnlaunavottun og tóku þátt í launarannsókninni voru bornar saman við óvottaðar skipulagsheildir. Einnig voru borin saman laun karla og kvenna fyrir og eftir jafnlaunavottun. Vottunaraðilar líta á jafnlaunavottun sem farsælt skref í þágu launajafnréttis þrátt fyrir alvarlegar athugasemdir varðandi regluverk af hálfu stjórnvalda. Munur á reglulegum launum karla og kvenna hefur dregist saman um tæp átta prósentustig á umræddu tímabili en lítill munur er á þróun launa í skipulagsheildum sem hafa fengið vottun og annarra. Því er ekki hægt að sjá að innleiðing jafnlaunastaðals hafi haft bein áhrif á launamun kynjanna. Jafnlaunastaðallinn og umræða um hann gæti hafa haft óbein áhrif í þá veru að draga úr launamun kynja almennt. Þótt jafnlaunastaðallinn hafi aukið gæðastarf við launasetningar þá eru áhyggjur af ónákvæmum vinnubrögðum og því að staðallinn veiti mismunun í launasetningu hefðbundinna kvenna og karlastarfa lögmæti. Skortur á samræmdum aðgerðum skipulagsheilda og vottunaraðila er vandamál sem stjórnvöld þyrftu að bregðast skjótt við með skýrum hætti.

People tend to accept decisions if the process leading up to them is perceived as legitimate. However, the literature seldom asks if perceived legitimacy translates to compliant, non-corrupt behavi...

The significance of environmental issues in the Icelandic public debate has increased in recent decades. Until now, it has not been possible to empirically examine whether this increased debate reflects a development towards a change in attitudes among the Icelandic public. The data from the Icelandic National Election Study (ICENES) shows an apparent long-term change in attitudes towards environmental issues over the past thirty years (1987-2017). Here, we analyze the results of two questions from ICENES. Firstly, we investigate attitudes concerning whether environmental issues should take precedence over efforts to increase economic growth, and, secondly, views on whether the government should place great or little emphasis on heavy industry. Similar changes are seen over time; the proportion of those who want to prioritize environmental issues increases year by year (with one exception immediately after the economic crisis), and the proportion of those who want the government to emphasize heavy industry decreases. The last survey (2017) found that 65% of respondents prioritized environmental issues above economic growth, and 80% wanted the government to place little emphasis on heavy industry. People who identified with a left political party where more likely to emphasize environmental issues whereas those who identified with a right political party where more likely to emphasize heavy industry.

Stefnumörkun og umbótaverkefni á vegum opinberra aðila til að efla og bæta skólastarf eru hluti af þróun skóla og skólakerfa um allan heim. Ítarlegar samtímalýsingar á innleiðingu slíkra verkefna liggja aftur á móti ekki alltaf á lausu og lítið er um greiningar eða mat á afdrifum þeirra eða áhrifum.Í þessu riti er sjónum beint að menntaumbótum hjá Reykjavíkurborg og afdrifum þeirra í kjölfar tímamóta í sögu grunnskóla hér á landi þegar þjónusta við þá og rekstur fluttist frá ríki til sveitarfélaga samkvæmt grunnskólalögum frá árinu 1995. Markmiðið er að a) draga upp mynd af umbótamiðuðum aðgerðum sem ráðist var í fyrstu tíu ár heildstæðrar þjónustu og reksturs grunnskóla hjá Reykjavíkurborg árin 1996–2005, með áherslu á stefnumótun, undirbyggingu einstakra stefnumiða og innleiðingu þeirra, en jafnframt innbyrðis samvirkni; b) varpa ljósi á afdrif aðgerðanna á vettvangi skólanna með hliðsjón af niðurstöðum rannsókna og öðrum upplýsingum frá síðustu tveimur áratugum.Til skoðunar voru umbætur á sviði fimm megináhersluþátta í framtíðarsýn borgarinnar en þeir voru: Einstaklingsmiðað nám og samvinna nemenda, skóli án aðgreiningar, sterk sjálfsmynd nemenda og félagsfærni, náin tengsl skóla og grenndarsamfélags, þar með talið foreldrasamstarf, og loks sjálfstæði skóla og jafnræði í umgjörð þeirra, meðal annars skólastjórnun og uppbygging og skipulag skólahúsnæðis. Stuðst er við heimildir frá þessum tíma, og vísað eftir atvikum í fræðilegt og sögulegt samhengi og alþjóðlega umræðu. Þá eru afdrif aðgerðanna skoðuð í ljósi þátta sem fræðimenn hafa talið stuðla að farsælli framkvæmd menntaumbóta yfirvalda.Niðurstöður benda til að áherslur í stefnunni sem snertu ytri umgjörð skólastarfs séu enn við lýði, svo sem einsetnir grunnskólar, breytt hönnun húsnæðis og nemendamötuneyti. Sama á við um sjálfstæði skóla þar sem áhersla var á nemendamiðaðar rammafjárveitingar, mannauðsráðgjöf og fjölgun starfsstétta í skólunum, svo sem námsráðgjafa, skólaliða og millistjórnenda. Kall grunnskólakennara eftir faglegri forystu skólastjórnenda bendir til að áhersla á leiðtogahlutverk stjórnenda hafi ekki náð fullri fótfestu. Aftur á móti voru áhrifin af stefnu um nám og kennslu undir merkjum einstaklingsmiðaðs náms, þar með talinn skóli án aðgreiningar, meiri í orði en á borði. Þrátt fyrir áherslu á víðtækt samstarf og margvíslegan stuðning með símenntun og ráðgjöf náði hún ekki að festa rætur í daglegu skólastarfi þótt hugtakið lifi góðu lífi í opinberri umræðu. Niðurstöður á þessu sviði studdu kenningar um sífellda endurtekningu eldri hugmynda og íhaldssemi í kerfinu. Tengsl skóla og nærsamfélags sýndust laus í reipunum. Sjálfsmynd nemenda og þættir tengdir henni eru enn í brennidepli og stöðugt kannaðir, en erfitt er að meta þróun í þeim efnum. Á heildina litið virðist sú stefnumörkun og umbótaaðgerðir sem ráðist var í á tímabilinu sem hér er til skoðunar engu að síður hafa einkennst af flestum þáttum sem fræðimenn hafa talið farsæla: Áhersla var á nám og kennslu, faglega forystu skólastjórnenda, jöfnuð í umgjörð skólastarfs, víðtækt samstarf, samvirkni áhersluþátta og nýtingu hlutlægra upplýsinga og rannsókna.

BACKGROUND The digital technological development in the last 20 years has led to a significant growth in collecting, using and sharing health data digitally. In order to maintain public trust in the digital society and for acceptable policy making in the future, it is important to investigate peoples’ preferences for sharing digital health data. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to elicit the publics’ preferences in different Northern-European countries (the UK, Norway, Iceland and Sweden) for sharing health information in different contexts. METHODS A discrete choice experiment was answered by 1,967 individuals. Respondents completed several ‘choice tasks’ which asked if data sharing in the described hypothetical situation was acceptable to them. Latent class logistic regression models were used to determine attribute level estimates and the heterogeneity in preferences. We calculated the relative importance of the attributes and the predicted acceptability for different contexts where data is shared from the estimates. RESULTS All attributes influenced the participants’ willingness to share health information. The most important attribute was whether the respondents will be informed about their data being shared. The possibility to opt-out from sharing data was preferred over the opportunity to consent (opt-in). CONCLUSIONS Participants from different countries have different preferences for sharing their health data regarding the value of a review process and the reason for the new use. Offering respondents information about the use of their data and the possibility to opt-out is the most preferred governance mechanism.

The European Values Study (EVS) was first conducted in 1981 and then repeated in 1990, 1999, 2008, and 2017, with the aim of providing researchers with data to investigate whether European individual and social values are changing and to what degree. The EVS is traditionally carried out as a probability-based face-to-face survey that takes around 1 hour to complete. In recent years, large-scale population surveys such as the EVS have been challenged by decreasing response rates and increasing survey costs. In the light of these challenges, six countries that participated in the last wave of the EVS tested the application of self-administered mixed-modes (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland). With the present data brief, we will introduce researchers to the latest wave of the EVS, the implemented mode experiments, and the EVS data releases. In our view, it is pivotal for data use in substantive research to make the reasoning behind design changes and country-specific implementations transparent as well as to highlight new research opportunities.

In the past few years, millions have been forced to leave their homes seeking refuge in other countries, most displaced from Muslim majority countries. The inflow of refugees and recent terrorist attacks in Europe may have reinforced prejudice against Muslim immigrants in Europe. Research on these issues is almost non-existent in Iceland. Using a random sample of 3.360 individuals in late 2019 and a survey-based experimental design, we address several questions related to attitudes towards Muslim immigrants and refugees in Iceland. Our results indicate that just over half of the population is willing to accept more refugees than is currently done and does not want to limit the proportion of Muslims among them. Notwithstanding, about 44% of the public believe that the risk of terrorism will increase if Iceland accepts more immigrants from Muslim majority countries. Political orientation and education are associated with attitudes toward refugees, an association that is partly mediated through stereotypes of Muslims as a security threat. The findings also show that people who are informed that research finds no link between the number of Muslim immigrants and the risk of terrorism are less likely to stereotype Muslim immigrants as a security threat than people who get no such information. This type of information has similar effects on people irrespective of their political orientation. Consequently, the current study does not support the proposition that right-leaning individuals in Iceland are more distrustful of scientific information than those on the left. The effects are, however, significantly contingent on education.

Introduction In recent years, vaccine preventable diseases such as measles and pertussis have been re-emerging in Western countries, maybe because of decreasing participation in childhood vaccination programs in some countries. There is clear evidence for vaccine efficacy and the risk of adverse effects is low. This needs to be communicated to the general public. The aim of the study was to evaluate the public opinion on childhood vaccinations in Iceland. Materials and methods An internet based study was used to evaluate the opinion on childhood immunisations in Iceland. The cohort was divided in three groups: (a) general public (b) employees of the University Hospital Iceland and (c) employees (teachers and staff) of the University of Iceland. The cohorts could be stratified according to age, gender, education, household income, parenthood and residency. Results Responses were received from 5584 individuals (53% response rate). When asked about childhood vaccinations in the first and second year of life, approximately 95% of participants were “positive” or “very positive”, approximately 1% were “negative” or “very negative”. When participants were asked whether they would have their child immunized according to the Icelandic childhood vaccination schedule, 96% were “positive” or “very positive”, 1.2% were “negative” or “very negative”. Similarly, 92% trust Icelandic Health authorities to decide on childhood vaccination schedule, 2.3% did not. In total, 9.3% “rather” or “strongly” agreed to the statement “I fear that vaccinations can cause severe adverse effects”, 17.5% were undecided and 66.9% “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed”. Individuals with higher education were more likely to disagree with this statement (OR = 1.45, CI95 = 1.29–1.64, p p = 0.001). Conclusion This study shows a very positive attitude towards vaccinations raising expectations for an ongoing success in preventing preventable communicable diseases in childhood in Iceland.