This edited volume is based on a highly original survey carried out between November 2011 and June 2012 among a panel of 6,000 voters. The panel was interviewed on 12 separate occasions about how and why they made their voting choices. The book focuses on how electoral choices are made and how these choices evolve during the short time-span of an election campaign. The analysis of the 2012 electoral result shows more than ever that voting choices are the fruit of interweaving timelines: th...

"Full of interesting arguments and insights that will turn many deep-seated beliefs about American politics on their head." —Stefan Fergus, Civilian ReaderOn the night of the 2000 presidential election, Americans watched on television as polling results divided the nation's map into red and blue states. Since then the color divide has become symbolic of a culture war that thrives on stereotype—pickup-driving red-state Republicans who vote...

Over the course of ten years, this extensive qualitative study focused on the academic resilience phenomenon. The research delves into the educational resilience experiences of fifty low socioeconomic students of color from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. In addition to chronicling specific protective factors and processes active in the students' lives, several symbiotic relationships between groups of protective factors are documented and explored. A Resilience Cycle ...

This book examines the development of Welsh devolution in the context of great economic and political uncertainty. Drawing on research carried out over more than a decade, it explores whether Welsh devolution has developed the capacity to resist internal and external pressures and to continue to pursue a distinctive political and policy agenda.

Populism is a concept that is currently in vogue among political commentators and, more often than not, used pejoratively. The phenomenon of populism is typically seen as something adverse and, in the European context routinely related to xenophobic politics. What populism exactly is and who its main representatives are, however, often remains unclear. This text has two main aims: to identify populist parties in 21st century Europe and to explain their electoral performance. It argues that...

The author examines social mobility in the enlarged EU by analysing the work sequences of 1865 movers and stayers in Poland. Using indicators of upward and downward social mobility, she explores the role of migration in careers. Her research shows that migration adds dynamism to work paths and contributes to the improvement of people’s working lives. It also suggests that agency and reflexivity guide the acquisition of tacit skills during migration, resulting in various patterns of social ...

This book examines the use of agent-based modelling (ABM) in population studies, from concepts to applications, best practices to future developments. It features papers written by leading experts in the field that will help readers to better understand the usefulness of ABM for population projections, how ABM can be injected with empirical data to achieve a better match between model and reality, how geographic information can be fruitfully used in ABM, and how ABM results can be reported...

Over the past decades Europe has witnessed fundamental changes of its population dynamics and population structure. Fertility has fallen below replacement level in almost all European countries, while childbearing behavior and family formation have become more diverse. Life expectancy has increased in Western Europe for both females and males, but has been declining for men in some Eastern European countries. Immigration from non-European countries has increased substantially, as has mobil...

This textbook offers a comprehensive overview of applied demography by presenting both basic concepts and methodological techniques. It allows students from the social and human sciences, demographers, consultants and anyone interested in applied demography to gain an understanding of a wide range of practical applications of demographic concepts, methods and techniques to real- world problems. Featured sidebars highlight relevant terms and concepts and case studies and exercises throughou...

Rebellious Conservatives analyzes three movements, the anti-abortion/pro-life movement, the anti-illegal immigration movement, and the Tea Party, to show how perceptions of threats to their privileges drives conservative protest and how these movements seek to reshape America.

This book addresses major population and development issues: fertility and reproductive health, migrations, gender, education, poverty and inequalities. To that aim it revisits and considerably enlarges Kingsley Davis’ 1963 theory of change and response, using interdisciplinary methodologies. On the basis of four decades of field research (1985-2015), it questions the rationality of the actors, how culture shapes socio-demographic behaviours, in a context of modernity and globalisation. Mo...

This book examines the connection between food and identity in the Nigerian diaspora community in Belgium. Encounters between people from different cultures do not lead to a simple adaptation of the diet, but usually give rise to some kind of fusion of new and indigenous food habits.The author questions the relationship between what Nigerian migrants in the diaspora eat, their self-perception and how they engage with outsiders. Starting with a historical introduction about the coun...