Disaster management research increasingly focuses on how to collaborate with emergent volunteers in order to support formal disaster agents in the nonprofit sector (Whittaker et al. in Int J Disaster Risk Reduct 13:358–368, 2015; Strandh and Eklund in J Conting Crisis Manag 26(3):1–9, 2017). In a disaster context, we regard emergent collaboration between these agents as an appropriate approach for structured self-organization (Simsa et al. in Nonprofit Volunt Sector Q, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764018785472) and hence for providing sustainable disaster relief. Our research seeks to identify which factors facilitate such emerging collaborative efforts. Using survey data from Austrian refugee migration in 2015/2016, we examine how social capital components affect the collaborative efforts between nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and emerging volunteers on a team level. Data evaluation is based on regression analysis. We provide empirical evidence that social capital components like ‘avoidance of misunderstanding’ and ‘interaction frequency’ enhance the collaborative efforts between NPOs and emergent volunteers. Furthermore, the study highlights the roles of ‘emotional intensity’ and ‘intimacy’ in collaborative disaster relief performance.

Drawing on recent literature on political spectatorship, I show how sport, and baseball in particular, can both illuminate and shape American politics. Following the history of racial segregation and immigrant assimilation in baseball, one sees that it mirrors American race politics on the whole. I argue that Jackie Robinson and the desegregation of baseball changed both American politics and the horizons within which citizens think. Although it is tempting to focus on this positive and emergent moment, I argue that for the most part, looking at the history of race in baseball shows instead coded language that reinforces racial stereotypes. This example of baseball and race shows how powerful spectatorship can be in the democratic world. Spectatorship need not be passive but can be an important sphere of activity in democratic life.

Although government-organized volunteering is common in China, the Chinese government has also sought to encourage the development of grassroots volunteer service organizations (VSOs) given the tremendous social service burden and the complexity of social governance. Motivated by the lack of systematic studies on volunteering in China, this study explores predictors of volunteering in urban China using data from the 2013 Survey on Philanthropic Behaviors of Urban Citizens in China. The findings indicate that generalized trust, membership in the Chinese Communist Party and type of work unit are significantly associated with the government-organized volunteering. Similar to Western countries, education, religiosity and social capital variables all help in explaining grassroots VSO-organized volunteering. Interestingly, the association between grassroots VSO-organized volunteering and trust in the central government with regard to both participation probability and time devoted to volunteering is significantly positive, whereas the association between grassroots VSO-organized volunteering and trust in local government, for both participation probability and time devoted to volunteering, is significantly negative.

In recent years, the debate over the need to address ecological and social concerns has grown substantially. Phenomena such as the Gilets Jaunes in France or the ecological versus social disputes in industrial sites (such as, for example, the ILVA steel plant in Taranto) have constituted a trade-off in terms of potentially conflicting policies, making the understanding of the various underlying preferences very important. Furthermore, growing environmental concerns have challenged more traditional views anchored on the predominance of social and employment concerns. The article, in line with the research questions raised in the introduction of the Symposium, intends to contribute to the above-mentioned debate addressing the following questions: did the European Union take an ‘eco-social’ path? If so, how and why? The article illustrates the growing intertwining of social and environmental policies at the EU level and tries to explain its genesis by focusing on the role of the various actors involved. The main argument is that the European Commission, and in particular the President of the Commission, developed an eco-social agenda in order to obtain further institutional (i.e. internal) and socio-political (i.e. external) legitimation.

On 5 October 1991, at a press conference, Prime Minister Mr. Toshiki Kaifu expressed his intention not to run for the party presidential election which was scheduled to be held at the end of October. Mr Kaifu, who was elected to be Prime Minister on 9 August 1989, was keen to change the electoral system of the House of Representatives (Lower House) as a main component of the agenda of political reform which his cabinet would like to carry out after the disclosure of The Recruit Scandal in 1988, in which almost all senior fraction leaders in the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party profitted by selling the stocks of the Recruit Cosmos Company Limited on the Japanese stock market.

The way we talk about politics has an impact on the way we perceive them. Thus, language not only describes a world, but gives sense and meaning to it. Metaphors in particular imply ways of seeing ‘something’, as well as instructions on how to handle ‘something’. These insights are used to develop and operationalize the concept of ‘mental pictures’. Mental pictures of the state as they appear in the platforms of the West German Social Democratic and Christian Democratic parties (SPD and CDU) were examined by means of qualitative and quantitative content analysis. The documentary texts date mainly from the 1970s. Apart from different judgements of the state perceived as an apparatus, differences between the parties can be found where ‘human’ attributes such as strenght, leadership or the ability to inspire confidence are evoked. In spite of its liberalistic distance from the state, which it stresses in other contexts, the CDU prefers a state conceived of as a leadership figure. In contrast, the SPD is averse to such a mental picture. A technocratic image is the (necessary?) price the SPD pays for this aversion.

The paper examines the perceptions that representatives and would–be representatives have of their roles as MEPs, what accounts for those differences and what impact they have on MEP behaviour. Three dimensions of role differences were identified. Two of them, AGENT and TRUSTEE can be found in most assemblies but a third, a federal/confederal distinction, is perhaps peculiar to the EU. Individual attitudes to Europe explained this one quite well, nationality explained differences on the AGENT dimension and left–right position provided some explanation for differences on the TRUSTEE role. The combination of role perceptions appear to have some impact on MEPs’ activities.

The study of the relationship between media and politics has long been marginal in French political science. The take–off of research has been stimulated by the impact of the Presidential election under the Fifth republic and by the increasing role of television and spin–doctors in this new electoral context. If French studies on political communication converge with international research, they are also characterised by strong peculiarities. The material of case–studies is not campaign–centred, but gives room to various TV programmes, to a wide range of media uses by French politicians. The contribution of historians, the influence of a literary tradition of ‘textual’ analysis of political speech are important. The publishing of books on this topic also reveals a surprisingly intense participation from spin– doctors, journalists and even politicians. Three main ‘schools’ are contributing to the dynamics of French research. Linked to the tradition of semiological and literary studies the first one focuses on the study of political discourse in the media. Merging the legacy of English–speaking studies and the French tradition of electoral studies a second one develops an analysis of the campaigning process and of its effects. More recently, a new generation of researchers has widened the object of research to the complex network of relations between politicians, journalists and consultant. Linking successfully the most recent developments or international research and the peculiarities of academic tradition, research on political communication appears as one of the most dynamic areas of French political science.

Although American political science is, as Bernard Crick emphasised, in many respects a distinctly American science of politics, its evolution has been deeply informed by European ideas. This was quite obviously the case during the nineteenth century, when the German concept of the state dominated the discourse of the field, as well as in the early part of the twentieth century, when English scholars made significant contributions to the theory of democratic pluralism. By the middle of the century, German émigrés had contributed to a fundamental transformation in political theory which challenged the mainstream vision of political enquiry; but what is less well understood is the extent to which the reaction to this challenge in behavioural political science was also based on ideas that were the product of the European exodus.

Effective delivery of services for the public good involves a multiplicity of organizations and actors, including those from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. In some cases, service delivery is accomplished using programs that directly engage volunteers, including key public services like community-based and nonprofit volunteer fire departments. Volunteers in fire departments—often highly engaged volunteers with specialized training—provide vital services for a substantial portion of the United States, allowing local governments to realize considerable cost savings. Thus, issues of volunteer retention are a critical challenge for fire departments. Existing research has addressed issues of retention in a variety of settings; we argue that the challenging and particular context of fire departments is worthy of focused research. This article is an exploratory study of the predictors of voluntary firefighter retention in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We use data from a web-based survey of volunteer firefighters to examine the factors that influence volunteer retention, focusing specifically on volunteer management practices and broader job-related concepts. Results indicate that volunteer training, performance management, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment influence both short- and mid-term intent to remain, indicating that management practices and programs, as well as other contextual factors that shape satisfaction and commitment, are important in retaining volunteers.

This article analyses the recruitment criteria, career patterns and social hierarchies of Dutch political science. Dutch political science is highly internationalised and outward-looking. About one-fifth to one-third of most departments is non-Dutch and English language courses are common. Two MA programmes are offered solely in English, and Dutch political science was among the first comprehensively to introduce the BA/MA system. Research is also internationally oriented. Promotion is increasingly based on merit although there are few women in the higher ranks. Working conditions are generally fine and young scholars enjoy a relatively high level of autonomy and reasonable rates of pay. The major hurdle is achieving a permanent position.

In order to assess the accuracy of the figures reported in NPOs’ financial statements, I perform a digital analysis on Belgian non-profit organizations’ financial statements for accounting years 2007 up to 2012. Specifically, I compare observed frequencies for digits in the second-from-the-left position with expected frequencies based on Benford’s Law. Results based on the full sample indicate that observed frequencies strongly conform to Benford’s Law (and thus suggest a high degree of accuracy of the figures reported in NPOs’ financial statements). Nevertheless, I note statistically significant deviations from Benford’s Law (both for the entire distribution and at the individual digit level). The largest deviation is noted for zeroes in the second position (i.e., a significantly positive deviation), which can be explained based on humans’ reliance upon so-called cognitive reference points. Considering different sub-samples, I note that observed deviations from Benford’s Law are largest for the smallest non-profits and those non-profits that rely most heavily on grants and/or donations.