Membership

Ghana’s national health insurance scheme (NHIS) aims to provide financial risk protection to vulnerable populations by making provisions for premium exemptions for all people below 18 years. This study assessed the factors associated with active insurance membership and access to premium exemptions among teenage migrant head porters in Ghana. Data collected from 257 migrant female head porters (10-17 years old) in Accra and Kumasi in a cross-sectional survey were analysed using descriptive statistics and regression models. Only 25% of participants had active membership cards although about 54% had ever registered with the NHIS. Among registered members, only 40% benefited from NHIS premium exemptions as per the insurance policy. Respondents who benefited from premium exemptions were more likely to maintain active membership (OR=3.58, p-value<0.01). Relatively higher income earners (OR=2.72, p-value<0.05) and those who migrated to Kumasi (OR=5.17, p-value<0.01) were more likely to maintain active membership. Although benefiting from premium exemptions improves active enrolment, many migrant teenage head porters were unable to benefit from exemptions. We recommend that the National Health Insurance Authority takes pragmatic steps to identify and enrol all female head porters below 18 years to improve their access to healthcare.

Research on the voluntary sector increasingly examines how individual involvement in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) contributes to subjective well-being. While the societal benefits of NGO participation are well-documented, its potential to enhance life satisfaction at the individual level remains underexplored in the Middle Eastern context. This comparative study aims to fill this gap by examining the association between active membership in NGOs and life satisfaction in Egypt, Tunisia, and Türkiye, using data from the seventh wave of the World Values Survey (WVS). Binary logistic regression results show that active membership in NGOs is positively associated with life satisfaction in all three countries.Keywords:voluntary organizations; life satisfaction; NGOs; Egypt; Tunisia; Türkiye.

The goals of this study were to: (1) define the publication productivity of early-career orthopedic trauma surgeons over time; (2) compare the early-career publication productivity of recent orthopedic trauma fellowship graduates vs their more senior colleagues; and (3) determine the proportion of fellowship graduates who meet the Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) publication criteria for active membership early in their careers. Orthopedic trauma fellowship graduates from 1982 to 2007 were analyzed. A literature search was performed for each fellow's publications for the 6-year period beginning the year of fellowship graduation. Publication productivity was compared between early and recent groups of graduates, 1987 to 1991 and 2003 to 2007, respectively. Fulfillment of OTA publication criteria was determined. Seventy-nine percent of graduates contributed to 1 or more publications. The recent group produced more total publications per graduate (4.06 vs 3.29, P=.01) and more coauthor publications (2.60 vs 2.04, P=.019) than the early group. The number of first-author publications did not differ between groups (1.46 vs 1.25, P=.26). A greater percentage of the recent group met current OTA publication criteria compared with the early group (51% vs 35%, P=.04). The findings showed that recent orthopedic trauma graduates had increased publication productivity compared with their more senior colleagues, although a proportion had not qualified for active OTA membership 6 years into their career. Overall, these data are encouraging and suggest that young orthopedic trauma surgeons remain committed to sustaining a high level of academic excellence.

The final chapter offers a holistic portrayal of the life inside our selected populist radical right parties (PRRPs): the League for Salvini Premier (Italy), the Vlaams Belang (Belgium), the Finns Party (Finland), and the Swiss People’s Party/Democratic Union of the Centre (Switzerland). It reaches key theoretical conclusions, based on our observation that these parties have embraced the mass party organizational model. The chapter reflects on the reasons behind this decision in an era marked by the advent of online communication, by considering the motivations of PRRP elites and the incentives that keep active members committed to these organizations. It finds that, rather than a coherent shift towards ‘electoral-professional’ forms of party organization that rely ever less on active membership and involvement, what we witness is a process whereby different party types survive, adapt, and coexist. In addition to this, the discussion helps to reconfigure theories of political participation and party membership by moving the analysis beyond the point at which people join parties, and by shedding light on what happens inside them afterwards. Ultimately, the chapter contributes to the wider debate regarding the role of party organizations as part of contemporary representative democracies, and how traditional party activities and digital activism can intertwine and potentially reinvigorate political engagement. By demonstrating how the adoption of the mass party model by PRRPs challenges conventional scholarly wisdom, the chapter offers practical lessons for old as well as new political parties that struggle to retain their electoral support and that are perceived to be losing touch with society.

Striving for Global Stability: Establishing a New IFAC Agenda.

Making is deliciously engaging. There is really nothing like it. When something is being created in public, it invites attention—a spectacle, minor or supersized, that passersby cannot resist. It doesn’t matter whether the construction is a skateboard park or volunteer-built housing, protest murals or pallet furniture. They observe the energy and joy of the builders; the bold invite themselves to join in. Others may need a “Hey, do you want to help out?” Soon the workforce is doubled, reinforced with participants who might never have attended a planning meeting or a public hearing. Grassroots democracy has expanded its active membership. And many become active in other community projects.

Women’s empowerment is important for economic growth and development. When women are empowered, there is increased investment in children’s education, health, and nutrition thereby enhancing future economic growth. Promoting women’s empowerment is therefore an important developmental goal. Social capital has been identified as one of the channels through which empowerment can occur. This study investigates the effect of social capital on women’s empowerment using a rich data set from Kenya. We measure social capital using social participation, social support, and active membership in finance/savings/credit, religious, and women’s groups. We also generate a social capital index. Women’s empowerment is measured using asset ownership, savings, and participation in decision making on major purchases, earnings, and health. We control for potential endogeneity of social capital. We find that different indicators of social capital have differing effects on women’s empowerment indicators.

As I look back on the presidential addresses presented during the years of my active membership in the SSSR, my sense is that a number of them have been truly influential, since they alerted our members to issues which many were than inspired to examine in subsequent years. One presidential address that particularly stands out in my mind is Bill D'Antonio's given in 1979 on Family and Religion, subsequently published in the JSSR (D'Antonio 1980:89-104). AsJSSR editor from 1982-88, I know that Bill's address on and was both timely and influential. In the December 1984 issue, I reported that there were more submissions on the topic of religion and the family than on any other single topic, including new religious movements and the New Christian Right. A year later, in the December 1985 issue, I reported that this topic had dropped to second place, behind Catholicism. (Maybe authors were picking up on the subtext of Bill's address, which focused on recent changes in Catholic structures and values.) During the next two years, religion and the family placed fourth and tied for fifth in number of submissions. Its heady years at or near the top were over, but as a topic, it had gained a secure place in our professional journal, and in the society's annual program. In his address, Bill discussed the relationship of love and autonomy in the family. He said that we should pay more attention to the role that love plays in the family, especially in enabling individual members to experience the personal autonomy which was so strongly emphasized in earlier studies of and the by Gerhard Lenski in the 1950s. Bill concluded his address with this invitation:

The goal of this survey was to determine the current surgeon-preferred anterior surgical approach for the treatment of acetabular fractures in North America. Web-based survey; PARTICIPANTS:: Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) members. Active members of the OTA were solicited to participate in an OTA-sponsored survey asking for their preferred standard anterior surgical approach to the acetabulum, along with some general demographic data. The approach choices were: the classic ilioinguinal as described by Letournel, a modified ilioinguinal, the modified Stoppa (Anterior Intrapelvic) with or without a lateral window, the pararectus, and an alternative to be specified by the survey taker. Of the 675 total active OTA membership, 214 (32%) satisfactorily completed the survey. Of the 214 active members, only 32 (15%) prefer the classic ilioinguinal approach and 60 (28%) prefer some type of modified ilioinguinal approach. More than half of the active member respondents (121; 56.5%) prefer the modified Stoppa approach. Statistical analysis of the respondents' demographic data revealed only years in practice to be significantly different among treatment options (P < 0.01) with those with the least time in practice preferring the modified Stoppa. It seems that the modified Stoppa has become the preferred anterior acetabular fracture surgical approach in North America, being especially favored by those more recently in practice. The exact reasons for this change cannot be determined from this survey and are most likely multifactorial. However, training experience may play an important role.

This article describes an application of the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit Assessment Survey using a sample of affiliated volunteer responders. The Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit Assessment Survey is a theory-based, evidence-informed instrument. Early applications of the survey identified four domains: Connection and Caring, Resources, Transformative Potential, and Disaster Management. The version of the instrument used in the current application added items related to Information and Communication, thus creating a fifth domain. The application confirmed the five-factor model and the instrument demonstrated good reliability. Affiliated volunteer responders served as key informants regarding community resilience because of their involvement in local disaster readiness and response. Home ownership and active membership in an affiliated volunteer responder group were associated with the total community resilience score and with multiple domain scores, suggesting the importance of community member investment and engagement for a community’s resilience. Although the study sample involved affiliated volunteer responders, it is likely that engagement in other community organizations and activities may yield similar benefits for resilience.

Objectives: Homonegativity adversely affects the health and well-being of homosexuals in society, making it vital to identify factors associated with it. This study investigates whether active membership in voluntary organizations correlates with homonegativity, examining how this varies by gender and age. Methods: Using the World Values Survey data (2017-2022) from 87,777 participants in 63 countries, we performed binary logistic regression to assess relationships between homonegativity and factors including socioeconomic status, demographics, and voluntary activity participation. Results: Our findings suggest that active membership in certain voluntary organizations correlates with homonegativity levels among both men and women across various age groups. Specifically, active participation in sports or recreational organizations, professional associations, art, music, or educational organizations, and humanitarian or charitable organizations was found to be negatively correlated with homonegativity in specific gender-age groups, albeit with varying degrees of association strength. Conclusion: This study highlights the complex relationship between engagement in voluntary organizations and attitudes toward homosexuality, with significant differences observed across gender and age. While identifying a correlation rather than causation, this study suggests the importance of societal and community participation in fostering more tolerant views toward homosexuals. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that demographic and socioeconomic variables, the political freedom of the respondent's country, and the respondent's life satisfaction are also linked to homonegativity.

OBJECTIVE: Sexual Assault Response Teams (SARTs) seek to improve the response to sexual assault by coordinating the efforts of police, prosecutors, nurses/doctors, victim advocates, and other sexual assault responders. However, SARTs vary with respect to their structure, that is, the composition and organization of their team. Therefore, the current study explored the relationship between SART structure and effectiveness. METHOD: A random sample of N = 172 SART leaders was interviewed. Participants reported on SART structural characteristics and their perceptions of their team's effectiveness at improving victims' help-seeking experiences, victims' participation in the criminal justice system, police processing of cases, and prosecution of cases. RESULTS: Cluster analysis revealed 3 types of SARTs: utilized fewer formal structures and were less likely to institutionalize collaborative processes into their teamwork; utilized more formal structures and were more likely to institutionalize collaborative processes, but did not engage in program evaluation as a multidisciplinary team; and Adopters Plus were similar but also engaged in evaluation as a team. High Adopters Plus Evaluation were perceived as significantly more effective than Low Adopters across all domains. High Adopters Plus Evaluation were perceived as more effective at improving victims' participation in the criminal justice system than High Adopters. SARTs with broader active membership from more stakeholder groups also tended to have higher perceived legal effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: SARTs should consider broad-based active membership and adopting formal structures and collaborative processes to organize their team. Future research can continue to examine factors that contribute to SART success. ©2016 American Psychological Association Language: en

Akan-speaking Methodists in London make sense of their diasporic experience by claiming ‘virtuous’ citizenship. Regardless of their legal and formal status, they feel themselves to be citizens of Britain as Methodists, workers and law-abiding subjects. Active membership in the British Methodist church, conceived as an English transnational polity extending to Ghana, allows for this alternative construction, rooted in Methodist Christian ideology of universal and selfless love, and the Akan concept of tema ‐ empathy for the pain of others, expressed in moral and material obligations to humanity at large, and family or fellowship members. Encapsulation in ethnically exclusive fellowships has become, however, highly problematic for the British Methodist Church whose internal conversation mirrors wider debates in Britain on multiculturalism and immigrant citizenship. Ghanaians themselves are increasingly aware of this critique, but for them ethnic fellowships do not imply exclusion or exclusiveness: they are the loci where people’s agency is experienced, and where they gain recognition and distinction.

BackgroundPeople’s decision to enroll in a health insurance scheme is determined by socio-cultural and socio-economic factors. On request of the National health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in Ghana, our study explores the influence of social relationships on people’s perceptions, behavior and decision making to enroll in the National Health Insurance Scheme. This social scheme, initiated in 2003, aims to realize accessible quality healthcare services for the entire population of Ghana. We look at relationships of trust and reciprocity between individuals in the communities (so called horizontal social capital) and between individuals and formal health institutions (called vertical social capital) in order to determine whether these two forms of social capital inhibit or facilitate enrolment of clients in the scheme. Results can support the NHIA in exploiting social capital to reach their objective and strengthen their policy and practice.MethodWe conducted 20 individual- and seven key-informant interviews, 22 focus group discussions, two stakeholder meetings and a household survey, using a random sample of 1903 households from the catchment area of 64 primary healthcare facilities. The study took place in Greater Accra Region and Western Regions in Ghana between June 2011 and March 2012.ResultsWhile social developments and increased heterogeneity seem to reduce community solidarity in Ghana, social networks remain common in Ghana and are valued for their multiple benefits (i.e. reciprocal trust and support, information sharing, motivation, risk sharing). Trusting relations with healthcare and insurance providers are, according healthcare clients, based on providers’ clear communication, attitude, devotion, encouragement and reliability of services. Active membership of the NHIS is positive associated with community trust, trust in healthcare providers and trust in the NHIS (p-values are .009, .000 and .000 respectively).ConclusionSocial capital can motivate clients to enroll in health insurance. Fostering social capital through improving information provision to communities and engaging community groups in health care and NHIS services can facilitate peoples’ trust in these institutions and their active participation in the scheme.

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN TRANSLATORS ASSOCIATION (ATA)