Filip Van Droogenbroeck

Who Supports Populism and What Attracts People to It

In this paper, we engage with the emerging literature that studies the support for populism by means of attitudes among the public at large. More specifically, our paper has two objectives. First, we extend recent research by Akkerman et al. by showing that their measure performs rather well in a context that differs from the one it was originally formulated in. Data from Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, N = 1,577) also demonstrate that the support for populism can be empirically distinguished from feelings of lack of external political efficacy. Second, this is one of the first studies that assess who supports populism and why they do so. We show that populism is embedded in deep feelings of discontent, not only with politics but also with societal life in general. Moreover, we demonstrate that populism is strongest supported by stigmatized groups who face difficulties in finding a positive social identity. In the conclusion, we discuss the implications of our findings.

Religion and Negative Attitudes towards Homosexuals An Analysis of Urban Young People and Their Attitudes towards Homosexuality

Public opinion research has repeatedly shown that religious persons report more prejudice against homosexuality when compared to their non-religious counterparts. This article contributes to a better understanding of this relationship by studying attitudes of youth in two of the three largest cities of Flanders (N: 1907). The ethnic and religious heterogeneous population of these cities allows us to empirically disentangle the relevance of both religious involvement (strong versus weak) and the specific religious conviction with respect to negative attitudes towards homosexuals. This offers us a more detailed view on the exact nature of the relationship between religiosity and the latter attitudes among youth than what has been achieved so far. For both Christian and Muslim believers, we found more negative attitudes towards homosexuality, even after controlling for authoritarianism and a more traditional view on gender roles. Although boys appeared, in general, more negative towards homosexuality than girls, the gender gap amongst young Muslims was twice as large when compared to non-Muslims.

Educational Tracking and Sense of Futility: A Matter of Stigma Consciousness?.

During the past decade, both qualitative and quantitative research have documented strong feelings of fatalism amongst pupils enrolled in technical and vocational tracks in secondary education. Whereas those feelings have been shown to predict decreased school involvement and school misconduct, relatively little is known about their exact origins. In this paper, we explore to what extent they should be considered a stigma consciousness caused by the demeaning impact of perceived contempt to which pupils from technical and vocational tracks are exposed. Data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study from Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, N: 1967) were used to explore the distribution and consequences of perceived contempt with regard to one’s choice of study. About 20% of the pupils enrolled in technical and vocational education reported that some people looked down on them due to their studies. Moreover, even after taking into account different ability measures and social background characteristics, a strong direct relationship remained between perceived contempt and feelings of futility. In the conclusion, we elaborate on the implications of our findings.

To Stop or Not to Stop An Empirical Assessment of the Determinants of Early Retirement Among Active and Retired Senior Teachers

While the official retirement age for most Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries is 65 years, the average employee in the majority of OECD countries retires considerably earlier. With the coming retirement of the baby boom generation, increasing life expectancy, and budget restrictions due to the financial crisis, most countries want to motivate employees to work longer. For these reasons, studying early retirement is highly relevant. In this article, we examine the determinants of early retirement among working and retired senior teachers between 45 and 65 years old in Flanders, Belgium. Although a widespread early exit culture exists among teachers and teacher shortages are expected in several countries, little attention has been given to the specific determinants of early retirement among teachers. Using multivariate linear regression analysis, we study the preferred retirement age of working teachers (n = 1,878) and the actual retirement age of retired teachers (n = 1,246). Financial factors, feelings of emotional exhaustion, and dissatisfaction with nonteaching-related workload (such as meetings and paperwork) have an important influence on the retirement decision. Results show that the majority of teachers make use of early exit schemes. This illustrates the existence of a widespread early exit culture among senior teachers in Flanders.

I Ain’t Gonna Make It. Comparing Job Demands-Resources and Attrition Intention Between Senior Teachers and Senior Employees of Six Other Occupational Categories in Flanders

Teachers are often thought to retire early and have more stress and burnout than other human service professionals. In this article, we investigate attrition intention amongst senior teachers and senior employees of six other blue- and white-collar occupational categories using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. We followed a two-step approach. First, analysis of variance and logistic regression analysis was used to assess differences in the level of job demands, resources, and attrition intention between occupations for male and female employees separately. Subsequently, multiple group path analysis was used to assess the invariance of the JD-R model across occupational groups and genders. We used representative data gathered in Flanders among 6,810 senior employees (45 years or older). Results indicate that there are differences in the determinants of attrition intention between men and women. The differences in attrition intention are minimal between occupations once controlled for job demands and resources. In addition, the JD-R model is largely invariant across white-collar occupations and gender. We provide support for both the energetic and motivational process of the JD-R model.

What is it worth? An empirical investigation into attitudes towards education amongst youngsters following secondary education in Flanders

This paper argues that whereas the social relevance of attitudes towards education is commonly confined to their direct impact on educational aspirations or attainment, attitudes may also impact on educational success in a way similar to cultural capital. Survey data were used to assess the support for three different attitudes with respect to the perceived value of attending school among youngsters (n = 853) following secondary education in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). The results revealed substantial differences according to the pupils’ cultural capital, time perspective, personal educational experiences and social mobility. These findings are taken as a starting point for a broader discussion about how attention to attitudes may enable us to account for the power struggles in which the educational field and the teaching profession are involved.

Conflict thinking: Exploring the social basis of perceiving the world through the lens of social conflict

Both human rights organisations and studies in political communication have noticed an increasing use of conflict frames in contemporary politics within Western societies. As such frames are only interesting for political actors if they find resonance among a substantial share of the population, these observations raise the question as to who supports conflict thinking and why? Whereas public opinion research has studied many attitudes that are based on conflict thinking (e.g., ethnic prejudice, populism, feelings of collective deprivation, and welfare chauvinism), this paper addresses the more fundamental question as to whether it is possible to measure peoples general tendency to perceive the world through the lens of social conflict. Data from the European Quality of Life Survey (34,655 respondents; 34 countries) reveal strong correlations between the perceptions of the amount of tension between seven pairs of groups. These correlations are combined into a single scale reflecting the amount of perceived social conflict in society. Subsequent multilevel analyses support the claim that conflict thinking is embedded in different feelings of vulnerability. In the conclusion, we elaborate on the implications of our findings.

Forewarned is Forearmed? A Survey-Experiment concerning the Impact of Pre-Notification Letters on Response in a Postal Survey

The use of pre-notification letters is thought to increase the response rate of postal surveys. The empirical evidence for that claim, however, is not conclusive. In this research note we assessed the impact of pre-notification by means of data from a large-scale survey-experiment conducted in Flanders (N: 4000). Three outcomes were studied: overall response rate, timing of the response and quality of the response. No significant positive impact was found on the overall response rate and quality of response. However evidence indicated that respondents who received a pre-notification letter were more inclined to respond earlier.