In this article we highlight rationalizations within industry that were initiated and conducted locally during overt or latent threat of plant close-down. A common feature in our four investigated cases of 'declining organizations' is that the surprising increases in productivity cannot be thought of as the result of 'management by fear' or other active measures taken by management. On the contrary, our findings suggest that the 'dose-down effect' is brought about through workers' active and creative involvement in production matters when managers' interest in maintaining the established order at the workplace is fading away.

Is has long been assumed among Western commentators that rapid economic growth in East and South-east Asia has been achieved without the development of social policies. It has often been inferred that growth without social welfare is not only possible, but beneficial to further strong economic growth. The article questions these perceptions and beliefs. First, to what extent did East and South-east Asian countries delay the introduction of social insurance schemes compared so European pioneering countries, in the sense of introducing them only at a much higher level of 'modernization'? Second, to what extent was the economic miracle achieved by some of these countries based on (or accompanied by) attempts to forestall or retrench welfare stare schemes? Third, to what extent has the recent financial crisis led to attempts at lowering or changing standards of social protection The study shows that the Asian countries generally introduced social security programmes at a lower level of 'modernization' than Western European countries; that rapid and strong economic growth in the decade 1985-95 has in general been accompanied by welfare expansion; and that even after the financial crisis of 1997 expansion of state welfare responsibility is more evident than efforts to reduce or dismantle state welfare responsibility.

Over the past 40 years Estonia has experienced similar developments in mortality to other former Soviet countries. The stagnation in overall mortality has been caused mainly by increasing adult mortality. However, less is known about the social variation in health. This study examines differences in self-rated health by eight main dimensions of the social structure on the basis of the Estonian Health Interview Survey, carried out in 1996/1997. A multistage random sample (n = 4711) of the Estonian population aged 15-79 was interviewed; the response rate was 78.3%. This study includes those respondents aged 25-79 (n = 4011) with analyses being performed separately for men and women. The study revealed that a low educational level, Russian nationality, low personal income and for men only, rural residence were the most influential factors underlying poor health. Education had the biggest independent effect on health ratings: for women with less than an upper secondary education the odds of having poor health were almost fourfold (OR = 3.88) when compared to those with a university education, and for men these odds were almost two and a half times (OR = 2.32). Material resources, in this study measured by personal income, were important factors in explaining some of the educational and ethnic differences (especially for Russian women) in poor self-rated health. Overall, we found no differences between men and women in their health ratings. On the contrary, when we controlled for physical health status, emotional distress and locus of control women reported better health than men. Health selection contributed to, but did not explain the differences by structural dimension. This study also showed a strong association of poor self-rated health with three correlates-physical health status, emotional distress and locus of control, although the influence of these correlates on poor health ratings was not seen equally in the different structural dimensions.

Social disruption and increasing inequalities in wealth can be considered main recent determinants; however, causal processes, shaped decades before recent reforms, also contribute to this widening gap.

The current paper seeks to systematize the discussion on the causes of the changes in Eastern European countries’ suicide mortality during the last 15 years by analyzing the changes in relation to some common causes: alcohol consumption, economic changes, “general pathogenic social stress”, political changes, and social disorganization. It is found that the developments in suicide have been very different in different countries, and that the same causes cannot apply to all of them. However, the relation between suicide mortality and social processes is obvious. A model consisting of the hypothetical general stress (as indicated by mortality/life expectancy), democratization, alcohol consumption, and social disorganization (with a period-dependent effect) predicted the percentual changes in the suicide rates in 16 out of the 28 Eastern Bloc countries in 1984–89 and 1989–94 fairly accurately, while it failed to do this for Albania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and the Caucasian and Central Asian newly independent states. Most interesting were the strong roles played by changes in life expectancy, the causes of which are discussed, and the fact that economic change seemed to lack explanatory power in multiple analyses. The data are subject to many potential sources of error, the small number of units and the large multicollinearity between the independent variables may distort the results. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the changes in Eastern European suicide mortality, both decreases and increases, may be explained with the same set of variables. However, more than one factor is needed, and the multicollinearity will continue to pose problems.

Kapitlet presenterar EG:s varumärkesförordning, och det EG-varumärke som den började reglera i april 1996. Förutom historiken behandlas förordningens verkställande, dess processrättsliga delar samt förhållandet mellan Förordningen och svensk lag.

The suicide panorama is not static but continually changing with the development of society. In this article changes in suicide rates and attitudes towards suicide in Sweden from pre-modern to modern time are described, with suicidal murders as an interesting transitional form. The rates of homicide have decreased, while those of suicide have increased. Changes in attitudes towards suicide have reached different groups in society at different times, leading to very heterogeneous suicide patterns. With increasing social homogeneity there now seems to exist a tendency back towards larger homogeneity of suicide as well. In order to develop suicide prevention into a vital branch of public-health services humanistic, linguistic and social research in suicidology must be encouraged.

Having investigated suicide mortality among the 250,000 immigrant Finns in Sweden ("Finnish Swedes") 1982-1992, we have found it to be very high for both sexes. The mean overall rate was 48.2/100,000 a year--2.0 times the Swedish rate and 1.6 times the Finnish. Suicide mortality has, moreover, increased among women. A comparison of naturalized Finns (those who have become Swedish citizens) with those who have remained Finnish citizens does not demonstrate any conclusive relationship between naturalization and suicide for the group as a whole. In most male groups, those who had taken Swedish citizenship had clearly lower rates than those who had not. For most female groups, however, there was a reverse tendency. Further monitoring of the development of suicide mortality in the group is needed.