Leisure participation: modelling the decision to engage in sports and culture

Participation in sport and participation in cultural activities are usually studied separately. However, since both activities dominate the leisure time of most individuals, it is reasonable to analyse simultaneously the determinants of participation in both activities. Informed by the economic household theory, this study examined the core factors of time, income, human capital as well as several socio-demographic factors. The results showed that there was as small but significant correlation between sports and cultural participation. Thus, both can be described as complementary and competing activities. Leisure time, gender, education, nationality and subjective well-being were significant predictors of both sports and cultural participation. Differences were found for the variables age and income. This paper also describes the characteristics of those individuals who are not likely to participate in either activity and emphasises the importance of social inclusion programmes.     

The Benefits of Fixed Item Parameter Calibration for Parameter Accuracy in Small Sample Situations in Large‐Scale Assessments

Large‐scale assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have field trials where new survey features are tested for utility in the main survey. Because of resource constraints, there is a trade‐off between how much of the sample can be used to test new survey features and how much can be used for the initial item response theory (IRT) scaling. Utilizing real assessment data of the PISA 2015 Science assessment, this article demonstrates that using fixed item parameter calibration (FIPC) in the field trial yields stable item parameter estimates in the initial IRT scaling for samples as small as n = 250 per country. Moreover, the results indicate that for the recovery of the county‐specific latent trait distributions, the estimates of the trend items (i.e., the information introduced into the calibration) are crucial. Thus, concerning the country‐level sample size of n = 1,950 currently used in the PISA field trial, FIPC is useful for increasing the number of survey features that can be examined during the field trial without the need to increase the total sample size. This enables international large‐scale assessments such as PISA to keep up with state‐of‐the‐art developments regarding assessment frameworks, psychometric models, and delivery platform capabilities.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Integration im Ritual

Der Beitrag behandelt die Frage, wie es Gemeinschaften gelingt, kulturelle Differenzen in Ritualen zu bearbeiten. Rituale werden hier verstanden als performative Inszenierungen, die nicht nur einen Rahmen für interne Integrationsprozesse bilden, in denen sich Gemeinschaften konstituieren, stabilisieren oder konfirmieren, sondern die auch einen sozialen Zusammenhang für die Integration externer Herausforderungen darstellen. An einem Beispiel aus der ethnographischen Forschung werden kulturelle Selbstbildungsprozesse als performative analysiert. Dabei erscheint aus dieser Sicht interessant, wie sich eine Familie in einem Frühstücksritual über Schule, Leistungen, Lehren und Lernen selbst wechselseitig belehrt. Eine performative Betrachtungsweise betont die Konstitution gemeinsamer Wirklichkeiten in szenischen und k?rperlichen Aufführungen, die (sprachliche) Artikulation von Rahmungen und die mimetischen, kommunikativen Wirkungsprozesse. Darüber hinaus verweist sie auf die Bedeutung von (institutionellen) Machtbeziehungen und auf die mit ihnen verbundenen habituellen Praktiken sowie auf die Bedeutung der gemeinschaftlichen Differenzerzeugung-und-bearbeitung, die auch im Ritual durchaus mit ludischen Elementen verknüpft ist.