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In diesem Beitrag befasse ich mich mit ethischen Herausforderungen der Biografieforschung am Beispiel eigener Erfahrungen im Rahmen einer Studie im Feld der politischen Partizipation. Im ersten Teil diskutiere ich grundsätzliche ethische Fragen der Biografieforschung, die mit der Erhebung und Auswertung von biografisch-narrativen Interviews einhergehen. Im zweiten Teil des Beitrages werden exemplarisch forschungsethische Aspekte und Probleme skizziert, die im Verlauf der Feldforschung aufgetreten sind und die Prämissen einer rekonstruktiv vorgehenden Biografieforschung herausfordern. Dazu gehören die informierte Einwilligung als dialogischer Prozess sowie die Anonymisierung und Rückmeldung von biografischen Daten in einem hochsensiblen Feld. Abschließend gehe ich der Frage nach, welche Möglichkeiten und Grenzen das Format der Forschungswerkstatt für die Reflexion von ethischen Fragen in der Biografieforschung bietet.
The article presents an analysis of the development of labour market risks in Germany in light of changing working poverty risks. Low hourly wages and part-time employment are identified as the main demand-side-related mechanisms for household poverty. Their measurement and development are discussed as well as their contribution to trends in working poverty risks. A rise in low wages, especially among part-time employed households, was decisive for the increase in working poverty risks in Germany by 45% between the end of the 1990s and the end of the 2000s. We therefore study these trends more closely in the multivariate analysis. The results show that while low wages are unequally distributed across occupations and industries, shifts in employment between sectors explain only a minor part of the change in low wages. However, they reveal a polarization of low-wage risks by skill-level and sector of employment, on the one hand, and full-time and part-time employees, on the other hand.
Populism is widely thought to be in tension with liberal democracy. This article clarifies what exactly is problematic about populism from a liberal–democratic point of view and goes on to develop normative standards that allow us to distinguish between more and less legitimate forms of populism. The point of this exercise is not to dismiss populism in toto; the article strives for a more subtle result, namely, to show that liberal democracy can accommodate populism provided that the latter conforms to particular discursive norms. What the article calls a ‘liberal ethics of populism’ turns out to be closely bound up with a broader ethics of peoplehood, understood as a way of articulating who ‘the people’ are in a way that is compatible with liberal–democratic principles of political justification. Such an ethics, concludes the article, inevitably has a much wider audience than populist political actors: its addressees are all those who seek legitimately to exercise power in the name of the people.
Do economic fluctuations change the labour market attachment of mothers? How is the reentry process into the labour market after childbirth dependent on the country context women live in? Are these processes affected by occupational status? We address these questions using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth and the German Life History Study. Event history analyses demonstrate that in Germany and the United States, mothers who work in high occupational status jobs before birth return more quickly to their jobs and are less likely to interrupt their careers. During legally protected leave periods, mothers return at higher rates, exemplifying that family leaves strengthen mothers’ labour force attachment. Economic fluctuations mediate this latter finding, with different consequences in each country. In the United States, mothers tend to return to their jobs faster when unemployment is high. In Germany, mothers on family leave tend to return to their jobs later when unemployment is high. The cross-national comparison shows how similar market forces create distinct responses in balancing work and care.
The authors argue, in line with recent research, that operationalizing gender ideology as a unidimensional construct ranging from traditional to egalitarian is problematic and propose an alternative framework that takes the multidimensionality of gender ideologies into account. Using latent class analysis, they operationalize their gender ideology framework based on data from the 2008 European Values Study, of which eight European countries reflecting the spectrum of current work–family policies were selected. The authors examine the form in which gender ideologies cluster in the various countries. Five ideology profiles were identified: egalitarian, egalitarian essentialism, intensive parenting, moderate traditional, and traditional. The five ideology profiles were found in all countries, but with pronounced variation in size. Ideologies mixing gender essentialist and egalitarian views appear to have replaced traditional ideologies, even in countries offering some institutional support for gendered separate spheres.
Advances in information and communication technologies enable more decentralized and individualized mechanisms for coordination and for managing societal complexity. This has important consequences for the role of conditionality and the idea of individual responsibility in two seemingly unrelated policy areas. First, the changing information infrastructure enables an extension of conditionality in the area of welfare through greater activation, enhanced self-management, and a personalization of risks. Second, conditionality and personal responsibility also form an important ideational template and a legitimatory basis for facilitating value creation that is based on data as a raw material. This argument is illustrated looking at the trajectories of the digital strategies in the United Kingdom and Germany. In both cases, data protection is depicted as a question of individual responsibility and tied to certain forms of individual conduct.
Ausländische Pflegekräfte in deutschen Privathaushalten : ein Interview mit Prof. Dr. Helma Lutz
(2015)
Helma Lutz ist Professorin am Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Seit 15 Jahren beschäftigt sie sich in ihrer Forschung mit "neuen Dienstmädchen" – Migrantinnen, die Haus-, Erziehungs- und Versorgungsarbeit ("Care-Arbeit") in deutschen Haushalten verrichten. Die Redaktion von focus Migration hat sie zu diesem Thema befragt.
Pluralization strategies of monolingual German children aged 3-6, median 4;2 (N = 810), and adults aged 18-96, median 24;0 (N = 582), were compared on the basis of eight nonce nouns from the language test SETK 3-5. Differences between younger and older Germans resembled previously described differences between German and immigrant pre-schoolers for most aspects, e.g., use of fewer plural allomorphs (types), more errors in umlauting, and more avoidance strategies in the linguistically weaker groups. However, both German children and adults demonstrated the same universal frequency- and phonology-based pluralization patterns. Surprisingly, ungrammatical plural forms were equally frequent in both children’s and adults' answers.
Rule is commonly conceptualized with reference to the compliance it invokes. In this article, we propose a conception of rule via the practice of resistance instead. In contrast to liberal approaches, we stress the possibility of illegitimate rule, and, as opposed to critical approaches, the possibility of legitimate authority. In the international realm, forms of rule and the changes they undergo can thus be reconstructed in terms of the resistance they provoke. To this end, we distinguish between two types of resistance—opposition and dissidence—in order to demonstrate how resistance and rule imply each other. We draw on two case studies of resistance in and to international institutions to illustrate the relationship between rule and resistance and close with a discussion of the normative implications of such a conceptualization.
Die zunehmende Nutzung von Online-Kommunikationskanälen vereinfacht nicht nur den alltäglichen, zwischenmenschlichen Austausch, sondern eröffnet auch der erziehungswissenschaftlichen Forschung neue Möglichkeiten. Gleichzeitig stehen Chancen wie der Reichweitenerhöhung von Forschungsaktivitäten auch Herausforderungen bspw. im Bereich der Validität gegenüber. Vor diesem Hintergrund geht der Beitrag der Frage nach, ob sich diese Nachteile durch die methodologisch fundierte Kombination von Offline- und Online-Umgebungen kompensieren lassen. Anhand eines Forschungsszenarios werden drei verschiedene Designs konzipiert, die auf genau diese Herausforderung eingehen. Dazu wird eine Mixed Methods Perspektive eingenommen, um verschiedene Möglichkeiten aufzuzeigen, die einzelne Schwächen der Methoden adäquat ausgleichen oder sogar Synergieeffekte erzielen.
Das "Office for Strategic Studies" (OSS) wurde erst 1942, ein Jahr nach Kriegseintritt der USA geschaffen, es war ein Vorläufer des CIA. Seine Aufgaben bestanden nicht allein in der Beschaffung von Informationen über den Zustand der feindlichen Streitkräfte in Europa und Asien, sondern unter anderem auch in der Entwicklung von Möglichkeiten und Vorstellungen für die – nach erfolgreicher Beendigung der Kämpfe – einsetzende Aufbauarbeit in den zu besetzenden Ländern. Dieser Aufgabe diente auch die Beauftragung Carl Zuckmayers mit einem informativen Bericht über die politische und moralische Zuverlässigkeit, oder wenigstens "Brauchbarkeit" von Angehörigen der künstlerischen Elite, soweit sie im Deutschen Reich geblieben war; brauchbar nämlich für Beteiligung am kulturellen Leben in einem neuen, demokratischen Deutschland. An dieser Aufgabe arbeiteten in der Zentrale des OSS unter anderen HerbertMarcuse und Franz Neumann, die beide dem nach den USA ausgewanderten Frankfurter Institut für Sozialforschung angehört hatten. Diese linken Wissenschaftler legten in ihren Arbeiten für das OSS mehr Wert auf die Entmachtung der in Nazideutschland einflussreichen und besitzenden Eliten und auf eine von den Alliierten zu initiierende "re-education". Im Unterschied dazu dienen die Berichte Zuckmayers lediglich der differenzierten Beurteilung von Autoren, Regisseuren und vor allem Schauspielern, die in Deutschland geblieben waren und sich –mehr oder weniger – dem Regime angepasst hatten. ...
Journalisten fragen, Politiker antworten. Kurz nach Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges, im November 1914, hat der Strafrechtler und Völkerrechtler Franz von Liszt auf Fragen des Chefredakteurs Helmer Key vom "Svenska Dagbladet" in Stockholm geantwortet – in bemerkenswert enger Anlehnung an die alte konservative Theorie von der deutschen Friedfertigkeit, die erst durch die Einkreisungspolitik Eduards VII. zur Wehrhaftigkeit habe werden müssen.
Iring Fetscher hat das maschinenschriftliche Dokument auf einer Auktion entdeckt und erworben. Wir drucken es auf den folgenden Seiten als Faksimile mit dem Kommentar von Iring Fetscher zu Fragen und Antworten im Deutschen Herbst 1914.
This article inquires the relevancy of multiple temporalisations for the discourse analysis of testimonial interviews. Step by step and by help of a range of empirical cases, the author widens the analytical scope (from questions, lines of questions, to supported interrogation by help of files and archives). He does so in order to reconstruct the efficient resources and means of forensic and administrative interrogations. The interviews turn out to be most powerful once they establish duplicity, meaning a partial separation of speech-production and speech-reception. Conclusively the author argues for a symmetrical view on scientific (qualitative) interviews and forensic interrogation. The separation of production and reception is widely ignored in qualitative methods.
Zentraler Gegenstand der Tagung waren die disziplinären Aneignungen der ethnografischen Herangehensweise in der Ethnologie und der Soziologie. Der Tagungsbericht sammelt die auf der Tagung debattierten Differenzen und Ähnlichkeiten und sichtet die tiefer liegenden, systematischen Unterschiede entlang der ethnografischen Trias von Feld, Site und Gegenstand. Mit Blick auf eine geplante Folgetagung identifizieren die Autoren Schlüsselthemen für die weitere Debatte.
Für den Politikwissenschaftler Herfried Münkler ist Solidarität das "Stiefkind der Moralphilosophie, aber auch der Gesellschaftstheorie". Die Sache, so Münkler in dem von Beckert, Eckert, Kohli, Streeck vorzüglich edierten Tagungsband, sei offenbar "nicht sonderlich theoriefähig". So habe Kant, der Philosoph der Französischen Revolution, kurzerhand die Brüderlichkeit aus der Trias Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité entfernt und durch den schnöden Besitzindividualismus der Selbständigkeit substituiert. Genauso in der Theorie der Gesellschaft, in der die Prominenz des Solidaritätsbegriffs bei "Émile Durkheim (…) eine der wenigen Ausnahmen" darstelle. ...
The digitalization of financial services opened a window for new players in the financial industry. These start-ups take on tasks and functions previously reserved for banks, such as financing, asset management, and payments. In this article, we trace the transformation of the industry after digitalization. By using data on FinTech formations in Germany, we provide first evidence that entrepreneurial dynamics in the FinTech sector are not so much driven by technology as by the educational and business background of the founders. Furthermore, we investigate the reactions of traditional banks to the emergence of these start-ups. In contrast with other emerging industries such as biotechnology, a network analysis shows that FinTechs have mostly engaged in strategic partnerships and only a few banks have acquired or obtained a financial interest in a FinTech. We explain the restraint of traditional banks to fully endorse the new possibilities of digitalized financial services with the characteristics of the technology itself and with the postponed fundamental decisions of banks to modernize their IT infrastructure.
Kryotechnologien bezeichnen Verfahren des Kühlens und Einfrierens. Wie verändert deren Einsatz in immer mehr Feldern unser Verständnis von Lebensprozessen und gesellschaftliche Grundannahmen? Mit welchen Erwartungen werden Menschen heute durch verschiedene Nutzungsformen dieser Technologien konfrontiert? Fragen wie diese versucht das Projekt "Cryosocieties" des Soziologen Prof. Thomas Lemke an der Goethe-Universität zu beantworten. Im Fokus stehen die sozialen, kulturellen und moralischen Dimensionen der Sammlung, Lagerung und Nutzung von menschlichem und nichtmenschlichem organischem Material durch kryotechnologische Verfahren. Seit April 2019 wird das Projekt als ERC Advanced Investigator Grant des Europäischen Forschungsrats gefördert. Die Förderung ist auf fünf Jahre angelegt. ...
L’arrêt Lüth – 50 ans après
(2019)
Même 50 ans plus tard, l’arrêt Lüth, rendu par la Cour constitutionnelle fédérale le 15 janvier 1958, n’a rien perdu de son actualité. Il confère durablement à la liberté d’expression un rang primordial pour le débat public démocratique et marque le point de départ du développement d’une dogmatique des droits fondamentaux spécifiquement allemande, à l’origine d’un renforcement des compétences et de la puissance particulières de la Cour constitutionnelle fédérale. Les raisons qui expliquent l’approche particulière de résolution de conflits entre droits suivie dans l’arrêt Lüth ne laissent pas présager un abandon de cette jurisprudence, abandon qui ne serait d’ailleurs ni souhaitable ni réaliste.
Representation is a process of making, accepting, or rejecting representative claims (Disch, 2015; Saward, 2014). This groundbreaking insight challenged the standard assumption that representative democracy can be reduced to elections and activities of elected representatives (Pitkin, 1967). It broadened the scope of representative democracy to encompass representation activities beyond those authorized by elections, transformed our thinking and provided a new perspective, putting claims and their reception into the center. This paradigm shift erased the distinction between elected and non-elected representatives and disclosed the potential of non-elected actors’ claims to represent (Andeweg, 2003; Kuyper, 2016; Rosanvallon & Goldhammer, 2008; Saward, 2006, 2009; Van Biezen & Saward, 2008). In spite of this lively debate, we identify an important gap in the literature: while this paradigmatic shift inspired many authors, conceptual frameworks that can be applied for systematic empirical analysis of real-life cases are missing. In this article, we fill this gap and propose frameworks for assessing and validating a variety of real-life claims. Our study provides empirical substance to the ongoing theoretical debates, helping to translate the mainly theoretical ‘claim approach’ into empirical research tools. It helps to transform the conventional wisdom about what representation can (not) be and shines a new light on the potential future of (claims on) representation.
The system of representative democracy is under considerable strain. Its institutions are struggling to maintain legitimacy, and its elected representatives are failing to keep their monopoly on (formal) political representation. An emerging multitude of (new) claim makers contests the authority of elected representatives as well as the functioning of the existing system of representative democracy by alleging misrepresentation. In this article, we identify a significant shortcoming in Saward’s claims-making approach; specifically, we argue that it offers little direction in addressing misrepresentation. We distinguish between claims of representation and claims of misrepresentation, and show how the latter can fulfill one, two or all three of the following functions: (1) they appeal to an enemy/antagonist (strategy), (2) identify causes of misrepresentation related to policies, politics, and polity (persuasion), and (3) claim to create a new linkage to "the people", sometimes present themselves as new representatives (reframing). To test this proposed framework, we compare claims of misrepresentation in Brazil made by civil society groups (before and during the presidential impeachment between 2014 and 2016) and in Germany (focusing on the parliamentarians of the Alternative for Germany during the first six months of mandate). Our results suggest that claims of misrepresentation are not intrinsically democratic or undemocratic, but are instead ambiguous, have different manifestations and disparate impacts on the representative system. Our article contributes to the conceptual development of the claims approach and to further understanding several critical and current challenges to representative democracy.
The established notion of political representation is challenged on multiple accounts—theoretically, conceptually, and empirically. The contributions to this thematic issue explore the constructivist turn as the means for rethinking political representation today around the world. The articles included here seek to reconsider representation by theoretically and empirically reassessing how representation is conceptualized, claimed and performed—in Western and non-Western contexts. In recognition that democratic representation in Western countries is in a process of fundamental transformation and that non-Western countries no longer aim at replicating established Western models, we look for representation around the world—specifically in: Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, China, and India. This enables us to advance the study of representative democracy from a global perspective. We show the limits and gaps in the constructivist literature and the benefits of theory-driven empirical research. Finally, we provide conceptual tools and frameworks for the (comparative) study of claims of representation.
Relying on the theory of Saward (2010) and Disch (2015), we study political representation through the lens of representative claim-making. We identify a gap between the theoretical concept of claim-making and the empirical (quantitative) assessment of representative claims made in the real world’s representative contexts. Therefore, we develop a new approach to map and quantify representative claims in order to subsequently measure the reception and validation of the claims by the audience. To test our method, we analyse all the debates of the German parliament concerned with the introduction of the gender quota in German supervisory boards from 2013 to 2017 in a two-step process. At first, we assess which constituencies the MPs claim to represent and how they justify their stance. Drawing on multiple correspondence analysis, we identify different claim patterns. Second, making use of natural language processing techniques and logistic regression on social media data, we measure if and how the asserted claims in the parliamentary debates are received and validated by the respective audience. We come to the conclusion that the constituency as ultimate judge of legitimacy has not been comprehensively conceptualized yet.
Critique, and especially radical critique of reason, is under pressure from two opponents. Whereas the proponents of "post-critical" or "acritical" thinking denounce critique as an empty and self-righteous repetition of debunking, the decriers of "post-truth" accuse critique of having helped to bring about our current "post-truth" politics. Both advocate realism as a limit critique must respect, but Vogelmann defends the claim that we urgently need radical critiques of reason because they offer a more precise diagnosis of the untruths in politics the two opponents of critique are rightfully worried about. Radical critiques of reason are possible, he argues, if we turn our attention to the practices of criticizing, if we refrain from a sovereign epistemology, and if we pluralize reason without trivializing it. In order to demonstrate the diagnostic advantage of radical critiques of reason, he briefly analyzes the political and epistemic strategy at work in two exemplary untruths in politics.
Critique, and especially radical critique of reason, is under pressure from two opponents. Whereas the proponents of "post-critical" or "acritical" thinking denounce critique as an empty and self-righteous repetition of debunking, the decriers of "post-truth" accuse critique of having helped to bring about our current "post-truth" politics. Both advocate realism as a limit critique must respect, but I will defend the claim that we urgently need radical critiques of reason because they offer a more precise diagnosis of the untruths in politics the two opponents of critique are rightfully worried about. Radical critiques of reason are possible, I argue, if we turn our attention to the practices of criticizing, if we refrain from a sovereign epistemology, and if we pluralize reason without trivializing it. In order to demonstrate the diagnostic advantage of radical critiques of reason, I briefly analyze the political and epistemic strategy at work in two exemplary untruths in politics.
"Post-truth" is a failed concept, both epistemically and politically because its simplification of the relationship between truth and politics cripples our understanding and encourages authoritarianism. This makes the diagnosis of our "post-truth era" as dangerous to democratic politics as relativism with its premature disregard for truth. In order to take the step beyond relativ- ism and "post-truth", we must conceptualise the relationship between truth and politics differently by starting from a "non-sovereign" understanding of truth.
Wie erkennen wir Neues in der Politik, und wie bewerten wir dieses Neue, wenn es darauf abzielt, die vertrauten politischen Maßstäbe und -einheiten in Frage zu stellen? Die Piratenpartei als neueste Erscheinung in der bundesrepublikanischen Politik erlaubt es, diesem Problem nicht nur abstrakt nachzugehen. Meine Ausgangshypothese verortet das Neue weder im von der Piratenpartei eingebrachten Thema, noch in einer besonderen Position, die sie innerhalb des politischen Spektrums bezieht, sondern in ihrem Vorschlag, die Art und Weise zu verändern, wie politische Macht in der deutschen Demokratie ausgeübt wird: den Modus demokratischer Herrschaft von Repräsentation auf liquid democracy umzustellen. ...
Browsing the web for school: social inequality in adolescents’ school-related use of the internet
(2019)
This article examines whether social inequality exists in European adolescents’ school-related Internet use regarding consuming (browsing) and productive (uploading/sharing) activities. These school-related activities are contrasted with adolescents’ Internet activities for entertainment purposes. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 is used for the empirical analyses. Results of partial proportional odds models show that students with higher educated parents and more books at home tend to use the Internet more often for school-related tasks than their less privileged counterparts. This pattern is similar for school-related browsing and sharing Internet activities. In contrast to these findings on school-related Internet activities, a negative association between parental education and books at home is found with adolescents’ frequency of using the Internet for entertainment purposes. The implications of digital inequalities for educational inequalities are discussed.
This paper will examine the self-reported division of housework and childcare in Germany and Poland considering the job-related spatial mobility within dual-earner couples who are living in a household together with a partner, using 2007 data from the Job Mobility and Family Lives in Europe Project. We find that men who are spatially mobile for work often report shifting housework to their partners. Polish couples show a stronger tendency toward an egalitarian division of labor than German couples do, especially in terms of childcare. But the central finding of this research is, gender trumps national differences and spatial mobility constraints. Polish and German women, whether mobile for their work or not, report doing the majority of housework and childcare compared to their partners.
Der Fokus unserer Forschung zum Populismus sollte nicht auf dem harten Kern rechter Parteien liegen, sondern auf jenen, die diese Parteien nur aus Protest wählen oder gar nicht mehr wählen. Wir sollten auch nicht den Fehler machen, die Unterstützung rechter Parteien als irrational und postfaktisch darzustellen. Kern unserer Forschung sollten jene ungleichen wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Strukturen sein, die zum Aufstieg rechter Parteien führen.
I propose that the rising number of dualearner couples in the United States impacts the trend toward declining residential mobility and rising commute times. I describe these mobility trends in the United States, first relocation trends and then daily commuting trends. My research views the commute as the bridge in time and space between home and work that a) reflects couples' negotiation of preferences, relative job importance, barriers, and opportunities; b) has consequences for family functioning, c) reflects gender differences in the ways time and place are organized, and d) varies across the life course, by race, class, and region. I describe differences in family type and family functioning based on the commuting pattern and suggest a course of future comparative research that may improve awareness of how families and couples handle labor market demands, what structures shape the picture of couples mobility, and how nation-specific circumstances orient couples toward certain kinds of mobility and away from others.
Frauen in Führungspositionen
(2010)
Frauen sind mit Männern juristisch nicht nur gleichberechtigt, sie haben im Schnitt auch gleiche oder höhere Bildungsabschlüsse, Qualifikationen sowie Führungskompetenzen. In den Chefetagen sind sie im Vergleich mit den männlichen Kollegen jedoch stark unterrepräsentiert. Was hält sie vom Aufstieg ab?
Understanding the role of structure and social aspects regarding heat stress of people in urban areas requires an interdisciplinary scientific approach that connects methods from both natural sciences and social sciences. In this study, we combine three approaches to provide an interdisciplinary analysis of the structure and social components of heat stress in the city of Aachen, Germany. First, we assess the overall spatial structure of the urban heat island using spatially distributed measurements from mobile air temperature recordings on public transport units combined with spatially distributed geo-statistical data. The results indicate that the time of day matters: During the afternoon, areas with a relative low building density, like the industrial area northeast of the inner city, are the warmest, while surfaces in high-building-density areas like the inner city heat up faster during the evening. Second, we combine these measurements with place-based survey data collected in 2010 from residents aged 50 to 92 regarding their individual housing conditions, medical history and social integration to examine the match among heat-based stress of older residents, social conditions and elevated temperatures in their residential quarter. We identify disadvantaged areas for specific already-disadvantaged demographic groups in the city, pointing to a cumulation of inequalities, including heat stress among the most vulnerable. Third, we compare data of biometeorological measurements on urban public squares during the afternoon with results of the micrometeorological model ENVI-met to examine the spatial variability of the inner-city heat load. We complement the modelling results with on-site interviews to evaluate people’s heat perception at the same public places. A simulation shows that additional vegetation would increase thermal comfort at these public places, whereby the heat load assessed using the predicted mean vote (PMV) value would decrease by approximately 60 %. Furthermore, we demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of heat stress simulation. ENVI-met allows for an overall reasonable representation of heat load during stable atmospheric conditions. However, due to the setup and structure of ENVI-met, large-scale atmospheric changes that occur during the day cannot readily be integrated into ENVI-met simulations.
Despite the popularity of direct democracy in recent decades, research on the actual output effects of popular decision-making is rare. This is especially true with regard to equality, where there are at least three major research gaps: 1) a lack of cross-national analyses; 2) insufficient investigation of the differential effects of different direct democratic instruments on equality; and 3) a failure to distinguish between different aspects of equality, i.e., socioeconomic, legal and political equality. This article takes a first step to tackle these shortcomings by looking at all national referenda in European democracies between 1990 and 2015, differentiating between mandatory, bottom-up and top-down referenda. We find that a large majority of successful direct democratic bills—regardless of which instrument is employed—are not related to equality issues. Of the remaining ones, there are generally more successful pro-equality bills than contra-equality ones, but the differences are rather marginal. Mandatory referenda tend to produce pro-equality outputs, but no clear patterns emerge for bottom-up and top-down referenda. Our results offer interesting, preliminary insights to the current debate on direct democracy, pointing to the conclusion that popular decision-making via any type of direct democratic instrument is neither curse nor blessing with regard to equality. Instead, it is necessary to look at other factors such as context conditions or possible indirect effects in order to get a clearer picture of the impacts of direct democracy on equality.
In the latest contribution to the Democracy Papers, Thomas Zittel explores when and how polarization becomes a cause for democratic anxiety. He argues that polarization over traditional policy issues is not in itself harmful, and can even be beneficial for democracies. However, he warns that polarization in which parties become divided over the acceptable rules of the game is a problem for democracies. Unfortunately, this latter type of division is increasingly common on both sides of the Atlantic today.
Internationale Gerichte sollen Konflikte zwischen Staaten befrieden. Dass es dabei nicht immer nur um das Völkerrecht geht, zeigt der Streit zwischen den USA und dem Iran. Die gegenwärtige US-Regierung lehnt den Internationalen Gerichtshof als politisch gelenkt ab – und schadet sich damit vor allem selbst.
Immer mehr Menschen fühlen sich in ihrer Existenz bedroht – selbst im Globalen Norden. Zugleich wird der politische Streit auf nationaler wie internationaler Bühne unversöhnlicher. Hängen diese beiden Beobachtungen zusammen und wenn ja, wie? Dieser Frage geht der Soziologe Thomas Scheffer in seinem Beitrag nach.
Ich würde sagen, dass Individuen mal die Contenance verlieren, sich im Ton vergreifen, das kann vorkommen. Und natürlich gibt es Frustrationspotenzial und Irritationen, die auch mal ausgesprochen werden müssen. Das kann die Ebene des sachorientierten Austauschs von Argumenten durchaus verlassen. Jede Demokratie sollte das aushalten können. Aber ich würde nicht behaupten, dass Hasstiraden gerade im Netz, Trolling und Ähnliches, eine Form des produktiven Streits wären, die Bindekraft erzeugen würde. Im Gegenteil: Wenn sich das ausbreitet und systematisch wird, wirkt es zersetzend für den gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt. ...
Recently, many democracies have developed towards more citizens’ involvement in direct democracy or public deliberation. Are these developments linked to different types of democracy? Can public deliberation be mainly found in consensus democracies, whereas direct democracy prevails in majoritarian democracies? By analysing OECD countries around the year 2012, we examine these assumptions. The answer is surprisingly clear. The choice of a democracy to opt for direct democratic instruments or for public deliberation is neither dichotomous nor is it related to the respective pattern type of democracy. Based on these findings, a new typology with four participatory models of democracy is suggested.
Concepts historiques du capitalisme industriel avancé : « capitalisme organisé » et « corporatisme »
(2018)
Les économistes comme les spécialistes de sciences sociales semblent largement s’accorder sur le fait que le capitalisme industriel est entré à un moment donné dans une phase avancée de son développement, tout particulièrement dans ses variantes que l’on observe en Europe de l’Ouest, en Amérique du Nord et au Japon. Que le capitalisme se situe encore à cette étape, ou qu’il l’ait entre-temps déjà dépassée et laissée à nouveau derrière lui, il se différencie à tout le moins de la phase antérieure (ou bien des phases antérieures), à laquelle on peut rattacher le début d’une première industrialisation et l’avènement de l’industrialisation massive (Hochindustrialisierung). ...
Hans-Jürgen Puhle – notice
(2018)
Hans-Jürgen Puhle est depuis 1990 professeur de sciences politiques à l’Université de Francfort-sur-le-Main (professeur émerite depuis 2009). Il a fait des études d’histoire, de sciences politiques, de sociologie et de philosophie à Tübingen, Marburg et à l’Université Libre de Berlin. Après avoir obtenu sa thèse en philosophie en 1965, il a dirigé l‘Instituto Latinoamericano de Investigaciones Sociales (ILDIS) à Santiago de Chile. Ensuite il a été assistant, enseignant et, après son habilitation en 1973, professeur d’histoire moderne et sciences politiques à l’Université de Münster (1968-1978) et professeur d’histoire à l’Université de Bielefeld (1978-1990). Il a enseigné en tant que professeur invité aux universités de Harvard, Oxford, Cornell, Stanford, Tel Aviv, à l’Universidad de Chile Santiago, la FLACSO Buenos Aires, l‘Instituto Juan March, Madrid, et à l’Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. ...
Les tâches d’une sociologie de la culture ne peuvent être définies sans prendre en considération la situation générale de la discipline. La conception dominante veut que la société puisse être définie par son organisation extérieure, par les divisions qui sont partout manifestes dans la vie sociale et qui sont aujourd’hui désignées sommairement comme sa structure. Ce concept de société, nous aurons à le montrer, est davantage le produit de différentes circonstances contingentes qu’il ne se fonde sur une décision de principe ou sur des preuves empiriques. Quoi qu’il en soit, il en résulte, en pratique, que la société est identifiée avec sa structure et que la sociologie, par suite, est réduite à une analyse de cette dernière. Cette conception de la société ne laisse pas de place à la culture comme donnée autonome ; la sociologie de la culture, de ce fait, en est réduite à la portion congrue. ...
En 1943, Friedrich H. Tenbruck (1914-1994) obtient sa thèse de philosophe à l’Université de Marburg. Dans les années 1950, il se tourne vers la sociologie, devient entre autres pour quelques mois l’assistant de Max Horkheimer à l’Université de Francfort-sur-le-Main. Puis il occupe pendant cinq ans un poste de professeur assistant à Geneva/New York. Après son retour, en 1962, il est habilité à la direction de recherches avec un travail sur histoire et société en sociologie et sciences sociales à Fribourg, puis occupe à partir de 1963 la chaire de sociologie à l’Université de Francfort-sur-le-Main. En 1967, il devient professeur à l’Université de Tübingen. ...
Le xviiie est le siècle de la révolution constitutionnelle moderne. Les droits de l’homme et du citoyen y furent proclamés, et le droit ancré dans la démocratie. Les choses ont commencé dans quelques États d’Amérique, leur unification a suivi, mais l’événement à proprement parler dramatique, qui allait faire de la révolution constitutionnelle un événement irréversible, fut la Révolution française de 1789. Revendiquer des constitutions fut l’élément dominant du xixe siècle, tenir la promesse de réaliser les droits de l’homme et la démocratie celui du xxe siècle. L’arc se tend sans peine de 1789 à 1989, et même après, il n’y a pas d’issue visible, pas d’alternative en vue. Même le vent froid de la globalisation n’a pas fait pâlir les espoirs utopiques orientés vers la démocratie et les droits de l’homme. ...