Richard Rorty und die Reanimation des Pragmatismus im „Zeitalter der Komposition“

In recent years, pragmatism is experiencing a renaissance. Classic authors like George Herbert Mead, William James or John Dewey are entering sociological discussions and neopragmatistic approaches as the actor-network theory or the sociology of conventions are gaining influence. But under what social circumstances is the reanimation of pragmatism happening and what analytical use do pragmatistic tools have? In order to answer this research question the article develops a general model of social order that distinguishes between the states of collision, composition, institution and deconstruction. On this basis, a social diagnosis is articulated, making the currency of the pragmatistic vocabulary understandable. It appears that pragmatism is focused on experimental, creative and hybrid processes of becoming that are typical for the current age of composition. With the help of the often neglected Richard Rorty, the added value of a pragmatistically-informed sociology is shown in an exemplary manner. Therefore, Rorty is introduced as an integrating figure of pragmatistic ideas, from which important impulses for a Darwinian, relational, symmetrical and ironically-engaged sociology could exert.     

Zwischen Ökonomie und Politik. Zur diskursiven Konstruktion des Begriffs „Sozialmodell“ im Sarkozy-Wahlkampf 2005–2007

In “general economic-political discourses”, actors from the spheres of politics, economics and mass media struggle over the valid perception of the relations between the economy, politics, and society as a whole. The discourse on the “modèle sociale français“ provides a case in point: A concept that had been associated for many years with the economic success of the fifth republic, but in the 2000s became a central element of a crisis-rhetoric that helped to pave the way for the reform agenda of Nicolas Sarkozy. Building on this example, the article analyzes how economic-political discourses are established and transformed. On the one side, it reflects upon the importance of discourse research for economic sociology in general; on the other, it shows how general economic-political discourses help to legitimize certain positions in public debates, and how they depict specific scientific problems as relevant for society. Mediators of public and scientific debates benefit from this, just as political and economic actors do as they generate public approval for their corresponding reform-agendas.     

Kongress der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (SGS) an der Universität Zürich vom 1. bis 3. Oktober 2003 zum Thema „Triumph und Elend des Neoliberalismus“

Mitteilungen und Berichte

Kongress der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (SGS) an der Universit?t Zürich vom 1. bis 3. Oktober 2003 zum Thema „Triumph und Elend des Neoliberalismus“     

Zwischen „der Eurokratie“ und „den Leuten“: Zum Problem der professionellen Vermittlung von Europapolitik

EU politics is strongly shaped by the activities of experts and professional actors with special knowledge of EU-specific rules, standards, semantics and institutional procedures. These EU professionals serve as important transmitters and brokers of European affairs in national contexts. They bundle and represent interests, provide information on EU policy proposals or support local and national organizations in their attempts of obtaining EU funding. In this way, these specialized actors have an important intermediary position between the “Eurocracy” and national citizenries as well as local addressees of EU policymaking. Building on classical and contemporary sociological discussions on the problem of professionalization in politics and on interview data the article analyzes the activities of these actors and scrutinizes what particular practices and strategies of interest mediation and policy transfer look like. What types of transmission and mediation can be found? Can EU professionals really be regarded as mediators and transmitters between European and local interests, or should they rather be seen as a relatively closed and self-referential group of specialists using their special competences mainly for their own sake and for positioning themselves within closed expert circles? Which difficulties and limitations can be seen with regard to practices and strategies of mediation in contemporary EU affairs?     

„Die Macht des Heiligen“ als eine Alternative zur Entzauberung? Zu Hans Joas’ Religionstheorie

Berliner Journal für Soziologie - Um die Säkularisierungsthese hat sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten eine hitzige und kontroverse Debatte entwickelt. Anschließend daran hat Hans Joas...     

Die Vereinigung der Freunde der Tongji-Universitt e.V.und die Tongji-Universitt

In der vorliegenden Arbeit dokumentiert der Geschftsführer der Vereinigung der Freunde der Tongji-Universitt e.V.den Entstehungs-und Entwicklungsprozess der Vereinigung sowie ihren Beitrag zur Tongji-Universitt und zum Bildungs-und Kulturaustausch zwischen China und Deutschland.     

Die Lassersche Wahlrechtsreform. Der Kampf um die Einführung der Volkswahl des cisleithanischen Abgeordnetenhauses 1871–1873

SUMMARY

After the creation of the Dual Monarchy of Austro-Hungary in 1867, the 17 kingdoms and provinces with a population of over 20 million gathered in the (Cisleithanian) Austrian half comprised a multitude of nationalities. Since 1861 they had been represented in the imperial council (Reichsrat) consisting of an aristocratic upper house and a lower house of representatives from the 17 local diets. The local diets were a modified form of Estates, with a first house of large landlords, a second house elected by those entitled to vote in urban elections, in some cases a third house for trade and craft bodies, and another house for rural communities. Many of these elections were also indirect and based on a property qualification, and bishops and others sat by right in the local diets. Deputies from the local diets to the imperial council were chosen in a variety of ways. Despite previous demands for direct elections, this remained only to a limited extent a constitutional monarchy. The non-German nationalities had an overall majority in the population but were severely underrepresented in the House of Deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus) and divided among themselves. The self-imposed absence of several of them from its sessions gave force to the demands for electoral reform and put pressure on the Emperor to grant concessions. Complex negotiations with the parties and changes of government led to the ministry in 1871 of Adolph Fürst Auersperg, who appointed Joseph Freiherr Lasser von Zollheim as Interior Minister with the task of completing the electoral reform. Thomas Olechowski proposes in this article that the measures eventually introduced in 1873, hitherto ‘nameless’, be named the Lasser Electoral Reform, on the analogy of later reforms named in the literature after their progenitors. Lasser resisted pressure for a more open constitution from the liberals who held an effective majority in the newly elected House of Deputies, but not the required two-thirds for constitutional change. It also proved difficult to satisfy the national elements in the Empire, especially Czechs and Poles, and hard-fought local elections accompanied the stages in introducing reform. Among many detailed plans publicly aired was one by Eduard Herbst which would have reduced the electoral advantage of the richest elements, but Lasser was able to recruit Herbst to help formulate his own more conservative proposals. Lasser's concern was to take the election of deputies away from the local diets, not to broaden the franchise nor alter the existing balance of power between countries and classes, and the Emperor too wanted minimal reform. Where popular unrest broke out, military force soon suppressed it. The withdrawal of a large Galician contingent from the debate in the House of Deputies failed to stop the legislation. The end result was only a small change in the balance between the provinces and a modest reduction in the representation of large landlords. Only 6 per cent of the population received the vote, with that of a large landlord counting 140 times that of a member of a rural community. Even so, the now directly elected imperial council proved less compliant than its predecessor, and new electoral reforms were to broaden the franchise in 1882, 1895 and 1907.     

Die ostasiatische Moderne – eine Moderne „eigener“ Art?

The article casts doubt on the claim of Eisenstadt and other culturalists that East Asia constitutes a distinct modernity, one that differs fundamentally from Western modernity. Following a brief reconstruction of key modernization theoretical premises against which this claim is directed, it compares the five largest Western countries with the currently most advanced exemplars of East Asian modernity. The findings show that the two regions are remarkably similar in virtually all respects that matter from a modernization theoretical viewpoint. The article then goes on to assess the relevance of the evidence held against modernization theory by Eisenstadt and his followers. As it turns out, this evidence presents no challenge to modernization theory whatsoever. Moreover, its epistemological status is dubious given that multiple modernists lack a sufficiently worked-out theory of modernity in whose light the social theoretic significance of empirical observations could be assessed. Drawing upon the differentiation theoretical tradition, an alternative approach is outlined that addresses multiple modernists’ substantive concerns without falling into the trap of essentializing diversity. However, utilizing this approach for the comparison between Western and East Asian modernity subverts the very idea of a uniform West against which the notion of a distinctly East Asian modernity is posited.     

Globalisierung und die Nachfrage nach sozialer Sicherheit. Eine kritische Analyse des „domestic demand“-Ansatzes

Comparative research on the impact of globalization and international competition underlined that public policies were strikingly stable, contrary to the expected cutbacks in social expenditures. This resilience of the welfare state is explained by voters’ demands for social protection which can be related to new uncertainties connected to economic openness. The domestic demand approach conceives the welfare state as a means to compensate for the employment risks resulting from a globalized economy, and as a means to foster the acceptance of an open economy. This paper analyzes the link between globalization, insecurity and domestic demand. It considers the class specific effects of economic openness. The domestic demand approach is subjected to a test based on data from the International Social Survey Programme (waves 1990, 1996 and 2006) and additional country-level features. The results show that unemployment makes citizen’s preferences for social security expand, while economic openness has a negative effect: the more open the economy of a country the lower social security demand of citizens. Contrary to the expectations, the more people perceive job security to be threatened the lower is support for social security. Obviously, citizens on the average are skeptical against rising unemployment protection since they fear higher burdens by social expenditures without directly benefitting from them. Those still employed do not vote for more expenditure. However, the lowest social class increasingly demands social security in the context of open economies. Over time, social security demand gets more mired at the low end of the social spectrum. The hypothesis that economic openness spreads economic risks and feelings of insecurity over broad social strata is rejected. The results support the debate on dualization processes.     

Bemerkungen zur reform des Reichsjustizwesens in der Zweiten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts

Summary

Voltaire and the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688

From the start of his career Voltaire was pro‐English. Britain was for him the country of a ‘sage liberté’ which was the beneficial result of the civil wars. His contacts with the British community in Paris and the exiled Lord Bolingbroke help explain why he sought refuge in London after his imprisonment and his subsequent passion for English institutions. Voltaire's view of institutions was not always very accurate; he only saw the positive side and, intentionally or not, concealed a great deal. The religious foundation of the English character escaped him, as did the agrarian problems. For him the regime of 1689 constituted a constitutional ideal; the balance it achieved was a perfection to whose defects he was blind.

Voltaire had always been split between his admiration for the English system and his respect for the ‘enlightened’ work of Frederick the Great and Catherine Il. He inclined, especially towards the end of his life, towards England. He was one of the originators of a current, still very much alive in France, of an anglophilia of the left’. But the undeniable weakness in Voltaire's thought was his failure ever to ask how far the representative government he so admired was capable of being practised by the French.     

„Spielarten des Kapitalismus“ und institutionelle Komplementaritäten in der Makroökonomie — Eine empirische Analyse

Der Beitrag geht der Frage nach, wie national unterschiedliche politökonomische Institutionen die Leistungskraft entwickelter Marktwirtschaften beeinflussen und ob institutionelle Komplementaritäten in der Makroökonomie existieren. Der Ansatz der ?Spielarten des Kapitalismus“ behauptet, dass es diese Komplementaritäten gibt und sich die Länder entsprechend dem in den ökonomischen Sphären vorherrschenden Modus der Koordination in klare Gruppen unterscheiden lassen. In dem Artikel werden die Kernaussagen des Ansatzes einer Reihe von empirischen Tests unterzogen, die auf einer zusammenfassenden Analyse einer Reihe von Fallbeispielen beruht, Die empirischen Ergebnisse bestätigen die Annahmen in überzeugender Weise. Dieliberalen undkoordinierten Marktwirtschaften variieren systematisch entsprechend dem relativen Verhältnis zwischen marktförmiger und strategischer Koordination. Institutionelle Komplementaritäten finden sich in beiden Typen, und sie bringen gesamtwirtschaftliche Leistungszuwächse hervor. Abschließend werden die Muster des institutionellen Wandels in den entwickelten politischen Ökonomien analysiert und einige politische Implikationen der Befunde diskutiert.     

31. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie vom 7. bis 11. Oktober 2002 an der Universität Leipzig

Mitteilungen und Berichte

     

Logiken urbaner Polarisierung. Der Blick „von unten“

In allen Großstädten der westlichen Industriestaaten zeichnet sich die Etablierung eines neuen Regimes städtischer Marginalisierung ab. Im Unterschied zu den Armutsphänomenen des fordistischen Zeitalters handelt es sich dabei nicht um eine konjunkturabhängige, zyklische Erscheinung, sondern um eine langfristige und persistente Krise. Die folgende Analyse befasst sich mit den Gründen dieser ?neuen Armut“ in den Metropolen und versucht eine Systematisierung der zugrunde liegenden wirtschaftlichen, politischen und sozialen Ursachen. Der Vergleich zwischen den USA und den westeuropäischen Ländern zeigt darüber hinaus, dass die prominenten Theorien einer ?Amerikanisierung“ Europas wie auch das lamentierte Ende des Nationalstaates einer empirischen Grundlage entbehren.