Von der Branche zum Markt �C Zur Regulierung ��berbetrieblicher Arbeitsbeziehungen nach dem organisierten Kapitalismus

Using evidence from the emerging German call centre sector, the article scrutinizes the transformation of industry-level labor relations since the 1990s. While the first call centres in the early 1990s were fully integrated in the collective agreements of their sectors of origin, today, a complex landscape of variegated employment standards exists. This process of fragmentation is the outcome of the step-wise implementation of a market-oriented control mode, which channels employer-union negotiations and constrains the possible outcomes of collective bargaining. In comparison to the period of post-war organized capitalism, the relationship between collective labor relations and the market has been turned upside down: In the past, the sector agreement was one of the core institutions of German labor relations and constituted an obligatory boundary to the competition of firms and their workforces. Currently, however, these agreements are increasingly turned into market-dependent variables even in the strongholds of unions ?C and therewith into ??commodities?? whose application is subject to firm-level economic calculations.     

Von Heterogenit?ten zu Ungleichheiten: Soziale Mechanismen als Erkl?rungsansatz der Genese sozialer Ungleichheiten

Various fields of research on social inequality, such as studies in education and social mobility, pursue sophisticated theoretical and methodological approaches and have produced a wealth of relevant empirical findings on specific aspects. Nonetheless, research on social inequalities is nowadays extremely fragmented along theoretical, conceptual and methodological lines across which there is little communication and cross-fertilization. There are no comprehensive accounts which would bundle the numerous empirical findings. Therefore, inequality research in the social sciences needs to be conceptually reoriented. Towards that end we have to take advantage of the significant theoretical and methodological advances in the different fields, such as education, labor markets, justice, migration and gender. Our programmatic contribution rests on two pillars. First, we go beyond the conflation of heterogeneities and inequalities and draw a clear conceptual distinction where both terms are always used in plural forms. Second, we identify and systematize social mechanisms. The concept of social mechanism helps to track the genesis of inequalities out of heterogeneities. In this way heterogeneities constitute the point of departure and inequalities the outcome of a social mechanismic approach. Social mechanisms can be fruitfully connected to approaches such as boundary making.     

Von Westfalen nach Kosmopolis? Die Problematik kultureller Identität in der europäischen Politik

?Westfälisch“ inspirierte Analysen des europäischen Integrationsprozesses behaupten, dass kulturelle Heterogenität die Bildung eines gemeinsamen politischen Willens der Europäer verhindert. Demgegenüber leitet sich für ?kosmopolitische Demokraten“ der normative Reiz der EU gerade aus der Notwendigkeit ab, eine politische Gemeinschaft neuen Typs zu konstituieren, die historisch erstmals tatsächlich rein ?zivile“ Wurzeln hat. In Abgrenzung zu diesen Positionen geht der folgende Beitrag davon aus, dass die Regulierung des kulturellen Pluralismus auf europäischer Ebene von den Widersprüchen gekennzeichnet ist, die der institutionellen Entwicklung der EU generell zugrunde liegen: Während das intergouvernementale Prinzip die Rolle der Nationalstaaten hervorhebt und dem Schutz der entsprechenden ?Nationalkulturen“ einen hohen Stellenwert beimisst, eröffnet der europäische Transnationalimus auf der anderen Seite jedoch auch Möglichkeiten für die Artikulation kultureller Identitäten unterhalb und jenseits der Nationalstaaten und trägt damit in gewissem Umfang zu einer ?enationalisierung“ politischer Kulturen bei. Am Beispiel der Sprachpolitik lässt sich diese Situation gut illustrieren. Im Schlussteil befasst sich der Beitrag mit dem Potenzial des Subsidiaritätsprinzips für ein ?reflexives Identitätsmanagement“ in der EU.     

Auf dem Weg zur Postwachstumsgesellschaft – Von der Resonanztheorie zur aleatorischen Demokratie

Current routines in democratic politics seem to foster delayed reactions to long-term ecological issues. The article systematically reconstructs Hartmut Rosa’s reflections on democracy, who combines in his theory of resonance a fundamental critique of late-modernity and its logic of growth with a general plea for a democratic transformation towards a post-growth society, and modifies them at three points. It emphasizes Rosa’s concept of the experience of self-efficacy in politics inspired by resonance-theory. From there on, his reflections are developed towards the idea of aleatoric democracy in two respects. First, the paper shows how practices of aleatoric democracy can fulfill the requirement of positive experiences of self-efficacy in politics. Second, it explains why institutions of aleatoric democracy can be suitable counterweights to the short-termism inherent to the current routine procedures of democratic governance.     

Australian Labor as a Federal Organisation: State Uniformity or Distinctiveness?

Is the Australian Labor Party (ALP) one party, or eight? Academic accounts of the ALP throughout its history have emphasised the importance of state-based policy-making and organisation as evidence that the “life of the party” occurs within state and territory branches. However, over the last three decades, changes to the national conference and constitution, the increasing prominence of national leaders and the professionalisation of campaigning practices have arguably created the conditions for a far more centralised organisation, raising the question of whether, in 2019, there is anything distinctive about the ALP state and territory branches beyond the jurisdictions in which they operate. In this article, we investigate the distinctiveness of state Labor branches in terms of their formal organisational diversity and the characteristics and attitudes of their supporters. Using data from an original survey of Australian party supporters conducted in 2016, as well as undertaking an analysis of formal party rules, we show that the ALP exhibits a high degree of organisational uniformity across its branches, and supporters of the party in all states and territories very closely resemble each other. We conclude that even though the party maintains a federal structure it is possible to study its supportership and formal structure as a national organisation.     

Management im Krankenhaus – Eine Fallstudie zur Bearbeitung der Innen- und Außenspannungen unter den Bedingungen des deutschen DRG-Systems

The article discusses the management of a municipal hospital from the standpoint of its currently typical internal and external tensions. Based on the results of a reconstructive study, the paper investigates how the associated perspectives of reflection are processed and related to one another by actors. This provides insight into the main problems experienced by a contemporary hospital. In addition to the theoretical background of management sociology, the discussion draws attention to what research needs, both methodologically and metatheoretically, to be able to be sensitive not only to the empirical co-presence of multiple institutional logics and perspectives, but also to permit the question as to how these logics and perspectives are related to each other in concrete practice.     

?Klassengesellschaftlichkeit�� nach dem Ende der Klassengesellschaft?

The new attention for (long time ??invisible??) social classes is related to an increase in the inequalities between rich and poor. Especially in Germany it seemed that (reinforced by sociological theories) the class structures were replaced by a ??middle-class society?? (Helmut Schelsky), by individualized social positions (Ulrich Beck) or by varying milieus. However, the class structures are also made invisible statistically. The structural role of the persisting dominant (even if often not experienced directly)??the distribution of the ownership of means of production??is manifested in the economic growth imperative, in the increasing concentration of capital, in the application of capitalist principles in other social contexts and in limited agency of non-economic fields, especially in politics. The existence of classes??contrary to popular perceptions??requires neither a collective class consciousness or class struggles, nor is it explained by the mere fact of social inequalities. A theoretical socio-economic analysis of the production and appropriation of values as a basic theory of social inequality is still missing.     

Disziplinäre Rituale – Bericht zum Jubiläumskongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie

Mitteilungen und Berichte

Disziplin?re Rituale – Bericht zum Jubil?umskongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie     

Markt oder Schließung? Zu den Ursachen der Steigerung der Einkommensungleichheit

This article examines which factors contribute towards the increase in the income inequality that can be observed in Germany since the 1990’s. While economists believe that the qualification of employees is becoming more and more important for the generation of income inequality, sociologists conceive social closure, implemented in institutional structures, class conflicts and mechanisms of discrimination, as responsible for rising inequality. Analyses of “Gehalts- und Lohnstrukturerhebung”-data show that closure mechanisms are especially important in West Germany, while qualification-related factors enhance inequality in East Germany.     

Martinique’s Accession to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States: A New Chapter in Caribbean Regionalism?

The admission of Martinique as an associate member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States in 2015 has been seen as an event of significance in the Caribbean region for a number of reasons. Among other things, it was the first example of a non-Anglophone country being accorded that status, and it was the first French territory allowed to join one of the core regional groupings of the Commonwealth Caribbean. This article argues that the deepening of Martinique’s relationship with its neighbours within a multilateral framework may offer new practical possibilities for regional integration.     

Agilität als Chance für einen neuen Anlauf zum demokratischen Unternehmen?

There has been a long-standing discussion since the 1980s about the question whether new production models harbor a potential for extended employee participation and involvement, in most cases with disillusioning results. This paper is concerned with so called “agile methods”, which play an important part in the area of knowledge work in the course of the digital transformation. On the basis of two case studies from software development and industrial R&D, the paper examines the concrete implementation of these methods and the employees’ perspective upon them and their consequences. The result is that agile methods present a potential for extended employee participation and involvement; however, the realization of this potential depends on the concrete way how the agile concept of “empowerment” is implemented.     

Technikfassaden in hoch-technisierten Unternehmen? Entkopplung bei der Einführung von E-Business in Unternehmen der Automobilzulieferindustrie

In the beginning of the internet age, companies were confronted with sometimes contradictory expectations regarding the use of e-business technologies. Using the concept of decoupling from new institutionalistic organization theory, the article examines under what conditions companies chose a decoupling strategy. In this way, the study aims to expand the empirical knowledge about decoupling processes and contribute to the new institutionalist theory debate on forms and conditions of strategic responses to institutional requirements. On the basis of data collected in 2002, influences on decoupling are analyzed by means of multivariate methods. The findings show that the choice of a decoupling strategy is influenced by external and internal factors as well as by the characteristics of the institutionalized model itself. They support the thesis that institutional constraints are actively processed by actors based on existing structures.     

Die Koordination von Raumplanung und Verkehrspolitik in urbanen Räumen der Schweiz: Determinanten der politischen Geographie,der politischen Kultur oder der institutionellen Struktur?

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit den exogenen Bestimmungsfaktoren der Koordination raumwirksamer Politiken anhand der vier Agglomerationen von Basel, Bern, Lausanne und Genf. Ein Vergleich von entsprechenden Outcomes zeigt markante Unterschiede zwischen den vier Städten. Nach einer kurzen Kritik der Binnenorientierung gängiger Governance-Ansätze werden die drei exogenen Erklärungsansätze der politischen Geographie, des Institutionalismus und der politischen Kultur in vier Thesen beschrieben. Deren Exploration weist die Wichtigkeit von Kontextvariablen bei der Untersuchung von Ressourcen-Regimen aus. So ist eine Abhängigkeit der inhaltlichen Koordination von soziokulturellen, geographischen und historischen Faktoren auszumachen. Dagegen ist der Zusammenhang mit der Einschätzung der institutionalisierten Koordination nicht eindeutig, was die Vermutung nahelegt, dass im Falle der prozeduralen Koordination die endogenen Faktoren stärkere Erklärungskraft besitzen und die Regime Analysis mithin das geeignetere Mittel zu ihrer Untersuchung darstellt.     

Der Europ?ische Gerichtshof als Motor der Integration: Eine akteursbezogene Erkl?rung

For nearly five decades, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has developed a decisively pro-European case law and has become the ??engine of integration??. Institutional explanations shed light on the Court??s room for manoevre. They have to be complemented by actor-centered explanations that shed light on the judges?? motives of action. The explanation offered by the following paper is unfolded in two steps. In the first one, the article describes idiosyncrasies of the European law discourse that already shaped the judges before they were appointed. The analysis of the idiosyncrasies corresponds to a scepticism towards the idea of national sovereignty, a belief in the necessity of creative and idealist, law-augmenting judges and a dominance of output-oriented legitimization strategies. In a second step, the article shows that in the sociological sense the ECJ judges constitute a group. While the individual judges share an understanding of the aims and functions of European law, the group develops its own identity and grants status to those who perform successful actions with respect to the common integration agenda. This explanation is more realistic than ??rational choice?? explanations which point to the direct and personal benefits that judges derive from their pro-European case law.     

Gramsci,Counter-hegemony and Labour Union–Civil Society Organisation Coalitions in Malaysia

The dramatic outcome of the Malaysian 2008 elections has been interpreted within a Gramscian framework. It has, for example, been suggested that the hegemony created by the Malaysian ruling class is being contested, leading to a weakening of its legitimacy, and that an active class of organic intellectuals is emerging and helping to develop potential bases for counter-hegemonic participation. We employ an alternative Gramscian approach, restoring relevant aspects of Gramsci's theories to the centre of analysis. We, therefore, focus on mutual perceptions in coalitions between civil society organisations and trade unions as a key indicator of the strength of counter-hegemonic forces. We conclude that accounts that claim that “counter-hegemony” is developing are questionable at best. Fundamental differences exist between these central institutional actors which sit uneasily with claims that the construction of counter-hegemony is under way.