Max Weber, Norbert Elias und Michel Foucault über Macht und Subjektivierung

Innerhalb der deutschen Soziologie wurde die Arbeit Michel Foucaults bisher eher verhalten rezipiert. Immer wieder ist in der Auseinandersetzung mit seinen Texten auf zentrale theoretische Defizite und begriffliche Verengungen der Machtanalytik hingewiesen worden. Im Rahmen eines Theorievergleichs mit Max Webers Herrschaftssoziologie auf der einen und der Theorie der Zivilisation von Norbert Elias auf der anderen Seite sollen in diesem Beitrag die analytischen Stärken der ?Genealogie der Macht“ herausgearbeitet werden. Dabei wird die These vertreten, dass sich schwer wiegende Probleme der beiden Theorieansätze durch den Rekurs auf das Foucaultsche Konzept der Gouvernementalität überwinden lassen. Die Problematik der Gouvernementalität erschließt — so die weiter gehende Annahme — der soziologischen Machtforschung eine Reihe innovativer Forschungsperspektiven und öffnet sie für neue Fragestellungen.     

Wie und wie stark beeinflussen moralische Argumente wirtschaftliches Handeln?

While the corporate social responsibility literature tends to argue that companies should behave socially responsibly, it neglects the empirical question under which conditions they do so. This article fills this research gap by showing under which conditions moral arguments influence companies. The paper uses a representative company survey to show that companies name moral arguments as a strong deterrent to the offshoring of production to low cost countries. In addition, companies are less likely to offshore production when they mention moral scruples against doing so. The article uses a case study to process-trace the mechanisms, by which moral arguments exert this influence. First, it shows how moral arguments influence what is defined as economically rational under uncertainty, thereby influencing economic strategies. Secondly, the article shows how moral arguments influence companies by destroying their social capital, and thirdly, it shows how moral arguments can destroy public legitimacy, again influencing economic behavior. The article proposes these three mechanisms as a general framework through which one can understand the influence of moral arguments on companies.     

Mehr Zuwanderer,mehr Fremdenangst? Ein Überblick über den Forschungsstand und ein Erklärungsversuch aktueller Entwicklungen in Deutschland

The share of residents with foreign roots in Germany will rise considerably in the next years. A crucial societal question will certainly be whether natives will get used to the increasing level of ethnic diversity or whether anti-immigrant threat perceptions will rise. There is an obvious empirical paradox in the context of this question: On the one hand, high immigration usually coincides with more skeptical views towards immigration and greater success for right-wing political parties. On the other hand, these reactions are often over-represented in regions where the actual share of migrants is rather low. This paper presents an overview of theories and evidence on this apparent contradiction. A crucial factor which can at least partially reconcile these ambivalent findings is the geographic level of analysis: If the national share of migrants increases, media coverage of the topic is greater and fears among the population accordingly rise in most cases. On the level of regions, however, effects of contact and habituation are strongest, such that people living in high-immigrant regions tend to perceive immigration in a more positive way. On the level of city districts, the relationship seemingly turns negative again. Here, the more tolerant citizens live in residential areas with a low to moderate share of migrants, while natives living in districts with many foreigners tend to move away or vote for far-right parties, as the success of the “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) in the 2016 state elections suggests. A number of conclusions can be drawn with regard to current developments in Germany.     

An den Grenzen der Demokratie – Citizenship und Flucht

Current diagnoses of the crisis of democracy mostly refer to a specific type of mass democracy as it was characteristic of the second half of the 20th century. Its political space is the nation state. The presence of refugees in receiving countries now raises the basic democratic question: How can people participate in political decisions that determine their own living conditions? Refugees, lacking citizenship status, hardly have any formal political influence. The article discusses the relationship between democracy, citizenship, and forced migration in three steps. First, it presents the core arguments of the current debates on the crisis of democracy and outlines the main characteristics of democratic welfare capitalism. Thereupon, it analyzes current transformations of citizenship with regard to forced migration. It will be shown that citizenship is differentiated in the course of transnationalization and economization processes. Finally, the paper shows that potentials for democratization become visible when refugees come into view as “activist citizens” who politicize and scandalize the discrepancies between moral and legal norms as well as the limitations of democracy.     

Symbolische Grenzziehungen und nationale Herkunft. Eine explorative Studie über Distinktionsprozesse an einer multinationalen Schule in Brüssel

Despite processes of globalization and Europeanization, countries continue to differ not only in terms of their economic resources and political power, but also in terms of their reputation or “symbolic capital”. Drawing on the research literature on symbolic boundaries, the paper investigates to what extent the national origin of students at a multinational school shapes symbolic boundaries between them. The analysis is based on qualitative group interviews with students of a European School in Brussels, a uniquely Europeanized institution with the aim of educating the future citizens of Europe. It is shown that students draw symbolic boundaries in two steps. First, students classify their schoolmates in terms of categories specific to youth culture, including: (a) a specific youth lifestyle, (b) effortless academic achievement, (c) cosmopolitan values and (d) belonging to a dominant language group. In a second step, these primary categories are attributed to different national groups. As a consequence, a status hierarchy between countries emerges, primarily between Northwest-European and Eastern European countries. The results of this study point to the ongoing effects of national symbolic capital for processes of status differentiation, even within highly Europeanized contexts.     

Grundlegende Probleme des empirischen Kulturvergleichs. Ein problemorientierter Überblick über aktuelle Diskussionen

This article explicates and discusses nomothetic and idiographic approaches in empirical cross-cultural research. Both approaches are confronted with at least three common problems: the problem of a clear and practical useful classification of the concept “culture”, the problem of the comparability of cultures including the old discussion about the incommensurability of phenomenon from different cultures and the problem of nostrification – the question if and how one could explain and understand different cultures avoiding a simple transfer of own concepts. The different and sometimes similar proposals for solutions of these problems in the different approaches are presented.     

Der Transfer zwischen den Studentenbewegungen von 1968 und die Entstehung einer transnationalen Gegen?ffentlichkeit

Analysiert werden die Ver?nderungen des Kommunikationsraumes, der Diskursformen und Partizipationschancen, welche die Studentenbewegungen von 1968 herbeigeführt haben. Ausgehend vom Internationalen Vietnam-Kongress, der in Berlin am 17. und 18. Februar 1968 stattgefunden hat, wird der Transfer von Ideen und Aktionsformen zwischen den Bewegungen vor und nach dem Kongress skizziert und die Handlungsdynamik „kollektiver Sinnstrukturen“ akzentuiert, die nicht an die „direct relational“ oder „non-relational channels“ der Kommunikation zwischen Bewegungen geknüpft sind. Geprüft wird, ob und wie eine transnationale „Gegen?ffentlichkeit“ unter den Bedingungen der „Medien?ffentlichkeit“ entstehen und wirksam werden konnte.     

Zwischen institutioneller Kontinuität und De-Institutionalisierung – Industrielle Dienstleistungen als Parallelwelt überbetrieblicher Arbeitsbeziehungen

This paper focuses on the paradox that the legal foundations of the German collective wage bargaining system have remained stable over the last four decades even though there has been simultaneously a significant decrease in the actual coverage of industry-wide collective agreements. Based on insights from historical institutionalism it is hypothesized that a mismatch between industry-based wage-setting and the inter-firm network as the unit of value creation causes an institutional fragmentation into segregated worlds of wage-setting. In these segregated worlds, employees experience changing wage-differentials according to their contract status although they fulfill similar job tasks within the same work context. Empirically, the paper uses industry-related services as prototypical example to illustrate this sort of institutional fragmentation. A comparison with other types of institutional change shows that fragmentation is characterized by continuous rule ambiguity and rule competition, which undermines the reliability of collective wage-setting while leaving the institutional setting formally untouched.     

Finanzmarktwächter: Über die Synchronisation von Politik und Ökonomie

From the perspective of an actor-centered theory of differentiation, the article explores how political decisions and developments in a financialized economy are temporally coordinated. For the purpose of answering this research question, the paper develops a four-dimensional heuristic model capable of capturing societal differences regarding time. By sketching the concept of a “hybrid organization”, it models an arena in which such differences may be bridged. Assuming this theoretical perspective, the paper examines the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) in order to scrutinize how and to which extent the targeted synchronization of politics and finance is achieved. This qualitative organizational study shows that the BaFin accomplishes its function only to a limited degree: Global flows of capital and bureaucratic provisions erode its leverage as a supervisor of the financial market, and the accelerated dissemination of financial derivatives make it look like a lethargic authority. Thus, from a sociological point of view further structural alterations at the interface of the political and economic sphere are required in order to lower the risk of economic crises and post-democratic developments.     

Analysen zur Entstehung der Massenparteien und zu ihrem Einfluß auf das Parlament: Ostrogorski,Michels, Weber

SUMMARY

The object of this article is the analysis of Ostrogorski's, Michels' and Weber's statements on the connections between parties and Parliament. These three authors are really known as the founders of the sociology of parties, but their consideration of the relations between parties and Parliament in the time of mass-society represents an interesting component of their inquiry. Firstly, their remarks are significant in the historical respect, because they take into account (although in different ways) the problematical function of mediation taken on by the parties in political life; secondly, they arouse interest from the political point of view, because they look for alternative solutions and emendations. Their suggestions concern both the internal organization of the party, how to obtain more flexibility in the framework and more democracy and discussion on the decision-making level, and the integration of the party-system in a general political system of balance of powers, which should include at the same time a more consistent development of direct and participative democracy.     

Wie wird bewertbar, ob ein Staat zu viele Schulden hat? Finanzexperten und ihr Bewertungswissen in der griechischen Schuldenkrise

This paper develops a sociology of knowledge of sovereign debt crises by studying expert cultures in the financial services industry. It is argued that the concept of calculative framing can capture the epistemic practices of analysts as well as the way their products are used by market participants and other stakeholders. The notion of calculative framing is empirically and conceptually extended: The article shows how sovereign debt is framed as a financial value and how calculative framing evolves in situations of crises. The central case is the evaluation of Greece government debt by analysts of international banks in the period from early 2010 until mid 2011. This case shows how crises frames are developed and how they consolidate the evaluation of sovereign default. In this crisis period, analysts inscribe their evaluations into contexts of official crisis management.     

Senkt New Public Management die Verwaltungsausgaben in den Schweizer Kantonen? Eine empirische Analyse über zwei Dekaden

In light of the growing public spending in many regions of the world, this study scrutinizes relevant determinants of core public administration expenditure at the cantonal level in Switzerland, focusing particularly on New Public Management (NPM) reforms. The empirical study comprises all 26 cantons in the period from 1993 through 2014 and uses both cross‐sectional and longitudinal analytical methods. In addition to NPM, we control for various variables related to political parties, institutions, socioeconomics and culture. The results show no clear relationship between NPM reforms and expenditure, although such reforms were often intended to cut costs. Our explanation for this finding is that NPM as a concept is rather inconsistent. Various control variables are either positively or negatively related with expenditure. All in all, our findings suggest that public expenditure is still mostly determined by politics and can only be influenced by administrative reforms within certain narrow limits.     

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.     

Über Sklaverei,Rassismus und die Segmentierung der Gesellschaft. Tocquevilles Analyse sozialer Ausgrenzung in der Demokratie

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville gives an explanation why the liberation of slaves was promoted in the northern states of the US in the Jackson era and why, nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of the blacks still remained excluded from society. He thoroughly describes the different forms of social distinction that enabled the Whites to maintain social hierarchies, even if the legal barriers fall. Not only privileges, educational differences and lifestyles create social hierarchies, but also language, taste and an awareness of tradition. Tocqueville clarifies these manners of boundary making on a concrete example: the attitude of the white Americans towards labor. The paper presents Tocqueville’s differentiated picture of those hidden social mechanisms that preserved and even intensified the existing social differences.     

Geschlecht, Ethnie, Klasse im Kapitalismus – über die Verschr?nkung sozialer Verh?ltnisse und hegemonialer Deutungen im gesellschaftlichen Reproduktionsprozess

This article asks how far social differentiation referring to gender and ethnicity as well as related inequalities are not only a result of capitalist economy but a structural feature of capitalism. The intersection of social relations and hegemonic constructions are the subject of analysis. Arguments and insights of regulation theory, feminist theory and men??s studies are discussed and continued. It is shown how andro- and eurocentric orientations were an essential feature of capitalism from its origin, and how they determined its historic specific societal structures, societal orders and dynamics. This is discussed focusing on the functional differentiation and the division of labour, inter- and intra-societal relations and hegemonic constructions, and referring to globalization and gender relations. It appears that historically capitalist formation inevitably must be seen as based on gendered and ethnic domination, but that there are also contingencies beside relations of subordination. New arrangements of domination as well as tendencies towards equity emerge. In conclusion, an epistemological outlook opens up for an analytical view in favor of perspectives which transcend the critical reflection on the western capitalist standpoint.