When state‐level institutions cannot tell the whole story: An inquiry into municipal variations in quality of government

The lion's share of comparative research on corruption, good governance, and quality of government (QoG) has been cross‐country. However, a growing body of literature has begun to explore within‐country variations observed at the subnational level regarding corruption and social trust. The existence of such variations implies that state‐level institutions are not capable of telling the entire story and that quality of subnational‐level institutions might be important determinants of within‐country variations regarding, for instance, trust. This article delves into the Swedish case, an egalitarian country that scores high in international indices on lack of corruption and social trust; hence, a “least likely case” of subnational variations in both QoG and trust. Using two unique data sets, we find variations in both municipal QoG and social trust. In line with theory, we find that “local QoG” is associated with individual levels of community trust. This finding—in a low‐corrupt, high‐trust egalitarian society—strengthens the universality of the QoG‐perspective.     

Wife beating in South Africa: an imbalance theory of resources and power

This article develops an imbalance theory to explain physical violence against women in intimate relationships in South Africa. The theory proposes four typologies: dependence, compensation, submission, and transgression, through which imbalances in resource contribution and power distribution between spouses are hypothesized to contribute to violence. The dependence hypothesis suggests that economic dependence of the wife will lead to more violence. The compensation hypothesis argues that the husband will use force to compensate for his inability to live up to the male-provider norm. The submission hypothesis suggests that violence will increase due to the submission of women in male-dominated families. Finally, the transgression hypothesis argues that men in female-dominated families will use force to punish their wives for supposedly transgressing the gender norm of male dominance. Empirical evidence provided some support for the dependence, submission, and transgression hypotheses.     

Haftung des Nachbarn und des Bauunternehmers wegen Grundwasserentzuges

Begünstigte Personen bei einem Vertrag mit Schutzwirkung zu Gunsten Dritter sind Dritte, deren Kontakt mit der vertraglichen Leistung bei Abschluss des Vertrages vorhersehbar war und die der Vertragspartner entweder erkennbar durch Zuwendung der Hauptleistung begünstigte oder an denen er ein sichtbares eigenes Interesse hat oder denen er selbst offensichtlich rechtlich zur Fürsorge verpflichtet ist. Es entspricht st?ndiger Judikatur, dass die Haftung des ausführenden Werkunternehmers, also des faktischen Sch?digers, bei Emissionen (§ 364a ABGB) oder Grundstückssetzungen (§ 364b ABGB) neben die Haftung des "Mittelsmannes" (Grundstückseigentümers) tritt. Auch der Entzug von Grundwasser wird den genannten Normen des Nachbarrechts unterstellt.     

Morally Permissible Risk Imposition and Liability to Defensive Harm

Law and Philosophy - This paper examines whether an agent becomes liable to defensive harm by engaging in a morally permissible but foreseeably risk-imposing activity that subsequently threatens...     

Entsicherte Verhältnisse – (Un)Möglichkeiten fürsorglicher Praxis

Starting point of the article are the upheavals of employment relationships in modern, post-Fordist societies. These are characterised by the increasing relevance of efficiency in social lives because of blurring boundaries between paid work and private life or growing processes of precariousness through uncertainties of social regulation. The author argues that these processes are accompanied by shifting conflicts between paid work and private care responsibilities, which are still oriented at the Fordist gendered division of work and gender classification but should not be seen as a simple repetition of those. By presenting three case studies from an empirical research project on the retail trade in Brandenburg and Berlin, specific problems of the reconciliation between paid work and private care as well as ways to solve these are analysed. The article ends with a discussion whether (often forced) changes in life style open some (often precarious) capabilities for questioning the gendered division of labour which has been formerly taken for granted.     

Norms and niches: Voices in higher education

This article is based on observations that I made in 1998/99 in mother-tongue classes in a Danish university. I found that in the most frequently used methods of teaching either the teacher lectured, and accordingly the teacher was the key character, or students made presentations, in which case students were key characters. I understand this kind of teaching as a construction, and in my discussion I relate it to stage theory. In my view these lectures resemble a traditional dramatic play built on a conflict and on an interruptive form in the dialogues. But I have also observed another kind of teaching, an undramatic one in which the dialogues have a more associative form. These two forms of constructions are discussed in relation to the concepts "teaching" and "learning", and in relation to the categories "man"/"woman" and the code "masculine"/"feminine".     

Making Equality Diverse? Merged Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Measures in Norway

This article enquires into a shift in policy work related to equality and discrimination by examining to which extent gender equality has been complemented by a focus on ethnic discrimination in a report issued by the Norwegian Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud. The empirical analysis illustrates how the discrepancies between the report's intentions and its content reveal tough conditions for new categories of inequality in a country topping the international statistics on gender equality. The article argues that a substantial part of the report builds on political strategies the main aim of which has been to include women into public spheres and that such strategies do not correspond to intentions to include difference and diversity into the framework of the examined report.     

Picking up the Pieces: Cases Presented to the London Sheriffs' Courts between Michaelmas 1461 and Michaelmas 1462

Almost no records of proceedings in the medieval London sheriffs' courts are extant. I will demonstrate in this feasibility study of one shrieval year to what extent the reconstruction of the lost archives of the London sheriffs is possible and what can be learned from a systematic collection of all available evidence. By going beyond the Chancery corpus cum causa files our knowledge of cases heard in the sheriffs' courts is not only nearly doubled. We also get a more representative picture of proceedings. In addition, we are provided with detailed information about the sheriffs' courts and their personnel. Moreover, by following our litigants into other courts, we learn about their litigation tactics.     

Ethnic Conflict and State Building in Burma

Commentaries on contemporary Bangladesh give increasing attention to the role of religion, particularly its more “fundamentalist” forms, in public politics. Here we offer an alternative analysis that explores the significance of religion in people's everyday lives, concentrating on its articulation in community politics. We draw on an important local distinction between dharma understood as a moral foundation for life and dharma understood more narrowly as “religion.” Our empirical analysis suggests that it is the former sense of dharma which has greater relevance for the moral order of the community, and is used to evaluate and structure its social and political institutions, including those identified as “religious.” This perspective furnishes fresh insights into the dynamic relationship between religion, politics and social change in modern Bangladesh.