Die elementaren (Fremd-)Erfahrungen der Gabe

What holds society together? In his famous essay The Gift (1925) Marcel Mauss answers this question. However, as this paper shows, he does so not by formulating something like a theory of reciprocity as was often assumed after Claude Lévi-Strauss’ brought forward his structuralist interpretation of Mauss. Instead, the reason why gift practices create obligatory, cohesive social bonds lies in experiences of ?being-possessed“ and self-transcendence. This assumption is proven by means of a new and detailed reading of Mauss’ Essai sur le don as well as by the anti-utilitarian reception of Mauss’ work by the Collège de Sociologie (Georges Bataille, Roger Caillois, Michel Leiris). Overall, Mauss’ theory of the gift features important elements of a theory of posession and self-transcendence which focuses on the dimensions of experience and action. This is why one can discern a certain similarity between Mauss’ and the pragmatist theory of action. Only against that backdrop the social binding force of gift practices can be explained.     

Die Konstruktion der soziologischen Realität durch Forschungsrating

The article subjects the research rating of sociology, published in 2008 and carried out by an evaluation group on behalf of the German Science Council, to a secondary analysis. It is shown that the research rating constructs a reality of sociology which does justice neither to the variety of sociological knowledge production nor to its own claim of multidimensionality. Unwillingly, the peer reviewed article has imposed itself as the dominant criterion for assessing the research quality of research units against other types of publication and other activities such as externally funded research, knowledge transfer for practical problem-solving and knowledge diffusion in the public sphere. This preference also affected the assessment of entire research institutions with regard to their impact and efficiency as well as the devaluation of knowledge transfer and diffusion. In this way, sociology is limited to the type of professional sociology, while critical, public and policy-oriented sociology are displaced.     

Emile Durkheims Moralpolitik des Individualismus

Emile Durkheim was neither a political scientist nor a political sociologist. His oeuvre though exhibits a political dimension which is not easy to grasp. This article makes the attempt to reconstruct his project of a moral politics of individualism. How is it possible to institutionalize successfully what Durkheim calls moral individualism? Durkheim’s project rests upon two pillars: the scientific and scholarly pillar which aims at the establishment of sociology as a scientific discipline at universities. The political pillar which sets out to analyze the socio-structural, institutional, cultural conditions, forms and effects of individualism and the successful socialization of its values which allows to take seriously the rhetoric of the freedom and dignity of human beings in modernity. Durkheim’s project is confronted with the traditional images of politics and the social order to delineate the differentia specifica of his moral politics of individualism.     

Zwischen Herrschaftskontrolle und Verschwörungstheorie

Public and academic debates often lament a “crisis of trust” endangering democratic stability. In contrast, this article seeks to demonstrate the value of distrust in political relations, a certain form of which should be considered, such as trust, a prerequisite of democracies. To underline this thesis, this contribution discusses categories that clarify the relationality of the concept of distrust (its directedness and modalities) and that allow for a discussion of the relation of trust and distrust, which are introduced as an asymmetrical pair of opposites – with far-reaching consequences for the common discourse on trust. After presenting several historical and current arguments in favor of the value of political distrust, this article will end with a deeper look on those forms of distrust that should indeed be considered dysfunctional and dangerous for democratic orders.     

Rule growth and government effectiveness: why it takes the capacity to learn and coordinate to constrain rule growth

This paper asks whether strong bureaucracies can effectively constrain the continuously growing stock of rules in modern democracies through organizational coordination and learning. To answer this question, the paper analyzes the growth of rule stocks in the areas of environmental policy and social policy in 23 OECD countries over the period between 1976 and 2005. To do so, it develops a new measure of rule growth based on the content of laws and regulations rather than their length. The analysis highlights that effective bureaucracies are indeed better able to contain rule growth in these areas than weak bureaucracies. Since rules have to be implemented, countries suffering from bureaucratic capacity and quality constraints thus appear to be stuck in an implementation deficit trap. Appropriate implementation is not only inherently more challenging for countries with weak public administrations, but the body of rules to be implemented also tends to grow quicker in these countries.     

The deep marketisation of development in Bangladesh

This article introduces the concept of ‘deep marketisation’ as a relatively new, contemporary phase of neoliberal development policy in Bangladesh. By looking into the development strategy of the country’s energy sector, the article shows how an emphasis on marketisation through public-private partnerships (PPPs) and other strategies advances a market fundamentalist agenda to strengthen the private sector and establish a world market. By drawing on interviews with development practitioners from various development organisations in Bangladesh, the article further reveals how development conceptualisations are shaped by the strategy of deep marketisation, leading to the impoverishment of development by constraining its field of actions to measures based on the primacy of economic growth and private sector-led economic development, at the same time leading to a re-legitimisation of flawed neoliberal development policies that result in further inequality, poverty and environmental degradation.     

Administrative Styles in the OECD: Bureaucratic Policy-Making beyond Formal Rules

As we know from comparative public policy, bureaucracies contribute to a considerable degree to the contents and the ways of policy-making. One important driver of administrative policy-making are their specific “styles” or “cultures”. “Administrative styles” are understood here as the standard operating procedures and routines that characterize the behavior and activities of administrative bodies in initiating, drafting and implementing policy. In this article, we convey the concept of Administrative Styles to the level of International Organizations (IOs) and apply it to the Organization for Economic Development and Co-Operation (OECD). The article proceeds in three steps: First, the concept of administrative styles is introduced and refined. Drawing on expert interviews with OECD staff, we secondly show that consideration of OECD administrative styles significantly advances the literature’s understanding of the organization. Finally, we give an outlook on new research avenues and the relevance of our findings for the study of International Public Administrations (IPAs) more generally.     

The eve of de‐struction: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the feminist recreation of paradise

Wanton Eyes &; Chaste Desires: Female Sexuality in The Faerie Queene. By Sheila T. Cavanagh. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.

Colonial American Travel Narratives. Edited by Wendy Martin. London and New York: Penguin, 1994.

The Invention of Pornography: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity, 1500–1800. Edited by Lynn Hunt. New York: Zone Books, 1993.