Tools for co‐operation with the international community

Looking at processes of engagement between international actors in the Industrialised North, notably the G8 and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).     

Recent books on the East

The following paper was discovered by Laurence Evans, Professor of History at the State University of New York at Binghamton, during the course of research in the files of the Department of State (to which Department the paper had been made available in 1918 for use as background information by the American Delegation at the Peace Conference), and Professor Evans has kindly communicated it to the Society. Its contents are not included in the book on Mecca which Snouk published in German, and it is not among the scattered articles in Verspreide Geschriften (1923–27). That collection does, however, include another essay about Ahmad Dahlan, in Dutch, entitled “Een rector der Mekkaansche universiteit”, originally contributed to a learned journal and reprinted in vol. 111, pp. 65–122. [We are printing this paper in good faith believing it to be previously unpublished. Ed.]     

Reproduktion als Praxis

The interdependency of ?production“ and ?reproduction“ has increasingly attracted the attention of the scientific community and the media. Biological and social reproductions are topics of family and gender studies: In family research reproduction is analysed as a basic function of the family; in gender research reproduction is mainly studied as a factor that effects social inequality. While sociological research was for a long-time concentrated on the ?conciliation“ of ?work“ and ?(family) life“, nowadays a change of perspective is necessary: How can employees maintain their psychological and physical strength when the work sphere becomes more and more flexible? How can they safeguard their social relationships? The article connects the categories ?work-strength –life-strength “ as a perspective that considers the structural and contradictory relationship of ?work“ and ?life“. With the concept of ?doing reproduction“, individual efforts are brought in the centre of research. Hereby is shown that the functionality of reproduction as a social sphere is fundamentally based on reproduction as an individual practice.     

Reformfähigkeit messen? Konzeptionelle Überlegungen zu einem Reformfähigkeitsindex für OECD-Staaten

In the present article, I propose to determine reform capacity based upon policy outcomes and the governing performance of executives. Both components shall be measured through expert assessments and quantitative data for the 30 OECD member states in order to construct an index of reform capacity. The concepts underpinning the index are explained and compared with existing approaches of performance and governance measurement. Criteria are developed to assess the strategic capacity of governments and the accountability-generating functions of political actors surrounding the government. The envisaged measurement and aggregation methods are described and the potential of the proposed approach is discussed.