Der Fall Bautzen: Eine Netzwerkanalyse zur Entstehung digitaler Öffentlichkeiten

In autumn 2016, refugees and followers of the political right were caught up in a violent conflict in the Saxon town of Bautzen. The paper analyses how this event was discussed in the digital public. On the basis of Bruno Latour’s relational sociology it carries out a quantitative network analysis in order to understand the structural dynamics of Twitter as a discursive arena. It appears that the political debate of the event develops from unconnected partial publics via antagonistic battles of opinion up to closed echo chambers. In the case of Bautzen, Twitter works like a megaphone: the technology doesn’t contribute to intersubjective understanding but facilitates the distribution of personal constructions of reality.     

Knowledge transfer in academia: an exploratory study on the Not-Invented-Here Syndrome

Today??s society is often claimed to be the ??knowledge society??. Knowledge transfer plays a pivotal role in the whole economic system, influencing innovation management in its very core. This study deals with one of the barriers that might hamper knowledge transfer: The Not-Invented-Here Syndrome (NIH). Until now, this phenomenon was mainly analyzed in an industrial context. However, as the universities play an increasingly important role in the knowledge society, the time seems ripe to analyze this barrier of knowledge transfer in an academic context. This paper examines the influence of the research discipline, the scientific output, the attitude towards basic science and the project experience on NIH by analyzing a sample of 166 Austrian professors from the fields of physics and engineering. While we cannot find a significant impact of the first two aspects, we can demonstrate that the latter two do have a significant influence on NIH. Summing up, this study supports results from the existing literature on NIH and sheds light on new aspects providing deeper insights into the comprehension of this complex phenomenon.     

Between deepening and widening: Role conflict in Germany's enlargement policy

Although Germany is the principal proponent of the EU's eastern enlargement, it has at times found it difficult to reconcile this aim with its desire to promote deeper EU integration. The use of role theory illustrates these conflicting priorities. West Germany's post‐war role in European politics was that of a promoter of deeper integration; the deepening of West European integration thus became part of the self‐conception of West German foreign policy‐making élites. The changed situation after 1990 placed new demands on German foreign policy makers. West Germany's traditional self‐conception as an integration deepener conflicted with the desire on behalf of unified Germany to press for EU enlargement. However, although German policy makers employed a variety of strategies in order to pursue their incongruous foreign‐policy aims, their principal concern remained with the deepening of western integration.     

Intracranial impalement with entrance site in the mandibular region: postmortem elucidation of an accidental fall on a wooden plant stick

A 78-year-old woman with a history of transient ischemic attacks was found in the doorway of her house in a somnolent and unresponsive condition. In the right mandibular region, a small skin wound was localized, which was surgically treated. Six days after admission to the hospital, an exploratory craniotomy was performed because of abnormal CT findings. Apart from tissue lesions and hemorrhages a small bone fragment was detected in the right cerebral cortex, which was removed. After 11 days in hospital, the patient died from failure of central regulatory functions. At the forensic autopsy, a 15 cm long wound track running upward from the skin wound in the right mandibular region through the bony skull base to the right parietal lobe of the brain was noted. Apparently, the surgically removed bone fragment had been displaced from the right middle cranial fossa. The site of the incident in the deceased's house was inspected again and a bamboo pole used to stabilize a potted plant standing on the floor was found and sent to the trace evidence laboratory. Analysis showed blood and tissue deposits from the victim. On the basis of all the findings and the circumstances of the case, a fatal impalement injury caused by an accidental fall could be assumed.     

Zur Theorie der Interessenvermittlung: Ein Netzwerkansatz dargestellt am Beispiel der Gemeinsamen Europäischen Agrarpolitik

Recent policy network studies contribute significantly to the theory of interest mediation. Despite this contribution policy network approaches still contain major theoretical deficiencies and a lack of empirical application can be observed. In this context a typology of systems of interest mediation is theoretically derived on the basis of new developments in the political exchange theory (Pappi/Henning 1998a). Analogously to the typology of economic markets, the typology corresponds to the social organization of political exchange in policy networks. Further, it is demonstrated that in contrast to conclusions found in the literature no general correspondence of specific types of interest mediation and policy-outcomes in terms of weak versus strong states, efficient versus inefficient economic policies and biased versus unbiased mediation of societies interests can be expected. In the empirical part of the paper the typology is applied to the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) using policy network data. In particular, a block model analysis is applied aggregating a set of multiple network relations among a multitude of public and private actors operating in the CAP to identify whether the overall social macro structure corresponds to national clientelism or supranational pluralism.     

Income Inequality and Demand for Redistribution: A Multilevel Analysis of European Public Opinion

This article employs multilevel modeling to assess the importance of income inequality on the demand for redistribution in a sample of 22 European countries. According to standard political economy models of redistribution – notably the Meltzer-Richard model – inequality and demand for redistribution should be positively linked. However, existing empirical research has disputed this claim. The main advantages of this article is that demand for redistribution is measured at the individual level, and that the relevant interaction between inequality and own income is considered. The main findings are that inequality is positively associated with demand for redistribution, and that the median income person is sensitive to the level of inequality. These findings are robust to the inclusion of a range of relevant control variables. The results are relevant in relation to the increase in inequalities in many European countries, and especially relevant to the current debate about the importance of directly observable differences in public preferences for social policy outcomes.     

One Namibia,one nation? The Caprivi as contested territory

The second of August 2009 marked the tenth anniversary of the failed secessionist attempt by the Caprivi Liberation Movement (CLM). It resulted in Namibia's sole state of emergency since independence. Ten years on, the high treason trial for what began as more than 130 accused drags on. Namibia thus has the longest serving political prisoners within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) without their having been convicted. This article draws attention to a widely neglected failure in Namibia's nation-building effort and thereby highlights a special challenge left by the colonial legacy to the independent government. It presents a summary of events leading to the secessionist attempt and a historical overview of issues around the so-called Caprivi Strip and explores the shortcomings in an unresolved relationship between the central state and the local perspectives and identities of people living at the margins. By doing so, it uses the case study of the Caprivi region as an example for the challenges of bringing about ‘One Namibia, One Nation’.