The South Caucasus after Kosovo: Renewed Independence Hopes?

The recognition of Kosovo did not go unnoticed in other aspiring states, but did it necessarily lead to renewed hopes for independence? Drawing on interviews with key actors, this essay analyses its effect in Nagorno-Karabakh. It finds that separatist demands are shaped by a complex interplay of external and internal forces, including international norms and practices. This explains the rather surprising finding that the Karabakh leaders in response to the recognitions of Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia gave up on recognition, at least temporarily, and instead started championing non-recognition as an attractive, sustainable status.     

Cognitive orientation and consumer behaviour

Modern advertising research place too much emphasis on product differentiation, disregarding the more “traditional” theories of consumer behaviour as bases for market segmentation. In the present study, the author argues that these two strategies can not be separated, by developing reliable scales for the measurement of consumer orientation and indicating how it affects product evaluation.     

Intersektionalit?t als Beitrag zu einer gesellschaftstheoretisch informierten Ungleichheitsforschung

The following article argues that an in depth analysis of different living conditions requires a theoretical and empirical perspective which does not only take into account class but also other categories of social inequality such as gender, race and body. Departing from the idea that these categories are mutually intertwined, the article suggests an intersectional multi-layered approach which allows to examine reciprocal effects between class, gender, race and body on three different levels: the level of social structures, the level of identity construction and the level of symbolic representation. Considering the theoretical relationship between the analysis of class and social inequality, the article also intends to understand and explain how these different levels of analysis are interrelated, how the linkage between social categories and levels of social reality have to be methodologically reflected and how they can be made accessible in and through empirical research.     

加强和改进新形势下基层团组织建设的对策与思考

当代青年在思想观念、价值取向、交流和聚集方式以及行为方式等方面都出现了明显的变化。只有加强和改进新形势下团的基层组织建设,才能做好新形势下党的青年群众工作、巩固党执政的青年群众基础。加强和改进新形势下基层团组织建设要从以下四个方面进行努力：创新工作理念,不断转变工作思路;重构团青关系,不断推进组织格局创新;推进体制机制创新,完善团的基层工作体系;注重方式方法创新,增强团的基层工作成效。     

Criminal Law, the Victim and Community: The Shades of ‘We’ and the Conceptual Involvement of Community in Contemporary Criminal Law Theory

The article addresses the argument, put forward by Lernestedt, that the proprietor of the ‘criminal-law conflict’ is the community (or the community and the offender) and discusses his proposed theoretical model of criminal law trial. I raise questions regarding the legitimacy of such a model, focusing on four counts. Firstly, I assert that his assumptions about the state the individual and the old/new versions of criminal law theory are society-dependent. Secondly, I address some problems with the concept of community and particularly with the proposed conception of community, which seems to mostly exclude the offender. Thirdly, I question the need for (or added value of) such a proposed conceptual involvement of the community as an actor in the criminal law process and theory. Lastly, some potential problems with the idea of the victim as a mere “representative of us” are mentioned, including the possibly undesirable demands and limitations on the victim’s agency and issues of respect for the victim’s individuality.