A brief overview of the development of women's studies in the UK

This paper provides a brief overview of Women's Studies (WS) in the UK, drawing attention to its greatest expansion in adult education and, in general, non-degree granting areas of education. It further argues that this impressive diversity, at present, contributes to the invisibility of WS in the UK but that, potentially, the foundation of a National Women's Studies Association could make both the women who do WS, and WS itself, visible and powerful.     

The right of withdrawal in the treaty of Lisbon: a game theoretic reflection on different decision processes in the EU

The ways of decision-making within the EU have significantly changed in the last decades: The rule of unanimity has been more and more substituted by majority voting in order to speed up decision-making processes in a Union of 27 heterogeneous member states. A third possibility is now offered by the Lisbon Treaty including a constitutional right of withdrawal. A member state encountering a loss in its benefits caused by a decision made by majority voting may now demand compensating transfers by using the right of withdrawal. It might threaten to leave the EU if the compensation is denied. Hence, does this mean that member states now have regained a negotiation power comparable to the right to veto? Using a game theoretic approach we investigate the amount of compensating transfers to be offered under majority decisions with exit option compared to decisions requiring unanimity.     

The situation and perceptions of female managers in German invested enterprises in China

The high esteem of German managers for the female Chinese staff in German–Chinese economic co-operations during a survey in Sino–German joint ventures in 1998 made us wonder in what ways female employees actually distinguish themselves from their male counterparts. Despite the high esteem, only very few women are working at the higher management levels. This article focuses on the situation of Chinese and German female managers in German invested enterprises in China and probes into the circumstances of their under-representation at the higher management levels by looking into individual and external factors posing as obstacles for career development. Renate Krieg is a research fellow with the University of Applied Science Bremen (Hochschule Bremen), and lecturer at the Technical University Dresden. From 1985 to 1988, she worked as a representative of the German Academic Exchange Service in Shanghai. Since 1989, she has undertaken various research projects on a free-lance basis. Her major research interest includes society and social chance, the social security system and the impact of economic reforms on different social groups in the PRC. Since 1997, her research focus is on cross-cultural management in German invested enterprises in China, working on related projects at Hochschule Bremen.

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Hierarchie oder Netzwerk? Zu den Organisationsformen des Terrorismus

Auf der Grundlage einer ausgedehnten Literatursuche werden in diesem Aufsatz die Organisationsformen des Terrorismus in Kategorien der Organisationssoziologie analysiert. In der Literatur wird der hierarchisch organisierte, auf ein nationales Territorium bezogene ?alte“ Terrorismus von Organisationen wie ETA, IRA oder Hamas den neuen, vor allem mit dem Namen AI Qaida verbundenen ?Netzwerken des Terrors“ gegenübergestellt. Tatsächlich weisen jedoch alle verdeckt operierenden Terrororganisationen eine Kombination von hierarchischen und Netzwerkmerkmalen auf. Darüber hinaus weist der organisierte Terrorismus eine Reihe von Merkmalen auf, die weder ins hierarchische Muster passen noch allgemein netzwerktypisch sind. Dabei handelt es sich um einen besonderen Steuerungsmodus und einen besonderen Modus loser Koppelung, die beide auf einer starken ideologischen Identifikation der Mitglieder mit der Organisation und ihren Zielen beruhen. Die Identifikation dieser besonderen Merkmale terroristischer Organisation leistet einen Beitrag zur Theorie der Handlungskoordination, speziell in interorganisatorischen Netzwerken.     

Improving Children’s Interviewing Methods? The Effects of Drawing and Practice on Children’s Memories for an Event

In the present experiment, we were interested in the effects of drawings and practice on children’s memory performance. Younger (6/7-year-olds; n = 37) and older (11/12-year-olds; n = 44) children were presented with two videos that differed in complexity. Half of the children had to practice recalling an experienced event (i.e., last holiday) before remembering the two videos. The other half was not presented with such practice. Then, all children had to tell what they could still recollect about the first video. For the second video, all children were allowed to draw and tell during the recollection of the event. As expected, we found that for the complex video, making a drawing increased the completeness of children’s statements, but also reduced the accuracy of their statements. Although we found that including practice reduced the completeness of statements, it did not negatively impact the accuracy of children’s memory reports. Taken together, our results imply that interviewers should be cautious in using drawings as an interviewing method as it might elevate the production of incorrect information.     

"Recht auf kein Kind?" – Überlegungen anlässlich der jüngsten Entscheidung des OGH zu "wrongful birth"

Vor kurzem hatte der OGH wieder einen Fall von "wrongful birth" zu entscheiden; den Eltern wurde der gesamte Unterhaltsaufwand für ihr behindert geborenes Kind zugesprochen. Ausgehend von dieser Entscheidung behandelt der folgende Beitrag die Frage, ob die Anerkennung eines Ersatzanspruches in diesem Umfang insbesondere mit Rücksicht auf den Schutzzweck des Behandlungsvertrages geboten erscheint. Daneben wird auf die nach wie vor uneinheitliche Rsp des H?chstgerichts zu "wrongful birth" einerseits und "wrongful conception" andererseits eingegangen.