Suchergebnisse

AbstractPrevious literature on European identification has often taken for granted what respondents understand by this term. The present article addresses this issue, and on the basis of a recent study in Switzerland seeks to identify the meanings that individuals associate with the concept of Europe. Furthermore, it examines how these meanings relate to their identification with Europe. It also explores the potential covariates of these various conceptions of Europe – particularly transnational experiences and networks. Our analyses identify six dimensions of the meaning of Europe, each of which is differently related to identification with Europe. Although EU citizens and non‐EU citizens in different types of (bi‐national) relationships assigned similar meanings to Europe overall, they differed with respect to the importance they accorded each of these meanings. Individuals who tend to benefit from the EU, i.e. EU citizens and persons with a higher level of education, attribute more positive meanings to Europe.

In our paper, we study the factors shaping the formation of four different types of marriage in Switzerland: marriages with a Swiss partner, marriages with partners from the neighboring countries which are geographically proximate and where one of the official languages of Switzerland is spoken, marriages with partners from other European countries and with partners from overseas. Going beyond the current state of research, we study not only the national structural characteristics of the Swiss partner market and the individual resources of the spouses, but the actual meeting places of the partners and their reasons for being in these locations. Thus, we analyze whether, in a globalizing world and partner market, it is still primarily national opportunity structures that shape different forms of intermarriage. Using a mixed-methods approach we first show, based on census data, that the probability of these marriages is shaped by the structural opportunities of the partner market in Switzerland and individual characteristics like age and education. Second, relying on survey information, we demonstrate that bi-national relationships exhibit a specific pattern of meeting places: in particular, those couples with one partner from a non-neighboring or non-European country often meet abroad and in more open foci of activity. This has not previously been demonstrated empirically in the research literature and clearly shows that the factors shaping these marriages are not covered by a theoretical model focusing on the structural opportunities of national societies. Finally, we scrutinize narrative interviews and show that meeting a spouse abroad is the result of both specific partner preferences and patterns of spatial mobility. Thus, global opportunity structures are to a certain degree shaped by individual agency.

We analyze the impact of intermarriage, and transnational social relations and experiences on the emergence of European identity. According to the structuralist theory of identification, European social relations, with European intermarriage as an especially important relation, and experiences should explain European identifications. Our analysis is based on a survey in Zurich, Switzerland, providing a broad array of data that allow testing the impact of a European partner on European identification for Swiss and how transnational social relations and experiences contribute to both Swiss and non-Swiss feeling European. Overall, we find that a partner from another European country (for Swiss natives) and transnational social relations and experiences have an important role in explaining European identification. The most important differences are between Swiss and EU citizens living in Switzerland where, for the latter, the meaning of Europe is differently constructed. Specifically, EU citizens see less conflict between national and European identification.

The term "culture" is notorious for the multitude of its meanings. This expertise strictly focuses on culture in terms of the arts. We adopt a sociological as well as an economic perspective. Research questions are subdivided into three spheres of action: artistic production and its organization; the distribution and valuation of culture; and the consumption and reception of culture. The data requirements and the availability of adequate data vary substantively, depending on artistic branches (music, performing arts, etc.) and specific research questions. In order to make the empirical investigation of culture a flourishing field, we recommend the following improvements of the data infrastructure: firstly, comprehensive surveys of artists on the one hand and cultural consumption on the other hand should be carried out with the support of public funding; secondly, a national cultural statistic should be established, illuminating the size, impact and evolution of the cultural sector in comparative perspective; thirdly, the public availability of organization-level data as well as communal surveys on cultural production and consumption issues should be improved; fourthly, the transparency of existing data sources and their accessibility should be improved by archiving them centrally, e.g. at the ZA.

AbstractThere is disagreement amongst political theorists as to whether a European demos based on a culturally grounded identity as a precondition for a stronger integration of the European Union (EU) exists. We study a part of this question from a constructivist perspective by analysing how individuals in Europe perceive European culture and how this perception is related to support for the EU. We focus on the following questions: (a) whether European respondents perceive a shared European culture, (b) whether they consider this culture to be of higher value than other cultures and (c) whether they are proud of European cultures. We study these questions on the basis of a survey conducted in 2021 in nine European countries, including both EU and non‐EU countries. Our results show that the perception of a shared European culture and its positive evaluation, both inclusive and exclusive, covary positively with support for the EU.

The aim of the research was to identify, describe and classify changes in the social practices of individuals and households in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia brought about by the last world economic crisis. The research had several basic tasks.
The first one was to identify, describe and create a typology of survival/coping strategies which are used by members of households in SEE societies in an attempt to preserve or improve their economic and social position in the times of crisis.
The second task was search for stable patterns of social practices in the fields outside the economic one, i.e. the field of education, which could enable the construction of a typology of broader life strategies.
The third aim was to identify and describe changes in consumption patterns of citizens of these societies in the conditions of economic deprivation, that is, changes in their lifestyles.
Fourth, we have sought an identification of differences between strategies and lifestyles of the members of different social groups in the studied societies.
Finally, the last series of tasks was to acquire data which would allow us to compare these "responses to crisis" in four target societies in general, and among the members of the same social groups in different societies.

Namhafte deutsche Soziologinnen und Soziologen laden ein, die Soziologie zu entdecken. Sie erklären, was sie persönlich an dieser Wissenschaft fasziniert und warum soziologisches Wissen wichtig für unsere Gesellschaft ist. Ihre Beiträge schildern anhand von zentralen Begriffen – zum Beispiel Macht, Arbeit oder soziale Ungleichheit – die vielfältigen Vorgehensweisen, mit denen sich Gesellschaft begreifen lässt. Dieses Buch ist bewusst keine lehrbuchhafte Einführung in einen Wissenschaftszweig, sondern eine unterhaltsame Lektüre, die Lust macht auf die Soziologie als Wissenschaft. Ein Beitrag über die beruflichen Möglichkeiten von Soziologinnen und Soziologen sowie ein Serviceteil für Studierende runden den Band ab.

Märkte sind die bedeutendste Institution zur Steuerung kapitalistischer Ökonomien. Die Wirtschaftssoziologie untersucht das Markthandeln unter dem Aspekt der sozialen, kulturellen und politischen Einbettung der Akteure. Dieser Band versammelt erstmalig in deutscher Sprache Beiträge zur soziologischen Forschung über Märkte, unter anderem von international führenden Autoren wie Olivier Godechot, Akos Rona-Tas, Donald MacKenzie, Robert Salais, Richard Swedberg und Harrison C. White.