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This paper introduces an innovative social process model addressing population-wide measures of voter preferences that was tested on data from the 2016 US presidential election. Population-wide, "macroscopic" parameters are needed when privacy, ethics or regulatory constraints block "big data" techniques (e.g., in political contexts to counter "micro-targeting"). Confidence will be eroded if existing trend models and other macroscopic approaches frequently fail to predict outcomes, however campaign data reveal mathematical features that suggest a different possible approach. Given that the populations modelled exhibit self-organisation and memory when transmitting viewpoints, our model is based on mathematical representations of such processes. Its validation indicates the applicability and potential generalisability of this theoretical approach. In order to design a stochastic dynamics model of changing voter preferences, we evaluated probability models for transitions between possible system states (magnitudes of voter preferences), formulated the boundary task for probability density functions and derived a second-order non-linear differential equation incorporating self-organisation and memory. We find consistent dependencies between influences on the system and its reaction, and it is congruent with empirical data. The ability to use researchable global parameters indicates the potential for modelling electoral processes and wider applicability for complex social processes, avoiding dependence on "internal" variables. ; Post-print / Final draft

Community food initiatives are gaining momentum. Across various geographical contexts, community food initiatives are self-organising, providing communities with inspiration, knowledge and the opportunity to work towards responsible and socially acceptable transformations in food systems. In this article, we explore how self-organisation manifests itself in the daily activities and developments of community food initiatives. Through the conceptual lens of community self-organisation, we aim to provide a more detailed understanding of how community food initiatives contribute to broader and transformational shifts in food systems. Drawing on a multi-method approach, including community-based participatory research, interviews and observations, this article follows the creation and creative dissolution of the Free Café ; &mdash ; a surplus food sharing initiative in Groningen, the Netherlands, which in the eye of the public remains unified, but from the volunteers&rsquo ; perspectives split up into three different initiatives. The results suggest that community self-organisation accommodates differing motivations and experiences embedded in the everyday collective performances of community rationalities and aspirations. This article also points to the changing individual and collective perspectives, vulnerabilities and everyday politics within community food initiatives. This paper contributes to emerging debates on community self-organising within food systems and the potential of community initiatives to promote broader social realignments.

This contribution delves into the discretionary power of national legislatures to implement additional or altered criteria in light of Article 12 of Directive 2014/24/EU (ie the institutionalised and non-institutionalised exemptions). Sparked by national implementations of this provision, it creates a stomping-ground for broader discussions on self-organisation within EU public procurement law. In light of the Lithuanian Case law that has been brought before the CJEU (Irgita Case, pending), it discusses what type of harmonisation was used for this provision, if these implementations are, thus, valid in light of EU law, and what this means for the influence of EU public procurement law on the organisation of public tasks on the Member State level.

The arena of locally embedded and engendered responses to climate change offers a particularly fruitful and challenging space in which to scrutinise the encounters between established forms of governance and knowledge as they become entwined with locally generated forms of self-organisation. The issue of climate change offers a particularly fertile case for study because to date it has largely been dominated by state and market-based responses and associated forms of governance selectively articulated with knowledge generated through scientific and expert modes of knowledge. The central focus of the article is on identifying the variegated forms of understanding associated with the groups we researched and how they drew upon/utilised knowledge (knowledge-in-action) vis-à-vis the governance of ecological politics and environmental governance. The article draws on case studies of self-organising locally based groups in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that are addressing climate change, in a broad sense, within their locality. These groups represent a range of responses to the issue and associated modes of action, exhibit different levels and forms of 'organisation' and may challenge more established forms of governance and knowledge in different ways.

The arena of locally embedded and engendered responses to climate change offers a particularly fruitful and challenging space in which to scrutinise the encounters between established forms of governance and knowledge as they become entwined with locally generated forms of self-organisation. The issue of climate change offers a particularly fertile case for study because to date it has largely been dominated by state and market-based responses and associated forms of governance selectively articulated with knowledge generated through scientific and expert modes of knowledge. The central focus of the article is on identifying the variegated forms of understanding associated with the groups we researched and how they drew upon/utilised knowledge (knowledge-in-action) vis-à-vis the governance of ecological politics and environmental governance The article draws on case studies of self-organising locally based groups in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that are addressing climate change, in a broad sense, within their locality. These groups represent a range of responses to the issue and associated modes of action, exhibit different levels and forms of 'organisation' and may challenge more established forms of governance and knowledge in different ways.

Six years have passed since the so-called "long summer of migration" of 2015, and the numbers of newly arriving asylum-seekers in Germany have flattened. However, as one of the main receiving countries of refugees, other challenges are coming into focus. Besides labour market participation and cultural participation, political participation is crucial to social life. But how to enable the political participation of refugees in host countries remains a challenge. This study examines how refugees without the condition of citizenship, who, thus, lack formal, electoral means of participation, can engage in political activities. To this end, it first uses a qualitative approach to examine how various self-organisations in the city of Cologne, Germany, use their resources to bring their interests into the political decision-making process. Second, it examines the political opportunity structures that exist at the local level to enable refugee self-organisations (RSOs) to engage in political activities. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with representatives of the organisations as well as the municipality and other civil society actors in Cologne. The results show that RSOs can be important partners for municipal decision-makers when it comes to refugee-specific issues. However, the results also suggest that opportunity structures are unevenly distributed among organisations and affect the organisations' resource endowments, thus limiting access.

Six years have passed since the so-called "long summer of migration" of 2015, and the numbers of newly arriving asylum-seekers in Germany have flattened. However, as one of the main receiving countries of refugees, other challenges are coming into focus. Besides labour market participation and cultural participation, political participation is crucial to social life. But how to enable the political participation of refugees in host countries remains a challenge. This study examines how refugees without the condition of citizenship, who, thus, lack formal, electoral means of participation, can engage in political activities. To this end, it first uses a qualitative approach to examine how various self-organisations in the city of Cologne, Germany, use their resources to bring their interests into the political decision-making process. Second, it examines the political opportunity structures that exist at the local level to enable refugee self-organisations (RSOs) to engage in political activities. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with representatives of the organisations as well as the municipality and other civil society actors in Cologne. The results show that RSOs can be important partners for municipal decision-makers when it comes to refugee-specific issues. However, the results also suggest that opportunity structures are unevenly distributed among organisations and affect the organisations' resource endowments, thus limiting access.

Six years have passed since the so-called 'long summer of migration' of 2015, and the numbers of newly arriving asylum-seekers in Germany have flattened. However, as one of the main receiving countries of refugees, other challenges are coming into focus. Besides labour market participation and cultural participation, political participation is crucial to social life. But how to enable the political participation of refugees in host countries remains a challenge. This study examines how refugees without the condition of citizenship, who, thus, lack formal, electoral means of participation, can engage in political activities. To this end, it first uses a qualitative approach to examine how various self-organisations in the city of Cologne, Germany, use their resources to bring their interests into the political decision-making process. Second, it examines the political opportunity structures that exist at the local level to enable refugee self-organisations (RSOs) to engage in political activities. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with representatives of the organisations as well as the municipality and other civil society actors in Cologne. The results show that RSOs can be important partners for municipal decision-makers when it comes to refugee-specific issues. However, the results also suggest that opportunity structures are unevenly distributed among organisations and affect the organisations' resource endowments, thus limiting access.

The notions self-organisation and self-regulation are at least implicitly loaded with a positive democratic connotation. The main corresponding debates on social movements, governance and civil society mostly refer to the Global North with a well-functioning state and democratic political systems. One consequence is that the less democratic and less liberal hidden side of self-organisation, seen by some critics, does not gain much attention. After a short discussion of the main theoretical approaches, the paper presents a selection of self-organised groups depicting their different values, norms, and structural features. These examples reach from democratic groups marked by solidarity to racist violent groups that are a threat to differently minded people. The analysis of these examples leads to a set of criteria for the comparative analysis of the internal structure of self-organised groups including potential membership, in- and outward orientation, underlying basic principles of social order and types of trust with related types of decision-making. These basic elements help to understand the constitution and functioning of self-organisation, which are open to a wide range of value orientation. ; Die Begriffe Selbstorganisation und Selbstregulierung sind zumindest implizit positiv konnotiert. Die entsprechenden Debatten zu sozialen Bewegungen, Governance und Zivilgesellschaft beziehen sich zumeist auf den Globalen Norden mit einem gut funktionierenden Staat und demokratischen politischen Systemen. Eine Folge davon ist, dass die weniger demokratische und weniger liberale verborgene Seite von Selbstor-ganisation, die durchaus von einigen kritischen Stimmen gesehen wird, auf recht wenig Interesse stößt. Nach einer kurzen Diskussion wichtiger theoretischer Ansätze, präsentiert der Beitrag eine Auswahl selbstorganisierter Gruppen und stellt ihre Werte, Normen und struktu-rellen Eigenheiten dar. Diese Beispiele reichen von demokratischen von Solidarität geprägten Gruppen bis hin zu gewalttätigen Gruppen, die eine Bedrohung für Andersdenkende sind. Die Analyse dieser Beispiele führt zu Kriterien für die vergleichende Analyse der internen Strukturen von selbstorganisierten Gruppen einschließlich ihrer potenziellen Mitgliedschaft, Innen- und Außenorientierung, grundlegenden Prinzipien der sozialen Ordnung und Typen von Vertrauen und damit verbundenen Typen der Entscheidungsfindung. Die grundlegenden Elemente helfen die Konstitution und Funktionsweise von Selbstorganisation zu verstehen, die ein breites Spektrum von Werteorientierungen umfassen können.

Intro -- Imprint -- Introduction: How this book supports you -- Add-on, press reviews and customer feedback -- Content of the book -- Structure of the book -- Information as desired and additional material to the book! -- Personal eBooks and eCourses -- Serenity as a life motto: Relax every day // By Prof. Dr. Martin Christian Morgenstern -- From the holiday paradise to the horror scenario -- Pure peace and relaxation? -- More guests at the buffet as a place -- Shortage of resources equal to higher stress levels -- When the stress level increases ... -- Our challenge for the future -- Stay cool is the wrong goal -- Anti-stress techniques only partially help -- Step by step to less stress -- Productivity trap Internet: Online time is lost time // By Martin Geiger -- How many new customers do you win through Facebook? -- Free content? With pleasure -- Productivity Grace XING -- Why blogging makes more sense -- Find a suitable employee -- Online time is unproductive -- As an entrepreneur you miss success -- Visualize your capital waste -- How much time do you want to waste? -- Query your network habits -- Sense is IN: 5 tips against the burnout spiral // By Stefan Dudas -- Just a game? -- Terribly "busy" -- Tip 1: Which field are you on at the moment? -- Tip 2: Re-define the rules! -- Tip 3: Do not create a dice game - but a sense game! -- Tip 4: How many winners does your game have? -- Tip 5: How do your customers know about your game? -- Tips against Burnout: Stress away with sports and sex // By Prof. Dr. Matthias H.W. Braun -- Always stay in the here and now! -- 10 Tips against Burnout -- Summary -- Effort Analysis and Stress Control: How to Improve Your Daily Routine // By Simone Janson -- They prefer to be spontaneous -- Planning - theory vs. practice -- Analyze your time -- Too much work -- Too little work.

Vorarlberg in Austria has 20 years of experience in experimenting with different ways and methods of promoting a more sustainable society. Out of this experience has emerged the idea of a 'learning institution' embedded in a tight-knit network of co-operating institutions. In this lecture Manfred Helrigl outlined a 'philosophy of self-organization' and illustrated its impact through practical examples. Manfred suggested that we need to rethink familiar leadership strategies and revitalise democracy, because the existing system is not capable of handling wicked problems. He also outlined how they are approaching this challenge in Vorarlberg, what a new culture of co-operation could look like and its implications for society, government and administration at local and regional level.