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In der Corona-Krise sind neue Verhaltensweisen in der Gesellschaft wichtig. Soziale Normen können je nach Ausprägung die Umsetzung behindern oder unterstützen.

Axel Honneth: Der arbeitende Souverän: Eine normative Theorie der Arbeit. Berlin: Suhrkamp 2023. 978-3-518-58797-3

Kriminalität setzt soziale Normierung voraus, denn ohne eine gesetzte Norm gibt es keine Möglichkeit, von ihr abzuweichen und in der Folge als "kriminell" zu gelten. Unser Call4Papers fragte nach mehreren Aspekten: Was ist abweichendes Verhalten eigentlich? Wer (oder was) legt das fest? Inwiefern könnte abweichendes Verhalten die soziale Ordnung gefährden...

Das Anliegen dieser Arbeit ist es, die Regelmechanismen der bürgerlichen Ästhetik, die sich im Bereich der Mode manifestieren, auf ihre soziale Funktion hin zu deuten. Der französische Roman des Realismus, und besonders Balzac, liefert hierzu einen breiten Fundus nicht nur literaturwissenschaftlich relevanter Kostümportraits, sondern auch soziologisch interessanter modischer Protagonisten.

Objective: This study examines collective orientations and individual meanings regarding a fulfilled life with the aim of answering the questions of which social norms around childbearing become relevant in the biographical fertility decisions of women and men, and how they do so. Background: While the normative expectations of social networks have been found to be highly relevant for individuals who are in the process of deciding for or against childbearing, the findings are inconsistent and fragmented. This study contributes to the knowledge on this topic by examining social norms as normative and empirical expectations. Method: In a qualitative approach, data from five focus groups (n=22) were triangulated with biographical interviews (n=9) with women and men of different ages and different family statuses across Austria. The in-depth analysis facilitated the reconstruction of collective orientations around childbearing desires and individual meanings. Results: The desire for childbearing was identified as a gendered social norm, both in collective orientations and individuals' meanings, long before and after fertility decisions were made. Strong relationalities to social norms around gendered responsibilities for (expectant) parents also shaped individual desires, particularly women's. Conclusion: The relationalities of childbearing desires and persistent gendered parenting norms entail gendered challenges. They are related to individual self-optimization and self-responsibility, and have the potential to hamper childbearing decisions.

As a trained economist, my academic motivation is to shed light on how individual behavior can be effectively framed in order to realize certain desired results. Law and Economics principally suggests a bundle different approaches on how the law affects individual behavior. Conventionally the law is designed to have the means to effectively sanction behavior, making this behavior ultimately less attractive (Becker 1968, Posner 1985, 1998). But the law might have only the de jure power to sanction if the enforcement agencies cannot reach or even identify violators. Lastly, soft law has no power to sanction agents. The law has no "teeth" whatsoever, if it merely proposes a certain behavior (Goldsmith and Posner 1998, 1999; see also Chayes and Chayes 1993). Problems of enforcement are particularly interesting in the realm of international law. In an increasingly interrelated and interdependent world, legal issues globalize as well. However, states interact based on the principle of sovereignty and central institutions do not have the capacity, competence, and power to sanction behavior when it comes to international law. Thus, what framework is best suited to guarantee a particular social order? Social organization follows a certain code. If not enforced by law, then this code is determined through informal norms (Ellickson 1998, 2001). In some cases, these informal norms harmonize with the formal law, in other cases they deviate. Depending on the degree of deviance, the law can either serve as a focal point to which individuals converge (Cooter 1998, McAdams 2000) or it can be regarded as illegitimate provocation and trigger more deviance (Parisi and von Wangenheim 2006, Bowles 2009, Carbonara et al. 2012). In a sociological context, actions or behaviors violating social norms are regarded as deviant (Douglas and Waksler 1980, Macionis and Gerber 1999: 191-201). However, this can hold also for international law. Consequently, this cumulative thesis "Deviant Legality – When the Internationalization of the Law Violates Social Norms" investigates the interplay between social norms and the international legal framework applying the methodologies of institutional and behavioral economics. My contribution integrates sociopsychological and sociological findings and understanding about social norms into economic thinking and regulatory implications on an international level. Special focus is laid on cases in which the law does not harmonize with the way in which individuals act or interact with each other customarily, i.e. deviates from their social norms. My thesis is composed of four independent articles. They scrutinize different platforms for social norms within different groups of actors. In all four areas, international law plays an essential role but falls short to achieve its goals laid down in legal code. The recurrent theme of the articles is that social norms have to be respected for functioning social organization. Legislators are advised to work with persisting social norms and not against them. The articles investigate the following questions: 1. Why do the dominant players in the music market, a market fundamentally affected by technological change, fight a war on file sharing rather than to innovate outdated business models? 2. Does the global war on terror effectively deter or perversely provoke more terrorist activity, probably the greatest threat to the stability of the modern world? 3. Do international investors follow ethical criteria when they acquire agricultural land in developing countries on a large scale, hereby fulfilling the enormous potential to improve the devastating conditions in the poor host countries? 4. What determines the elections of non-permanent members into the United Nations Security Council, the United Nation's most powerful organ?