Suchergebnisse

Einstellungen zu Tempo und Weg der deutsch-deutschen
Vereinigung, zu Schwangerschaftsabbruch und Fristenregelung,
Meinungen zum Verhältnis zu osteuropäischen Staaten.

Themen: Präferierte Wege zur staatlichen Einheit; Gründe für die
Befürwortung bzw. Ablehnung der deutsch-deutschen Vereinigung;
Meinung zur Verfassungsdiskussion; Meinung zur Fristenregelung;
Gründe für bzw. gegen die bestehende Fristenregelung;
Kostenbeteiligung bei Schwangerschaftsabbruch; Gründe für
Schwangerschaftsabbruch; Reaktion auf Strafandrohung im Falle
eines Schwangerschaftsabbruchs; Tempo der deutsch-deutschen
Vereinigung; nationale Identität; Verhältnis Deutschland - Polen
sowie Akzeptanz der Oder-Neiße-Grenze; Meinung zu sowjetischen
Truppen in der DDR; Zukunft der Militärblöcke; Abrüstung und
Zukunft der NVA; Beurteilung der Entwicklung in der UdSSR und
ihres Einflusses auf den deutsch-deutschen Vereinigungsprozeß;
Akzeptanz von Immigranten aus osteuropäischen Ländern;
Religiosität; Wahlverhalten (Volkskammerwahl 1990).

Reporting on foreigners in magazines and newspapers of the Federal
Republic.

Topics: 1. Formal aspects: magazine or newspaper name; date of
publication; number of the article taken from the edition; number of
first page; placement on page; extent; series part; category;
information on title or headline; authorship; article genre; layout and
presentation; language level of article; attitude of author to topic.

2. Topic and content aspect: sources of information of the article;
manner of presentation; spatial reference; time reference; foreigner
group; group articulating itself in the article; main topic of the
article; reports about foreigner crime, criminal offenses, culprits,
crime victims and causes of crime; contents of sensationalism articles
as well as reports on discrimination against foreigners, political
inflitration and political dangers from foreigners; foreigners and
women; foreigners and health problems; topics of good-will reports;
integration as a topic; foreigners as vehicle of culture; topics of
non-fiction articles; causes and motives of migration; contents of
reports about country of origin; statistical information; reports about
political interest and political participation of foreigners; reports
about social problems of foreigners; information about family
questions; information about foreign children and young people; housing
problems; support measures reported on and support organizations;
reports about accidents, accident frequency and causes of accidents;
rights of foreigners; information about the attitude of the German
population to foreigners; job market reports and reports aout the
economic situation; assessment and evaluation of national economy and
business management aspects of foreigner employment; occupational
trainers and qualification; statement about adaptation to industrial
work and frequency of change of job; foreigners as competition for
German workers; demands of the author raised in the article;
characteristics attributed to foreigners in the article.

Also encoded was: assessment of the ease of encoding by the coder.

Political trust is one aspect that might be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict government-implemented measures to fight the virus. Previous studies report an increase in political trust at the onset of the pandemic in several European countries, followed by a marginal decline over the further course of the pandemic. However, it is unclear how political trust changes among first and second generation migrants in Germany compared to natives throughout the pandemic. To address this question, we use data from the adult cohort of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) at one measurement point before, and two during the pandemic. Consistent with previous studies, our data show that pre-pandemic, political trust is higher among first generation migrants than among second generation migrants and natives. We examine how these previous differences evolve throughout the pandemic. Our results indicate that political trust increases significantly only for natives and second generation migrants, but not for first generation migrants at the beginning of the pandemic. Later in the first year of the pandemic, political trust is higher than pre-pandemic for all groups. Neither vulnerabilities nor sociodemographic control variables can explain the differences between the groups.

The investigation of emphasis framing effects is one of the most often analyzed types of communicative influences on citizens' attitudes within political communication research. A vast amount of empirical studies suggested that simple changes in the emphasis on a specific aspect of an issue or event can produce significantly different issue attitudes, which fostered discussions about citizens' susceptibility to an irrational attitude formation under one-sided framing conditions.
However, the empirical paradigm of researching emphasis framing effects has received important criticism in the last years. Most of this critique argues that the investigated frames have been often confounded with varying thematic information implying that the susceptibility to framing effects is overrated in the literature and could likewise originate from differing issue-specific information and not from the frame emphases themselves. Given that this critique would find empirical support and only varying thematic information would be responsible for framing effects, the found effects in the literature would imply that the attitudinal shifts are not irrational but the result of rationally learning from different thematic information. Moreover, the theoretical contribution of the emphasis framing approach would be seriously questioned and could be nothing more than the longstanding concept of persuasion based on the provision of new thematic information.
In order to test whether emphasis frames exert unique effects on citizens' issue attitudes, this study introduces the concept of salience emphasis frames as a type of framing that is not confounded with the provision of further issue-specific information but uses well-known and cross-thematic patterns of interpretation such as political values to contextualize thematic information. In addition, the study integrates the varying argument strength of thematic information and citizens' political value preferences as two further variables that could condition the frame effect, which enables a test for salience emphasis framing effects in differently challenging situations.

SolPop is a socio-political survey that entails data about a number of political and sociological aspects for a Greek random sample. Topics are among others the European Union and its legitimacy as well as opinions on cross-national redistribution in the light of different crises.
The target population of the SolPop survey consisted of adults living in private households in Greece. 1200 respondents were asked a total of 64 questions.

The nuclear phasing out and promoted energy turnaround (Energiewende) could constitute a major driver for renewable energy projects. Increasing the share of renewable energy is seen as indispensable to solve the energy supply dilemma. This new orientation faces various challenges not only on a technical, but also on a political level. We argue that the governmental decision as such does not automatically induce energy turnaround. In order to make change happen, renewable energy projects and innovative policy instruments enhancing them have to be accepted and realized at the regional and local level.
Economists typically argue that incentive based instruments (e.g., green taxes) linked to regulatory measures are most effective to limit energy use and to promote renewable energies (Thalmann 2004). But this type of proposals is particularly difficult to implement, given that political and institutional aspects (e.g., attitudes of political actors and voters, existing regulations on various levels especially regarding the grid) create "lock-in" situations that hinder the diffusion of renewable energy (Stadelmann-Steffen 2011; Knill & Lenschow 2005). Several regional and local initiatives explicitly promoting renewable energies have failed making for instance the typical dilemma between renewables and environmental protection evident.
The overarching question arises as to how effective policy change towards renewable energy can be achieved. In this vein, we start with the idea that effective policy change leading to the realization of regional and local renewable energy projects can be determined by assessing different aspects of "social acceptance" (Wüstenhagen et al. 2007). We argue that – besides technology acceptance by the market – the acceptance of policies and instrument mixes is a crucial pre-condition for project success. So we concentrate on the acceptance of policies and instrument mixes (e.g., regulatory and incentive measures) by (1) the political elite involved in energy policy decision-making (socio-political acceptance) and by (2) citizens as expressed through their vote or other political intervention (community acceptance). Empirically, and via a comparative case study, social network analysis, and experimental survey design, we assess the promotion of alternative electricity from renewable sources (solar, wind, geothermal and small scale hydro power) and ask:
1. Where, when and why have renewable electricity projects failed or succeeded in the past?
2. What current policy drivers (e.g., public attention, actors' networks, pressure from landscape protection) impact the socio-political acceptance of innovative instrument mixes on the regional and local level?
3. How to conceive prospective policy designs and instrument mixes that enhance community acceptance and citizen's preferences in favor of regional and local renewable electricity projects?

In the context of the CH@YOUPART project we are studying the political participation of young adults in Switzerland. We are particularly interested in the forms of political involvement that 18 to 25 year olds prefer and the frequency of these activities. Furthermore, we investigate why young Swiss are political active or why not. The goal of this project is to find out more about the situation in Switzerland as well as to learn if young adults in here differ in this respect from their peers in other European countries.
The active participation of the population in the political process is essential, especially for a direct democracy. Through this participation a range of opinions find entrance into the political process and policy decisions thereby obtain their legitimacy. The participation behavior of the young generation is thus crucial for the future of the political system in Switzerland. The aim of this project is therefore to obtain answers to two questions:
1. How do young adults participate politically in Switzerland?
2. How can the political participation of young adults be explained?
Thereby, we are equally interested in the politically active and non-active Swiss and the reasons for their respective behavior. The political participation of young Swiss has only been covered comprehensively in very few studies. The existing data, however, is outdated. Moreover, this data does not allow for comparisons of the political activities of 18 to 25 year olds in Switzerland with same age EU citizens. Both aspects have been taken into account in the development of the CH@YOUPART research design.
This project is conducted by the Swiss Centre of Competence in the Social Sciences (FORS) with the support of the State Secretariat for Education and Research of the Federal Department of Home Affairs.

The nuclear phasing out and promoted energy turnaround (Energiewende) could constitute a major driver for renewable energy projects. Increasing the share of renewable energy is seen as indispensable to solve the energy supply dilemma. This new orientation faces various challenges not only on a technical, but also on a political level. We argue that the governmental decision as such does not automatically induce energy turnaround. In order to make change happen, renewable energy projects and innovative policy instruments enhancing them have to be accepted and realized at the regional and local level.
Economists typically argue that incentive based instruments (e.g., green taxes) linked to regulatory measures are most effective to limit energy use and to promote renewable energies (Thalmann 2004). But this type of proposals is particularly difficult to implement, given that political and institutional aspects (e.g., attitudes of political actors and voters, existing regulations on various levels especially regarding the grid) create "lock-in" situations that hinder the diffusion of renewable energy (Stadelmann-Steffen 2011; Knill & Lenschow 2005). Several regional and local initiatives explicitly promoting renewable energies have failed making for instance the typical dilemma between renewables and environmental protection evident.
The overarching question arises as to how effective policy change towards renewable energy can be achieved. In this vein, we start with the idea that effective policy change leading to the realization of regional and local renewable energy projects can be determined by assessing different aspects of "social acceptance" (Wüstenhagen et al. 2007). We argue that – besides technology acceptance by the market – the acceptance of policies and instrument mixes is a crucial pre-condition for project success. So we concentrate on the acceptance of policies and instrument mixes (e.g., regulatory and incentive measures) by (1) the political elite involved in energy policy decision-making (socio-political acceptance) and by (2) citizens as expressed through their vote or other political intervention (community acceptance). Empirically, and via a comparative case study, social network analysis, and experimental survey design, we assess the promotion of alternative electricity from renewable sources (solar, wind, geothermal and small scale hydro power) and ask:
1. Where, when and why have renewable electricity projects failed or succeeded in the past?
2. What current policy drivers (e.g., public attention, actors' networks, pressure from landscape protection) impact the socio-political acceptance of innovative instrument mixes on the regional and local level?
3. How to conceive prospective policy designs and instrument mixes that enhance community acceptance and citizen's preferences in favor of regional and local renewable electricity projects?

This project investigates the discourse about digitization of higher education and research in Swiss policy debates. In general, the discourse about higher education and research has been fundamentally shaped by digitization in the last decade. Universities, scientific academies, business groups and state actors formulated digital strategies and action plans to cope with the "chances and challenges of digitization for higher education and research", as one report by the SERI stated. The debate goes far beyond the narrower field of the data sciences but marks it in various respects as a "strategic research area" (ETH Board 2016) or a fundamental "enabling technology" (SERI 2017).
The discussion about digitization is part of sociotechnical imaginaries: Political, economic, and scientific actors create visions of the future in which social relations of and to digital technologies are described and framed (Jasanoff 2015; Jasanoff & Kim 2015; Meyer 2020). The future scenarios designed in the context of the digitization discourse are analysed as a case study of a collective conception of society based on statements by political, economic, and scientific actors. The formulation of political strategies and goals and the adoption of measures involve both discursive and non-discursive practices: By outlining the future development of societal domains, political actors also value and allocate attention, financial and other resources (Beckert 2016; Jasanoff 2015).
The data basis for the study is formed by strategies documents and reports by actors in Swiss higher education and research policy (N=34). The period of the documents investigated ranges from 1998 to 2020, with most of them published after 2014. Since the documents from 2014 onward increasingly address "Big Data" and "Data Science" as well as their legal, economic, and educational aspects in education and research policy, this period forms the focus of the analysis. All documents were coded and analysed using qualitative content analysis to identify the relevant topics and social, i.e. political, economic, or technological dimensions in the corpus.

This dataset contains data from a survey of university students in Berlin. The survey was conducted to collect data for a study that analyzes the cultural dimension of the globalization divide. In this study, the survey respondents are used as a proxy population for cosmopolitans. The central part of the survey is a conjoint experiment, in which respondents evaluate profiles that are described by lifestyle characteristics, some of which form a cosmopolitan lifestyle. In turn, the respondents' evaluations tell us whether cosmopolitans prefer others with cosmopolitan lifestyle characteristics. This research question relates to current scientific debates about a new cleavage between cosmopolitan and communitarians, or, respectively, between winners and losers of globalization. The study contributes to an ongoing shift in research from the structural and political divisions between the cleavage groups towards analyzing how the groups are divided in socio-cultural aspects, while specifically focusing on the cosmopolitans' mode of judging others based on their lifestyle characteristics.