Suchergebnisse

This paper examines the association of opportunity and choice enhancing societal conditions and perceived autonomy with life satisfaction in Europe. Building on the capability approach, I investigate whether the positive effects of six basic functionings - safety, friendship, health, financial security, leisure, and respect - on people's life satisfaction are weaker when people have more opportunity and choice. This paper addresses two main questions: (1) Are people more satisfied with their life when they have more opportunity and choice? (2) Do basic functionings play a smaller role for life satisfaction in societies that enable more opportunity and choice and for individuals with more perceived autonomy? The analyses are based on the European Quality of Life Survey (2016), covering 36,460 individuals in 33 European countries and using multilevel linear regressions. My study finds that both choice and opportunity enhancing societal conditions and individual's perceived autonomy are positively associated with on life satisfaction. Further, all six basic functionings are conducive to individual life satisfaction. The positive effects of health, financial security, respect, and friendship are reduced when people experience a great deal of autonomy over their lives. Societal conditions that provide people with more opportunity and choice further lower the positive effects of financial security, leisure, respect, and safety on individual life satisfaction. This corroborates the importance the capability approach attributes to individual opportunities and freedom of choice.

ZusammenfassungDer vorliegende Beitrag präsentiert erstmalig Ergebnisse zum Ausmaß, der Verteilung und den Folgen individuell erlebter Wert- und Geringschätzung in Deutschland anhand von Daten aus der Innovationsstichprobe des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP-IS 2016). Zum einen adressieren wir damit einen grundlegenden Tatbestand des sozialen Lebens – persönliche Erfahrungen der Anerkennung und Abwertung im Alltag. Zum anderen schließen wir an aktuelle Gegenwartsanalysen und öffentliche Diskurse an, die von Abwertungserfahrungen und fehlender Anerkennung als Ursachen sozialer Probleme und Konflikte ausgehen. Dabei stehen drei sozialstrukturelle Differenzierungen im Fokus: (1) sozioökonomische Unterschiede zwischen sozialen Schichten einerseits sowie soziokulturelle Unterschiede zwischen (2) Ost- und Westdeutschen und (3) Menschen mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund andererseits. Empirisch zeigt sich, dass die Menschen in Deutschland insgesamt viel Wertschätzung erfahren, besonders in lebensweltlichen Kontexten wie der Familie. Die Arbeitswelt ist hingegen ein eher ambivalenter Erfahrungskontext, der von Wert- und Geringschätzung geprägt ist. Während wir große Schichtunterschiede (insbesondere nach Einkommen, Bildungsgrad und Erwerbsstatus) finden, lassen sich weder zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen noch bezüglich eines Migrationshintergrundes wesentliche Unterschiede im Ausmaß berichteter Wert- und Geringschätzung feststellen. Positive wie negative Erfahrungen beeinflussen schließlich die persönliche Lebenszufriedenheit sowie die Zufriedenheit mit der Demokratie, können allerdings nur die geringeren Zufriedenheiten der unteren Schichten zu einem gewissen Teil erklären, nicht aber die der ostdeutschen Bevölkerung. Insgesamt zeigt der Beitrag, dass für die soziologische Analyse von Wert- und Geringschätzung die Perspektive vertikaler Ungleichheiten wichtiger ist als die der soziokulturellen Zugehörigkeiten.

Physical attractiveness is increasingly framed as a meritocratic good that involves individual benefits, such as higher wages or success in the partner market. Investing in one's physical appearance is thereby seen as a means to increase one's human capital. While the positive effects are well documented, its counterpart, the dark side of physical appearance, has received much less attention from social science research. This article sheds light on the negative effects of physical appearance using a theoretical framework based on the cultural sociology of Bourdieu, integrating both structure and agency perspectives. Using data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) from 2014, we demonstrate that unattractiveness is socially stratified by economic, cultural, and social capital. The article highlights the relevance of cultural factors (e.g. forms of cultural capital and cultural practices) for the analysis of the interplay between physical appearance and stratification as well as the relevance of physical appearance for cultural sociology.

We discuss findings from a survey of sociology students in Germany and consequences for teaching. We focus on the de facto formation of a sociological canon, the relation between theories and methods, and effects of social and political characteristics on student's scientific preferences. Our findings suggest that irrespective of an agreement of the sociological professionals on a common definition of a core, a de facto canon of theories and methods exists in teaching practices. Moreover, specific relations between sociological theories and methods occur in the data. Both should be recognized in the discussion about curricula design, especially concerning teaching research methods. Finally, we discovered effects of gender and political attitude on students' preferences for theories and methods. Such differences might be associated with different motivations for studying sociology and labor market orientation. This should be considered in curricula design as well, especially at the local level of departments.