Social Sciences

 Will we really soon no longer be sitting behind the wheel of our own car, but will only be taken to our destination by driverless electric taxis? Should cities introduce car sharing? What role will electric scooters, cable cars or man-carrying drones play in the mobility systems of major cities? This book finally explains in a generally understandable way what is really behind buzzwords such as electric mobility, autonomous driving, digitalization and mobility services such as car sharing or ride-hailing, how far advanced these technologies are today, and above all in what relationships and dependencies they are to each other. In addition to the technical aspects, the legislative and social trends are also considered, which are important framework conditions that will have a decisive influence on the mobility of the future.

From the contents

- Mobility needs: Who wants to go where, when and why - and how will this change in the future?

- Technological trends: electromobility, digitalization, autonomous driving - what will the vehicles of the future be capable of?

- Car sharing, ride-hailing, e-scooters or public transport: What alternatives to the private car will there be in the future?

- Mobility in transition: What should we do to prepare for the future?

In the context of the (digital) transformation of economy and society, the technology acceptance of the population is increasingly influenced by a perceived loss of control through new technologies. Loss of control is defined in this volume as a multi-causal, multi-modal and cyclical process of transition of control and conceptually brought together in a multi-dimensional heuristic model. The results of a first quantitative-empirical analysis for Baden-Württemberg based on this model confirm that loss of control is a central factor influencing technology acceptance, but is perceived differently by different socio-demographic groups.

In today's organizational sociology, organizations are usually regarded as late achievements of modernity in the history of mankind. Max Weber is repeatedly cited as the supposed guarantor of this thesis. But neither his type of "bureaucratic rule" nor his concept of "rational work organization" - although both are tailored to modern conditions - contain, on closer inspection, compelling arguments for a principled limitation of organizations as such to modernity. Both actually reach their depth of focus only in contrast to "pre-modern" forms of organization. A sociology of organization that wants to refer to Max Weber's work while avoiding the numerous common misunderstandings of its reception must broaden its historical view and consider the possibility of "pre-modern organizations".

This book offers a completely new approach to the complex social phenomenon of the Mafia: In addition to the origins, organization and actions  of the Mafia, the author Anita Bestler examines above all the close connection between organized crime and politics. In the process, readers [also] gain an interesting insight into the complicated political development of Italy from the founding of the state to the present, as well as an answer as to why Italians have a different political mindset.

Seeds are at the heart of a transformation process that affects more than two billion people worldwide. This study on smallholder farmers in Tanzania examines how local seed systems are anchored in the socio-cultural structures of smallholder life worlds. Using the example of seeds, the close interweaving of agricultural and social practice is traced and it is worked out how individual processes of modernisation brought in from outside have far-reaching consequences for smallholder coexistence. The study provides a concrete, detailed and differentiated account of everyday farming life and of how smallholder households deal with seeds. A particular focus is on seed exchange relationships and how these provide both social security and social cohesion in the study region. The study is based on extensive field research and intensive interviews with farmers, who also have their own say in the work.

This volume offers contributions on the fundamentals of current consumption theory and consumption research, which have developed almost entirely from originally unorthodox approaches against traditional micro- and macroeconomic theory. The inspiration came mainly from social economic behavioural research and ecological economics. But the reception is very patchy and the history is largely forgotten. With reference to the work of earlier authors, new arguments are offered to the current discussion about delimitations and paradoxes in consumption and the still narrowly understood consumer role. It is as much about rework in sharpening the understanding of consumption and consumers in their lifeworlds as it is about indications of fruitfulness for the analysis of open questions. It is about arguments for a paradigmatic reorientation of consumer research and policy. The contributions address in particular ambivalences, options and future modes in consumption in the search for individual satisfaction and ecological sustainability.

This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.

Since its existence in the 1950s, consumer policy in Germany has been understood and pursued primarily as a bundle of actions and measures initiated and institutionalised by the state. In many cases, the state has also issued corresponding mandates and set up support models, which has created the impression that we are basically dealing with a 'consumer policy from above' imposed by macro-politics. Not that there have not been repeated attempts in the past decades to give impetus to consumer policy from the middle of civil society - often in the form of small citizens' initiatives. And in recent years in particular, a number of new consumer organisations have emerged which operate much closer to the grass roots. Nevertheless, the impression seems to have taken root among the large, government-related 'players' in the field, who have been in the 'business' for decades, not to mention government-internal consumer policy, that consumer policy concerns a policy field that is essentiallyordered by a collaboration of the state on the one hand, and consumer protection organisations representing all consumers equally on the other, while the many small consumer initiatives, not even started by individual committed consumers, regularly fall behind in comparison. This perspective refers largely to the view of and from the centre of politics. This volume is intended to go some way towards countering the institutionally prevailing impression that, in principle, there is only 'consumer policy from above' that is really effective and assertive.

The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.

The authors examine identity strategies of middle-class couples who come under pressure of over-indebtedness. Based on biographical interviews collected in a qualitative panel study in three waves, they explore the question of how identity is worked on in the couple and how identity changes when social decline threatens. The theory-generating analysis brings out patterns of coping with over-indebtedness and self-placement described along the notions of 'continuity', 'modification' and 'moratorium'. Similarly, they explore how lifeworlds are constructed in and with over-indebtedness as a couple.

This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.

Drawing on unique data from the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS), the present book comprises empirical studies on various aspects of recent German emigrants’ transnational relationships to core family members, specifically intimate partners, parents, and children. Moreover, we reflect on conceptual and empirical challenges in previous work on transnational family relations, suggesting avenues for future research. We thereby aim to strengthen the integration of two closely related strands of social research – the sociologies of migration and families – and add an important new facet to the study of transnational families more generally.