Social Sciences

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.

The present publication constitutively expands the field of discourse on the topic of basic income and explores the possibilities of its introduction as well as the opportunities and risks. Although all visionary proposals for an unconditional basic income (BGE) have so far not been implemented politically, at least in democratically constituted welfare states, the question of implementation or the conditions for success and the identification of possible blockades have only been dealt with marginally. Recent publications on a BGE also show this political-institutional "blindness" and do not address enough the reasons for the failure so far. Without a transfer strategy, however, the idea will fail in Germany due to such implementation naivety. In this book, therefore, the state of the debate on basic income is developed further to the extent that it is integrated into welfare-state development processes and current challenges for the "safeguarding of social security". In addition, a social-scientific classification of hitherto visionary guarantee elements of a basic income model is undertaken, linking up with the "silent" change to a socially investing state.

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.

The volume addresses current challenges for gender equality policy and the necessary further development of gender equality policy concepts in order to effectively engage with exclusion mechanisms. The contributions discuss this at the interface between research and policy and on the basis of specific examples.