Zum Tode von Anatol Rapoport (22.5.1911–20.1.2007)

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Drittmittel als Performanzindikator der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

Resources within and between higher education and research institutions are increasingly allocated according to scientific performance. Evaluation exercises and the measurement of research performance take on a new role in this context. Third party research income is a performance indicator which is rather easy to measure and is used in most of the new performance-based evaluation procedures. This paper sets out to scrutinize the meaning and validity of third party research income. We studied research teams from three different research fields with a mixed quantitative / qualitative approach. The focus is on the causal relations between institutional / input indicators, third party research income as another input indicator, and a variety of output indicators of scientific production. An important result is that third party money has a positive effect on performance only below a certain and discipline-specific threshold. Further analysis shows that output performance is to a great extent field-specific. The context conditions for scientific production differ greatly, so that comparative performance assessments are only valid within homogeneous research fields. Another important result is that output performance is multidimensional and cannot be measured by bibliometric indicators only. These findings have implications for the rationality of the evaluation assessment exercises as well as for the funding decisions of science foundations, ministries of science and — increasingly, the heads of universities and departments. These topics are discussed in the last chapter as well as the implications for further research.     

Envisioning European Solidarity between Welfare Ideologies and the European Social Agenda

This article uses the debates of the Working Group ‘Social Europe’ of the European Convention for the Future of the European Union that drafted the Constitutional Treaty to explore the views on the European social model among representatives of the European political class. The debates within the European Convention on basic social values, social objectives, the Union's competences, the open method of coordination, the coordination of social and economic policies as well as the role of social partners provide insight into the emerging visions of European solidarity at the crossroads between welfare regime ideologies and Europeanization. It is argued that, despite an overall consensus regarding a greater future role of the European Union in social policy, the contours of the European social model and the scope of the Union's competences remain contested. However, the observed cleavages are to be found mainly on the left–right political scale, and this suggests that we might gradually be observing a re-politicization of the social policy discourse at European level. Nevertheless, the holding on to arguments of subsidiarity and especially sovereignty represents a barrier to envisioning European solidarity and developing a stronger European social agenda.     

Do Parents of Girls Have a Higher Risk of Divorce? An Eighteen‐Country Study

Using data from the June 1980 Current Population Survey, Morgan, Lye, and Condran (1988) reported that families with a daughter have a higher divorce risk than families with a son. They attribute this finding to the higher involvement of fathers in raising a son, which in turn promotes marital stability. We investigate the relation between gender composition of children and parents’ divorce risk with cross‐national data from the Fertility and Family Survey. These data, which cover 16 European countries, Canada, and the United States, do not support a general hypothesis that sons contribute more to marital stability than daughters.     

Inequality and negative income

Summary This note deals with some problems in the measurement of inequality when negative incomes are allowed. A new axiom is defined, called the Greatest Gets More axiom. Using this axiom it can be shown that the properties of some inequality measures depend on whether there are negative incomes or not. In this paper, for the intermediate measures of Eichhorn and the centrist inequality measures of Kolm a threshold value is given above which the Greatest Gets More axiom holds. I am indebted to two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.     

A simplified algorithm for the depot location problem

This paper describes a simplified optimization algorithm used for the solution of a classical depot location problem as presented in a Greek Manufacturing Company. Algorithms in the literature for this type of problem are based on the assumption of predetermined fixed costs which are independent of the final size of the depots. This assumption is usually far from reality; the size of each depot does not remain constant during the optimization process and so does the associated fixed cost which is variable with the size of the depot. This assumption is relaxed in the proposed algorithm; the associated fixed cost is modified each time a new customer is allocated to a depot thus changing the required depot size.     

Local policy networks in the programme Social City—a case in point for new forms of governance in the field of local social work and urban planning1 Lokale Politiknetzwerke im Programm Soziale Stadt—ein Beispielfall für neue Formen von governance im Bereich lokaler Sozialer Arbeit und Stadtplanung

The federal programme Social City represents a concept that is different from traditional urban planning, social work and local economic development as well as planning concepts in various ways. The developmental processes to be set into motion on the level of city districts:

• should make cooperation between various sectors and actors a key issue;

• should encourage them to invest into this cooperation and use the resources to be brought about by their participation and

• furthermore, the participation of various groups of the local population is foreseen.

Building up the respective institutional premises for this kind of networking and participation is part of the programme. Thereby urban planning and policies in social work and social services are to be brought into cooperation. The paper is based on an evaluative study of such local policy networks as they take place in one of the Länder, Hessen. Central results of the analysis will be presented, and suggestions for the programme's further development as a new concept of governance at the local level include some reflections on its potential for legitimising social work in community building.