Science,measurement, and validity: Is completion of Samuel Messick's synthesis possible?

Messick's (1989) theory of test validity is profoundly influential (Hubley and Zumbo, 1996; Angoff, 1988) in part because it brings together disparate contributions into a unified framework for building validity arguments. At the heart of Messick's theory lies a synthesis of realism and constructivism with respect to both scientific facts and measurement. Within this synthesis there remains a tension between the evidential basis and the consequential basis for test interpretation and use. This cannot be sidestepped simply by limiting the evidential basis to test interpretation and the consequential basis to test use: Interpretation and use are not so easily held separate. The roles of constructivism and context in Messick's theory underline the inherent link between facts and values, but the assumption that facts are objective and values are subjective goes unquestioned in Messick's theory. The inherent link between facts and values combines with this assumption to produce the unresolved tension in Messick's theory. This suggests that a unified theory of test validity requires a theory of value justification.     

New avenues to be opened for social protection in the Arab world: the case of Egypt*

This article looks at social protection in the Arab world. Giving the example of Egypt, it asks why poverty is so widespread and why – despite the country's numerous social protection systems – social risks are a major contributing factor to it. It concludes that reforms are due. The existing systems are well funded but inefficient and more to the benefit of the better‐off than the poor. A reform approach is proposed which builds on both conventional and more innovative strategies: campaigns should be launched to raise public awareness of social risks; social assistance spending should be increased; and the operating public pension schemes should be reformed. At the same time, new avenues have to be opened to meet the specific needs of informal sector workers who have extreme difficulty in being covered by social insurance or social assistance. To this purpose, micro‐insurance is a promising approach for the Arab‐world region.     

Verbetrieblichung und betrieblicher Konflikt

Since the 1990s there is an ongoing process of decentralisation and ??Verbetrieblichung?? in German labour regulation. The opening of regional sector-level collective agreements for additional specific bargaining at the plant level is evaluated and discussed by practitioners and scholars very controversially. Critics of the decentralisation trends expect an increase of distributive conflicts inside plants and companies. The article analyses whether there are actually signs for an increase of conflicts in firm-level industrial relations in this context, and if so, under which conditions conflicts are likely to occur. Based in theoretical considerations, the article analyses the influence of different patterns of collective agreements on the incidence of conflicts and the relationship between employers and employees at firm level. Empirical data stems from a representative survey that includes interviews with management and employee representatives from German private sector companies. The data suggest some evidence on the conflict reducing function of industry-level collective agreements. Changes in a firm??s regulation structure appear to increase conflicts.     

Authors’ response: on the role of data,statistics and decisions in a pandemic

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis -     

Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Wirklichkeit

Zusammenfassung  Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich dem in der Soziologie zu Unrecht kaum wahrgenommenen Beitrag Siegfried Kracauers zu einer Soziologie der Dinge und des Visuellen. An seiner Studie über die Angestellten und seiner Filmtheorie wird aufgezeigt, dass Kracauer mit Hilfe einer konkreten Analyse der Dinge der Wirklichkeit beizukommen versucht, die in seinen Augen durch das abstrakte Denken der Wissenschaften geradezu unkenntlich gemacht wird. In dieser Diagnose — so die Argumentation des vorliegenden Beitrags — erweist sich Kracauers Werk als überraschend aktuell.

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In search of the lost reality. Attention and thing-perception in siegfried kracauer’s works

The article discusses an essay on the Sociology of Things and the Visual by Siegfried Kracauer, which has been met with an unjustly poor feedback from the sociological community. Based on his studies of white-collar workers and his theory of films it argues that Kracauer chooses a specific analysis of things to approach a reality, which — in his view — had been rendered virtually unrecognizable by the abstract reasoning of the scientific world. The article follows the idea that it is this analysis, which makes Kracauers work modern and up-to-date.

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„überhaupt übernehmen die Dinge die Darstellung der Situation.“ (Wihelm Genazino)