Die Rückeroberung der Vergangenheit: Istanbuls visuelle Kommunikation zum Europäischen Kulturhauptstadtjahr 2010

In the context of the global competition to attract knowledge-workers, tourists, and investors, cities work carefully on their iconic representation. Star architects and marketing experts try to strengthen the peculiarities of cities and stage their distinctiveness. Following Anselm Strauss, city images play a significant role in structuring the imagination of the city “as a whole”. They help to organize everyday life in urban settings and structure local discourses (Strauss 1961). The object of analysis is the image campaign “Istanbul 2010: European Capital of Culture”. The advertising motif is considered as a “self-portrait” of the city, a communicative strategy how the city wants to be seen and understood. The argument is, that the city images select from a great pool of possible narratives and symbols (heterogeneity) certain aspects and construct a coherent and particular “image of the city” (densification). In this respect the question has to be raised what the image depicts and what it conceals. The article refers to the current debate within the field of urban sociology about the “intrinsic logic of cities” (Berking et al. 2008; Löw 2008). Thereby the “city” is conceptualized as the object of investigation rather than merely serving as the analytic context. To evaluate the advertising image a segment-analytical approach is employed (Breckner 2010).     

On the assessment of corporate productivity changes and their impact on financial performance

This paper explores desirable characteristics of a corporate productivity measure (CPM). Such a measure is defined and offered as an alternative to approaches presented in the literature. In addition, the accuracy of several productivity measures is explored and the CPM developed here is observed to be most precise. This finding is utilized to assess the dependency of profitability on productivity. For the sample firms a surprisingly low impact is observed, which demonstrates that productivity changes generally do not influence profitability to a high degree.     

Age and Change in Public Opinion: The Case of California, 1960-1970

This study examines the relationship between age and changein public opinion on various types of political questions, usingevidence from repeated cross-sectional surveys conducted inCalifornia between 1960 and 1970. The supposed connection betweenage and resistance to change may be the exception, not the rule.Age was found related to opinion stability only on partisanquestions. In other areas of public opinion, except on questionswhich produced age-related cleavages in the electorate, changesoccurred equally in older and younger age groups. Politicalsocialization during adulthood may be largely confined to thoseorientations which serve as guides to political action.     

Bootstrap for U-statistics: a new approach

Bootstrap for nonlinear statistics like U-statistics of dependent data has been studied by several authors. This is typically done by producing a bootstrap version of the sample and plugging it into the statistic. We suggest an alternative approach of getting a bootstrap version of U-statistics. We will show the consistency of the new method and compare its finite sample properties in a simulation study and by applying both methods to financial data.     

Is there a relationship between socio-economic factors and biodiversity in urban ponds? A study in the city of Stockholm

Urban small water bodies, such as ponds, are essential elements of human socio-economic landscapes. Ponds also provide important habitats for species that would otherwise not survive in the urban environment. Knowledge on the biodiversity of urban ponds and the relationship between their ecological value and factors linked to urbanization and socio-economic status is crucial for decisions on where and how to establish and manage ponds in cities to deliver maximum biodiversity benefits. Our study investigates if the pattern of urban-pond biodiversity can be related to different socio-economic factors, such as level of wealth, education or percentage of buildings of different types. Because of lack of previous studies investigating that, our study is of exploratory character and many different variables are used. We found that the biodiversity of aquatic insects was significantly negatively associated with urbanisation variables such as amount of buildings and number of residents living around ponds. This relationship did not differ depending on the spatial scale of our investigation. In contrast, we did not find a significant relationship with variables representing socio-economic status, such as education level and wealth of people. This latter result suggests that the socio-economic status of residents does not lead to any particular effect in terms of the management and function of ponds that would affect biodiversity. However, there is a need for a finer-scale investigation of the different potential mechanism in which residents in areas with differing socio-economic status could indirectly influence ponds.     

Fertility Intentions and Residential Relocations

This research addresses the question of whether fertility intentions (before conception) are associated with residential relocations and the distance of the relocation. We empirically tested this using data from two birth cohorts (aged 24–28 and 34–38 in the first survey wave) of the German Family Panel (pairfam) and event history analysis. Bivariate analyses showed that coupled individuals relocated at a higher rate if they intended to have a(nother) child. We found substantial heterogeneity according to individuals’ age and parental status, particularly for outside-town relocations. Childless individuals of average age at family formation—a highly mobile group—relocated at a lower rate if they intended to have a child. In contrast, older individuals who already had children—the least-mobile group—relocated at a higher rate if they intended to have another child. Multivariate analyses show that these associations are largely due to adjustments in housing and other living conditions. Our results suggest that anticipatory relocations (before conception) to adapt to growing household size are importantly nuanced by the opportunities and rationales of couples to adjust their living conditions over the life course. Our research contributes to the understanding of residential mobility as a by-product of fertility decisions and, more broadly, evidences that intentions matter and need to be considered in the analysis of family life courses.     

The Impact of Having a Baby on the Level and Content of Women’s Well-Being

The primary objective of this study was to more fully understand the impact of having a baby on women’s well-being by attending to both the level and the content of well-being. To cover the judgemental and affective aspects of well-being we included global measures of life satisfaction and well-being and affective experience measures derived from the day reconstruction method. In a sample of 19 first-time mothers no differences between pre and postnatal reports of general life satisfaction, depression, anxiety, and experienced positive and negative affect were found, suggesting that the arrival of the newborn baby does not universally impact on women’s level of well-being. Changes in the content of well-being were studied by examining changes in the way women experience specific activities and interactions with various social partners. There appeared to be an upward shift in experienced positive affect during active leisure and a slight decrease in negative affect during time spent with relatives. The results are discussed in light of previously documented changes across the transition to motherhood in negative mood states, time use, women’s evaluation of various aspects of daily life, and relational satisfaction.     

Belief‐Free Equilibria in Repeated Games

We introduce a class of strategies that generalizes examples constructed in two‐player games under imperfect private monitoring. A sequential equilibrium is belief‐free if, after every private history, each player's continuation strategy is optimal independently of his belief about his opponents' private histories. We provide a simple and sharp characterization of equilibrium payoffs using those strategies. While such strategies support a large set of payoffs, they are not rich enough to generate a folk theorem in most games besides the prisoner's dilemma, even when noise vanishes.     

Destabilisierung und Destandardisierung, aber für wen? Die Entwicklung der westdeutschen Arbeitsplatzmobilität seit 1984

We contribute to the long-standing debate about an alleged “destabilization” and “destandardization” of employment biographies by analyzing how the job-shift patterns of West German workers have changed between 1984 and 2008. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we study changes in the rates of (upward) within- and between-firm mobility as well as the risk of employment exit, analyzing trends separately by gender, education, labour force experience, firm size, and sector. We document a considerable and pervasive reduction in the rate of (upward) within-firm moves. The decline is stronger for men and particularly steep for the employees of large companies and for those with limited labour force experience. We interpret these findings as evidence for a decline of internal labour markets and for increasing difficulties among labour market entrants. A second major result of our analysis is that rates of between-firm mobility and employment exit have risen primarily for low-educated men and women.