Sektion Kultursoziologie

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

„...ja, was willst du viel mitbestimmen?” — Partizipationschancen im entgrenzten Arbeitsfeld mobile Pflege

Based on empirical research on mobile care services in Vienna, the article discusses the issue of participation and democracy at work. More precisely, it explores the impact that work place characteristics such as field work, flexible working hours or the utilisation of subjectivity have on participation, i. e. the worker’s chance to co-determine working conditions. According to the findings presented in the paper workers actually have little chance to exert any influence on the temporal, economic and organisational conditions of their jobs, due to growing pressure as a result of cost-cutting measures.     

Committing to cultures of creativity: the significance of transdisciplinarity

As Mittelman rightly observes, neoliberal practices of repurposing universities in pursuit of the impossible goal of world-class standing – the gold standard for educational policy in the global age – have put the soul of the academy at risk. He also makes an important point when he argues that necessary ‘corrective steps’ must push far beyond the palliative rhetoric of ‘reformist reforms’ clothed in neoliberal platitudes about greater ‘stakeholder’ input and the saving grace of digital technology. Still, this article extends Mittelman’s constructive discussion of ‘plausible alternatives’ by making the case for the significance of transdisciplinarity in the practical realization of one of his five corrective steps: the ‘commitment to cultures of creativity’. Indeed, a deep and enduring commitment to transdisciplinarity must play a major role in pushing back against the prevailing neoliberal academic order.     

Designing brands and managing organizational politics: A qualitative case study of employer brand creation

This study explores intra-organizational processes and structures within the creation of an employer brand. Drawing on a practice perspective that analytically differentiates between practitioners, praxis, and practices, we present a qualitative case study of an employer branding project in a large industrial company. Our theorized account of the case demonstrates the managerial complexities and dynamics of employer brand creation. Based on a detailed content analysis, we identify three distinct sets of activities of employer brand creation: (1) defining and demarcating employer branding, (2) developing and maintaining cooperation within employer brand creation, and (3) confirming and contesting management ideas and structures beyond employer branding. Our study contributes to employer branding research by highlighting how employer brand creation is entangled within strategic, functional design of an employer brand and managing organizational power relations and differing interests. Furthermore, this study particularly emphasizes the emerging character of employer branding and the impact of an established social infrastructure within employer brand creation.     

European cultures and management styles

After the establishment of the Common Market in Europe, many companies from abroad opted for a single European headquarters and searched for European managers. That leads to the question whether one can really speak of a common European management style. The article at hand examines this issue. To do this, the legal framework and Corporate Governance background of individual European countries are assessed. Furthermore, cultural differences in Europe are considered. Referring to studies of cultural dimensions in European countries, the authors propose five different cultural areas in Europe. This leads to a concluding discussion of management styles in these regions.     

Strict proportional power in voting bodies

It is a widely known fact among game theorists as well as political scientists that the distribution of voting weights in a voting body is generally a poor proxy for the distribution of voting power within the body. It has been proposed to equate the distribution of a priori voting power and actual seat distribution by randomizing the decision rule of the voting body over various majority rules. In this paper, some implications of this procedure will be discussed.     

The Peer Relationships of Those Who Have Experienced Adoption or Foster Care: A Meta‐Analysis

This meta‐analytic review examines the presence and quality of close peer relationships for adoptees and individuals with foster care experience. Results indicate that adoptees show difficulty forming close peer relationships compared with biologically reared individuals, but they do not differ in the quality of these relationships. In contrast, those with foster care experience report lower quality peer relationships than biologically reared individuals. Additionally, this meta‐analysis includes prevalence rates of close peer relationships that illustrate most adoptees and foster youth report having high‐quality peer relationships. These findings have important implications for intervention and prevention efforts and offer directions for future research on peer relationships among adoptees and foster youth, but should be considered in light of the presence of some publication bias.