Mixed Methods – Stand der Debatte und aktuelle Problemlagen

While mixed methods research is already much advanced and institutionalized in textbooks, handbooks and its own journal on an international level, the German-language debate on mixed methods lags behind. Thus, this introductory paper starts with outlining the history and key concepts of mixed methods designs as well as the current state of the international debate. Next, we explain the aims and concept of this special issue as well as the crucial arguments of the single papers in the overall context of the special issues. Namely, the debate in this special issue of the Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie circles around the following four topics: philosophical, methodological and methodical foundations of mixed methods research; mixed methods designs and mixed methods sampling; modes of combining data and issues of validity; and process-oriented analysis, longitudinal analysis and evaluation. Based on the observations that, firstly, both the international social science research community and social problems are globalizing and, secondly, that social research itself is changing, especially by the increasing relevance of social media and big data, the paper concludes with suggestions for future research.     

朱熹与张栻、吕祖谦互动述略

朱熹与同时代的思想家张栻、吕祖谦等围绕共同尊奉的儒家经典,在治学方法、道德思想和政治目标等各个方面进行了持续不断的讨论。20世纪及以前的学者对朱熹同时代学者的研究大多着眼于朱熹对他们的看法,此外这些学者倾向于将朱熹刻画成独特的思想家,同时对其天才式的思想表示赞扬。即使有学者对朱熹思想体系表示不满,也仍倾向于反映朱熹对其同时代儒者的批评。20世纪90年代出现一个重要的转折,东西方学者开始关注与朱熹同时代的儒家,并具体结合时代背景对他们开展研究,学界不但对朱熹同时代的儒家给予了更高的评价,而且还认为他们对朱熹及其思想产生了重要的影响。     

Land ownership,the subsistence constraint,and the demographic transition

We develop a novel model of fertility choice predicting an increase and subsequent decrease in fertility levels without introducing a quality–quantity tradeoff, mortality changes, or urbanization. The model highlights the roles of a subsistence constraint and non-wage income deriving from the ownership of land. We show that the sign of the effect of the wage rate on fertility depends on whether non-wage income is greater or less than a minimum consumption level. Suggestive evidence supporting the model, on changes in fertility from 1851 to 1891 across French départements, is provided. Finally, we embed our static model in a model of endogenous growth, and provide a numerical illustration of the working of the model.     

余英时:《朱熹的历史世界》

余英时的《朱熹的历史世界》提供了更详细更具史实的研究,说明了政治斗争在朱熹的思想和道学的发展中的关键作用,通过考察朱熹的历史世界,余先生提供了一种替代流行的哲学史研究的新路径,将道学与政治文化联系在一起,对道学家来说,政治文化是比哲学更基础的东西,理解政治文化与党争对于理解朱熹等道学士大夫的思想具有一定的重要意义。     

Unpaid labour and territorial extraction in digital value networks

Production in knowledge and data-intensive industries is powered by work that can, in theory, be done from anywhere, via cloudwork platforms. Cloudwork platforms govern data value chains in distinct ways to concentrate power and extract value at the global scale. We argue that unpaid labour is a systemic mechanism of accumulation in these digital value networks. In this paper we demonstrate how it is tied to platform business models and facilitated by elements of platform governance including monopsony power, a high degree of spatial flexibility in sourcing labour, regulatory unaccountability and digital enclosure. We draw on a survey of 699 workers on 14 platforms in 74 countries to show that unpaid labour is an engine of South–North value extraction, and workers in the global South perform more unpaid labour than counterparts in the global North. Our findings have important ramifications our understanding of the changing international division of labour and platform capitalism.