The Nonprofit Catallaxy: An Austrian Economics Perspective on the Nonprofit Sector

This paper examines the nonprofit sector from the perspective of the Austrian school of economic thought. In contrast to the traditional market failure approach, the Austrian school locates the role of the nonprofit sector in the facilitation of the spontaneous order and the utilization of local dispersed knowledge about the societal needs through a Hayekian “discovery procedure.” Another contribution of the Austrian school is in calling attention to the “calculation challenge” faced by the nonprofit sector, i.e., the reduced role of monetary signals as the informational basis for decision making. The calculation challenge brings up the important issue of societal feedback mechanisms operating in the nonprofit sector. It is shown that, in the nonprofit sector context, this challenge takes the form of the accountability problem.     

Gespensterdebatte oder was ist soziologische Aufklärung?

We reply to the critical comments of Richard Münch and the author group Jansen, Heidler and von Goetz on our article “Emergence of an Academic Elite? The Impact of Universities’ Size and Reputation on Research Funding” published in this journal. After reviewing some other sociologists’ statements on Münch’s thesis about the academic elite we reinforce the gain of our empirical analyses of hypotheses of the sociology of science in general, on the Matthew-Effect, and on trends to a possible cartelization and monopolization in the German science system. The main critic of unsuited data (we used applications for single grants submitted to the German Research Foundation) does not adequately consider the postulated scope of the investigated theses and our analyses do not aim at a general evaluation of the “Initative of Excellence”.     

Economic Adversity and Voter Turnout: Evidence from Turkish Parliamentary Elections

Social Indicators Research - This paper investigates the relationship between economic adversity and voter participation in Turkish parliamentary elections. We employ a dynamic model of voter...     

Der Hawthorne-Effekt – ein Effekt für viele Gelegenheiten?

It is shown that the concept of ?Hawthorne effect‘ was created many years after the Hawthorne studies in Western Electric Company. Presently, the ?Hawthorne effect‘ concept is increasingly used in social sciences and many other sciences. The concept is however used in different and occasionally digressive meanings. The question arises whether such a concept is useful at all. In addition, it is discussed why the rather imprecise reports of single Hawthorne field experiments have been spread as academic folklore, and why rather undefined concepts like the ?Hawthorne effect‘ are used so widely in psychology and social sciences.     

Fetishizing the health sciences: Queer theory as an intervention

Queer theory often falls impotent in its palatability across disciplinary lines. I offer a conceptual article that interrogates the dis-ease and divide when considering queer theory in and for the health sciences. In so doing, I look to foster a process of making queer theory more tenable to applied practice—and to make practice in social work, at least, more queer. The exemplar of HIV is deconstructed as a preeminent discourse and health disparity. In the end, it is argued that queer theory may be an essential intervention in the arsenal of the helping professions.     

Exact estimability of the transfer functions of linear systems

In this paper we show the exact estimability of the transfer functions of linear stochastic systems under two sets of conditions.The main point is to demonstrate the measurability of the “identifying” function.The estimability od the transfer functions is not only of interest for its own but also for the estimability of the system parameters.