Ethnic identity and the choice to play for a national team: a study of junior elite football players with a migrant background

In German (junior) elite football, there are a comparatively large number of highly talented players with a migrant background. These players were born in Germany and joined the Talent Development Programme of the German Football Association (DFB). Many of these players can decide for which national association they want to play in international games. In media and public discourse, this decision is usually explained by the degree of self-identification with a specific ethnic group. However, this assumption is not empirically evident. Using the example of junior elite players with a Turkish background, this article focuses therefore on the question, which role ethnic identity plays in this decision. Based on social identity theory, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 adolescent elite football players with Turkish background who played for the German and/or the Turkish Football Association. Our findings suggest that – in contrast to media narratives – ethnic identity only plays a marginal role in the decision to play for a national football association.     

Das dicke Ende — Wenn Abschlüsse von Gruppen „misslingen“

The starting phase of groups has received a lot of attention, in theory as well as in practice of group dynamics. The end, however, symbolizing death of a group, seems to be sort of a methodological stepchild. This is no longer true for evaluation, but evaluation is something quite different from the phenomena meant here: they appear, mostly quite unexpected, at the very end of a course or training. Four difficult final situations in group dynamic laboratories are the material for analyzing the psycho- and sociodynamics of critical final situations. Help is offered for dealing with such situations. “Failure” in ending up a training group, often has to do with narcicisstic dynamics in that group with its up and down of idealizing and discounting. It also has to do with getting hooked in one of those phases that has been described as going “towards death and farewell”. It may be that these dynamics touch upon a taboo.     

Pflegebedürftigkeit im Lebensverlauf

The paper investigates levels of functional health in old age as an outcome determined by support from family members and the individual’s financial assets. It addresses the question to what extent these risk factors for functional health also apply to the risk of long-term care (LTC) as defined by German Law SGB XI and may thus be transferable. Three hypotheses are presented, relating the individual’s economic resources and social integration to functional health limitations and to the onset of LTC. Results are stratified by levels of care, taking into account changes in levels of care over time as well as the location of care (at home or in a nursing home). The analysis is based the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). For males it was shown that presence of close relative or spouse reduces the utilization of care (according to the LTC- definition by German Law (SGB XI). For males, long-term care was mostly provided by the spouse. The need of care depends not only on functional health status but also on the type of (family-)network. Substitution could not be found in the lower income groups. The utilization of LTC even increases for less affluent males living with a spouse due to financial incentives provided by LTC insurance. Substitutability of care services may thus vary by income group.     

The Nature of the Firm – Static versus Developmental Interpretations

Different from the prevailing staticperspective in the theory of the firm, adevelopmental approach focuses on processes ofchange in firm organizations (rather than onstates and their properties). Although businesshistory provides ample evidence for systematicorganizational change, few contributions in theliterature take a developmental viewpoint andoffer explanations for the endogenous processesof change. To contrast static and developmentalinterpretations, the paper identifies threeparadigmatic questions for each of them. Theircomparison sheds some new light on the theoryof the firm and draws attention to theneglected entrepreneurial role inorganizational change.     

Elbow torque ellipses: investigation of the mutual influences of rotation, flexion, and extension torques

Most strength tests are restricted to measuring joint torques only in main directions like flexion or pronation. However, for an advanced strength prediction model, information about maximum possible joint torques in intermediate directions also has to be known. This paper concentrates on obtaining functions for maximum joint torques in arbitrary directions in the elbow. Therefore, isometric joint torque measurements have been conducted with 20 young males applying joint torques in eight different directions in one posture (90 degrees elbow flexion, 0 degrees shoulder flexion, neutral forearm rotation). It turns out that the appearance of the resulting shape can be best predicted using ellipse segments. Furthermore, a standardized ellipse could be obtained for the measurement posture. This helps to predict maximum joint torques in any other direction by knowing only one of the main joint torques.     

Loss prediction in a linear model under a linear constraint

Loss reserving is an important subject of actuarial mathematics. It aims at the prediction of future losses caused by claims which have incurred in the past but have not yet been closed. The problem of predicting such losses is particularly important in liability insurance. In the present paper we study conjoint prediction of paid and incurred losses in a linear model with a linear constraint which is intended to reduce the gap between the predictors of ultimate paid and incurred losses. We thus present an application to actuarial mathematics of the general result established by Kloberdanz and Schmidt (AStA Adv. Stat. Anal. 92:207–215, 2008).