Eine liberale Verteidigung des Kommunitarismus

In this contribution, the attempt is undertaken to place Weber’s value theory (Werttheorie) within the controversy between liberals and communitarians. Following Wolfgang Schluchter’s studies to Weber’s value theory, the concept of responsibility is worked out as a communitarian subject in Weber’s thinking. Individual responsibility, so my thesis, functions with Weber as an intersection, in which the freedom of the autonomous personality is connected with its cultural community. Against the background of this thesis, Max Weber’s ethics of responsibility is specified as a ?liberal defense of communitarianism“. It is a liberal defense because it is based on the primacy of the absolutely free personality and its inalienable rights. It is a communitarian concept because it is based on the idea of an situated self connected with cultural values, traditions, and institutions. The specific view on Max Weber’s value theory enables not only a dissociation of voluntaristic and legalistic interpretations, but rather also an updating of the ethics of responsibility as an alternative in the discussion between liberals and communitarians.     

Self‐regulation in early childhood: The role of siblings,center care and socioeconomic status

Differences in children's self‐regulation are assumed to be explained by genetic factors, socialization experiences, and sociodemographic risk. As for socialization, little research has addressed the influence of having siblings or attending early center based child care on emerging self‐regulation. As regarding sociodemographic risk, few studies have been conducted in countries characterized by high equality and little poverty. In a longitudinal study following 1157 children, we investigated presence of siblings, center care exposure in the first 3 years of life (attendance, hours, and child group size), and family socioeconomic status (SES) as predictors of hot and cool effortful control (EC), at the child's age 48 months. The results showed that having a sibling was consistently related to better hot EC, whereas higher SES predicted better cool EC. A small effect implied that hours in center care at 36 months negatively predicted hot EC, whereas center care group size at 36 months modestly predicted better cool EC. Otherwise, center care variables were unrelated to self‐regulation.     

Accidents and Unpleasant Incidents: Worry in Transport and Prediction of Travel Behavior

Worry on nine different means of transport was measured in a Norwegian sample of 853 respondents. The main aim of the study was to investigate differences in worry about accidents and worry about unpleasant incidents, and how these two sorts of worry relate to various means of transport as well as transport behavior. Factor analyses of worry about accidents suggested a division between rail transport, road transport, and nonmotorized transport, whereas analyses of worry about unpleasant incidents suggested a division between transport modes where you interact with other people and "private" transport modes. Moreover, mean ratings of worry showed that respondents worried more about accidents than unpleasant incidents on private transport modes, and more about unpleasant incidents than accidents on public transport modes. Support for the distinction between worry about accidents and unpleasant incidents was also found when investigating relationships between both types of worry and behavioral adaptations: worry about accidents was more important than worry about unpleasant incidents in relation to behavioral adaptations on private means of transport, whereas the opposite was true for public means of transport. Finally, predictors of worry were investigated. The models of worry about accidents and worry about unpleasant incidents differed as to what predictors turned out significant. Knowledge about peoples' worries on different means of transport is important with regard to understanding and influencing transport and travel behavior, as well as attending to commuters' welfare.     

Estimation in a competing risks proportional hazards model under length-biased sampling with censoring

What population does the sample represent? The answer to this question is of crucial importance when estimating a survivor function in duration studies. As is well-known, in a stationary population, survival data obtained from a cross-sectional sample taken from the population at time $t_0$ represents not the target density $f(t)$ but its length-biased version proportional to $tf(t)$ , for $t>0$ . The problem of estimating survivor function from such length-biased samples becomes more complex, and interesting, in presence of competing risks and censoring. This paper lays out a sampling scheme related to a mixed Poisson process and develops nonparametric estimators of the survivor function of the target population assuming that the two independent competing risks have proportional hazards. Two cases are considered: with and without independent censoring before length biased sampling. In each case, the weak convergence of the process generated by the proposed estimator is proved. A well-known study of the duration in power for political leaders is used to illustrate our results. Finally, a simulation study is carried out in order to assess the finite sample behaviour of our estimators.     

Verantwortliches Handeln als soziologischer Grundbegriff

As a critical modification of Parsons voluntaristic theory of action as well as of the theories of rational choice, this contribution suggests Max Weber’s concept of “responsibility” or “responsible action” as an enclosing model of action rationality, integrating both individual freedom of choice as well as over-individual categorical values. This systematical benefit of the concept of “responsibility” is especially due to the idea of a “value discussion”. This dialogical enlargement of rationality includes a modern theory of validity essentially needed to save the rationality of categorical values and to allow the equality of value-rational orientations next to questions of utility. This being said, responsibility can be presented as a basic concept of sociology, containing the key to an integrative social theory based on methodological individualism.     

Zeichen und Wunder

Zusammenfassung Unter dem Pontifikat von Johannes Paul II. (1978–2005) haben die Selig-und Heiligsprechungen in der katholischen Kirche eine bislang beispiellose Blütezeit erfahren: Er selbst hat bis 2004 insgesamt 482 Heiligsprechungen vorgenommen, also 180 mehr als alle seine Vorg?nger seit 1592. Hinzu kommen noch 1.338 Seligsprechungen (im Vergleich zu den 980 in den Jahrhunderten davor), weitere potentielle Kandidaten für die Heiligsprechungen in der Zukunft. Das Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es, diese au?ergew?hnliche Vermehrung der Seligen und Heiligen zu erkl?ren und, darauf aufbauend, die generelle Funktion der Selig-und Heiligsprechungen für die katholische Amtskirche zu analysieren. Unter Bezugnahme auf Max Webers Charismakonzept wird gezeigt, dass Selig-und Heiligsprechungen dazu dienen, der Amtskirche eine zus?tzliche Legitimation durch die Erweiterung der charismatischen Repr?sentation zu verschaffen. Die Funktion der Seligen und Heiligen ist es, das durch Versachlichung bedrohte Amtscharisma mit dem personalen Charisma der Seligen und Heiligen zu verbinden. Diese Legitimation des Amtscharismas durch „Repersonalisierung” stellt zugleich eine besondere, bislang unberücksichtigte Umbildungsform des genuinen Charismas dar, die ihrerseits eine Erweiterung des Weberschen Charismakonzepts erm?glicht.