Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Filling the ‘empty space’: Site-specific dance in a techno club

While organisational space has received broad scholarly attention, movement in organisational spaces remains under-researched. This paper introduces the notion of site-specific dance from dance theory to consider the dynamic relationship between space and people, emphasising that movements are a response to a space, its materiality and context. Berghain, in Berlin and one of the world’s most famous techno clubs, is discussed as a case. An interdisciplinary analysis shows how a site-specific performance is created through the interplay of the architecture, the sound and the music organised by the DJ, and the dancing crowd. Methodologically, the dance and performance studies approach develops suggestions for how to analyse movement interaction in organisational space. Reference to dance theory broadens our understanding of how organisational spaces and human interaction enable, produce and negotiate experiences that are transitory, embodied and difficult to pin down.     

European Migrant Professionals in Chinese Global Cities: A Diversified Labour Market Integration

Since the early 2000s, Chinese metropolises have been emerging as hubs for the national and global economy. They attract increasing numbers of foreigners with diverse socio‐economic and educational backgrounds who tend to immigrate independently of the Chinese initiatives focused on “foreign talents”. Our analysis contributes to the understanding of these migrants’ integration into the labour market. Through a Bourdieusian capital lens, this article unpacks the access to the labour market and occupational positions of Swiss and Swedish migrant professionals in mainland China. Differentiated by how they can capitalize upon their educational, occupational, social and cultural resources in this specific context, the article distinguishes between three categories: corporarate expatriates, local hires and entrepreneurs and concludes with policy recommendations to stabilize their residence conditions.     

Individual Uncertainty About Longevity

This article presents an assessment of individual uncertainty about longevity. A survey performed on 3,331 French people enables us to record several survival probabilities per individual. On this basis, we compute subjective life expectancies (SLE) and subjective uncertainty regarding longevity (SUL), the standard deviation of each individual’s subjective distribution of her or his own longevity. It is large and equal to more than 10 years for men and women. Its magnitude is comparable to the variability of longevity observed in life tables for individuals under 60, but it is smaller for those older than 60, which suggests use of private information by older respondents. Our econometric analysis confirms that individuals use private information—mainly their parents’ survival and longevity—to adjust their level of uncertainty. Finally, we find that SUL has a sizable impact, in addition to SLE, on risky behaviors: more uncertainty on longevity significantly decreases the probability of unhealthy lifestyles. Given that individual uncertainty about longevity affects prevention behavior, retirement decisions, and demand for long-term care insurance, these results have important implications for public policy concerning health care and retirement.     

Stochastic Forecasting of Labor Supply and Population: An Integrated Model

This paper presents a stochastic model to forecast the German population and labor supply until 2060. Within a cohort-component approach, our population forecast applies principal components analysis to birth, mortality, emigration, and immigration rates, which allows for the reduction of dimensionality and accounts for correlation of the rates. Labor force participation rates are estimated by means of an econometric time series approach. All time series are forecast by stochastic simulation using the bootstrap method. As our model also distinguishes between German and foreign nationals, different developments in fertility, migration, and labor participation could be predicted. The results show that even rising birth rates and high levels of immigration cannot break the basic demographic trend in the long run. An important finding from an endogenous modeling of emigration rates is that high net migration in the long run will be difficult to achieve. Our stochastic perspective suggests therefore a high probability of substantially decreasing the labor supply in Germany.     

Influence of competition level on referees’ decision-making in handball

The influence of competition level on referees’ decision-making was investigated. Referees’ decisions in 90 handball games (30 games X 3 competition levels) were observed in different situations related to the advantage rule, and 100 referees from two different levels of expertise were subsequently asked to offer explanations for the competition-level effects from the first part of the study. Results revealed that at the highest level of competition referees intervened less frequently with sporting sanctions, but more frequently with disciplinary sanctions. These effects were apparent mainly in immediate intervention situations and unsuccessful advantage situations, but not in successful situations. Referees explained these effects of competition level in terms of a player competence stereotype, in addition to referees’ different expertise across competition level. The implications of the findings for understanding how status-related stereotypes impact on intervention behavior are discussed.     

Trajectories of Gambling During Adolescence

This study aimed at empirically identifying groups of adolescents with distinct longitudinal trajectories of gambling involvement and validating these groups by comparing them with respect to correlates. 903 low SES boys were followed annually from age 11 to 16 years. Three groups were found: an early-onset high-level chronic group, a late-onset high-level group, and a low gambler group. The Chronic group and the Low group consistently differed on teacher-rated inhibition (i.e., anxiety) during childhood and early adolescence. They also differed on concurrent teacher and self ratings of disinhibition (i.e., impulsivity), while the Late Onset group appeared to lie in between these groups. Compared to the Low group, both high groups subsequently had elevated scores on later gambling related problems.     

Generic Assessment Endpoints Are Needed for Ecological Risk Assessment

This article presents arguments for the development of generic assessment endpoints for ecological risk assessment. Generic assessment endpoints would be ecological entities and attributes that are assumed to be worthy of protection in most contexts. The existence of generic assessment endpoints would neither create a requirement that they be used in every assessment nor preclude the use of other assessment endpoints. They would simply be a starting point in the process of identifying the assessment endpoints for a particular assessment. They are needed to meet legal mandates, to provide a floor for environmental degradation, to provide some consistency in environmental regulation, as exemplars for site- or project-specific assessment endpoints, to allow development of methods and models, to give risk managers the courage to act, for screening and site-independent assessments, to support environmental monitoring, to facilitate communication, and to avoid paralysis by analysis. Generic assessment endpoints should include not only a list of entities and attributes, but also explanations of each endpoint, guidance on their use and interpretation, and measures and models that could be used to estimate them.     

THE SEX WHICH IS NOT ONE

Do so-called anti-globalization movements ignore gender issues? It would be erroneous to conclude – in accordance with mainstream feminist theory that considers all social movements alone with reference to ‘male hegemony’ – that alter-globalization movements are so inscribed into the patriarchal system as to silence feminist voices. In fact, the gender problematic is not absent from the debates of the Social Forums and all principal organizations take up gender onto their agenda. The opening of the alter-globalization discourse to the gender perspective occurs out of necessity and is not the result of a process of paying lip-service to a relevant topic. We will therefore reconstruct the normative mechanism whereby gender is set on the agenda and study concretely how the relevant actors experience and effect this appropriation. In doing this they encounter other activists with a long mobilization record, both feminists and post-feminists. This encounter may give rise to processes of alliance or processes of conflict. Gender thus constitutes a challenge for alter-globalization politics and indeed often a highly contested issue.