Der Sinn der Modelle

With the exception of an indeed important formal detail of the model of frame selection, the criticism of Rohwer both on the model itself and on the general approach to explain divorces is not comprehensible. Partly, it consists of even serious misinterpretations, which are due to the fact that the author is not familiar with important textual backgrounds or did not consider them. Partly, global accusations are being made, which are finally true for any approach, which has not yet solved all problems beforehand, including all current approaches in the research on divorce. Besides the correction of the misinterpretations of the model of frame selection and sociological explanations, this contribution particularly proposes a simple solution of the formal problem.     

Do public pensions matter for health and wellbeing among retired persons? Basic and income security pensions across 13 Western European countries

Esser I, Palme J. Do public pensions matter for health and wellbeing among retired persons? Basic and income security pensions across 13 Western European countries Int J Soc Welfare 2010: ??: ??–??© 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. Mortality rates suggest that elderly people in the advanced welfare democracies have experienced dramatically improved health over the past decades. This study examined the importance of public pensions for self‐reported health and wellbeing among retired persons in 13 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in 2002–2005. New public pension data make it possible to distinguish between two qualities of pension systems: ‘basic security’ for those who have no or a short work history, and ‘income security’ for those with a more extensive contribution record. For enhanced cross‐national comparison, relative measures of ill‐health and wellbeing were constructed to account for cultural bias in responses to survey questions and heterogeneity among countries in the general level of population health. Overall, better health is found in countries with more generous pensions, although the results are gendered; for women's health, high basic security of the pension system appears to be particularly important. Women's wellbeing also tends to be more dependent on the quality of basic security.     

Child Aggression as a Source and a Consequence of Parenting Stress: A Three‐Wave Longitudinal Study

This longitudinal study examined the links between child aggression and parenting stress over 4 years. Child aggression was hypothesized to contribute to parenting stress, which should increase aggression. Parents and teachers of 239 German children aged between 6 and 15 years completed measures of child aggression at Time 1 and Time 3, complemented by children's self‐reports of aggression at Time 3. Parents rated their child‐focused and parent‐focused stress at an intermediate measurement Time 2. Child‐focused stress mediated the path from Time 1 to Time 3 aggression in boys and girls, whereas parent‐focused stress was unrelated to Time 3 aggression. The findings help to understand the continuity of aggressive behavior in childhood and adolescence and highlight the need to intervene early with families susceptible to parenting stress.     

Eines für alle(s)?

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag antwortet auf den in dieser Zeitschrift erschienenen Artikel „Moderater methodologischer Holismus. Eine weberianische Interpretation des Makro-Mikro-Makro-Modells” von Gert Albert (Jg. 57, 2005, S. 387—414) und die dort vertretene Hypothese, dass das Modell der soziologischen Erkl?rung weder die Berücksichtigung makrosozialer Strukturen, noch den Einbezug historischer Prozesse erlaube. Es wird gezeigt, dass diese These allenfalls für die von Coleman vertretene Version des Modells zutrifft, nicht aber für die inzwischen vorliegende Erweiterung, insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund der darin an zentraler Stelle vorkommenden Konzepte der sozialen Produktionsfunktionen, des Modells der Frame-Selektion und der Entwicklung von idealtypischen Strukturmodellen historisch-spezifischer Zusammenh?nge.     

In guten wie in schlechten Tagen?

In this contribution the model of frame-selection as an approach to integrate “normative” and “rational” action is being used for the explanation of divorce, operationalized and empirically tested with data of the Mannheim Divorce Study. Not only the evident effect of the “framing” of marriage at the beginning on the subsequent stability of marriage is shown, even after introducing control variables, but also a non-trivial interaction that is predicted by the model and that can be regarded as a “hard” test of it, namely the interaction of the framing of marriage with the belonging to a certain marriage cohort. At the same time this contribution is also discussing possibilities and advantages of a “general” theory of action for the social sciences in general.     

A framework for comparing social protection in developing and developed countries: The example of child benefits

Abstract   The article outlines a conceptual and theoretical framework for improved comparative analysis of publicly provided social protection in developing countries, drawing on the research tradition of the study of longstanding welfare democracies. An important element of the proposed institutional approach is the establishment of comparable qualitative and quantitative indicators for social protection. The empirical example of child benefits indicates that differences between developed and developing countries should not be exaggerated, and that the prevalence of child benefits in sub-Saharan African and Latin American countries today resembles the inter-war period (1919-1938) situation in developed regions.     

Populism and social media: how politicians spread a fragmented ideology

Populism is a relevant but contested concept in political communication research. It has been well-researched in political manifestos and the mass media. The present study focuses on another part of the hybrid media system and explores how politicians in four countries (AT, CH, IT, UK) use Facebook and Twitter for populist purposes. Five key elements of populism are derived from the literature: emphasizing the sovereignty of the people, advocating for the people, attacking the elite, ostracizing others, and invoking the ‘heartland’. A qualitative text analysis reveals that populism manifests itself in a fragmented form on social media. Populist statements can be found across countries, parties, and politicians’ status levels. While a broad range of politicians advocate for the people, attacks on the economic elite are preferred by left-wing populists. Attacks on the media elite and ostracism of others, however, are predominantly conducted by right-wing speakers. Overall, the paper provides an in-depth analysis of populism on social media. It shows that social media give the populist actors the freedom to articulate their ideology and spread their messages. The paper also contributes to a refined conceptualization and measurement of populism in future studies.     

Zum Tod von Alphons Silbermann (12.8.1909–4.3.2000)

Ohne Zusammenfassung