Working papers
Kontakt
Verwaltung der Professur
Sekretariat
Working papers
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2015_02-Delhey_Deutschmann.pdf?v=1448449529 The social density of Europe. A macro-sociological comparison of EU member statesBuilding onthe transactionalist paradigm in the tradition of Karl German, this article explores the question of why people's everyday practices and attitudes are more Europe-centred (and in this sense "Europeanised") in some EU member states than in others. Using survey data from several sources, partial correlation models for the EU-27 member states show that the determinants of Europeanisation in everyday practices and attitudes differ significantly. While practices are particularly Europe-centric in wealthier and smaller countries, attitudes are particularly Europe-centric in Eastern European countries and those geographically located in the centre of the EU. The analytical distinction between national opening and external closure as sub-dimensions of Europeanisation also proves to be fruitful. For example, it can be seen that although a better knowledge of English seems to promote an opening of everyday practices towards Europe, it also stands in the way of a cognitive closure towards the non-European world.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2015_01-pernicka.pdf?v=1447930954 Institutions, Agency, and Power in European Wage-Setting. A Transnational PerspectiveAgainstthe background of the Euro crisis, there has emerged a supranational coordination of wage policies that stands in sharp contrast to trade union attempts of transnational bargaining coordination since the late 1990s. While the former aims at institutional transformation towards market liberalism, the latter follows the principle of social protection. As a complementary perspective to current comparative political economic and IR scholarship that both analyse vertical power shifts in multilevel governance, this paper suggests a transnational perspective which picture Europeanisation as a society wide process not only restricted to politics. This can explain why some actors like the European Commission could enforce market liberalism in wage-policy surprisingly easy and fast, while trade union actors have been able to challenge orthodox worldviews and practices only under very particular circumstances.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2014-06_mueller.pdf?v=1438089365 European socialisation between social fields and social spaceFora long time, the discussion about European integration was dominated by a political science and legal perspective. Sociology, on the other hand, has taken some time to develop its own approach to this subject area, but in the meantime more and more relevant works are being published. However, a genuinely sociological general theoretical version of the complex of European integration and Europeanisation is still lacking. This paper makes an initial proposal as to what a corresponding theorisation based on Bourdieu's field theory might look like. With social fields and social space, the concept distinguishes between two central arenas of processes of national opening and European closure and summarises these under the term European socialisation. In both arenas, different mechanisms of Europeanisation are distinguished and interactions between social fields and social space are discussed.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2014-05_Delhey_Richter_Deutschmann_2014_SenseofCommunity_0.pdf?v=1438089365 Transnational Sense of Community in Europe: An Exploration with Eurobarometer DataTheongoing crises in Europe have revived the debate about whether Europeans possess or should possess a "sense of community". Conventionally, sense of community is investigated on a supranational dimension, approached mainly via concepts such as European identity or Euroscepticism. A different, heavily under-researched dimension is transnational sense of community, e.g. the attachment to other countries. In this paper we examine the extent to which Europeans feel transnationally attached to other countries, the geographical scope of this attachment, and the factors influencing it. 2010 Eurobarometer data (EB 73.3) provide the following insights: (1) The majority of EU citizens does feel attached to other countries. (2) Transnational practices, education, and minority status predict attachment to other countries, (3) EU citizens clearly feel more attached to other European countries than to non-European countries. In the discussion we contrast these findings with what is known about supranational approaches, to carve out to what extent transnational attachment is an independent component of Europeans' sense of community.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2014-04_delhey_etal.pdf?v=1438089365 Class Project or Individualisation? The Stratification of Europeans' Transnational ActivitiesInsociological research on transnationalism it is conventional wisdom that the upper strata are more involved in cross-border activities than the lower strata. At the same time, proponents of the individualisation/death-of-class thesis have argued that the significance of inequalities for people's actions and lifestyles is declining in affluent societies. This article investigates the influence of inequalities on transnational activity. Using Eurobarometer 73.3 survey data from 27 European countries, it is examined (a) to which extent inequalities determine, in absolute terms and relative to heterogeneities, transnational practices within countries; (b) which macro-level characteristics explain differences between countries, and (c) whether affluence moderates the impact inequalities have on transnational practices. The findings show that inequalities matter more for transnationalism than other factors in the majority of countries. Affluence and country size are central macro-determinants of transnational activity.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2014-03_israel.pdf?v=1438089365 Pathways from social stratification to material deprivationThispaper sheds light on the national influences which channel the risk of material deprivation within the European Union by using a multilevel model for 2011 EU SILC data. The aim of this paper is to explain why persons with low financial resources are particularly at risk of a lack of essential goods and services when living in a country with high social stratification. Three main mechanisms are identified that link high stratification to material deprivation: the payment of low social transfers, the restricted provision of social services and low social informal support as a result of lower social trust. The analysis shows that all factors are to a certain degree significant in explaining the cross-country variation in Europe. However, the main pathway between stratification and deprivation seems to be the lower provision of in-kind benefits in countries where the poor are marginalised. Higher levels of social services, meaning in-kind benefits in areas such as housing, healthcare or transport, could therefore substantially improve the living conditions of the income poor and reduce social exclusion within a political context of 'demanding' social activation policies.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2014-02_buttler_etal.pdf?v=1438089365 Connected Europe(ans)? The Quantitative Measurement of Horizontal EuropeanisationConsideringthe current process of horizontal Europeanisation which has resulted from the new opportunity structure created by the EU, this article discusses to what extent the European Member States are economically and socially intertwined. The proposition of this paper is that social interactions go hand in hand with economic interactions between the European Member States. In order to validate this assumption, a horizontal Europeanisation index that measures Europeanisation in contrast to globalisation was developed. The underlying variables of our index cover 25 European countries and were mainly collected from OECD and EUROSTAT. Almost all European countries are economically more Europeanised than globalised. We observed a medium correlation between the economic and social dimension, indicating a rather low systematic pattern between the two dimensions of horizontal Europeanisation in 2011. However, this assumption cannot be upheld when considering the time perspective from 2007 to 2011. Over time, social cross-border transactions are relatively disconnected from economic cross-border transaction.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2014-01_buettner_et_al.pdf?v=1447859378 Actors and Dimensions of EU Affairs Professionalism. A Topological ReviewInthis paper we conceptualize the European Union (EU) as a field of professionalisation and depict the emergence and various dimensions of what we call "EU Affairs professionalism". We argue that the European Union constitutes more than just a supra-national layer of decision-making and an influential institutional complex of policy-making, but is at the same time a pertinent and influential producer of expert knowledge providing the basis for the emergence of specialised job profiles, professional careers and working contexts. While usually acting in "the shadow" and "in the backdoors" of EU policy-making, these specialized groups of professionals make use of recognised expert knowledge, they have access to specific resources, they built up networks and collegial organisations, and they exhibit expert authority in their particular domains of activity. Drawing on social field theory and current approaches to professionalism and professionalization, the paper scrutinizes the emerging transnational field of EU Affairs professionalism in a topological manner by distinguishing different arenas and types of professional involvement characterising the ongoing professionalization of contemporary EU Affairs. In this way, we aim to go beyond prevailing bureaucracy- and governance-centred views on EU policy-making and establish a broader and more differentiated image of the people who actually deal with EU Affairs ranging from the major locations of EU policy-making far into the EU member states and even beyond.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2013-03_buettner_unity_in_diversity.pdf?v=1438089365 Unity in Diversity? The Standardised Diversification of EU RegionsItis argued in this contribution that regional diversification, thus the pronunciation of regional differences and particularities, reflects a global trend of spatial development these days. Within the administrative space of the current European Union, the mobilization of subnational territories has gained special attention, particularly within the framework of the EU regional policy and EU activities fostering "territorial cohesion" through the mobilization of regional agency and multiple development efforts on local and regional ground. This leads to the paradoxical situation that despite all pronunciation of regional uniqueness and difference the regional development strategies are becoming ever more similar and standardised all around Europe. The discussion of this peculiar "standardised diversification" of the EU territory is the central concern of this contribution. Based on a macrophenomenological research perspective in the tradition of the so-called world-polity-approach I propose to conceive of regional mobilisation in contemporary EUrope as a "world-cultural" project of social mobilisation. This enables us to shed light on the broader cultural foundations and the strong modernist thrust of current processes of Europeanisation, which is often overlooked in emphatic images of a Europe of regional diversity.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2013-02_reimann_atypische_beschaeftigung_und_soziale_ungleichheit_0.pdf?v=1438089365 Atypical employment and social inequality in Europe 2010Atypicalemployment has become increasingly important in Europe over the last 40 years. However, as will be shown, the proportions of atypical employees vary between social groups and different nation states. One objective of the European Employment Strategy is to achieve an employment rate of at least 75 per cent in the EU member states. In this context, the extent to which atypical forms of employment can be a means of achieving this is analysed. In addition to individual concerns, this form of employment is also an expression of specific labour market structures as well as economic, political and legal decisions. Finally, multivariate analyses are used to investigate which individual characteristics and national framework conditions are decisive in increasing the probability of atypical employment.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2013-01_buttler_subjective_poverty_0.pdf?v=1438089365 What determines subjective poverty? An evaluation of the link between relative income poverty measures and subjective economic stress within the EUTheinteraction between income poverty and individual socio-economic characteristics is widely discussed in contemporary sociological research. However, still relatively little is known about individual socio-demographic and institutional conditions and their impact on subjective feelings of poverty. This paper contributes to this debate. We analyse to what extent income poverty determines subjective poverty across Europe. The starting point of this paper is the observation that the relationship between income poverty and subjective poverty varies substantially across the European countries. It is hypothesised that feelings of subjective poverty are not only affected by individual or contextual factors. Rather, it is assumed that the importance of monetary resources in determining subjective poverty varies substantially across EU countries. We stress the importance of income poverty relative to the national and EU-wide income distribution in explaining subjective poverty. We derive explicit hypotheses and test them with data from the eighth wave of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (fielded in 2011). Based on unconditional models as well as a conditional multivariate logistic-regression with cross-level interaction terms for 28 EU nation-states, we find that subjective poverty in less prosperous countries can be predicted more accurately by an EU-poverty threshold, whereas the national poverty line predicts subjective poverty more accurately in prosperous countries does not seem to determine subjective poverty properly in any of the considered European nation-states. The main finding of this paper is the asymmetric effect of monetary resources on subjective poverty across the EU-countries. Thus, we conclude that future European poverty research should renounce the established national and EU-wide poverty thresholds, turning instead towards subjectively perceived income poverty thresholds. Thereby, it becomes possible to evaluate living standards in European countries appropriately and to define a data-driven minimum acceptable standard of living in the EU.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2012-03_lahusen_pan-european_contentions.pdf?v=1438089365 Towards Pan-European Contentions? European Integration and its Effects on Political MobilizationThepaper deals with the effects of European integration on political contentions and protest mobilizations. I argue that these effects are located on two different dimensions. On a social structural level, European integration is leading to a gradual fragmentation of cleavage structures and a multiplication of grievances; on a symbolic and cultural level, European integration is establishing pan-European debates that promote a common symbolic frame of reference for the identification and assessment of societal problems. This two-fold process is augmenting the number of (local) grievances and deprivations with a European scope, and thus increasing the potential contentiousness of the EU. Factual protest mobilisations, however, are determined by structures of inequalities, because not all groups and constituencies are willing and able to engage in pan-European contentions. The latter are still patterned by core-periphery relations and class structures, implying that socially less privileged constituencies from the European periphery have more difficulties in voicing their concerns transnationally.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2012-02_pernicka_glassner_trade_union_strategies_0.pdf?v=1438089365 Horizontal Europeanisation through trade union strategies in wage bargaining? A neo-institutional frameworkThisworking paper adopts sociological Neo-Institutionalism to devise a theoretical framework of trade union strategies in the context of international and European wage competition, European Monetary Union and the recent economic crisis. The main focus is on trade unions' contributions, i.e. institutional work, to the creation and maintenance of industrial relations institutions of wage bargaining coordination at European level, and hence, on the possible emergence of an organisational field of European wage policy. In empirical terms the paper takes a longitudinal perspective on the development of cross-national wage bargaining coordination in the metalworking sector. The paper concludes that normative and cultural-cognitive institutions have contributed to the ability and willingness of trade unions to engage in the creation and maintenance of transnational wage related institutions (such as bargaining guidelines) and hence, horizontal Europeanisation. However, two research outcomes deserve particular mention: 1) Rising levels of international and European (wage) competition did not per se result in an increase in cross-border cooperation of trade unions. In both time periods investigated, i.e. trade union initiatives in the early 1970s (DACH-initiative and Nordiska Metal) and transnational bargaining coordination initiatives since the 1990s, union strategies did NOT follow functional requirements. Rather, a minimum level of institutional support (such as by the European Works Council Directive) is necessary to open up room for manoeuvre to 'institutional entrepreneurs' who are willing and able to act transnationally. 2) Although MNCs appear to be still reluctant to enter bilateral wage bargaining coordination at transnational level, there is some empirical evidence that existing regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive pressures in combination with structural conditions (labour shortage in particular occupations/professions) induce business to cooperate with unions in particular sections of the economy.
- /fileadmin/proj/horizontal/downloads/pre-prints/PP_HoEu_2012-01_heidenreich_etal_europaeische_vergesellschaftungsprozesse.pdf?v=1438089365 European socialisation processes Horizontal Europeanisation between nation-state and global socialisationTheeconomic, legal and political integration of Europe has been at the centre of academic interest in the European integration process. However, since the 1990s in particular, European integration has also led to a fundamental transformation of social relations and people's living conditions. While people's lives in the post-war period were primarily organised within the framework of nation states, the opening up of nation-state spaces has been accompanied by increasing cross-border interdependence and stronger transnational integration of social interactions, attitudes and interpretations. The opening up of previously largely nationally regulated and limited social fields through European integration, among other things, is at the centre of the perspective proposed here. A concept of field-specific, conflict-prone "horizontal" Europeanisation processes is to be developed. Europe is thus understood as a field of fields. This concept is aimed at the field-specific dynamics, the multiple spatial references and the socio-structural effects of cross-border socialisation processes in selected areas. The aim is to gain a better understanding of selected Europeanisation processes, the associated conflicts, their socio-structural preconditions and their effects on patterns of social inequality.