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In this paper, we estimate the causal effects of a set of active labor market programs for male unemployed refugees on welfare who entered Germany between, 2013 and September, 2016. Using rich administrative data, we employ covariate balancing propensity scores combined with inverse probability weighting to estimate effects up to 33 months after the start of treatment. Our results show that relatively short-term training in the form of Schemes by Providers and In-Firm Training, as well as longer-term Further Vocational Training programs have a positive impact on both the employment chances as well as labor market earnings of refugees in the medium run. So-called "One Euro Jobs", a public employment program, does not yield positive effects on employment or earnings. Sensitivity analyses confirm that our results are unlikely to be driven by unobserved confounding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, as in many other European countries, vast changes in the welfare regime – towards workfare – have taken place. As a central activating element of workfare, sanctions were introduced to take effect by temporarily increasing deprivation through benefit cuts. This paper provides first quantitative insights on the effect of first sanctions on deprivation and contributes to the recent debate on the (un)constitutionality of sanctions, which re-emerged after a verdict of the Federal Constitutional Court, criticizing the lack of knowledge about the effects of sanctions on those affected. We implement a difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach that addresses selection on observables and individual time constant unobserved differences. High data accuracy is ensured by combining the "Panel Labour Market and Social Security" (PASS) with administrative data from the Federal Employment Agency. The results illustrate a slightly higher yet statistically insignificant level of deprivation for first-sanctioned unemployment/basic income recipients compared to non-sanctioned recipients. The results hint in the direction that higher levels of deprivation are not what activates the sanctioned beneficiaries to reintegrate into the labour market. We discuss whether the results imply a significant deviation from the socio-cultural subsistence minimum of sanctioned recipients and a failure of the welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the link between young people's well‐being and the creative arts is strengthening, there is a lack of research which focuses on the roles that artists play to help teachers and parents engage young people in the creative arts. This paper explores the benefits of and barriers to artists working in education in six European countries (England, Iceland, Germany, Greece, Italy and Austria). Using the '5A's model of creativity' and a view of professional development taking place within 'landscapes of practice', the data were analysed in order to explain how creativity is operationalised in the different contexts. Our study highlights the need for policy at a national and transnational level to value the creative arts in order to help teachers cross boundaries and utilise the full potential of the creative arts in schools. Our study also highlights that further research is needed into how artists shape teaching and curriculum and how schools engage parents in the creative arts in order to build an evidence‐base relating to young people's positive mental health that can affect policy at these levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE PAPER AIMS TO ANALYZE AND PRESENT THE SECURITY IMPACT OF THE MIGRATION PHENOMENON, REFERRING TO ITS TWO MAIN REASONS, THE NEED FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY AND THE NEED FOR FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPERITY. IN ORDER TO PROVIDE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE MIGRATION PHENOMENON, THE ANALYSIS WILL FOCUS ON ITS IMPLICATIONS IN TWO DIFFERENT CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES WITH STRONG ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, WHICH NOT ONLY HAVE A DIFFERENT CULTURE AND SYSTEM OF VALUES AND BELIEFS BUT ALSO A DIFFERENT ECONOMIC SYSTEM. THE MODELS OF NOMAD INTEGRATION IN THE UNITE ARABS EMIRATES AND GERMANY WILL BE SUBJECT TO THE CURRENT ANALYSIS AND WILL REVEAL THE IMPACT OF PUBLIC POLICIES AND UNDERTAKEN MEASURES ON REFUGEES AND THE PRESERVATION OF INTERNAL SECURITY. MOREOVER, THE COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO MODELS WILL HIGHLIGHT BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECTS IN ORDER TO PROVIDE THE READER A CLEAR AND CONCISE IMAGE OF THE MIGRATION PHENOMENON. THE EMPIRICAL DATA USE TO ANALYZE THE IMPLICATION OF THE MIGRATION PHENOMENON WILL INCLUDE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, SPECIALIZED PAPERS AND PRESS ARTICLES THAT PROVIDES RECENT AND RELEVANT INFORMATION REGARDING THIS ISSUE. AS WE NOTICED THE INCREASING LEVEL OF COMPLEX INTERDEPENDENCIES AND THE EMERGENCE OF ASYMMETRIC THREATS HAVE PLAYED A CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE RECENT DYNAMICS OF PEOPLE MOVEMENTS, LEADING TO MASSIVE DISPLACEMENT OF POPULATION FROM WAR THEATERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST TO SAFE AND DEVELOP COUNTRIES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During talk, parliamentarians (re)negotiate the boundaries of mainstream and marginal politics. With far‐right parties in parliament(s) in force, center‐right parties—especially those that have coopted far‐right stances—must establish and maintain their position within the political mainstream, while ostracizing and marginalizing neighboring positions from the far‐right. Drawing on video data of policy debates in the German Bundestag, this paper takes a conversation analytic approach to examining practices deployed by members of mainstream parties for rejecting proposals made by the far‐right. It shows ways center‐right politicians (re)produce both the mainstream and their own political identity by rejecting such proposals without also rejecting outright the underlying stance. By distinguishing between oppositional and proximate stancetaking, this analysis further demonstrates ways that politicians orient to stancetaking as structuring rejection formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comments on the EU's legal framework for screening foreign direct investment. This concerns the EU Regulation related to this matter. The difficulty of determining in certain cases whether a company is controlled by a foreign government is shown using the example of Huawei. The paper argues that the current screening mechanisms should be modified so that they also take into consideration reciprocity, namely whether the country of origin of foreign direct investment equally allows access to foreign direct investment from the EU. The German screening mechanism is analysed along with the most notable cases of Chinese foreign direct investment that aroused the suspicion of the German authorities. The paper highlights the discrepancy between the legal justification for blocking foreign direct investment, in particular public policy and public security reasons, with the reality in which investments are often analysed from the government standpoint of the economic or political consequences of the investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reconstructs the invention of the loose file system in German psychiatry in the early nineteenth century as a special case of medical and juridical relationship. The loose file allows the gathering of all information of the treatment of the respective patient in one folder, which enables it to be reordered for the different ways of reimbursing care, providing cure, and to store the patient’s file for re-use in the case of re-admission. Psychiatry was the first discipline to introduce the new filing system. The reason for this was not, I argue, a medical one. Legislation and juridical debates about the status of the mentally ill person prompted a new admission procedure. The new Prussian General Law Code required a formal ‘declaration of lunacy’ which was negotiated in a regular trial. ‘Lunatics and raving mad persons’ came under the ‘special supervision and preventative care of the state’. The legal procedure produced questionnaires, reports and protocols which drove the patient-related record keeping in the psychiatric departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unemployment strongly influences a person's economic resources and life chances. Especially for unemployed individuals who have to rely on means-tested benefits, episodes of unemployment often go along with substantial material restrictions. Therefore, from a policy perspective, measures or regulations that might shorten unemployment episodes and reduce overall unemployment are particularly important. In this paper, we analyse whether concessions regarding the characteristics of the job searched for influence an individual's unemployment duration. In doing so, we focus on a particular aspect of availability requirements in Germany. This is the fact that for unemployed recipients of means-tested benefits almost all types of jobs count as suitable employment and, therefore, recipients are obliged to make job-related concessions if offered a job requiring such concessions. The results indicate that there is no positive effect of making concessions regarding qualification requirements or status on employment chances. In contrast, there are positive effects of wage concessions. However, searching for a job in a different occupation (that does not necessarily imply a concession) has a comparable, positive effect on finding employment. Thus, it appears that being generally flexible regarding one's future occupation might be at least as important for employment chances as making concessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employees of the public employment services (PES) are street-level bureaucrats who shape activation policy on the ground. This paper examines how PES staff use enhanced discretion in an innovation project carried out by the German Federal Employment Agency. Applying a bottom-up perspective, we reconstruct PES employees' logic of action and the dilemmas they face in improving counselling and placement services. According to our findings, placement staff use enhanced discretion to promote more individualised support and an adequate matching of jobseekers and employers. The use of discretion is framed by organisational norms and reward mechanisms and by the current labour market situation. Our analyses are based on qualitative interviews and group discussions with placement staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since European Union (EU) enlargement in 2003, labour migration from East to West and South to North has increased. It is to be expected that a share of these workers will want to retire in their host countries. According to the academic literature, EU legislation protects such mobility well by allowing the transfer of rights accrued in any EU country to another. However, such research has focused on legislation, not outcomes. We know little about how migration will affect the financial status of retired migrants in their host country and their ability to sustain a life there, should they stay after retirement. Using migration, wage and pension policy data (Eurostat, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), this paper projects the post-retirement incomes of a range of hypothetical EU migrants, selected in relation to the most common migratory flows since 2003. After having worked in their home countries (Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy) for at least ten years, these people move to richer countries (Italy, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom) and work there for at least 30 years. To determine whether they can remain settled after decades of labour force participation in the host country, the paper adds their pension entitlements from home and host countries and compares this income with the relative poverty line of the host countries. This shows that good portability of entitlements matters little when these are very low because of a large wage gap between home and host country. Thus, after at least 30 years of enjoying all citizenship rights as workers, most of these individuals are projected to receive incomes below the relative poverty line of their host countries and thus experience a sharp drop in this status. Their citizenship is diminished. The paper concludes by considering policies that could avoid such an outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration is one of the most contentious fields in policy-making, not only on the European and national, but also on the local level. Due to the declining and ageing populations, European cities today increasingly need immigration. On the other side, rightwing populist parties are increasing, who are following an antimigrant agenda. This paper examines the opportunities that cities have to more effectively attract migrants at the municipal level. The literature indicates that cities cannot pursue their own migration policies given their dependence on states' migration regimes. Cities face a dilemma. They are responsible for integrating migrants but not for recruiting them. Urban growth policies and urban planning approaches often aim to attract highly skilled workers, creative classes and students. But cities have no control over the inflow of refugees, however, as they are allocated by the state. Against this backdrop, this article examines and compares the cities of Bremen and Leipzig to assess which immigration strategies German cities are developing and whether a shift from reactive integration plans to proactive immigration policies is occurring. In the conclusion, the paper reflects on factors that encourage and hinder the formulation of immigration strategies and explain the 'strategy gap' at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour market activation policies aimed at those with multiple barriers to employment require inter-agency collaboration between local organizations providing social and employment services. This local collaborative context is shaped by different institutional logics (state, markets, professions and community) that are crucial for policy implementation. Using case studies of nine German, UK and Swedish cities, it is argued that different institutional logics help shape the form and operation of local collaboration between different agencies and actors and thus the concrete support for service users at the local level. Although all three countries are characterized by centralized employment policies, each city shows a prevalence, but not exclusivity, of certain institutional logics over others. These differences, partly reflecting the local context, are likely to lead to local variations in understandings of solidarity, policy implementation, inter-agency collaboration and networks of actors and national–local tensions. The paper suggests that an institutional logics approach provides a useful framework for helping to understand local variations and potential national–local policy conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Means-tested transfer schemes in Europe and elsewhere tend to include not only income tests but also asset tests of various sorts. The role of asset tests in minimum income protection provisions has been extensively researched in the Anglo-Saxon context. Far fewer authors have assessed the role of asset tests on social policy in a continental European context. Although asset tests may be useful in singling out the more deserving of the poor, we know relatively little of their actual impact on eligibility and social outcomes in European welfare states. This paper looks at the prevalence and design of asset tests in European minimum income protection schemes. We distinguish between two main types of asset tests: outright disqualification when assets reach a certain value, versus a more gradual tapering at a fictional rate of return. We then analyse in greater detail how asset tests in Belgium and Germany, as representatives of these two types, affect minimum income protection eligibility and poverty outcomes. We use the EUROMOD microsimulation model on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey data in order to assess the effects of asset tests. This survey was explicitly designed to more realistically reflect assets and capital incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the discretionary reasoning of the judiciary in three jurisdictions, England, Germany and Norway, in cases deciding whether a newborn child is safe with her parents or intervention is necessary. Our analysis focuses on one specific dimension of decision makers' exercise of discretion, namely, if and how the strengths and weaknesses of the mother are considered. The data material consists of all decisions concerning care orders of newborns from one large city in Germany from 2015 to 2017 (n = 27) and 2016 in Norway (n = 76) and all publicly available newborn removal decisions in England for 2015–2017 (n = 14). The findings reveal a high number of risk factors in the cases and less focus on risk‐reducing factors. The situation of the newborn is considered to be harmful, as most cases result in a care order. Judicial discretion differs by how much information, and what types of factors, are included in the justification for the decision. A learning point for decision makers and policymakers would be to actively undertake a balancing act between risk‐increasing and risk‐reducing factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than 30 years, AIDS activists have been fighting for harm reduction – i.e. needle and syringe programs, and opioid substitution treatment – in German prisons. From the 1990s onwards, international and national legal contexts emerged around HIV/AIDS, prisons, and drug use, significantly impacting activists' engagements with the law. Based on archival research, interviews and observations of AIDS prison activism in (West) Germany, this paper explores how activism focused on enhancing access to a right to health for imprisoned people who inject drugs (PWID) has shifted from medical disobedience and radical critique to judicial action. Building on anthropological debates about biological citizenship and juridification, I argue that the citizenship status of prisoners has transformed with the juridification of health activism. Disobedient acceptance-based activism, morally calling upon human rights, evoked imprisoned PWID as self-determined and worthy members of the body politic. As judicialized activism adopts the biomedical discourse on drug 'addiction', the prisoner is reconfigured into a deserving patient, whose rights are bound to the responsibility to normalize. Accounting for the varied means and channels through which prisoner biological citizenship is negotiated allows for better understanding the different and shifting responses to the unfolding epidemic from a heterogeneous European civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are increasingly seeking to learn from experiences elsewhere when planning programmes of sustainable transition management, and the contingencies of policy-learning arrangements in this field are beginning to receive greater attention. This paper applies insights from the field of policy mobilities to the burgeoning field of transition management to critically explore a proposed ‘learning relationship’ between Berlin (Germany) and Manchester (UK) around cycling policy. Drawing on qualitative data, the paper casts doubt over the existing consensus attributing recent growth in bicycle use in Berlin to concerted governmental interventions. A multi-actor analysis suggests that contextual factors caused the growth in cycling and that policy has been largely reactive. The emergence and circulation of the Berlin cycling renaissance as a policy model is then traced through policy documents and interviews with actors in Manchester, UK, to understand why and how it has become a model for action elsewhere. It is concluded that Berlin’s cycling renaissance has been simplified and mobilised to demonstrate the requisite ambition and proficiency to secure competitive funds for sustainable urban transport. The paper develops an original study of the role policy knowledge and learning play in sustainable urban transition management, and argues that attending to the dynamics of policy learning can enhance our understanding of its successes and failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to benchmark the municipal solid waste (MSW) management performance of the NUTS 2-regions in the EU by constructing a composite indicator. In order to account for commensurability, weighting and aggregation issues of the performance indicators in regional waste and materials' management, this paper advocates a conditional directional distance version of the Benefit-of-the-Doubt weighting technique. In addition, the waste management hierarchy defined by the EU is strongly embedded in the construction of our composite indicator. The results reveal considerable differences in the aggregate performance of the regions, even within Member States. In general, waste sectors of the NUTS 2-regions in Austria, Belgium, and Germany generally do well in terms of MSW management. Our results also reveal that some differences in the operating environment of the regions, such as the number of tourist overnight stays, are related to the aggregate performance of the regions. However, the observation that other conditions are not significantly related to the performance on a regional level is interesting as many policy makers frequently argue that the level of performance in their regions cannot be compared to that in other regions precisely due to this difference in operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on a policy document prepared by Jurgen Ruttger, Germany's research minister, concerning the federal funding of space research. The focus on projects that promise economic return; The proposed merger of the German Space Agency with the national air and space research center.

Modern welfare regimes rest on a range of actors – state, market, family/households, employers and charities – but austerity programmes diminish the contribution of the state. While changes in this 'welfare mix' require support from the population, attitude studies have focused mainly on people's views on state responsibilities, using welfare regime theory to explain differences. This paper contributes to our understanding of the welfare mix by including other providers such as the market, the family or employers, and also introduces social risk theories, contrasting new and old risks. Regime theory implies differences will persist over time, but risk theory suggests that growing similarities in certain risks may tend to promote international convergence. This article examines attitudes to the roles of state, market, family, charity/community and employer for pension and childcare in Germany and the UK. We collected data using deliberative forums, a new method in social policy research that allows citizens space to pursue extended lightly moderated discussion and permits researchers to analyse people's justifications for their attitudes. Our research indicated patterns of convergence especially in preferences for childcare, but that regime predominates in people's justifications for their attitudes: regime differences in attitudes are resilient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into the role of place in shaping inequalities in health has focused largely on examining individual and/or localised drivers, often using a context-composition framing. Whilst this body of work has advanced considerably our understanding of the effects of local environments on health, and re-established an awareness of the importance of place for health, it has done so at the expense of marginalising and minimising the influences of macro political and economic structures on both place and health. In this paper, we argue that: (i) we need to scale up our analysis, moving beyond merely analysing local horizontal drivers to take wider, vertical structural factors into account; and (ii) if we are serious about reducing place-based health inequalities, such analysis needs be overtly linked to appropriate policy levers. Drawing on three case studies (the US mortality disadvantage, Scotland's excess mortality, and regional health divides in England and Germany) we outline the theoretical and empirical value of taking a more political economy approach to understanding geographical inequalities in health. We conclude by outlining the implications for future research and for efforts to influence policy from 'scaling up' geographical research into health inequalities. • Health-place research commonly examines focuses individual and/or localised drivers. • Health geography should 'scale up' analysis of health-place relationships. • Research needs to account for wider, vertical and structural factors. • Political economic approaches add value to insight on geographic health inequalities. • Considers the policy implications of taking a political economy approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This article seeks to clarify how autonomous vehicles (AV) could affect urban planning and the built environment, to what extent these effects are compatible with municipalities' existing objectives, and what lessons can be drawn from that. The paper combines a systematic review of the literature, a quantitative online survey, and qualitative interviews with representatives from urban transport planning authorities in Germany. Four concrete 'use-cases' were applied to structure the survey. Results show that respondents are rather skeptical about the compatibility of AV with existing transport and urban planning objectives, above all to strengthen non-motorized transportation and to promote public transportation. Particularly, automating private motorized travel appears not to match municipal planning perspectives. On the contrary, transport planners think that shared autonomous vehicles as a complement to public transport systems are more appropriate to support urban development strategies. Their most prominent concern with respect to AV is the expectation that car travel will increase with AV, propagating problems like congestion and negative environmental effects. However, survey respondents expect that effects differ quite strongly depending on how AV will occur. As a lesson, the study suggests that different AV use-cases should receive specific attention to explore their potentials and challenges. The study likewise suggests to, given the discrepancy between the objectives of urban transport planning and federal government's policy focus, consider consolidating the communal strategic positions on research and development priorities. The results indicate a demand for studies that demonstrate how AV can respond to more fundamental challenges and goals that city planner's face. Given the wide range of potential implications, the study suggests to broaden the debate from its present primary focus on the transport planning domain to city planning and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How receiving society members perceive and respond to immigration are crucial factors that shape the context of reception for immigrants coming to a new country. In this paper, we examine these processes through the lens of intergroup contact research, with a focus on relations between immigrants and members of receiving societies, to discern ways in which receiving societies are or are not welcoming toward immigrants. Reviewing recent theorizing with illustrative empirical studies and ongoing programs of research that focus on new immigrants in Germany and the United States, we describe how direct and indirect forms of positive and negative contact can serve either to facilitate or inhibit positive immigrant‐receiving community relations. We also discuss factors that may contribute to the emergence of positive and negative contact experiences between immigrants and receiving society members. We close with a discussion of policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteering is an under-studied yet potentially beneficial avenue for immigrant integration. Whereas past research has provided important insights into the benefits of immigrant volunteering, it has been frequently based on convenience samples. This paper contributes to the literature on immigrant volunteering on two levels. First, we test less explored questions: the differences between immigrant and native-born volunteers on several volunteer indicators, and the contextual factors (cultural, social, and organisational) associated with immigrants’ proclivity to volunteer. Second, we rely on a representative sample of the German population, and use propensity score matching to strengthen the robustness of our analysis. Findings suggest that, although native-born individuals display higher rates of volunteering than immigrants, they do not significantly differ on most indicators once immigrants become volunteers. Furthermore, time since migration, social networks and organisational membership are significant drivers of immigrant volunteering. Our findings are a signal for policymakers because social policies could better address contextual and organisational barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the situation of non-governmental religious schools in Germany. The available empirical data demonstrate an increasing demand for these schools in recent decades. In this paper, possible causes of this development are discussed. First, the given constitutional framework for religion in governmental and non-governmental schools is presented. The particularity of the German school system comes into view: not only the churches but also the state – as an expression of its neutrality towards religion – maintains religious schools; furthermore, denominational religious instruction is also given in governmental non-religious schools. Second, the phenomenon of religious school selection will be considered: in which educational domains are non-governmental religious schools increasing? Where are they decreasing? Third, hypotheses explaining these developments – such as the special educational profiles of non-governmental religious schools, the wish for social distinction, avoiding problems of governmental schools, and better performance – are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT Research on ideological attitudes has identified two main dimensions that refer to two fundamental features of group organization: social solidarity and social control. In response to prior research that has studied their relationship mainly from a correlational perspective, this paper introduces a social reality model based on psychological functionality of ideological attitudes. Social position variables (education, income and material vulnerability) and insecurity variables (fear of crime and distrust) are used to predict the interplay between ideological attitudes towards social solidarity and social control. Using K-means cluster analysis, a typology with four patterns of support for solidarity and control ('socials', 'repressives', 'minimalists' and 'social-repressives') was created, on the basis of representative survey data for the UK, France and Germany ( N = 7034). Results from logistic regression analyses show that the proposed social reality model explains membership in typology categories, with similar results across the three countries. Overall, the model underscores the social origins of ideological attitudes as functional responses to perceived social reality. The paper illustrates how the social psychological study of ideological attitudes may be enriched by a typological approach that examines patterns of attitudes rather than single dimensions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have begun to tackle the social and cultural dimensions of perceiving and framing climate change. Scholars from geography and environmental psychology in particular have started to highlight the importance of so-called place-based approaches to studying regional and local framings of climate change. This paper stands in this tradition. It reports on findings derived from a nationwide survey of perceptions of and reactions to extreme weather events and interviews conducted with inhabitants of three islands in the coastal region of North Frisia (Germany). Coastal dwellers understand climate change through the lens of local and regional experiences of meteorological phenomena, seasonal changes, knowledge of the sea, and changes in local flora and fauna. Our detailed ecolinguistic analysis revealed six prevailing conceptual metaphors: Climate change is an enemy, preventing climate change is fight/war, climate change is punishment for human sins, climate change is overheating/heat, climate change is hot air/hoax and climate change is eco-dictatorship. These metaphors were used to make sense of climate change at the regional level and provide insights into place-based social and cultural conceptualisations of climate change. An understanding of these meanings should feed into developing more grounded climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in coastal regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some commentators view reforms to the German political economy since the 1990s as constituting a broad liberalisation of a previously coordinated market economy (e.g., Streeck, 2009). Others argue that by maintaining protection for core workers the reforms represent a dualisation rather than liberalisation (e.g., Palier and Thelen, 2010). This debate has paid little attention to public–private pension reform since 2001. This paper argues that pensions have been a crucial component of the German social model since 1957 and demonstrates why comprehensive analysis of its development must consider them. After summarising how public and occupational pensions have supported core German workers since 1957, the paper calculates core workers’ projected net pensions and those of less privileged employees before and after recent reforms. On this basis, it concludes that pension reforms have created a system more characteristic of a liberal than a dualised political economy. Since the reform, the projected pensions of today's young workers are closer to the poverty line, and the gap between the projected benefits of core and peripheral workers has narrowed. Increasingly, as young core workers age, they will thus have less incentive to invest in employer specific skills, a development that threatens the model as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background/Context: This paper is in dialogue with critical policy scholarship that has developed a certain consensus about what neoliberalism is and what its impact has been on recent education policy. A substantial part of the paper comprises a synthesis of recent German scholarship on neoliberal education policies in that country. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Drawing on critical analysis of neoliberal education policy, this paper examines a recent education reform measure in Hamburg, Germany. A key component of the intended reform measure was defeated by a ballot initiative spearheaded by a coalition of Hamburg residents widely understood to represent the city's wealthy elite. Making sense of the controversy over this reform measure is the central goal of this paper. To do so, I identify five features of neoliberal education policy in Germany and use them as a framework within which to read the specific reform measure in Hamburg and the resistance to it. Research Design: This paper reports an interpretive policy analysis and draws on document sources from four interpretive communities: (a) Hamburg's education ministry; (b) two pro-reform coalitions; (c) one anti-reform coalition; and (c) news media sources. A total of 389 documents were collected for this study, to which I applied a grounded theory approach for data analysis. Conclusions/Recommendations: By reading this controversy against previous scholarship on neoliberal education policy, I argue that this specific case of education reform in Hamburg does not follow the pattern such analysis would predict. By stressing this divergence, I neither intend to challenge the consensus on neoliberalism within critical policy scholarship, nor to position this reform policy as a panacea to neoliberal ills. Rather, I argue that the anomalous nature of this specific reform effort in Hamburg provides two unique analytical opportunities: (a) to understand more deeply the constraints imposed by neoliberalism on schooling, especially in a context of policy making that bucks the neoliberal trend; and (b) to identify more clearly what educational policy strategies are required to move beyond neoliberal imperatives for schooling and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effectiveness of participation in environmental governance is a proliferating assertion in literature that is also reflected in European legislation, such as the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). The Directive mandates participatory river basin management planning across the EU aiming at the delivery of better policy outputs and enhanced implementation. Yet, the impact of this planning mode in WFD implementation remains unclear, though the first planning phase was completed in 2009 and the first implementation cycle by the end of 2015. Notwithstanding the expanding body of literature on WFD implementation, a rather scattered single case study approach seems to predominate. This paper reports on implementation of the WFD in three case studies from Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, reflecting three substantially different approaches to participatory river basin management planning, on the basis of a comparative case study design. We ask if and how participation improved the environmental standard of outputs and the quality of implementation. We found an increasing quality of outputs with increasing intensity of local participation. Further, social outcomes such as learning occurred within dialogical settings, whereas empowerment and network building emerged also in the case characterized mainly by one-way information. Finally, one important finding deviant from the literature is that stakeholder acceptance seems to be more related to processes than to outputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expansion of renewable energies in Germany is strongly associated with decentralization of energy provision. In the case of wind energy there are especially strong regional-level spatial, technical, economic, and social ramifications of this energy source. In addition to differing natural conditions and the strong push from the federal feed-in tariffs, policies and initiatives at the state, county, and municipal level need to be considered when explaining the pattern of wind energy expansion across time and space and to improve the coordination of multi-level energy policies. This paper uses panel regressions at the level of German counties from 2001 to 2012 to explore the growth of wind power capacity. Based on the estimates obtained, we then analyze counterfactual scenarios in which factors influenced by the regional (county) level are varied individually. Our focus is on party policy preferences and coalitions on the one hand, and the unemployment rate on the other. While strict causality is difficult to establish, our results reveal heterogeneous incentives between states, within states, and between different county types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regularized intergovernmentalism refers to a distinct kind of foreign policy practice that connects and intertwines foreign policy processes in particular ways. This paper puts forth a concept to properly capture and expose such distinctive foreign policy realities characterizing certain periods and places. With this concept, the article systematically scrutinizes the intergovernmental fabric of bilateral Franco–German relations from 1963 to 2009. The characteristic features of Franco–German regularized intergovernmentalism represent a crucial foreign policy connection, foundational for European affairs of the past half century and a defining feature of Europe’s post-war order and regional governance. Exploring key aspects of what it is that links France and Germany in particular ways, this paper offers a historically deeply grounded constitutive analysis. Based on its constitutive inquiries, the papers points at new possibilities of causal theorizing and explores some of regularized intergovernmentalism’s hypothesized effects and limitations. Franco–German intergovernmental affairs may be the most developed instance of this practice. But regularized bilateral intergovernmentalism is not a Franco–German idiosyncrasy. Rather, it is an important and apparently growing approach to structuring foreign policy conduct, and seems an increasingly prominent aspect of how the world is organized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents some of the results of the shortlines research project for Ademe (French agency for the environment) and Predit (French support program for surface transport research). The paper focuses on France, and makes some comparisons with North America and Germany. It is organized in two parts. The first part analyses the notion of “short line” freight railways in the European context. We observe that to date, unlike short lines in North America, which have mostly sought cooperation with major railways, the new rail operators in Europe are competing with the majors. The second part discusses regional policies on rail freight transport. We observe that for some time, local governments in France have been afraid that the on-going reduction of regional rail freight services will increase truck traffic and environmental impacts. Today, however, these governments appear to be more reluctant to promote rail freight activities than they were a few years ago. The current conditions under which local lines operate in Europe and especially in France, including small capacity on the infrastructure and high cost of labor and low productivity, may explain this reluctance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper reports on a comparative study of temporary protection (TP) mechanisms in Australia and selected European jurisdictions. Specifically, it analyzes policy developments and trends in the use of TP mechanisms in Denmark, Germany, and Australia through a systematic examination of the evolution of "substitute protection" mechanisms; their implications for "effective protection" and their impacts on key stakeholders. The policy analyses are augmented by interviews and survey questionnaires with key NGO service providers in the three target jurisdictions. The paper argues that the traditional link between Refugee Convention protection and national territorial jurisdiction and responsibility is being undermined by extraterritorial processing and offshoring arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy (RE) is one of the most popular public policy orientations worldwide. Compared to some other countries and continents, Europe has gained an early awareness of energy and environmental problems in general. At the theoretical level, free-market environmentalism indicates that based on the principle of private property rights, with fewer state interventionist and regulation policies, entrepreneurs, as the driving force of the market economy, can provide better services to meet the necessity of offering RE to protect the environment more effectively. Previous studies have revealed that Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have made some progress in using the market to develop RE. However, this research did not analyze the three countries' RE conditions from the perspective of free-market environmentalism. Based on our review of the principles of free-market environmentalism, this paper originally provides an empirical study of how Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have partly conducted free-market-oriented policies to successfully achieve their policy goal of RE since the 1990s on a practical level. In particular, compared with Germany and Denmark, the UK has maintained a relatively low energy tax rate and opted for more pro-market measures since the Hayekian-Thatcherism free-market reform of 1979. The paper also discovers that Fredrich A. Hayek's theories have strongly impacted its energy liberalization reform agenda since then. Low taxes on the energy industry and electricity have alleviated the burden on the electricity enterprises and consumers in the UK. Moreover, the empirical results above show that the energy enterprises play essential roles in providing better and more affordable RE for household and industrial users in the three sampled countries. Based on the above results, the paper also warns that state intervention policies such as taxation, state subsidies, and industrial access restrictions can impede these three countries' RE targets. Additionally, our research provides reform agendas and policy suggestions to policymakers on the importance of implementing free-market environmentalism to provide more efficient RE in the post-COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the relationship between air traffic and on-site employment for 17 German airports categorised as international airports. The empirical analysis includes several regressions using data on passenger numbers and workload units handled as well as employment data structured into different job categories. The paper suggests a rule of thumb that one million additional passengers per annum generate 500 on-site jobs at German airports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on secondary data and interviews, this paper traces the economic and socio-cultural roots of contemporary policies to promote full participation of people with disabilities in mainstream German society. Underlying such policies and related practices has been a concept of rehabilitation through work that evolved within a context of labour shortages, Protestant work ethics, and German welfarism at the beginning of the 20th century and that has yielded rather ambiguous consequences. I argue this elective affinity among economic, cultural, and socio-political imperatives has undermined potentials for integration and self-actualization of people with disabilities. Not only was rehabilitation subordinated to a productivist logic and provoked forms of ill-paid or even forced labour; rehabilitation policies and measures have also been part of a system of social governance that effectively helped to segregate the “able” from the “unable” and that promulgated an ethos of productivism. Significantly, this essentially utilitarian ethos – which rendered health and rehabilitation into a social obligation and valued each wo/man according to his/her fitness and motivation to contribute to socio-economic development – evolved within capitalism but was equally pronounced in East Germany under state-socialist rule. Contrary to the egalitarian principles of both “socialist humanism” and “Western enlightenment”, policies and practices trans-societally focussed on the promotion of those who could – potentially at least – contribute to the regime of industrial production. As the example of East Germany demonstrates, social participation through paid work remains incomplete, at best, and provokes further segregation – even in times of severe labour shortages. The paper concludes that notwithstanding contemporary rhetoric, rehabilitation through work has remained a central pillar of contemporary welfare policies. In times of unbroken structural unemployment, the productivist paradigm and ensuing policies have become increasingly problematic – not only for the inclusion of people with disabilities. Experiences with the productivist modes of participation and with rehabilitation in East Germany suggest a post-productivist paradigm of inclusion that seeks participation beyond paid work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Germany as a kin-state in the development and implementation of norm-consistent external minority policy for Central and Eastern Europe. It features the historical legacy of ethnic German minorities. This paper aims to show the continuity of German Ostpolitik and its development and adherence to a set of norms.

This article offers a first attempt to examine systematically the politics of waste and recycling in the Third Reich, one of the first modern states to articulate ‘zero waste’ as a political goal. It presupposes that waste, both in its material realities and its everyday representations, offers a powerful guide to any society's implicit order. With respect to Nazi Germany, the suggestion that such presumably neutral materials as trash, waste and garbage order social relations has particularly sinister implications. Focusing on scrap collectors and salvaging practices inside Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe, this article argues that waste management and recycling were integral to the Nazi racial order and crystallized as central strategies to administer the chaos of war. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers in party, industry and society performed their loyalty and re-imposed order by collecting paper, bottles, metal scrap, kitchen garbage, rags and bones with the explicit goal of closing the energy cycle, extending the Reich's resource base and increasing the regime's war-making capabilities. In pursuit of these goals, the Nazi state attempted not only to conquer its many enemies but also to erase the evidence of its own proliferating military setbacks. These efforts notwithstanding, the reclamation of waste did not have the power to reverse the fortunes of war. The Nazi politics of zero waste recycled chaos instead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In libraries, politics is wrongly regarded as unpopular. This paper shows why politics is a relevant and legitimate field of action for libraries. It gives examples from German libraries and explains within which institutional bounds ( polity) libraries move as acting and receiving parties in politics. The common political goals and interests of libraries ( policies) are represented as well as the peculiarities of library-related political decision-making processes ( politics). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Policymakers around the globe have opted for high levels of regulation of the market for vehicle safety and declared many vehicle safety systems as mandatory for new cars. In this paper we argue that the delivered justifications for these policies are at least questionable. We add a completely new argument to the discussion and show in a simple theoretical model that vehicle safety systems might cause positive externalities. Based on a large dataset of traffic accidents in Germany we show that the these externalities in fact occur. Based on our estimation results we show that for anti-lock-brakes (ABS) and electronic stability programmes (ESP) the average expected externality exceeds the price of these systems. Thus, the obligation to equip any new car with both ABS and ESP is adequate from an allocative point of view although the official justification for the introduction of these regulations are flawed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Studies of spatial policy interdependence in (local) public policies usually concentrate on the relations between jurisdictions within a single analyzed region, and disregard possible extraregional effects. However, the theoretical spatial statistics literature shows that biased estimates might emerge if spatial interactions extend beyond the boundaries of the available data (i.e., the boundary value problem). This paper empirically assesses the practical relevance of this concern by studying German local politicians' assessments of their jurisdictions' main competitors in the struggle to attract firms. We find that location near a border significantly undermines politicians' perception that the fiercest competitive pressure derives from jurisdictions within their own state. This effect sets in about 20 km (10.2 km) from a national (international) border. These results indicate that nearest municipalities perceive each other as competitors regardless of the state or country where they are located, which has important implications for estimating spatial dependence models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]