Search

This article aims to examine and describe the ways in which elderly people participate in post-industrial societies. The literature points out the benefits of social participation. However, the influence of context in features of civil society has remained relatively understudied. This article analyses the influence of context on the conceptualization of the phenomenon of social participation and civic engagement. In addition, the findings are linked to the broader academic debate on civil society. This empirical study consists of results from semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted with experts on social participation and elderly members of different associations. The German and Spanish case studies confirm that socio-demographic variables, cultural frames, political structures and social structure shape the culture of participation. The article argues that each context creates its own participatory culture through the incorporation of four different conceptualisations of participation: (1) participation as a right; (2) participation as an attitude; (3) participation as civic engagement; (4) participation as a slogan. The Spanish discourse tends mostly to conceptualize participation as a right and/or a slogan. The German discourse conceptualizes participation mainly as civic engagement. These conceptual differences give rise to two different participatory culture models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human–animal relations in post-industrial societies are characterized by a system of cultural categories that distinguishes between different types of animals based on their function in human society, such as "farm animals" or "pets." The system of cultural categories, and the allocation of animal species within this cultural classification system can change. Options for change include re-categorizing a specific animal species within the categorical system. The paper argues that attempts by political actors to adapt the institutional system to cultural change that calls for re-categorization of certain animal species can start a contradictory process that may lead to long-term survival of the respective institution despite the cultural change. It is common to explain the persistence of political institutions with institutional path dependency or policy preferences of the governing parties. This paper introduces a new institutional theoretical approach to the explanation, the approach of "rejecting changing a part for fear of undermining the whole." This paper uses a case study of a series of failed political efforts to change the treatment of dogs in the framework of the agricultural human–animal policy in the Federal Republic of Germany in the second half of the twentieth century, to evaluate its theoretical argument, using analyses of historical political documents, mass media, and communication documents between civil society actors and policymakers. This paper makes an innovative contribution to the theory and research on institutional change, the sociology of agriculture and food, and the sociology of human–animal relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The re-development of abandoned industrial areas and city cores characterizes the transition from industrial to post-industrial societies in Western Europe. Shorter-term and project-based urban programs, like the re-developments of waterfronts and station areas, emerged as more sui in response to the consequences of economic, demographic, political and cultural change than long-term, top-down spatial planning. Notably, processes and outcomes of strategic spatial planning vary across European cities and may display unique characteristics. This study compares eleven urban transformations in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland to shed light on the degree to which these programmatic urban transformations have been successful in shifting the urban fabric from an industrial to a post-industrial state. We examine the combinations of factors that, over time, have contributed to a qualitative urban change. Using primary and secondary sources, we perform a Trajectory-Based Qualitative Comparative Analysis (TJ-QCA) to identify recipes for successful urban transitions. Results show that there are two main planning recipes associated with successful urban transformations: either a combination of a high strategic character of the project with a leading role of public actors, or a combination of a high strategic character with brownfield redevelopment. • Compares urban transformations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to identify under what conditions transformations become successful. • Finds that either a combination of a high strategic character of the project with a leading role of public actors, or a combination of a high strategic character with brownfield redevelopment, are associated with success. • Uses Trajectory-based Qualitative Comparative Analysis, which is a methodological innovation in urban studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of recent politico-economic changes on contemporary experiences of time from the perspective of the future. By discussing endurance, permanence, and sustainability in Germany's fastest-shrinking city, I present a set of future-orientated practices which are post-industrial, but unexpectedly so: namely, hopeful and not subject to the widely attested phenomenon of 'enforced presentism'. I subsequently position the temporal logics of endurance and sustainability against current academic responses to accelerated change, captured in the misleading uses of the Deleuzian concepts of emergence and becoming. My informants' epistemic investments in the future allow for a different understanding of what I describe as post-industrial temporal agency and the conflictive politics that shape these otherwise unexpected temporal relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]