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Im Internetzeitalter verändern sich die Zugangsmöglichkeiten zu wissenschaftlich relevanter Information und die Arbeitsmöglichkeiten für Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler in atemberaubender Geschwindigkeit. Bibliotheken werden in diesem Umfeld schon längst nicht mehr als wichtigstes „Fenster zur Welt“ wissenschaftlicher Literatur und Information gesehen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stehen gerade Spezialbibliotheken vor der ständigen Herausforderung, ihren Nutzerinnen und Nutzern neue, bedarfsgerechte und innovative Mehrwert-Dienstleistungen anzubieten.

Recent studies using comparative panel data analyzing what matters for subjective well-being (SWB) show that preferences and choices relating to life goals and values, partner’s personality, hours of work and care, social participation and healthy lifestyle have substantial long-term effects on life satisfaction. These results have implications for a widely accepted theory of SWB, the set-point theory. This theory holds that adult SWB is stable in the medium and long term, although temporary fluctuations occur due to life events like marriage, divorce or job loss.

Soziale Sicherheit gilt als wichtige gesellschaftspolitische Zielstellung. Prozesse wie Globalisierung, wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Wandel, die Zunahme von Ungleichheit, Arbeitsmarktflexibilisierung, die Verbreitung neuer sozialer Risiken und nicht zuletzt die Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise haben neue Unsicherheitslagen hervorgebracht. Auf diese können Gesellschaften mit Wohlstandssorgen reagieren oder aber sich langfristig anpassen. Der Vortrag interessiert sich für das Zusammenspiel von objektiven Sicherungsleistungen und subjektiven Sicherheitsgefühlen.

This lecture examines how the conceptual debate on gender equality has moved from a perspective of equal opportunities to the concept of intersectionality and inclusion. It will look at how and why this debate has changed its terms of reference to address multi-dimensional inequalities and the ubiquitous concept of “fairness”. This discussion will include both an analysis of conceptual debates as well as a review of how this has impacted on political institutions at the national and supra-national level in Europe.

Achieving a satisfactory fit between employment and other activities in personal life – so-called ‚work-life balance’ – is an important aspect of job quality. So what can be done to enhance work-life balance? It is essential that this question is approached with a gender perspective given the persistent gender differences in employed working hours and gender inequalities in family care and other unpaid work. We assess the impact of “time demands” and “job strain demands” on work-life balance.

The study of entrepreneurship is divorced from mainstream sociological understandings of labor markets and inequality: students of entrepreneurship have a poor understanding of how the structure of the attainment process shapes entrepreneurship, and students of labor market processes have a limited understanding of the drivers of entrepreneurial choice. In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework linking entrepreneurial entry to structural features of the attainment process, embedding entrepreneurship in the structure of inequality in labor markets.

How do resources that reside in social networks of parents affect adolescents’ educational attainment? We draw a controversy in the sociology of education about whether and how parental networks benefit educational attainment. We explore the effect of informal network closure among parents as well as parents’ participation in institutionalized school activities. Previous findings are inconclusive.

This lecture examines conflicts and negotiations about the creation and development of transnational governance forms in different regulatory fields. A longitudinal and comparative analysis shows variation in the participation of different societal groups. These are reflected in the social construction of what is considered as expertise and who should be included in governance arrangements in each of these fields.

Bürgerpartizipation ist schon lange eingeübte Praxis. Es gibt kein größeres Planungsvorhaben ohne Bürgerbeteiligung; ganze EU-Förderrichtlinien (beispielsweise LEADER oder Region aktiv) sind an eine aktive Beteiligung der lokalen Bevölkerung geknüpft. Gleichwohl scheint diese Verfahrensbeteiligung vielen nicht mehr zu genügen. Volksentscheide und Demonstrationen gegen Infrastrukturgroßprojekte haben Konjunktur. Auch ein anderer Aspekt der Bürgerbeteiligung hat in der politischen Debatte Konjunktur.

Governments around the world are currently making great efforts to develop modern and internationally competitive science systems. In this respect, creating a European Research Area has become a widely acknowledged goal within the higher realms of politics; that is among a wide range of European and national and regional actors.