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This article suggests a multidimensional globalization measure, encompassing economic, (socio)technological, cultural and political dimensions of global change. This measure builds on previous work by Dreher, Lockwood and Redoano, the OECD and Kearney, but extends it by additional dimensions and indicators that represent central facets of a genuine sociological concept of globalization. The article first describes in detail the multidimensional nature of the globalization process and then develops an overall sociological index of globalization, which the authors call GlobalIndex. This index covers the development of globalization in 97 different countries from 1970 to 2002. Using the GlobalIndex, the authors describe the development of globalization on a worldwide scale as well as for different country contexts. Finally, they include the GlobalIndex as an explanatory variable in two micro-level longitudinal analyses of labour market transitions during the early career period in Germany and the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay provides an overview of the history of qualitative research in Germany with an emphasis on sociology and psychology. After long marginalization by the mainstream (and partly too by cutting itself off from non-qualitative research), qualitative research seems to be accepted nowadays as a core component of academic disciplines. To achieve this, a long process of elaboration and differentiation of qualitative approaches and methods was needed. The authors try to reconstruct the process by differentiating six (partly overlapping) phases: (1) initial flourishing followed by a decline; (2) (re)invention and meta-theoretical foundations; (3) empirical elaboration; (4) technical and reflexive elaborations; (5) consolidation and establishment; and (6) internationalizing qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been an increasing amount of research into globalization since the 1990s, empirical sociological studies in this area remain all too scarce. By analysing specific cases in contemporary visual art, this article shows that the widespread art world discourse on globalization, mixing and the abolition of borders is to a large extent based on illusion. By objectifying the positions occupied by different countries in the field of art, the article brings to light a marked hierarchy that reveals that, beyond the development of international exchanges, the art world still has a clearly defined centre comprising a small number of western countries, among which the US and Germany are pre-eminent, and a vast periphery, comprising all the other states. The specific example empirically analysed here leads to a reconsideration of earlier studies of cultural globalization, most of which are essentially abstract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article six crucial historical phases of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS) are sketched out: (1) 1909-19, the end of the German Kaiserreich, the foundation phase of the DGS; (2) 1919-33, the Weimar Republic, the phase of academic institutionalization of German sociology; (3) 1933-45, during which National Socialism dominated the German academic system; (4) 1946-68, the postwar period during which different academic systems were established in the two German states; (5) 1968-89, when sociology in West Germany had its greatest quantitative expansion, while in East Germany Soziologie was slowly re-emerging; (6) the period since reunification, with the expansion of a West German conception of sociology to East German universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The empirical basis of our research forms a systematic content analysis of the birth register of a state registry office from 1894 to 1994. We interpret the development of first names as an indicator which measures trends of cultural change: we analyse (1) whether there are secularization processes (measurement: the amount of first names of Christian origin); (2) whether the importance of family relationship is decreasing (measurement: number of children who are named after their parents); (3) whether social class is losing its importance (measurement: homogeneity of names in social classes); (4) whether there are processes of individualization (measurement: heterogeneity of names); and (5) whether there are processes of globalization of culture (measurement: number of names from other cultures). In addition, we formulate possible explanations of these trends and test them empirically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]