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In German primary schools, natural sciences and social studies are learned and taught in an integrative manner within a subject called Sachunterricht. To teach Sachunterricht in a high-quality manner, it is reasonable to assume that primary school teachers themselves require-- among other things, such as knowledge about pedagogy, teaching Sachunterricht, and the various content areas of Sachunterricht--a distinct interest, academic self-concept, and sense of belonging regarding natural and social sciences. Furthermore, they should possess a solid interdisciplinary competence that enables them to teach natural and social sciences in an integrative way. In the present study, we conducted a longitudinal survey of pre-service primary school teachers from a German university over a period of 2 years to investigate the changes in their (self-evaluated) interdisciplinary competence; the changes in their interest, academic self-concept, and sense of belonging regarding natural and social sciences; and the correlations between these constructs. Our data analysis revealed a decrease over time in participants' sense of belonging to natural and social sciences, as well as their (self-evaluated) interdisciplinary competence, while their academic self-concept in natural and social sciences remained stable. Participants' interest in social sciences decreased, while their interest in natural sciences increased. Moreover, we found varying degrees of correlation between these constructs. In summary, the results of the present study provide important insights into the professional development of pre-service primary school teachers within university-based teacher education for teaching natural and social sciences in primary school. The implications of these findings are discussed in detail at the end of this paper.

Purpose: Following the current rise of Antisemitism globally and in Germany, this paper examines the current situation regarding Antisemitism in teacher education. The paper aims to make a contribution for the demand of an implementation of education critical of Antisemitism in teacher education. Approach: Combining experience from university teacher training and the field of extracurricular political education we appoint perspectives for a sustainable implementation of education critical of Antisemitism in teacher training via best practice examples. We evaluate the potentials of field trips, international study groups and networks between university and agents located in civil society. Findings: The revised curricula for Social Sciences in the state of North-Rhine-Westphalia (and formerly Berlin) name current Antisemitism for the first time, indicating an urgent need for professionalization in Social Science teacher education where the facets of Antisemitism only play a minor role. Hence, expertise and existing resources must be stabilized, a structural implementation and funding is needed in order to target the challenging topic of Antisemitism. Research limitations/implications: This paper functions as a preliminary research in order to examine the given shape of Social Science teacher education and Antisemitism in Germany. A comprehensive, structured analyses of all teacher training facilities as well as extracurricular agents working in the field of education critical of Antisemitism could be useful in order to pool expertise. Nonetheless this paper encourages local collaborations between university and civil society actors.

The paper studied global research output (6700 publications) in the subfield "Linked Data", indexed in Scopus database during 1996-19, with a focus on the distribution of publications and collaborative linkages across major countries, organizations, authors, journals and disciplines. Linked Data global research output registered a 59.04% annual average growth rate and averaged to 7.21 citations per paper in 24 years. The study identified and analyzed the top 15 countries, 30 top organizations, 30 authors and the top 20 journals. The top 15 countries account for more than 100% share of global publications and citations during this period. The 2572 organizations and 6959 authors participated in global research on "Linked Data" research. The paper further provides an insight into the qualitative performance of the "Linked Data" sub-field, besides analyzing the distribution of publications across sub-fields and characteristics of high-cited research and also identifies important media of communications. The National University of Ireland and the University of Leipzig, Germany (with 286 and 194 papers each) have been the most productive organizations. The University of Mannheim, Germany (22.08 and 3.06) and Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany (21.93 and 3.04) have been the most impactful organizations. E. Mannens (109 papers) and R. Verborgh (109 papers) have been productive authors. C. Bizer (193.19 and 26.79) and S. Hellmann (84.71 and 11.75) have been the most impactful authors. Semantic Web (with 125 papers), Journal of Web Semantics (72 papers) and International Journal of Semantic Web & Information Systems (42 papers), have been the topmost productive journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper discusses the camerawork within a historic video case study as a meaningful practice of visualization of classrooms and also as an aspect worth consideration in current contexts of video-based classroom research and teacher education. Design/methodology/approach: The case study combines elements of video hermeneutics and a visual sociology of knowledge to reconstruct "the visual" within historic classroom videos. It discusses these reconstructions based on the theoretical framework of video ethnography as an alternative method of classroom research focused on specific actions of showing within the historical context. Findings: The analysis and interpretation underpin the assumption of relations between camerawork and intentions for the use of the videos and enables insights into practices of documentation, implicit images of teaching practices, and classroom interaction as a part of the history of social science education.

Creating critical mass has become a cornerstorne of science policy on both national and transnational levels. It suggests that once a certain size is reached, exponential growth or accelerated change will occur. In reconstructing theories, policies and practices associated with critical mass, the paper traces the image of critical mass as a size that performs in different dimensions. It takes the German Excellence Initiative, a state programme for the competitive distribution of research funds, as a policy intended to create critical mass. That the Excellence Initiative did not trigger exponential growth but organisational change points to qualitative effects of size. On the basis of case studies, it is reconstructed how Excellence-funded graduate schools and others perform size. They accumulate prestige, build-up research capacity, reproduce 'schools of thought' or provide for research personnel. In doing so, the schools are not a critical mass for exponential growth but normalise sizing practices in higher education.

The spatial mobility of students and academics as part of the internationalisation of higher education is becoming increasingly relevant in securing top-tier positions, especially within academia. While the number of doctoral candidates is rising, new positions are not created at the same rate, leading to scarcer career opportunities in academia and the need to develop alternative career paths. Previous studies have much focused on the connection between mobility and career development among junior academics in the STEM fields, but the significance of mobility for SSH PhD candidates and their career development remains unanswered. Does spatial mobility have any effects there, and if so, which? For this reason, this paper studied doctoral SSH candidates from Germany with mobility experiences in the Netherlands. The findings show that spatial mobility affects the perception of the PhD candidate's career in several, sometimes ambivalent ways. It shows that the experience of mobility narrows the planning to a career in academia, contributes to the informal learning process of the candidate, and expands the horizon for possible opportunities in academia. The perceived asset of mobility varies alongside the internationalisation of disciplines and whether the candidate plans to return to Germany or pursue an international career.

This paper argues that links between academia and other economic sectors are increasing, especially through intersectoral mobility of university graduates. Murray [(2010). "The Oncomouse that Roared: Hybrid Exchange Strategies as a Source of Distinction at the Boundary of Overlapping Institutions." "American Journal of Sociology" 116 (2): 341-388] has identified literature pointing both to blending and continuing co-existence of the academic and commercial worlds. Based on a European-wide study of PhD graduates in the social sciences and humanities (SSH), this paper considers the extent to which intersectoral mobility reflects blending. It finds that intersectoral communities of practice exist mainly in applied fields of knowledge. However, in many areas of the SSH, differences in institutional norms and values inhibit intersectoral mobility, particularly in mid-career stages.

Purpose: Teaching social science might benefit from using students' metaphorical understanding. Metaphors help people to better understand abstract concepts by breaking them down into more familiar ones. This essay attempts to approximate students' metaphors of politics to improve social science education's efforts in shaping politically mature citizens. Method: Taking three single interviews with students attending senior classes in high schools in Hamburg, Germany, this paper analyses metaphors they use to describe politics. It categorizes them and puts them into a larger context in the form of systematic metaphors providing an approximation to the students' metaphorical understanding. Findings: The findings suggest that students understand politics as shaping society, participation as passing upwards people's interests, governance as guidance, and human life as the foundation for society. However, more research is necessary, such as analysing more students' metaphors or using issue-related drawings. Practical implications: Teachers can use these findings to initialize a conceptual reconstruction. They could ask students to draw a "Grafiz" using the terms suggested above and having a better access to students' metaphorical understanding of a topic. That helps the teacher to select appropriate material for their teaching units.

Political discourse and policy reforms worldwide have highlighted the importance of promoting the knowledge economy by stimulating academics' societal engagement (ASE). Such narratives partly aim at influencing academics' attitudes and behaviors. Earlier work that has investigated such influence has tended to overlook the development in humanities and social science, and focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. This paper contributes to filling this gap. Based on the assumption that academics' views are, to a significant extent, shaped during their early years in academia, we investigate whether there are generational differences in attitudes to ASE. Four different higher education systems, including both Napoleonic and Humboldtian models, are investigated: Germany, Sweden, Portugal, and Argentina. Our analysis of the results of the international Academic Profession in the Knowledge Society survey reveals marked country-level differences in the way academics perceive the importance of ASE activities. Overall, there is no strong evidence that the current generation of HSS academics has very different attitudes to ASE than previous generations. We do, however, find indications that post-2006 academics are more likely to consider ASE activities from an instrumental perspective.

This paper investigates the interactions between policy drivers and academic practice in international research collaboration. It draws on the case of the Open Research Area (ORA), a funding scheme in the social sciences across four national research agencies, seeking to boost collaboration by supporting "integrated" projects. The paper discusses the scheme's governance and its place within the European policy space before turning to awarded researchers' perceptions of its originality and impact on their project's emergence and development. Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory, we analyse the scheme's capacity to challenge researchers' habitual collaborative practice as well as the hierarchical foundations of the social science field. We relate the discourses of researchers, located in France, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, to such structural dimensions of the academic profession as, disciplinary cultures, institutional environments and national performance management of research careers. The paper argues that the ORA introduced novel mechanisms of power sharing and answerability in social sciences research capable of unsettling the autonomy of the scientific field. This analysis offers a new perspective on the often unquestioned superiority of the model of international collaboration induced by schemes such as the ORA.

This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of highly cited articles published in the Web of Science category "Education and Educational Research" in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). A total of 2091 journal articles published in this category and cited more than 100 times up to the end of the year 2016 were retrieved as highly cited articles. Distributions of highly cited articles per publication year, journals, institutions and countries were analysed, as well as the citation life cycle of the top-cited articles. The USA, its institutions and researchers are the absolute leaders in the category of Education and Educational Research according to the results of the conducted analysis.

The paper analyses which conditions may predict a better salary for people who got a PhD in social sciences and humanities (SS&H) in 13 European countries. Among the controlling variables, predictors are also: change of country of residence; percentage of time spent respectively in research and managerial activities; and impacts achieved during one's PhD programme. Findings, but also policy implications both for PhD programme planners and PhD candidates, are: some specific impacts such as having advised policy-makers, having released interviews to media and having managed and coordinated projects, all predict better salaries for PhD holders in SS&H, other things being equal. To move geographically out of one's country where PhD was awarded is also a good predictor of better wages, provided PhD holders do not swap sectors after attainment of PhD.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to re-examine the unique political economy of Germany's dual apprenticeship training model and its underlying philosophy of corporatist governance. It responds to recent arguments suggesting that Germany's collectivist skill regime is under threat, increasingly giving way to the introduction of "segmentalism". Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews the political roots of a training system, which is moulded and shaped by corporatist interventions and neocorporatist compromises. It applies "public choice" theory to different interest groups in Germany's training market. The focus is on the German apprenticeship system as a social and political institution. The paper is positioned in the tradition of inductive enquiry, which draws on an interpretive framework and is informed by reference to a cross-section of the extant literature in several social science disciplines. Findings: The German training system is the product of a wider post-war consensus, yet continues to face social inequality concerns, which culminate in significant economic and societal costs. Despite modernisation attempts, the German apprenticeship is the outcome of a complicated political process, linked to its historical origins, which allows for a considerable degree of self-interest alongside its corporatist roots and values. Amongst Germany's social partners, heterogeneous self-interests and corporatism can co-exist, thus identifying an alternative model to collectivism and segmentalism. Originality/value: The paper rejects recent suggestions that the German system moves towards a model of "segmentalism". Instead, it interprets the German system as an example for a specific socio-political constellation where significant self-interests and corporatist rules can co-exist. Against this background, it demonstrates that continuing demands to copy the German apprenticeship model--if thought desirable--are unlikely to be successful unless this tangled web of political processes and interests is fully understood. (Contains 8 notes.)

For about two decades only marginal relevance was attributed to action research as a research strategy by large sections of the German social science community. The growing international debate on key concepts such as community participation, community-based participatory research and participatory action research were largely ignored. In this paper we want to clarify our concept of action research and to provide arguments for the need to re-evaluate the research potential of this approach. We illustrate the arguments by an analysis of one of the most successful in-service education of teachers' courses in Austria, which is based on action research ("Education and subject matter didactics for teachers"). The second part of the paper argues that the growing number of practical action research examples in German-speaking countries indicates a social demand for this type of research. The paper ends with a theoretical discussion of frequent objections against action research in the German research tradition. (Contains 4 notes.)

This paper explores the link between the composition and the performance of junior research groups. The authors argue that the heterogeneity-performance link depends on the type of heterogeneity (cultural vs. study field) and on the disciplinary area. The authors test their hypotheses on a data set of 45 junior research groups and find a U-shaped relation between cultural heterogeneity and performance in the humanities and social sciences, but no link between the two in the natural sciences. The link between study field heterogeneity and performance in the natural sciences is negative, and in the humanities and social sciences study field heterogeneity and performance are not related. Interaction within the group helps reap the benefits of heterogeneity. The study results are derived in the context of junior research groups in Germany, but are generalizable to other countries and contexts where PhD education is taking part in groups.

This paper is based on educational anthropology, and presents the initial findings of a three-year international comparative study of primary school children's learning-processes during travel and cross-cultural encounters. A French-German research team investigated and here reports on primary school exchange programmes. Open coding of the ethnographic video material is evaluated in reference to intercultural education, as addressed in French and German primary school lessons in the social sciences.

Humphry (this issue) has written a thought-provoking piece on the interpretation of item discrimination parameters as scale units in item response theory. One of the key features of his work is the description of an item response theory (IRT) model that he calls the logistic measurement function that combines aspects of two traditions in IRT that have their genesis in the measurement models of Rasch (1980) and Birnbaum (1968). This commentary briefly reviews how item discrimination parameters have been defined previously, and suggests that Humphry's model can also be usefully parameterized as person-response functions (PRFs; Perkins & Engelhard, 2009). The first section briefly examines how "units" have appeared in social science measurement and highlights the connection of units to invariant measurement. Next, the authors briefly describe how item discrimination parameters have been conceptualized. The following section stresses group response and person response functions within the context of Humphry's model. Finally, the implications for future measurement research in the social sciences are discussed. (Contains 2 figures.)

This paper presents results from a longitudinal study of sojourner students which was conducted at an international university in Germany from 2004 to 2007. The study followed a cohort of undergraduate students from the first week of their studies to their graduation. Participants completed three questionnaires: the Portrait Value Questionnaire (Schwartz et al., 2001), the Study Process Questionnaire (Biggs, 1987b), and the Student Background Questionnaire (Matthews, Lietz, & Darmawan, 2007). Structural Equation Modelling was used to examine how personal values influenced students' learning approaches and how these, in turn, were related to students' achievement. It was also examined how robust these relationships were once gender and discipline area (i.e., Social Sciences or Natural Sciences) were included in the models and whether or not they changed over time. Results showed that specific combinations of values were related to each learning approach. Certain consistency of these relationships was observed over the three years. The deep and achieving learning approaches were associated with higher achievement, whereas students who displayed more characteristics of the surface learning approach had lower academic performance. Finally, analyses pinpointed higher performance of female students and the predominant absence of effects of academic discipline on learning approaches or achievement over time. (Contains 9 tables and 8 figures.)

There is a large literature on the influence of institutional characteristics on student academic achievement. In contrast, relatively little research focusses on student time allocation and its effects on student performance. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of student time allocation on the average grade of undergraduate students, by gender, ability, and field of study. The results suggest that the time spent on attending courses is positively associated with grades for females, high-ability students, and students of Social Sciences and Sciences/Engineering. Spending time on self-study, on other study-related activities, or on working as a student assistant or tutor is positively correlated with grades for almost all students. Devoting time for attending tutorials or student work groups is negatively correlated with grades if the ability of students is below average or if they study Sciences/Engineering. Using a translog production function, the results indicate that spending time on courses, on self-study, and on other study-related activities are substitutes. However, time spent on courses and time spent on working as a student assistant or tutor are complements. (Contains 8 tables and 16 notes.)

In this paper we introduce a latent variable model (LVM) for mixed ordinal and continuous responses, where covariate effects on the continuous latent variables are modelled through a flexible semiparametric Gaussian regression model. We extend existing LVMs with the usual linear covariate effects by including nonparametric components for nonlinear effects of continuous covariates and interactions with other covariates as well as spatial effects. Full Bayesian modelling is based on penalized spline and Markov random field priors and is performed by computationally efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. We apply our approach to a German social science survey which motivated our methodological development.

Since the classical authors of the nineteenth century, the explanation of macro-social phenomena has been considered as the essential epistemic achievement, hence the "raison d'etre," of comparative analysis in the social sciences. In practice, however, the claims of comparative social enquiry for providing convincing explanations are not easily kept. Their realization depends upon quasi-ontological understandings of causation, and on varying conceptions of social theory. The article resumes and tackles these issues while trying to avoid the pitfalls of both positivist orthodoxy and historicist methodology. In so doing, the essay draws heavily on Max Weber's model of "singular causal explanation." It is based on a dynamic and "triadic" scheme of causal relationships--and of causal analysis--that deals in "courses" of events, and in "divergences" between alternative paths and outcomes. The model is both reinterpreted in the light of more recent epistemological debates and illustrated by examples taken from the author's own contributions to comparative social and intellectual history. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)

Copyright of Dumlupinar University Journal of Social Science / Dumlupinar Üniversitesi Soysyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Dumlupinar University (Journal of Social Sciences) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Discusses social justice in West Germany within the context of the experience of Nazism, the economic disaster after World War II, and the successful development of the economy and welfare state since 1949. Refers to various textbooks and recent empirical studies on the political attitudes of students in West Germany. (Author/KC)

This article traces the developments within history textbook research as presented at the 2009 conference of the International Society for History Didactics (ISHD), held in cooperation with the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig, Germany. The article claims that significant developments reveal school historiography to be a challenged area for history didactics. Key concepts and theoretical frames require further discussion in order to develop history didactics not only as an area for social and political responsibilities but also as a theoretical discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In German primary schools, natural sciences and social studies are learned and taught in an integrative manner within a subject called Sachunterricht. To teach Sachunterricht in a high-quality manner, it is reasonable to assume that primary school teachers themselves require— among other things, such as knowledge about pedagogy, teaching Sachunterricht, and the various content areas of Sachunterricht—a distinct interest, academic self-concept, and sense of belonging regarding natural and social sciences. Furthermore, they should possess a solid interdisciplinary competence that enables them to teach natural and social sciences in an integrative way. In the present study, we conducted a longitudinal survey of pre-service primary school teachers from a German university over a period of 2 years to investigate the changes in their (self-evaluated) interdisciplinary competence; the changes in their interest, academic self-concept, and sense of belonging regarding natural and social sciences; and the correlations between these constructs. Our data analysis revealed a decrease over time in participants’ sense of belonging to natural and social sciences, as well as their (self-evaluated) interdisciplinary competence, while their academic self-concept in natural and social sciences remained stable. Participants’ interest in social sciences decreased, while their interest in natural sciences increased. Moreover, we found varying degrees of correlation between these constructs. In summary, the results of the present study provide important insights into the professional development of pre-service primary school teachers within university-based teacher education for teaching natural and social sciences in primary school. The implications of these findings are discussed in detail at the end of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, plagiarism has been classified as a multi-layer phenomenon of dishonesty that occurs in higher education. A number of research papers have identified a host of factors such as gender, socialisation, efficiency gain, motivation for study, methodological uncertainties or easy access to electronic information via the Internet and new technologies, as reasons driving plagiarism. The paper at hand examines whether such factors are still effective and if there are any differences between German and Slovene students’ factors influencing plagiarism. A quantitative paper-and-pencil survey was carried out in Germany and Slovenia in 2017/2018 academic year, with a sample of 485 students from higher education institutions. The major findings of this research reveal that easy access to information-communication technologies and the Web is the main reason driving plagiarism. In that regard, there are no significant differences between German and Slovene students in terms of personal factors such as gender, motivation for study, and socialisation. In this sense, digitalisation and the Web outrank national borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Soziale Welt is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper reports a history study based on an anthropologist as a case. Here, Tao Yuen-kuei, an anthropologist after 1911, is examined to understand how the German concept of "culture" and theories entered the social sciences in China through the thinking and application by Chinese scholars. Since the reestablishment of the discipline in the 1950s, culture, a concept that meaningfully contains people's internal spiritual world, has long been neglected in the Chinese social sciences; instead, great attention has been given to such concepts as "nationality", "social forms", "the state", and "society". Tao Yuen-kuei is to be "re-discovered" because he was the first Chinese scholar to apply the cultural theory to his ethnographic research. In his empirical studies, he thought about how to treat the objectivity inherent in "culture" and to confirm the spiritual values of people. He discussed how cultures communicated and understood one another with excellent opinions. He did not just introduce Western concepts in order to explain the Chinese experiences; instead, he conducted field studies of minority groups in Yunnan, examining the cultural history, religion, mythology, and rituals to understand how patterns of cultural views took root in society and among individuals. His research in political science led to his dynamic ideas about the relationships between the state and culture. The current study has further discovered a mismatch predicament between his cultural theory and his ethnographic data. Its basic cause lies in the inability of his cultural theory in explaining why the core of culture, namely, volksgeist (the collective national spirit) had dual structures in the area of Sipsongpanna. To explain this predicament, this paper tries to take a historical angle to look at volksgeist to clarify the exaggerated consequence of the state-culture perspective on the one hand and to continue the exploration of the meaning of culture's internal structure to the understanding of the history of civilization on the other hand. We can learn from Tao Yuen-kuei's cultural theory and ethnographic studies that open social sciences in pursuit of balance and tolerance can be established only on the recognition of the coexistence of "culture", "the state", and "society". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that acquiring competencies in different approaches and procedures in qualitative or interpretative social research provides a strong foundation for case analysis in professional social work practice. When students of social work become familiar with such research and are encouraged to engage in their own supervised projects they develop skills for a circumspect and sensitive practice with clients. The paper reports on work with students of social work in Germany, which can be described as an attempt to help them to become self-reflective ethnographers in their own affairs, of their own emergent social work practice. It spells out different phases of a process in which they learn to make their own practice strange. This process consists of developing different competencies in observing, analysing and writing, and requires a setting in which students' written observations and reflections can be shared and discussed by their peers in a critical, egalitarian and supportive manner. The author thinks that such a critical and self-critical discourse which addresses professional issues in general, as well as the individual student's (or practioner's) experiences and reflections, can have important implications for the collective development of social work and its relationship with other professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short article pleads for research rather than rumor regarding Parsons' alleged role regarding the admittance to United States of an ex-Soviet citizen in 1948 or 1949. Some evidence on background issues that could be found among the Parsons papers at Harvard University Archives is being presented verbatim. I argue that the point is to refrain from fabrications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Opioids are one of the most important and effective drug classes in pain medicine with a key role in most medical fields. The increase of opioid prescription over time has led to higher numbers of prescription opioid misuse, abuse and opioid-related deaths in most developed OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries around the world. Whilst reliable data on the prevalence of opioid treatment is accessible for many countries, data on Germany specifically is still scarce. Considering Germany being the largest country in the European Union, the lack of evidence-based strategies from long-term studies is crucial. The aim of this work is to review and summarise relevant published literature on the prevalence of opioid prescription in Germany to adequately inform health policy strategies. Methods: A systematic review of the epidemiology of opioid prescription in Germany was conducted, searching PubMed and Web of Science. Eligibility criteria were defined prior to conducting the search. Literature concerning Germany, published in English and German was included and the search was replicated by three independent researchers. Two levels of screening were employed. Disagreement was resolved by face-to-face discussion, leading to a consensus judgement. Results: Our electronic search yielded 735 articles. Reviewing titles and abstracts yielded 19 relevant articles. Three authors examined each article’s full text more closely and determined that twelve papers should be included. Of the twelve identified studies—with publication dates ranging from 1985 to 2016—six were retrospective cross-sectional studies and six were retrospective repeated-measures cross-sectional studies. Sample sizes ranged from 92,842 to ≈ 11,000,000 participants. Data sources of included studies showed vast heterogeneity. The reviewed literature suggested an increase in the number of patients with opioid prescriptions and defined daily doses of opioids per recipient in Germany over time. The majority of opioid prescriptions was used for patients with non-cancer pain. Opioid use was more common in older people, women and in the north of Germany. Fentanyl was shown to be the most prescribed strong opioid in outpatient settings in Germany, despite not being the first-line choice for chronic pain conditions. All data published before 2000—but none of the more recent studies—suggested an insufficient treatment of pain using opioids. There were no signs for a current opioid epidemic in Germany. Conclusions: Despite some limitations of the review and the heterogeneity of studies, it can be stated that the number of opioid prescriptions overall as well as the number of people receiving opioid treatment have increased over time. Most prescriptions were found to be for strong opioids and patients with non-cancer pain. Even though patterns of opioid prescription follow trends observed in other developed countries, there are no signs of an opioid epidemic in Germany. Therefore, this review could currently not find a need for urgent health policy interventions regarding opioid prescription practices. However, critical gaps in the literature remain and more research is needed to make more reliable judgements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The news media is a key source for health and medical information, and relies to a large degree on material from press releases (PR). Medical universities are key players in the dissemination of PRs. This study aims to 1) explore the relation between the quality of press releases (PRs) from medical universities and their corresponding news stories (NSs) and 2) to identify the likelihood that specific scientific and interest-raising measures appear or are omitted in PRs and NSs. Methods and findings: In this retrospective study using quantitative content analysis, PRs (n = 507) from 21 medical universities in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the USA and the UK were retrieved. Of all PRs, 33% had media coverage, resulting in 496 NSs. With two codebooks, 18 scientific (e.g. reporting the study design of the study correctly) and 7 interest-raising measures (e.g. words like ‘ground-breaking’) were evaluated in the PRs and NSs. For all measures the percentage of presence in NSs and PRs was calculated, together with a Mean PR Influence Factor. Quality of PRs and NSs was defined as a score, based on 12 of the 18 scientific measures. Mean (SD) NS quality score was 6.5 (1.7) which was significantly lower than the PR score of 8.0 (1.5). The two quality scores were significantly correlated. Quality measures that were frequently omitted included reporting important study limitations (present in 21% of PRs, 21% of NSs), funding (59% of PRs, 7% of NSs) and conflicts of interest (16% of PRs, 3% of NSs). We did not evaluate the quality of the scientific papers (SPs), and can therefore not determine if the quality of PRs and NSs is associated with the quality of SPs. Conclusions: This large study of medical university press releases and corresponding news stories showed that important measures of a scientific study such as funding and study limitations were omitted to a very large extent. The lay public and health personnel as well as policy makers, politicians and other decision makers may be misled by incomplete and partly inaccurate representations of scientific studies which could negatively affect important health-related behaviours and decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a standardized instrument to evaluate patients’ stress reactions has become more important in daily clinical routines. Different signs or symptoms of stress are often unilaterally explored: the physiological, psychological or social aspects of stress disorders are each viewed on a single dimension. However, all dimensions afflict patients who have persistent health problems due to chronic stress. Therefore, it is important to use a multidimensional approach to acquire data. The ‘Psycho-Physiological-Stress-Test’ (PPST) was established to achieve a comprehensive understanding of stress and was further developed at the Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin in collaboration with the Psychological Department of Freie Universität Berlin. The PPST includes a series of varying stress phases, embedded in two periods of rest. Physiological and psychological parameters are simultaneously measured throughout the test session. Specifically, the PPST activates the sympathetic stress axis, which is measured by heart rate, blood pressure, respiration depth and rate, electro dermal activation and muscle tension (frontalis, masseter, trapezius). Psychological data are simultaneously collected, and include performance, motivation, emotion and behavior. After conducting this diagnostic test, it is possible to identify individual stress patterns that can be discussed with the individual patient to develop and recommend (outpatient) treatment strategies. This paper introduces the PPST as a standardized way to evaluate stress reactions by presenting the results from a sample of psychosomatic inpatients (n = 139) who were treated in Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. We observed that the varying testing conditions provoked adjusted changes in the different physiological parameters and psychological levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Population aging is an inevitable global demographic process. Most of the literature on the consequences of demographic change focuses on the economic and societal challenges that we will face as people live longer and have fewer children. In this paper, we (a) briefly describe key trends and projections of the magnitude and speed of population aging; (b) discuss the economic, social, and environmental consequences of population aging; and (c) investigate some of the opportunities that aging societies create. We use Germany as a case study. However, the general insights that we obtain can be generalized to other developed countries. We argue that there may be positive unintended side effects of population aging that can be leveraged to address pressing environmental problems and issues of gender inequality and intergenerational ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1990s, many European countries have adapted their traditional one-cycle curriculum structure in higher education to the two-cycle structure employed in the Anglo-American world. In the large social science literature dealing with this reform phenomenon, the Bologna Process - starting with the 1999 Declaration of Bologna - is identified as the major force of change. Illustrated by the German case, this paper argues that the soft-governance mechanism 'Bologna' certainly constitutes an important driver and explanatory factor but cannot fully explain curriculum reform success. It is demonstrated that German state governments used classic tools of government - hard governance via rules and bans - to force higher education institutions to substitute traditional programmes with new Bachelor/Master programmes. This case study might stimulate further research investigating whether this 'governance by coercion', which has been neglected in previous research, also played an important role in other Bologna countries in which similar curricular reforms occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the discursive entanglements of migratory flows of 'bodies' and commerce, by way of the hegemonic logic of neo-liberalism, and site-specific Roma community practices of contestation in Germany to the Schengen Agreement. Roma subject encounters are also explored with respect to human rights policy and implementation within the context of the European Union; the Council of Europe; and NGOs as Amnesty International, and the European Roma Rights Centre. Further interrogation, investigates the macropolitical implications in connection to capital markets and state membership eligibility, with respect to the EU and IMF, in juxtaposition to Roma micro-political encounter and event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the possibility of using genealogies of noble families as a source for social sciences, to analyse the social reality of noble families, during the transition from a class structured to a civil based society. Genealogies of noble families have been published since the 19th century, but they were stopped during the second world war. These publications were resumed in 1951. In these genealogies the following information of each person are published: Name and family name, date of birth and date of death. The same data, concerning the spouse, education, profession, information concerning an estate and membership in voluntary organisations was collated. The analysis of this mass data enables statements concerning the change of professions, to the number of marriages and to the mobility of marriage, to the number of children, to length of marriage and, to a certain extent, social participation. But there is a lack of data concerning the education, the professional career and the professions of the noble daughters. As an alternative source, there may be family histories, which were published for a number of families, which could be used. In this paper the differences, between family history and genealogies, will be presented in detail. Finally, with the help of a limited database, an exemplary inquiry can be made concerning the adaptation of the Saxon nobility to the norms of the civil society. In particular, the changes that have taken place in general and vocational education as well as the effects of the modified ways of vocational training on the occupation of the Saxon nobility during the 19th and 20th century will be analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the development and the "state of the art" of masculinity studies in the German-speaking countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland). It concentrates on social sciences, with further attention to historical and pedagogical studies. First it is described how men's studies (Männerforschung) developed: starting as a mélange of male (therapeutic) self-reflection and scientific analysis before becoming part of "normal science." Second, it discusses two central theoretical frameworks and their interrelation, Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity and Bourdieu's analysis of male dominance. Third, the paper reports on current focal concerns of German- speaking masculinity studies: fatherhood, changes in males' occupational relationships, migrant masculinities, educational underachieving, and changing military masculinities. The paper shows how these concerns are influenced by societal and political developments in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increase in interest for German scientific psychology followed the rise of liberalism in late nineteenth-century Spain. This paper deals with Spanish scholars' endeavors to participate in German psychology: It outlines the intellectual and institutional background of Spanish preoccupation with German philosophy and psychology, and deals with the personal experience and testimony of two Spanish philosophers, Eloy Luis André and Juan Vicente Viqueira López, who traveled to Leipzig, Berlin, and Göttingen between 1909 and 1914 to gain firsthand experience in the nascent science of psychology in Germany at that time. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pursuing an historical and comparative approach, the article aims at exploring the relation between local government and ‘local community’. For comparative purposes, the paper draws primarily on the UK/England, Germany and Sweden as pertinent examples. The explicitly historical approach of the article promises to recognise (and perhaps even rediscover) the distinct and, at the same time, symbiotic and dialectic development and relation which have existed between local government and local community throughout their evolution—from the ‘founding period’ of modern local government during the 19th century, through its development under the (centralised) welfare state in the (mid) 20th century, to the present-day. The historically educated perception should be helpful to identify and assess the dynamics and perspective of the recent ‘rise’ of the local (political, social and economic) community and its impact on redefining and recalibrating the relation and balance between local government and what, in the current social science debate, is called ‘governance’—with the ‘re-emerging’ local community and its manifold political, social and economic actors becoming part-and-parcel of the expanding and multiplying networks of (non-public) actors that are captured under the term and concept ‘governance’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas variance in preferences is a central explanation for human behaviour in the social sciences, economists traditionally avoid using preferences to explain behaviour. Rather, change in behaviour or different kinds of behaviour are explained solely by differences in the economic restrictions imposed on an individual. Whereas restrictions have been analysed as monetary constraints in traditional economics, Gary Becker has broadened this term. In his work, he tried to integrate 'time'--the non-monetary restriction--into the economic constraints. In our paper we test empirically the effects of monetary and time restrictions on the travel-mode choice of a representative sample of the German population. We do this by means of testing some hypotheses from Becker's work on microcensus data from Germany. These data include the following variables: travel-mode choice, distance of travel, time of travel, as well as some additional socioeconomic characteristics. Results of introducing these additional socioeconomic variables will also raise the question whether it is really true that only monetary and time costs matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rather than analysing yet another phenomenon arousing concern at the turn of the twentieth century, this paper poses a question from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge. This query will be based upon the self-distancing from prevalent points of view, and assume as a postulate a study of the underlying mechanisms by which social representations are shaped. It is therefore suggested that we ponder the nature of "the anxieties of our times" as collective symbolisations or--were we to apply the terminology of discourse analysis--as a topos of public discourse. This paper invites reflection upon the reasons for the immense popularity of the "anxieties of our times" in the sphere of public communication. Here the case of the public debates on right-wing extremist violence in Germany will serve to illustrate some of the social perils stemming from an uncritical attitude towards the topos of Verunsicherung, so widespread among social scientists. Nevertheless, the main purpose of this article is to draw attention to the connections between negative tendencies in public discourse as a whole, and in the social sciences in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Visions of the Sociological Tradition Donald N. Levine presents a view of the German sociological tradition that emphasizes its origins in philosophical idealism. This paper discusses the implications of this view for understanding the formation of sociology in Germany. The author suggests that Levine's account can be supplemented and strengthened by reconstructing the German tradition both as an effort to proceed without foundational philosophical systems and as an outgrowth of social economics and the historical school of political economy. Most importantly, Levine shares the call for sociology as the site of dialogue with that reconstructed German tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a bibliography of research papers related to sociology. Some of the papers included in the list are, "Planning Between Hope and Despair: The Reintegration of Returning Labor Migrants As a Source of Conflict in Turkish Development Policy," by Halis Akder and Ali Gitmez; "Educational Work With Foreign Children and Young People: A Review of the Situation and Practical Schemes of Assistance," by Unal Akpinar, Andrés Lopez-Blasco; "Young Foreigners: A Marginal Group in the Labor Market," by Christoph Albrecht; "The Main Features of Research on Migrant Children in the Federal German Republic," by Astrid Albrecht-Heide; "Foreigners in the Housing Market: Documentation for a Seminar of the International Building Exhibition in Berlin," edited by Cihan Arin; "Emigrants--Migrant Workers--Guest Workers: Population, Labour Market and Migration in Germany Since the Mid-Nineteenth Century," edited by Klaus Bade; "Research Results and Their Interpretation: The Example of Career Decisions Amongst Foreign and German High School Students," by Dorothee Bender-Szymanski;

Few accounts of how sociology of education as a specialist sub-discipline has developed in other parts of Europe are available in the English-language professional literature, but these may be helpful not only as information in itself but also as a stimulus to critical reflection upon the history and contemporary positioning of the field in Britain In this paper, sociology of education in the Federal Republic of Germany offers an exemplar for the potential insights that may be gained from such accounts A 'natural history' of the emergence of the field is used to explore three topics relationships between sociology and education as disciplines of knowledge, images of sociology of education as a force for social and political progress, and the question of schooling as the core thematic focus of the field Notable differences between German and British sociology of education are clarified in the process, but equally questions are raised about the taken-for-granted in professional self-image [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]