Today, "social policy" is an expression used across the globe to denote a broad range of issues, such as old age security, health, housing and so on. But historically, "social policy" had a distinct European origin and a distinct meaning. I maintain that "social policy" and the "welfare state" are more than a list of social services, and also have strong socio-cultural underpinnings that account for the diversity of social policy. The idea of "social policy" emerged in mid-nineteenth-century Germany against (...) the backdrop of secularization and functional differentiation of modern society. I then pinpoint the twentieth-century move from "social policy" to the broader cultural idea of a universalistic "welfare state." The idea emerged internationally as early as the 1940s, even before the post-WWII rise of national welfare states, which, as I argue, differ according to national notions of "state" and "society." To this end, I compare the UK, Sweden, Germany, France, and two non-welfare states, the United States and the Soviet Union. (shrink)

Ein wichtiges Anliegen der großen Konzilien des Spätmittelalters war die Reform des monasti-schen Lebens. Ausgehend von der italienischen Benediktinerabtei Subiaco fanden diese Bestrebun-gen besonders in den deutschsprachigen Klöstern ein breites Echo. Es bildeten sich Reformzentren heraus, in denen die Benedikt-Regel eine neue spirituelle und kultu-relle Kraft entfaltete. Dabei wurde nicht nur auf eine strengere Einhaltung der Gelübde Wert gelegt, sondern auch auf eine humanistische und theologische Bildung der Mönche. Alle Bereiche des mo-nastischen Lebens wurden einer strukturellen und geistigen Erneuerung unterzogen. (...) Der Austausch mit anderen kulturellen Strömungen der Zeit war rege, führende Persönlichkeiten waren daran be-teiligt. In den Beiträgen des Bandes wird auf der Grundlage des historischen Quellenmaterials der Geist dieser Reformbewegung in ihren vielfältigen Dimensionen erschlossen. (shrink)

This paper explores the interactions between scientific travel, politics, instrument making and the epistemology of scientific instruments in Napoleon's Europe. In the early 1800s, the German astronomer Franz Xaver von Zach toured Italy and Southern France with instruments made by G. Reichenbach in his newly-established Bavarian workshop. I argue that von Zach acted as a broker for German technology and science and that travel, personal contacts and direct demonstrations were crucial in establishing Reichenbach's reputation and in conquering new (...) markets. The rise of German instrument making highlights the complexity of the scientific relationship between the centre and the peripheries in Napoleon's empire, and reveals the existence of diverging views on the role of instruments and of their makers. In von Zach's view, Reichenbach's instruments could not penetrate the French market because Parisian astronomers focused on mathematical astronomy and, for both political and epistemological reasons, dismissed instruments and material innovations from the peripheries. The German astronomer and his Italian colleagues, on the contrary, regarded Reichenbach's technical achievements as outstanding contributions to astronomy, and considered the political and cultural hegemony of the capital as a hindrance to the advancement of science. (shrink)

ABSTRACTBavarian intellectual Franz Xaver von Baader counts among the most prominent representatives of German Romanticism, although his name and fame have almost been forgotten. Baader was a key figure among the Romantic scene and an ardent defender of Catholicism in the aftermath of Enlightenment criticism on the Christian faith and tradition. Most interesting is that he did not construe his apologia on the basis of rational considerations only, as a counterattack as it were, but that he took a (...) point of departure in a peculiar understanding of love. According to Baader, love is a concept and a reality which allows one to imagine the relation between creature and Creator and which intriguingly combines the distinctively human with the uniquely divine. In the present paper, I am continuing in the line of Ramón Betanzos’ outstanding study on Baader’s idea of love and argue that his intuitions reveal a solid synthesis of theological and philosophical insights which today is definitely worth reconsidering. In order to do that in an orderly fashion, I primordially focus on his concept of permeability and explore its metaphysical, epistemological and anthropological potential. (shrink)

Franz Xaver Kappus foi um aspirante à poeta que pediu conselhos e sugestões ao renomado escritor Rainer Maria Rilke. Estes pedidos se deram por meio de cartas ao qual Kappus não recebe nenhuma sugestão quanto à estilística, métrica ou composição de poemas, mas sim, vários conselhos na perspectiva de construção de uma obra através das experiências mais singelas da vida. Após o falecimento de Rilke a coleção destas epistolas direcionadas a Kappus foi compilada em um livro, com o (...) sugestivo nome de “Cartas a um Jovem Poeta”. Desde então tem servido para muitos leitores como um livro basal ao entendimento pessoal, que versa sobre o pertencimento e de qual é o nosso lugar de atuação no mundo. Essa comunicação tange ao conteúdo dessas cartas, de que cunho são tais conselhos e o fundo filosófico que estes contém; com isso realiza-se uma analise desta emblemática obra do século XX. (shrink)

Der Ruf nach Verantwortung bestimmt zunehmend wissenschaftliche Debatten, bewegt aber auch das Denken der Bürger. Franz-Xaver Kaufmann sieht in der Verantwortung "eine ethische Grundkategorie unseres gegenwärtigen Selbstverständnisses". -/- Freiheit und Verantwortung stehen in einem direkten Verhältnis. So sind die Menschen verantwortlich für die Entscheidungen, die sie treffen, und für deren Folgen. Allerdings sind die Handlungsketten in der modernen Gesellschaft komplexer geworden. Wer trägt welche Verantwortung für welche Handlungsbereiche? Versuche, die Verantwortung auf gesellschaftliche Organisationen abzuwälzen, sind keine Lösung. Jeder (...) Einzelne, aber auch jede Gruppe, muss sich jeweils der eigenen Verantwortung stellen. -/- Die Beiträge des Bandes gehen auf das 10. Deutsch-Amerikanische Kolloquium zurück, das 2008 in Philadelphia stattfand. (shrink)

The article aims to contribute to the sociological theory of the welfare state by addressing a fundamental puzzle of social policy, namely, the weakness of its claim to be a rational effort of society dealing with problems of social integration. Drawing on the work of Franz-Xaver Kaufmann, I distinguish between the cultural or ideational side of the welfare state and the social engineering or outcome side, arguing to take the rhetoric and symbolism of social policy more seriously. The (...) integration of society is more due to the communicative action of social policy than to its organizational quality. As early as the axial age civilizations, symbolism and ideology emerged as an autonomous field of social conflict and societal union. Taking ancient Israel as an example, I argue that societal integration may take place even in the absence of strong institutional correlates of social politics. This can help to explain why the welfare state in modern society is compatible with ever-increasing economic and social inequality. (shrink)

This special issue assembles contributions from the global North and South to inquire into the future of the “social” from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on sociology, political science and law. What does “social” mean, and do social policy and the welfare state have a future in a global age? The issue is published on the occasion of the eightieth birthday of Franz-Xaver Kaufmann, who is considered the doyen of the sociology of social policy in Germany.

This article demonstrates how the Conservative system of social protection in Germany has been converging toward the Liberal American model during the past two decades, focusing on social protection for the unemployed and pensioners. In addition to public/statutory provisions, occupational welfare is also covered. Despite an overall process of convergence, we continue to witness stark dissimilarities in the arrangements for social protection outsiders: whereas Germany continues to constitutionally guarantee a legal entitlement to minimum social protection for all citizens, such a (...) guarantee does not exist in the United States. The lack of such legal entitlement for poor people of working age, combined with the criminalization of the "dangerous class," is a key differentiating characteristic of the US model at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The findings confirm but also qualify Franz-Xaver Kaufmann's analysis of the United States as "capitalism," which lacks collective welfare responsibility for all citizens, as compared to Germany's "welfare state.". (shrink)

In this article we explore the emergence of a cluster of social movement organisations that have critically taken issue with nanotechnology in Germany, the UK and internationally. By applying concepts borrowed from Social Movement Research we demonstrate that this cluster is a ‘spin-off’ from the preceding movement against agrofood biotechnology, however, never succeeds in mobilizing a comparable ‘antinanotechnology movement’. We argue that the turn toward participatory and deliberative practices that is characteristic of nanotechnology policy and, to a major extent, is (...) based on the perceived threat of a ‘public backlash’ against nanotechnology, while being of little political impact, reinforces the activity of these critical organisations through the provision of political opportunities. We further argue that the stagnation of these organisations can be explained by low policy impact and low public responsiveness respectively and conclude that their trajectories hinge to a major extent on policy impact and the responsiveness of the mass-public. We end by making a concluding remark about the limits to the project of democratizing social contention through public engagement. (shrink)

Brentanos 1904 vollendete Theorie, nur Reales sei vorstellbar und könne existieren, führte auch unter seinen Schülern zu Kontroversen. Dieser Band enthält eine umfangreiche Studie, die Einleitung der Herausgeber zu diesem Problemkreis, Auszüge aus dem Briefwechsel mit A. Marty und O. Kraus sowie die einschlägigen Abhandlungen Brentanos.

Feature logics are the logical basis for so-called unification grammars studied in computational linguistics. We investigate the expressivity of feature terms with negation and the functional uncertainty construct needed for the description of long-distance dependencies and obtain the following results: satisfiability of feature terms is undecidable, sort equations can be internalized, consistency of sort equations is decidable if there is at least one atom, and consistency of sort equations is undecidable if there is no atom.

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Die besonderen Wissenschaften" verfügbar.

Although peer review provides the primary mechamism for allocating research funds, very few people have undertaken any serious study of the issue. Most of the literature surrounding peer review comes from individuals who have experienced specific problems with the system. The one detail that does stand out is that though policy makers and researchers seem to view peer review as a specific process, no single form exists. In fact, almost agency and foundation has its own unique process. This presentation will (...) explore the concept of peer review and highlight its strengths and weaknesses. (shrink)

New production concepts rely on the active (co-) shaping of planning, control and organisation processes on the shop floor level. Established CAPM technologies (CAPM =Computer Aided Production Management) only provide insufficient support, and a complete automation of the production management is not suited to close this gap. This is why new principles of system design have to be developed which meet various requirements: from taking into account a multidimensionality and contradiction of planning targets and the integration of learning opportunities with (...) the use of systems up to the promotion of work process knowledge. (shrink)