BJS – Berliner Journal für Soziologie

Contents - Issue 2/2006

ORGANIZATION AND WORK

Hildegard M. Nickel
Editorial p. 151

Cornelia Koppetsch
In-between Discipline and Expressivity. Advertising Professions as a Case in Point for Changing Professional Identities in the New Capitalism p. 155
Abstract

Katharina Bluhm
Resolving the Liberalisation Dilemma: Labour Relations in Central Eastern Europe and the Impacts of the European Union p. 173
Abstract

Annette Henninger/Ulrike Papouschek
Non-standard Work as Risk or Opportunity? Comparing Mobile Care Services and Freelancing in the New Media p. 189
Abstract

Till Westermayer
Micro-enterprises in the Forest: A Journey through the Countryside of the Post-industrial Society p. 211
Abstract

Jan Skrobanek/Solvejg Jobst
Restricted by Cultural Capital? Conditions of Regional Mobility in the Context of Pierre Bourdieu's Conceptualization of Capital p. 227
Abstract

Jan Fuhse
Group and Network –– A History of Concepts and Their Reformulation p. 245
Abstract

Review Essay

Sylka Scholz
Male Dominance p. 265

Reports

Fritz Thyssen Foundation Award (founded by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Erwin K. Scheuch) for Social Science Articles published in 2004 p. 275

Abstracts Issue 2/2006

Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (2)

Cornelia Koppetsch
In-between Discipline and Expressivity. Advertising Professions as a Case in Point for Changing Professional Identities in the New Capitalism

Creativity, flexibility and authenticity have become important virtues in modern industrialized countries. Employers demand from their employees continuously more autonomy and initiative. Likewise many employees want to gain self-realization through their work. Taking advertising as a case in point, the article sketches the outlines of a new creative working ethos. Prototypes of this ethos are the experts in the culture and media industries. These occupational fields are determined more than others by current economic changes resulting in insecure career prospects, competition and the "project logics" of employment. The analysis shows what kind of identity this ethos offers, how it meets the new economic requirements and how it is anchored in the institutional settings of the occupational group. Finally, the article discusses the question how this type of creative expert is fabricated in the tension between professionalism and market.
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (2)

Katharina Bluhm
Resolving the Liberalisation Dilemma: Labour Relations in Central Eastern Europe and the Impacts of the European Union

Scholars and unionists often claim an "excessive" flexibility and unilateral manager power in the labor relations system of Central Eastern Europe, while others observe "insufficient" flexibility and etatism. Beyond mere political reasoning the article provides an explanation for these contradicting diagnoses by reconstructing the varying influence of three conflicting concepts within the institutionalization process: economic liberalism, etatism and the continental European idea of social partnership. Focusing on Poland and the Czech Republic it is argued that the varying influence of the three concepts contributed to permissive labor relations that clearly differ from Anglo-Saxon voluntarism: The labor relations are not permissive by formal standards but by deviation. During the 1990s the weakness of actors in regulating interaction and establishing powerful sanctions created a dilemma for liberalization. On the one side strong formal regulation by the state provided little incentives for employers to bargain. On the other side, a further withdrawal of the state from regulation did only ease unilateral decision-making of management as collective bargaining is weak. The impacts of harmonization with the EU regulatory regime are ambiguous. While establishing new minimum standards and regulations in new areas it also provided an opportunity structure for actors to push for the dissolution of the liberalization dilemma without compensating employees with more bargaining strength.
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (2)

Annette Henninger/Ulrike Papouschek
Non-standard Work as Risk or Opportunity? Comparing Mobile Care Services and Freelancing in the New Media

In the German sociology of work and industrial relations, there is an ongoing discussion on the de-limitation of work. It is assumed that the de-standardization and growing flexibilization of work may result in a dissolution of the boundaries between work and private live, whereas a separation of both spheres was characteristic of the Fordist period. Up to now, there has not been much empirical research that takes a closer look at the postulated changes. To get a broader perspective on the changes of work in different occupational fields, the paper compares results from a study on mobile care services with the findings of a research project on freelancers in the New Media and the cultural industries. The authors ask whether the assumed de-limitation of work really is a general trend. Are there possibly countervailing tendencies in some fields? Do workers just cope with the changes of work or do they develop their own, active strategies to re-define the boundaries of work and to find a new work-life balance? How are opportunities and risks spread among different groups of workers? What can be learned from such a comparative perspective for the debate on a de-limitation of work?
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (2)

Till Westermayer
Micro-enterprises in the Forest: A Journey through the Countryside of the Post-industrial Society

The paper presents characteristics of post-industrial work and the echo these characteristics produce in the current sociology of work. This presentation forms the background for a discussion of the forms of work and organization to be found in small contracting enterprises in forestry in Germany. For this, firstly, the connection between decreasing employment in the state forestry administration and out-sourcing of forestry work as well as the history of forestry contracting are described from a broader point of view. The second part focuses on characteristics of work and organization in small forestry contracting enterprises, based on qualitative interviews and discussed with the help of newer approaches from the sociology of work. Whereas on the one hand common characteristics between the work in forestry contracting enterprises and post-industrial work can be observed, on the other hand many phenomena can be reasonably be explained by reference to traditions of rural work in small family enterprises. In conclusion, the observed forms of work and organization can only be explained by combining the effects of global market and rural traditions.
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (2)

Jan Skrobanek/Solvejg Jobst
Restricted by Cultural Capital? Conditions of Regional Mobility in the Context of Pierre Bourdieu's Conceptualization of Capital

With increasing regional disparities in economic development and living conditions in Europe, migration has become a key element in domestic politics of many European countries. One of the main concerns of analysis has been the search for important determinants of migration, however, the role of "region specific cultural capital" has not been considered. This omission is the starting point of our discussion and we introduce region specific capital as a form of cultural capital. In contrast to widespread approaches, hypotheses deriving from the theory of Pierre Bourdieu and his distinction of economic, social and cultural capital are deduced and empirically tested, using a representative survey of 3005 persons living in Saxony. The results show that the main determinants of migration are region specific cultural capital, dissatisfaction and age.
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (2)

Jan Fuhse
Group and Network – A History of Concepts and Their Reformulation

The essay develops three central arguments. Firstly, while being one of the core concepts of sociology in the early 20th century, the group concept loses its central position between 1960 and 1970. As a conceptual tool for the understanding of configurations of social relationships, it is increasingly replaced by the network concept. Secondly, the group concept implies bounded social entities. The network concept, in contrast, stresses the unbounded interweaving of social ties and contexts. This allows for a better understanding of the complex social patterns of modernity. Thirdly, groups are special cases of "involuted" network structure. Here, a symbolically constructed social boundary becomes the central focus for transaction processes. This also makes for an increased alignment of social relationships within the group. These three arguments are grounded in a historical perspective on the conceptual careers of "groups" and "networks" in various sociological schools. The essay discusses the "Formal Sociology" of Georg Simmel and Leopold von Wiese, Symbolic Interactionism, British Social Anthropology, American Network Analysis, and the more recent approach of Phenomenological Network Theory by Harrison White and others in the US. The essay stresses the dynamics and inner logics of social relationships and resulting configurations (groups being one example) on the meso-level.
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Contents - Issue 2/2006

Abstracts Issue 2/2006