PROKLA - Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft
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Demographie und Demagogie: Mythen und Fakten zur „demographischen Katastrophe“
Get PDFIn recent years population forecasts receive increasing interest. Extreme scenarios are frequently misused to serve political interests. However, especially long-term forecasts contain substantial uncertainties. The main focus of this article is on the myth of an impending labour shortage induced by demographic change. As shown, the main challenge for the labour market – even in the long run – will not be a decreasing but an ageing workforce. Coping with such labour market trends requires greater efforts in strengthening „employability“
Editorial: Globalisierung und Spaltungen in den Städten
No full textEditorial: Globalisierung und Spaltungen in den Städte
Die Freie Universität Berlin vor dem Börsengang? Bemerkungen zur Ökonomisierung der Wissenschaft.
Get PDFIn his farewell lecture as professor of political science, Bodo Zeuner analyses the process of turning universities into businesses, taking as an example the Free University of Berlin which was ranked as the most entrepreneurial university of Germany in 2006. Turning academic institutions of research and learning into businesses means transforming them into profit-seeking companies, the commodification of their output, fostering ruinous competition among them, and the elimination of all forms of internal democracy and codetermination. As a "business model" project, it is full of inconsistencies. And while chances for resistance are available, they do not all point in the same direction
„Gleichwertigkeit – Ade?“: Die Demographisierung und Peripherisierung entlegener ländlicher Räume
Get PDFThree main reasons can be identified which triggered a social and political debate whether the task of reaching equal living conditions in Germany has to be abandoned. First, the costs of the reunification and the changed environment caused by globalisation have tightened state budgets available to achieve that aim. Second, economic backwardness and social disengagement of rural areas led to a lasting dependence on transfers from richer German regions. Third, the upcoming demographic change has raised the question whether equal living conditions can be financed for rural areas with low population density. However, the far reaching social consequences of abandoning the aim of equal living conditions remained unconsidered in the debate. Accepting huge differences in living conditions and thus severe territorial disparities means to restrict the equality of opportunity of the rural population and with it endangering the territorial cohesion
Harmonische „Weltgesellschaft“? Internationale politische Institutionen und die Restrukturierung kapitalistischer Herrschaftsverhältnisse
Get PDFThe global reach and influence of international political institutions (IPIs) has led to the thesis of a harmonisation in international relations. In the light of recent critical contributions this thesis is questioned. It is argued that the „internationalisation of the state“ in the shape of IPIs can only be properly understood when considered as resulting from the internationalisation of political apparatuses and policies of many individual capitalist states. These materialisations of specific inter-societal balances of power interested in managing the international public sphere and boosting capital accumulation constitute a relatively incoherent and disputed regulatory context
Business Improvement Districts - neues Instrument für Containment und Ausgrenzung? Erfahrungen aus Nordamerika und Großbritannien
No full textBusiness Improvement Districts (BIDs) are territorial subdivisions of a city in which property owners or businesses decide to self-impose an additional tax meant for the promotion and development of the area through services such as garbage collection, street maintenance, and security patrols. They were created in North America since the late 1960s and, though they embody many of the powers and privileges of the state, bear none of the responsibilities and limitations of democratic government. Since the early 1990s BIDs found their way due to a fast policy transfer across the Atlantic: First to the UK and now finally to Germany. Here they are regarded either as an offer the local business community cannot afford to refuse (i.e. some Chambers of Commerce) or as "civil society in action" (parts of the Green Party). Others regard them as questionable under constitutional law and as an instrument to privatize cities (the civil rights movement) or as "the next step towards further exclusion" of disadvantaged groups (i.e. churches and homeless service providers). We analyze these claims and offer empirical evidence from North America and Britain and eventually assess the prospects for Germany
"Jedes starre Konzept ist schlecht und passt net\u27 in diese Welt": Nutzen und Nachteil der Standardisierung der Beratungs- und Vermittlungsstätigkeit in der Arbeitsvermittlung
No full textThe recent reform of the Bundesagentur fijr Arbeit, Germany\u27s Public Employment Service (PES), has introduced elements of New Public Management, including internal controlling and attempts at standardizing assessments (\u27profiling\u27 of unemployed people) and procedures. Based on qualitative interviews with PES staff, we show that standardization and controlling are perceived as contradicting the \u27case-oriented approach\u27 used by PES staff in dealing with unemployed people. It is therefore not surprising that staff members use considerable discretion when (re-)assigning unemployed people to one of the categories pre-defined by PES headquarters. All in all, the new procedures lead to numerous contradictions, which often result in bewilderment and puzzlement on the part of the unemployed
„State Failure“ und „asymmetrische Kriege“ als Paradigmen von Weltordnungspolitik: Die Beiträge Herfried Münklers zu einer Neubestimmung imperialer Politik
Get PDFHerfried Münkler – who has delivered extensive descriptions of New Wars and the configuration of Empires – is actually treated as one of the most important political analysts in Germany. However, there are very few critical discussions of h is t hesis. Münkler m aintains t hat irregular, ‘ non-state’ wars lead t o a spreading of uncontrollable violence. In this sense and applying to Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt, he celebrates the strong State as a successful instrument of ruling policies and pacification. With similar arguments, he pleads for a self-confident dealing with imperial strategies in international contexts. Münkler, in this way, puts doubtful political arguments at the disposal of the Berlin Republic and its new claims of power
Die Arbeitsverwaltung als Versicherungskonzern? Zum betriebswirtschaftlichen Umbau einer Sozialbehörde
No full textOne of the main pillars of the German social security system, the Federal Labour Agency has undergone the most extensive reorganization of a public sector organisation in Germany in recent years. The contribution describes the main principles of this management-driven reform process and its conseguences for the service quality in the local job centres. It leads to the conclusion that a gain of efficiency in labour administration faces problems of exclusion for specific groups of job seekers from measures of active labour market policy