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Fugitive Place-Making in Black London: Urban Struggles, Care, and Refusal
Full text linkTransnational protest movements continue to expose the enduring legacies of colonial exploitation and institutionalised racism within and beyond European cities. They foreground the systemic conditions under which Black lives are rendered disproportionately vulnerable to premature death. In doing so, they expose the enduring entanglements of racial capitalism, state violence and spatial exclusion. Through their ongoing political agitation these movements highlight the need for spatio-temporally situated and relationally embedded engagements with Black urban lives. My thesis responds to that call by examining place-making practices of enclosure and refusal throughout Black London’s post-World War II development.
Grounded in the ethnographic narrative of “being halfway while shooting”, I explore how Black lives are enclosed by institutional racism, how this enclosure is spatialised and how Black and differently racialised Londoners refuse these spatial enclosures through everyday and collective place-making practices. At the intersection of structural constraint and the desire to enact Black freedom in London, I specifically foreground the emergence of fugitive place-making practices.
Conceptually, I bring (critical) urban geography scholarship, Black studies and Black (British)Geographies scholarship into conversation. I develop “being halfway while shooting” as a relational concept that foregrounds the production of racialised urban knowledges, the multiplicity of Black enclosures, and the plurality of place-based strategies committed to refusal. I do so by stressing the relevance of Black fugitive thinking to account for the ongoing refusals that mark the relationship between Blackness and the British city. Methodologically, I adopt a research-activist ethnographic approach, grounded in my long-term engagement with a housing campaign in East London that organises around the housing needs of London’s racialised and gendered urban poor. Using qualitative methods - archival research, interviews, (non-)participant observations, document and media analysis - I embed contemporary struggles into long and ongoing histories of racial-capitalist urban development as well as Black and multi-ethnic refusal.
The empirical chapters trace place-making practices of enclosure and refusal across London’s post-World War II urban development. By examining the aftermath of urban revolts and changing urban welfare regimes, I explore how racialised urban governance has been historically materialised in and through the city. At the same time, I foreground how within this racialised construction of the British city, Black and differently racialised Londoners continue to hold open the possibility of refusal through places in which communal care and self-determination can be enacted. I then turn to the struggle over housing in East London, showing how contemporary processes of racialised dehumanisation and ongoing displacement are both historically rooted and actively contested. In the final empirical chapter I accentuate the relevance of these findings for German-speaking critical urban geography debates.
The research shows that racial capitalist urbanism reproduces enclosures through practices of value extraction, spatial displacement, and the policing of Black subjectivities. In response, Black and differently racialised Londoners engage in fugitive place-making. Rooted in communal care, political organisation, collective education and cultural affirmation, these practices reassert Black presence and belonging. They offer an enduring mode of place-based refusal and the ongoing possibility to stay in the city differently. These findings not only demonstrate the academic significance of my research but also underscore the urgent need to support the place-making practices of Black and differently racialised urban communities, who continue to refuse the racialised enclosure of the British city from within.
From these empirical insights, I propose the concept of a fugitive sense of place - a theoretical lens that accounts for the racialised reproduction of urban space and the transformative place-making practices of those who refuse its logics. Rather than offering prescriptive policy recommendations, I call for a reorientation of urban geographical enquiry by centring Black spatial practices, knowledges and imaginations. Through the lens of “being halfway while shooting”, I argue for a rethinking of human habitation and urban theory through the lived experiences of Black survival and refusal. Attending to a fugitive sense of place, I propose new avenues for human geography research to explore how fugitive place-making practices reshape the meanings, conditions, and possibilities of urban life
Implicit Motives in Childhood and Adolescence - Findings on Developmental and Psychological Correlates
Full text linkThe role of implicit motives for affective, cognitive and behavioral processes has been a focal part of psychological research for decades. Yet, the majority of research in this field has been concentrated on processes involving implicit motives in adulthood. The systematic investigation of developmental correlates of implicit motives remains largely uncharted. The studies cumulated in this thesis aim to add to the sparse research on implicit motives in childhood and adolescence. Specifically, the development of the implicit power motive in the transition of middle to late childhood as a function of parenting behavior (Chapter 4), the predictive value of the implicit achievement motive for objective swimming performance in children and adolescents (Chapter 5) and the role of motive congruence for successful goal realization in adolescent samples across two cultures (Chapter 6) were investigated. Results of Study 1 (Chapter 4) indicate a negative longitudinal association of authoritarian parenting with the implicit power motive in children that is moderated by children’s perception of psychologically controlling parenting. Study 2 (Chapter 5) extends existing research on the assumed positive association of the implicit achievement motive and sports performance and demonstrates the moderating role of competitive anxiety on this association. Finally, Study 3 (Chapter 6) illustrates a moderating effect of implicit motives on the association of goal commitment and successful goal realization in German and Zambian adolescents, however, this effect was only observed in the domain of power motivation. Findings from all three studies are discussed in the context of the significance of implicit motives for psychological research.Die Rolle impliziter Motive für affektive, kognitive und Verhaltensprozesse ist seit Jahrzehnten ein zentrales Gebiet psychologischer Forschung. Allerdings konzentriert sich der Großteil der Forschung in diesem Bereich auf Prozesse, die implizite Motive im Erwachsenenalter betreffen. Die systematische Untersuchung der Entwicklungskorrelate impliziter Motive wurde bislang weitgehend vernachlässigt. Die in dieser Arbeit zusammengefassten Studien sollen einen Beitrag zu der bislang spärlichen Forschung über implizite Motive im Kindes- und Jugendalter leisten. Konkret wurden die Entwicklung des impliziten Machtmotivs im Übergang vom mittleren zum späten Kindesalter als Funktion des Erziehungsverhaltens (Kapitel 4), der prädiktive Wert des impliziten Leistungsmotivs für die objektive Schwimmleistung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen (Kapitel 5) und die Rolle der Motivkongruenz für die erfolgreiche Zielerreichung bei Jugendlichen aus zwei Kulturen (Kapitel 6) untersucht. Die Ergebnisse von Studie 1 (Kapitel 4) zeigen einen negativen longitudinalen Zusammenhang zwischen autoritärem Erziehungsverhalten und dem impliziten Machtmotiv bei Kindern, der durch die Wahrnehmung der Kinder von psychologisch kontrollierendem Erziehungsverhalten moderiert wird. Studie 2 (Kapitel 5) erweitert die bestehende Forschung zum angenommenen positiven Zusammenhang zwischen dem impliziten Leistungsmotiv und der sportlichen Leistung und zeigt die moderierende Rolle von Wettbewerbsangst auf diesen Zusammenhang. Schließlich veranschaulicht Studie 3 (Kapitel 6) einen moderierenden Effekt impliziter Motive auf den Zusammenhang von Zielbindung und erfolgreicher Zielerreichung bei deutschen und sambischen Jugendlichen, wobei dieser Effekt nur im Bereich der Machtmotivation beobachtet wurde. Die Ergebnisse der drei Studien werden im Kontext der Bedeutung impliziter Motive für die psychologische Forschung diskutiert
Unlocking Personal Power: Exploring Individual Differences in Self-Regulation through Action versus State Orientation
Full text linkThis dissertation examines how individuals unlock their personal power by investigating individual differences in self-regulation, in particular, how situational conditions interact with the personality dispositions of action versus state orientation. Action-oriented individuals are well able to regulate their affective states and to bridge the intention–behavior gap, showing initiative, implementing demanding intentions, and resisting temptations. State-oriented individuals, by contrast, often struggle to regulate affect and experience difficulties enacting intentions, especially under demanding conditions, tending to hesitate and ruminate. While extensive research has highlighted the advantages of action orientation across various domains such as education and health, this thesis challenges the prevailing one-sided perspective that presents action orientation as inherently superior and frames state orientation negatively. Drawing on Personality Systems Interactions theory, the dissertation adopts a dynamic view that understands these dispositions as context-sensitive rather than fixed. The central assumption is that action and state orientation each require different kinds of situational conditions to fully unlock their potential. Across six empirical studies (overall N = 1,067) using a multimethod approach that combines experimental and survey-based research in diverse populations and contextual settings, this dissertation examines (1) action and state orientation as distinct dispositions, (2) their dynamic interaction with situational factors, and (3) ways to support each in mobilizing personal power. Overall, the findings show that each disposition offers unique advantages - they simply require different situational conditions for their potential to unfold.Diese Dissertation untersucht, wie Menschen ihre persönliche Stärke entfalten können, indem sie individuelle Unterschiede in der Selbstregulation betrachtet. Im Zentrum steht die Frage, wie situative Bedingungen mit den Persönlichkeitsdispositionen der Handlungs- versus Lageorientierung zusammenwirkt. Handlungsorientierte Personen können ihre affektiven Zustände unter Belastung gut regulieren und die Lücke zwischen Intention und Verhalten überbrücken: Sie zeigen Initiative, setzen anspruchsvolle Vorhaben um und können Versuchungen eher widerstehen. Lageorientierte Personen hingegen haben häufig Schwierigkeiten, Affekte zu regulieren, und erleben insbesondere in belastenden Situationen Probleme bei der Umsetzung ihrer Absichten; sie zögern eher, grübeln und lassen sich leichter ablenken. Obwohl zahlreiche Studien die Vorteile der Handlungsorientierung in verschiedenen Bereichen - wie etwa Bildung und Gesundheit - belegen, stellt diese Arbeit die vorherrschende, einseitige Perspektive infrage, die Handlungsorientierung als grundsätzlich überlegen und Lageorientierung überwiegend negativ darstellt. Aufbauend auf der Theorie der Persönlichkeits-System-Interaktionen verfolgt die Dissertation eine dynamische Sichtweise, in der Handlungs- versus Lageorientierung nicht als starr verstanden werden, sondern als kontext-sensitiv. Die zentrale Annahme lautet, dass Handlungs- und Lageorientierung unterschiedliche Bedingungen benötigen, um ihr Potenzial vollständig entfalten zu können. Über sechs empirische Studien (Gesamtstichprobe N = 1.067) hinweg, die einen Multimethodenansatz in unterschiedlichen Stichproben und Kontexten verfolgt, untersucht diese Dissertation (1) Handlungs- und Lageorientierung als unterschiedliche Dispositionen, (2) ihre dynamische Wechselwirkung mit situativen Faktoren und (3) Möglichkeiten, jede Disposition bei der Mobilisierung persönlicher Handlungskraft zu unterstützen. Insgesamt zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass jede dieser Dispositionen eigene Stärken besitzt- sie werden jedoch jeweils unter unterschiedlichen Bedingungen sichtbar
From education to employment: Understanding educational mismatch using the case of Germany
Full text linkMany developed countries, including Germany, face a steady rise in the share of
individuals obtaining higher education. While rising education itself bears a series
of advantages as extensively studied in previous literature, it is also conceptually
linked to a higher likelihood of working in an occupation that does not match
one’s formal qualifications. Previous studies have predominantly evaluated
how demographic or job‐related aspects correlate with the likelihood of being
educationally ﴾mis﴿matched. However, they have largely ignored institutional
facets of the educational system or industrial organization. Moreover, little is
known about how private wealth affects educational mismatch or whether job
satisfaction is homogenously affected among individuals once such a mismatch
occurs. The five projects collected in this thesis aim to answer these open
questions in the literature for Germany, using data from the Socio‐Economic Panel
and employing different time intervals between 1984 and 2022.
Beginning with the educational system in early childhood, Chapter 2 evaluates
the impact of school‐starting age on the likelihood of over‐ and undereducation.
It exploits the exogenous variation in school‐entry rules across federal states
and years in Germany with regression discontinuity designs. The results report
a negative impact of school‐starting age on the likelihood of undereducation,
but no systematic relationship with overeducation.
Subsequently, Chapter 3 explores the variation in education costs by leveraging
the quasi‐experimental setting induced by the time‐limited introduction of tuition
fees in several German federal states between 2006 and 2014. The increase
in education costs among treated graduates results in a significantly higher
likelihood of overeducation, which endures even several years post‐graduation.
Chapter 4 focuses on the industrial relations system and examines the
correlation between trade union membership and the likelihood and extent of
educational ﴾mis﴿match. The results reveal that trade union members report
significantly less overeducation at both the intensive and extensive margin
and also a higher likelihood of being matched compared to non‐members. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis provides evidence that this correlation
is driven by improved bargaining power instead of informational advantages.
Chapter 5 focuses on private wealth as a determinant of educational mismatch
by investigating the impact of a wealth shock through inheritances, lottery
winnings or gifts on the likelihood of over‐ and undereducation. Due to
the diminishing marginal returns of wages with increasing windfall gains the
likelihood of undereducation is expected to decrease, while that of overeducation
is expected to increase. Empirically, these suppositions are supported for
overeducation, as its likelihood increases significantly after the windfall gain.
Further analyses reveal that this effect is driven by individuals switching
occupations while increasing their leisure time, and it materializes only for
medium to large windfall gains.
Contrary to the previous chapters, Chapter 6 focuses on educational mismatch,
more precisely on overeducation, as the independent variable. In particular, it
investigates the correlation between overeducation and job satisfaction. The
results align with the previously established negative correlation for private sector
employees exclusively. In contrast, interaction and subsample analyses reveal a
positive correlation for public sector employees. This link is driven by individuals
with a high degree of altruistic motivation and family orientation
Essays on Income, Wellbeing, and the Labour Market
Full text linkIncome composition can have a significant impact on workers’ well-being, productivity, and career paths. Wages often include a variety of components, such as unconditional bonuses, profit-sharing payments, and incentives based on the individual performance of employees. Each of these may influence employee labour outcomes differently and the worker composition may matter for managers when designing the salary package. Simultaneously, workers’ employment choices and well-being are influenced by income outside the job, such as inheritances and lottery winnings, as well as by external factors like technological change. This dissertation includes five empirical studies that investigate these issues, yielding new insights on the role of monetary gifts, financial incentives, labour market institutions, and technology disruptions in affecting employees’ labour and well-being outcomes
Three-Point Difference Schemes of High Order of Accuracy for Solving the Sturm-Liouville Problem
Full text linkThe dissertation is devoted to the construction and justification of three-point difference schemes of high order of accuracy for solving the Sturm-Liouville problem. A new algorithmic realization of the exact three-point difference scheme on a non-uniform grid has been developed. We show that to compute the coefficients of the exact scheme in an arbitrary grid node, it is necessary to solve two auxiliary Cauchy problems for the system of three linear ordinary differential equations of the first order. The coefficient stability of the exact three-point difference scheme is proved. If the Cauchy problems are solved numerically using any one-step method, we obtain the truncated three-point difference scheme. The accuracy estimate of three-point difference schemes was obtained and the algorithm for finding their solution was developed.
We also developed a new algorithmic realization of the exact three-point difference scheme for the Sturm-Liouville problem with singularities at the ends of the interval. As in the case of the classical Sturm-Liouville problem, to find the coefficients of the exact three-point difference scheme, it is necessary to solve two auxiliary Cauchy problems for each grid node. The coefficient stability of the exact three-point difference scheme is proved. Since the Cauchy problems for the first and last grid nodes are singular, the Taylor series method has been developed to solve them. The accuracy estimate of truncated three-point difference schemes was obtained. To solve the difference scheme, the Newton's iterative method is used.
Numerical experiments are presented which confirm the efficiency of the proposed approach
Methods to Coordinate Survey Samples in the Context of German Business Statistics
Full text linkMeasuring the economic activity of a country requires high-quality data of businesses. In the case of Germany, this is not only required at national level, but also at federal state level and for different economic sectors. Important sources for high-quality business data are the business register and, among others, also 14 business surveys which are conducted by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany. However, the quality requirements of the Federal Statistical Office are in contrast to the interests of the businesses themselves. For them, answering to a survey's questionnaire is an additional cost factor, also known as response burden. A high response burden should be avoided, since it can have a negative impact on the quality of the businesses' responses to the surveys. Therefore, sample coordination can be used as a method to control the distribution of response burden while securing high-quality data.
When applying already existing business survey coordination systems, developed by different statistical institutes, legal and administrative standards of German official statistics have to be taken into account. These standards consider different sampling fractions, rotation fractions, periodicity, and stratification of the aforementioned 14 business surveys. Therefore, the aim of this doctoral thesis is to check the existing business survey coordination systems for their applicability in the context of German official statistics and, if necessary, to modify them accordingly. These modifications include the introduction of individual burden indicators which aim to take the individual perception of response burden into account.
For this purpose, several synthetic data sets have been created to test the application of the modified versions of the different business survey coordination systems through Monte Carlo simulation studies. These data sets include a large panel data set, reflecting the landscape of businesses in Rhineland-Palatinate and three smaller, synthetic data sets. The latter have been created with the help of the R package BuSuCo which has been developed within the scope of this thesis. The above mentioned simulation studies are evaluated based on different measures for estimation quality as well as for the concentration and distribution of response burden
Rechts und radikal liberal
Full text linkDie Masterarbeit untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen Libertarismus und Rechtsextremismus, wobei der Fokus auf der Entwicklung der libertären Szene in Deutschland liegt. Zunächst wird ein ausführlicher theoretischer Teil präsentiert, in dem gezeigt wird, dass zwischen einer radikal wirtschaftsliberalen und einer rechtsextremen Weltauffassung partiell gemeinsame Elemente bestehen. Insbesondere werden ein spezifischer Antiegalitarismus, eine Naturalisierung gesellschaftlicher Sachverhalte sowie eine gemeinsame Feindbildkonstruktion als verbindende Merkmale identifiziert, die beide Ideologien, die auf Ungleichwertigkeitsvorstellungen basieren, prägen. Im Anschluss folgt eine empirische Analyse des libertären Magazins eigentümlich frei, das eine zentrale Rolle in der deutschsprachigen libertären Bewegung spielt. Der soziologische Neo-Institutionalismus dient als theoretische Perspektive, um den institutionellen Wandel innerhalb der libertären Szene zu erfassen und zu analysieren. Die empirische Untersuchung bestätigt die theoretischen Annahmen und zeigt, dass sich im libertären Diskurs eine zunehmende Annäherung an rechtsextreme Ideologien vollzieht. Fünf Phasen des institutionellen Wandels werden identifiziert, die mit einer verstärkten Vernetzung der libertären Bewegung mit dem rechtsextremen Spektrum und der Veränderung von Diskursen einhergehen. Die Arbeit kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die libertäre Szene um eigentlich frei dem rechtsextremen Spektrum zuzuordnen ist. Die Untersuchung schlägt vor, den Libertarismus im Rahmen dieser Entwicklung als „Paläolibertarismus“ zu bezeichnen, was auf eine ideologische Nähe zur Alt-Right-Bewegung hinweist. Zentrale Merkmale dieser Ideologie sind neben einer radikal wirtschaftsliberalen Ausrichtung auch die Forderung nach einer Privatisierung gesellschaftlicher Institutionen und die Etablierung von sozialen Autoritäten wie Familie und Kirche zum Schutz des Individuums vor staatlicher Einflussnahme
The Airline Industry: Risk Management and CO2 Emissions
Full text linkWithin this thesis the hedging behaviour of airlines from 2005 to 2019 is analysed by using an unbalanced panel dataset consisting of a total of 78 airlines from 39 countries. The focus of the analysis is on financial and operational hedging as well as the influence of both on CO2 emissions and the development of emitted CO2 emissions. For the analysis Probit models with random effects and OLS models with fixed effects were used.
The results regarding the relationship between leverage and financial hedging indicate a negative relationship between everage and financial fuel hedging and a non-linear convex relationship for highly leveraged airlines, which is contrary to the theory of financial distress.
In addition, the study provides evidence that airlines using other types of derivatives, such as interest rate derivatives, engage in more fuel hedging.
In terms of operational hedging, the analysis suggests that operating a diversified fleet is a complement to, rather than a substitute for, financial hedging. With regard to alliance membership, the results do not show that alliance membership is a substitute for financial hedging, as members of alliances are more likely to engage in hedging transactions and to a greater extent.
The analysis shows that the relative CO2 emissions fall in the period under review, but this does not apply to the absolute amount. No general statement can be made about the influence of financial and operational hedging on CO2 emissions, as the results are mixed.In dieser Arbeit wird das Absicherungsverhalten von Fluggesellschaften von 2005 bis 2019 anhand eines unausgewogenen Paneldatensatzes analysiert, der insgesamt 78 Fluggesellschaften aus 39 Ländern umfasst. Der Fokus der Analyse liegt auf finanzieller und operativer Absicherung sowie dem Einfluss beidiger auf den Austoß von CO2-Emissionen und die Entwicklung der emittierten CO2-Emissionen. Für die Analyse wurden Probit-Modelle mit Zufallseffekten und OLS-Modelle mit festen Effekten verwendet.
Die Ergebnisse bezüglich der Beziehung zwischen Leverage und finanzieller Absicherung deuten auf eine negative Beziehung hin. Für Fluggesellschaften mit hohem Leverage deuten sie hingegen auf eine nicht-lineare konvexe Beziehung hin, was der Theorie der finanziellen Notlage widerspricht. Darüber hinaus liefern die Untersuchungen Belege dafür, dass Fluggesellschaften, die andere Arten von Derivaten, wie z.B. Zinsderivate, verwenden, mehr Treibstoffabsicherungen vornehmen.
In Bezug auf die operative Absicherung deutet die Analyse darauf hin, dass der Betrieb einer diversifzierten Flotte mehr eine Ergänzung als ein Ersatz für die finanzielle Absicherung ist. In Bezug auf die Mitgliedschaft in einer Allianz zeigen die Ergebnisse nicht, dass die Mitgliedschaft in einer Allianz ein Ersatz für finanzielle Absicherung ist, da Mitglieder von Allianzen mit größerer Wahrscheinlichkeit und in größerem Umfang Absicherungsgeschäfte tätigen.
Die Analyse zeigt, dass die relativen CO2-Emissionen im Berichtszeitraum gesunken sind, dies gilt jedoch nicht für die absolute Menge. Über den Einfluss von finanzieller und operativer Absicherung auf die CO2-Emissionen kann keine allgemeine Aussage getroffen werden, da die Ergebnisse uneinheitlich sind
Optimization Methods for Geo-Referencing Statistical Information in Spatial Microsimulation
Full text linkSpatial microsimulation is an important tool for integrating geographical information into the evaluation of public policies and the analysis of social phenomena in urban regions. These models simulate the behavior and interaction between units of the region, such as individuals, households or firms, under specific conditions that may or not involve projections over time. This requires a representative base data set for their respective units.
In this thesis, we focus on the geo-referencing step of the population in the construction of this data set, where we define the location of the individuals so that the allocation obtained is representative in relation to the population of the region. To do this, we consider the assignment of households to dwellings with specific coordinates by solving a maximum weight matching problem where side constraints are included so that the allocation obtained satisfies statistical structures intrinsic to the considered region.
The model of this problem represents each feasible assignment of household to dwelling as a binary variable, which results in billions of variables for medium-sized municipalities such as the city of Trier, Germany. Therefore, standard solvers for mixed-integer linear optimization are not able to solve it due to their high time and memory consumption. Hence, we develop two approaches capable of producing high-quality allocations using a reasonable amount of computational resources, one based on specific decomposition algorithms, and the other characterized by the application of an approximation algorithm in the framework of Lagrangian relaxation of the side constraints.
We theoretically explore the allocations obtained by both approaches and perform an extensive computational study using synthetic data sets and real-world data sets associated with the city of Trier. The results show that the developed methods are able to obtain near-optimal solutions using significantly less memory and time than the solver Gurobi, which enables them to tackle significantly larger instances, with approximately 100 000 households and dwellings. Furthermore, the allocations obtained for the real-world data sets correspond to a realistic population distribution, which strengthens the practical applicability of our methods