Prefiguring the Caring City: Everyday Practices and Postcapitalist Possibility in Neighborhood Living Rooms

This article brings an ethic of care into conversation with prefigurative politics to position practices of care as examples of everyday life beyond capitalism. Examining everyday practices in community spaces as prefigurative practices of care illustrates two distinct but interrelated ways these spaces function: firstly by facilitating cultures of care in the present, sustaining individuals and communities within an uncaring urban context, and secondly by making possible and visible other ways of caring, relating, and living. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews in Dutch neighborhood living rooms, we show how participants in these spaces practice an ethic of care, how this transforms their everyday experience and their sense of future possibility, and how a desire for change motivates their continued care practices. Reading this through the lens of prefigurative practice reveals concrete examples of what everyday postcapitalist urban life might look like if cities were instead organized around an ethic of care. Finally, we call attention to the socio‐spatial infrastructures that make these practices possible in the present and would support an expanded capacity to care in the future

"Sag mir, wer du bist" - Identität als Schlüssel zum Recht: Hürden für die Identitätsklärung aus menschenrechtlicher Perspektive

Die Menschenrechte verpflichten Staaten dazu, allen Menschen den Zugang zu einer geklärten Identität zu ermöglichen. Dennoch gelingt es zahlreichen Menschen in Deutschland nicht, ihre Identität ausreichend nachzuweisen. In der Folge bleibt ihnen der Zugang zu vielen Menschenrechten versperrt. Die Analyse zeigt auf, welche Hürden in der Praxis eine Klärung der Identität erschweren oder unmöglich machen, und spricht Empfehlungen an Bund und Länder aus, um diese Hürden zu beseitigen

The Impact of Trump's Anti-Immigration Discourse on Asylum Applications in the Balkans (2017-2021)

Immigration has become an increasingly contentious political and social issue in Europe over the past decade. The growing influx of asylum seekers has been driven by deteriorating security conditions, armed conflicts, and political and economic instability in various regions, alongside the comparatively higher living standards in Europe. As a global hegemon, the United States has indirectly shaped migration patterns in peripheral regions such as the Balkans. This paper examines how President Donald Trump's anti-immigration discourse during his first term (2017-2021) coincided with an approximately 45% decrease in asylum applications from the Balkans. Drawing on official statistics and employing Critical Discourse Analysis, the study explores how US rhetoric influenced regional policy emulation. The findings underscore the transnational impact of populist discourse and call for a critical reassessment of migration governance in key transit regions

Fairness Under Fire: Origins and Implications of Ukrainians' Demand for Tax Progressivity

The Russian invasion of Ukraine led to unprecedented national mobilization backed by a widespread sense of patriotic unity. Together with international financial support, this has thus far shielded the government from radical revenue reforms. However, the war has also exposed blatant inequalities and profiteering, provoking anger under the surface of national cohesion. Drawing on new survey data, this article reveals that perceptions of wartime inequity have contributed to a strong demand for tax progressivity, which is consis- tent with historical patterns and liable to eventually upset the established and distinctly nonredistributive fiscal contract

Rising from the Ashes: The De-Technocratization of Government Economists and the (Re)Emergence of a Heterodox Economic Network in Argentina (2002-2022)

Economics has long been considered a hierarchically structured and technocratic profession, especially in Latin America, where U.S.-trained, finance-oriented economists reshaped national policy fields through pro-market reforms in the late 20th century. Yet, Argentina’s trajectory after the 2001 crisis diverges sharply from this pattern. This paper analyzes the changing composition of Argentina’s economic policymaking elite between 2002 and 2022 using multiple correspondence analysis within a field-theoretical framework. I argue that three distinct phases characterize this transformation. First, a process of de-technocratization occurred, as political and bureaucratic experience outweighed academic credentials in recruitment decisions. Second, a partial re-academization followed, marked by the return of economists with postgraduate training, though often with limited policymaking experience. Third, ideological polarization intensified, as orthodox and heterodox economists alternated in government under rival political coalitions. Unlike most Western democracies, where heterodox economic perspectives are marginalized, Argentina’s policymaking field remains a contested space characterized by disciplinary diversity

Re-Examining "Solange I": Constitutionalism Beyond the State and the Role of Domestic Constitutional Courts

Fifty years have passed since the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) rendered one of its most widely discussed and influential decisions: Solange I. On May 29, 1974, the FCC famously held that it would review European Community law by the standards of German constitutional law for so long as the Community had not received a catalogue of fundamental rights, which is adequate in comparison with the catalogue contained in the German Basic Law. Only a handful of cases may qualify to potentially celebrate them in fifty years' time. Solange I is one of them. Why? What intellectual and institutional aspects of this decision are worth celebrating and preserving in Europe and beyond

Is the Brandmauer ("firewall") breaking from below? Party cooperation with the "Alternative for Germany (AfD)" in all German local government councils (2019-2024)

January 2025, for the first time in the postwar history of Germany's national parliament, a mainstream political party (the Christian Democratic Union) relied on the support of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to pass a motion. This prompted intense public debate as many Germans worried that this cooperation was a harbinger of possibly still more cooperation to come. Against this backdrop, our study examines the state of the so-called "firewall" - the self-commitment of established parties to not cooperate with the AfD - in Germany at the district level. To do so, we analyzed more than 11,000 meetings of councils at the district level across all federal states from mid-2019 to mid-2024. Our analysis shows that in this period no cooperation with the AfD took place in approximately 81.2% of cases where cooperation was possible. While regional differences across Germany can be observed, on average there was no significant difference in levels of cooperation between eastern and western German districts. Even in western German districts, the firewall has not strictly been upheld everywhere. However, larger differences do become apparent when comparing rural and urban districts. Eastern German rural districts, in particular, are at the forefront of cooperation with the AfD, whereas in western German districts, there is no significant urban-rural divide. From a party-political perspective, smaller parties are the most frequent collaborators with the AfD, followed by the FDP and CDU. While the firewall is beginning to crack, as of fall 2024, it had not yet completely collapsed at the district level

Ordonomik und Bildung: Verantwortung für die moderne Gesellschaft

Bildung für gesellschaftliche Verantwortung ist ein zentrales Anliegen unserer Zeit. Der Sammelband diskutiert und würdigt den Ansatz im Kontext der ökonomischen und der gesellschaftlichen Bildung insgesamt und zwar im Hinblick auf die Ordonomik zur Analyse und Überwindung sozialer Dilemmata. Der Band würdigt Ingo Pies' Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung der Ordonomik. Autorinnen und Autoren aus verschiedenen Wissenschaftsfeldern haben Hauptbeiträge zum Thema verfasst, die jeweils von Kolleginnen und Kollegen kommentiert wurden. Dieser Dialog fördert einen kritischen Austausch über die Rolle der Ordonomik und regt zu weiterführenden Diskussionen an

Conviviality in Contexts of Religious Plurality: Interdisciplinary Explorations

How do religious individuals, communities, and political institutions navigate diversity and how do they foster social cohesion? This volume focuses on convivial practices in religiously diverse settings and includes theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented approaches. Through an interdisciplinary lens the contributors examine conceptual reflections, boundary work, rituals, multilingualism, and spatial dynamics. This volume represents an important milestone in conviviality research and provides valuable insights for further research in the fields of theology, religious studies, and sociology