Societal malaise and ethnocentrism in the European Union: monitoring societal change by focusing on EU citizens' perceptions of crisis

During the last years a vague sense of discomfort with current societal developments is spreading all over Europe and is particularly affecting lower social classes of society. It seems necessary to theoretically derive new concepts of quality of society and to take these crises perceptions of EU-citizens more adequately into account. In this article a new multidimensional concept of societal wellbeing is proposed to understand and evaluate new cleavages in societal embeddedness, social recognition and social belonging. It is hypothesized that those restrictions concerning quality of life are also mainly responsible for the rise in ethnocentrism and radicalization in many European societies. A macro-micro-macro explanation of causes, characteristics and consequences of societal malaise is developed as a theoretical framework and also addressed empirically. As a first step, a cluster analysis of indicators of societal developments is used to justify the conceptualization of a highly diverse Europe. The empirical approach on the micro-level is based on two survey waves of the European Social Survey (2006 and 2012). After testing the cross-national equivalence of the new concept of societal wellbeing, which is based on 14 indicators, the evolution of certain crises feelings in society is documented for several European regions in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Finally, separate multiple OLS-regressions within those regions were conducted to derive crucial factors which are responsible to explain ethnocentrism. It is notable that feelings of societal malaise exert a high influence on perceptions of an ethnic threat - especially in Western Europe. These value polarizations between social groups have to be considered as a future threat of social cohesion

Value Changes in Transforming China

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is back on the global agenda. Inthe late 1970s, the process of modernization (reform and opening up under Deng Xiaoping) brought enormous changes to the economy, society and cultural landscape. China has rapidly emerged as a major world power, despite the current global economic crisis. This article explores the changes in Chinese values caused by the expanding economic and cultural exchange processes within the country. Of specific theoretical interest is the role played by the mass media andinformation and communication technologies (ICT), and their bearing on modern Chinese society. Empirically, we first examine China’s placement on a global map of values (based on the World Value Survey), noting recent value shifts. We then offer a comprehensive view of attitudes of Chinese managers, drawing on a quantitative study from Beijing and Shanghai, to highlight the importance ofcultural differences deeply rooted in Chinese society. Finally, implications for cultural relations between West and East are discussed

Entfremdung, Unterordnung und Abgrenzung

ENTFREMDUNG, UNTERORDNUNG UND ABGRENZUNG Entfremdung, Unterordnung und Abgrenzung / Aschauer, Wolfgang (Rights reserved) ( -

Alignment: A New Software Architecture Approach to Support Streamlining Business Processes

Traditional business structures nowadays have to change fast to keep up with customers needs, which is often not possible due to monolithic software architectures and multiple software systems that do neither respond to process requirements nor interact well. Many existing software systems, however, are too complex and too unrelated to the business to support this change accurately. New ways of software architecture are needed to respond to changing requirements and support the business processes. Information systems have to be integrated into the organization’s structures. It seems that a component-based software architecture, which supports the whole value chain, forms the basis for a business process reorganization to enable changes. In this paper we introduce a modeling approach based on Clabjects. We demonstrate how that approach can be applied to an industrial case in order to streamline and support the business processes. Further, this paper further describes the envisioned business process improvements

Potential and Limits of Automated Classification of Big Data: A Case Study

This case study highlights the potentials and limits of big-data analyses of media sources compared to conventional, quantitative content analysis. In an FFG-funded multidisciplinary project in Austria (based on the KIRAS security research program), the software tool WebLyzard was used for an automated analysis of online news and social media sources (comments on articles, Facebook postings, and Twitter statements) in order to analyze the media representation of pressing societal issues and citizens’ perceptions of security. Frequency and sentiment analyses were carried out by two independent observers in parallel to the automated WebLyzard results. Specific articles on selected key topics like technology or Muslims in two major online newspapers in Austria (Der Standard and Kronen Zeitung) were counted, as were user comments, and both were evaluated according to different sentiment categories. The results indicate various weaknesses of the software leading to misinterpretations, and the automated analyses yield substantially different results compared to the sentiment analysis carried out by the two raters, especially for cynical or irrelevant statements. From a social-sciences methodological perspective, the results clearly show that methodology in our discipline should promote theory-based research, should counteract the attraction of superficial analyses of complex social issues, and should emphasize not only the potentials but also the dangers and risks associated with big data

Versteckte Artefakte in Umfragedaten

'Raum, Zeit und Befindlichkeit gestalten die Befragungssituation und können das Antwortverhalten massiv beeinflussen. Orte der Befragung wirken als Filter im Sinn einer Auswahl von Befragten und erzeugen Befindlichkeiten, da Befragungsorte Atmosphären vermitteln. Zusätzlich beeinflussen sowohl der Zeitpunkt (günstig vs. ungünstig) als auch der Zeitraum der Untersuchung die Urteile je nach dem Stimmungs- und Meinungsbild der Befragten. Diese Erkenntnisse über den Einfluss von Raum, Zeit und Befindlichkeit sollen sowohl bei der Planung und Durchführung einer Umfrage als auch bei der Auswertung der Daten Berücksichtigung finden. Wird dies weiterhin vernachlässigt, entstehen auch künftig starke Verzerrungen in den Antworten. Eindrücke eines 'lügenden Befragten' und das Image 'verlogener Statistiken' werden dann weiterhin - und zwar zu Recht - aufrechterhalten bleiben.' (Autorenreferat)'Space, time and mood play a role in structuring a questioning situation and may strongly influence the response behaviour. Physical spaces serve as a filter for selecting samples of respondents and the influencing of their mood due to specific atmospheres. Furthermore, the scheduling of questioning (perceived as favourable vs. unfavourable) and the time period of the survey exercise an effect on the mood and the patterning of the opinions of the respondents. These findings about the influence of space, time and the general mood conditions should be taken into account with regard to the conception of survey designs, the procedures during fieldwork and data analysis. Continued neglect of these issues in survey research may lead to massive response biases in the future. In such a situation, stereotypes of a 'lying interviewee' and of 'false statistics' will rightly remain relevant.' (author's abstract)

Az érdemtelen szegénység mint társadalmi viszony

The paper deals with recent discourses on poverty, exemplified by the case of Hungarian Romany community. For this purpose we first deduce from the theoretical framework of the underclass three way of viewing extreme poverty: the political-economic type that traces poverty back to developments of the whole society; the culturalistic type in which poverty is the result of certain behavioural deficiencies (the “culture”) of the poor; and the interdependency type that regards poverty as induced by factors in the society as a whole and perpetuated by poverty specific cultural elements of the poor themselves.In the second part of the study we discuss three fields of discourse with respect to the question of which of the mentioned types can be found there. In the field of social sciences it is preeminently the interdependency type which occurs, probably because of its capability to link many, even heterogeneous, observations. In public discourse – analyzed by considering an internet debate and two so-called scandals – the culturalistic type dominates: Romanies are poor, because they have Romany cultural (behavioural) deficiencies. The Romanies themselves mainly use elements of the political-economic type, explaining poverty in terms of general impoverishment, regional neglect, and group discrimination. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: I32, J15, J16, O15Tanulmányunk az aktuális szegénység-diskurzusokkal foglalkozik a magyar romákkal kapcsolatban. Ehhez az underclass elméletet alkalmazva, az extrém szegénység megközelítéseit három csoportba soroljuk. Az első a politikai gazdaságtani megközelítés, amely a szegénységet az össztársadalmi fejlődésre vezeti vissza. A második a kulturális megközelítés, mely szerint a szegénység bizonyos viselkedésbelihiányosságok („kultúra”) eredménye. Végül a harmadik a kölcsönhatás-megközelítés, amely szerint a szegénységet össztársadalmi tényezők indukálják, és az érintettek szegénység-specifikus kulturálisjellegzetességei perpetuálják. A tanulmány második felében három diskurzus témakört dolgozunk fel, aszerint hogy milyen megközelítés jellemzi. A tudományos szférában elsősorban a kölcsönhatásmegközelítés az uralkodó, amelynek fő vonzerejét az adja, hogy sok, akár heterogén megfigyelés könnyen kauzális kapcsolatba hozható egymással. A nyilvános diskurzusok terén – egy internetes vitát és két „botrányt” elemzünk – a kulturális megközelítés dominál: a romák szegények, mert romaként kulturális (magatartási) deficitek jellemzőek rájuk. Az érintettek vélekedéseiben főként a politikai gazdaságtani megközelítés elemei fedezhetők fel, miszerint a szegénység az általános elszegényedési tendenciákra, a regionális elhanyagoltságra és a csoporttal szembeni diszkriminációra vezethető vissza. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: I32, J15, J71, O15, Z1

Anerkennungshürden bei MigrantInnen: Eine Mixed-Methods-Studie zu Hindernissen bei der Anerkennung von ausländischen Bildungs- und Berufsabschlüssen

Die Anerkennung ihrer im Ausland erworbenen Bildungs- und Berufsabschlüsse ist für MigrantInnen von großer Bedeutung für ihre berufliche Tätigkeit und damit auch für ihre Integration in Österreich, sie wird aber durch zersplitterte Zuständigkeiten, geringe Transparenz und fehlendes Wissen seitens der MigrantInnen erschwert. Die hier vorgestellte Studie zeichnet die Schwierigkeiten und Erfahrungen aus Sicht der Betroffenen nach. Dazu wurden anhand einer ­Clusteranalyse aus Daten des Mikrozensus vier Typen von MigrantInnen differenziert (progressiv-aufstiegsorientierte Generation; defensiv-angepasste ältere MigrantInnen; ethnische Abschottung in segmentierten Arbeitsmärkten; integrierte MigrantInnen der ersten Generation) und Vertrete­rInnen aus diesen Gruppen in qualitativen Interviews befragt. Dabei zeigen sich Prozesse der Dequalifikation, aber auch Wege und notwendige Rahmenbedingungen für geglückte berufliche und gesellschaftliche Integration.The recognition of educational and vocational qualifications, acquired abroad, is of great importance for migrants for their professional activities and thus also for their integration in Austria, but it is being hampered by fragmented responsibilities, lack of transparency, and a lack of knowledge. The study, presented here, tries to show the difficulties and experiences from the migrants’ perspectives. For this purpose, and based on a cluster analysis of microcensus data, four types of migrants were identified (progressive upward oriented generation; defensively-adapted older migrants; ethnic foreclosure in segmented labor markets; integrated migrants of the first generation), and representatives from these groups were asked about in qualitative interviews. Here, we found processes of a deskilling, but also ways of and necessary conditions for successful professional and social integration

Pandemie und Wertewandel? Verschiebungen von Wertprioritäten in der österreichischen Bevölkerung und in einzelnen Wähler*innenschichten als Reaktion auf die COVID-19-Pandemie

Soziologische Zeitdiagnosen suggerieren, dass tiefgreifende gesellschaftliche Krisen wie die COVID-19-Pandemie unsere Wertorientierungen infrage stellen und auch relativ kurzfristig ändern könn(t)en. Von dieser Beobachtung ausgehend, wird untersucht, ob es in Österreich im Zeitraum Mai 2020 bis März/April 2021 zu signifikanten Verschiebungen von Wertprioritäten nach der Skala von Shalom Schwartz kam. Als Datenmaterial dienen die beiden ersten Wellen der Panelstudie Values in Crisis. Für die Interpretation der Ergebnisse sind zwei theoretische Annahmen zentral: erstens die These eines zunehmenden Konservatismus und zweitens die These der Wirkmacht politischer Diskurse in Zeiten des (wieder)aufkeimenden Populismus. Besondere Berücksichtigung findet im Beitrag zudem eine methodologische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Wandel der Bedeutung von Fragebogenitems aufgrund der COVID-19-Pandemie. Die empirischen Analysen bestätigen - entgegen einigen aktuellen Zeitdiagnosen - eine deutliche Stabilität von Wertorientierungen. Verändert hat sich vor allem der Wert der Konformität, indem er für einen Teil der Bevölkerung wichtiger wurde; gleichzeitig verlor der Wunsch nach einer hedonistischen Lebensweise etwas an Bedeutung. Konformität wurde insbesondere für die Wähler*innen der Regierungsparteien wichtiger, während sich dieser Trend vor allem bei den Wähler*innen der FPÖ nicht zeigte. Da die beobachteten Verschiebungen von Wertprioritäten vor allem "pandemie-sensible" Wertedimensionen betreffen, lässt sich auf der Basis der vorliegenden Ergebnisse insgesamt eher von einer kurzfristigen Reaktion auf die Krise und weniger von einem längerfristigen Wertewandel ausgehen.Recent sociological diagnoses suggest that profound social crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic challenge our value orientations and could change them even in the relatively short term. Based on this observation, we investigate whether significant shifts in value priorities according to the Shalom Schwartz scale took place in Austria in the period May 2020 to March/April 2021. The first two waves of the Values in Crisis panel study serve as data material. Two theoretical assumptions are central to the interpretation of the results: first, the thesis of a trend toward conservatism and second, the thesis of the effective power of political discourses in times of (re)emerging populism. The article also pays special attention to a methodological discussion of changes in the meaning of questionnaire items due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical analyses confirm a clear stability of value orientations. Above all, the value of conformity has changed, becoming more important for a significant part of the population; at the same time, the desire for a hedonistic lifestyle lost some of its importance. Conformity became more important, particularly for voters of the governing political parties, while this trend was not apparent, especially among voters of the FPÖ. Since the observed shift in value priorities mainly concerns “pandemic-sensitive” value dimensions, the results suggest a short-term reaction to the crisis rather than a long-term change in values