Das 100. Schiff - ein Werftjubiläum von 1883

"The present-day large-scale shipyard operation Howaldtswerke - Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) dates back to a shipyard foundation of 1876. In that year, the engineer Georg Howaldt of Kiel (1841-1909) established a shipyard for the construction of iron ships in Dietrichsdorf, a town near Kiel (and since incorporated into that city). Primarily small and medium-sized cargo steamers, tugboats and other specialised vessels were built there. The Gebrüder Howaldt machine factory, founded in Kiel in 1837 by Howaldt's father and uncle, moved to a site in the direct vicinity of the shipyard in 1882. From this time on, the machine factory was the neighbouring shipyard’s chief supplier of marine engines. Present-day shipyards, like other companies, tend to take their 25th, 50th, 75th, 100th, etc. anniversaries as occasions to celebrate in the form of an all-company party. In the late nineteenth century, however, when the German shipbuilding industry was still in its infancy and had no tradition to look back on, shipyards would celebrate the completion of ships bearing round serial numbers. This is a custom practised in other industries as well, where a round production number (referring to piece numbers or tons) sometimes provides the occasion for festivities. Howaldt maintained active business relations with one of the leading shipping companies of Kiel: Sartori & Berger (founded in 1858). Twenty new ships were delivered to that company in the years 1877-1889 alone. Even after that time, the shipping company continued to receive new cargo vessels made in Dietrichsdorf. The cargo steamer EMMA, built for Sartori & Berger in 1883, bore the serial number 100, providing the occasion for a celebration arranged by the two companies. The Gebrüder Howaldt machine factory was also involved, as the ship had received the factory's 250th engine. Its launching on August 23, 1883 was celebrated by the assembled workers, and the EMMA's trial run on September 12 was honoured with a company celebration for business friends, complete with an excursion on the new vessel. Serial numbers 200 (the cargo steamer HOLSTEIN, 1890) and 300 (the Chinese cargo vessel HSI PING, 1897) were also celebrated, if not as elaborately as in the case of the EMMA. After that, the custom was no longer practised at Howaldt’s. The year 1901 marked the company's 25th anniversary, which - in keeping with the custom usual in industry - served as the occasion for festivities, as did its 100th and 125th anniversaries (in 1938 and 1963)." (author's abstract

Soziologie - die halbierte Wissenschaft? Thesen zur Sonderveranstaltung der Inter-Generationen-Initiative der DGS und des Berufsverbandes Deutscher Soziologinnen und Soziologen "Disziplinierung oder Professionalisierung? Marginalisierung oder Reengineering?"

Auf die mit der Herausbildung einer "neuen Wissensordnung" einher gehenden Herausforderungen hat die Soziologie noch keine Antwort gefunden. Für die Soziologie wird in diesem Zusammenhang eine Neubeschreibung des Verhältnisses von Wissenschaft und Praxis von zentraler Bedeutung sein. Die systematisch betriebene Abschottung von Wissenschaft und Praxis stellt die zentrale Schwäche der Soziologie dar. Zur Überwindung dieser Schwäche zeichnen sich zwei Wege ab. Der erste Weg besteht in einer Rückbettung eines Teils der Wissensproduktion in die gesellschaftliche Praxis und damit verbunden in einer Reflexion der eigenen Produktionsweise. Der zweite Weg besteht in der Herausbildung systematischer Formen der Kooperation zwischen den im Wissenschaftsfeld arbeitenden und den im Praxisfeld tätigen Soziologen. (ICE2

Innovation society today: the reflexive creation of novelty

"While innovation has shaped modern society from its very inception, it is currently gaining new dimensions: Innovation is becoming increasingly reflexive, heterogeneously distributed, and ubiquitous. Reflexivity implies more than the intentional transformation of routine actions; it also refers to the transformation of social practices based on continuously (re-) produced knowledge about innovation. Thus, innovation itself becomes the aim and purpose of social activities: as the meaning and motif of (what we will refer to as the "semantics" of novelty), as a component of practical routines (the "pragmatics" of creative action), and, finally, as part of systematically (re-)produced social structures of generating novelty (the “grammar” of innovation regimes). Heterogeneous distribution refers to the observed shift from the individual entrepreneur to networks of innovation involving divergent actors. Ubiquity indicates the current expansion of innovation beyond the traditional spheres of science and economy and its generalization into an imperative for social action. This article presents a research framework that addresses the following key questions: How is novelty created reflexively, where can this process be observed, and which actors are driving it? By pursuing an extended notion of innovation, the framework promotes a sophisticated, sociological lens which is more encompassing than conventional economic perspectives. Our goal is to develop a more in-depth and empirically founded understanding of the meaning of innovation in contemporary society and the social processes it involves." (author's abstract

Grasping processes of innovation empirically: a call for expanding the methodological toolkit; an introduction

"During the past decades, innovation research has yielded countless empirical studies in a variety of disciplines. For all this quantity, we still lack an adequate understanding of basic qualities and mechanisms of its central subject. Which processes and conditions bring innovation about? How does it spread? And what is its genuine nature? Critics argue that these shortcomings have their roots in the conceptual limitations of established perspectives on innovation and in the fact that researchers confine themselves to studying technical and scientific novelties or marketable products. This self-restriction stands in marked contrast to the observation that innovation plays an important role in contemporary societies. The term is at least ubiquitous and its usage common in all societal fields. In the introduction to this HSR Special Issue, we subscribe to this critique and argue that the conceptual reductionism comes along with severe methodical and methodological limitations. These become manifest in a joint dominance of quantitative indicator-based research and ethnographic single case studies. Thus, researchers of innovation disregard a variety of possible data types and forms of analysis and rarely apply complex designs. It is also not common to consider the combination of multiple types of data and analysis in mixed methods approaches. The most serious issue, however, is that mainstream innovation research remains ignorant of a multitude of potential research questions and thereby loses sight of whole areas of interest. An overview of the empirical studies in this HSR Special Issue shows that the range of methods used is wider at the edges of the field of research. In order to relate these methods to each other and to the theoretical foundations of innovation research, we suggest a middle-range debate on methodology." (author's abstract

SOME CASES OF INTEGRATED SOCIAL SERVICES IN POLAND

In Poland, public operations refer to the European debate on social policy and public policies, which focus on the development of social services and proper public management. An integrated approach to social services is the answer to the need for changes in the attitude to social problems, which require an extensive activity in the public field and the involvement of many organizations and institutions that create networks. This paper presents current experiences in integrating social services in Poland.  Mostly, they have a local and testing character, but they are the “starting point” for the reorganization of the social assistance system. The integrated approach emphasizes the need of reorientation in perception of beneficiaries of social assistance, stimulating their activity and targeted public policies so that they take into consideration different lifestyles and needs. The reorganization and management of social policy system should lead to better social service delivery.

Neue Perspektiven betrieblicher Personalentwicklung

Wie können Fachkräfte in der globalisierten Wirtschaft kontinuierlich und vor allem effizient (weiter-)qualifiziert werden? Die Autoren gehen dieser Frage nach und stellen Leitlinien für eine betriebsnahe Weiterbildung vor, welche die Mitarbeiterpotentiale in den Unternehmen besser entwickeln und nutzen hilft. (IAB2

Laborexplorationen: eine inkongruente Perspektive auf den Alltag sozialwissenschaftlicher Praxis

Der Beitrag des Verfassers knüpft an die in 'Sozialwissenschaften und Berufspraxis' geführte Diskussion um die Notwendigkeit einer aktualisierten Selbstbeschreibung und Neupositionierung der Sozialwissenschaften an. Er wendet das Beschreibungsvokabular wissenschaftlicher Praxis, das durch die Laborstudien entwickelt wurde, auf die Untersuchung des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts in Essen an (KWI). Die Laborstudien sind ein eigener wissenschaftssoziologischer Ansatz, der Ende der 1970er Jahre mit empirischen Studien zum Alltag naturwissenschaftlicher Labore an die Öffentlichkeit getreten ist (Knorr Cetina, Latour). Das KWI wird als Beispielfall für ein sozialwissenschaftliches Labor gesehen. Mit seiner Beschreiung durch die zentralen Begriffe des Labors und des Netzwerks soll gezeigt werden, dass eine sozialwissenschaftliche Selbstexploration mit Hilfe der Laborstudien möglich ist und eine Praxis ans Licht bringt, die komplexer, komplizierter, reichhaltiger, geschickter und interessanter ist als aus der Perspektive herkömmlicher Selbstbeschreibungen zu erwarten ist. (ICE2

Soziologie als Herausforderung für die Beratung von Organisationen

Im vorliegenden Aufsatz werden zwei Thesen diskutiert: Die Verbindung von Soziologie und Beratung bedeutet - so die erste Annahme - für beide Seiten eine beträchtliche Herausforderung, da sich die sozialwissenschaftlichen Anforderungen der Analyse von Wandlungsprozessen bisher nur schwer mit den praktischen Erfordernissen der konkreten Umgestaltung von Organisationen vereinbaren lassen. Die Bewältigung dieser Herausforderung - so die zweite These - ist im wesentlichen eine professionspolitische Aufgabe, die koordinierte Professionalisierungsanstrengungen von Praxissoziolog/innen und Sozialforscher/innen verlangt. Der Autor geht zur Erläuterung dieser Thesen zunächst auf Grundprobleme im Verhältnis von Soziologie und Organisationsberatung ein und diskutiert die vorherrschenden sozialtechnologischen Beratungsansätze. Er unterbreitet ferner einige Vorschläge zur Professionalisierung soziologisch orientierter Beratung, wobei es ihm um systematische Klärungsversuche zu grundsätzlichen Problemen geht, die seiner Meinung nach in den bisherigen Debatten zu kurz gekommen sind. (ICI2