Self-employment in Germany and the UK: Labor market regulation, risk-management and gender in comparative perspective

Within the wide range of new forms of work self-employment seems to be a distinct feature concerning a growing part of the male and female labor force in industry and services in both Germany and the UK. Especially the growth of different forms of solo selfemployment is subject to pessimistic as well as optimistic interpretations of the future quality of work and life as well as gender equality. Sound knowledge on the extent and nature of this type of work, however is rare - our comparative analysis therefore seeks to highlight the development of solo self-employment and strategies of risk-management in Germany and the UK. Concentrating on the cultural industries as an emblematic section of the global new economy, it is based on a secondary analysis of national quantitative and qualitative data and on own empirical research. After an introductory summary of the main strands of scientific debate on self-employment, we will first present an overview of volume and structure of solo self-employment growth on the one side, and of social risks tied to this employment status on the other side. We will secondly highlight collective and individual strategies of risk-management from within a regulatory approach. The results of this analysis show that self-employment growth, though a cross-national phenomenon, displays nation specific characteristics if development in time, branch distribution, social risk, and gender are looked at. At the same time new ways of both individual and collective riskmanagement are emerging. These strategies, however vary in extend and sustainability, indicating an ongoing influence of different national labor market regulations and gender regimes. --

Warum hat "Marianne" so viele Diener? Zum Wachstum des französischen öffentlichen Dienstes entgegen internationalen Trends

Der öffentliche Dienst Frankreichs ist bis zum Jahr 2005 stetig gewachsen. Diese Entwicklung widerspricht nicht nur einem internationalen Trend zur Reduzierung öffentlichen Personals, sondern auch den Bemühungen französischer Regierungen zur Verkleinerung und Reform des öffentlichen Dienstes. Das vorliegende Arbeitspapier führt diesen Widerspruch auf strukturelle Beharrungskräfte des französischen öffentlichen Dienstes und auf eine Dezentralisierungsstrategie zurück. Gleichzeitig untersucht es die Frage, ob die geringe quantitative Reaktionsfähigkeit des öffentlichen Dienstes auf Kostendruck und Effizienzprobleme durch einen qualitativen Wandel der Beschäftigungsverhältnisse kompensiert wurde. Dabei kommt es zu einem ambivalenten Ergebnis: Während sich auf der zentralstaatlichen Ebene kaum personelle Reformen durchsetzen ließen, wurde im kommunalen öffentlichen Dienst, der am stärksten gewachsen ist, in starkem Umfang Gebrauch von nicht-verbeamteten Beschäftigten und von flexibleren Formen des Personalmanagements gemacht. Das Arbeitspapier kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass Reformen des öffentlichen Dienstes in Frankreich am ehesten von außen zu erwarten sind, d.h. vom kommunalen Rand des öffentlichen Dienstes oder aus anderen Feldern der öffentlichen Verwaltung.Despite an international trend towards the downsizing of public sector workforces, the French 'Fonction Publique' has increased in size until the year 2005. This development is astonishing insofar as successive French governments put considerable efforts in the reduction of public personnel. In a first step, this working paper analyses possible causes of this contradictory development and pays special attention to structural reform obstacles and the impact of the French decentralisation strategy. In a second step, the paper looks into the question if the low quantitative flexibility of public employment in France was compensated for by a qualitative change of employment relationships. The findings of this endeavour are ambivalent: Whereas on the level of central government reforms of personnel policies were hardly possible, public employment on the municipal level not only increased substantially but was also characterised by a more flexible approach towards human resources management. It can be concluded that reforms of public employment in France are most likely to be inspired from the outside, i.e. either from the municipal margin of the public sector or from other fields of public administration

Who's the Boss? One-Way Conversations between Bacteria

Bacteria communicate via extracellular signals. Most signaling studied so far has been bidirectional. A recent study shows that when Bacillus subtilis build a multicellular biofilm, some conversations are unidirectional

Irony as a Method of Neoclassical Sociology : Toward a Reconstruction of Iván Szelényi’s Methodology

Iván Szelényi is one of the most successful and accomplished contemporary sociologists originating from Central and Eastern Europe. His oeuvre – reflexive sociology of intellectuals – is based on what he together with his students calls ‘Irony as a Method of Neoclassical Sociology’. Although this methodological approach has attracted some attention, it is still little understood. To overcome this limitation, one needs to inspect Szelényi’s approach to inquiry, including the different aspects of his mental model such as his take on ontology, epistemology, methodology, training, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, rhetoric, nature of knowledge, knowledge accumulation, goodness and quality criteria, hegemony, control, axiology, call to action, inquirer posture, ethics, reflexivity, accommodation, and commensurability. Analyses of these methodological foundations, which Bourdieu and his co-workers in their book from 1991, The Craft of Sociology, have also called the “system of intellectual habits”, form the sub-sections of my thesis that aims at a reconstruction of Szelényi’s method of ironic inquiry. The thesis is organized into three main chapters. It starts with an overview of how ‘irony’ has been (ab)used in humanities and social sciences and provides the reader with a conceptual background and a comparative context. The overview ends with a brief introduction to how Szelényi together with his co-authors has explained the nature of irony as a method of neoclassical sociology. The second chapter presents the materials and methods of my research. After arguing how the “new rules of sociological method”, as put forward by Giddens in 1976, are applicable in my study, I offer an overview of its underlying assumptions. This will be followed by explanations of the specifics of the theoretical research tradition followed in this research, arguments about why I flirt with rational ‘reconstruction’ as a research approach, how it, in turn, relates to ‘ethnomethodological indifference’ and to the ‘sociology of sociology’ as a sub-category of sociology of knowledge and science studies. I suggest that my research comes closest to the ‘deviant case study’ in terms of empirical research design. I will provide explanations on the selection of study material following the Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses (QUOROM) standard for meta-analysis on data collection (in terms of selected texts and conducted interviews) and analysis techniques (applying sociological discourse analysis for the ‘suspicious’ interpretation and objective hermeneutics for the ‘empathic’ one). The second chapter will also point out some methodological limitations of my research. The longest part of the dissertation, presented in the third chapter, is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the methodological foundations of Ivan Szelényi’s scholarship. More specifically, in order to understand and explain irony as a method of neoclassical sociology, I will classify and discuss critically his take on the above-mentioned methodological aspects from ontology to accommodation and commensurability. I call these elements collectively his metaphysical pathos – a term coined by Arthur O. Lovejoy in 1936. Although Lovejoy was reluctant to give it a precise definition, preferring to identify five principal types instead, the concept has come to signify ‘unconscious mental habits’ – the implicit and explicit assumptions of an individual, a generation, or an era. The term was made more widely known outside the history of ideas by Alvin Gouldner, who reformulated it as “a set of sentiments which those subscribing to the theory could only dimly sense”. The concept has a more specific meaning in this thesis – I interpret it as the ‘mental model’ of an author of sociological and theoretical texts. In other words, I do not see the metaphysical pathos as any broader constellation of inquirer presuppositions – most of which have been covered in detail by the four dimensions of Ritzer’s metatheoretical frame – but rather as the (un)conscious mental habits brought about by methodological choices, assumptions, and foundations of scholarship. In the concluding chapter, I will reflect on my efforts to reconstruct Szelényi’s metaphysical pathos, which should allow us to improve our understanding of irony as a method of neoclassical sociology. The research puzzle I wish to solve is how Szelényi’s thought-provoking sociological research has benefited from an ironic edge, even if such an approach has seldom been taken seriously as a method. At a more general level, Szelényi’s way of using irony as anticipated thought provocation and/or intellectual intrigue that combines effectively critical theory and post-positivism, on the one hand, and elements of human and social sciences, on the other, shows that arts with its subjective qualitative analysis and sciences with its objective quantitative analysis are inseparable.Iván Szelényi är en av de mest framgångsrika och etablerade samtida sociologerna med ursprung i Central- och Östeuropa. Hans verk – en reflexiv sociologi om de intellektuella – bygger på vad han tillsammans med sina elever kallar ironi som metod för neoklassisk sociologi. Även om detta metodologiska tillvägagångssätt har väckt viss uppmärksamhet är dess egentliga innebörd relativt okänd. För att bättre förstå Szelényis metod måste man undersöka den mentala modell som hans forskning utgår ifrån, dvs. hans uppfattning om ontologi, epistemologi, metodologi, utbildning, kvalitativ analys, kvantitativ analys, retorik, kunskapens natur, kunskapsackumulering, kriterierna för vetenskaplighet och kvalitet, hegemoni, kontroll, axiologi, forskningens politiska implikationer, forskarens roll, etik, reflexivitet samt förenligheten och jämförbarheten av olika vetenskapliga paradigm. Dessa metodologiska grundvalar har av Bourdieu och hans medarbetare i boken The Craft of Sociology från 1991 även kallats "systemet av intellektuella vanor". De analyseras i olika delar av min avhandling, som syftar till en rekonstruktion av Szelényis metod för ironisk undersökning. Avhandlingen sönderfaller i tre huvudkapitel och inleds med en översikt över hur "ironi" har (miss)brukats inom humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, och förser läsaren med en konceptuell bakgrund och ett jämförande sammanhang. Översikten avslutas med en kort inledning till hur Szelényi och hans medförfattare har framställt ironin som metod för neoklassisk sociologi. Det andra kapitlet presenterar materialet och metoderna för min undersökning. Efter att ha argumenterat för min tillämpning av "de nya reglerna för sociologisk metod", som Giddens lade fram 1976, redogör jag för min studies underliggande antaganden. Därefter följer en närmare presentation av den teoretiska forskningstradition som den anknyter sig till, en motivering till att överväga en rationell "rekonstruktion" som forskningsmetod, en förklaring över hur den i sin tur relaterar sig till "etnometodologisk likgiltighet" och till "sociologins sociologi" som en underkategori av kunskapssociologi och veten-skapsstudier. Jag föreslår att min undersökning står närmast den "avvikande fallstudien" när det gäller empirisk forskningsdesign. Dess empiriska material har valts enligt standarden QUOROM – kvalitet på rapportering av meta-analyser (Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses) för metaanalys, på data-insamling (när det gäller utvalda texter och genomförda intervjuer) och på analystekniker (där sociologisk diskursanalys tillämpas för en "misstänksam" tolkning och objektiv hermeneutik för en "empatisk" tolkning). I det andra kapitlet pekas också på de metodologiska begränsningarna av min studie. Avhandlingens längsta del, som upptar det tredje kapitlet, innehåller en analys av de metodologiska grunderna för Ivan Szelényis forskargärning. För att förstå och förklara ironi som metod för neoklassisk sociologi klassificerar och diskuterar jag kritiskt hans syn på ovannämnda metodologiska aspekter – från ontologi till förenligheten och jämförbarheten av olika vetenskapliga paradigm. Jag kallar dessa element sammanfattningsvis hans "metafysiska patos" – en term som myntades av Arthur O. Lovejoy 1936. Även om Lovejoy var ovillig att ge den en exakt definition och föredrog att istället identifiera fem huvudtyper, har begreppet kommit att hänvisa till "omedvetna mentala vanor" – de implicita och explicita antagandena som kännetecknar en individ, en gene-ration eller en epok. Utanför idéhistorien blev termen mer allmänt känd när Alvin Gouldner omformulerade den som "en uppsättning böjelser (sentiments) som de som stödjer en teori bara svagt kunde förnimma". I denna avhandling används begreppet i en mer specifik betydelse, dvs. med hänvisning till den "mentala modellen" av en författare av sociologiska och teoretiska texter. Med andra ord ser jag inte det metafysiska patoset som någon bredare konstellation av frågeställningar – varav de flesta ingår i de fyra dimensionerna i Ritzers metateoretiska schema – utan snarare som de (o)medvetna mentala vanor som utmynnar i metodologiska val, antaganden och i utgångspunkterna för forskningsarbete. I det avslutande kapitlet reflekterar jag över mitt försök att rekonstruera Szelényis metafysiska patos i syfte att bättre förstå ironi som metod inom neoklassisk sociologi. Jag vill visa hur Szelényis tankeväckande sociologiska forskning gynnats av en ironisk udd, även om ironin inte brukar tas på allvar som metod. Szelényi använder ironi som avsiktlig provokation och/eller intellektuell intrig som i praktiken kombinerar kritisk teori och postpositivism å ena sidan samt element i humaniora och samhällsvetenskap å den andra. På detta sätt visar han att humaniora och vetenskap, med subjektiv och kvalitativ respektive objektiv och kvantitativ analys, är oskiljaktiga

Patient-specific modelling of cortical spreading depression applied to migraine studies

Migraine is a common neurological disorder and one-third of migraine patients suffer from migraine aura, a perceptual disturbance preceding the typically unilateral headache. Cortical spreading depression (CSD), a depolarisation wave that originates in the visual cortex and propagates across the cortex to the peripheral areas, has been suggested as a correlate of visual aura by several studies. The complex and highly individual-specific characteristics of the brain cortex suggest that the geometry might have a significant impact on CSD propagation. In this thesis, we combine two existing models, a detailed neurological model for the electrophysiological component of CSD and a reaction-diffusion model accounting for the potassium diffusion, the driving force of CSD propagation. In the process, we integrate two aspects of CSD that occur at different time scales: the electrophysiological dynamics features a temporal scale in the order of milliseconds, while the extracellular potassium dynamics that triggers CSD propagation features is on the scale of minutes. As a result we obtain a multi-scale PDE-ODE model. In addition, we incorporate patient-specific data in the CSD model: (i) a patient-specific brain geometry obtained from magnetic resonance imaging, and (ii) personalised conductivity tensors derived from diffusion tensor imaging data. To study the role of the geometry in CSD propagation, we define geometric and CSD-dependent quantities of interest (QoI) that we evaluate in two case studies. Even though the geometry does not seem to have a major impact on the CSD propagation, some QoI are promising candidates to aid in the classification of healthy individuals and migraine patients. Finally, to account for the lack of experimental data for validation and selection of the model parameters, we apply different techniques of uncertainty quantification to the CSD model and analyse the impact of various parameter choices on the model outcome

Solo self-employment in comparative perspective: growth trends and characteristics in relation to labour market regulation in Germany and the UK

Die Vergleichsstudie zur Arbeitsmarktforschung untersucht die Entwicklung der Einzelselbständigkeit im Zuge der Arbeitsmarktregulierung in Deutschland und Großbritannien. Die Ausführungen basieren auf empirischem Datenmaterial für den Zeitraum 1979 bis 1998. Die Betrachtung umfasst Befunde zum (1) Umfang und Struktur der Selbständigkeit, (2) den Arbeitsstunden, (3) dem Einkommen, (4) den Arbeitsbedingungen sowie (5) den sozialen Risiken. Der Anstieg des selbständigen Arbeitsverhältnisses in Deutschland und Großbritannien offenbart Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Struktur und der Arbeitsbedingungen. Während die Einzelselbständigkeit in Großbritannien bereits in den 1980er Jahren zunimmt, setzt diese Entwicklung in Deutschland erst in den 1990er Jahren ein. Dies ist auf eine starke Abhängigkeit der deutschen Selbständigkeit vom Wachstum des industriellen Dienstleistungssektors zurückzuführen. Die Differenzen lassen sich insbesondere mit der jeweiligen Arbeitsmarktregulierung erklären: Der deutsche koordinierte Arbeitsmarkt basiert auf einem starken Schutz des Normalarbeitsverhältnisses und verhindert so flexible Unternehmenspraktiken. Ferner verzögert ein deutlich regulierter Zugang zur Selbständigkeit im industriellen Sektor einen Anstieg selbständiger Erwerbstätigkeiten vor dem Wachstum des Dienstleistungssektors, der sich schließlich durch geringere Normalarbeitsverhältnisse auszeichnet. Der britische unkoordinierte Arbeitsmarkt hingegen blockiert nicht den Anstieg der Selbständigkeit im industriellen Sektor. Zusammenfassend lässt sich feststellen, dass die Entwicklung der Einzelselbständigkeit in Deutschland und Großbritannien auf unterschiedlichen Wachstumsdynamiken basiert und nicht die gleiche Sektorverteilung aufweist. Zudem ist die Einzelselbständigkeit in Großbritannien durch eine stärkere Einkommenspolarisation sowie durch differentere Arbeitsbedingungen zwischen den Geschlechtern geprägt als in Deutschland. (ICG2

Patient-specific modellling of cortical spreading depression applied to migraine studies.

254 p.-La migraña es un trastorno neurológico muy común. Un tercio de los pacientes que sufren migraña experimentan lo que se denomina aura, una serie de alteraciones sensoriales que preceden al típico dolor de cabeza unilateral. Diversos estudios apuntan a la existencia de una correlación entre el aura visual y la depresión cortical propagada (DCP), una onda de despolarización que tiene su origen en el córtex visual para propagarse, a continuación, por todo el córtex hacia las zonas periféricas. La complejidad y la elevada especificidad de las características del córtex cerebral sugieren que la geometría podría tener un impacto significativo en la propagación de la DCP. En esta tesis hemos combinado dos modelos existentes: un modelo neurológico pormenorizado para el componente electrofisiológico de la DCP y un modelo de reacción-difusión que tiene en consideración la difusión del potasio, el impulsor de la propagación de la DCP. Durante el proceso, hemos integrado dos aspectos de la DCP que tienen lugar en diferentes escalas de tiempo: la dinámica electrofisiológica seguiría un patrón temporal del orden de milisegundos, mientras que la dinámica del potasio extracelular que acciona las funciones de propagación de la DCP se mediría en una escala de minutos. Como resultado, obtendremos un modelo multiescalar EDP-EDO. Asimismo, hemos incorporado los datos específicos del paciente en el modelo DCP: (i) la geometría cerebral específica de un paciente obtenida a través de resonancia magnética, y (ii) los tensores de conductividad personalizados obtenidos a través de diffusion tensor images. A fin de estudiar el papel que desempeña la geometría en la propagación de la DCP, hemos definido las cantidades de interés (CdI) relacionadas con la geometría y las que dependen de la DCP y las hemos evaluado en dos casos prácticos. Si bien la geometría no parece tener un impacto significativo en la propagación de la DCP, algunas CdI han resultado ser unas candidatas muy prometedoras para facilitar la clasificación de individuos sanos y pacientes con migraña. Finalmente, para justificar la carencia de datos experimentales para la validación y selección de los parámetros del modelo, hemos aplicado diversas técnicas de cuantificación de la incertidumbre al modelo DCP y hemos analizado el impacto de las diversas elecciones de parámetros en el resultado del modelo.Migraine is a common neurological disorder and one-third of migraine patients suffer from migraine aura, a perceptual disturbance preceding the typically unilateral headache. Cortical spreading depression (CSD), a depolarisation wave that originates in the visual cortex and propagates across the cortex to the peripheral areas, has been suggested as a correlate of visual aura by several studies. The complex and highly individual-specific characteristics of the brain cortex suggest that the geometry might have a significant impact on CSD propagation. In this thesis, we combine two existing models, a detailed neurological model for the electrophysiological component of CSD and a reaction-diffusion model accounting for the potassium diffusion, the driving force of CSD propagation. In the process, we integrate two aspects of CSD that occur at different time scales: the electrophysiological dynamics features a temporal scale in the order of milliseconds, while the extracellular potassium dynamics that triggers CSD propagation features is on the scale of minutes. As a result we obtain a multi-scale PDE-ODE model. In addition, we incorporate patient-specific data in the CSD model: (i) a patient-specific brain geometry obtained from magnetic resonance imaging, and (ii) personalised conductivity tensors derived from diffusion tensor imaging data. To study the role of the geometry in CSD propagation, we define geometric and CSD-dependent quantities of interest (QoI) that we evaluate in two case studies. Even though the geometry does not seem to have a major impact on the CSD propagation, some QoI are promising candidates to aid in the classification of healthy individuals and migraine patients. Finally, to account for the lack of experimental data for validation and selection of the model parameters, we apply different techniques of uncertainty quantification to the CSD model and analyse the impact of various parameter choices on the model outcom

A Contribution of the Trivial Connection to Jones Polynomial and Witten's Invariant of 3d Manifolds I

We use the Chern-Simons quantum field theory in order to prove a recently conjectured limitation on the 1/K expansion of the Jones polynomial of a knot and its relation to the Alexander polynomial. This limitation allows us to derive a surgery formula for the loop corrections to the contribution of the trivial connection to Witten's invariant. The 2-loop part of this formula coincides with Walker's surgery formula for Casson-Walker invariant. This proves a conjecture that Casson-Walker invariant is a 2-loop correction to the trivial connection contribution to Witten's invariant of a rational homology sphere. A contribution of the trivial connection to Witten's invariant of a manifold with nontrivial rational homology is calculated for the case of Seifert manifolds.Comment: 28 page