Glen H. Elder: Life Course, Agency, and Time: An Interview by Matthias Pohlig

"During three interview sessions in early and mid 2011 Glen H. Elder was asked to reflect upon the issue of time and the life course on the basis of his experience and contribution to the development and establishment of the life course approach. His interest in the subject now spans several decades. Recalling his personal history and involvement in life course research Elder reviews the approach’s key categories including agency and timing, or the connection between agency and contingency. He discusses conceptual differences between the notions of biography and those applying to biographical, institutional and historical time. He reflects upon the interconnection of social change, historical events and the lives of individuals, and comments on contemporary challenges for modern lives. Finally, he discusses methodological advancements in life course research and his current and future research plans." (author's abstract)"Im Rahmen von drei Interviews, die Anfang und Mitte 2011 geführt wurden, wurde Glen H. Elder darum gebeten, seine jahrzehntelange Erfahrung im Bereich der Lebenslaufforschung sowie seine Beiträge dazu Revue passieren zu lassen. Ausgehend von seinem persönlichen Zugang zur Lebenslaufforschung spricht er über Schlüsselkategorien dieses Ansatzes wie etwa agency und timing sowie den Zusammenhang von agency und Kontingenz. Elder diskutiert Unterschiede in den Konzepten von Biographie und denen der biographischen, institutionellen und historischen Zeit, reflektiert den Zusammenhang von sozialem Wandel, historisch bedeutsamen Ereignissen und dem Leben von Individuen und kommentiert aktuelle Herausforderungen des modernen Lebens. Schließlich spricht er über methodische Entwicklungen im Bereich der Lebenslaufforschung und stellt seine aktuellen und zukünftigen Forschungspläne vor." (Autorenreferat

The uses and utility of intelligence: the case of the British Government during the War of the Spanish Succession

This article was supported by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.It is usually taken for granted that intelligence organisations provide information for decision-making and that the knowledge produced in the process is therefore deeply utilitarian. Drawing on organisational sociology, this article draws on a case study of English intelligence efforts during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) to reflect critically on the assumed direct relationship between intelligence-gathering and political decision-making. In eighteenth-century England, intelligence frequently fulfilled other, often more symbolic functions, for example when access to intelligence was employed to legitimise individual actors. In this sense, intelligence was doubtlessly useful, albeit in other ways than generally postulated by intelligence theory. These observations strongly suggest a ‘missing dimension’ in the history of intelligence in other periods as well as intelligence theory more generally.Peer Reviewe

Literaturbesprechungen

Literaturbesprechungen: 1) Raithelhuber, Eberhard: Übergänge und Agency: eine sozialtheoretische Reflexion des Lebenslaufkonzepts. Opladen: Budrich UniPress Ltd 2011. ISBN 978-3-86388-001-9. 2) Bethmann, Stephanie; Helfferich, Cornelia; Hoffmann, Heiko; Niermann, Debora: (Hrsg.): Agency - qualitative Rekonstruktionen und gesellschaftstheoretische Bezüge von Handlungsmächtigkeit. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa 2012. 978-3-7799-2721-1

Wolfgang Behringer / Eric-Oliver Mader / Justus Nipperdey (Hrsg.), Konversionen zum Katholizismus in der Frühen Neuzeit. Europäische und globale Perspektiven. (Kulturelle Grundlagen Europas, Bd. 5.) Münster, Lit 2019

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers (De Gruyter) frei zugänglich.Peer Reviewe

Frances Harris, The General in Winter. The Marlborough-Godolphin Friendship and the Reign of Anne. Oxford, Oxford University Press 2017

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.Peer Reviewe

Ulinka Rublack (Ed.), Protestant Empires. Globalizing the Reformations. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2020

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers (De Gruyter) frei zugänglich.Peer Reviewe

Polarization and marginalization during the Eurozone crisis: The persistence of Eurosclerosis

The Great Recession and the Eurozone crisis taking place since 2008 are real-life tests for policies aimed at promoting inclusive labor markets in the Eurozone. Therefore, this article discusses first how the risk of being a labor market outsider evolved in the Eurozone during the crises, and whether this risk diverged between social groups. Using EU-SILC data, we describe the overall level of outsider risks before and during the crises - risks of being either unemployed, temporarily employed or earning a low wage - among the labor force ('polarization') and the concentration of these risks among vulnerable groups ('marginalization'). Our results show that the outsider risks have particularly increased in the Southern European countries, and for young workers throughout the EU, and in the case of unemployment, also for low-skilled workers. In the second step, we study how employment protection legislation, union density and wage bargaining systems influence polarization and marginalization in the context of an economic crisis. In contrast to discussions about the end of Eurosclerosis, we find that strict employment protection and centralized bargaining in-crease the marginalization of vulnerable groups while strong unions can reduce polarization