Zwischen Wahlfreiheit und Entscheidungszwang: Zur Ökonomie des "entlastenden" Sterbens

The "Patientenverfugung" (advcance directive/living will) as well as the passive and indirect euthanasia is expected to be completely legalized in Germany. The patient's "autonomy at the end of life" is a key concept in the contemporary debate. The law is expected to enable each individnal to enact the medical-assisted preterrn ending of one's life - not only in case of approaching death, but also in all cases in which the patient is not able to express his or her will (e.g. vegetative state, dementia). On the one hand, normalizing the need for a living will activites social fears of becoming a "burden" to relatives or society in times of "limited resources." On the other hand it presents itself as an option to regulate and appease those fears. Such hidden links are analysed

Domesticación del sujeto: Un estudio cualitativo sobre la experiencia del envejecimiento

Der Beitrag präsentiert Forschungsergebnisse einer qualitativen Interviewstudie zur subjektiven Alter(n)serfahrung von Menschen in der zweiten Lebenshälfte sowie aus dem Forschungsprozess resultierende Überlegungen zur Frage, wie sich die soziale Erfahrung Alter(n) methodologisch konzeptualisieren und empirisch erforschen lässt. Die Auswertung erfolgte angelehnt an die Grounded-Theory- Methodologie. Ausgehend von der "relativen (subjektiven) Alterslosigkeit" als fallübergreifender Schlüsselkategorie wird im Folgenden eine Typologie von (Alters-) Selbstkonzepten vorgestellt: das "wandlungsfähige", das "kontinuierliche" und das "verunsicherte" (Alters-) Selbst. Skizziert wird eine methodologische Konzeption von Alter(n) als eine zugleich prinzipiell unscharfe und erheblich normierte soziale Kategorie. Die Ergebnisse der Studie deuten darauf hin, dass – insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund der in jüngerer Zeit erfolgten sozialpolitischen Aufwertung der Lebensphase Alter – spezifische Sozialmilieus besonders prädestiniert scheinen, normative Anforderungen einer aktiven, produktiven und selbstverantwortlichen Gestaltung der Lebensphase Alter in ihr Selbstkonzept zu integrieren.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1302114In this article research results are presented of an interview study using grounded theory methodology, in which the social experience of aging in contemporary Western societies was explored. Against the historical background of a new socio-political appreciation of aging, persons between 45 and 95 in Western Germany were asked about their subjective views and experiences of aging. The empirical work was accompanied by further methodological considerations in order to attain an adequate approach to age as a social category, which in contemporary modern societies is at the same time deeply individualized and strictly normalized. The key category of a "(subjective) relative agelessness" and a typology of aging-related self-concepts (the "transformative," "continuous," and "insecure" aging self) are presented. The results of the study indicate a certain social closeness of contemporary normative conceptions of aging with their focus on active, self-responsible, and productive lifestyles to specific social milieus.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1302114Se presentan en este artículo los resultados de un estudio de entrevista usando la metodología de teoría fundamentada, en el que se explora la experiencia social del envejecimiento en las sociedades occidentales contemporáneas. Contrastando el trasfondo histórico de una nueva apreciación socio-política del envejecimiento, se preguntó a personas con edades entre 45 y 95 años en Alemania Occidental sobre su experiencia subjetiva de envejecer. Se acompañó el trabajo empírico por consideraciones metodológicas posteriores para lograr un enfoque adecuado sobre la edad como una categoría social, que en las sociedades contemporáneas modernas está, al mismo tiempo, profundamente individualizada y estrictamente normalizada. Se presentan la categoría clave de una "(subjetiva) relativa eternamente joven" y una tipología de auto- conceptos relacionados con el envejecimiento (el sí mismo "transformador", "continuo", " inseguro"). Los resultados del estudio indican una cierta cercanía social de los conceptos contemporáneos normativos del envejecimiento enfocándose en estilos de vida activos, auto-responsables y productivos a específicos entornos sociales.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs130211

Des Widerspenstigen Zähmung: subjektives Alter(n), qualitativ erforscht

"Der Beitrag präsentiert Forschungsergebnisse einer qualitativen Interviewstudie zur subjektiven Alter(n)serfahrung von Menschen in der zweiten Lebenshälfte sowie aus dem Forschungsprozess resultierende Überlegungen zur Frage, wie sich die soziale Erfahrung Alter(n) methodologisch konzeptualisieren und empirisch erforschen lässt. Die Auswertung erfolgte angelehnt an die Grounded-Theory- Methodologie. Ausgehend von der 'relativen (subjektiven) Alterslosigkeit' als fallübergreifender Schlüsselkategorie wird im Folgenden eine Typologie von (Alters-)Selbstkonzepten vorgestellt: das 'wandlungsfähige', das 'kontinuierliche' und das 'verunsicherte' (Alters-)Selbst. Skizziert wird eine methodologische Konzeption von Alter(n) als eine zugleich prinzipiell unscharfe und erheblich normierte soziale Kategorie. Die Ergebnisse der Studie deuten darauf hin, dass - insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund der in jüngerer Zeit erfolgten sozialpolitischen Aufwertung der Lebensphase Alter - spezifische Sozialmilieus besonders prädestiniert scheinen, normative Anforderungen einer aktiven, produktiven und selbstverantwortlichen Gestaltung der Lebensphase Alter in ihr Selbstkonzept zu integrieren." (Autorenreferat)"In this article research results are presented of an interview study using grounded theory methodology, in which the social experience of aging in contemporary Western societies was explored. Against the historical background of a new socio-political appreciation of aging, persons between 45 and 95 in Western Germany were asked about their subjective views and experiences of aging. The empirical work was accompanied by further methodological considerations in order to attain an adequate approach to age as a social category, which in contemporary modern societies is at the same time deeply individualized and strictly normalized. The key category of a '(subjective) relative agelessness' and a typology of aging-related self-concepts (the 'transformative', 'continuous', and 'insecure' aging self) are presented. The results of the study indicate a certain social closeness of contemporary normative conceptions of aging with their focus on active, self-responsible, and productive lifestyles to specific social milieus." (author's abstract

On Class Politics, the New Right and the Failures of Identity Politics: A Critical Commentary

 How to explain the relative success of the AfD in Germany, the presidential election of Donald Trump in the USA, the Brexit vote or the popularity of the Right in France and elsewhere in Europe? Moreover, why did the Left not see this authoritarian turn coming? One prominent suggestion has been that the Left abandoned the white working class, thereby becoming the inadvertent midwife of a right-wing resurgence. Significant blame for this is in turn apportioned to the emergence of ‘identity politics’. In this essay, the authors take issue with this line of argumentation and criticise some of the implicit assumptions they consider problematic in current debates on the Left regarding the relationship between gender, race, class and emancipatory politics. They argue that struggles against both neoliberalism and the New Right require intersectional analyses of contemporary global class relations that do not abandon the important achievements and insights of new and newest social movements. How to explain the relative success of the AfD in Germany, the presidential election of Donald Trump in the USA, the Brexit vote or the popularity of the Right in France and elsewhere in Europe? Moreover, why did the Left not see this authoritarian turn coming? One prominent suggestion has been that the Left abandoned the white working class, thereby becoming the inadvertent midwife of a right-wing resurgence. Significant blame for this is in turn apportioned to the emergence of ‘identity politics’. In this essay, the authors take issue with this line of argumentation and criticise some of the implicit assumptions they consider problematic in current debates on the Left regarding the relationship between gender, race, class and emancipatory politics. They argue that struggles against both neoliberalism and the New Right require intersectional analyses of contemporary global class relations that do not abandon the important achievements and insights of new and newest social movements

Reaction Mechanism of Pd-catalyzed "CO-free" Carbonylation Reaction Uncovered by In-situ Spectroscopy: The Formyl Mechanism

"CO-free" carbonylation reactions, where synthesis gas (CO/H2) is substituted by C1 surrogate molecules like formaldehyde or formic acid, have received wide spread attention in homogeneous catalysis lately. Although a broad range of organics is available via this method, still relatively little is known about the precise reaction mechanism. In this work, we used in-situ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to unravel the mechanism of the alkoxycarbonylation of alkenes using different surrogate molecules. In contrast to previous hypotheses no carbon monoxide could be found during the reaction. Instead the reaction proceeds via the C-H activation of in-situ generated methyl formate. On the basis of quantitative NMR experiments, a kinetic model involving all major intermediates is built which enables the knowledge-driven optimization of the reaction. Finally, a new reaction mechanism is proposed on the basis of in-situ observed Pd-hydride, Pd-formyl and Pd-acyl species

Checklist of earthworms (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae) from Germany

Lehmitz, Ricarda, Römbke, Jörg, Jänsch, Stephan, Krück, Stefanie, Beylich, Anneke, Graefe, Ulfert (2014): Checklist of earthworms (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae) from Germany. Zootaxa 3866 (2): 221-245, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3866.2.

Ab initio perspective on the Mollwo-Ivey relation for F centers in alkali halides

We revisit the well-known Mollwo-Ivey relation that describes the ``universal'' dependence of the absorption energies of F-type color centers on the lattice constant a of alkali-halide crystals, E-abs proportional to a(-n). We perform both state-of-the-art ab initio quantum chemistry and post-DFT calculations of F-center absorption spectra. By ``tuning'' independently the lattice constant and the atomic species we show that the scaling with the lattice constant alone 2 in agreement with the ``particle-in-the-box'' model. Keeping the lattice constant fixed and changing the atomic species enables us to quantify the ion-size effects which are shown to be responsible for the exponent n approximate to 1.8