Constraints and potential of livestock insurance schemes: a case study from Vietnam

Livelihood systems of poor rural households are often so fragile that a small misfortune can destabilize households for years. Strategies for coping with risk include informal mutual aid agreements and/or formal microinsurance schemes. In developing countries, insurance markets are usually underdeveloped.Nevertheless, if the development path is supported by strong structures and institutions, anonymous markets will, over time, replace informal insurance networks as they are more efficient. In Vietnam, livestock is an important household income source and has additional non-economic functions in the households. For a long time, rural financial institutions in Vietnam financed only a small array of agricultural investments, but these frequently included livestock purchase. The absence of off-farm investment possibilities further promotes investment in livestock production. Failure of an investment, especially when loan-funded, can leave a household in an extremely vulnerable position. Livestock death is considered to be a major factor contributing to poverty. Farmers using credit to purchase livestock face two risks at once: (1) loss of the livestock due tovdisease and subsequently (2) failure of investment. Farmers would like to reduce the uncertainty, but a broad-based livestock insurance scheme does not exist in Vietnam. There are only a few formal and semi-formal schemes with very limited outreach. Thus, access to formal insurance is almost non-existent, and farm households have to rely mainly on informal mutual aid schemes within their social networks to reduce their risks. The objective of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on the general feasibility of a livestock insurance scheme in Vietnam. In this context, the demand for and supply of livestock insurance schemes is discussed. Quantitative (N=322) and qualitative data collection took place between 2001 and 2004. The quantitative data comprise cross-sectional household-level data from three different districts in Northern Vietnam. Four different types of insurance providers were selected for analyzing the supply side: 1. Insurance tied to credit within a state-owned company; 2. Insurance tied to credit within a development project; 3. A state-owned insurance company (which collapsed); 4. A private insurance company. By selecting these different insurance providers, the range of livestock insurance types offered in Vietnam was covered. The main result is that provision of sustainable livestock insurance is hampered principally by unreliable data on livestock mortality and by premia that are set politically at a low evel

Kampf um Zugehörigkeit: Was die Gegner*innen der Corona-Maßnahmen antreibt und was sie über den Zustand von Demokratie und Zusammenhalt verdeutlichen

Die Corona-Maßnahmen haben zu einer emotional aufgeheizten Auseinandersetzung um ihre Angemessenheit geführt. Diese gehört zu den aktuellen Beispielen für eine grundlegende Unzufriedenheit und Verunsicherung von wachsenden Teilen der Bevölkerung, die folgenreich für den gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt sein können. Die Vehemenz der Maßnahmengegner*innen war Ausgangspunkt unserer Forschung über die Hintergründe der Ablehnung und die Gemeinsamkeit der Gegner*innen, die durch die bisher vorliegenden Untersuchungen als stark heterogene Gruppe identifiziert worden ist. Prägnantes Ergebnis: Die Maßnahmengegner*innen bilden eine neue Form der Vergemeinschaftung über ihre Allianz des „Gegenwissens“ und stiften sich dadurch eine kollektive Identität. Diese ist in der Lage einen Sinnstiftungsverlust zu kompensieren, der durch die Corona-Maßnahmen angestoßen wurde. Um diese These zu begründen, präsentiert der Beitrag ausgewählte Ergebnisse der rekonstruktiven Analysen anhand der Objektiven Hermeneutik. Untersucht wurden Dokumenten von und Interviews mit Gegner*innen der Maßnahmen in Bezug auf Form, Funktion und Folgen der Allianzbildung. Zudem werden Schlüsse gezogen für den gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, die Stärkung der Demokratie und die Rolle der Soziologie

The Simulated Classroom Biology—A simulated classroom environment for capturing the action‐oriented professional knowledge of pre‐service teachers about evolution

Background: The professional knowledge of pre-service teachers is highly important for effective and successful teaching. In recent years, many research groups have been engaged in developing simulated classroom environments to capture especially the pedagogical knowledge (PK) of pre-service teachers, neglecting the content-related facets of professional knowledge such as pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Objectives: In the present study, we describe the development of a simulated class- room environment — the Simulated Classroom Biology (SCR Bio) — and provide evidence regarding its validity to assess pre-service biology teachers' action-oriented PCK in the area of evolution. Methods: This study examined the evidence supporting the validity of using the SCR Bio to investigate action-oriented PCK of pre-service biology teachers. The (1) evidence based on test content (expert ratings) and the (2) evidence based on relation to other variables (known-groups comparison) was obtained. We tested the SCR Bio with N = 76 German pre-service biology teachers. Results and Conclusions: Our results show the successfully operationalized PCK in the SCR Bio through explicit allocation of specific misconceptions to each virtual student's answer and the valid measurement of pre-service biology teachers' action-oriented PCK. This results in a validated simulated classroom environment for pre-service but also in-service teachers. In the future, the SCR Bio will be developed from an assessment instrument to a training tool to simulate explicit teaching situations. This allows to complement the predominantly theoretical components of university-based teacher education with practice-based simulated classroom environments

20 Jahre Deutsche Einheit - Ein Vergleich der west- und ostdeutschen Betriebslandschaft im Krisenjahr 2009 : Ergebnisse des IAB-Betriebspanels 2009 (20 years of German unity - A comparison of establishments in the west and east of Germany during the crisis year of 2009 : Results from the IAB Establishment Panel 2009)

"Some 20 years after German reunification, living conditions and the economic base in East Germany are approaching that of West Germany in many areas. In view of this anniversary and against the backdrop of the global financial crisis that intensified in autumn 2008, this research report uses the data from the IAB-Betriebspanel (IAB-Establishment Panel) to analyse the German labour market from a perspective of firms/establishments in an east-west comparison. How can the status of the intra-German harmonisation process be evaluated? How has the global financial crisis affected the German economy? The IAB-Betriebspanel (IAB Establishment Panel) shows that there are structural differences between East and West Germany which adversely impact East German productivity (e.g. relatively smaller industrial sector, fewer large establishments, less knowledge-intensive business services, lower export orientation, fewer employees in high-production operations). Employment increased in East Germany from 2005 onwards for the first time since German reunification. During the crisis year of 2009, the level of total employment increased (remaining constant in West Germany) and employment subject to social insurance contributions stayed constant (falling in West Germany). East Germany's fewer links to export markets and its sector and establishment size class structures that have until now been rated unfavourably have clearly proven a competitive advantage in the economic slump of 2009. Atypical employment such as part-time work, marginal employment or employment on fixed-term contracts and temporary agency work gained in importance in recent years. The increase in significance of employment on fixed-term contracts in particular is remarkable. The ratio of short-term employment contracts to the total number of employed has almost doubled since 1996. Establishments are justifying their use of this form of employment citing mainly short-term requirements and flexibility arguments such as extended probationary periods or uncertain economic development. In the crisis year of 2009, there was much more short-time working than in the economically comparable year of 2003. This group included in particular large establishments and companies in the manufacturing industry. In 2009, pro rat four times as many employees were affected by short-time working than six years earlier. Short-time workers were rarely given training. There are fewer establishments entitled to offer vocational training and actual training operations in East Germany than there are in the West. The training ratio (number of trainees in proportion to the number of employees), however, is almost identical in Germany's two regions, though in East Germany a considerable number is handled by off-site facilities. As a result, the chance of newly qualified trainees being offered employment is lower in East Germany than it is in the West. Conversely, East Germany has a higher advanced training ratio." (Authors' abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))IAB-Betriebspanel, Wirtschaftsentwicklung, Wirtschaftsstruktur, wirtschaftliche Situation, Arbeitsmarkt, Betrieb, regionaler Vergleich, Finanzkrise, atypische Beschäftigung, Teilzeitarbeit, befristeter Arbeitsvertrag, geringfügige Beschäftigung, Leiharbeit, Kurzarbeit, betriebliche Berufsausbildung, Ausbildungsplatzangebot, betriebliche Weiterbildung, Ausbildungsquote, Berufseinmündung, Absolventen, Ostdeutschland, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Soziale und integrative Stadtentwicklungsplanung am Beispiel einer kinder- und jugendgerechten Freiraumentwicklung unter Berücksichtigung von Lebenslage und Lebensraum

Die vorliegende Dissertation bezieht ihre wissenschaftliche und planerische Untersuchung auf das Wirkungsfeld der Kinder und Jugendlichen in kommunalen Planungsprozessen. Beginnend mit einem gesellschaftspolitischen Einstieg verfolgt die Analyse der Arbeit die Formulierung eines sozialräumlichen Leitbildes. Im Anschluss daran werden die beiden Ebenen Lebenslage und Lebensraum zusammengeführt und im Rahmen einer sozialraumorientierten Planung, am Beispiel der Freiflächengestaltung von Schulhöfen, diskutiert