BJS – Berliner Journal für Soziologie

Contents - Issue 3/2006

Frank Ettrich
Editorial p. 287

Hans-Joachim Schubert
Integration, Ethnicity, Education. The Definition of Ethnic Identity of Students with Turkish Heritage p. 291
Abstract

Jürgen Gerdes/Thomas Faist
From Ethnic to Republican Integration: The Discourse on the Reform of German Citizenship Law p. 313
Abstract

Frank Hillebrandt
Functional Systems without Practice or Fields of Practice without System? Systems Theory and Practice Theory in Comparison p. 337
Abstract

Stephan Moebius
The Gift – A New Paradigm of Sociology? A Critical Reflection of the M.A.U.S.S.-Group p. 355
Abstract

Sabine Fromm/Hans-Jürgen Aretz
Institutional Change as Hybridization. The Development of the Global Stock Market Industry and the Conflict at Deutsche Börse AG p. 371
Abstract

Ursula Mense-Petermann
Transnationalization, Organization, and Culture A Critical Discussion of Concepts of „Culture“ in Organizational Analysis p. 393
Abstract

Reports

Schader Award for Gesine Schwan p. 413

Abstracts Issue 3/2006

Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (3)

Hans-Joachim Schubert
Integration, Ethnicity, Education. The Definition of Ethnic Identity of Students with Turkish Heritage

Societal integration of Turkish immigrants with higher education does not go hand in hand with cultural assimilation. Educational success is accompanied by the individualstrategic integration of German and Turkish identity attributes, because new diversity management concepts of international organizations are offering new career opportunities. The process of social-emotional integration is „selective“ as well, because socialization of Turkish students in German educational institutions leads to disaffection with their ethnical heritage and their social connections to German communities remains incomplete. Questions of cultural-authentic integration, connected with a strong bias for individualism, are answered by a new culture of immigration beyond class and ethnic community. Communicative Integration, enabled by public discourse, is causing a distancing from German and Turkish lifeworlds. Turkish immigrants with a higher education do not accept a categorization of themselves through ethnic characterization; instead they construct hybrid identities, posttraditional communities, and active trust through the process of reflexive integration.
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (3)

Jürgen Gerdes/Thomas Faist
From Ethnic to Republican Integration: The Discourse on the Reform of German Citizenship Law

This article analyzes the political debate and the policy process leading up to the unusual outcome of the German Citizenship Law Reform in 1999 in comparative perspective. The reform provided a very liberal ius soliintroduction and at the same time kept a restrictive attitude toward dual citizenship. This somewhat contradictory outcome is essentially the result of a compromise between two opposing political camps holding quite different interpretations of the relationship between state and citizen, the function of citizenship law, and the integration of both immigrants and overall society. It is argued that the delay of citizenship law reform in Germany, at least during the last fifteen years, cannot be explained by means of an ethnic concept of nation, as many scholars have contended. Rather it is characterized by a persisting ideological conflict structure, which has been reinforced by institutional patterns of the political and legal system. The opposing views regarding the significance of citizenship are embedded within republicanism, stressing citizenship as activity on the one hand and citizenship as a right on the other hand. The two perspectives differ with respect to the functions of citizenship and the position of state and citizens within polities.
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (3)

Frank Hillebrandt
Functional Systems without Practice or Fields of Practice without System? Systems Theory and Practice Theory in Comparison

It is difficult to conciliate sociological theory of practice and social systems theory. This paper will, firstly, show the reasons for this in some important epistemological decisions of both theories. The results of this comparison will be used to point out similarities between both practice theory (Bourdieu) and social systems theory (Luhmann) in the basically convergent definition of the sociological topic. The central thesis of the article is that the discussed theories can only be conciliated if the convergence of the apparently different definition of sociality as practice (Bourdieu) and as communication (Luhmann) is worked out. Only then it is possible to complement the insights of Bourdieu in the durable reproduction of social inequality with the basic insights of Luhmann in the functional differentiation of modern societies. The goal of this intermediation is to improve both theories, those of vertical as much as those of horizontal differentiation.
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (3)

Stephan Moebius
The Gift – A New Paradigm of Sociology? A Critical Reflection of the M.A.U.S.S.-Group

To give, to receive and to reciprocate – that’s the basic formula of gift exchange developed and elaborated in the Essay on Gift published in 1925 by Marcel Mauss. The Mouvement Anti-utilitariste dans les Sciences Sociales, shortly M.A.U.S.S., a group initiated by the French sociologist Alain Caillé and the Swiss anthropologist Gérald Berthoud, continues Mauss’s work in a specific way. The object of this group, hardly known in Germany, is to establish a third paradigm, the paradigm of the gift, which is meant to overcome the dualism between methodological individualism and holism. After contextualizing the M.A.U.S.S. group in the field of contemporary French sociology, the article explores the sociological-historical basis of the group, the gift theorem of Mauss. In the following step the article analyzes the theoretical premises of the M.A.U.S.S. group which are thought to substantiate the paradigm of gift. The basic theoretical approach of the group will be introduced and its position in the field of French sociology specified by an analysis of Caillé’s crtitique of Pierre Bourdieu. In the final part, a couple of critical remarks on the M.A.U.S.S.-group’s methodological and sociological impetus are made.
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (3)

Sabine Fromm/Hans-Jürgen Aretz
Institutional Change as Hybridization. The Development of the Global Stock Market Industry and the Conflict at Deutsche Börse AG

In March 2005, institutional investors forced Deutsche Börse AG to withdraw its takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange, followed some time later by the resignation of both the enterprise’s CEO and supervisory board. This event highlights in an exemplary manner the transformation of joint-stock companies in Germany from insider systems towards systems including both insiders and outsiders and the related transformation of their corporate governance. The conflict between Deutsche Börse AG’s principals and agents demonstrates, first of all, the hybridization of different governance systems. Contrary to assumptions speaking of „path dependency“ or a convergence of the different varieties of capitalism in the direction of the US model of market-based capitalism, the conflict concerning Deutsche Börse AG underlines the typical example of a transformation displaying path dependencies and convergences at the same time. Secondly, it is demonstrated that the enterprises’ market opening will not necessarily involve stronger market control, but that this process instead evokes new options for corporate policy governance.
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Berliner Journal für Soziologie Vol. 16 (3)

Ursula Mense-Petermann
Transnationalization, Organization, and Culture A Critical Discussion of Concepts of „Culture“ in Organizational Analysis

The article takes „transnationalization“, understood as a qualitative change in structures and strategies of internationally operating organizations, as the starting point for a discussion of the relation between organization and culture, as well as of possibilities to theorize this relation. „Classical“ concepts of this relation, it is argued, have problems to adequately grasp the phenomenon of transnationalization. It is suggested to adopt a practice-theoretical approach to culture in organizational analysis in order to achieve a better understanding of processes of transnationalization. By doing so, internationally comparative organization studies could overcome the old debate on convergence versus divergence of organizational structures and strategies.
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Contents - Issue 3/2006

Abstracts Issue 3/2006