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Skill Formation
There are marked changes in skill requirements in today's modern societies, and major questions about the processes of skill formation remain unresolved. What do we mean when we talk about skills, qualifications and competencies? Are market economies and firms systematically under-investing in skills? This book addresses these questions by first looking at what we mean when we talk about 'skills'. Secondly, it looks at the institutions where skills are acquired, before finally considering the provision of and access to training. It provides an up-to-date review of theories and research on skill formation in psychology, economics, political science and sociology, and addresses issues of skill learning and measurement, institutional and policy differences between countries, the issue of skill formation across a lifetime and disparities between socio-economic groups.
After the Fall of the Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was the beginning of one of the most interesting natural experiments in recent history. The East German transition from a Communist state to part of the Federal Republic of Germany abruptly created a new social order as old institutions were abolished and new counterparts imported. This unique situation provides an exceptional opportunity to examine the central tenets of life course sociology. The empirical chapters of this book draw a comprehensive picture of life course transformation, demonstrating how the combination of life course dynamics coupled with an extraordinary pace of system change affect individual lives. How much turbulence was created by t...
Dictatorship as Experience
A decade after the collapse of communism, this volume presents a historical reflection on the perplexing nature of the East German dictatorship. In contrast to most political rhetoric, it seeks to establish a middle ground between totalitarianism theory, stressing the repressive features of the SED-regime, and apologetics of the socialist experiment, emphasizing the normality of daily lives. The book transcends the polarization of public debate by stressing the tensions and contradictions within the East German system that combined both aspects by using dictatorial means to achieve its emancipatory aims. By analyzing a range of political, social, cultural, and chronological topics, the contributors sketch a differentiated picture of the GDR which emphasizes both its repressive and its welfare features. The sixteen original essays, especially written for this volume by historians from both east and west Germany, represent the cutting edge of current research and suggest new theoretical perspectives. They explore political, social, and cultural mechanisms of control as well as analyze their limits and discuss the mixture of dynamism and stagnation that was typical of the GDR.
Changes in Inequality of Educational Opportunity
Pia Nicoletta Blossfeld provides a long-term longitudinal analysis of the stepwise changes in transitions over the educational careers in East and West Germany using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). She examines how far reforms aimed to increase the permeability in the German educational system have changed the movements of children, adolescents and young adults in Germany since the last four decades. Her book contributes to the literature of educational sociology by studying the associations between various resources of family background and respondent’s educational histories until final educational attainment. A novelty of her book is the analysis of the role of intercohort changes in social background composition on final educational attainment.
The Capitalist Personality
Modern capitalism favors values that undermine our face-to-face bonds with friends and family members. Focusing on the post-communist world, and comparing it to more "developed" societies, this book reveals the mixed effects of capitalist culture on interpersonal relationships. While most observers blame the egoism and asocial behavior found in new free-market societies on their communist pasts, this work shows how relationships are also threatened by the profit orientations and personal ambition unleashed by economic development. Successful people in societies as diverse as China, Russia, and Eastern Germany adjust to the market economy at a social cost, relaxing their morals in order to ob...
Inside Party Headquarters
Everyday life in the East German Socialist Unity Party revolved heavily around maintaining the “party line” in all areas of society, whether through direct authority or corruption. Spanning a long period of the GDR’s history, from 1946 through 1989, Rüdiger Bergien presents the first study that examines the complexities of the central party’s communist apparatus. He focuses on their role as ideological watchdogs, as they fostered an underbelly and “inner life” for their employees to integrate the party’s pillars throughout East German society. Inside Party Headquarters reviews not only the party’s modes power and state interaction, but also the processes of negotiation and disputation preceding formal Politburo decisions, advancing the available detail and discourse surrounding this formative and volatile stretch of German history.
Education as a Lifelong Process
In modernen Wissensgesellschaften ist Bildung die zentrale Voraussetzung sowohl für die demokratische Teilhabe als auch für wirtschaftliches Wachstum und Wohlstand. Eine sich zunehmend rascher wandelnde, globalisierte Welt erfordert die Bewältigung neuer Anforderungen im privaten Leben und in der Berufs- und Arbeitswelt. Um mehr über den Bildungserwerb und seine Folgen für individuelle Lebensverläufe zu erfahren, um zentrale Bildungsprozesse und -verläufe über die gesamte Lebensspanne zu beschreiben und zu analysieren, wird in Deutschland aktuell das Nationale Bildungspanel aufgebaut.
Methods of Life Course Research
What are the most effective methods for doing life course research? The field′s founders and leaders answer this question, giving readers tips on: the art and method of the appropriate research design; the collection of life-history data; and the search for meaningful patterns to be found in the results.
Reinventing Gender
Since the unification of the DDR and the GDR, women living in the former East Germany have lost many of the advantages that came with a planned economy. This collection of essays examines the reinvented meaning of gender and the experience of East German women since unification.
The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic
Most public debate on reunited Germany has emphasized economic issues such as the collapse of East German industry, mass unemployment, career difficulties, and differences in wages and living standards. The overwhelming difficulty resulting from reunification, however, is not persisting economic differences but the internal cultural divide between East and West Germans, one based upon different moral values in the two Germanies. The invisible wall that has replaced the previous, highly visible territorial division of the German nation is rooted in issues of the past-the Nazi past as well as the German Democratic Republic past. In emphasizing economic differences, the media and academics have...
