Bernhard Kittel

Experiments have gained prominence in sociology in recent years. Increased interest in testing causal theories through experimental designs has ignited a debate about which experimental designs can facilitate scientific progress in sociology. This book discusses the implications of research interests for the design of experiments, identifies points of commonality and disagreement among the different perspectives within sociology, and elaborates on the rationales of each. It helps experimental sociologists find appropriate designs for answering specific research questions while alerting them to the challenges. Offering more than just a guide, this book explores both the historical roots of experimental sociology and the cutting-edge techniques of rigorous sociology. It concludes with a tantalizing peek into the future and provides a roadmap to the exciting prospects and uncharted territories of experimental sociology.

Experiments have gained prominence in sociology in recent years. Increased interest in testing causal theories through experimental designs has ignited a debate about which experimental designs can facilitate scientific progress in sociology. This book discusses the implications of research interests for the design of experiments, identifies points of commonality and disagreement among the different perspectives within sociology, and elaborates on the rationales of each. It helps experimental sociologists find appropriate designs for answering specific research questions while alerting them to the challenges. Offering more than just a guide, this book explores both the historical roots of experimental sociology and the cutting-edge techniques of rigorous sociology. It concludes with a tantalizing peek into the future and provides a roadmap to the exciting prospects and uncharted territories of experimental sociology.

Die Studie untersucht den Zusammenhang von Sprachverwendung, sozialer Positionierung und kollektiver Identitatsbildung in Weissrussland hinsichtlich des Weissrussischen, Russischen und der weissrussisch-russisch gemischten Rede (Trasjanka). Die soziodemographische und oekonomische Struktur der drei "Kodes" wird mittels Umfrage und Interviews bei drei Generationen erfasst. Die Konstellation ist grundlegend diglossisch: Russisch herrscht im oeffentlichen Raum, die Trasjanka viel starker als bisher angenommen im privaten Bereich (besonders bei der alteren Generation). Weissrussisch ist voellig marginalisiert. Fur die spezifisch weissrussisch-kollektive Identitat, die durchaus festzustellen ist, spielt keiner der Kodes eine nennenswerte Rolle, bestenfalls das Weissrussische auf symbolisch-musealer Ebene.

This book explores the extent to which a transformation of public employment regimes has taken place in four Western countries, and the factors influencing the pathways of reform. It demonstrates how public employment regimes have unravelled in different domains of public service, contesting the idea that the state remains a 'model' employer.

The regulation of the labour market by industrial-relations institutions has been an important theme in sociology, political science, economics, and jurisprudence. What has particularly attracted attention from a comparative perspective is the astonishing variety of national labour-relations institutions. This variety, when confronted with persistent economic internationalization raises two main questions. First, does internationalization impose pressures for change and, more specifically, for convergence on institutions? If such pressures are at work, is there a superior model the national systems are converging on? Second, under economic internationalization, cross-national differences in national arrangements may have an increasing impact on national economic performance. Hence the question is whether national labour-relations systems perform differently, and to what extent their performance has changed over time due to shifting circumstances. This book investigates these questions on the basis of a cross-national comparison, including comparable data from twenty OECD countries.