Michaela Fink

The Ethiopian textile industry is particularly affected by high labor turnover. In a compelling social study, Michaela Fink investigates the causes of this issue, focusing primarily on the voices of the (female) workforce. She illustrates the tension between rural, community-based orientations of women workers and the industrial working environment in which they find themselves. For the women, it is often a balancing act between the rural world they come from and the urban consumerist world they live and work in. They are attracted to modern values of career, consumption and urbanity. At the same time, it is hardly possible for them to achieve modest prosperity.

Many children in Namibia find themselves facing a social crisis. They have been abandoned or abused, are malnourished, homeless, or live in shacks that barely provide any protection. However, amidst these disastrous living conditions, children have developed remarkable survival skills, and come up with equally clever and disillusioned analyses of their situation. For three years, Michaela Fink and Reimer Gronemeyer conducted interviews in Namibia with women who take care of vulnerable children. The book gives these children a voice in interviews and essays.

A comprehensive analysis of today's situation of palliative care in Europe is provided, including previously unidentified statistics and standardized profiles of sixteen European countries. The analysis contains demographics, the history of hospice and palliative care, the number of current services, funding, education, and training of professional staff and the role of volunteers, with an in-depth case portrayal of particular services. "Reimer Gronemeyer" is professor of sociology at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen (Germany). "Michaela Fink," a sociologist, is working with Gronemeyer in different research projects at the Institute of Sociology at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. "Marcel Globisch," a sociologist, was a member of the hospice research group until August 2005. Since September 2005 he has been working for the German Children's Hospice Society. "Felix Schumann," a sociologist, is working with Gronemeyer in different research projects at the Institute of Sociology at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen.