Contents
HSR Vol. 35 (2010) No. 3: Focus: Integration or Exclusion: Former National Socialists in the GDR
Part I Focus:
Dietmar Remy & Axel Salheiser (Eds.): Integration or Exclusion: Former National Socialists in the GDR
Not only West Germany saw the social rehabilitation of former members of the NSDAP after 1945, nominal Nazis also got their chance in the GDR. Due to the omnipresent state myth of anti-fascism, disclosed brown shadows of the past could put careers at risk anytime, but submissive loyalty to the young socialist state and its leadership could balance the scales. Honest autobiographical information was demanded from all cadres – and the fallacies of a misled Third Reich youth (or needed members of the old intelligentsia) were likely to be forgiven in order to appeal to their gratitude. However, simply keeping silent turned out even more successful a strategy in many cases: the general exculpation of the populace and the anti-fascist propaganda made serious checks and Stasi investigations inopportune for the Communist regime.
This focus of Historical Social Research addresses the ambiguous relation of integration and exclusion of former National Socialists in East Germany and the discourse of exculpation. Besides case studies on a variety of institutions and statistical analyses of their personnel, three general questions are discussed: What was state party SED’s actual strategy regarding former members of the NSDAP and NS perpetrators and to what extend did this strategy change over time? How many former National Socialists could embark on socialist cadre careers in the GDR? And how many of them could get away with lies about their past?
Part II: Mixed Issue
Articles, Cliometrics
Contains articles of Johannes Marx, Michael Bang Petersen & Svend-Erik Skaaning, Volker Müller-Benedict, Ingvill C. Mochmann & Sabine Lee, Katalin Morgan, Dimitry Zhukov & Sergey Lyamin, Somyanetra Munshi, Thi Hong Van Hoang and Marcela Veselkova
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HSR Vol. 35 (2010) No. 2: Transitions – Transformations: Trajectories of Social, Economic and Political Change after Communism
Special Issue
Heinrich Best, Katharina Bluhm, Michael Fritsch & Rainer K. Silbereisen (Eds.): Transitions – Transformations: Trajectories of Social, Economic and Political Change after Communism
Anniversaries are normally somewhat arbitrary pretexts for putting important events and short-term developments into historical perspective. This was different with the 20th anniversary of the downfall of European communism and the transition of state socialism into market economies and representative democracies in 1989. The years 2008/2009 saw a crisis of international financial markets that shattered the system of a truly global capitalism established in the aftermath of 1989.
Most of the contributions united in this Special Issue of Historical Social Research were presented and discussed at the 2009 Jena conference on Transitions – Transformations: Trajectories of Social, Economic and Political Change after Communism. The contributions 1) deal with a retrospective stock-taking of twenty years of social and economic transformation after the end of European communism and 2) take a look at the years of post-communist transformation as a prehistory of transition between stages in the development of global capitalism.
The contributions focus on the impact of rapid social and institutional change on personality development and economic activities. This view into the psycho-social (Personality Development and Social Change) and economic (Varieties of Capitalism in Central Eastern Europe After EU Accession & Business Dynamics in the Transformation Process of Post-Socialist Societies) foundations of the great post-communist transformation is complemented by a look at the elites (Elites after Transition) involved in shaping and directing these developments.
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HSR Vol. 35 (2010) No. 1 – Special Issue: Global Communication: Telecommunication and Global Flows of Information in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century
Part I: Special Issue
Roland Wenzlhuemer (Ed.): Global Communication: Telecommunication and Global Flows of Information in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century
In the middle of the nineteenth century, electric telegraphy emerged as the first fully-fledged system of telecommunication. The global flow of dematerialized information carried by a network of submarine and overland telegraph lines challenged the established relationship between time and space (or at least so it seemed) and detached human interaction from co-locality or proximity. By bringing geographically distant and socio-culturally diverse places in touch, telecommunication technologies helped to manifest a placeless global sphere and co-shaped globalization processes. They can do so because they directly affect the very constituents of globalization: global exchanges, movements, transfers, flows. For instance, the telegraph changed the nature of news reporting; it impacted on business and administrative language (and via this detour ultimately on language in general); it separated the global flow of short and decisive information from that of more profound background information; and, of course, it created new asymmetries and divides due to the uneven structure of its network and other access barriers.
In short, the telegraph and later the telephone transformed the nature of many forms of global interaction and introduced a new logic, new actors, new places and new practices to this realm. This volume seeks to highlight the complex role of telecommunication and its networks in nineteenth-century globalization processes—a role that has often been reduced to furthering imperial control and international business. The contributions in this special issue do not ignore these two traditional perspectives but primarily seek to illuminate new and previously understudied aspects of the relation between telecommunication and globalization.
Part II: Mixed Issue
Articles, Cliometrics
contains articles of Michael Ruddat & Marlen Schulz, Alvaro S. Pereira, Antonio Tena Junguito and Tapas Mishra, Cluade Diebold, Mamata Parhi & Asit Ranjan Mohanty.
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HSR Vol. 34 (2009) No. 4 – Special Issue: Premature Death: Patterns of Identity and Meaning From a Historical Perspective / Vorzeitiger Tod: Identitäts- ûnd Sinnstiftung in historischer Perspektive
Part I: Special Issue Thorsten Halling, Silke Fehlemann & Jörg Vögele (Eds.): Premature Death: Patterns of Identity and Meaning From a Historical Perspective
Infant mortality, accidental death, suicide, death by fatal disease or in war action: premature death has many different faces. What do all these phenomena have in common? The present studies in this special issue investigate how different ways of dealing with premature death can serve to find out how constitutive societal values are established.
The scandalizing of certain forms of untimely death and the patterns of meaning demonstrate that certain groups of a population or certain ideals in society are estimated more valuable than others. Establishing patterns of meaning by offering generalised identification was ap-plied for example to compensate the traumatic experience of a soldier's death. Although the process of dying itself has often been marked by signs – e.g. farewell letters of a person committing suicide or a suicide attacker – explaining the background to posterity, these signs can be misunderstood or modified by those who recognize them.
The present anthology is an interdisciplinary approach by scholars of history, art history, cultural sociology and cultural anthropology, medicine and philosophy to discuss these questions. The first part focuses on how the lifespan of different population groups is established and evaluated in a societal context. The second part investigates the way the families and the nursing staff of patients in critical condition as well as these patients themselves deal with untimely death. The third part observes the conducting and the representation of premature death and dying. The fourth part deals with the actual experience of mass mortality, mourning and its commemoration after the war.
All articles are in German except for one.
Part II: Mixed Issue
Cliometrics
contains articles of Claude Schwob, Patrizia Margani & Roberto Ricciuti,
Rainer Metz and Michael Grömling.
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HSR Vol. 34 (2009) No. 3 – Special Issue: Social Bookkeeping Data: Data Quality and Data Management / Soziale Buchführungsdaten: Datenqualität und Datenmanagement
Part I: Special Issue
Nina Baur (Ed.): Social Bookkeeping Data: Data Quality and Data Management
Social bookkeeping data (also called public administrational data, quantitative/standardized process-produced/process-generated data, mass data or mass files) are one of the oldest sources of information used both in historical and in social research. While they resemble survey data in many ways, they also raise specific methodological problems: In contrast to research-elicited data, data production is not controlled by the researcher. Instead, societal and institutional filters influence a) which data are produced and how they are produced (production bias), and b) if and how data are stored (selection bias).
Accordingly, in the 1970s and 1980s, there has been an intense discussion on data quality and data management of public administrational data in German historical social research, namely in HSR. While the use of mass data has increased in recent years due to paradigm shifts both in methodology and theory, due to new developments in IT and due to increased accessibility of these data types, the methodological debate strangely lacks behind this development. This special issue thus aims at re-opening the discussion on social bookkeeping data and linking it to modern methodological discourse (particularly in survey and mixed methods research).
Starting from different stages of the research process, authors ask, what can happen there with and to data and samples? Which problems can arise? Can they be avoided? If not, how should they be properly handled? Do these problems arise for all sources, or are they specific to some sources? Major methodological issues to be tackled are (a) data lore and measurement quality; (b) data selection and sampling problems; (c) archiving and statistical programmes and (d) data preparation.
Part II: Focus
Ingvill C. Mochmann, Sabine Lee & Barbara Stelzl-Marx (Eds.):
«Children Born of War: Second World War and Beyond»
As in every other war, during and after WWII children were born whose parents belonged to opposite sides of the conflict. Being the child of the “enemy” or of occupation forces, be they friendly or adversarial, has influenced the lives of the children born of war and occupation up until now. Many have been exposed to stigmatisation and discrimination. Now in their fifties and sixties, some have started looking for their roots only recently, thus trying to break the wall of silence that has surrounded them for several decades. Most of them have been concerned with this “stain” of their mixed parentage for their whole lives, often without being able to exchange their experiences with others of similar background. This holds not only for enemy children, but also for children from allied forces such as American soldiers in Britain or Soviet soldiers in Austria and Germany, all of whom seem to have experienced similar difficulties and have been exposed to comparable discrimination.
Regardless of the dimension and social impact of the tens of thousands of children born of war, this topic has so far found little attention in academia, particularly when compared to other aspects of WWII research. Even in German speaking countries with their greater exposure the phenomenon of children born of war, the interest in the topic has been limited. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were serving in the Wehrmacht all over Europe during WWII and in the post-war decade American, British Soviet and French troops were occupying Germany and Austria.
As a result the German dimension of this topic is significant. In order to make the contributions accessible to the broader German speaking audience, who may again be important knowledge providers, the contributions in this HSR focus are in German except for a summary article on children born of war during the Second World War and beyond. Two articles examine the situation of the children fathered by German soldiers and local women in occupied territories, in Denmark and the Netherlands. The other two articles analyse the situation of children fathered by American soldiers and local women in Germany and Britain and children of Soviet soldiers and local women in Germany and Austria.
HSR Vol. 34 (2009) No. 2 – Special Issue: Counterfactual Thinking as a Scientific Method
Part I: Special Issue
Roland Wenzlhuemer (Ed.): Counterfactual Thinking as a Scientific Method
Counterfactual thinking is a common occurrence in everyday-life situations. What if I had bought a ticket before boarding the bus? What if I had not gone to the rock concert and never met my partner? On first glance such counterfactual thoughts appear to be nothing more than a sentimental and all too human trait. What practical use is there in thinking about alternatives of the past that have never been realized? It is, therefore, no surprise that counterfactual thinking in a scientific context has for a long time been eyed suspiciously. Can it have any analytical value to systematically think about things that have never happened and surely will never happen? While some academic disciplines such as law, economics or philosophy have answered this question in the affirmative and have employed counterfactuals as a matter of course, others – such as history or political science – have been particularly critical of the practice that has often been perceived as void of any methodological validity or analytical value.
In the last two decades, however, psychological research has demonstrated that counterfactual thinking in everyday life is more than a sentimental pastime and has clearly discernable analytical uses for the thinker. This volume brings together contributions from a variety of different disciplines and seeks to illustrate how counterfactual thinking can, indeed, be useful from a scientific perspective. It builds on the results of recent psychological research and the experiences that researchers in disciplines such as law or economics have made with counterfactual thinking. The volume ultimately seeks to highlight the common analytical ground between counterfactual thinking in everyday life and in academic contexts – particularly in the field of historical research.
Part II: Mixed Issue
Articles, Cliometrics
contains articles of Rainer Diaz-Bone, Bernt Schnettler and Jürgen Raab, Ralf Bohnsack, Annette Vowinckel, Carlo Ciccarelli and Stefano Fenoaltea.
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HSR Vol. 34 (1/2009) - Nina Baur (Ed.): Linking Theory and Data: Process-Generated and Longitudinal Data for Analysing Long-Term Social Processes
Theory and data are closely linked in empirical research: Data are the main source for building and testing theories, and without theoretical focus, it is impossible to select and interpret data. Still, the relationship between theory and data is only rarely discussed and, if so, only on a general level. Focussing on process-oriented and longitudinal research questions, the authors of this special issue contribute to this discussion by elaborating some data types that can be used for analyzing long-term social processes. For each specific data type, it is important to ask about their specific characteristics and how this effects interpretation. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this data type? For which kind of theoretical and thematical research question are these data suitable? Where and how can these data be sampled and collected? What specific problems in sampling, interpretation and validity do arise in longitudinal research, and how can they be solved?
The contributers address these questions from a broad range of theories (as different as Rational Choice Theory, Figurational Sociology, Biographical Research, Discourse Theory and Cultural Theories) and by either re-analyzing research-elicited data (e.g. interviews, surveys) or by using process-generated data (e.g. ego-documents, popular literature, military records, genealogies, newspapers, television commercials and web-based process-generated data).
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HSR Supplement No. 20 (2008) - Heinrich Best: Führungsgruppe und Massenbewegungen im historischen Vergleich. Der Beitrag der Historischen Sozialforschung zu einer diachronen Sozialwissenschaft
Heinrich Best is one of the initiators of Historical Social Research in Germany and co-founder of its research and publication infrastructure (e.g., the journal 'Historical Social Research', the 'Centre for Historical Social Research', and the Association, QUANTUM). This HSR Supplement includes the reprints of 16 selected contributions (in German) representing his main fields of research.
Best's research is mainly focussed on the intertemporal and intercultural comparison of political actors and settings in a European context based on quantitative analyses of individual and aggregate data. A second focus of his research is the social history and subsequent transformation of former communist countries including East Germany. Here his work extends beyond the political system and includes, inter alia, the science system and the economic system.
His main theoretical interest is the adaptation and reaction of social actors to (rapid) social change whereby he applies a challenge-response model that perceives actors as creators of the settings in which they operate and which places special emphasis on the unintended consequences of their behaviour. His methodological work includes the development of tools for cross-cultural and cross-temporal research with a particular emphasis on extending the databases for social research into the realm of historical, prosopographical and process-produced data.
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HSR Vol. 33 (2008) Nr. 4 - Focus: Stochastic Demographic Dynamics and Economic Growth
Part I:
Tapa Mishra: Stochastic Demographic Dynamics and Economic Growth: An Application and Insights from World Data
This monographic HSR FOCUS has two broad objectives: First, to model population growth in a stochastic framework such that the effects of possible non-mean convergent shocks could be studied theoretically on long-run economic growth and planning. Second, an empirical strategy for modelling stochastic population growth over time is provided. Forecasting exercise has been rigorously carried for population growth and income by embedding the stochastic growth feature of population. For modelling purpose, a long-memory mechanism for population growth is suggested so that the classical economic growth assumption of constant and/or non-stochastic population growth in economic growth models appear as a limiting case.
The analytical results show that embedding the stochastic features of population growth helps in explaining the economic growth volatility. In particular, it is found to be a formidable cause of the presence of long-memory in output. The empirical analysis shows that unless the stochastic feature of population growth is taken into empirical growth models, we will not be able map out the significant effects of demographic variables consistently over time. It is also shown that how corroborating the information of stochastic shocks of population alters our forecast vision by impacting significantly on the precision of the estimates.
Part II: Mixed Issue
Articles, Cliometrics, Review Essays, Obituary mit Beitägen by Nina Baur, Karl-Heinz Reuband, Lars Allolio-Näcke, Rainer Diaz-Bone, Nina Leonhard, Fernando Zanella, Antoine Parent und Antonio Luigi Paolilli
HSR Vol. 33 (2008) Nr. 3 - Focus: Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data
Andreas Witzel & Irena Medjedović & Susanne Kretzer (Eds.): Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data / Sekundäranalyse qualitativer Daten
Since the mid-1990s, there has been growing recognition of and interest in the potential for carrying out secondary analysis of qualitative data. Nevertheless the secondary analysis of qualitative data is still nearly unknown within the scientific community.
Applying new perspectives to ‘old’ data offers the potential for generating new insights and theories, answering still open and specific questions as well as evaluating research results. Combining and comparing different data sets promotes a cumulative research process and the generalisability of research results. These advantages of secondary analysis can be facilitated by manifold existing tools. However, there are a number of epistemological, methodological, ethical and confidentiality issues which have to be considered.
This HSR-FOCUS discusses the opportunities presented by such a research strategy, and gives an introduction to the debate. It addresses the organisational issues connected with the provision of services and establishing a data sharing culture. The 10 contributions refer to the concept of secondary analysis, to its application by means of concrete examples, as well as to the special issues and solutions surrounding this research strategy from the perspective of consulted experts.
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HSR Vol. 33 (2008) Nr. 2 - Special Issue: Elite Formation in the Other Europe
Victor Karady (Ed.): Elite Formation in the Other Europe (19th-20th Century)
Recent research in various European countries has completely reshaped and renewed our views of the conditions and the scope of trends of social mobility towards elite positions and the reproduction of social elites observable in the period following the collapse of feudal regimes in Europe.
This special issue offers a selection of the papers presented at the international conference on “Elite Formation, Modernization and Nation Building” (May 2007 in Budapest). The conference was a first successful attempt to organize a network for the promotion of empirical socio-historical research on modern and modernizing elites in a number developing societies, especially belonging to the Other Europe. Scholars from both parts of Europe, the West and the East (in the broad sense of both designations) discussed problem areas, methodological schemes and research results in concrete terms related to post feudal elites, their social, ethnic, denominational and regional recruitment, education, power position, internal professional set-up as well as political-ideological orientation and strategies in a possibly comparative perspective. The main topical focus of the conference rested on small nation states of East-Central and Northern Europe, with the involvement of experts of Western countries as well.
The 16 contributions of this special issue “Elite Formation in the Other Europe (19th-20th Century)” deal with four main themes: “Ruling Elites from Feudalism to the Modern State”; “Student Populations and the Changing Function of Universities”; “The Transformation of Intellectual Professions” and “Comparative Perspectives”.
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HSR Vol. 33 (2008) Nr. 1 - Special Issue: Discourse Analysis / Diskursanalyse
Andrea D. Bührmann, Rainer Diaz-Bone, Encarnación Guitérrez Rodriguez, Gavin Kendall, Werner Schneider & Francisco J. Tirado (Eds.): Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciences
The term ‘discourse’ describes the ordered and well-regulated processes of (re)producing sets of propositions in and with which the social construction of ‘truth’ takes place in terms of implementing valid knowledge about reality. Discourses—understood as forms of practice in social fields or social spheres— aim for the (re)production of collectively shared orders of knowledge as ‘objective’ (intersubjective) realities.
Using this notion of discourse, ‘discourse analysis’ has boomed particularly in the social sciences but also in other disciplines during the last 15 years. Thus discourse analysis comprises a relatively heterogeneous and evolving scientific field mainly located within qualitative social research. It generally refers to a perspective introduced by Michel Foucault in several ways, but also extends to a wider area of approaches, directions and traditions of reception of discourse research. The collected papers in this special issue of HSR attend to methodological discussions of various research approaches as well as to research strategies and their application in the research process. This volume gives an introductory view of theoretical concepts, methodological foundations and research practices in discourse analysis.
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HSR Vol. 32 (2007) Nr.4 - Special Issue: New Political Economy in History / Neue Politische Ökonomie in der Geschichte
Johannes Marx & Andreas Frings (Eds.): New Political Economy in History
The cultural turn has reached Political History; German scholars focusing on political history are trying to reconceptualise political history as “history of the political”. They are receptive to theories, methods and concepts from other disciplines. Still, there is a remarkable desideratum in his search for theories that may be related to historical research: Theories and methods discussed in the empirical-analytical branch of political science that is systematically concerned with political phenomena are seldom discussed and applied to historical phenomena. There are however several exceptions to this rule. Some social scientists have applied rational choice theory and considerations from new political economy to history in recent years. This issue of Historical Social Research is intended to contribute to this bridging of Political Science and History. It presents case studies applying rational choice considerations (mainly new political economy and public choice theories) to history as well as methodologically interested articles discussing chances and limits of this interdisciplinary endeavour.
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HSR Vol. 32 (2007) Nr. 3 - Special Issue: Disasters
Part I: Special Issue
Gerrit Jasper Schenk & Jens Ivo Engels (Eds.): Historical Disaster Research. Concepts, Methods and Case Studies „Disaster“
Almost every week the media report on disasters somewhere in the world, or on disasters on a global scale, such as climate change. They discuss the frequency and gravity of disasters or unprecedented events like nuclear plant explosions and global warming. Yet while humanity has always been haunted by disasters, historical disaster research is a comparatively recent trend. This volume presents the research approach and work of the young academics’ network of the German Research Foundation “Historical disaster research with a view to comparative cultural study“ (Historische Erforschung von Katastrophen in kulturvergleichender Perspektive). The emphasis is on discussing concepts, methods and theoretical models for the specifically historical analysis of natural disasters. A number of case studies illustrate the potential of this line of research. The geographical focus is on Europe and the Mediterranean cultures, while the timescale extends from antiquity to the present. The spotlight is not just on the destructive consequences of disasters, but also on the culturally constructive follow-up. Questions are asked about the perception and interpretation of disasters in the interface between nature and culture, and on reactions to them. What makes cultures differently vulnerable to disasters and what can we learn from them? This joint research effort aims inter alia to contribute to a history of the concept (Begriffsgeschichte) of ‘disaster’ with a view to comparative cultural study in an interdisciplinary spirit.
Part II: Mixed Issue: Articles; Cliometrics; Events
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HSR Vol. 32 (2007) Nr.2 - Special Issue: Geburtenbeschränkung
Part I: Special Issue
Rolf Gehrmann (Ed.): Family Limitation in Historical Perspective (only in German)
Fragen zur Geburtenbeschränkung standen schon im Zentrum der klassischen Debatten der Historischen Demographie. Die vorliegenden Beiträge werfen ein neues Licht auf diese Fragen, auf die man eigentlich keine Antworten mehr erwartete.
Geburtenbeschränkung konnte offensichtlich in Europa auf eine längere Tradition auch als innereheliche Geburtenbeschränkung zurückblicken. Das relativiert ihren revolutionären Charakter und macht zugleich den demographischen Übergang verständlicher. Der Streckung von Geburtenabständen („spacing“) kommt in diesem Zusammenhang eine neue Bedeutung zu. Hier zeigt sich die Notwendigkeit, über das Methodenarsenal der Princeton-Gruppe hinauszugehen. Auch erweist sich das mit der klassischen Transitionstheorie verbundene Schema angesichts der Fertilitätsschwankungen im „demographischen Ancien Régime“ und dem gerade vor dem „Fertility Decline“ zu beobachtenden Anstieg der Fruchtbarkeit („ski-jump“) zumindest als problematisch.
Im Übrigen erweisen sich bewährte Erklärungsansätze weiterhin als fruchtbar, wenn man sie auf überschaubare Populationen anwendet, für welche die verschiedenen Einflussfaktoren genauer bestimmt werden können: so für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, die soziale Lage und die kulturellen Faktoren, wobei hier insbesondere die Religionszugehörigkeit in den Vordergrund gerückt wird. Hinzu kommt eine Einbeziehung von demographischen Determinanten, die auf die Familien zurückwirken und, nicht zuletzt, die Erweiterung der Perspektive um den Gender-Aspekt.
Part II: Focus: Creating a Nationally Representative Individual and Household Sample
This publication is a direct result of an earlier scoping study undertaken for the ESRC’s Research Resources Board which investigated the potential for creating a new longitudinal database of individuals and households for the period 1851 to 1901 – the Victorian Panel Study (VPS). The basic concept of the VPS is to create a unique longitudinal database of individuals and households for Great Britain spanning the period 1851-1901. The proposed VPS project raises a number of methodological and logistical challenges, and it is these which are the focus of this publication.
The basic idea of the VPS is simple in concept. It would take as its base the individuals and households recorded in the existing ESRC-funded computerised national two per cent sample of the 1851 British census, created by Professor Michael Anderson, and trace these through subsequent registration and census information for the fifty-year period to 1901. The result would be a linked database with each census year between 1851 and 1901 in essence acting as a surrogate ‘wave’, associated with information from registration events that occurred between census years.
Although the idea of a VPS can be expressed in this short and simple fashion, designing and planning it, together with identifying and justifying the resources necessary to create it, is a complex set of tasks, and it is these which this publication seeks to address. The primary aims and objectives of the project described in this publication were essentially as follows:
- to estimate the potential user demand for a VPS and examine the uses to which it may be put;
- to test the suitability of the existing 1851 census sample as an appropriate starting point for a VPS;
- to test differing sampling and methodological issues;
- to investigate record-linkage strategies;
- to investigate the relationship between the VPS and other longitudinal data projects (both contemporary and historical); and
- to recommend a framework and strategy for creating a full VPS.
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HSR Vol. 32 (2007) Nr.1 - Special Issue: Sport und Diktatur
Part I: Special Issue (in German only)
Jutta Braun & René Wiese (Eds.): Sport und Diktatur: Zur politischen und sozialen Rolle des Sports in den deutschen Diktaturen des 20. Jahrhunderts / Sports and Dictatorship: On the Political and Social Role of Sports in the German Dictatorships of the 20th Century
Spiel, Spaß und Lebensfreude sind spontane Assoziationen, die mit dem Gegenstand Sport verbunden werden. Dementsprechend wird der Erkenntnisgewinn, den der Gesellschaftsbereich Sport als Objekt geschichtswissenschaftlicher Analyse bietet, häufig unterschätzt. Dies gilt insbesondere für die Diktaturforschung, die den Sport zuweilen gänzlich aus ihren Darstellungen ausblendet. Hingegen spielte der Sport eine prominente Rolle sowohl im Selbstverständnis als auch in der Machttechnologie moderner Diktaturen. Der organisierte Sport verdrängt bis heute weitgehend, welche politische und soziale Funktion er in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus ebenso wie im Realsozialismus der DDR einnahm. Dieser Sammelband bündelt deshalb verschiedene Forschungsergebnisse zur Verstrickung von Sport und diktatorischer Herrschaft und konturiert einige Schwerpunkte des wissenschaftlichen Ertrages.
Der vermeintlich harmlose Sport erleichterte auf verschiedenen Ebenen den beiden deutschen Diktaturen im 20. Jahrhundert, ihr innen- wie außenpolitisches Machtstreben effektiv zu forcieren. Sport als Arena internationalen Wettbewerbs bot Diktaturen nahezu kontinuierlich einen idealen Repräsentationsraum. Bemerkenswert ist, dass die Bundesrepublik den Sport der DDR sowohl zur Zeit des Kalten Krieges als auch nach seinem Ende teilweise als Organisationsvorbild betrachtete. Somit stellt sich die Frage, ob der Sport ernsthaft eine kulturelle „Eigenwelt“, die sich indifferent zu den politischen Verhältnissen verhält, für sich in Anspruch nehmen kann.
Part II: Mixed Issue
Articles; Methods; Data, New Media & Archives; Cliometrics; Events; Publications
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HSR-Supplement 19 (2007)
Günter Mey & Katja Mruck (Eds.): Grounded Theory Reader
Today Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) is one of the most prominent approaches, which reached – besides its origins in sociological research – psychology, health, management and technical sciences, and many other disciplines. The intention of the Grounded Theory Reader is to provide a collection of texts, interviews, and commentaries, allowing interested readers to rethink some of the methodological and theoretical ingredients of GTM, and helping them to get an idea of doing GTM research beyond a simple “recipe” approach. Part 1 provides some insights into concepts and theoretical perspectives that are important for GTM. Part 2 presents different experiences of doing GTM research.
It is our hope to reach a wide readership: those already familiar with GTM, who are interested in additional stimulation for the own research and reflection, as well as those who have just started doing GTM research and who are interested in some orientation within this complex and somewhat controversial methodological terrain. And it is our hope that the Grounded Theory Reader will give all readers – independent of their research experiences and academic status – an idea of the vividness and usefulness of GTM research.
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© GESIS Wilhelm H. Schröder 01.09.2008