Volume 40, Issue 4

Social norms help to solve collective dilemmas. In addition to the internalization of norms, social control, rational calculation, and rational acceptance, this paper analyzes the role of information in regard to compliance with norms. We predict that people will cooperate if they believe that others will cooperate as well, and that they will defect if they believe that others will defect. Each reaction respresents a rational course of action. Beliefs about the validity of norms are influenced by information, whether public (as obtained from the media) or private (gained from personal experience), with which individuals update their beliefs. Complementing existing explanations of norm compliance, this paper studies the effect on norm compliance of information which allows individuals to adjust beliefs about whether a norm is valid. The empirical findings based on a multilevel analysis of survey data from 24 countries strongly confirm the prediction that collectively held beliefs about the validity of norms are a major factor in determining compliance, comparable in its strength to the internalization of norms. Zusammenfassung Soziale Normen helfen bei der Lösung von kollektiven Dilemmata. Zusätzlich zu den Erklärungsfaktoren Internalisierung, soziale Kontrolle, rationales Kalkül und rationale Akzeptanz analysiert dieser Aufsatz den Effekt von Informationen auf die Befolgung von Normen. Individuen, so wird argumentiert, befolgen soziale Normen, solange sie überzeugt sind, dass die Norm gültig ist, d. h. sich auch alle anderen daran halten. Wenn die Norm hingegen nicht mehr als gültig angesehen wird und das Individuum nicht mehr von die Gültigkeit der Norm überzeugt ist, wird es die Norm missachten. Beide Reaktionen lassen sich als Ergebnis einer rationalen Wahl auffassen. Überzeugungen hinsichtlich der Gültigkeit von Normen werden durch Informationen beeinflusst, und zwar sowohl durch öffentliche Informationen (etwa aus den Medien) als auch durch private Erfahrungen. Individuen korrigieren und aktualisieren ihre Überzeugungen hinsichtlich der Gültigkeit von Normen auf der Grundlage dieser Informationen. In Ergänzung der vorliegenden Ansätze zur Erklärung von Normbefolgung testet dieser Aufsatz die Relevanz von Informationen. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen basierend auf einer Mehrebenenanalyse von Umfragedaten aus 24 Ländern eine starke Evidenz dafür, dass die gesellschaftliche Verbreitung von Überzeugungen hinsichtlich der Gültigkeit von Normen ein wichtiger Faktor für ihre Befolgung sind, der in seiner Stärke mit dem Effekt der Internalisierung von Normen vergleichbar ist.

Medical work is deeply mediated by technology. In line with constructivist studies of medicine and technology, this paper conceptualizes routine medical work as being fundamentally marked by uncertainty and indeterminate situations. To account for the agency of the means of medical practice in such situations, current discussions about the agency of technology are critically reflected and adapted to the analysis of medical technologies. Drawing on ethnographic observations in operating theaters this paper traces the empirical distribution of medical work between ensembles of humans and machines as well as the handling of uncertainties in daily practice.

This paper discusses the currently very popular concept of appropriation in (especially German) media and audience studies, which is being developed by cultural studies and focuses on the creativity and self-will of spectators. Despite the fact that cultural studies researchers have, in this way, accomplished pioneering work in terms of qualitative reception studies, there have been tendencies to romanticize and idealize audience activity. In contrast to such (poststructuralistic and interactionistic) positions and in continuation of approaches in cultural studies which conceptualize appropriation as a specific practice of reception this article proposes a specification inspired by the sociology of knowledge and by the author’s empirical findings. This leads to a differentiation of productive vs. reproductive appropriation that is able to further illuminate Stuart Hall’s reading-triad: dominant; negotiated; oppositional

This contribution seeks to ascertain the extent to which an assessment of economic and political issues depends on current weather conditions. On a theoretical level, such effects of weather are justified in two ways: by reconstructing both the influence of weather on a person’s mood and sentiment and the effect of a person’s mood on their assessment of situations and issues. In order to test the relationship between weather conditions and assessments empirically, ALLBUS data are linked to region-specific weather data, “nice” and “bad” survey days are identified; and their influence on people’s assessment of the future economic climate and on their satisfaction with democracy and with the performance of the federal government is examined. The analyses indicate a positive influence of nice weather and a negative influence of bad weather on the assessment of these three issues. Individuals who were interviewed on particularly sunny days had an above-average satisfaction with democracy and the work of government and estimated the economic climate more positively, while persons who were interviewed on rainy days assessed the three issues more negatively. These findings introduce interesting implications for scientific and commercial survey research.