Volume 41, Issue 6

This article explores the effect of unemployment on poverty and loss of income before and after the Hartz Reforms in Germany. There is some evidence that an increased poverty rate among the unemployed seems to have been caused by the reforms that included benefit cuts. Contrary to this perception, data from the German socio-economic panel (GSOEP) indicate no increase in poverty risk and, indeed, a decreasing loss of income among the unemployed in the course of the reforms when using fixed effects estimates. If the duration of unemployment is taken into account, analyses indicate a higher risk of poverty among people suffering long term unemployment after the introduction of reform. However, the loss of income associated with unemployment is lower irrespective of its duration

Since multiplicative effects between gender inequality and cumulative advantages, known as the Matthew effect, have not received much attention in sociology, little is known about the impact of cumulative advantages on gender inequality over the course of a career. Does the Matthew effect intensify gender disadvantages, or does it cancel them out? Using a panel dataset covering the period from 1900 to 2010 which contains full career profiles of over 8,000 German film actors, the study shows that the accumulation of success has a positive effect on women's career opportunities. Although female actors generally have less opportunity for career success than men, they compensate for this disparity in essentially complete fashion if they make a name for themselves, especially by winning awards. The reason for this may lie in the increased attention accorded to successful actresses, which reduces the risk of discrimination.

While the rate of internal migration in Germany has been declining continuously over the last decades, commuting has been growing more and more important. Despite the high costs, employees decide more often in favor of commuting long distances and against a change of residence. This paper focuses on the determining factors favoring moving on the one hand vs. long-distance commuting on the other hand and addresses the question whether the latter is permanently replacing moving. The empirical analysis is based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for the years 2000 to 2009 supplemented by geographical information. This allows for the direct identification of internal migrants in Germany without the use of proxy-variables. The survival analysis confirms the expected effects of individual characteristics, household context, and regional infrastructure moving vs. commuting decisions. Furthermore, the results indicate that a considerable share of the employed permanently commute long distances. Consequently, commuting is a substitute for internal migration.

Communication based differentiation theories currently face two major lines of criticism: firstly, the need for a concept of society has been challenged; secondly, the linkage of communication and differentiation in terms of systems theory has been attacked. This article argues that no superordinate category under the designation “society” is required; this issue detracts instead from more fundamental questions of social differentiation. The systems theoretical association of differentiation and communication theory, however, is supported and defended against competing theories of action in this contribution. A possible consensus of action and systems theory is evident with respect to core questions of sociological theories of differentiation: the question of differentiation: (how do social units differentiate?) and the question of integration ([to what extent] is coordination between the different social units possible?). By answering these questions this article demonstrates the analytical virtue of a communication based theory of differentiation.