Volume 42, Issue 1

Research on lifestyles and social milieus aims at identifying the markers of social identity which actors themselves deem relevant. This contribution argues that it does so only incompletely and proposes the concept of “symbolic boundaries” as an additional approach. Studying processes of social identification and demarcation with survey data and qualitative interviews, three kinds of symbolic boundaries - socioeconomic, cultural, and moral - emerge within German social structure. While higher social classes identify themselves on the basis of their economic and cultural resources, lower social classes stress solidaristic moral values. These self-definitions are also used to differentiate between groups, where one group denies others the positive attributes it ascribes to itself. Processes of social identifications are thus multi-dimensional and class-specific and can be explained by social psychological theories.

The parental leave benefit reform which was enacted in 2007 in Germany aimed among other things at increasing fathers’ involvement in childcare. This paper analyzes the degree to which fathers claim parental leave benefits in the context of couples’ social characteristics and economic resources using the data set “Young Families 2008” (collected by the RWI Essen). In two select federal states in the Northern part of Germany, a further reaching investigation was conducted as to how parental leave is distributed within couples by using administrative data provided by local authorities. In general, the results show that economic considerations are of great importance for men’s decisions to take any parental leave at all, or to do so for an extended period. Further analyses indicate that economic explanations do not fully account for men’s parental leave decisions under certain circumstances of the female partner such as self-employment or participation in training or further education.

Based on time-use data for Germany (1991/92-2001/02) and Austria (1992-2008/09) this contribution depicts trends in the amount of time parents of children under age six spend on child care. Using a decomposition technique, the article analyzes whether these trends are due to real changes in the time parents set aside for being with their children (behavioral changes) or to changes in the composition of the population. The findings show that the time devoted to child care has remained constant in Germany but has increased in Austria (as in many other western countries). While both components have only weak effects in Germany, behavioral changes are the main force behind the trend in Austria. In particular, three group, fathers employed full-time who have non-employed partners, housewives, and parents with medium education spend more time with their children in Austria. In both countries, the rising number of mothers working part-time has a positive effect on care time; the decreasing number of housewives, a negative one.

What factors determine the chances of being appointed to a chair in Germany? We propose to derive hypotheses from discrimination theory, social and human capital theory, and the signaling approach. In a survey we sampled scholars from mathematics, law and sociology who had completed their Habilitation (“second book”) from 1985 and 2005 at West German universities. A young age at the time of completion of the Habilitation is beneficial across all disciplines. In sociology, the number of publications included in the Science Citation Index is the most important factor in attaining a chair, and women are at an advantage when they face the same conditions as do men. In the field of law, parents’ years of education have a significant impact on success, as has having a highly respected mentor. In mathematics, the chances of getting a professorship increase significantly with high occupational prestige of the parents, the share of time spent in research, the specialty of applied mathematics, or having a mentor with a high reputation. Zusammenfassung Welche Faktoren beeinflussen in Deutschland die Chance, auf einen Lehrstuhl berufen zu werden? Die hierzu aus Diskriminierungs-, Sozial- und Humankapitaltheorie sowie dem Signaling-Ansatz abgeleiteten Hypothesen werden mittels einer Primarerhebung von Daten uber Personen untersucht, die sich zwischen 1985 und 2005 in Mathematik, Rechtswissenschaften oder Soziologie an einer westdeutschen Universitat habilitiert haben. Ein geringes Lebensalter zum Zeitpunkt der Habilitation wirkt sich in allen Disziplinen positiv aus. In der Soziologie hat die Anzahl der SCI-Publikationen den grcßten positiven Einfluss. Zudem haben Frauen bessere Chancen unter sonst gleichen Bedingungen wie Manner. In den Rechtswissenschaften steigt die Chance mit dem Vorhandensein hochgebildeter Eltern und einem Mentor bzw. einer Mentorin mit hoher Reputation und in der Mathematik mit hohem Berufsprestige der Eltern, einem hohen Anteil an Zeit fur Forschung, einer Spezialisierung in angewandter Mathematik oder einem Mentor bzw. einer Mentorin mit hoher Reputation.