Verlag Barbara Budrich

Does direct democracy result in a tyranny of the majority for oppressed groups? This first analysis of over 500 referenda shows that on the contrary, oppressed groups were often able to benefit from direct democracy. However, the interests of LGBTQ+ groups, groups of low socioeconomic status, and foreign nationals are under pressure. To protect them, the book develops ways to design direct democratic votes that support oppressed groups.

How do parents cooperate with each other, what value do they attach to their interaction and how is the degree of cooperation related to social status? The study takes a close look at the social relationships among various groups of Chinese parents at a Chinese Mandarin language school in a metropolitan city in Germany. Taking an ethnographic approach, it captures a vivid picture of the parental social interactions in and outside the Chinese school setting. The study reveals the significance of social interactions, discussing it in relation to the parents’ socioeconomic backgrounds and individual migrant trajectories.

Our social interactions are driven by complex biopsychic processes that are complicated by the fact that humans are individuals and at the same time members of one or more social systems, such as schools. This book contributes to explaining the social mechanisms influencing students' “need to belong” fulfilment at school. The theoretical framework is informed by human needs understood as cognitive mechanisms of neural processes that regulate human behaviour and bio-values. The fieldwork was conducted in two secondary schools in Austria and Australia. Based on the findings, the transformative three-step approach suggests a course of action for student belonging.

The book examines the social consequences of labour market marginalisation for close social relations and social participation in Germany. Multilevel models and individual fixed effects analyses show that material security is an overrated factor. While financial strain does not explain the effects of labour market marginalisation on social exclusion, social identity and normative expectations are influential determinants.

How does the elite continue to affect the evolution of local communities in the developing region of former Sovietized Europe? This book is concerned with the issue of local leadership in the countries of East-Central Europe. It is an attempt to examine, with a comparative method, the profile and the role of the local political elites (members of the Municipal Councils) in six towns in six transitional democracies of the region.

Latin America is considered the most unequal continent in the world. Paradoxically, the development of resource-intensive social systems has done little to change the social imbalance. The author traces this paradox using Argentina as an example, uncovering the underlying conflicts of power and interests, and identifying successful strategies for implementing inclusive policies. As the first study of its kind, it systematically examines the long-term development of social security for low-income earners in Argentina and analyzes the decisive political, social, and economic factors influencing it.

Since its professional beginnings, social work has been a major actor and instrument of social policy. This study is a reconstruction of the development of social work in enterprises implemented as part of enterprise social policy in the territory of Bohemia and Moravia between the years 1876-1989. Using a hermeneutical approach based on historical research, the author explores the transformation of societal institutions, communities and structures.

In Keeping Autonomous Driving Alive, Göde Both studies the relationships between researchers and artifacts held together by contested visions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a pioneering research project in Germany, he argues that we can make sense of technological visions only if we simultaneously grasp the role of care, gender, and narrative in sustaining technological research. Both investigates the ambivalence and fragility of technological visions, video demonstrations, and street trials in the hands of researchers invested in self-driving cars. He provides scholars within the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, and automotive engineering with a means of reflecting on their involvement in self-driving cars, and offers automotive journalists a unique perspective on the present realities of a futuristic technology.