Working Papers at the Department of Sociology

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.257

Dieses Papier befasst sich mit dem Interesse für Technik unter Jugendlichen der 8. Schulstufe und dessen Rolle für Bildungsentscheidungen am Übergang zur Sekundarstufe II. Grundlage der Analyse ist die 1. Welle des Jugendpanels „Wege in die Zukunft“, die repräsentative Daten zum Abschlussjahrgang 2017/18 der Neuen Mittelschule (NMS) in Wien bietet. „Technische Begabung“ wird anhand spezieller Fragebogenitems auf drei verschiedene Arten operationalisiert und die entsprechenden Sampleuntergruppen mit dem Gesamtsample verglichen. In einem weiteren Schritt wird mittels binär logistischen Regressionsmodellen der Einfluss von persönlichen Neigungen, Schulerfolg und sozioökonomischer Lage auf die Entscheidung für oder gegen eine höhere weiterführende Schule untersucht.

Die Daten zeigen, dass die Freizeitbeschäftigung mit Technik oder der gute Umgang mit Computern nach wie vor männlich geprägt sind und mit klareren, sowie auch höheren Bildungswünschen korrelieren. Subjektive Orientierung, Benotung der Schulleistungen, Bildungswünsche der Eltern sowie die Empfehlungen von Lehrer/innen variieren allerdings teilweise unabhängig voneinander und zeitigen jeweils eigenständige Effekte auf die Bildungsentscheidung. Die Analyse weist zudem auf Differenzierungen zwischen den Schüler/innen hin, die stärker im Hintergrund wirken: Unter sonst gleichbleibenden Umständen ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Anmeldung für eine Berufsbildende Höhere Schule (BHS) geringer, wenn es sich um zugewanderte Jugendliche oder um Schüler/innen aus schulbildungsferneren Haushalten handelt.

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.228

With the spread of mobile devices such as smartphones, smartwatches, and fitness trackers,
technology is increasingly permeating our daily lives. They have also become “affective
technologies” that influence our everyday emotions and perceptions and our experiences
of aging. This paper investigates the association between mobile device use and the
subjective experience of aging (SEA), with the hypothesis that the more frequently older
adults use smartphones, the more positively they experience aging. A multiple hierarchical
linear regression model was calculated based on a secondary analysis of Swiss survey
data for older (≥ 65 years, N = 1037) adults. According to the survey data, 32.1% of
participants used a smartphone. Univariate and multivariate analyses, controlled for a
number of relevant confounders and the use of different devices, confirmed the positive
relationship between frequency of smartphone use and SEA. The results suggest that mobile
devices should be included as an independent variable when investigating subjective
experiences of aging.

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.225

This paper analyses the relationship between labour shortage and economic inequalities within Hungary (before the Covid-19 Crisis) from the perspective of labour unions. The main focus of this research is to understand how Hungarian labour market developments led to the emigration of labour force and the labour shortage that developed considering the specific historical, geographical and political characteristics of Hungary within the Central and Eastern European region. This paper extends the existing research about emigration and labour shortage as it includes labour union representatives’ experience based on 17 semi-structured problem-centred interviews. This study concludes that meagre wages hinder the social recognition of traditional professions and skilled labour force. As a result, the labour force develops its strategy of changing professions to less demanding activities either moving abroad or to wealthier regions of Hungary due to the increasing workload that infiltrates private life. This results in growing job fluctuation and the lack of professional labour force. The study furthermore identifies how regional inequalities influence people’s migration opportunities and finds that people from Hungary’s poorer Eastern regions firstly relocate to border areas which then they use as a springboard to find better opportunities in Western Europe.

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.211

In einer Nische der Youtube-Kultur hat sich in den letzten zehn Jahren ein Genre etabliert, dessen Exemplare nicht (nur) unterhalten sollen. Erklärvideos wollen Wissen vermitteln, vom Knöpfe-Annähen über erfolgversprechendes Bewerbungsverhalten und Begriffserklärungen bis hin zu den Feinheiten fortgeschrittener Mathematik und diverser Studienfächer höherer Ausbildungs- und Weiterbildungsgänge. Ein wissenssoziologischer Zugang zu dieser jungen Form der Wissenskommunikation fehlt bislang allerdings. Der Beitrag argumentiert, dass institutionelle, kulturelle und funktionale Beschränkungen existieren, mit denen soziale Begrenzungen der Aneignung, der Prüfung und der Verbreitung der durch Erklärvideos aufbereiteten Wissensbestände einhergehen. D.h., diese neue Art der Wissensvermittlung geht mir neuen Anforderungen einher, die die abgesteckten Konturen bzw. Grenzen bisheriger beruflicher und/oder curricularer Wissensvermittlung sprengen, womit ‚versteckte‘ Voraussetzungen für die Aneignung von Wissen einhergehen. Im Beitrag wird eine Systematik des breiten Felds der Erklärvideos vorgestellt, ein empirisches Vorgehen zur Analyse der Anforderungen (wissenssoziologische Rahmenanalyse) präsentiert und eine exemplatische Rahmenanalyse durchgeführt.

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.145

This paper focuses on ‘cooling out’ in active labour market policies, a practice that lowers occupational aspirations aiming at a quick transition into regular employment and is tied to the neoliberal Activation paradigm. Using expert interviews, I investigate institutional patterns on multiple scales including individual experience of participants within the Viennese training program ‘Beyond the past’ (anonymized). This program offers transitional workplaces for young unemployed with the aim to activate them – prepare them for, and transfer them to the first labour market. In this regard, it is a perfect example of top-down policy integration, institutional cooperation and the interplay of Vienna’s regional labour market actors. The results indicate that the program is embedded in a quite hierarchical institutional structure, yet interactive processes are present on all levels and the local organisations has considerable discretion concerning the final implementation. Institutional experts rely unquestionably on ‘cooling out’ as necessary to achieve labour market integration. However, they still consider individual occupational preferences. The interviewed participants do not seem to be aware of the passive and active forms of institutionalised ‘cooling out’. Those diverging views of experts and young adults emphasize the importance of a subjective perspective on ‘cooling out.’

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.121

The aim of this article is to elaborate the (co-)construction of technology and gender using the example of presentation and discussion of the use of assisted reproductive technolo-gies in Austria. The analysis is based on feminist, technology-critical approaches.

The procedures of assisted reproductive technologies have opened up new understand-ings of nature. The concepts of motherhood and fatherhood are subject to constant change. The binary gender relations between women and men are still regarded as stable, although from a feminist, technology-critical point of view there is an ambivalent relation-ship between the use of technology and the interfered gender categories. Women are mostly seen as only users, while men are pushed into the background. The use of assisted reproductive technologies and the closely intertwined medical risks or legal regulations are justified with socially constructed attributions and desires such as good motherhood and femininity. Although it is rarely discussed, the use of technology in the discourse of reproduction no longer represents a marginal medical phenomenon. The materiality of assisted reproductive technologies altered the meaning to the newly emerging social norms.

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.120 

The following working paper assumes that the internet (social web) allows subjects to take speaking positions, which they could not obtain without this infrastructure due to lack of resources. The bearer of this speaking position can be conceived of as social Actor promoting specific subject positions. The following paper analyses subject positions taken in the platform unzensuriert.at by using a sociology of knowledge approach of discourse analysis as elaborated by Reiner Keller. The paper assumes that the modes of construction of subject positions are connected with the communicated topoi. Discursive and non-discursive practices of the platform are analyzed by using content analysis.

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.114

This paper is based on my master thesis and looks at the private life of individuals choosing elective co-parenting. Elective co-parenting involves two or more individuals who decide to get and raise a child together, without being in a romantic or sexual relationship with each other nor necessarily living together in a shared household.

Data were collected by using eight episodic interviews with respondents from Austria, Germany and Switzerland who are or have been in the process of being an elective coparent. Six out of the eight interviews were evaluated with the fine structure analysis and eight interviews with the topic analysis according to Froschauer and Lueger. The results were related to the individualization and pluralization thesis of Ulrich Beck and the RREEMM model by Lindenberg.

The main results focus on the decision-making process for being an elective co-parent as well as on the structuring conditions and the influence of norms and values during the decision-making process. Findings suggest that female participants choose elective coparenting because of their desire to also involve the biological father, although, in most cases the actual level of involvement did not matter. Male gay participants mostly see coparenting as the only way to be a parent of a biological child with paternal involvement. Family ideals, such as the advantage of a male parent within a family, also influence the decision for elective co-parenting.

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.79

This working paper discusses key elements in the development of Latent Structure Analysis (LSA). A method to analyze qualitative data. LSA was developed by Paul F. Lazarsfeld and his colleagues at Columbia University, New York City. The paper also describes the initial version of LSA as published in 1950 and presents premises and assumptions required by LSA, ranging from a specific kind of data to probabilistic assumptions to its fundamental statistical components.

Raphaela Casata

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.57

The 'material turn' marked the end of a long-lasting 'blindness' and 'oblivion' towards things in sociology. Since this turn, especially man-made artifacts received increasing attention, but nevertheless it often remains on the surface. The materiality of things and substances is hardly taken into account, although this can turn out to be fruitful for the understanding of social phenomena. A few works show when and how the mostly inconspicuous component of material culture becomes noticeable and appears to be socially and sociologically relevant. The interdisciplinary concept of 'substance stories' also promises new insights into social-material worlds: its perspective, which considers temporality and contextuality, focuses on the interrelation between substances, individuals and society. The phenomenon 'Zero Waste' shows how substances and their histories not only find entrance into empirical and theoretical discussions, but also emerge from their shadowy existence as central points of reference for an interpretation of the world and a community.

Susanne Vogl, Nina Baur

DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.46

This article offers a conceptual framework for researching the interrelation of gender constructsand lifestyles and suggests categories for empirical research. We argue that genderpractices and lifestyles are intertwined, vary according to social milieu, and are negotiatedon a relationship level. Thus, researchers have to consider behaviour and ascribed meaningto explain underlying reasons for certain behaviours. On the individual level, normativeorientations, values, and gender images influence semantics. Regarding pragmatics, theconcrete task share among partners on a household level is central. Thus, gender practicesare specific to social milieus and spheres of life. We argue that employment, care, andleisure time activities as well as consumption are important constructions for understandinggendered lifestyles. Our framework offers categories for better grasping differences ofgender constructions, doing and undoing gender through lifestyles in social milieus simultaneouslyand systematically.