Sandra Buchholz

Globalization, Uncertainty and Late Careers in Society

Introduction 1. Late Careers and Retirement in Times of Accelerating Social Change: An Introduction 2. Late Careers and Retirement in International Comparison 3. Public Attitudes to Retirement in Times of Accelerating Social Change 4. Late Careers and Retirement in Germany 5. Late Careers and Retirement in the Netherlands 6. Late Careers and Retirement in Sweden 7. Late Careers and Retirement in Denmark 8. Late Careers and Retirement in Norway 9. Late Careers and Retirement in Hungary 10. Late Careers and Retirement in Estonia 11. Late Careers and Retirement in the Czech Republic 12. Late Careers and Retirement in Poland 13. Late Careers and Retirement in Slovenia 14. Late Careers and Retirement in Great Britain 15. Late Careers and Retirement in Canada 16. Late Careers and Retirement in the United States 17. Late Careers and Retirement in Italy 18. Late Careers and Retirement in Spain 19. Late Careers and Retirement in Times of Accelerating Social Change: Conclusions

GlobalIndex A Sociological Approach to Globalization Measurement

This article suggests a multidimensional globalization measure, encompassing economic, (socio)technological, cultural and political dimensions of global change. This measure builds on previous work...This article suggests a multidimensional globalization measure, encompassing economic, (socio)technological, cultural and political dimensions of global change. This measure builds on previous work by Dreher, Lockwood and Redoano, the OECD and Kearney, but extends it by additional dimensions and indicators that represent central facets of a genuine sociological concept of globalization. The article first describes in detail the multidimensional nature of the globalization process and then develops an overall sociological index of globalization, which the authors call GlobalIndex. This index covers the development of globalization in 97 different countries from 1970 to 2002. Using the GlobalIndex, the authors describe the development of globalization on a worldwide scale as well as for different country contexts. Finally, they include the GlobalIndex as an explanatory variable in two micro-level longitudinal analyses of labour market transitions during the early career period in Germany and the UK.

Late 20th-Century Persistence and Decline of the Female Homemaker in Germany and the United States

The article compares changes in West German and American womens mid-career job exits and re-entries and introduces an innovative event-history model to compare mobility across three decades using 1940s and 1950s birth cohorts from the German Life History Study and the US National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women. Processes by which transitions through parenthood and marriage impact womens labour market participation vary by country and cohort, evidence that changing gender relations, norms and institutions provide unique options and restrictions for womens family and career trajectories. Homemaking is in decline in both countries, but event-history models show that this decline is due to different life course dynamics in each country: womens job attachment has increased throughout the family cycle in the US, while German women still exit the labour market, but at motherhood rather than marriage, and for shorter durations. Employment interruptions have become more penalizing for women in both countries.

National patterns of income and wealth inequality

The aim of this article is to show that wealth must be treated as a distinct dimension of social stratification alongside income. In a first step, we explain why social stratification researchers have largely overlooked wealth in the past and present a detailed definition of wealth by differentiating it from income. In the empirical part of the article, we analyze the distribution of wealth across 18 countries, and we describe and compare national patterns of wealth inequality to those of income inequality making use of different data sources. Our results show – first – that there is strong variation in the distribution of wealth between these 18 countries, and – second – that levels of wealth inequality significantly differ from levels of income inequality in about half of the countries analyzed. Surprisingly high levels of wealth inequality we find in Sweden and Denmark, two countries widely considered being highly egalitarian societies. Conversely, the Southern European countries – where income inequality is relatively high – exhibit comparatively low levels of wealth inequality.

Sind leistungsschwache Jugendliche tatsächlich nicht ausbildungsfähig

For several years, there is an increasing discussion in germany that youths are less and less ready for vocational training. According to these reports that have been published by employers’ representatives, there exists a relatively high share of youths whose cognitive competencies are too low to be successfully integrated into the german dual training system. Our article aims at investigating the maturity of youths with low cognitive competencies in a longitudinal design for Switzerland. The Swiss educational system resembles the german educational system in various main aspects and PISA has shown that the share of pupils with low competencies is comparably high in both countries. For our empirical analyses, we will use youth panel data from the Swiss TREE study which allows us to identify youths with low cognitive competencies and to follow their training trajectories after finishing compulsory schooling. Our results show that in the german neighbour Switzerland also youths with low competencies can be successfully integreated into the vocational training system. In contrast to germany, the Swiss system thus is far more successful in offering also academically weak youths to obtain vocational training.

Beschäftigungsflexibilisierung in Deutschland – Wen betrifft sie und wie hat sie sich auf die Veränderung sozialer Inklusion/Exklusion in Deutschland ausgewirkt?

Eine dauerhafte und stabile Beschaftigung ist im so genannten konservativen deutschen Wohlfahrtsstaatsmodell fur Individuen eine wichtige Quelle der sozialen Absicherung, der sozialen Teilhabe und der sozialen Anerkennung. Der „Arbeitsplatzbesitz“ ermoglicht dem Einzelnen nicht nur durch das aktuelle Einkommen den Zugang zu Gutern und Dienstleistungen, sondern beeinflusst im beitragsorientierten deutschen System der Sozialversicherung auch das Niveau der sozialen Sicherung im Falle von Nichterwerbstatigkeit. Die Basissicherung ist vor allem verglichen mit den skandinavischen Staaten Europas relativ gering. Beispielsweise wird die Hohe der Altersrente aus der gesamten Erwerbsgeschichte einer Person kumulativ errechnet. Die Hohe und Lange der Unterstutzung im Fall von Arbeitslosigkeit hangt von den vorangegangen Beschaftigungen ab; und auch heute, nach Umsetzung der so genannten Hartz-Reformen, erhalt immer noch der Teil der arbeitslosen Bevolkerung, der zuvor fur einen langeren Zeitraum sozialversicherungspflichtig beschaftigt war, hohere staatliche Leistungen als der Teil, der schon langer arbeitslos ist bzw. nie erwerbstatig war. Der Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt und zu einer stabilen Beschaftigung ist also in Deutschland ein wichtiger Mechanismus, wenn es um die Frage sozialer Inklusion/Exklusion und die soziale Teilhabe geht.

Linking the Macro to the Micro: A Multidimensional Approach to Educational Inequalities in Four European Countries

ABSTRACT Recent research into educational inequalities has shown the importance of decomposing social origins into parental class, status and education, representing economic, socio-cultural and educational family resources, respectively. But we know little about how inequalities in educational attainment at the micro-level map onto institutional characteristics of educational systems at the macro-level, if we treat social origins in a multidimensional way. Drawing on the rich over-time variation in educational systems in four European countries – Britain, Sweden, Germany and Italy – this paper develops and tests a number of hypotheses regarding the effects of various components of social origins on individuals’ educational attainment in different institutional contexts. It is evident from our results that a great deal of similarity exists across nations with different educational systems in the persisting importance for individuals’ educational attainment of parental class, status and education. But our findings also indicate that changes in the institutional features of educational systems have, in some instances although not in others, served to reinforce or to offset the social processes generating educational inequalities at the micro level.

Gender Inequalities at Labour Market Entry: A Comparative View from the eduLIFE Project ☆

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the results from a cross-nationally comparative project analysing gender differences and inequalities at labour market entry. Women’s relative gains in educational attainment and the expansion of the service sector suggest that gender inequalities in occupational returns are diminishing or even reversing. In assessing gender differences at labour market entry, we look at a phase of the life course when women’s family roles are still of minor importance. Conceptually, we distinguish between horizontal segregation and inequalities in vertical outcomes. The project was based on 13 in-depth case studies contributed by a network of scholars analysing countries with different institutional, socio-economic and cultural settings. The findings demonstrate that occupational gender segregation is still relatively marked among recent cohorts, though it is slightly decreasing over time in several countries. In terms of vertical inequalities, the case studies consistently revealed that while women enter more prestigious jobs than men in most countries, there is a female disadvantage in economic returns among recent labour market entrants. In addition, we found mixed evidence on the variations of gender equality at labour market entry across countries with different institutional characteristics.

Sind leistungsschwache Jugendliche tatsächlich nicht ausbildungsfähig? : eine Längsschnittanalyse zur beruflichen Qualifizierung von Jugendlichen mit geringen kognitiven Kompetenzen im Nachbarland Schweiz

For several years, there is an increasing discussion in germany that youths are less and less ready for vocational training. According to these reports that have been published by employers’ representatives, there exists a relatively high share of youths whose cognitive competencies are too low to be successfully integrated into the german dual training system. Our article aims at investigating the maturity of youths with low cognitive competencies in a longitudinal design for Switzerland. The Swiss educational system resembles the german educational system in various main aspects and PISA has shown that the share of pupils with low competencies is comparably high in both countries. For our empirical analyses, we will use youth panel data from the Swiss TREE study which allows us to identify youths with low cognitive competencies and to follow their training trajectories after finishing compulsory schooling. Our results show that in the german neighbour Switzerland also youths with low competencies can be successfully integreated into the vocational training system. In contrast to germany, the Swiss system thus is far more successful in offering also academically weak youths to obtain vocational training.

The Flexibilization of European Labour Markets and the Development of Social Inequalities: Comparing Evidence from Nine Globalized Countries

Throughout the last two decades, globalization and the manifest increases in employment flexibility frequently associated with it have become increasingly highly debated topics and ‘buzzwords’ in media, politics, and science. Whereas, initially, the decreasing importance of national borders and the growth of a worldwide economy were often associated with favourable repercussions such as lower prices, more choice, greater freedom, higher living standards and prosperity (Edwards, 1998), and the tide of public opinion appears to have turned. Despite manifest increases in average living standards, recent survey data demonstrate that virtually one half of European citizens nowadays perceive globalization as a threat to their national economies (European Commission, 2007). In a similar manner, social and economic scientists have come to greet globalization with increasing scepticism. Nowadays, they more frequently expect the ‘flattening out’ of cross-national institutional differences to lead to adverse cross-national convergence towards the lowest common denominator. Following this line of argument, globalization is considered to steer neoliberal processes. Against a background of a virtually unlimited mobility of work and capital, national economies and welfare states enter into a global competition to provide the most favourable conditions for businesses that inevitably force them into a ‘race to the bottom’ (Teeple, 1995) as regards both their labour market regulation and their social safety net. In consequence, many scientists foresee a convergence of welfare and social policies (Montanari et al., 2007; Navarro et al., 2004; Taylor-Goodby, 2003) and labour market regulations towards an ideal–typical neoliberal model (Marginson and Sisson, 2002; McBride and Williams, 2001) based on unregulated labour markets, residual welfare provision, minimum levels of employment protection, and a universal ‘hire-and-fire’ principle. Thus, constant growth in a flexible world economy is achieved at the cost of decreasing job and social security.